Are Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s far-fetched tales in China and Asia diaries actually true - at least partly?

  • Often dismissed as fanciful and racist, L. Ron Hubbard’s stories of his trips to Asia as a teenager in the 1920s might not all be as made up as once believed

The cover of the April 1936 of Five Novels Monthly featuring the story “Spy Killer: Thrilling Adventure in China” by L. Ron Hubbard.

Today, the name L. Ron Hubbard is automatically referenced as the founder of the Church of Scientology, the celebrity-laden super-rich pyramid faith that has spread around the world with controversies and scandals following at every step.

That the religion’s tenets, mostly of attaining consciousness commensurate with a gang of intergalactic superbeings, were dreamed up by Hubbard is well known. Perhaps it is more affirming than surprising then, to find that when spending a few idle hours flicking through old American pulp fiction magazines of the 1930s – Thrilling Adventures, Five-Novels Monthly, Detective Fiction – you’ll often see Hubbard’s byline.

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