Where to? Well, there is credible testimony that it goes to the top of the pyramid, and then mostly vanishes. How much? - oh, $100-$200 million a year, pretty well in the same ballpark with the bigger TV evangelists. Except there aren't any evangelists who spend $20 million a year on lawsuits to harass their critics.

L. Ron Hubbard is widely rumored to have said "The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion." There are also variant rumors. For some reason, this is often mentioned on Usenet. Evidence is discussed below, but the short answer is that it's almost certainly true.

The Church of Scientology has actually taken German publishers to court for printing this story. Stern won (see below).

He said it very clearly, and on many occasions. He compared his "tech" with physics and chemistry, and said it was just as precise. He said he was a nuclear physicist. He said he'd done experiments and had evidence. He put an equation in "Dianetics, the modern Science of Mental Health".

Hubbard did not know the first thing about science. Chapter one of Dianetics is total proof of that, to a real scientist. (Nor is that "equation" actually an equation - it just looks like one.) His science fiction has terrible lapses of knowledge and logic. He did study to be a mechanical engineer, but flunked out half way through. He got 'F' in Nuclear Physics.

After 17 years around universities, and 19 years in the computer industry, I am both a scientist and an engineer.

My major computer science interests are computer architecture, operating systems, compilers, tools, and technology forecasting. As you can guess from my publications, I've been paid to do all of these. I'm currently based in Silicon Valley.

I have been writing for years, so this archive now has over 250 web pages and over 100 images.