More About Melbourne Congress

I’m very proud of what you are doing and of all areas in the world, and there are plenty of them, the one I’m proudest of and the one that I believe is most capable of a long-term success is Australia. —L. Ron Hubbard

In the first days of the Second World War, a then-Lieutenant L. Ron Hubbard so distinguished himself as an intelligence officer in Australia, he was thereafter known as “that fellow from down under.” Eighteen years later he recounted that story before a thriving community of Australian Scientologists—and so launched his first and only Melbourne Congress—at the Chevron Hotel, on November 7, 1959.

In fact, however, Mr. Hubbard’s visit to Australia bespoke of a far greater story. Just six months earlier, he had announced the acquisition of Saint Hill Manor in England. Serving as a single point of emanation for every type of Scientology activity, Saint Hill provided a stable base to conduct all future research.

Next, to coordinate the operations of Central Organizations on four continents, he established the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI). All of which explained why he was soon announcing a round-the-world tour:

“I am about to do a Magellan by jet in somewhat less than eighty days, so I too can yawn and say ‘It’s a small world.’”

Notwithstanding the note of humor, including his parting words, “Around the World in Thirty Daze,” that tour had an importance extending even beyond day-to-day operations. For with auditors now able to make Clears routinely, an immediate priority was ensuring the technology’s permanence. Moreover, with an itinerary that would take him to Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and back again to London, there was a very substantial reason his first stop was in Melbourne:

“The Southern Hemisphere obviously is the only area that will ever have a prayer in an atomic war. But it will only have a prayer if it is very definitely self-sufficient.”

Indeed, whereas every Congress to date had been fully international in flavor, this one had an additional and very personal dimension as regards Australian Scientologists:

“Because we are putting all our chips on this bet here. There’s a lot more depends on Australia than you would at first notice.”

Yet if Mr. Hubbard began by placing the burden of responsibility on Australia’s shoulders, he continued by announcing a technical breakthrough of such magnitude it would ease the task considerably. Bearing the potential to send personality profiles into completely new ranges and rocket IQs, what he unveiled was a case-cracking solution to a problem that had dogged auditors ever since the days of Book One:

“I’d like to tell you about that because it’s brand-new material, brand-new discoveries. It’s not very complicated and I would like to release it right here in Australia.

“Well, the subject is valences. Valences.”

What followed was his detailed description of what valences are, how they are acquired, their consequences for the individual and their relationship to individuation. Most important, here was completely new technology to separate valences and find the actual person.

Yet there were still more reasons why this Congress would be remembered as a watershed in Scientology history. First, what ultimately followed from Mr. Hubbard’s personal message to Australian Scientologists to create a safe environment for Scientology was a victory so landmark that today the Australian government, in providing the very definition of religion, does so with one word: Scientology.

And even more crucially, it was at that Melbourne Congress that L. Ron Hubbard previewed a discovery that would change the direction of Scientology itself. For with clearing taking place all over the world, he had now made the breakthrough to the accomplishment of an even higher state, a state long dreamed of in this universe but never, until now, able to be stably achieved—Operating Thetan.