A Piece of
Blue Sky
-------
Scientology,
Dianetics and
L. Ron Hubbard
Exposed
-------
Jon Atack
[End flap]
ISBN 0-8184-0499-X
A Piece of
Blue Sky
According to its Publisher, over ten million copies of L. Ron Hubbard's *Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health* have been sold and Hubbard's "works on human betterment alone have sold over 28 million copies in 17 languages." Marketed as a "self-help" book, *Dianetics* avoids acknowledging its ties to Scientology, the quasi-religious cult founded by penny-a-word science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, which has promoted itself to the sad and lonely for almost forty years as a true "science" or "technology" of the human mind.
*A Piece of Blue Sky* exposes Hubbard's bizarre imagination and behavior throughout his life and traces the creation of Scientology in the years following World War II to perhaps its final schism following Hubbard's death in 1986. The abuses, contradictions, falsehoods, paranoia and greed of Hubbard and some of his pseudo-military Scientologist henchmen are now finally told. The often sordid details have been culled from thousands of documents, many in Hubbard's own hand, including official Church of Scientology memoranda, publications, bulletins, court records and correspondence. The book recounts the author's personal experiences, not only as a devout Scientologist for nine years, but also his numerous interviews with hundreds of Scientologists, many of whom he has helped escape the Church's most insidious practices.
Millions of people are apparently reading what purports to be a "self-help" book for advice and comfort in coping with their life's discontents. Before they embrace Hubbard's "self-help" philosophy, they would be well-advised to learn more about the cult of Scientology and its Messiah.
A PIECE
OF BLUE SKY
A PIECE
OF BLUE SKY
Scientology, Dianetics
and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed
by Jon Atack
A LYLE STUART BOOK
Published by Carol Publishing Group
[Title page]
Copyright c 1990 by Jon Atack
A Lyle Stuart Book
Published by Carol Publishing Group
Editorial Offices Sales & Distribution Offices
600 Madison Avenue 120 Enterprise Avenue
New York, NY 10022 Secaucus, NJ 07094
In Canada: Musson Book Company
A division of General Publishing Co. Limited
Don Mills, Ontario
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form, except by
a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes
to quote brief passages in connection
with a review.
Queries regarding rights and permissions
should be addressed to: Carol Publishing Group,
600 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Atack, Jon.
A piece of blue sky: Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard
exposed / by Jon Atack.
p. cm.
"A Lyle Stuart book."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8184-0499-X : $19.95
1. Scientology - Controversial literature. 2. Dianetics -
Controversial literature. 3. Hubbard, L. Ron (La Fayette Ron),
1911- . 4. Church of Scientology - History. I. Title.
BP605.S2A83 1990
299'.936'092 - dc20 89-77666
CIP
Carol Publishing Group books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases, for sales promotions, fund raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details contact: Special Sales Department, Carol Publishing Group, 120 Enterprise Ave., Secaucus, NJ 07094.
[note}
It was 1950, in the early, heady days of Dianetics, soon after L. Ron Hubbard opened the doors of his first organization to the clamoring crowd. Up until then, Hubbard was known only to readers of pulp fiction, but now he had an instant best-seller with a book that promised to solve every problem of the human mind, and the cash was pouring in. Hubbard found it easy to create schemes to part his new following from their money. One of the first tasks was to arrange "grades" of membership, offering supposedly greater rewards, at increasingly higher prices. Over thirty years later. an associate wryly remembered Hubbard turning to him and confiding, no doubt with a smile, "Let's sell these people a piece of blue sky."
