Something else on it (sorry about the formatting):

Yes, There Was a Book Called "Excalibur" by L. Ron HUBBARD
By ARTHUR J. BURKS
From "The Aberee", Dec 1961

      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". If it
is true
      that the first half dozen who read it went crazy, then I've been
crazy for
      a long time and I just haven't gotten caught at it. 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. We 'd gone
thru part of
      the depression together; he came to New York from his home near
Seattle,
      Wash. I had met his first wife, Polly, and both his parents.
      I 'd read a lot of material by Ron, and didn't especially like
it - and
      he'd read a lot of material by me and didn't particularly like
it. I
      wouldn't say we were very close friends, but I knew him, I
guess, as well
      as anybody. For instance, I knew Ron was a night owl - he'd
sleep all day
      and work all night - and didn't pay any attention to your
working hours at
      all He was apt to call you at 4 o'clock in the morning and hold
you in
      conversation for an hour or more until you felt like you could
break his
      neck. Then he'd pull down all the curtains and sleep all day.
      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.
      Whether he actually did this or not, I don't know, but it is
right in line
      with something he would do. For example, Ron would send stories
to various
      magazines without a return address (and if you know anything
about the
      publishing business you could know how this would irritate
people), and
      then call up and ask for a report on it.

            EDITOR'S NOTE -- One of the
            Dianetic "ghosts" that has haunted auditing and training
rooms is
            rumors of a super-super book by the author of "Dianetics",
which, in
            the telling, gained such monumental proportions that at
one time,
            the unpublished manuscript was offered to anyone anxious
to satiate
            their curiosity for $1,500 - specially printed, bound, and
boxed,
            with a key to protect its precious contents. There were
many
            inquiries, but no takers, and the Editor knows of only one
bargain
            seeker who thought his rights as an "Associate Member"
entitled him
            to buy "Excalibur" for half price, as he could other books
in the
            Hubbard word factory.
            But the sale never was made, and the would-be purchaser
was advised
            that if he was seeking "data", more could be found in
"8-80" than in
            the "mystery book", and we know of none other wishing to
risk $1,500
            - or even $750 - to see if they, too, would "go insane" as
rumor
            claimed happened to the first halfdozen who read the
manuscript on
            "Excalibur".
            Actually, we began to discount the existence of any
manuscript by
            this name, classifying it with the many claimed "clears"
whose
            actuality and/or identity have been and still are as
transient as
            the seasons. We didn't DENY its existence - we just
remained
            skeptical. And there is a difference.
            That skepticism now has been punctured by the accompanying
story,
            written from a tape made by our trusted writer, Arthur J.
Burks,
            which he sent to another skeptic, Art Coulter, and which
was
            forwarded to us. Since Mr. Burks edited the manuscript
when it still
            was "hot" from the typewriter, we feel that his analysis
and report
            are more acceptable than the 99, 867,234½ rumors which
have been
            more or less in existence for the past decade.
            We have no illusions that publication of this data will
stop the
            deftly-planted rumors concerning "Excalibur", since those
most
            susceptible to the "mystery" are not ABERREE fans or
subscribers.
            But for posterity's sake, we offer this evidence that
there actually
            WAS a book called "Excalibur", and that ALL of the first
six persons
            thru whose hands the manuscript moved didn't have happen
to them
            what rumor says happened to them.
            * * * * * *
            Dr. Blanche Pritchett, of Marcap Council, Lakemont, Ga,,
reports she
            has finished about 12,000 words of a manuscript, to be
entitled
            "Excalibur". This is the same book, Mrs. Pritchett claims,

            psychically dictated to L. Ron Hubbard a couple decades
ago, and
            never publicly released. The head of Marcap Council gives
no date
            for the completion of her manuscript, involved as she is
with the
            reorganizing of the Council following their recent move
from Fort
            Myers, Fla.

      He used very heavy paper, which made it very expensive to mail
stuff, and
      he'd mail his manuscripts, not in professional envelopes, but
say in a
      light blue one so that it would stand out from the others.
      Also, he was a little careless occasionally - and his stuff
needed
      editing, but he didn't want anybody to edit it. He had a lot of
odd ideas
      about writing. For example, he didn't feel he had to write a
certain
      stint, so when he would do a manuscript, he wouldn't number the
pages -
      just pile them up beside his typewriter. Thus he couldn't see
how much he
      had done so might kid himself into doing 13 pages when he only
intended to
      do 10. He didn't number the pages until he finished, and then
he'd number
      them in pencil.
      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. In
the course
      of time, they succeeded, and the king was very pleased and said
so. Then
      he told them to go away and cut down these 500 books into 100
books. It
      took them a bit longer this time, but they did it and came back
and
      insisted all the wisdom of the world was contained in these 100
books. He
      said, "Now, do it over again, and bring it to me in one book."
      This was quite a trick, but they did it, and came back some
years later
      and they had, indeed, reduced all the wisdom of the world into
one book.
      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.
      After awhile, this conglomeration of cells that would reach down
a stream
      of warm water, would bend its way back in order to catch more -
it would
      extend across the stream, or across a little rill or something
like that -
      and all the time it was gaining more sensitivity and ways of the
world in
      which it finds itself. It finds out that by working together, it
can
      accomplish a great deal more: it can find more
...

read more »

On Fri, 8 Oct 1999 18:21:10 -0400 "AndroidCat"
<androidca...@hotmail.com> wrote in <37fe702...@news2.lightlink.com>:

Thanks :-)

Bernie -- http://welcome.to/ars

In article <GXPJ3.3591$L6.2317...@news1.rdc1.on.wave.home.com>,
  "Melanie Brookes" <melaniebroo...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Kudos Melanie:

Retiredcap

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Hmmm, thanks for pointing that out, Martin.  I should spend more time in
my own e-library!  Here's what Atack says about Sequoia:

138
[...]
  Evidence of Hubbard's interest in moving Scientology into a
religious position was given in the Armstrong case. On April
10, 1953, Hubbard wrote from England to Helen O'Brien, who had
just taken over the management of Scientology in the U.S., telling
her that it was time to move from a medical to a religious image.
His objectives were to eliminate all other psychotherapies,
to salvage his ailing organization, and, Hubbard was quite candid,
to make a great deal of money. Being a religion rather than
a psychotherapy was a purely commercial matter, Hubbard said.
He enthused about the thousands that could be milked out of
preclears attracted by this new promotional approach.3
As usual, Hubbard was keeping all of the options open. In his
explanatory letter to the membership about the new "Church,"
he also introduced the "Freudian Foundation of America." A variety
of degrees were offered to students, including "Bachelor of
Scientology," "Doctor of Scientology," "Freudian Psycho-analyst,"
and "Doctor of Divinity" to be issued by the "University of
                         ^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^
Sequoia," an American diploma mill (which was closed down by
the California Department of Education in 1958). Hubbard had
already received an "honorary doctorate" in philosophy from
Sequoia.4
 - - - - - - - - - -
"...to be issued by..." certainly does suggest that there was a cozy
arrangement made.  Just what form that arrangement took may be lost to
history though.  It seems reasonable to speculate that Hubbard got his
"degree" in exchange for peddling Sequoia to his followers.

And a snippet from Chris Owen's excellent essay, _Hysterical Radiation
and Bogus Science_ (which quotes Miller's BFM with a passage worth
including here):
- - - - - - - - - - -
Although he dropped out of his university degree course in the 1930s, he
did indeed have a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph. D). Unfortunately for his
subsequent credibility, this was conferred in 1953 by Dr. Joseph Hough, a
Los Angeles chiropodist who conferred "degrees" in the name of "the
University of Sequoia" to anyone who paid a small fee. Hubbard had
acquired his "degree" to impress his British hosts and telegraphed his
man in LA with instructions to pay the necessary fee:

     "27 FEB 53

     PLEASE INFORM DR HOUGH PHD VERY ACCEPTABLE. PRIVATELY TO YOU. FOR
     GOSH SAKES EXPEDITE. WORK HERE UTTERLY DEPENDENT ON IT. CABLE
     REPLY. RON"

[Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, chapter 12]

In 1965 it emerged that his degree was bogus. For a time, he insisted  
that it was not: "I was a Ph.D., Sequoia's [sic] University and
therefore a perfectly valid doctor under the laws of the State of
California," he wrote in HCO Policy Letter 14 Feb. 1966. But only
three weeks later, he publicly renounced his Ph. D in The Times of 8
March 1966, declaring that

"having reviewed the damage being done in our society with nuclear
physics and psychiatry by persons calling themselves "Doctor" [I]
do hereby resign in protest my university degree as a Doctor of
philosophy (Ph. D.), anticipating an early public outcry against
anyone called Doctor; and although not in any way connected with
the bombs of "psychiatric treatment" or treatment of the sick, and
interested only and always in philosophy and the total freedom of
the human spirit I wish no association of any kind with these
persons and do so publicly declare, and request my friends and the
public not to refer to me in any way with this title."
Hubbard nonetheless continued to claim that he was "one of America's
first Nuclear Physicists" [jacket of All About Radiation, 1979 ed.]
despite the "damage being done in our society" by his supposed
fellows. This claim has caused the Church of Scientology some
embarrassment and senior Scientologists have since denied that Hubbard
ever actually made the claim. His wife, Mary Sue, stated:

"I don't know who promoted the book or who wrote the promotion for
the book. I presume the organization did, but in that my husband --
in lots of lectures that he gave [he] would laugh and talk about
the course of nuclear physics and how he had one theory about them
and his professor had another theory, and I know that he was not in
his lectures holding himself out to be a nuclear physicist.

So I don't know who, you know, on the printed jacket -- and I
really don't, if you say like do the personal matters have -- I
don't think many Scientologists consider those -- his personal
background or whether he went to this or whether he did that of any
significance at all."
[....]

[Church of Scientology of California v. Gerald Armstrong, 7 May
1984, p. 1083]
 - - - - - - - - - -

I suppose they have special terms for Scientologists who *do* consider
LRH's falsified background to be significant.  "SP."  "Squirrel."

Nosey

In article <JvL/3Mdlg0iZ09...@islandnet.com> (Thu, 07 Oct 1999 15:36:14
GMT), mart...@islandnet.com says...

--
NoScieno accepts NoMail (spam block) Try "Thynkr"(same.isp)

(hard to tell where some of those paragraphs went)

  Yes, There Was a Book Called "Excalibur" by L. Ron HUBBARD
  By ARTHUR J. BURKS
  From "The Aberee", Dec 1961

  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". If it is true that the first half dozen who read it
went crazy, then I've been crazy for a long time and I just haven't
gotten caught at it. 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. We 'd
gone thru part of the depression together; he came to New York from
his home near Seattle, Wash. I had met his first wife, Polly, and
both his parents.

  I 'd read a lot of material by Ron, and didn't especially like
it - and he'd read a lot of material by me and didn't particularly
like it. I wouldn't say we were very close friends, but I knew him,
I guess, as well as anybody. For instance, I knew Ron was a night
owl - he'd sleep all day and work all night - and didn't pay any
attention to your working hours at all He was apt to call you at 4
o'clock in the morning and hold you in conversation for an hour or
more until you felt like you could break his neck. Then he'd pull
down all the curtains and sleep all day.

  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. Whether he actually did this or
not, I don't know, but it is right in line with something he would
do. For example, Ron would send stories to various magazines
without a return address (and if you know anything about the
publishing business you could know how this would irritate people),
and then call up and ask for a report on it.

  EDITOR'S NOTE -- One of the Dianetic "ghosts" that has haunted
auditing and training rooms is rumors of a super-super book by
the author of "Dianetics", which, in the telling, gained such
monumental proportions that at one time, the unpublished manuscript
was offered to anyone anxious to satiate their curiosity for $1,500
- specially printed, bound, and boxed, with a key to protect its
precious contents. There were many inquiries, but no takers, and
the Editor knows of only one bargain seeker who thought his rights
as an "Associate Member" entitled him to buy "Excalibur" for half
price, as he could other books in the Hubbard word factory.

  But the sale never was made, and the would-be purchaser was
advised that if he was seeking "data", more could be found in
"8-80" than in the "mystery book", and we know of none other
wishing to risk $1,500 - or even $750 - to see if they, too, would
"go insane" as rumor claimed happened to the first halfdozen who
read the manuscript on "Excalibur".

  Actually, we began to discount the existence of any manuscript
by this name, classifying it with the many claimed "clears" whose
actuality and/or identity have been and still are as transient as
the seasons. We didn't DENY its existence - we just remained
skeptical. And there is a difference.

  That skepticism now has been punctured by the accompanying story,
written from a tape made by our trusted writer, Arthur J. Burks,
which he sent to another skeptic, Art Coulter, and which was
forwarded to us. Since Mr. Burks edited the manuscript when it
still was "hot" from the typewriter, we feel that his analysis and
report are more acceptable than the 99, 867,234½ rumors which have
been more or less in existence for the past decade.

  We have no illusions that publication of this data will stop
the deftly-planted rumors concerning "Excalibur", since those most
susceptible to the "mystery" are not ABERREE fans or subscribers.
But for posterity's sake, we offer this evidence that there
actually WAS a book called "Excalibur", and that ALL of the first
six persons thru whose hands the manuscript moved didn't have
happen to them what rumor says happened to them.

  * * * * * *

  Dr. Blanche Pritchett, of Marcap Council, Lakemont, Ga,, reports
she has finished about 12,000 words of a manuscript, to be entitled
"Excalibur". This is the same book, Mrs. Pritchett claims,
psychically dictated to L. Ron Hubbard a couple decades ago, and
never publicly released. The head of Marcap Council gives no date
for the completion of her manuscript, involved as she is with the
reorganizing of the Council following their recent move from Fort
Myers, Fla.

  He used very heavy paper, which made it very expensive to mail
stuff, and he'd mail his manuscripts, not in professional
envelopes, but say in a light blue one so that it would stand
out from the others.

  Also, he was a little careless occasionally - and his stuff
needed editing, but he didn't want anybody to edit it. He had a
lot of odd ideas about writing. For example, he didn't feel he
had to write a certain stint, so when he would do a manuscript,
he wouldn't number the pages - just pile them up beside his
typewriter. Thus he couldn't see how much he had done so might kid
himself into doing 13 pages when he only intended to do 10. He
didn't number the pages until he finished, and then he'd number
them in pencil.

  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. In the course of time,
they succeeded, and the king was very pleased and said so. Then he
told them to go away and cut down these 500 books into 100 books.
It took them a bit longer this time, but they did it and came back
and insisted all the wisdom of the world was contained in these 100
books. He said, "Now, do it over again, and bring it to me in one
book."

  This was quite a trick, but they did it, and came back some years
later and they had, indeed, reduced all the wisdom of the world
into one book. 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.

  After awhile, this conglomeration of cells that would reach down
a stream of warm water, would bend its way back in order to catch
more - it would extend across the stream, or across a little rill
or something like that - and all the time it was gaining more
sensitivity and ways of the world in which it finds itself. It
finds out that by working together, it can accomplish a great deal
more: it can find more to eat - it can eat more and grow faster. So
the idea is to survive and reproduce - and this is what the early
cell does.

  He'd begin to picture the ocean and the seas and ponds as having
the life cells growing on them like scum. These are ourselves, our
beginnings, our own beginnings because in the womb we start in this
very way.

  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. Somebody will say, "Well,
I'd like to do a certain thing," "I would like to do this with
you," or something or other, and you look at this person and
realize, "I wonder why he's doing that." And you look into yourself
and think if you were doing that, what would your motive be and
whether you would hide it. You think that perhaps he's hiding his
real motive and trying to get you to do something because he's
giving you to understand that his motive is thus and so because
that appeals to your vanity - and of ...

read more »

Bern - http://welcome.to/ars <welc...@bernie.us-inc.com> wrote in message
news:38022068.61713292@enews.newsguy.com...

Other than the missed second reference in BFM, that was quite an impressive
search.  Did you use one those CDs?  :^)

Ron of that ilk.

He attended two years and didn't flunk all his courses. The most
noteworthy fact coming out of Hubbard's college experience was his
pathological need to lie about it.

Yep.

Well he almost certainly was a philosopher. Just about anyone can call
himself a philosopher. Even me. But one of the funnier facts is that
no $cientologist can be a philosopher. $cientology, an "applied
philosophy" which doesn't admit philosophers.

Well he did attend Princeton. And longer actually than I attended
UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford or Harvard. The difference is that I never
lied about what I was doing while attending those universities.

Well, he had the fake degree, which was really only fake by degree,
from the Sequoia diploma mill, and he had a degree from his own
diploma mill. The Sequoia diploma mill gave him his Ph.D. and the
Hubbard diploma mill gave him his D.D. The B.S. came to him naturally
and through drug incidents.

That's a pretty good summation.