National Church of Scientology: David Miscavige speaks at the Grand Opening in Washington

Last weekend Mr. David Miscavige spoke at the Grand Opening of the new National Church of Scientology in Washington, DC. This is the second time he has spoken at such an opening - the first time in 1995, when opening a Fraser Mansion building at 1701 20th St. NW, known to Scientologists as the "founding church" because it was the original church opened by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1955. With a new, bigger Church building at 1424 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, Fraser Mansion will be turned into an administrative building but will keep the big exhibition about L. Ron Hubbard and his life in DC.

It was November of 1923 when L. Ron Hubbard first moved to Washington, at the age of twelve. A few months later, he was not only America’s youngest Eagle Scout but was shaking hands with none other than President Calvin Coolidge on the steps of the White House. It is also here that L. Ron Hubbard took his first steps into Terra Incognita with his good friend — Commander Snake Thompson.

The fact is, Washington, D.C. was the location of many significant events in L. Ron Hubbard’s life. It was from here that he organized his first expedition into the Caribbean. It was from here that L. Ron Hubbard published his first short story. But even more importantly, it was here that L. Ron Hubbard first calculated the capacity of human memory, establishing in scientific terms that the brain simply did not have enough cells to retain all human memory — and that there had to be more to the mind.

All that was just the beginning of a long and illustrious association with the United States capital. This city was not only very dear to L. Ron Hubbard’s heart, it has an integral place in the history of our religion. In addition to early research he conducted while attending George Washington University, it was also here that L. Ron Hubbard tested his Dianetics techniques on numerous cases, and lectured at Saint Elizabeth’s hospital.

In fact, it was just a few blocks away from Fraser Mansion — on Dupont Circle — where L. Ron Hubbard wrote the very first manuscript of his discoveries: Dianetics: The Original Thesis, known today as The Dynamics of Life.

But even that was not the most significant association with the city, because it was Washington, D.C. where L. Ron Hubbard established the Founding Church of Scientology, in 1955.

It was a pivotal time, not only in the history of our religion, but in the history of the United States and mankind as a whole. The mid-1950s were, after all, the high-water mark of the Cold War, with unrestrained nuclear testing, seriously mounting international tensions and real political oppression right here in the United States. And if one ever wondered who turned out the lights on this rather dark period, it was also in 1955 that the agents for the American Psychiatric Association met on Capitol Hill to ram home the infamous Siberia Bill, calling for a secret concentration camp in the wastes of Alaska.

It was in the face of all this that L. Ron Hubbard arrived in June 1955, to establish the Founding Church, and thus effectively place Scientology on national communication lines.

And so, this organization, the Founding Church of the Scientology religion, truly became the critical line between barbarism and a new civilization.