The Hubbard Association of Scientologists International soon grew from its founding membership in the USA and England to active members on every continent. Meanwhile, the Founding Church of Scientology, established in Washington, D.C. (bottom) in March 1955, was the site of Mr. Hubbard’s organisational breakthroughs, many sparking expansion that has continued worldwide ever since.

L Ron Hubbard’s research continued, and in March 1951 he completed his next book, Science of Survival. In this 500-page work, he further explored the nature of thought and life, offering readers an understanding of, and a new means to predict, human behaviour. The book is oriented around the Hubbard Chart of Human Evaluation, which exactly delineates the emotional scales of individuals, and provides precise procedures to bring anyone to the highest level and thus ultimate survival.

In 1951 he wrote a total of six books, continuing to research and perfect the technologies of Dianetics with which he had resolved the problems of the human mind. But this still left many unanswered questions, questions which man had been pondering since the beginning of recorded history. “The further one investigated,” he wrote, “the more one came to understand that here, in this creature Homo sapiens, were entirely too many unknowns.”

And so, within a year and a half of the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, L. Ron Hubbard had embarked upon another journey of discovery — entering the realm of the human spirit. This track of research, begun so many years earlier as a young man travelling the globe in search of answers to life, was to span the next three decades. And as breakthrough after breakthrough was codified, Scientology was born, giving man, for the first time, a route to higher levels of awareness, understanding and ability that anyone could travel.

Given the inherently religious nature of Mr. Hubbard’s work through these years, it was only natural that those surrounding him would come to see themselves not only as students of a new philosophy but also as students of a new religion. And so, in 1954, Scientologists in Los Angeles established the first Church of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard founded the subject — early Scientologists began the Church.