By hcob on Skatehive
Chapter twoSaint Hill“My purpose is to bring a barbarism out of the mud it thinks conceived it and to form, here on Earth, a civilization based on human understanding, not violence. That’s a big purpose. A broad field. A star-high goal. But I think it’s your purpose, too.”—L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology 081Ron Hubbard bought Saint Hill Manor from the Maharajah of Jaipur in 1959. The Manor is on the edge of the hamlet of Saint Hill, a few miles from the small Sussex town of East Grinstead, 30 miles south of London. For eight years, Saint Hill was the axis of the Scientology world, and many of Hubbard’s research “breakthroughs” were made there. Following Hubbard’s departure in 1967, Saint Hill remained a major Scientology center. I visited Saint Hill in August, 1975, to see whether to commit myself to six months of study there.Saint Hill Manor, a large grey-stone building set in about 50 acres, was built by a retired soldier in the early eighteenth century. The house has a solid, military s