> > He wrote a silly book called Excalibur based on his
> >nitrous oxide "insight" called "Excaliber" and unsuccesfully
> >peddled it to numerous publishers, all rejected it.

> From Russell Miller in http://xenu.phys.uit.no/bfm/bfm08.htm :

> 'Basically what he told me was that after he died he rose in spirit
> form and looked back on the body he had formerly inhabited. Over
> yonder he saw a fantastic great gate, elaborately carved like
> something you'd see in Baghdad or ancient China. As he wafted towards
> it, the gate opened and just beyond he could see a kind of
> intellectual smorgasbord on which was outlined everything that had
> ever puzzled the mind of man. All the questions that had concerned
> philosophers through the ages - When did the world begin? Was there a
> God? Whither goest we? - were there answered. All this information
> came flooding into him and while he was absorbing it, there was a sort
> of flustering in the air and he felt something like a long umbilical
> cord pulling him back. He was saying "No, no, not yet!", but he was
> pulled back anyway. After the gates had closed he realized he had
> re-entered his body.

> 'He opened his eyes and found a nurse standing over him looking very
> concerned. Just as a surgeon walked into the room, Ron said, "I was
> dead, wasn't I?" The surgeon shot a venomous look at the nurse as if
> to say, "What have you been telling this guy?" But Ron said "No, no, I
> know I was dead."

> 'The next part of the story I would find very difficult to direct
> realistically if I was a movie director. According to Ron, he jumped
> off the operating table, ran to his Quonset hut, got two reams of
> paper and a gallon of scalding black coffee and for the next 48 hours,
> at a blinding rate, he wrote a work called Excalibur, or The Dark
> Sword.

> 'Well, he kept the manuscript with him and when he left the Navy he
> shopped it around publishers in New York, but was constantly turned
> down. He was told it was too radical, too much of a quantum leap. If
> it had been a variation of Freud or Jung or Adler, a bit of an
> improvement here and there, it would have been acceptable, but it was
> just too far ahead of everything else. He also said that as he shopped
> the manuscript around, the people who read it either went
> insane or committed suicide. The last time he showed it to a
> publisher, he was sitting in an office waiting for a reader to give
> his opinion. The reader walked into the office, tossed the manuscript
> on the desk and then threw himself out of the window.

> 'Ron would not tell me much about Excalibur except that if you read it
> you would find all fear would be totally drained from you. I could
> never see what was wrong with that or why that would cause anyone to
> commit suicide.'

> Later that morning he telephoned Gordon Dewey and Peter Grainger,
> repeated the story Ron had told him and asked them if they would take
> a look at the manuscript. His sly hint of the potential risk only
> served to whet their appetites. 'They were mad keen to see it,'
> Ackerman said. 'I remember Dewey saying, "No combination of words,
> ideas or philosophy will have that effect on me!"'

> Ackerman reported the good news to his client, but Hubbard, suddenly
> and uncharacteristically bashful, refused to produce the manuscript.
> 'He said it was in a bank vault and it was going to stay there. I
> think he was quite sincere. He seemed like a man who had seen too many
> people go crazy or commit suicide, who had enough on his conscience
> already. I never did get to see the manuscript or show it to any
> publisher. In fact, I never encountered anyone who said they had seen
> it.'

> From Martin Gardner in
> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/gardner/ :

> The amazing story behind Excalibur was revealed by Arthur J. Cox in
> the July, 1952, issue of Science-Fiction Advertiser, a magazine
> published by science-fantasy fans in Glendale, California. In 1948,
> Hubbard told the California fans that during an operation performed on
> him for injuries received while in the Navy, he was actually dead for
> eight minutes. As Cox tells it, "Hubbard realized that while he was
> dead, he had received a tremendous inspiration, a great Message which
> he must impart to others. He sat at his typewriter for six days and
> nights and nothing came out -- then, Excalibur emerged. Excalibur
> contains the basic metaphysical secrets of the universe. He sent it
> around to some publishers; they all hastily rejected it.... He locked
> it away in a bank vault. But then, later, he informed us that he would
> try publishing a 'diluted' version of it.... Dianetics, I was recently
> told by a friend of Hubbard's, is based upon one chapter of
> Excalibur."

> On Hubbard's advertising sheets, the blurb for Excalibur is worth
> quoting. "Mr. Hubbard wrote this work in 1938. When four of the first
> fifteen people who read it went insane, Mr. Hubbard withdrew it and
> placed it in a vault where it remained until now. Copies to selected
> readers only and then on signature. Released only on sworn statement
> not to permit other readers to read it. Contains data not to be
> released during Mr. Hubbard's stay on earth. The complete
> fast formula of clearing. The secret not even Dianetics disclosed.
> Facsimile of original, individually typed for manuscript buyer. Gold
> bound and locked. Signed by author. Very limited. Per copy ...
> $1,500.00."

> From George Malko in
> http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/books/malko/2.htm

> Whatever the price tag, *Excalibur* has actually inspired fans to try
> and buy it. Jack Horner told me of being with Hubbard in Phoenix,
> Arizona, in 1953, when Hubbard was living and lecturing there, "and
> some guy came to the door trying to buy it. Well, Hubbard sent the guy
> away - handled him - and then looked at me and Jim Pinkham, and
> smiled." The moment seemed right, so Horner, who had begun to wonder
> if *Excalibur* really exists, got up enough courage and asked Hubbard
> point-blank. "I don't really recall word for word what he said,"
> Horner went on, 'but he implied that *Excalibur* was something
> that had been put there to create interest."

> From Arthur J. Burks in
> http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/burks.html

> I'M GOING to try to tell something of "Excalibur" - as much as I
> remember,  without having the manuscript by me. If its author, L. Ron
> Hubbard, told me  the truth, I am the first person to read
> "Excalibur". [...]  There is some question as to whether there  was
> such a manuscript, but I assure you there was, and probably still is,
> somewhere. It was a source of considerable disappointment to Ron
> Hubbard that he didn't get it published.

> [...]

> I think the time was about mid-1938 - maybe a little earlier, May or
> June. I had known Ron off and on for six or seven years. [...] Ron
> called me one day - the strange thing about this was that he called
> during the day - and said, "I want to see you right away. I have
> written THE book." I never saw anybody so worked up - and he was
> disturbed over a lot of angles. Apparently, he started to write the
> book, and had written it without sleeping, eating, or anything else -
> and had himself literally worked to a frazzle.

>  He was so sure he had something "away out and beyond" anything else
> that he had sent telegrams to several book publishers, telling them
> that he had written "THE book" and that they were to meet him at Penn
> Station, and he would discuss it with them and go with whomever gave
> him the best offer.

> Going back to "The Book", I don't remember how long it was. It
> probably was under 70,000, which is considered an average book. He
> told me what he wanted to do with it - it was going to revolutionize
> everything: the world, people's attitudes toward one another. He
> thought it was somewhat more important, and would have a greater
> impact upon people, than the Bible.

>  After I'd read the manuscript, we got to arguing over different
> titles. I asked him what he wanted to accomplish. He wanted to make
> changes. He wanted to reach inside people and really work them over,
> and he had to have a title that would be attractive. I am the one who
> suggested "Excalibur", because Excalibur was King Arthur's sword. This
> had a certain mystical meaning that suited Ron, and so "The Book"
> became "Excalibur".

>  As I remember "Excalibur", it started - in the introduction only -
> with a king who got all his wise men together and told them to prepare
> and bring to him all the wisdom of the world contained in 500 books.

>  [...]

>  Then he really gave them an assignment. He said, "Now go away and
> bring to me all the wisdom of the world in one word."

>  What was the one word? I don 't know how many times we argued, Ron
> and I, to discover what this one word was. It may have been the
> creative fiat, it  might have just been the word "Be", it might have
> been the word "Survive". I don't think we ever settled it. But the
> book "Excalibur" from there on had to do
>  with survival.

>  I'll try to remember some of it, chapter by chapter, and to explain
> why it was so squirmy. For example, he started with the very first
> life - the very first cells -  how they struggled for survival - how
> they tried to be and be "it" the whole time. Im order to do it,
> gradually thru the ages they associated with other cells,
>  one with another, and they reached the place where they could divide
> so they would become bigger. This is strictly science as far as it's
> gone.

> [...]

> Away back then, we began to develop motives for things. Now, it is
> seldom that what we tell somebody our motive is, is the real one - and
> this is where you start to squirm.

> [...]

> Other things I remember is Ron's explanation as to why there is no
> such thing as a crowd - that a group of people actually still
> consisted of individuals - but a crowd could get out of hand and do
> things other people wouldn't.

> [...]

> These two people were very wary of each other, like a couple of bantam
> roosters running around waiting to get in a thrust, but they knew that
> they needed each other, and each one felt that he needed the other
> more and that he didn't wish to be taken advantage of, and so there
> was always this pulling and hauling between two people that kept them
> at razor's edge all the time.

> [...]

> Then he moved in with these two people a third person - could be of
> the same sex - and you still have all the difficulties, all the
> problems, and all the squirminess - the questioning as to motive and
> everything, and wondering why, for example, three males would get
> together, or three women. If you have a person of the other sex come
> in on two who were together, you begin to see where the problems are.

> [...]

> Probably the part of the book that has stuck with me the most thru
> this period of time was the story of the lynch mob going to the prison
> to take out somebody to be lynched. He puts you with the person who is
> waiting to be lynched. The warden comes and looks at the person and
> says, "Well, they're coming for you, Bud. I don't know whether I'm
> going to be able to stop them, but I'll tell you one thing, it's not
> going to cost me my life to do it. If they come in and get you,
> they'll get you." The warden just looked and sort of gloated over the
> person who couldn't get away. He enjoyed the sadistic feeling of
> seeing a person who was bound and hog-tied and couldn't get away. He
> goes on with this to the place where you were both the warden and the
> person in the cell, and you really get to feel pretty terrible for
> everybody connected with it.

>  Then you take a look at the stiff-legged march of the lynch mob. This
> is something I'll never forget. I don't remember a single word Ron
> used, but he started back from there with showing how a lynch mob
> started - somebody got up and said something, and somebody pulled
> others together - and as soon as they were together, the person who
> had started it might or might not lead, but the chances were that he
> would vanish into the mob that he had started in order not to be
> responsible. Each person knew that very dreadful things were going to
> be done, but he scarcely would be responsible. He would be there but
> he wouldn't actually do much taking part in it. Each one felt he was
> going along for the ride, so to speak, but he walks just as
> stiff-legged as the other fellow.

>  Ron has them marching down the street at night, blazing torches to
> show the way. And when the mutter, or the growl, of this crowd comes
> to you, it's something that just simply makes the shivers move up your
> back from your heels to the top of your head.

> [...]

> I was so impressed with the book I wanted to publish it. I was
> interested in a small publishing company called Egmont Press. I took
> it to my associates. I took it to my managing editor, who sat down and
> started to glance thru it. When he realized he couldn't get any place
> by thumbing thru it, he went back and read a little of it. I could see
> a strange look come into his face as he read it. Then he passed it on
> to a reader, and after awhile, there were several people involved in
> it, and it was being passed, page by page, to others, and they were
> having all kinds of results. It was a squirmy thing - and I watched
> it. I watched, in fact, until that manuscript was scattered all over
> East 41st Street in New York.

>  The upshot of it was that they were afraid to publish it. Ron was
> angry, and threatened: "You will publish this book and I will have a
> half-interest in the company that publishes it or we'll know the
> reason why." But it never came to that. Ron did something that he's
> frequently done: he went sour on the idea and went back to Seattle

> From R.V. Young in http://www.lermanet.com/vaughnhot.htm

> Let's start in late 1981, when I happened to acquire the archives that
> contained Hubbard's private papers. (These were the ones that Gerry
> Armstrong started.) The truly essential material came down to perhaps
> 15 linear feet of paper. Over the months, with nothing else to do, I
> had a chance to read private letters, papers and manuscripts
> (including the three, yes, three, versions of the infamous Excalibur,
> which has to be the most overblown piece of hype he EVER produced and,
> no, it has NOTHING to do with OT3), which also gave me the full
> uncensored view of this man.

> From Paulette Cooper in
> http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/books/scandal/sos-21....

> Perhaps some of these discrepancies have appeared because of the
> nature of Hubbard's "research" discussed in the last chapter.
> According to his second wife, who was married to him at the time he
> was supposed to be doing his research, there was no research done, no
> subjects run, the book was written in three months off the top of his
> head, and the "case studies" were the figment of his fertile
> imagination.{31} Furthermore, as many people have suspected, she
> said the 1938 supposedly stolen manuscript Excalibur did not exist.
> She said it was one of those books that Hubbard always said he might
> like to write one day.

> From Russel Miller in
> http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/bfm/bfm05.htm#81

> Unquestionably, Ron himself believed in Excalibur, for in October 1938
> he wrote a long and emotional letter to Polly in which he expressed
> his hope that the manuscript would merit him a place in history.

> [...]

> Then he turned to the subject which was clearly in the forefront of
> his mind: 'Sooner or later Excalibur will be published and I may have
> a chance to get some name recognition out of it so as to pave the way
> to articles and comments which are my ideas of writing heaven.

> 'Living is a pretty grim joke, but a joke just the same. The entire
> function of man is to survive. The outermost limit of endeavour is
> creative work. Anything less is too close to simple survival until
> death happens along. So I am engaged in striving to maintain
> equilibrium sufficient to at least realize survival in a way to
> astound the gods. I turned the thing up so it's up to me to survive in
> a big way . . . Foolishly perhaps, but determined none the less, I
> have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it
> will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed. That goal
> is the real goal as far as I am concerned
> . . .

> 'When I wrote it [Excalibur] I gave myself an education which outranks
> that of anyone else. I don't know but it might seem that it takes
> terrific brain work to get the thing assembled and usable in the head.
> I do know that I could form a political platform, for instance, which
> would encompass the support of the unemployed, the industrialist and
> the clerk and day laborer all at one and the same time. And
> enthusiastic support it would be. Things are due for a bust in the
> next half dozen years. Wait and see.'

> Ron was clearly worried that he would be hampered by his reputation as
> a pulp writer: 'Writing action pulp doesn't have much agreement with
> what I want to do because it retards my progress by demanding
> incessant attention and, further, actually weakens my name. So you see
> I've got to do something about it and at the same time strengthen the
> old financial position.'

> Towards the end of the letter he wrote about strange forces he felt
> stirring within him which made him feel aloof and invincible and the
> struggle he had faced trying to answer the question 'Who am I?' before
> returning to the theme of immortality: 'God was feeling sardonic the
> day He created the Universe. So it's rather up to at least one man
> every few centuries to pop up and come just as close to making him
> swallow his laughter as possible.'