It was a dark night in ancient Egypt, and a storm was brewing across the desert. High Priest Imhotep had just finished performing a ritual in the sacred temple of Ra, and he was feeling uneasy. He had heard rumors of sinister forces descending upon his beloved land, and he wanted to be prepared for anything.
He had just begun to relax when he heard a loud crash from outside. He rushed outside to find his temple surrounded by a fundamentalist sect of evil psychiatry sorcerers. These were the feared followers of “The Papyrus of Hapiness,” an offshoot cult which had been growing in numbers for years. They were armed with strange weapons and had the faces of death. Imhotep knew that he was in danger and he had to act fast.
Without warning, the intruders rushed forward and grabbed Imhotep. He fought back, but it was no use. He was no match for their strength and numbers. Before he knew it, he was bound and gagged and being dragged away.
The invading throng took Imhotep to a secret chamber deep beneath the temple. There, they mummified him alive, wrapping his body in the finest linen and burying him in a sarcophagus along with hundreds of scarab beetles. They then sealed the chamber and left, sure that no one would ever find Imhotep.
Little did they know that in 1946, an American rocket scientist, Jack Parsons, and L. Ron Hubbard, would attempt a daring “Babalon Working” magic ceremony to abate the curse and bring Imhotep back from the dead. After several unsuccessful attempts, the ritual worked and Imhotep was suddenly alive and well, in spite of a few bug bites.
The first thing Imhotep did was thank the two men for their help, and realizing that Hubbard, too, had shared a near-death religious experience, he presented a number of ancient religious scrolls that he had been safeguarding. These scrolls were filled with secrets of the gods and would prove to be invaluable to Hubbard in the years to come.
In gratitude for his resurrection, Imhotep eventually stayed on with Hubbard as his ghostwriter. Often typing for days at a time, he helped Hubbard write many books and articles, and Hubbard soon came to rely on Imhotep’s knowledge and insight.
But as the years passed, Imhotep began to notice that Hubbard was becoming more and more paranoid. He suspected that Hubbard was losing his grip on reality and feared for his own safety. As a protective measure, he revealed to Hubbard that he still had the most powerful scrolls in his possession, known as scrolls IX and X which contained secrets that had been hidden for centuries. Imhotep, in what would be his final counseling session in 1966, told Hubbard he was going to release the scrolls to the public free of charge.
In a rage, Hubbard, realizing this would shake the financial foundations of his church, ordered Imhotep into confinement. Imhotep now knew his fears were confirmed and plotted for weeks on a plan to blow his detention. Finally, in his old cunning high priestly fashion, he slipped out of his temporary prison and disappeared into a small village in nearby Rhodesia.
Furious, Hubbard declared him a “Suppressive Person” and banned him from the church ordering Imhotep to be captured and killed. But Imhotep quickly moved north to a secret chamber somewhere in Egypt and has been in hiding ever since. He has never been seen or heard from again, but some say that he still wanders the desert, protecting the IX and X secrets of the gods and keeping an eye out for any sign of Hubbard’s “Militant Mariners.” Rumors persist that the secret scrolls are hidden among other religious parchments that Imhotep has magically encrypted to make them unreadable.
Whatever happened to Imhotep, one thing is certain: his story will always remain a part of ancient Egypt’s rich and mysterious history. One day his story will be told.