More About The Lindsey Theatre Lectures: London Afternoon Series

Life doesn’t belong in a textbook. Life doesn’t belong in a university department. Life belongs where it is. And where it is, it’s breathing and living.

Knowledge of life should be in the hands of those who are living. That’s who should have knowledge of life. —L. Ron Hubbard

On 20 September 1955, Mr. Hubbard stepped onto British soil for his first visit in almost three years. It was a moment eagerly anticipated not only by Scientologists, but members of the general public. For the reach for Scientology was increasing to such a degree that even national media were attempting to satisfy public interest by lining up for an exclusive interview with him.

L. Ron Hubbard’s response to that demand has since become legendary. For although his plans certainly focused on expanding the ranks of auditors and enhancing their skills through a series of professional training courses that would roll out over the next five months, he was equally dedicated to putting his discoveries and breakthroughs at the service of the broad public. Thus, in a very short time after his arrival, he had scheduled a series of Saturday afternoon public lectures. And over a period of four weekends in October, he delivered what will forever stand as the Classic introductory series on Dianetics and Scientology.

As to the location where he delivered these famous London lectures:

The New Lindsey Theatre, near Notting Hill Gate, was a popular venue in the early 1950s, frequented by British royalty and with a stage graced by such acting luminaries as Dirk Bogarde and Kenneth More—the last named soon to achieve enduring fame in Britain with his portrayal of World War II Spitfire ace Douglas Bader in the 1956 movie, Reach for the Sky. Yet, as was soon evident, Mr. Hubbard’s lectures were a phenomenon unique to themselves—for his appearances crammed the theatre far beyond its capacity. As reported by Certainty, the magazine of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International in London, “attendance was so tremendous that in addition to all standing room being occupied, a series of extension speakers had to be run to our premises in order that as few people as possible should be turned away or disappointed.”

Introduced as “my best friend and England’s best friend” by Scientologist George Wichelow—one of Britain’s great stage magicians and already renowned for his talks on Scientology delivered in London’s Hyde Park—L. Ron Hubbard soon had his audiences captivated with an education in basic Scientology. The titles are now immortal: “The Goals of Dianetics and Scientology,” “Power of Choice and Self-determinism,” “How Good You Can Get” and “The Dynamics.” And though audiences may have been new to Scientology, Mr. Hubbard held nothing back in giving them the full breadth in application:

“Now, there’s that old one: ‘Do not send to find for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.’ You can say the same thing about the dynamics: Don’t send to find which one is suppressed, it doesn’t matter. If one is suppressed, so will be suppressed the others. They are not independent in their action. They are connected and in confluence, one with another.

“You cannot suppress his First Dynamic and make his Third Dynamic survive. It just won’t work.

“Now, when I say it won’t work, I am talking out of the most ample bin of evidence that was ever arranged for anyone to inspect: the history of Man.”

Yet that is the merest glimpse of what L. Ron Hubbard provided in these lectures—a vast array of tools for anyone and everyone to use across all dynamics:

• Communication—how it is the solution to enturbulation;
• Power of Choice—an individual will hold on to the last thing he had power of choice over before he lost his power of choice;
• Environmental Factors—to audit an individual you must also audit his environment such as his family;
• Mind Monitoring Structure—a person is sick because of a decision he made, such as not wanting to go to school;
• Insanity—an insane person is one who has lost his power of choice over his life or over his death;
• Automaticities—how the individual sets up automaticities and machinery to handle life;
• Death—how a person who decides to live without undeciding they are going to die hangs halfway in between, but with Scientology can make up their mind to survive.

Above all, Mr. Hubbard stressed application, specifically in his final lecture to those packed audiences, where he invited them to discover the truth of what they had learned for themselves:

“Having then a better command of the facts and life at your command, you can of course do more with life itself, since you aren’t held back from communicating on every front by the belief that some enormous barrier stands between you and one of the dynamics or the rest of the world. There’s nothing stands between you and any other part of the entirety of this or any other universe. If you want to put it to the test, I invite you to. You’ll be a happier person.”

That many did put it to the test and become happier persons is a fact of history. For if the Lindsey Theatre had been full to the brim, the subsequent demand for these lectures certainly matched that intensity of interest. Indeed, so popular did the series prove that the tapes were immediately copied and made available in the United States and South Africa. While in England, Scientology’s expansion took off at a rate greater than any previously seen in the British Isles.

Now available for the first time as their own series, and invaluable to Scientologists at all levels, these lectures stand as an enduring statement of the goals, principles and application of Scientology across the dynamics.