To celebrate his March 13, 1911 birthday, each year Scientologists from sixty countries gather at the religion’s spiritual nexus in Clearwater, Florida in a weekend celebration of their founder’s life. This year, they acknowledged Mr. Hubbard’s seemingly endless accomplishments, and cast their eyes toward a limitless future, inspired by the life and works of L. Ron Hubbard.
LRH, as his multitudinous followers know him, was a polymath—a person of wide-ranging knowledge and education. Beginning as the youngest Eagle Scout in American history (awarded just days after his thirteenth birthday), LRH explored the religious landscape of Asia by the time he was fifteen. Mr. Hubbard went on to become the Guinness Book’s most translated author, and also holds their record for most audio books by one author.
His work toward the salvation of mankind continues to inspire millions worldwide. This annual weekend celebration displays by turns, his research into man as a spiritual being, his technical legacy that allows others to identify, explore and realize their innate spiritual abilities—all this L. Ron Hubbard left to a troubled world.
The weekend also serves as an update of the rapidly expanding world of Scientology and all as a tribute to LRH.
“If ever this world needed L. Ron Hubbard—it’s now, tonight and planetwide,” said David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board, Religious Technology Center, as he commenced the inspirational night’s agenda. “But fortunately, that’s exactly his magnitude as of this evening. And I’m not merely referring to his technical legacy, his literary imprint, or, his tools for decency, morality and cultural resurgence. No, I mean the man himself. I mean his character, presence and beingness. I mean all he’s now become and will forever be.”
The evening presented not just a sense of L. Ron Hubbard’s influence on the lives of individuals, but also a surge of real-life stories on how he touched others… if only for just a little while, but ultimately changed the outcome of their destiny.
The LRH Biographer, Dan Sherman, opened the door to that world of L. Ron Hubbard and invited the audience to walk in. The pillars of his presentation were on-camera interviews with a sampling of those who were actually there with LRH during a telling moment in the course of both their lives and his: “Tonight’s the night to ask that question: ‘What if there were witnesses?’” began Mr. Sherman. “What if there were those who may not have understood all that happened then, but all the same, they’re now back to tell us what they saw ‘way back when.’”
Over the course of an hour, Mr. Sherman proceeded to share an array of dazzling accounts from said witnesses—witnesses of LRH’s history that included sub-chasers in the Second World War, and military hospitals by San Francisco Bay, to New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen and even the genesis of America’s post-war counter-culture movement. Each one in its own right emphasized that wherever LRH walked and however random the lives he touched, he left an indelible mark.
Read the complete article on the Scientology Newsroom.
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