Little Bear Victor
Silver Meritorious Patron
Note: Anons are looking for the manuscript of the original Excalibur. This inspired me to write the following post over at Enturb, which others may find of some interest, so I am posting it here as well.
Since there are a limited number of people that have ever seen this particular book, I figured I should tell you what I know of it, since I happen to be one of them.
I had one opportunity to see the book, but as I had limited time I didn't read it in full. Nevertheless, I did read sections of it knowing this was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
The content of the book is accurately relayed by Arthur J Burks, Gerry Armstrong and Robert Vaughn Young.
There are no big revelations in the book for anyone who has read Dianetics or later works on the subject, but it is written from a more, shall I say, pompous style. In other words, Hubbard was convinced that he had just learned the secrets of the universe and that it gave him the keys to all of existence, the way to achieve any goal, improve any aspect of life, master any subject, be the king of all existence. He suddenly knew everything. And he firmly believed that with this "knowledge" one could rule the world, align all data and advance every subject and science.
I personally believe this book is crucial in understanding how Dianetics and Scientology came about. This was the breakthrough. This was the original work.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the introduction which is not written by Hubbard but by one of his sci-fi author friends. It describes the nitrous oxide dental operation that Hubbard underwent, his near-death experience and his successful return from with with his memory intact and the secrets of the universe laid bare in front of his very eyes.
In my opinion this drug experience was THE experience that shaped Hubbards life and made him find his purpose (from his personal point of view) in life. It made him "the chosen one," so to speak.
The book goes through the various theories of Dianetics, but unlike the 1950 book Dianetics, doesn't include any therapy or means for anyone else to achieve or put into use the "knowledge" imparted. It was, as I said, a pompous statement that "with this knowledge everything you have ever dreamed of can now be yours."
The passage "The One Word" is indeed the first chapter of the book. That chapter has actually been published in one of the church "Ron magazine" PR publication series.
Moreover, as someone mentioned, the current Official CoS LRH Biographer is Danny Sherman, who has access to the Excalibur manuscript. In fact, Danny gave an event speech to Scientology publics, telling (his own version) of the story of LRH's dental operation experience. This event video may be available (???) although I have not seen it as yet.
As to other copies of the manuscript, unfortunately I don't know of any outside-the-Church copies. There are two copies I know exist for certain: One in the LRH Biographer files, one in the LRH House (Bonnie View). Both of them are on the Int Base, so you won't be able to get a hold of them.
Another place equally difficult to get to which more than likely has a copy is CST who is supposed to have the original of every single thing LRH has ever written (In some cases the only "original" they have is a copy already, but the most original version of any LRH writing goes to CST). So at least three copies of this manuscript exist.
As to the remark that there are three versions of the manuscript, this is also accurate -- even if you discount the non-LRH Excalibur Revisited -- but the only difference between the three as far as I could tell was the sequence and completeness or lack thereof of the three versions.
I would recognize and could authenticate the manuscript if you got hold of one. One thing that no one has mentioned is that there were a number of diagrams in the book, hand drawn by Hubbard. One of them was a copy of a diagram from a book by another author, which showed a conic representation of the history of evolution of life. As I recall, at the top of the cone was "the past" with a single living cell (unless it started all the way from the big bang, but I don't think so). More and more developed organisms were drawn in that developed through time. At the base of the cone was "present," with man and animals as they exist today.
There were several other diagrams in the manuscript.
The prospects of the Church publishing the book: David Miscavige has said he COULD publish the book without any great problem, that there isn't something extraordinary in it that would be totally new and strange to anyone who has read Dianetics. But he is not planning to do so. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Firstly, as has been said, the best reason is that it has more value as a "myth" than a published book.
Secondly, there are all the lies that have been told about it (it was stolen, lost, reading it will drive you crazy, and so on).
The third, and probably most important factor is that the sequence of the manuscript is not clear from any of the three copies and there are things that would certainly have to be edited out "for PR purposes." At least for the Scientology public. For instance, Hubbard was talking about women and sex much more freely. It was nothing shocking, but would reveal some of his attitudes about women and sex that would hardly be suitable for church publics.
As to getting a hold of a copy of the manuscript, unless someone can convert Danny Sherman from a true believer into a disbeliever and walk out with a copy of the manuscript, your best bet is to try and trace where those few copies went that did make it to the handful of original readers who supposedly went crazy. For while the LRH Personal PR Office and CST have done all in their power to find any and all LRH originals, correspondence and every piece of scrap paper or napkin LRH ever put a pen down on, I am certain that if anyone ever had a copy of Excalibur and the Church came to retrieve it, they would either say they didn't have it, or make a copy of it for themselves before turning it in.
So you might be able to find it. I say there is a small-to-fair chance, although it won't be easy.
Since there are a limited number of people that have ever seen this particular book, I figured I should tell you what I know of it, since I happen to be one of them.
I had one opportunity to see the book, but as I had limited time I didn't read it in full. Nevertheless, I did read sections of it knowing this was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
The content of the book is accurately relayed by Arthur J Burks, Gerry Armstrong and Robert Vaughn Young.
There are no big revelations in the book for anyone who has read Dianetics or later works on the subject, but it is written from a more, shall I say, pompous style. In other words, Hubbard was convinced that he had just learned the secrets of the universe and that it gave him the keys to all of existence, the way to achieve any goal, improve any aspect of life, master any subject, be the king of all existence. He suddenly knew everything. And he firmly believed that with this "knowledge" one could rule the world, align all data and advance every subject and science.
I personally believe this book is crucial in understanding how Dianetics and Scientology came about. This was the breakthrough. This was the original work.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the introduction which is not written by Hubbard but by one of his sci-fi author friends. It describes the nitrous oxide dental operation that Hubbard underwent, his near-death experience and his successful return from with with his memory intact and the secrets of the universe laid bare in front of his very eyes.
In my opinion this drug experience was THE experience that shaped Hubbards life and made him find his purpose (from his personal point of view) in life. It made him "the chosen one," so to speak.
The book goes through the various theories of Dianetics, but unlike the 1950 book Dianetics, doesn't include any therapy or means for anyone else to achieve or put into use the "knowledge" imparted. It was, as I said, a pompous statement that "with this knowledge everything you have ever dreamed of can now be yours."
The passage "The One Word" is indeed the first chapter of the book. That chapter has actually been published in one of the church "Ron magazine" PR publication series.
Moreover, as someone mentioned, the current Official CoS LRH Biographer is Danny Sherman, who has access to the Excalibur manuscript. In fact, Danny gave an event speech to Scientology publics, telling (his own version) of the story of LRH's dental operation experience. This event video may be available (???) although I have not seen it as yet.
As to other copies of the manuscript, unfortunately I don't know of any outside-the-Church copies. There are two copies I know exist for certain: One in the LRH Biographer files, one in the LRH House (Bonnie View). Both of them are on the Int Base, so you won't be able to get a hold of them.
Another place equally difficult to get to which more than likely has a copy is CST who is supposed to have the original of every single thing LRH has ever written (In some cases the only "original" they have is a copy already, but the most original version of any LRH writing goes to CST). So at least three copies of this manuscript exist.
As to the remark that there are three versions of the manuscript, this is also accurate -- even if you discount the non-LRH Excalibur Revisited -- but the only difference between the three as far as I could tell was the sequence and completeness or lack thereof of the three versions.
I would recognize and could authenticate the manuscript if you got hold of one. One thing that no one has mentioned is that there were a number of diagrams in the book, hand drawn by Hubbard. One of them was a copy of a diagram from a book by another author, which showed a conic representation of the history of evolution of life. As I recall, at the top of the cone was "the past" with a single living cell (unless it started all the way from the big bang, but I don't think so). More and more developed organisms were drawn in that developed through time. At the base of the cone was "present," with man and animals as they exist today.
There were several other diagrams in the manuscript.
The prospects of the Church publishing the book: David Miscavige has said he COULD publish the book without any great problem, that there isn't something extraordinary in it that would be totally new and strange to anyone who has read Dianetics. But he is not planning to do so. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Firstly, as has been said, the best reason is that it has more value as a "myth" than a published book.
Secondly, there are all the lies that have been told about it (it was stolen, lost, reading it will drive you crazy, and so on).
The third, and probably most important factor is that the sequence of the manuscript is not clear from any of the three copies and there are things that would certainly have to be edited out "for PR purposes." At least for the Scientology public. For instance, Hubbard was talking about women and sex much more freely. It was nothing shocking, but would reveal some of his attitudes about women and sex that would hardly be suitable for church publics.
As to getting a hold of a copy of the manuscript, unless someone can convert Danny Sherman from a true believer into a disbeliever and walk out with a copy of the manuscript, your best bet is to try and trace where those few copies went that did make it to the handful of original readers who supposedly went crazy. For while the LRH Personal PR Office and CST have done all in their power to find any and all LRH originals, correspondence and every piece of scrap paper or napkin LRH ever put a pen down on, I am certain that if anyone ever had a copy of Excalibur and the Church came to retrieve it, they would either say they didn't have it, or make a copy of it for themselves before turning it in.
So you might be able to find it. I say there is a small-to-fair chance, although it won't be easy.