going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-by-lawrence-wright-2

Cooley demanded an immediate cremation, but when the owner of the mortuary saw
the name on the death certicate, she called the coroner. After learning that Hubbard
had signed a new will the day before his death, the coroner ordered an autopsy, but
Cooley was able to produce a document signed by Hubbard stating that an autopsy
would violate his religious beliefs. The lawyer did permit the coroner to take a blood
sample and ngerprints to verify that the corpse was actually Hubbard. Many questions
would be asked, since Hubbard hadn’t been seen in public for nearly six years.
There was another problem that had to be dealt with quickly: how to explain
Hubbard’s death to Scientologists. Broeker and Miscavige came up with a plan: Hubbard
didn’t die, he had intentionally “dropped his body” in order to move on to a higher level
of existence.
Miscavige told one of the other executives he didn’t want to see “any grief bullshit.”
Sinar Parman, Hubbard’s former chef, arrived that morning, to help with cooking and
logistics. He found Annie Broeker sitting on the oor of the cabin, with Miscavige’s wife,
Shelly. Annie had obviously been crying. Meanwhile, he noticed Miscavige and Broeker
in another room. “They were joking,” he recalled. “They were ecstatic. They’d never
been so happy.”
That Sunday, Hubbard’s ashes were scattered in the Pacific.
The next day, more than two thousand Scientologists gathered in the Hollywood
Palladium for a special announcement. The news had been kept quiet until then.
Miscavige stepped onto the stage. He was twenty-ve years old, wearing his doublebreasted
Sea Org uniform with a black tie and a gold lanyard over his right shoulder.
For most Scientologists, this was their rst introduction to the man who would dominate
the religion in the decades after the founder’s death. Short and trim, with brown hair
and sharp features, Miscavige announced to the assembled Scientologists that for the
past six years of exile, Hubbard had been investigating new, higher OT levels. “He has
now moved on to the next level,” Miscavige said. “It’s beyond anything any of us has
imagined. This level is, in fact, done in an exterior state. Meaning that it is done
completely exterior from the body.” Someone in the audience whistled in amazement.
“At this level of OT, the body is nothing more than an impediment, an encumbrance to
any further gain as an OT.” The audience began to stir as the realization began to sink
in. “Thus—,” Miscavige said, then paused and adjusted the microphone. “Thus, at two
thousand hours, Friday, the twenty-fourth of January, A.D. 36 [that is, thirty-six years
after the publication of Dianetics], L. Ron Hubbard discarded the body he had used in
this lifetime for seventy-four years, ten months, and eleven days.” Miscavige turned to a
large photograph of Commodore Hubbard with the waves behind him and began to
applaud. “Hip, hip, hooray!” he cried, as the audience echoed him. “Hip, hip, hooray!”
MISSIONAIRES HAD BEEN SENT to Scientology centers all over the world to coordinate the
announcement of Hubbard’s death. Afterward, they ew back to Los Angeles and met at
the Liberace mansion in West Hollywood, near the church headquarters. Most executives
in the church naturally assumed that the leadership had already passed to Pat and Annie