I obtained the Alec Nevala-Lee book some time ago but haven’t got around to reading it yet. It’s on my phone awaiting its turn in the rotation.

I just finished the amazing SF book by Adrian Tchaikovsky called “Children of Time,” winner of the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Wow. What a ride that book was, just wonderful science fiction on a grand scale. Like the best SF, much of the science is just a bit out of reach, but not impossible – no wormholes, no FTL space armadas, just generation ships built to last, genetic engineering, viruses, lasers, and advanced chemistry. Though seemingly impossible today, the ‘cold storage’ used to hold the human cargo in stasis for centuries is at least not obviously barred by the laws of physics.

Just now I discovered this is a series, with two more books to go. Oboy, oboy, oboy.

Whoever thought Hubbard was a “writer” must never have read the work of real writers.

I think he did.

Insightful. Thank you.

Of course, there is much more to the Christian Science story than this tidbit, but in fact there are parallels to Hubbard’s later ‘religion’, in particular Eddy’s being a hardcase about “her” money.
She accepted a stiff fee for teaching her concepts to students, expecting them to go forth and be successful as a Healer, and also required a percentage of their Healer income to be passed upstream to her personally. Sounds almost like MLM to me… She had a reputation for lawsuits against former students who did not remit to her the agreed percentage of their future income from their Christian Science Healer practice.

The public of Mary Baker Eddy’s turn of the century population was not a lot different from the public of Hubbard’s initial Dianetics foray. Antibiotics had been invented and used to good effect in WW II, plus there were many advances in metallurgy, plastics and fabrics made from fossil fuel, warfare, surgery, and such. But the normal American working family often still had iceboxes, and only recently had been converted to the convenience of sliced bread. The great advancement 1950 had over Eddy’s era was radio and distributed electricity, which still needed government intervention to reach rural areas. In 1950 the world had been changed by the aftermath of two world wars, the Great Depression, and the deadly worldwide flu pandemic of 1918, but the much of the American public was still receptive to unproven magical healing such as Eddy and Hubbard promised.

Today the CS Church operates the Christian Science Monitor, and more. Her wealth started something that has lasted well over a century, though I can’t find CS Healers advertised anywhere. I expect Scientology will ‘end’ the same way, with their massive slush fund of real estate sold off over time, funding some sort of Cherch of Scientology for many years to come, well after Miscavige takes off for Target Two, his just reward.

Eddy started a ‘science’ that took issue with the medical profession, though with the state of medicine during her lifetime of 1821 – 1920 it is easier to see how people might mistrust both doctors, dentists, and the many miracle elixirs promoted during her later years.

Altogether, I see many similarities between Eddy and Hubbard, and I think the end of each fake religion will look similar, too, mostly because of the wealth accumulated.

🤫 you got it.

It’s just not me ,but others are also reading what’s written on the wall.😉

Thanks Ruth,

The increasing signs of desperation grow, and grow….

I would feel sad but for the fact that what the cult is now is nothing like it was in the 1960’s.

Interesting, Ruth. That the cult would actually know that you’re on these blogs yet still be intent on luring you back into the fold – wow! That’s desperation on their part, alright.

It’s only a matter of time before there’s a Jonestown Org.