Some thoughts on Jack Parsons, NASA's JPL, and L. Ron Hubbard
I was marveling at the many official NASA twitter feeds that were available when V asked me why I was following JPL. Word on the street was that they were up to "different" sorts of things, the post-it note in my mind read. Something about being started, at least in part, by some occult dude. One of those things that I'd heard and that had piqued my interest, but I'd never really gotten around to checking the veracity of.
And thus started hours of wikipedia reading...
First, let me mention that all of my information (well, most of) comes from wikipedia, and I'm basically summarizing and giving my thoughts on the matter, or at least starting to formulate them.
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Jack Parsons, some enthusiastic occultists will breathlessly tell you, was a "rocket scientist" who founded the mothereffing JPL, part of mothereffing NASA, his breakthroughs occurred while he was in the middle of doing a ritual as head of the "Agapé Lodge of OTO in California", and isn't that just amazing? A scientist AND an occultist! How awesome. I have no doubt that there are individuals who are both, but it looks to be something of a stretch to call a college drop-out who looks to have been a lab tech a "rocket scientist". He was employed by the people who created JPL, was paid to work in the lab, and came up with one useful thing in a long line of useful things that scientists had to discover and develop to get us out into space and onto the moon - a form of fuel. Jack was all about chemistry, and during his work at the lab made a contribution. Using his family money he also helped found the Aerojet company with graduate engineering students from CalTech working with the legendary Theodore von Kármán. Parsons was outspoken with leftist sympathies, and appears to have lost his security clearance, which likely would have hindered his professional work. Parsons died during a chemistry mishap in his home lab years later.
He was swindled by L. Ron Hubbard, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Parsons married a young swedish girl named Helen Northrup, and when she went on vacation at one point leaving him behind at home, he started to have an affair with her half sister Sara Northrup. Sara, by all accounts, was trouble, and generally caused havoc wherever she went. When her sister returned home, Sara and Jack continued to carry on with their affair, all living together. Wife Helen was unhappy with this arrangement, and eventually left Parsons for another OTO member.
A red-haired man filled with charisma entered into this messy scene, moved in with the apparently affable (or easily duped) Parsons and Northrups upon invitation by Parsons himself. A "sailor" by the name of L. Ron Hubbard, hack writer of pulp, megalomaniac, a man with a borderline pathological ability to exaggerate his own accomplishments. An unusually selfish man who used everyone around him. Sara fell for the man who could hold the rapt attention of the crowd with his wild tales, this superb public speaker who would eventually build a sick empire. Hubbard was married at the time, but had deserted his wife Margaret and children for some time (she lived with Hubbard's parents, who were horrified at the way that he had treated her). He engaged in OTO rituals with Parsons as a Scribe, and I wonder if this was his later inspiration for the Dianetic "Auditor". A vague money-making scheme was hatched (which reeked of Hubbard, he was a man of schemes), where Hubbard and Sara would buy boats using mostly Parson's life savings to later resell at a higher price. Or something. Hubbard and Sara went to Florida, bought a boat, set sail, Parson started to wise up to what was going on and realize Hubbard really just wanted to cruise the world on his dime, and if lore is to be believed, invoked some assistance from Bartzabel to cause a storm to brew, forcing Hubbard and Sara out of the waters and off the boat. Hubbard and Sara soon married. In the end, Parsons did not see his money returned. From the time that Hubbard and Sara met, to the rituals and the boat fiasco, and then their marriage, was all in the time span of one year.
L. Ron Hubbard was an absolutely amazing individual. The wiki entry on him is quite excellent, with the fabled stories put forth by his foundation, and the data checkers blowing it out of the water. If you have any interest at all, I highly recommend reading it (though it is a bit of a read). He looks to be a very very strong ENFP with two major talents - writing/telling pulpy exaggerated stories, and boatloads of charisma. His one drive, seemingly, is to be remembered, to be famous, for what reason he cared not. At the age of 12 he had a discussion with a naval psychoanalyst (his father was in the navy). He discounted all that psychiatry and psychoanalysis offered based on this discussion, which he would later claim gave him "training" - simply mind blowing. That's just one example of a countless number of small experiences made extreme, just one hair away from confabulation. He's been described as a conman and a charlatan, but these don't really describe the extent of his supreme abilities to spin bullshit. He didn't just create an empire to dupe strangers, he would dupe, usually successfully, anyone he met, including family, friends, lovers, anyone was fair game to him. He appears to have used everyone he met for his own personal gain, including his wife of many years (not the one mentioned earlier, he denied she existed, he later married someone 20 years his junior to do PR), who worked very hard running behind the scene duties and creating a legal distance between himself and the church's money. This wife #3, Mary Sue, protected him every step of the way, and even went to federal prison, never revealing his full involvement. He was paranoid and wanted to divorce her, despite 40 years of tireless service and devotion, thinking she would suddenly turn and reveal all. She was horrified, but never divorced, he went into hiding and she never heard from him again. To get the full understanding of exactly what he did to everyone around him, you have to read the wikis of his wives. Lives full of tragedy. And the drama surrounding a man who promised that Dianetics would solve all your issues - but apparently not his own.
Honestly I'm still processing all of it, Hubbard kidnapping wife #2 and refusing to return her baby while he attempted to have her committed and then dumping her in the desert, the torturing of Scientology devotees who were stuck on his boats in the 70s, the denial of previous wives and children, the reaction of anger when his son (not denied) committed suicide, the infiltration of the IRS and the retaliatory raids by the IRS, the poverty and then the paranoia-inducing wealth... but I found someone who actually improved my opinion of Crowley, something I thought impossible. Crowley had thought both Sara and Hubbard to be bad news to Parsons, and that much was true.
I think it would be fascinating to compare the leadership styles and techniques of Crowley and Hubbard, to compare their organizations and their claims for benefits to the members and the rituals conducted. Hubbard would steal from anyone he could, and I wonder how much Scientology looks like a cross between the Freudian psychoanalysis he was so fascinated yet repulsed by, and how much he ripped from the OTO - at least in as much as the purpose of ritual and what these do for the mind.
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JPL continues trucking ever onward as part of NASA, with Caltech. It is chock full of PhD scientists who play with their robots on Mars, among other projects. Aerojet has made countless machines of war, some of space, and polluted several sites so badly the EPA actually took notice. The Church of Scientology, despite claiming membership in the millions (based on sales of each book they publish), only had ~25,000-55,000 members in the USA depending on which survey used. Parsons' wiki is covered in glowing fanboy adjectives; L. Ron Hubbard is villified by all except his believers.
If you made it this far, please feel free to share more data, if you have any! I am definitely not an expert, just a data-gatherer.
And thus started hours of wikipedia reading...
First, let me mention that all of my information (well, most of) comes from wikipedia, and I'm basically summarizing and giving my thoughts on the matter, or at least starting to formulate them.
----
Jack Parsons, some enthusiastic occultists will breathlessly tell you, was a "rocket scientist" who founded the mothereffing JPL, part of mothereffing NASA, his breakthroughs occurred while he was in the middle of doing a ritual as head of the "Agapé Lodge of OTO in California", and isn't that just amazing? A scientist AND an occultist! How awesome. I have no doubt that there are individuals who are both, but it looks to be something of a stretch to call a college drop-out who looks to have been a lab tech a "rocket scientist". He was employed by the people who created JPL, was paid to work in the lab, and came up with one useful thing in a long line of useful things that scientists had to discover and develop to get us out into space and onto the moon - a form of fuel. Jack was all about chemistry, and during his work at the lab made a contribution. Using his family money he also helped found the Aerojet company with graduate engineering students from CalTech working with the legendary Theodore von Kármán. Parsons was outspoken with leftist sympathies, and appears to have lost his security clearance, which likely would have hindered his professional work. Parsons died during a chemistry mishap in his home lab years later.
He was swindled by L. Ron Hubbard, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Parsons married a young swedish girl named Helen Northrup, and when she went on vacation at one point leaving him behind at home, he started to have an affair with her half sister Sara Northrup. Sara, by all accounts, was trouble, and generally caused havoc wherever she went. When her sister returned home, Sara and Jack continued to carry on with their affair, all living together. Wife Helen was unhappy with this arrangement, and eventually left Parsons for another OTO member.
A red-haired man filled with charisma entered into this messy scene, moved in with the apparently affable (or easily duped) Parsons and Northrups upon invitation by Parsons himself. A "sailor" by the name of L. Ron Hubbard, hack writer of pulp, megalomaniac, a man with a borderline pathological ability to exaggerate his own accomplishments. An unusually selfish man who used everyone around him. Sara fell for the man who could hold the rapt attention of the crowd with his wild tales, this superb public speaker who would eventually build a sick empire. Hubbard was married at the time, but had deserted his wife Margaret and children for some time (she lived with Hubbard's parents, who were horrified at the way that he had treated her). He engaged in OTO rituals with Parsons as a Scribe, and I wonder if this was his later inspiration for the Dianetic "Auditor". A vague money-making scheme was hatched (which reeked of Hubbard, he was a man of schemes), where Hubbard and Sara would buy boats using mostly Parson's life savings to later resell at a higher price. Or something. Hubbard and Sara went to Florida, bought a boat, set sail, Parson started to wise up to what was going on and realize Hubbard really just wanted to cruise the world on his dime, and if lore is to be believed, invoked some assistance from Bartzabel to cause a storm to brew, forcing Hubbard and Sara out of the waters and off the boat. Hubbard and Sara soon married. In the end, Parsons did not see his money returned. From the time that Hubbard and Sara met, to the rituals and the boat fiasco, and then their marriage, was all in the time span of one year.
L. Ron Hubbard was an absolutely amazing individual. The wiki entry on him is quite excellent, with the fabled stories put forth by his foundation, and the data checkers blowing it out of the water. If you have any interest at all, I highly recommend reading it (though it is a bit of a read). He looks to be a very very strong ENFP with two major talents - writing/telling pulpy exaggerated stories, and boatloads of charisma. His one drive, seemingly, is to be remembered, to be famous, for what reason he cared not. At the age of 12 he had a discussion with a naval psychoanalyst (his father was in the navy). He discounted all that psychiatry and psychoanalysis offered based on this discussion, which he would later claim gave him "training" - simply mind blowing. That's just one example of a countless number of small experiences made extreme, just one hair away from confabulation. He's been described as a conman and a charlatan, but these don't really describe the extent of his supreme abilities to spin bullshit. He didn't just create an empire to dupe strangers, he would dupe, usually successfully, anyone he met, including family, friends, lovers, anyone was fair game to him. He appears to have used everyone he met for his own personal gain, including his wife of many years (not the one mentioned earlier, he denied she existed, he later married someone 20 years his junior to do PR), who worked very hard running behind the scene duties and creating a legal distance between himself and the church's money. This wife #3, Mary Sue, protected him every step of the way, and even went to federal prison, never revealing his full involvement. He was paranoid and wanted to divorce her, despite 40 years of tireless service and devotion, thinking she would suddenly turn and reveal all. She was horrified, but never divorced, he went into hiding and she never heard from him again. To get the full understanding of exactly what he did to everyone around him, you have to read the wikis of his wives. Lives full of tragedy. And the drama surrounding a man who promised that Dianetics would solve all your issues - but apparently not his own.
Honestly I'm still processing all of it, Hubbard kidnapping wife #2 and refusing to return her baby while he attempted to have her committed and then dumping her in the desert, the torturing of Scientology devotees who were stuck on his boats in the 70s, the denial of previous wives and children, the reaction of anger when his son (not denied) committed suicide, the infiltration of the IRS and the retaliatory raids by the IRS, the poverty and then the paranoia-inducing wealth... but I found someone who actually improved my opinion of Crowley, something I thought impossible. Crowley had thought both Sara and Hubbard to be bad news to Parsons, and that much was true.
I think it would be fascinating to compare the leadership styles and techniques of Crowley and Hubbard, to compare their organizations and their claims for benefits to the members and the rituals conducted. Hubbard would steal from anyone he could, and I wonder how much Scientology looks like a cross between the Freudian psychoanalysis he was so fascinated yet repulsed by, and how much he ripped from the OTO - at least in as much as the purpose of ritual and what these do for the mind.
-----
JPL continues trucking ever onward as part of NASA, with Caltech. It is chock full of PhD scientists who play with their robots on Mars, among other projects. Aerojet has made countless machines of war, some of space, and polluted several sites so badly the EPA actually took notice. The Church of Scientology, despite claiming membership in the millions (based on sales of each book they publish), only had ~25,000-55,000 members in the USA depending on which survey used. Parsons' wiki is covered in glowing fanboy adjectives; L. Ron Hubbard is villified by all except his believers.
If you made it this far, please feel free to share more data, if you have any! I am definitely not an expert, just a data-gatherer.