Claims about L. Ron Hubbard are ripping apart the Scientology ‘Freezone’
Underground Bunker readers know that besides reporting on news about the Church of Scientology, we also like to keep at least one eye open for developments among those adherents of L. Ron Hubbard’s “technology” outside of the church itself.
Referred to generally as Independent Scientologists, or the Freezone, they are often useful to us because since they are no longer a part of the restrictive, totalitarian organization run by David Miscavige, they can talk more freely about what Scientologists do when they practice Hubbard’s ideas.
Over the years, we have seen the indie space as one that tends to be a soft landing ground for longtime church members who become disillusioned and break away. Many of these defectors spend some time in the Freezone, enjoying the freedom of auditing outside the church’s strict guidelines, and then move on as they discover that L. Ron Hubbard was not the only source of valuable information in the world. Many people we talk to went through this progression, from disaffected church member to ardent “indie,” to moving entirely away from the subject and disavowing Hubbard entirely.
Others stay in the Freezone, and so naturally over the years factions have developed. Our readers know that in recent years we’ve been especially fascinated by a small number of independents who have come to believe the claims of a California ex-con named Justin Craig, who changed his name legally to Lafayette Ronald Hubbard and says he is the reincarnated founder himself, and created his own new branch of the Freezone which he calls Esperianism.
That is just a very small, if highly entertaining, tributary in the Freezone. A couple of larger, and more stable, groups have operated for quite a few years, with some cross-pollination between them. Both factions claim to be growing, and both have actual brick-and-mortar locations that they operate out of.
Max Hauri’s “Ron’s Orgs” have been around for quite a few years, and they are headquartered in a building in Grenchen, Switzerland that was acquired in 2007. Recently, Hauri announced that things were going so well, they have plans to construct additional buildings to add to the Grenchen complex.
Meanwhile, in Israel, Dani and Tami Lemberger operate their “Dror Center” in Haifa, which had been a Scientology mission until it broke away en masse from the church in 2012. Dani and Tami moved their center to a new location in the city a few years ago, and we visited it on a trip last year. We consider them friends, and we had dinner with them again in Caesarea this summer.
And because we remain friendly with Dani, we are on his mailing list and that’s how we learned about a dramatic new development in the Freezone that we thought you’d want to hear about.
On August 24, Hauri sent out an email saying that he was struggling as he tried to come up with a program involving what are called “the grades” in Scientology, processes that someone encounters fairly early in the progression up Hubbard’s “Bridge to Total Freedom.”
Hauri then made a dramatic statement:
One of my reliable data points is that Ron disappeared at the end of 1972, and the last lecture I have from him is dated August 6, 1972. I am certain it’s his voice on the tape. Therefore, it’s clear that anything from around early 1973 onward is not from Ron.
The idea that L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, was disappeared or replaced by a lookalike, pehaps while he was in Morocco in 1972, has been a persistent one among a certain set of indies for many years.
We wrote about it at some length when a Freezoner named Randy McDonald published a book in 2016 about Ron’s kidnapping, supposedly by the CIA, because, McDonald claimed, the government wanted control of his superhuman OT technology. (McDonald’s book also claimed that Hubbard’s kidnapping was actually a part of what would become the Watergate scandal a couple of years later. The book is a hoot.)
For years there has been a small but vocal group of indies who insist that Hubbard was replaced, that the government has had control of Scientology ever since, and that anything with Hubbard’s name on it published after 1972 is not genuine. They try to remain pure to Hubbard’s actual goals by sticking to the Bridge as it existed before his supposed disappearance.
The historical record, however, states that L. Ron Hubbard left Morocco and later sailed to Lisbon, where his ship the Apollo was put in dry dock for repairs. At that point, in December 1972, Hubbard went to Queens, New York with his chief medical officer Jim Dincalci and a bodyguard, and the three of them stayed there until September 1973. It was during this time that Hubbard wrote up plans for what would become the notorious Snow White Program, and Jim took a few photos of Hubbard in Queens (see above, for example) that often get attributed to other people and other times.
Jim Dincalci died in 2021, but we talked to him at length about that 1972-73 stay with Hubbard in Queens when we were researching our 2015 book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely. Jim provided some really fascinating details about what it was like to stay with Hubbard in close quarters during those months, before they then returned to the ship and continued to sail with the rest of the crew.
Jim never said anything about the man he lived with in Queens not being L. Ron Hubbard.
Still, a small set of former Scientologists insist that the government (or someone) replaced the Great Thetan in 1972.
But what shocked Dani Lemberger was that it was now being espoused by someone who ran such a “mainstream” Freezone movement as Max Hauri of Ron’s Orgs.
So Dani put together his own statement, and issued it in the form of a video as well as its transcript.
Dani explained that since 2015, he and Tami had been doing their OT levels with Max at Grenchen, until suddenly they were asked to leave about a year ago. They then continued their association with another Ron’s Org in Johannesburg.
But now, Dani said he was stunned to see Max Hauri agreeing with the claim that Hubbard had been disappeared or replaced. Dani disagrees with Hauri’s assertion that anything after 1972 was not useful, and he lists off numerous advances that Hubbard issued after 1972 that he says are actually vital.
Dani then points out that Janis Gillham Grady had told Dani that she had heard this claim and there was nothing to it. She was one of Hubbard’s “Messengers” and saw him daily after 1972 on the ship in close quarters.
Dani also cites a friend, Gaye Corbett, a South African indie, who was with Ron in the Caribbean in 1974. “Gaye spent the whole day with Ron, chitchatting, taking pictures; she said for sure it was Ron Hubbard,” Dani writes. And Gaye saw him again in 1975 in Daytona Beach. Again, it was Ron.
Dani also cites Captain Bill Robertson, the colorful Hubbard lieutenant, who was in contact with Ron until Hubbard went into total seclusion in 1980.
After that, Hubbard’s communications with Scientology went through a bottleneck controlled by Pat Broeker and David Miscavige until Hubbard died at the Whispering Winds ranch near Creston, California on January 24, 1986. Before he was cremated, Hubbard’s fingerprints were taken, which later matched what was on file with the FBI and the Department of Justice.
So, replacing Hubbard in 1972 with a lookalike that also had his same fingerprints in 1986? That’s some feat, we have to say.
Dani wasn’t as amused by the theory as we tend to be.
“I don’t know why the Hauris need to eliminate the Tech that was discovered and released by Ron after 1973. I don’t know what need they have to do this, but this is an act of treachery,” he said in his message.
Well, it’s a shame that the indies are so divided. But we thought you’d want to know about it.
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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
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Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news
I’m going to vent a little. I worked with Hubbard for a few month in 1974. There is no ———- way that was an imposter. This points up to me how unhinged some of these “indie” Scientologists are. Specifically Max Hauri.
Hubbard and I played a song together, among many of our interactions. He sang I played guitar. That was so indicative of Hubbard and all the tapes I listened to prior to 1974. The theory that somehow Hubbard was replaced is sheer lunacy. And points up how important it is to understand the brainwashing in Scientology and how it warps reality. And understand how much Hubbard plagiarized earlier religious and spiritual philosophy’s. He was not SOURCE.
If any 'Indie' Orgs are booming, it is because of good salesmanship and friendly attitudes of the workers. People respond to friendliness much better than a regimented, supercilious approach that is the hallmark of corporate Clamatology. As for the 'tech', it borrows so much from other sources and its '$cieno ethics' that eventually everyone in Corporate $cientology eventually leaves. All because everyone sees the vulture nature of Miscavige's mOrgs.
Salesmanship in the Corporate $cientology is nearly dead. Using video kiosks to get new meat in the grinder is ridiculous. Real salesmanship seems to be kept only at the Advanced mOrgs and Clearwater. Where the vultures prey on the remaining loyal minions. As every $cientologist is budding FSM, the ability to prey on each other has reached some hilarious and criminal heights. The Chase Wave being only the most recent revelation of the vulture wars. The Lembergers are doing well because they treat each of their students as people and not monetary units.
The replacement of Lron in 1973 is equal to the old adage of 'if the führer only knew what was going on, he'd fix it'. The great guru is perfect, and any crimes, problems or missteps are the result of bad actors taking over the enterprise.