Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief(146)

99 The house had once belonged: Letter from Arthur Fleming to John Muir, Feb. 8, 1911; Pendle, Strange Angel, p. 208.

100 “Must not believe in God”: Russell Miller interview with Nieson Himmel, “The Bare-Faced Messiah Interviews,” www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/?interviews/himmel.htm.

101 Among those passing: Carter, Sex and Rockets, pp. 84–86; Pendle, Strange Angel, pp. 244–45.

102 “women in diaphanous gowns”: Carter, Sex and Rockets, p. 84.

103 captured in a portrait: Pendle, Strange Angel, p. 209.

104 “The breakup of the home”: Parsons, Freedom Is a Two-Edged Sword, p. 69.

105 Sara Elizabeth “Betty” Northrup: Pendle, Strange Angel, p. 255. Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, p. 116.

106 lost her virginity: Pendle, Strange Angel, p. 203.

107 “Her chief interest”: Ibid.

108 when she was fifteen: Sara Elizabeth Hollister (formerly Sara Northrup Hubbard) tapes, Stephen A. Kent Collection on Alternative Religions.

109 “He was not only a writer”: Ibid.

110 “He dominated the scene”: Alva Rogers, quoted in Carter, Sex and Rockets, p. 103.

111 “the most gorgeous”: Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, p. 117.

112 “a gentleman, red hair”: Ibid., p. 118.

113 angry debate: The Church of Scientology forced the authors of a 1952 Crowley biography, The Great Beast, to remove any suggestion that there was a connection between Scientology and black magic. Church of Scientology of California and John Symonds, MacDonald & Co. (Publishers) Limited, Hazell Watson & Viney. High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, 1971. The church also provided me with its correspondence with the London Sunday Times in 1969 and 1970, in which the newspaper agreed to retract similar statements and not make such references in the future.

114 envious of his talent: Grant and Symonds, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, p. 18.

115 He may have served: Spence, Secret Agent 666.

116 “Do what thou wilt”: Grant and Symonds, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, p. 18.

117 Nibs—Hubbard’s estranged: Allan Sonnenschein, “Inside the Church of Scientology: An Exclusive Interview with L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.,” Penthouse, June 1983.

118 “What a lot of people”: Ibid. The church fiercely disputes any of the derogatory remarks made by Hubbard’s son, especially in the Penthouse interview. In 1984, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.—who had changed his name to Ronald DeWolf—stated, “The interview of me in the June 1983 issue of Penthouse is true and accurate, period.” Transcript of Tape #1 of June 28, 1984—Ron DeWolf. www.lermanet.com/scientology-and-occult/tape-by-L-Ron-Hubbard-jr.htm. However, in 1987, DeWolf signed an affidavit recanting his statements against his father, saying they were “no more than wild flights of fantasy based on my own unlimited imagination.” Affidavit of Ronald Edward DeWolf, May 20, 1987, Carson City, Nevada. But five years later, DeWolf testified that he had signed the recantation “in order to protect my wife and children” from threats made by the church. City of Clearwater Commission Hearings Re: The Church of Scientology. May 6, 1982, Morning Session.

119 “spiritual progress did not depend”: Grant and Symonds, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, pp. 582–83.

120 “The Abyss”: Ibid., p. 929 n. 57.

121 “my very good friend”: Hubbard, “Conditions of Space/Time/Energy,” Philadelphia Doctorate Course Transcripts, Dec. 5, 1952.

122 “That’s when Dad decided”: City of Clearwater Commission Hearings Re: The Church of Scientology. May 6, 1982, Morning Session.

123 “a savage and beautiful woman”: Hugh B. Urban, “The Occult Roots of Scientology? L. Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley, and the Origins of a Controversial New Religion,” Novo Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions (February 2012): 98.

124 “invocation of wand”: Carter, Sex and Rockets, pp. 122–23. Interview with Anthony Torchia.

125 “We observed a brownish”: Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, pp. 120–21.

126 “I don’t know where I am”: Kansa, Wormwood Star, p. 41.

127 Cameron’s version is that: Ibid., p. 28.

128 “I have my elemental!”: Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, p. 121.

129 “Display thyself”: Ibid., pp. 122–23.

130 “Instructions were received”: Ibid., p. 124.

131 “Apparently Parsons or Hubbard”: Ibid., p. 124.

132 aborted another pregnancy: Carter, Sex and Rockets, p. 151.

133 “Babalon is incarnate upon”: Quoted in Pendle, Strange Angel, p. 266.

134 more than twenty thousand dollars: Ibid., p. 267.

135 “I cannot tolerate”: Hubbard, Appeal to Administration of Veterans Affairs, July 4, 1946.

136 “I have know”: S. E. Northrup letter to Veterans Administration, Los Angeles, July 1, 1946.

137 “Banishing Ritual”: Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah: p. 127.

138 ship was too damaged: Sara Elizabeth Hollister (formerly Sara Northrup Hubbard) tapes, Stephen A. Kent Collection on Alternative Religions.

139 Parsons gained a judgment: Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, p. 127.

140 “keep him at arm’s”: Robert Heinlein letter to John Arwine, May 10, 1946.

141 “a very sad case”: Virginia Heinlein to Catherine and Sprague de Camp, Aug. 7, 1946.