Hubology

The Church of Hubology is a cult based in San Francisco around 2241 and has spread to Nuka-World in the eastern United States by 2287. The followers of this cult are called the Hubologists.

Background
Hubology was founded before the Great War by Dick Hubbell. Seeing the failure of the modern government, religion and medicine, he was inspired by music of the time and his own personal experience with extraterrestrial beings. He set out to help humanity understand existence through the "Great Wheel of Life". To his followers, he was The Hub, entrusted by the Star Father with the key to delivering them to Quetzel, and the inventor of a Zeta ray emitter that allowed them to cleanse their brain of neurodynes and unlock their inner potential.

Opponents of the cult and the media dubbed his beliefs "pseudo-science" and "dangerous dribble that can only hurt its adherents," and was driven underground for a time. Hubologists responded by infiltrating organizations that sought to destroy them and created television shows that sought to expose the lies the government had fed the people. The fact that the cult survived the "Great Deluge" (the Hubologist's name for the Great War) is proof enough to the Hubologists that the Great Wheel favors the Hub's teachings. All of Hubbell's writings are treated as holy texts regardless of what they are, from legitimate science-fiction books to the Hub's grocery list.

Creation myth
Hubology holds that aeons ago, all lived peacefully and in harmony with one another. Body, mind, and spirit were joined in all creatures, and the technology that existed boggled the imaginations. It was a time of peace, creativity, and alignment - and then the Dark Days came. Thrakazog the Pot Hole began to teach mind-body dualism and the sundering of the spirit, and war arose. The Great War destroyed souls and bodies and scattered their remnants across the universe. The Great Wheel came close to separating from the axle of existence, its spokes broken in the rut Thrakazog had created. A new life had to arise and arise it did, on the planet Terra (Earth), as on other planets across the universe. This new life was polluted by the soul-pieces of the dead. This led to hate and misunderstanding, and wars raged across Terra's surface until one day a visionary realized that the only way to create peace, understanding, and enlightenment was to cleanse these soul-pieces from the spirits of humanity. That visionary was The Hub.

Philosophy
Hubology teaches that life exists on the Great Wheel of Life, also called simply the Great Wheel. Dick "The Hub" Hubbell rests in the center of the Wheel, followers of Hubology are positioned on the spokes and those who do not follow The Hub's teachings are the rim. Hubologists call these individuals "rim meat," for the Wheel turns over them and grinds them, and they do not appreciate its workings. The existence of extraterrestrial life plays a role in Hubology, and as a part of this, the Hubologists in San Francisco are trying to repair a pre-War space shuttle to leave Earth and live with the "Star Father" on the planet Quetzel. The ultimate goal of this mission is to achieve effective godhood through the erasure of all restraints placed on the mind, then return to Earth to rule over mankind and end the scourge of neurodynes. Human race would then be able to reach its full potential... Under Hubologist guidance, of course.

Central to the philosophy of the Hubologists are neurodynes, the psychic centers of the body (called chakras in other religions). The Hubologsts hold that they are polluted by the spiritual remnants of the people who died in the War, their psi-energies imprinting into neurodynes at birth and holding the denizens of the wasteland in an oppressive state. Alignment (a controlled emission of Zeta radiation into the subject's brain) erases these imprints, freeing up the spiritual potential. People who remain in an uncleansed state are frequently so full of negative energy and polluted soul-pieces that they drag down those who seek enlightenment by their very presence. Oppressives should thus be avoided and shunned. Through a cleansing process offered at Hubology centers called 'alignment', zeta scans remove these negative influences from members, allowing them to gain greater powers as an 'Aligned Hub Seeker' (or AHS).

The ultimate goal is the aforementioned journey to Quetzel, known as the "Uplifting," when the Star Father calls all Hubologists home. There they meet their extraterrestrial brethren and move closer to the Hub of the Great Wheel. Those who have made an effort to understand and embrace the words of the Hub, no matter their AHS levels, will be invited to join the Star Father on Quetzel.

Hierarchy
The degree to which a member has devoted their time and efforts to Hubology accords him or her a numerical rank; the Hubologist leader, AHS-9, holds the highest rank of any living cult member, with his second in command typically chosen from among the highest ranks privy to the innermost secrets of the cult, such as AHS-7.

Guards are typically AHS-4s. When the seeker has gained so much knowledge that they become an integral part of the Great Wheel, they ascend beyond AHS-9 and become Enlightened. Some Enlightened leave material existence behind, but some of the Enlightened remain on Earth to guide the rest of us to a state of grace, to show us how to get behind the Wheel of our own lives. It is important to note that if one believes they are enlightened, then they are truly unenlightened.

Behind the scenes

 * Hubology is in several ways similar to the Church of Scientology, yet the developers of Fallout 2 shared that any similarities between Hubology and real-world persons and organizations is coincidental.
 * Dick Hubbell, the founder of Hubology, has a similar name to that of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. In early game files, the Hubologists are called the Elron, a pun on the name of "L. Ron" Hubbard.
 * Juan Cruz and Vikki Goldman, the New Reno notorious film stars encountered by the Chosen One in San Francisco, are a reference to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who at the time of the game's release were both outspoken Scientologists.
 * The belief in neurodynes, alignment, and the AHS ranking system mirror Scientology beliefs in thetans, auditing, and the OT (Operating Thetan) system. Additionally, the AHS ranking system's parallel was much more overt originally as the OZ system evident by the dialogue files for AHS-9 and AHS-7.
 * The "Space Culture" doctrine of Hubology is similar to the advanced Scientology doctrine known as "Space Opera."
 * "Oppressives" in Hubology are similar to "suppressives" or "suppresive persons" in Scientology, the "scapegoat" of all woes to those within the group.
 * Much like in Scientology, Hubology regards all of its founder's writings as part of their religious texts, everything from sci-fi stories to collections of notes such as shopping lists.