Jack Parsons was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology, Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation.

Here, author and anthropologist Robert Sepehr explains how Parsons got mixed up with Aleister Crowley as well as L. Ron Hubbard.

Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He was the head of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O or or ‘Order of Oriental Templars’) and founded the religion of Thelema, with the stated goal of guiding humanity into the Age of Horus in the early 20th century.

Hubbard was an American author of science fiction, Naval Intelligence Officer during WW2, and student of the occult who founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established a series of organizations to offer spiritual services, similar to past life regression.