L. Ron Hubbard:
Founder of Dianetics and Scientology

What followed may be broadly charted along two tracks. First, and while streamlining lower portions of the Scientology Bridge, Mr. Hubbard continued his research towards the attainment of new spiritual heights. Yet simultaneously, and particularly after 1968, he began to search out solutions to society's more salient problems. In 1969, for example, having noted what even recreational drug abuse spelled in terms of cultural and spiritual decline, he commenced work on what would ultimately become the L. Ron Hubbard Drug Rehabilitation Program. It was also through this period that Mr. Hubbard authorized the establishment of the Narconon centers for the rehabilitation of the hard-core drug user. Similarly, after noting what a failing educational system spelled in terms of widespread illiteracy and societal waste, he set to work on the development of his Study Technology for secular use.

These years at sea additionally saw Mr. Hubbard's codification of his administrative discoveries, including his highly workable principles of personnel, organizational establishment, and even the technology of running of an international network of organizations. As earlier, however, the bulk of his energies were devoted to his mainline research, particularly as regards disturbing sociological trends. To that end, 1972 and 1973 found him in New York City where he further examined questions relating to hard-core drug abuse and attendant social decay. From this New York sojourn would also come the genus of many of Mr. Hubbard's community betterment programs that have since become a worldwide Church effort.

Returning to the United States in 1975, Mr. Hubbard devoted his energies to the founding of the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. To fulfill a pressing need for instructional films, he then moved to Southern California where he established what would become the Church's Golden Era Productions. As with his training of the first Sea Organization members, he now trained an entirely green crew in all cinematographic fundamentals. Through the process, he also drafted several volumes of instructional materials, more than 30 Scientology training films, and personally directed seven of those films.

With the film unit then functioning, Mr. Hubbard next settled in the central California coastal town of Creston in the early 1980s. There, and in what amounted to spare hours between advanced research, he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a professional writer with Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3,000. This epic science fiction novel, the genre's largest, was followed by the 10-volume Mission Earth opus, also written largely for amusement in spare time. Just the same, all 11 books went on to become New York Times and international bestsellers, an unmatched consecutive bestseller record.

The true culmination of this Creston period, however, was, of course, the completion of his research into man's ultimate spiritual potentials. After finalizing that research, in fact, all the Scientology technical materials he had spent most of his life developing, Mr. Hubbard departed this life on January 24, 1986.