The Most Misunderstood Human Endeavor: L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and Fine Arts

Massimo Introvigne explores the ideas of the founder of Scientology on aesthetics and the arts, an important and rarely studied part of his religious worldview. He further discusses the influence Hubbard had on contemporary artists, whom Introvigne interviewed in different countries. Hubbard wrote extensively about the visual arts and during the last part of his life, he came to what he described as a codification of the aesthetic theory, which included statements on communication, technique, perfection, color, and rhythm. Several well-known contemporary artists are themselves Scientologists, and have been influenced by Hubbard's aesthetic ideas. They report how, through the courses they attended, they apply his ideas to their artistic production. This book is a journey through art, colors, communication, and the relationship between art and religion that inspired Hubbard, and an analysis of how his aesthetic ideas were applied to the contemporary world of art and communication. Massimo Introvigne, founder of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), is the author of more than 70 books on the history and sociology of religion. He was the main author of the monumental Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy (2013). He is the managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (Center for study of New Religions). For the last 40 years, he has been considered as one of the world's leading scholars of new religious movements. Writing in El País, art critic Roberta Sosco called him "one of the leading world experts" of the intricate connections between Western esotericism, new religious movements, and modern art.