06.02
L. Ron Hubbard was born in 1911, he started his career as a science fiction writer in the pulp magazines of the time, namely Astounding Science Fiction. He developed a mythology about a great and powerful evil galactic overlord named Xenu. He later went on to con a bunch of people into believing that what he wrote was real in order to make a lot of money from his simple minded followers…
Other than that last part, that story is kinda familiar. In fact, just twenty years prior, another writer with initials for names was born. His name was H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft wrote science fiction stories for Weird Tales Magazine. He would go on to develop a mythology in which great and powerful alien beings would control the history of the Earth. Years later, people would look at his writings, and some would believe that he was actually on to something. People would look for ways to prove that what he actually wrote was real.
Lovecraft achieved a legacy that Hubbard would probably kill for (actually, he did kill for his legacy, but that’s another story…) The only thing missing was the money, but I’m guessing that if Lovecraft had wanted to, he probably could have started Cthulhu cults in the 20′s and made his millions.
What would the face of Scientology be like, if instead of relying on brainwashing, he relyed on the horror that he created with his words. Instead of e-meters, would they have brain canisters. Instead of recruiting actors, would they recruit astrophysisists. Instead of watching their bank accounts, they would be watching the stars. And better yet, the secret cult documents wouldn’t be poorly written drug fueled chicken scratch…
Of course, if that were so, we would have missed out on some really great South Park jokes…