Showing results by author "L. Ron Hubbard" in All Categories

Everyone performs certain routine tasks automatically. Driving a car would be awkward indeed if one had to think newly of every tiny procedure. But what happens when someone puts a whole field of thought and action “on automatic”? His education, for example? Or his work? Or even his entire life? The answers are here and they open a completely new perspective on the mind. To the degree an individual has withdrawn from participation in an area of life, he substitutes an automatic mental mechanism for himself.

Since time immemorial, Man has sought to liberate the soul from the body and so achieve immortality. In this account of the religious heritage that stands behind Scientology, Ron recounts the extraordinary story of Man’s epic quest for a way to attain that goal. Embracing a tradition from the very dawn of civilization, here is the history of Man’s relentless pursuit of the knowledge which inspired this planet’s great philosophies and religions.

An extraordinary drama played out across thousands of years, Man’s long search to penetrate the mystery of “the other fellow” - and thereby to know himself - found its expression not only in philosophy and religion, but even in war and conquest. Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, the crucial intensity of this quest, its continuing failure down the centuries accumulated ever-deepening problems for Man. Hence, in desperation, he eventually abandoned the search entirely - in 1879, to be precise.

Captain Gordon lives like he flies - by the seat of his pants, taking on any job and all comers. Now he’s bound for the forbidding mountains along the shores of the Arabian Sea, transporting a team of anthropologists on the trail of Alexander the Great. But ancient history is about to come to dangerous life with the discovery of a long-buried map - a map leading to high adventure, untold treasure, and cold-blooded murder.

Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Johnny Trescott is as smart, tough, and fearless as they come. But he’s about to lose everything - his boat, his freedom, and his identity. Johnny’s mission is to track down drug runners in the Gulf of Mexico, and he’s got his eye on the biggest fish of all - Georges Coquelin. But an SOS from a downed plane that’s sinking fast leads him straight to disaster. Coquelin springs a trap. Stranding Johnny and the plane’s passengers on a deserted island, the drug smuggler commandeers Johnny’s boat and his name.

Things are disappearing. Parts of buildings, parts of people, parts of the whole world - they’re here today, gone tomorrow. Old Shellback thinks he needs glasses. But all he really has to do is open his eyes...and see the light. Or so says George Smiley - otherwise known as the Messiah. George claims that the reason things are vanishing is because he wants them to go away. He has no more use for the world...and so it goes. Say goodbye. But Old Shellback has a different idea, and since he is the most stubborn man in the universe, you might want to hear him out.

In a future where Mother Earth has cast her children to the distant starts to begin anew and colonize the cosmos, the planet remains depleted of natural resources. Its air polluted by caustic iron and belching smoke, Earth faces her last desperate days in the grip of global environmental collapse. In one final and feeble effort, Earth’s Grand President Mankin musters the dregs of his fleet and sends three separate missions to the deepest reaches of space. Their mission: solicit help from far-flung colonial civilizations, or watch the planet die.

Bat Conroy - cut him and he’d bleed ink, he’s a born newspaperman. The greatest American journalists of the 20th century all made their names as war correspondents, but none of them would have beat out Bat Conroy to a good story. Which makes it that much more mystifying - and aggravating - when an unknown writer, filing under the byline Perry Lane, scoops Bat on every story that comes along. Bat’s always been the go-to reporter covering the Japanese invasion of China...until this Perry Lane person came along to steal his thunder and maybe even his job.

US Navy Lieutenant Steve Craig is in one hell of a mess. Being accused of murder is bad enough, but the local police are convinced he’s killed his own father. And now, for Steve Craig, the plot is about to get down and dirty. Steve’s safe from the cops as long as he stays aboard his Navy ship - but the word safe isn’t in his vocabulary. He slips off the vessel and vanishes into the seamy underside of the city, determined to find out who took his father's life...even if it means risking his own.

There’s not a dare Smoke Burnham won’t take, and there’s not a wager he won’t make. Now he’s betting his life that he can fly his plane, Super Comet - with his pet cheetah Patty coming along for the ride - across the mountains and jungles of South America to a prize-winning payday. All he has to do is out-race the competition, out-maneuver a saboteur, and make out with his girl - who’s determined to bring him down to earth. One thing you can count on - in the air, in a fight, or in his girlfriend’s arms - he’s a man who likes to turn up the heat.

He’s a handsome American Lieutenant in the French Foreign Legion. She’s a beautiful woman who’s as fiery as the North African sun...and as mysterious as the far side of the moon. And she’s all his - bought and paid for in the village square. Put them together, and you’re sure to get fireworks.

Insurance investigator Brent Calloway may be too hard-boiled to crack a smile, but he’ll go to any length to crack a case. Calloway’s about to go to extremes to see to it that one ship makes it safely from Hawaii to the mainland. Going undercover and posing as ruthless killer Spike O’Brien Calloway quickly discovers that on this ship nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. With so much insurance money at stake, and the whole crew apparently in on the scam, this could end up being a voyage to the bottom of the sea....

When it comes to boiling up a pot of coffee or stirring up a pot of stew, Old Laramie’s about as good a man as you’re going to find. But other than cooking three squares a day for the cowpunchers over at the Lazy G ranch, Laramie’s not good for much. But Laramie’s luck - and life - are about to take an amazing turn. Quite by accident, he somehow manages to save a family of Mexicans from bandits, and as a token of their gratitude they give him The Magic Quirt - a horsewhip that he’s told will turn him into a new man.

It is one of the greatest conflicts - and a pivotal turning point - in history...the Chinese civil war. On one side stands Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. On the other, Mao Zedong and the Communists. And their forces are about to meet in a decisive battle...the outcome of which is in the hands of one American pilot, John Hampton, a man who couldn’t care less....

Firsten Guide is a tough, wise-cracking rebel leader who’s light years ahead of his time - and about to lead his crew into a battle that’s Beyond All Weapons. He and his fellow colonizers of Mars have faced a brutal crackdown engineered by Earth’s tyrannical government. But the resourceful Firsten has developed an extraordinary new fuel that enables him and his hardy band to escape into space - and time.

Flying into action, daredevil photojournalist Johnny Brice is always looking for trouble...and more often than not, finding it. But he doesn’t know what real trouble is until he rescues the beautiful woman he calls Jinx from a sinking ship. They’re made for each other - even if they are a dangerous mix.

American Ann Halliday is as fiery as the Sahara sun. And now she’s feeling some real heat, as the prize captive of the Berber leader Abd el Malek also known as “The Killer”. But Abd el Malek wants Ann alive - and in chains - subject to his every whim and fantasy. Dusty Colton, however, an American deserter from the French Foreign Legion, has a different idea, and he’s determined to give “The Killer” a taste of his own bloody medicine. The only problem is Dusty himself is wanted for murder.

Imagine that your father is one of New York City’s top gangsters, and that you want nothing to do with him or his criminal empire. Now imagine he’s been murdered...and the only person who gives a damn is you. Meet Mat Lawrence, a stand-up guy who’s got one thing on his mind: revenge. The last place Mat wants to go is back to New York, but that’s where the killers are, and he won’t stop until they’re dead...or he is. And there’s only one man who can help him track them down: his father’s criminal attorney - the Mouthpiece.

Penniless, homeless, and virtually lifeless, the vagrant “Doughface” Jack is about to discover that where medical marvels meet the mysteries of the human mind, amazing things happen. The Tramp acquires a capability beyond his imagination and without equal on Earth. Riding the rails, Jack runs afoul of a local sheriff and ends up with a crushed skull. He’s as good as dead until a savvy country doctor performs a bit of medical magic.

When it comes to flying gliders, ace pilot Breeze Callaghan is as smooth as they come. He perfects a skill that will prove vitally important for decades to come - even into the jet age, as demonstrated by Captain Sully Sullenberger, who famously landed his disabled passenger plane on the Hudson River.