Culminating five years of steady advance, the Founding Church of Scientology had just been established in Washington, DC. Summoning Scientologists to the first International Congress in the nation’s capital, Ron opened with the lecture, The Hope of Man. And the title was more than apt. For what he presented were the results of advancing technology—results that could only be accurately described with a single word: miracles. Physical in nature—deaf children suddenly hearing, crippled children shedding crutches, and sight restored with eyeglasses discarded—and yet all of it accomplished by exclusively addressing the thetan.

Inherent to success was a breakthrough explaining the factors of self-determinism, and the very means to restore it in an individual. And the implications of that discovery were fully epic in nature. Ron not only traces the history of all past religions, but he also reveals how every one of their hoped for dreams can now be achieved. Here, then, is the Congress to be looked back upon as a watershed in history: the advent of Scientology as the world’s first practical religion.