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Research Timeline for Hubbard's "Excalibur"

Lermanet_com

Gold Meritorious Patron
http://www.lermanet.com/excalibur-timeline.htm

For research purposes only

HISTORY OF EXCALIBUR

(43 Entries relating to Excalibur - Mar 1987) This is outdated
Time line is a bit askew not in proper alignment
THE SUPERNATURAL & MALEVOLENT MYTH OF EXCALIBUR
CREATED BY HUBBARD AS A "GOOD PUBLISHING TRICK"

DOCUMENTATION FOLDER OF EXCALIBUR REFERENCES

HISTORY OF EXCALIBUR - UPDATED ADDITIONS

SOURCES OF DOCUMENTATION

THE FINDING ON THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG AGENCY

Published by The Dept. of Publications World Wide
St. Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex, England 1968
The title on page 17 is "A Letter to the President" (John Kennedy) 13 August 1963.
Hubbard's comments are as follows.

"Their interest goes back to 1938 when I was offered Pavlov's laboratories by Russia and large sums to go there and complete my work [EXCALIBUR]. In 1942 the first manuscript of the work [EXCALIBUR] was stolen in Miami, Florida, in 1950 the only other copy vanished by theft, in Los Angeles."

[AUTHOR'S OPINION; Hubbard wants us to believe that the Russian government is offering him
1. $100.000 or more for his services.
2. on an UNPUBLISHED MANUSCIPT,
3. That only a hand full of people read the manuscript: Arthur Burkes and a few people
at Simon & Shuster who read it and rejected publication of it.
4. Hubbard was noted as a fiction writer. In no way shape or form was he associated with the
psychology of the mind . He did dabble in hypnosis.
5. How would the Russian government know about Excalibur which was written only a month before.?]

1964 MARCH 21 SATURDAY EVENING POST
SCIENTOLOGY: "Have you Ever Been a Boo Hoo?" by James Phelan

On page 84 Hubbard says, "They offered me $200.000, all laboratory facilities,
everything I needed in Russia.' He turned them down, Hubbard says, and later
his apartment 'was blasted open' and his manuscript [EXCALUBUR] disappeared."

1963 November 16 & 17
"A PORTION OF THE PHELAN INTERVIEW WITH LRH" [an FBI raid seized document
numbers 883 A & 883 B]

Hubbard says, "...my apartment was blasted open and that manuscript
went the way of all flesh and it has never seen the light of day since."
Mr. Phelan: "There was only one manuscript? [EXCALIBUR]"

Dr. Hubbard: "There was only one copy. There were actually two copies,
the other copy was destroyed, by accident."

(James Phelan on page 883 = B)
5. "You mentioned in the interview that you were offered a substantial
grant by the Amtorg representative, that you rejected it, and that subsequently there was an
incident involving you apartment and a manuscript. Would you expand
on this in more detail, dates, places, etc."

A. "Explorer's Club 1938, ms stolen Miami."

Continues HERE
 

guanoloco

As-Wased
http://www.lermanet.com/excalibur-timeline.htm

For research purposes only

HISTORY OF EXCALIBUR

(43 Entries relating to Excalibur - Mar 1987) This is outdated
Time line is a bit askew not in proper alignment
THE SUPERNATURAL & MALEVOLENT MYTH OF EXCALIBUR
CREATED BY HUBBARD AS A "GOOD PUBLISHING TRICK"

DOCUMENTATION FOLDER OF EXCALIBUR REFERENCES

HISTORY OF EXCALIBUR - UPDATED ADDITIONS

SOURCES OF DOCUMENTATION

THE FINDING ON THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG AGENCY

Published by The Dept. of Publications World Wide
St. Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex, England 1968
The title on page 17 is "A Letter to the President" (John Kennedy) 13 August 1963.
Hubbard's comments are as follows.

"Their interest goes back to 1938 when I was offered Pavlov's laboratories by Russia and large sums to go there and complete my work [EXCALIBUR]. In 1942 the first manuscript of the work [EXCALIBUR] was stolen in Miami, Florida, in 1950 the only other copy vanished by theft, in Los Angeles."

[AUTHOR'S OPINION; Hubbard wants us to believe that the Russian government is offering him
1. $100.000 or more for his services.
2. on an UNPUBLISHED MANUSCIPT,
3. That only a hand full of people read the manuscript: Arthur Burkes and a few people
at Simon & Shuster who read it and rejected publication of it.
4. Hubbard was noted as a fiction writer. In no way shape or form was he associated with the
psychology of the mind . He did dabble in hypnosis.
5. How would the Russian government know about Excalibur which was written only a month before.?]

1964 MARCH 21 SATURDAY EVENING POST
SCIENTOLOGY: "Have you Ever Been a Boo Hoo?" by James Phelan

On page 84 Hubbard says, "They offered me $200.000, all laboratory facilities,
everything I needed in Russia.' He turned them down, Hubbard says, and later
his apartment 'was blasted open' and his manuscript [EXCALUBUR] disappeared."

1963 November 16 & 17
"A PORTION OF THE PHELAN INTERVIEW WITH LRH" [an FBI raid seized document
numbers 883 A & 883 B]

Hubbard says, "...my apartment was blasted open and that manuscript
went the way of all flesh and it has never seen the light of day since."
Mr. Phelan: "There was only one manuscript? [EXCALIBUR]"

Dr. Hubbard: "There was only one copy. There were actually two copies,
the other copy was destroyed, by accident."

(James Phelan on page 883 = B)
5. "You mentioned in the interview that you were offered a substantial
grant by the Amtorg representative, that you rejected it, and that subsequently there was an
incident involving you apartment and a manuscript. Would you expand
on this in more detail, dates, places, etc."

A. "Explorer's Club 1938, ms stolen Miami."

Continues HERE

It's really too bad for Ron that this manuscript was lost because if he had it when Paulette Cooper surfaced he could've sent her a copy and she would've suicided, saving him all that admin, time and manpower and resources and PR flaps and out security over Operation Freakout...that was a failure.
 

DartSmohen

Silver Meritorious Patron
Hmm, I suppose Hubbard was lying when he told me to my face that the whole Excalibur story was a complete piece of fiction he concocted to create an aura of mystery about himself. According to what he said, there was never a manuscript. I know others have reported seeing one.

Who knows what the truth is, or even if anyone really cares a damn about it.
 

Veda

Sponsor
From the 1938 'Excalibur letter':

"Living is a pretty grim joke, but a joke just the same.

"The entire function of man is to survive. Not for 'what' but just to survive.

...

"I turned the thing up [The Dynamic principle of Existence: Survive!] so it's up to me to survive in a big way.

"Personal immortality is only to be gained through the printed word, barred note or painted canvas or hard granite. [Or stainless steel, or titanium, or by having 'L. Ron Hubbard' identified with people's 'survival!']

"Foolishly perhaps, but determined nonetheless, I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all the books are destroyed.

"That goal is the real goal as far as I am concerned.

"Things which stand too consistently in my way make me nervous. It's a pretty big job. In a hundred years Roosevelt will have been forgotten - which gives some idea of the magnitude of my attempt. And all this boils and froths inside my head.

...

"Psychiatrists, reaching the high of the dusty desk, tell us that Alexander, Genghis Khan and Napoleon were madmen. I know they're maligning some very intelligent gentlemen.

"...I can make Napoleon look like a punk..."


_________​


Arthur J. Burks on 'Excalibur':

http://www.xenu.net/archive/oca/burks.html


And some information from R.V. Young, under "Hubbard Archives":

http://www.lermanet.com/vaughnhot.htm

"In late 1981... 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 ever produced..."


There are also at least 3 or 4 different stories, from Hubbard, re. 'Excalibur', a.k.a. 'The One Command'.

What all these stories, or "explanations," have in common is that they begin with someone saying, "Can I see a copy of 'Excalibur'?" And Hubbard responding [insert story #1, #2, #3, etc.] with "No."


Some more info on 'Excalibur' from Gerry Armstrong,
http://www.skeptictank.org/astrong7.htm

According to Gerry Armstrong, there are 2 and a half versions of 'Excalibur', all of which he read.

There is a BBC produced 'Secret Lives' (of L. Ron Hubbard) interview featuring Gerry of which the above is a transcription.


This would have all been much simpler if Hubbard had just been honest.


According to L. Ron Hubbard, there were repeated attempts by both the Russians and the U.S. government to take possession of his work on the mind, and to get him to work for them.

Hubbard even wrote to the FBI, in 1955, claiming that he had been offered his own laboratory, and very high fees, if only he'd agree to work for the Russians.

The first offer, according to Hubbard, was from the Russian KGB in the late 1930s; when he refused, the Russians stole the manuscript for 'Excalibur', the unpublished book that was so powerful that, according to Hubbard, it resulted one person, unprepared for its reading, leaping out of a skyscraper window!

Such was the power of the tech even in 1938!!!

And not only the Russians, but also the American government, wanted Hubbard's researches.


From a 1977 recorded message, 'Can we Ever Be Friends?':

"Possibly any trouble Dianetics or Scientology ever had began on May 9, 1950 when the U.S government, excited by the possibility of Hubbard's work, sought to force him into classified government service.

"In Washington, they told him they wanted him to work on projects to make people more suggestible. When he declined they threatened and, typically, he refused to bow.

"And the war between the government and Scientology was on."

There's another version of this from the 1978 edition of 'What is Scientology?' (Both these stories come from a Hubbard lecture.)

It ends with:

"The government never forgave him for this and soon began vicious, covert international attacks on his work."


And it was because these "vicious, covert international attacks on his work" that L. Ron Hubbard was forced to commence with his plan for planetary conquest and the utter destruction of all his enemies!

l_ron_hubbard_dianetics.jpg



___________​


This is a scan of the "KGB wanted me to work for them" story which was sent, by Hubbard, to the FBI in 1955.

I've seen the photocopies of this letter, and the 2nd and 3rd pages down are missing a paragraph and two lines which were, for some reason, not scanned. I have filled in the missing content.

This was an apparent attempt to persuade the FBI to persuade the IRS to not investigate Hubbard and his finances lest Hubbard accept a Soviet offer to fly to Russia and work "for very high fees," etc.

hubbard-19550729-1.gif


"In the greatest spirit of friendship and camaraderie it seem that I can go to Russia as an adviser or a consultant and have my own laboratories and receive very high fees. And it's all so easy because it's already been ascertained that I could get my passport extended for Russia and all I had to do was go to Paris and there a Russian plane would pick me up and that would be that.

"Indeed that would be that.

"I suppose when the Russian-inclined 'friend' finds that...

hubbard-19550729-3.gif
 

Caroline

Patron Meritorious
Interesting thread, thank you!

The Heinlein archive contains correspondence between Hubbard and Heinlein in which Excalibur is mentioned.

On November 24, 1948, Hubbard wrote Heinlein a chatty two-page typed letter from Box 1036 GPO NYC. Hubbard admitted that the good fortune Heinlein had written him about "wife, security, fame and fortune," had him writhing enviously. Hubbard listed what he called his "problems in existence," six rather neurotic and banal complaints, ending with all the things in New York City he hated. Very importantly, Hubbard wrote that he hoped to soon give Heinlein a "book risen from the ashes of old Excalibur." It is obvious that Heinlein has a good idea of what Excalibur was and contained before this. This new book, Hubbard claimed, "details in full the mathematics of the human mind, solves all the problems of the ages and gives six recipes for aphrodisiacs and plays a mouth organ with the left foot." (Heinlein archives: CORR306-02)

Cf. Hubbard's letter to Forrest Ackerman on 13 January 1949:
Wanted to tell you that Sara is beating out her wits on fiction and is having to do this DARK SWORD -cause and cure of nervous tension – properly – THE SCIENCE OF MIND, really EXCALIBUR – in fits, so far, however she has recovered easily from each fit. It will be considerably delayed because of this. Good as my word, however, I shall ship it along just as soon as decent. Then you can rape women without their knowing it, communicate suicide messages to your enemies as they sleep, sell the Arroyo Seco parkway to the mayor for cash, evolve the best way of protecting or destroying communism, and other handy house hold hints.

Heinlein continued to prod Hubbard for details of his new book, and on 13 March 1949 Hubbard again wrote about it, saying among other things:

You recall your Coventry? Well, you didn't specify in your book what actual reformation took place in the society to make supermen. Got to thinking about it the other day. The system is Excalibur. It makes nul Ās. So even if it does upset a few applecarts and blow a fuse in the current moral and political system, I'm releasing it and to hell with the consequences. Know a good hide-out?

(Heinlein archives: CORR306-02)

My collection of Excalibur-related items may be helpful too.
 

Lermanet_com

Gold Meritorious Patron
It's really too bad for Ron that this manuscript was lost because if he had it when Paulette Cooper surfaced he could've sent her a copy and she would've suicided, saving him all that admin, time and manpower and resources and PR flaps and out security over Operation Freakout...that was a failure.

Yes premature exposure to that material was supposed to kill and Excalubur was supposed to drive people crazy and there is a another strange congruency...

What strikes me about this facet of excalibur which is mirrored by the claims about reading OTIII before one is 'ready', is something my friend (the kid at the top of the stairs on right in picture below) told me about the time his father worked at the Ford Foundation. (More about this source HERE and HERE on ESMB)

ike50s.jpg


He said there was a department at the Ford Foundation that exclusively managed proposals for advanced psychological research, and that these projects were so unsettling, that they tended to drive people crazy, so that directorship was rotated, so that no one Director was exposed to it for longer than six months. My friends dad, Dr Carroll, pictured standing next to President Eisenhower, was a director at the Ford Foundation from 1950 to 54, and his nickname there was "The Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse" he indicated that every aspect of what we call modern society was planned, there.

That last sentence strikes also another distant chord with what Hubbard claimed about OTIII, that it was those implants, those movies shown to the packaged up BTs, that caused civilization to appear to be the way it turned out to be. I find this unsettling when the truth seems to be that it may have been the Ford Foundation and related spooky entities, that actually bear responsibility for the design itself..

I hope this weird bit of inference might help someone in the future to unravel what has actually occurred.

Arnie Lerma

Edit added:
For those who don't read the linked posts, Dr Carroll's wiki states he was in US NAVAL RESERVES during WWII till 1945, then there is a blank until 1950 when he starts at The Ford Foundation.. That's because he was the director of Operation Paperclip during those years, and that is still classified.
 
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guanoloco

As-Wased
I once read or heard somewhere that Dianetics or The Original Thesis or The Evolution of a Science...whichever one was actually merely a single chapter from Excalibur.

Anyone remember that claim?
 

Caroline

Patron Meritorious
Yes premature exposure to that material was supposed to kill and Excalubur was supposed to drive people crazy and there is a another strange congruency...

What strikes me about this facet of excalibur which is mirrored by the claims about reading OTIII before one is 'ready', is something my friend (the kid at the top of the stairs on right in picture below) told me about the time his father worked at the Ford Foundation. (More about this source HERE and HERE on ESMB)

ike50s.jpg


He said there was a department at the Ford Foundation that exclusively managed proposals for advanced psychological research, and that these projects were so unsettling, that they tended to drive people crazy, so that directorship was rotated, so that no one Director was exposed to it for longer than six months. My friends dad, Dr Carroll, pictured standing next to President Eisenhower, was a director at the Ford Foundation from 1950 to 54, and his nickname there was "The Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse" he indicated that every aspect of what we call modern society was planned, there.

That last sentence strikes also another distant chord with what Hubbard claimed about OTIII, that it was those implants, those movies shown to the packaged up BTs, that caused civilization to appear to be the way it turned out to be. I find this unsettling when the truth seems to be that it may have been the Ford Foundation and related spooky entities, that actually bear responsibility for the design itself..

I hope this weird bit of inference might help someone in the future to unravel what has actually occurred.

Arnie Lerma

Edit added:
For those who don't read the linked posts, Dr Carroll's wiki states he was in US NAVAL RESERVES during WWII till 1945, then there is a blank until 1950 when he starts at The Ford Foundation.. That's because he was the director of Operation Paperclip during those years, and that is still classified.

Hubbard mentioned the Ford Foundation in a 1962 Briefing Course lecture:

Hubbard said:
When you are looking for something, don’t make up your mind, like the psychologist, that you know the something you are looking for before you look. It’s very remarkable. You can look across a whole beach of white pebbles for a white pebble, don’t you see, and never find one, if you’ve already specified that in order to find a white pebble, it has to be black, you see, or something odd like this. No, the thing to do is just to go down to the beach and look, and not even look for a white pebble. Just look and see what’s there.

That’s always very good in research. The Ford Foundation, I think it’s 100 million dollars a month—I think that’s the value of the research as done by the Ford Foundation. About 100 million dollars—oh, well, that’s an exaggeration; it’s actually 100 million dollars worth a minute, because of course they get no place. If the Ford Foundation’s research along these various lines was to be chalked up in value, why, it couldn’t be, you see, because they haven’t gotten anyplace.

Actually, the Ford Foundation was founded at the—exactly the same day (did you know this?) of the first Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for exactly the same purposes: to discover the basics of human life and the mind. It’s fascinating. And there they are. And it’s cost them, since that time, several billion dollars. And they recently, a few years ago, just after they investigated a HASI in Phoenix, Arizona—they sent a representative down, and he gave a report of some kind or another—they wrote a letter to an enquirer that they had ceased to investigate in that particular field. Now, out of that we didn’t know quite what to imply, but we whipped them.

But the idea is that fantastic sums can be spent in research by taking records and compiling records and comparing records to records; and the next thing, when you get through, you’ve got some records. They make nice bonfires; you can toast weenies over them.

But to date, this type of research which does all the lookingness on a via through symbols . . . You know? We’re going to mathematically compute it all. See, we’ve got a white tree in front of us, so we’re going to mathematically compute as to whether or not a white tree can exist. And then we figure out that it can’t, and we walk away. See? And that’s very commonly the fate of research.

Hubbard, L. Ron. (1962, 24 May). E-Meter Data: Instant Reads Part 1. Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, (6205C24A). East Grinstead, Sussex.
 

Lermanet_com

Gold Meritorious Patron
What the hell did Hubbard just say there?

I can't stand reading him, I see the confusion technique...(Shields up, Scottie) But he does tend to reveal things in obtuse fashion, Caroline would you mind translating that into english without implication?

(takes breath)

But.. that is intriguing..... geeze imagine what we don't know...

"Actually, the Ford Foundation was founded at the—exactly the same day (did you know this?) of the first Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for exactly the same purposes:"

Which begs the question, what was the real purpose of Dianetics?

Were both a control plan for the future? One to make willing, obedient slaves for the other?

And he 'makes nothing of" something that he says is doing the same thing he did?

Goodnite...
 
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purple haze

Patron with Honors
Hmm, I suppose Hubbard was lying when he told me to my face that the whole Excalibur story was a complete piece of fiction he concocted to create an aura of mystery about himself. According to what he said, there was never a manuscript. I know others have reported seeing one.

Who knows what the truth is, or even if anyone really cares a damn about it.

YAY Dart! :thumbsup::whistling:
Reminds me of the brainwashing manuel 'story' :yes:
Aloha,
Purple Haze
P.S. hope you saw the naked surfing pictures on the 1973 Apollo thread.:omg:
 

Caroline

Patron Meritorious
What the hell did Hubbard just say there?

I can't stand reading him, I see the confusion technique...(Shields up, Scottie) But he does tend to reveal things in obtuse fashion, Caroline would mind translating that into english without implication?

(takes breath)

But.. that is intriguing..... geeze imagine what we don't know...

"Actually, the Ford Foundation was founded at the—exactly the same day (did you know this?) of the first Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for exactly the same purposes:"

Which begs the question, what was the real purpose of Dianetics?

Were both a control plan for the future? One to make willing, obedient slaves for the other?

And he 'makes nothing of" something that he says is doing the same thing he did?

Goodnite...

Yes, I hear you Arnie, about the confusion tech, which of course Hubbard applied throughout his writings and lectures. The value of what he said or wrote when he was laying it on like that, is not in establishing the truth or falsity of what he was saying (he was, as we know, a pathological liar), but that the subject matter was going through his mind at all evidences a relationship of some kind. What Hubbard said or wrote about the Ford Foundation is not helpful in understanding the Ford Foundation. It's just a good start for research.

It's interesting to me that the Ford Foundation was very much on Hubbard's mind when he discussed his research and early organizations. He actually mentioned it many times, and on multiple occasions compared the value and cost of their research to what was being done in Hubbard's groups. In a 1956 Professional Auditor's Bulletin, Hubbard mentions the Ford Foundation in such a context.

Hubbard said:
Now I will tell you about another organization, so-called, and call it directly by name, the Ford Foundation. This group was founded and formed in the same year that the first book Dianetics was issued, 1950. In the six years following, this group, having had at its disposal in any single year more funds than have been available to all the people in Dianetics and Scientology combined from any source whatsoever, has yet not advanced any real distance in a realization of its goals. This organization was supposed to study and found a scientific understanding of Man. Its goal was almost identical with the goal of the first Foundation in Dianetics. Six years later we find that this organization has spent hundreds of times as much money as the central organizations of Dianetics and Scientology and has yet to discover any single slightest advance in Man’s knowledge of Man. Evidently a collection of desks involved in shuffling research papers which didn’t mean anything in the first place, the Ford Foundation apparently has squandered the money needed so desperately by those of us who were actually sincere about where we were going and what we were doing.

The Ford Foundation, after six years of shuffling, has only one valuable paper in its entire files of which I have any knowledge. That paper is a report given by one of its own men who officially attended an HAS Hubbard Certified Auditor Course in Phoenix, Arizona, and who said on paper and officially to the Ford Foundation that in Scientology now existed all that they ever hoped to accomplish in the Ford Foundation.

Yet here are these millions of dollars avalanching out in the expenditures from the Ford Foundation without any hope or promise of any kind for a betterment of Man.

This is not really a criticism of the Ford Foundation—it is only a statement of how such foundations operate. Wonderfully financed, beautifully sponsored, perfectly connected with all the powers that be, yet they are not organizations.

[...]

What have your dollars bought? What have your pounds bought? In Washington, D.C., in London, in Australia, in New Zealand and in South Africa and in South America, they have bought the know-how of organization and the know-how of the mind. They have bought knowledge which Man never before possessed and which Man therefore considers priceless. There is no way one could put a financial value on the information which we hold in our hands today. Yet that information has been purchased for less money than is spent on secretarial help in any given year by the Ford Foundation. By all calculations this information should have cost billions of dollars. It has not cost that because some of us were willing to work as hard as we worked in order to achieve it and are selfless enough to give it not at its market value, but only at the desire of men to know and to be helped.

Organizationally we have won.

What have we won? We have won independence and initiative as organizations.

Hubbard, L. (1956, 26 June) PAB 90. The Organizations of Dianetics and Scientology. Technical Bulletins 1954-1956 (First printing, 1976 ed., Vol. II, pp. 404-409). Los Angeles: Church of Scientology of California.

Wikipedia: Ford Foundation tells us the foundation was not created in 1950, but in 1936.
 

guanoloco

As-Wased
Growing up I used to watch a ton of PBS documentary stuff...a TON of it. One thing I explicitly remember is that many of these publicly funding shows would start out with, "Made available with a grant from the Ford Foundation."

I don't believe I've ever heard of a Scientology grant for education or anything along that line.
 

Caroline

Patron Meritorious
...

I've seen the photocopies of this letter, and the 2nd and 3rd pages down are missing a paragraph and two lines which were, for some reason, not scanned. I have filled in the missing content.

This was an apparent attempt to persuade the FBI to persuade the IRS to not investigate Hubbard and his finances lest Hubbard accept a Soviet offer to fly to Russia and work "for very high fees," etc.

hubbard-19550729-1.gif


"In the greatest spirit of friendship and camaraderie it seem that I can go to Russia as an adviser or a consultant and have my own laboratories and receive very high fees. And it's all so easy because it's already been ascertained that I could get my passport extended for Russia and all I had to do was go to Paris and there a Russian plane would pick me up and that would be that.

"Indeed that would be that.

"I suppose when the Russian-inclined 'friend' finds that...

hubbard-19550729-3.gif

Page two of that letter is here: http://scientology-research.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/62-HQ-94080-1-163-165.pdf :hattip:
 

ClearedSP

Patron with Honors
From the various, and often conflicting stories I'd heard over the years, I'd kind of settled on the idea that it was a pretty lousy book, dealing mainly with Hubbard's astonishing realization that living things try to stay alive. By 1950, I figure he considered it embarrassing juvenilia,which served him better as a myth than as a publication. Then he told all kinds of fish tales about how it made a guy jump out a window, how the Red Menace was after it, how people "blew their way into" his place to steal it, etc. After that, he couldn't really show it to anyone, unless he claimed to have recovered a stolen copy. And why would he WANT to show it to anyone?

This is a very Ron thing to do. Just like how he talked about a poor Sara, the grieving girlfriend of a dead nuclear physicist who was his friend, and Sara, the KGB agent, and Sara who he rescued from demonic black magicians, and "Sara who? I had no second wife." All kinds of tales, which tell you everything but the truth.

He said that Excalibur was the most explosive book in human history, and that it was lost. I figure that means that it sucked, and he hid it.
 
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