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Scientology has never been more high-profile than in the past several years, thanks to celebrity adherents like Tom Cruise. But the brainchild of science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard remains mysterious and controversial. More »
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The best place in the United States to sit and feel the ghostly presence of early 20th century science fiction is probably Clifton's Cafeteria in Los Angeles, which was the epicentre of 1930s pulp scifi. More »
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Over on an anti-Scientology forum, someone asked a really good question: What if Philip K. Dick had become a religious figure instead of the much worse science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard? The resulting religion would be a lot cooler. More »
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Science fiction's best authors chart a vast and unpredictable cosmos - but they're not above making a little wager here and there on earthly matters. Here are SF authors' weirdest (and most productive) bets. More »
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Most SF authors aim to make you think — but some of them make you think, "I disagree with everything this person stands for." Would you ever avoid someone's books based on his/her political views? More »
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Does the new scifi horror game Dead Space have a hidden agenda against Scientologists? We've told you all about EA's sci-fi horror game Dead Space - including the tragic romance that led up to its release, and even written about the game being banned in Germany, Japan and China. But now we've started hearing rumors about the game's hidden references to Xenu and the gang. More »
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No one scene could ever contain all there is to love about the psychotic trainwreck that is Battlefield Earth (based on the novel by L. Ron "Scientology" Hubbard). But this moment is one of the better ones. John Travolta and Forest Whitaker (oh Forest, how could you?) are Psychlons, aliens from planet Psychlon (duh) who have bombed humanity back to the stone age. Over hundreds of years, they've turned Earth into a primitive mining outpost populated by a sparse number of humans and a few cranky Psychlons wearing strange ventilators who just want to get back home. More »
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Yesterday we gave you a chance to read L. Ron Hubbard's 1970s novella, "Revolt in the Stars," which tells the most secret story at the heart of Scientology. We meet Xenu, the urbane dictator who murdalized a bunch of "undesirable" aliens billions of years ago by tossing them down to Earth next to volcanoes. Then he blew the volcanoes up with nukes and that was, like, really bad. But so few of you were able to slog through the whole story to get to the good bits that we've done you a giant favor and excerpted them below. More »
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Anyone who has heard about the Ultimate Secret of Scientology, the tale of Xenu the alien and his cruel volcano-esploding ways, has probably wanted to know more. What motivated Xenu? What kinds of clothes did he wear and what was his favorite music? Was he friends with psychiatrists? What were his true feelings about the Galactic Confederation and the Loyal Officers of the People? Now you can find out all this and more in a 1975 novella called "Revolt in the Stars," written by L. Ron Hubbard himself. More »
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We all know about the obvious science fiction connections to Scientology - thanks for that career choice, L. Ron Hubbard - but who knew that all of America's third-favorite religion could be explained away by an old Superman character's homeworld? That's the claim made by the PseudoScientology blog, which reaches back to one of Clark Kent's more confused foes to illustrate his point. More »
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