Phil Spickler is one of those old-timers that knew the original Ron Hubbard and he is of the opinion that there is more than one Ron and that the original one – the #1 Ron – was a good one, if only for breaking into the, then, very closed field of mental health and the treatment thereof.

As far as I listened to him and read about him, he does not talk too much about the Rons #2, #3, etc. I can imagine that he was a well-respected, near-celebrity in the church as his daughter, Mimi Rogers, was Tom Cruises’ first wife and the one who signed up Mr. Cruise. That should have given him some credit, but apparently not enough to keep him in the church because he is now an independent.

There is good material from him on his From Stanford With Love Blog and I just take an interview with him as an example (update: this was at a time when the blog was hosted at the freezone website, which does not seem to exist any longer. Some kind soul apparently has moved all the content to a blog hosted on wordpress.com so that it might live forever.)

This from the Feb 9, 2013 article My Days are Numbered.

Found the great story, written by Joe Van Staden, on the beginnings of the Sea Org on Aida Thomas’ Blog.

Joe tells his story without bias and untarnished by personal preferences. He stays away from the church molding Hubbard into a god and the enemies turning Hubbard into a devil. I believe that this is the much more realistic view as nothing is either utterly bad or utterly good.

I particularly liked the part of the story where they sit in a life boat with an engine but that engine not doing its job – it just did not start. Getting Hubbard on the radio he tried to debug the situation but failed and had to simply send a rescue – just like real people would do.

Reminds me of  a story a friend once told me who had actually sailed on the Apollo with LRH where her daughter had been on the way of making Mr. Hubbard her in-law. It is many years ago that she had told me the story so details have become clouded but what is stuck in my mind is that LRH handled a situation with super-powers as promised by the OT levels – it might have been calming a storm or diverting a falling mast by sheer mind power. Again, I forgot the details but this is what stayed in my mind. I also remember that I did not really believe my friend’s story or attributed it to her wishful thinking, wanting LRH to be that super being.

So, the story of Hubbard not being able to start an engine with mind-power was very refreshing – which makes him much more credible than all the propaganda promoted about him by the Cof$.

Welcome aboard!

By Joe Van Staden who served as Captain of the Athena and the Apollo at various times.

Undoubtedly the story of how it all began has been told more than once – each time from a different perspective no doubt.   In the following account of my personal involvement in the birth of the SO I hope to provide a perspective which may shed some light on later developments within and around that organization.

My first contact with Scientology was in Johannesburg (1960).   There I met L Ron Hubbard for the first time when he came out to South Africa to run the first South African ACC.

Read the full story Birth Of The Sea Org – The Die Is Cast on Aida’s Blog, and don’t forget to get a coffee, it’s a long story and you will not want to stop…