So it
was nitrous oxide for L. Ron:
"In 1938, John Campbell, the editor of
Astounding Science Fiction magazine, persuaded Ron to try his hand at science fiction. The result was successful and Hubbard's stories in this genre began to appear regularly, alongside his regular adventure stories and westerns.
During this same year, there is a curious story about Hubbard. He apparently began to tell friends that he had written an important book, called
Excalibur, which he claimed would have a greater impact on people than the Bible. He seemed quite excited about this book. He told his wife that it would earn him a place in history. Yet, strangely, no one ever saw the book.
Hubbard claimed that the first six people who read the book were so overwhelmed by its contents that they went out of their minds.
He claimed that the inspiration for the book came from an out of the body experience he had under nitrous oxide while at the dentist. To prevent any more casualties, he claimed to have the book safely hidden. Although Hubbard would mention this book from time to time, its existence has never been proven."
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-02.html
Oh, forgodsake. The asshat got high on nitrous and thought he had an out of body experience? Yeah, him and thousands of dental students.