The Occult Rocket Scientist Who Conjured Spirits with L. Ron Hubbard

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the world leader in space exploration. JPL scientists have put robots on Mars, sent probes into interstellar space, and collected dust from the tails of comets. But what if the real purpose behind its mission was something darker?

What if the lab was less interested in exploring outer space than the depths of the void? What if its researchers huddled around their computer screens in search of paranormal entities or dark gods crawling clear of the event horizons of nearby black holes?

Of course, that's not the case. JPL is not part of some Joss Whedon-esque occult-industrial complex. It does not mingle science with the supernatural. Yet one of its founders did.

"Slain Scientist Priest in Black Magic Cult" read one headline after the death of John Whiteside Parsons on June 17, 1952.

"John W Parsons, handsome 37 year old rocket scientist killed Tuesday in a chemical explosion, was one of the founders of a weird semi-religious cult that flourished here about 10 years ago," read a report.

The rhetoric got more lavish as the days went by.

sauce : https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vvbxgm/the-last-of-the-magicians