TAT Journal Issue 11 | forum for awareness

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ONE FINAL ESCAPE

To look back forty years and see that, after all, you are the very same person as when a boy of fourteen, is not just the mind's trick of the moment skipping the intervening years, making a knowledgeable comparison within itself. At least it was not for me, one memorable occasion eight years ago, when this seeming erasure of the years left me with the understanding that, in actuality, there were no years except as the mind was trained in the recognition of time. This was less a fact than an insight, less a conclusion of evidence supporting an idea than a presence of mind that came as its own unknown action. There was a spontaneous awareness, a wordless wonder of meaning, a movement upon the mind that did not originate out of memory, out of knowledge. This had the effect of showing time as its own illusory presentment of things known, as we do in personalized thought processes. There was an influence upon knowledge, an understanding that worked upon knowledge that was then seen in its own vast ignorance, its own limitation confined to what was known.

This came to me in an instant like a lesson quickly learned that was effortless in the learning, its own truth of meaning that held no lingering doubt. There was nothing to question, no missing meanings as when we add to our theories and speculations. For the first time in my life I fully understood the mind's false picturings of life to itself, picturings that passed for their own truth of reality and of ourselves playing with stuffy knowledge, even as children pretend. For all the years I was still that boy, and the living that had been mine little more than a story read one lonely night. For all of that I was scarcely different and the years ran together compressing into a meaningless episode. Experience then, for all of its personalized drama, was just so many snapshots saved in an album, seen by an audience of one whose cast of characters we presumed to be playing, performing for himself.

I clearly understood that we took some center of mind as a seat from which we gave meaning to this and that movement, movement that took its own direction regardless the meaning for us; that all motion was one Motion, parts of which we appropriated for a time and purpose. And there I was - and am - still the boy staring at the same movements, understanding that experience as knowledge can never explain the movement and is only some meaning of mine that attaches for awhile. The beginning of truth was in understanding the untruth of knowledge that passed for its own final truth, the false as true.

I now understood that truth is never disappointing, that disillusionment always is. Disillusionment was the mind's refusal to accept understanding in the hope of restoring belief, any belief, to take up the void of meaning. Truth could not leave us with remorse or regret for in truth nothing could ever be lost, only found. In truth nothing was possessed; it was only in our presumed expectations that we were disappointed in this, disillusioned in that, that the present was wasted in daily renewal of the past.

And for me it had been - for forty years. Reunion with the boy I had been was not a retreat in time but a revelation, its own timeless action that left no vacuum as when knowledge experiences loss. The ghosts of bygone days had lost their dwelling place, no longer to tease the mind with their struggle for resurrection. Life was now more its own, moment by moment, experiencing more correctly its own action rather than a reaction based on past picturings once experienced.

At last I was together, no longer spread out over time repeating the past that gave false life to the present and shaped the future. There were no more questions to ask, no answers to seek, no path to follow, no mountain to climb. There was nowhere to go. It was all here - now.

And I was here, now, understanding that one's endless activity was the mind-of-thought's excuse for being, not necessarily reality's. Ours was a fabrication out of reality, not the real thing. We each had our illusory worldview, however common these agreements, formed for the most part by imitating the meanings of others. We were all caught in the press of cultural continuity that mapped us to itself, however imperfectly. Life was a copied conditioning in kind, not an original expression of reality. Culture was a counterfeit that most everyone accepted as real coin, biting it gently lest the truth of its falseness be known.

It was easy enough to liken the mind-of-thought to a city whose streets and alleyways led nowhere, except into each other, a town peopled by stray ideas of this and that, thoughts that just happened by and got stuck in the self. And this we term Knowledge, its own declared sovereignty ever accumulating to itself, always expanding, developing, maintaining, manicuring the mind's field of awareness as being some final expression of reality. And never quite succeeding. Understandably so.

Reality then was not understood in the sum of our knowledge. Who but a fool would measure the distance between the witless and the wise, or even suggest which was which. Certainly reality was not more revealed to the one or the other, each necessarily separated from reality through interpretation. To think was to err in the measurement of reality which does not lend itself to measurement; and so it mattered little whether the thoughts were simple or sublime.

And then it seemed to me that we were each an island mentality that viewed the ocean of the Unknown as nothing and ourselves as so many sparks flinting from some divine design that gave reality to whatever we touched. Did we not always bless with our own meanings that which we could regulate, rejecting the rest to some area out of mind, confirmed in the remainder by the approval of others who received as much from us. Why else did we group together if not to give credence to our beliefs as mirrored back in those persons who were no less enclosed in our mutual sameness of mind. After all, whose core of mind did not spin out of some cultural conditioning, an imitative identity one pretended was his very own? Individuality then was not such a mystique as we made it out to be... nothing more than the mind's mistakings through interpretation. Was it not a fact that we were always changing our minds, our conclusions of belief? And if so, then wasn't such former believing its own self-deceiving when we traded the latter fixed idea for the former?

Ours was a too-serious game of many presumptions, elevated to the status of beliefs that possessed us that we might more abundantly possess life as we knew it. And we knew life in separation to Life-Reality - giving priority to this and then that idea, that in turn gave appetite to desire, that gave activity to behavior. Possessed by ideas of life's meaning, life became unbearable if we could not possessively hold to ourselves that which was seen in idea as life itself.

What were grief and misery but some idea denied that we felt entitled to, deserving of some condition as we saw it, some possession or relationship missed? Did not all sorrow begin with the mind's claim as its own that which, in actuality, was appropriated in the power of one's own thought? What in life can ever meet or always keep to the level of our expectations? Who were we to take to ourselves that which became for us an extension of ourselves whose meaning was never more than self-serving? Yes, if we loved it, dearly we loved it for what it meant to us, not for what it was. For we did not understand what it was aside from our desire of it. Could such attachment that saw only the value we gave it out of ignorance of Reality actually be termed love? Was love then only what we said that it was - some idea limited to anticipated rewards?

To think thoughts of love was no love at all except that the mind envisioned ideal love to and for itself. But the ideal always rejects the less than ideal favoring this over that, excluding as much of reality as was accepted. Surely love - which is our expression in reality - has a perfect understanding seeing everything for what it is, not for what we would have it be. Personal desire must ever be personal desire, expressing as it does a limited notion in relationships. On the other hand, LOVE is its own end, not ours. Not to understand this experiencing was then to write your own definition for LOVE never translated into the mind's view of love. Experiencing can never be known in the thought experienced even as the living is never understood by the lifeless. To witness to the lifeless as living is to miss life. A young man once said, "Leave the dead to bury the dead." This is what he meant. Not to understand this meaning is to distort the living-reality - by screening life to our dead pictures of it.

There was much more to this initial experiencing, more than I will ever know. But it is not in what one knows that life is fully lived but in what one truly understands. These have been my understandings, they can never be yours in the very same way that they are mine. If you understand them, they were yours all along and are only reflected in what I say. If you do not understand me you are applying what I say to your field of knowledge which has no understanding of its own and which then denies you what is already yours - understanding. It is your faith in knowledge that deprives you of understanding, while faith in understanding is our one final escape from a belief in knowledge.

George Ellis, Joliet, Illinois

Coming Face to Face - Part 2
by Alan Fitzpatrick

Any discussion of self help hinges on method. Although you can entertain any theory you wish concerning the nature of the mind and the problems that afflict it, some theories lend themselves more closely to truth than do others. The method of any psychology can be judged by what it produces.

That no psychotherapeutic method exists today that works any better than factors such as placebo effects, positive suggestion and faith in the system (as reported by Martin Gross in his book, The Psychological Society), testifies that modern psychology, for all its scientific regimen, does not have ways and means for solving mental problems, because it does not know the mind. Instead, modern psychology has, over the years, endorsed a hodgepodge of diverse therapies as valid, acceptable approaches to solving mental problems; each is given an authority status a priori until the layman can prove otherwise. By such tolerant and broad-minded condonation of such fundamentally different theoretical directions, psychology admits a confusing, contradictory and absurd definition of the mind; it can be voted upon and legislated when popular thinking demands that the definition be changed to include a new therapy, or sanity be revised to sanction a certain social trend. This approach is apparent in the actions of the American Psychiatric Association which, in 1972, voted to change the definition of mental illness to exclude homosexuality as a deviation, because of pressure exerted by homosexual lobbyists. A definition of the mind that is dependent upon the bell curve or majority thinking will never produce a method that works because such a definition is not the result of a true examination of the mind and a discovery of factors that influence it. That people can and do cure themselves of mental problems, by sorting their heads out in a method that psychology skeptically dismisses as "chance spontaneous remissions," tells us that there is a true definition of the mind with ways and means that work.

IN THE FIRST PART of this article on self-help, ("Coming Face to Face," TAT Journal number 10) a formula exists for approaching sanity that is simple, direct, and effective. This formula is the result of an investigation into the cases of individuals who cured themselves of their mental problems, and thus embodies a unique system of psychology that goes directly within the mind of an individual, thus abridging years of speculative analysis and "trial and error" psychotherapy that may be tangential or ineffective because the real problem is never realized. It is a system with pragmatic ways and means that work to bring about change through a process that can be said to purge and purify the mind of its problems rather than compound them by additive methods. Most importantly, it is a system that is available to anyone at any time who wishes real change in his life and is determined to take action to free himself from the problems that afflict him.

The formula and system it entails are not something new nor original. Anyone who has brought himself out of the abyss of insanity, obsession, addiction or uncertainty, to clarity and peace of mind has, in some way utilized these universal methods. Many of the techniques can be found today in therapeutic orientations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Synanon, East Ridge, and Direct Mind Science. For the hundreds of people who have found a way out of their problems through such a system no other endorsement is needed.

THE FIRST STEP to take when beset by mental trouble is to come face to face with yourself. The purpose of such an act is just to see who you are and who it is that is troubled.

Yet such a simple task of self-observation and evaluation may be more difficult than it seems. First, you must be able to make a very important admission to yourself; you may find that your mind is prone to indulging in a variety of mental obstacles such as rationalization, procrastination, and wishful thinking that prevent you from facing the truth. You must admit that you are troubled, if that is the picture you see or sense in the mirror. Each individual finds his own way or doesn't. And this is dependent upon time and the degree of desperation that a person is faced with. If you are troubled but don't know it then nothing is lost, for the future still holds a promise that you may come to a realization of your condition. But if you are troubled and yet cannot or will not admit this fact to yourself, then little hope exists for progress.

Why? Because in admitting to yourself that you are troubled or have a problem that is bigger than you is an act of being honest with yourself. Honesty is essential for any ways and means to work and begins when you acknowledge to yourself the facts and the truth of your situation. This is difficult to do. Pride and vanity concerning your self-image may get in the way if the person that you believe yourself to be cannot include a picture of instability, lack of control and confusion. This is why many people who are troubled are unable to listen to others who are offering help. The conclusion of the need for help must come first within.

Such an admission reinforces, for the first time, that part inside that wishes to be whole and desires sanity, rather than just being an agonizing part of a fractured personality. When you can admit the truth about yourself to yourself, it negates the power that a particular problem has over you, or over that part of you that desires to be whole. You may find that you are not a whole, unified person, but rather a composite of different selves, voices, urges or desires with which you are identified and which are often at odds with one another. You need only watch the thoughts and moods of your mind when you are troubled to see that the conflict is in part due to a battle going on within you between opposing forces. The voice, desire, or urge to be whole or seek sanity and peace of mind may only be one of many voices that speak.

The first small taste of inner freedom may come when you can admit the truth, and consciously identify yourself with that part of you that seeks freedom. Sometimes it is helpful to admit your problems to others, such as friends, so that you can get the truth out in the open where you can see it, hear yourself speak it, and understand your situation better, if you find that you have difficulty approaching such an admission by yourself. An admission automatically lessens the identification with those parts of yourself that are the root, cause or reaction to your troubles. It is like you have been watching a dramatic movie on TV and have become involved with the characters and plot so that you are moved emotionally. When you turn the sound off for a moment, you are reminded that you are just watching a movie and thus get a clearer perspective of your previous identifications.

Let's take another example. In the case of a drug addict, his addiction holds a great deal of power over his entire personality to sustain his habit. He can no longer quit if he wishes to, and in fact does not wish to. Why? His physical addiction, the effects of the drug upon his mind, and the personality aspects relating to his drug use, keep him from getting an objective picture of himself. The addict is slowly destroying himself. Yet he can have many people tell him so, but he will not believe this to be true. He can only discover the truth when he somehow comes to realize his condition himself, and is momentarily not identified with it, so that he sees a drug addict in the mirror. In such a moment when the drug and his drug personality are weakened, he may come to identify with that part of him that wishes to survive and he will see not only drugs but his obsessive personality and his appetite for drugs as something destructive. When such thinking results, he has a chance to free himself.

IT'S EASY TO SEE that many people don't take the first step because they are blocked. But why do many people who are able to do so and thus have an inkling of their condition never go any further and do something about what they see and can admit? Take the statistics of Alcoholics Anonymous, for example. They express a cure rate of only ten per cent though most participants are lifetime members. A fellow in his fifties that I talked with a year ago told me that he was an alcoholic and had attended meetings throughout the greater part of his life, though he told me that he had only been drink-free for six months. He had struggled with it for years, with periods of abstinence followed by recurring alcoholism, without conclusive success. Many people with similar problems such as drug addicts, sexual compulsives, manic depressives, the fear and anxiety ridden, concur that pitifully few are ever definitively cured. Yet most of these people are well aware of their problems and suffer from the acknowledgement of their enslavement. In spite of having taken step one and often tried out a variety of therapeutic approaches, they don't seem to be able to solve their problems. If we could analyze the cases of each of these individuals to look for common denominators that might give us an insight into their failures, and then compare it with others with similar problems who were able to free themselves, I think one overriding factor would emerge.

Most people fail in their efforts to help themselves overcome their problems because they are unable to make a commitment to themselves to solve their problem and stick to this task until it is accomplished. Most people who realize that they are troubled would like to do something about it, but for whatever reason, their resolution to work at their problem with consistent effort seems to miss the mark. They vacillate - between moods of indulgence, inertia, recrimination and despair. And in their rare moments of clarity they make a half-hearted resolution to seek help. Such efforts are like those of a man who seeks God by attending church for an hour every Sunday. The way he lives his life the rest of the week is going to have a profound effect upon his religious pursuits if he spends his time elsewhere.

The point is that one's search for sanity is a task like any other human endeavor. Success is dependent on how much energy you put into it. If you want to make a million dollars, you may have to put all your time and effort into the project to get results, and eliminate any pursuits that may get in the way. Likewise, if you are intent on solving your mental problems, then you must not only desire it, but live the project as if it were the most important thing in your life, or you may receive less than satisfactory results.

If you sit and think about your troubles or watch your mind when it is troubled, it is apparent that your problems are a part of you, interwoven somehow into the things you think, believe and do. This abstract and subjective arena often becomes more of a battlefield between opposing forces or voices that divide the mentality. You may see and hear one voice that seeks unity, another moderation, a voice that desires or wants, another that demands importance or recognition. The mind is a battlefield where one side seeks cure and another, the voice of conflict, is resistant to change. Richard Burton described his bout with alcoholism as a constant battle between himself and booze. He likened it to being in a boxing match where you are always fighting and evading the opponent, who is booze. The temptation is always with him, and at the end of a day of struggle he could only count on beating the boxer for another day.

Although you may not be aware of the source of your resistance, you can notice, in retrospect, that without concerted effort to keep your mind constantly on the problem before you, it will drift into resistance, avoidance, fear, or rationalizing, whenever you do begin to think about your problems. For some reason the mind is diverted, so that in the long run, nothing is accomplished because you can never get down to doing anything serious about changing your condition.

Nowhere is this more clear than with the alcoholic. Most spend years on and off the wagon without appreciable results. If we could intimately examine his mentality for a moment we might be able to see why he drifts and the importance of a commitment. Following a drinking binge, an alcoholic may admit that he's drunk, and depending upon the severity of his hangover, he might say that he would really like to quit. He may even come to the conclusion that he is going to do so this time, once and for all, for the sake of his health, his survival, his finances, and his anguished loved ones. But twelve hours later an amazing transformation occurs in him. We find that he has adopted a new philosophy and discarded the old. Now he doesn't believe that he has a drinking problem, and just to show himself and everybody that he is in control and able to handle his liquor in moderation, he will have just one drink. He justifies his new philosophy as new reasonableness and might tell us that his former belief that he was an alcoholic was spoken because he was in a mood of depression, and was ill at the time. The new voice that comes from his lips and the mentality behind it is manifestly no longer the voice of survival, but the voice of alcohol that is matched by a personality that can argue the merits of drinking in moderation, and that Alcoholics Anonymous is only for alcoholics who cannot control their liquor. What happens? After one drink, he is satisfied with himself and feels good, so he has another and another. Eventually, he drinks himself into oblivion, and some time later, in a post-drinking funk, returns to the realization that he was outwitted by himself. The survival voice returns momentarily, and the cycle is repeated, for the alcoholic is not only a hopeless victim of a physical addiction rooted in physical craving, but he is deluded by powerful mental forces within him that voice his cravings for booze in subtle ways; the voice that desires survival and freedom has only a small say.

WE SENSE THE resistance within us to change, and our powerlessness to control the situation. Thus, we must find a way of making a binding commitment to ourselves to work at this project of self-change despite the obstacles and the odds. Making a commitment to ourselves means that we already have a pretty good picture of our troubled situation and feel that we cannot live with ourselves, unchanged, any longer. Our survival, our mentality, and our success in life are at stake.

COMMON SENSE TELLS us that many therapies fail because their diagnosis of a person's problem may have been incorrect, or because the ability of the therapy to diagnose was hampered if the therapists were prone to using ink-blot tests and MMPI profiles. You have to find a way, even in your unclear and troubled position, of learning what your problem is. Paradoxically, I think you are in the best position to do so because you live intimately with yourself and are able to witness your own mind, whereas the psychiatrist, who is unable to enter the mind as a doctor is able to enter the body, is working from an objective perspective with second-hand information, and is likely to view your problems from a symptomatic rather than causal point of view.

Through self-observation techniques, you can prove to yourself that the problem you find is the real problem, and not based on mere speculation or delusion.

You can begin by watching what is going on inside your head when you are troubled. Don't attempt to try and change anything that you might see, at this point. Just watch your moods and thoughts and collect some data as to the nature and source of your troubles, so that you can eliminate them rather than indulge in them. While doing this, you can review the memories of your past to try and see when and where your problems began, and recall a time when you had peace of mind and were not troubled. This is good because if you can identify a time in your life when you were able to think clearly, you may be able to see what happened, in the form of trauma or shock that changed your way of thinking. This will help to clear some of the confusion away because you will be able to see your problem as the onset of an external affliction that can be taken away or reversed.

So watch yourself when the trouble hits. We know what these moments are because we feel uncertain, unclear mentally, outside of our usual selves, like strangers. We may feel driven or compelled by violent, fearful, or sexual urges that cause tremendous conflict within. Or the troubled moment may be more subtle in that the moods we are in or the things we are saying are alienating us from friends, families, mates, or business contacts so that we find ourselves alone, feeling out of touch, and wondering what it is about us that turns others away. These times are the most difficult in which to observe ourselves, and yet the most valuable from a psychological point of view.

MODERN PSYCHOLOGY would treat most people who are in troubled moods with sedation. But these moments are important for us to observe and study because our problems are at the surface. Like taking our car to a mechanic to fix a problem that only manifests itself when the car is doing forty m.p.h. going up a hill, it will do us little good to search for our problems entirely when we are in quiet moments because many of the clues can only be found when we are troubled, and these clues will make the difference in our assessment and subsequent actions. Common sense says that, although the study of the past is important in terms of understanding ourselves, the past cannot be changed. What change can be effected will happen in the present. For the alcoholic, no amount of study of his history of problems that led to his drinking or the study of his drinking patterns, is going to change him, as long as he continues drinking. If he is to be cured, he will have to put down the bottle.

When you are troubled, you change within. Your personality changes, your mood, thoughts, and inner voice. One hour you can be thinking or feeling a certain way, perhaps working at a project that fills you with motivation, fulfillment, or peace of mind. And an hour later you become moody, or sullen, and soon find yourself in the grips of a new mood of fear, despair, depression, or anxiety. The change is subtle, but its effects have been pervasive. You don't feel like the same person. The new mood overwhelms even your sense of self so that everything you think, feel, see, or do is in some way affected by this change.

When you are changed, you hear yourself say that you decided to change your mind, but no decision was ever pondered. You see in retrospect that your mind was moved from mood A to mood B by unknown factors that you cannot control; the troubled mood may last for several hours, days or weeks until you return to your original mood. This is a key.

When you return from mood B to mood A you see that mood A and B exist within you. In mood A your self desires to be whole or complete. It is working for the well-being of your entire organism. You could say that self A is all that is left of a former sanity. But you can see now that mood B, C or D exist within as a part of the picture that you call yourself. When you change from mood A to B, you can see that B is not interested in solving anything. Rather, you are swept away with the new mood, and if it is depression, for example, you will find everything, including self-help to be depressing, and nothing will shake you from this conviction until mood B passes and you return to A. But mood B can be destructive too. Depression may lead to thoughts of suicide. Or mood C or D could be the desire to drink which compels one to drink until drunk, or to indulge in perverted sex, or to attack others. From the perspective of mood A, the other moods are not interested in the good of the self, and do not work for the benefit of your general sanity. They are ultimately destructive as there is no end to such a mood, once indulged in. For they consume more and more time and energy.

There are many ways to demonstrate this inner division to ourselves. For example, when troubled, you could record in a journal your exact feelings and thoughts of the moment. At a later date, when in mood A, you can review the thoughts that you wrote down, to see if they are consistent with your current convictions. If they are not, then such information may tell you that you were identified with a different mood. You might find that your mood changes are subject to time, and if you record the onset you may find a predictability on a calendar. Or you may see that you were thinking the same thoughts before every mood change. By keeping a record or talking to others when you are troubled you will get a better picture of what your moods are and be able to describe or even name them.

WHY IS IT THAT WE become troubled? Is it only the result of perceiving the destructive trends of our "Mr. Hydes"? Or is the mind only troubled when we are in mood A and thinking about our problems? We can see that we feel most troubled or at odds with ourselves when the change from mood A to mood B is actually occurring. Even while depressed, angry or anxious, something gives us the feeling that we are not ourselves, even though the thoughts at the moment can find justification for the new mood and new actions. The lingering memory of the former self and mood creates conflict, or we would not feel troubled at all when we change from mood A to B. The conflict shows that mood A is the original mood or self, by its faint presence throughout the clamor of voices that we experience. Mood A or self A, with its desire for wholeness, survival, and sanity for the self, is the cause of the troubled mind, or we would automatically change moods without conflict or disturbance, and blindly embrace whatever comes along. The fact that our change from A to B causes us deep consternation can only mean that that consternation, like bodily pain from injury, is a warning signal. That the presence of mood A and its subsequent loss can have such a terrible effect upon us can only mean that mood A is very important and more real than all the others. Mood A, our voice of survival, is the real self among the many voices and thus is our link to a true, complete and unified self that we associate with sanity, and that we wish to regain. Self A is the key to our mental freedom.

Therapies that advocate talking out your problems will not, alone, bring about change nor remove the trouble. Neither will analysis of the past straighten out the present. The real problem is the inner division. There cannot be many voices ruling one house, as many modern therapies, such as Gestalt, would have us believe. The conflicting urges and directions will tear us apart, and ultimately, lead in the direction of insanity. One voice must rule, one mood must be dominant, if there is to be a wholeness and peace of mind. We are troubled because other moods and selves exist with which we are identified, and over which our survival voice, self A, is no longer able to exert any influence or control.

So take a look at the different moods or selves from the point of view of mood A, which has the most sobering perspective. Mood or self A is all that we have that holds promise for sanity. It is the most real of all selves, so we are going to bet on the existence and growth of our voice of survival. We then have to consider all other voices, moods, trends, and urges as unreal and dangerous to our survival, for we are going to live for our survival only, rather than destructive indulgence in anything else. All other selves are not us. If we can observe them from the perspective of mood A and the results of the actions committed while under the influence of these moods, they become observable phenomena. As observable phenomena, they are no longer subjective states that we identify with, but objective facts that self A can study, outside of itself. Because they are extraneous selves outside the real or true self, we negate them. These selves are only error, untruth, and falseness that we wish to remove and free ourselves from, rather than identify with and give life to.

We retreat from the error of indulging in many selves in the same way that one stops the hand from burning once it is in the fire. The process can be reversed, the hand removed, and the many selves reduced in the same way that they were gradually accumulated. We have learned from our self-study that many of our false moods or selves are predictable, in that they have a pattern of mental events and associations that bring about change. So we can alert ourselves to events that might sound the arrival of a new mood and herald mental confusion and upheaval. Like the guard at the gate who must cause an alert before the enemy enters the castle, so we must catch the mood before it gains a foothold, and prevent, through whatever means that works for us, the change of our minds from mood A to B. Many individuals have found that prayer or vocal chanting helps at this point. Others point to the help of a friend.

Whatever mental regimen we follow, we know from our observations of the workings of the mind, that we can only think one thought at a time, with another following on its heels. Two thoughts or two moods cannot co-exist, so we need only maintain our mood A and shut out any other, or thoughts that are associated with the onset of a new mood, to maintain ourselves. This mental technique is most apparent in the alcoholic who begins by putting down the bottle and then physically moves himself away from booze. But he must also guard himself from the lines of thinking which will creep over him with temptation for another drink, and a new mood that will encourage drinking. His worst enemy is his own mind, which will play tricks on him. Through a mental, as well as physical discipline, he can constantly remind himself of why he is quitting drinking and encourage thoughts that will forestall mental reverie. In this way he may hold off the torrent of suggestion, and gradually take away his desire to drink, which in the final analysis, is not his real self or "his" desire anyway.

We can apply similar mental abstention techniques to all our problems. Whether it be depression, lust, anger, anxiety, fear, or prideful conceit, moods, urges, voices and selves can be avoided or delayed, to the point that we are able to subtract these obstacles from our thought processes, and our mentality. By encouraging the self to discover ways and means peculiar to itself of avoiding lines of thinking that take us down the road to division, we no longer give any other self an audience, before which to manifest. The inner struggle may not end overnight, and momentary failure may propel us back into a temporary mood, but with sustained effort, common sense which will protect us from making any further mistakes that might revive or create new divisions, and a belief in our right to be one and whole, we can arrive at mental freedom and become whole and clear-thinking for the rest of our lives.

Para-Science Inventions
by Douglass Hardesty

WE LIVE IN A WORLD of mechanical gadgets. We use them every day in our homes, automobiles and occupations. Most of us have only a vague idea of how our car, electric mixer or radio works - but all continue working nonetheless. We believe the reason our gadgets work is because they are based on mechanical principles or laws as concrete as the physical world itself. It is paradoxical that these "immutable physical laws" are created after the fact of finding some principle that works. Electricity was originally thought to be on the same level as voodoo and magic, but after it was continually proven to be a predictable force it entered the world of science and physical law.

Our physical laws and principles are established after proving that a new force or power "works" and is predictable. Thomas Edison refused to work with Nikola Tesla on his alternating current system because he thought it was impossible that such a system could operate. Tesla proved it did work, contrary to theory, and today Tesla's system is used in all the electric power generating systems in the world. Theories were formed to adequately explain it after it was discovered to work. One hundred and fifty years ago chemists were successfully predicting and carrying out experiments even though today we have proven that their basic premises were completely false. How were they able to have successful results when they were operating according to erroneous theories? There may be a super-principle at work here that we are not aware of.

Hendershot's Fuelless Motor

In the back pages of newspapers and magazines through the years we can find scores of claimed discoveries of new forces and inventions of motors that work on no known principle. These stories generally find a place in someone's scrapbook and then are heard of no more. On February 28, 1928 Lester Hendershot made front-page headlines across the nation with his invention of a "fuelless motor." Hendershot claimed to develop power with his device by cutting the earth's magnetic field as our normal generator cuts its own magnetic field. The story was in the papers for ten days until a small notice indicated that Hendershot was in the hospital recovering from a 2000-volt shock he received while demonstrating his device to some investors. The Pittsburgh Press claimed that he had been taken in for a mental examination.

Hendershot's machine was not actually a motor but a generator. It developed electricity which could power another motor but did not produce any usable motion itself. The idea for the generator first came to him in a dream in his early twenties. He forgot the idea for several years and supposedly was motivated to start working on it to replace the broken motor in his child's toy airplane. His first working model was created out of the parts of a worn-out radio and would only operate when lined up north and south. After two years more work he was able to develop a model that worked facing any direction.

Word traveled quickly that Hendershot had developed an unusual invention and he was invited by Air Corps Commander Lamphier to demonstrate his model at Selfridge Field in Detroit. Lamphier was greatly impressed and immediately had technical crews begin developing a larger model. Charles Lindbergh observed the machine in operation and also was very impressed. William Mayo, chief engineer of Ford Motor Company, and William Stout, developer of the three-motor design of airplanes popular in the `20's and `30's, also investigated the device in operation and pronounced it genuine. The model developed at Selfridge Field was able to light two 100-watt light bulbs or power a small sewing machine. Pilots and technicians at the Field praised it as the "greatest invention of the age."

Hendershot's model consisted of some basket-woven coils of wire, stainless steel rings about three inches in diameter and some Anico magnets. It weighed less than ten pounds and any fraud could be easily observed. Hendershot said that the trick was to get just the right proportion of each of the materials. Wrong proportions resulted in it quickly "burning out." It was pre-set when made to turn at a certain speed and put out a certain power.

It would seem that a great discovery had been made. Reputable men sang the praises of the machine and, beyond any doubt, it had proved to be a workable invention - even though it operated on no known principle. About this time some very curious things began to happen. For some unknown reason a distinguished scientist, Professor Hoffstetter of Pittsburgh, rushed to New York and rented at his own expense a large lecture hall to deliver a speech to "debunk the fraud of the Hendershot motor." He declared, among much other rhetoric, that if this invention were accepted it would "destroy faith in science for one thousand years." He said that he had found a small carbon battery in one of the models and that this was the source of its power. Newspapers accepted Hoffstetter's claims and soon no more was heard of the motor - despite the fact that there had been no solid evidence whatsoever to prove the motor a fraud.

It was also curious that Hendershot became paralyzed from a 2000 volt bolt of electricity from a machine he had been working on and grown familiar with for several years. If his machine could develop 2000 volts it would seem to validate his claims rather than prove any fraud. After the supposed accident, Hendershot was paralyzed in arms and legs and palate (so he could talk to no one?). In Wild Talents Charles Fort postulated: "What I pick up, is that there must have been an alarm that was no ordinary alarm somewhere." F.D. Fleming in a 1950 Fate Magazine article suggested that Hendershot was bought off and his invention relegated to oblivion by big business which had much at stake in coal and oil technology.

The Hubbard Energy Transformer

A 1919 front-page headline reported that Alfred Hubbard had developed an amazing machine that could transform radioactive emissions directly into electric power. This is impossible according to modern theory yet Hubbard made a public demonstration of the "Hubbard Energy Transformer" with no trickery or fraud ever discovered. The headline of the December 17, 1919 Seattle Post-Intelligencer reads, "Hubbard's New Energy Device No Fake, Says Seattle College Man." The "college man" was Professor of Physics Dr. William Smith who told the newspapers, "I unhesitantly say that Hubbard's invention is destined to take the place of existing power generators, and that within a few years it will have advanced the whole theory and practice of electricity beyond the dreams of present day scientists."

In a public demonstration Hubbard connected his transformer in a boat to a 35-horsepower electric motor. The small 11-inch diameter by 14-inches in length transformer was able to power the boat at a good speed around Seattle's Pratage Bay for several hours. Fraud was impossible since enough batteries to power the boat for that period of time could not be concealed on board. The impossibility of fraud was undoubtedly why Hubbard chose to conduct his exhibition using a boat.

Gaston Burridge gives a rough description of Hubbard's device. At the center was a hollow non-magnetic tube wrapped in copper wire.

[Illustration: This photograph of Alfred Hubbard demonstrating his "energy transformer" appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1919.]

Within the hollow tube was series of small magnetic rods packed in a radioactive material so that none of the rods made contact with each other. Around this tube were eight coils of wire wrapped upon what seemed to be eight cores of magnetic iron. From the windings Burridge said that the device seemed to be a "step-up" transformer rather than the "step-down" type. There were four lead-out wires and the whole device was encased in a dense material to prevent radiation leakage. It resembled a giant spool and made no noise when in operation.

Shortly after this public demonstration Hubbard was employed by the Radium Chemical Company of Pittsburgh to develop his invention. Several years later he quit the company when they demanded 75% rights from any of his developments. Hubbard more or less disappeared; at least there is no known information as to what happened to him.

Gaston Burridge inquired at the Radium Chemical Company in 1950 for information on Hubbard's work and was told that, "There is no information on the device you mention."

Anti-Gravity Discs

One of the most unusual para-science inventions is Townsend Brown's "anti-gravity discs." For over thirty years Brown would demonstrate his discs to anyone who wished to see them. His usual demonstration was to tie them to a pole with a tether and allow them to fly round and round in a circle under their own power. They made a slight humming noise and gave off a light lavender glow in the dark. Scientists who observed them generally refused to admit what they had seen or accredited the phenomenon to simple and known principles. Brown was largely ignored in the United States but was asked in the 1950's by the French government to run some tests under the auspices of Air-France. In one of these tests a disc was flown in a vacuum, thus eliminating any "lighter-than-air" explanations and the like.

The principle of the discs, according to Brown, is based on the little-known "Biefeld-Brown effect" which is easily demonstrated. If a two-plate direct current condenser is balanced on a balance beam with an equal weight, and then given a charge - the condenser will actually rise into the air with a seeming loss of weight. This will only occur if the positive pole of the condenser is placed upwards. Charging the condenser will result in a movement in the direction of the positive pole. (It is obvious that the most efficient form of this type of condenser is the same disc-shape "flying saucer!")

Of the three basic forces in Nature - electricity, magnetism and gravity - we know the relationship between electricity and magnetism but are still in the dark about the interaction of electricity and gravity. Brown's discs may hold a key here since they demonstrate practically something we have no theoretical understanding of. As of 1958 there were at least nineteen patents being worked on covering different aspects of the Biefeld-Brown phenomenon.

Deland's Magnetic Frost Guard

Many unusual inventions employ magnetism in one way or another. In the 1930's John Deland developed a magnetic device that could prevent frost damage in fruit crops. At one time this device was being used on several hundred acres of trees in California. It has no moving parts but through the use of wires and magnets it seems to set up a force-field which prevents freezing when the temperature drops below 32 F. In one demonstration a thermometer inserted into the middle of an unfrozen orange registered 20' F. In the fall orchards protected by the device do not turn brown until several weeks after nearby trees.

Deland's construction consists of a vertical galvanized tower about twelve feet high with seven copper wires coming from a plywood plate at its top to the concrete footer at bottom. The copper wires pass through the concrete and are radiated at 51' angles in 18-inch trenches 144 feet long. One of the trenches must be pointed directly toward magnetic north. At the end of each wire is an Alnico magnet. The wire passes through this magnet to the surface and is pointed toward the top of the tower.

Deland first got his idea for his invention when passing on dog sled through the Chilkoot Pass in the Klondike during the 1897 gold rush. He witnessed a spectacular display of the Aurora Borealis and was inspired that the powerful magnetic forces that caused the beautiful display could somehow be put to practical use. In this unusual experience Deland claimed that he could actually hear the Aurora Borealis as well as see it. The forces present were so strong that his dog's hair was caused to stand on end. Deland never claimed to be a genius but only a hard-working inventor who had spent seventeen years perfecting his invention. Earlier and similar devices to Deland's were worked on in Switzerland and Germany but were never developed to the point where they were used commercially.

Para-Science and Occultism

Static electricity has been employed in some strange inventions, especially in the fields of medicine and psychology. Dr. Carl Wickland, an avowed spiritualist, developed a machine which he believed removed obsessive entities from neurotics and psychotics. He subjected his patients to a powerful static charge which caused the troubling entities to leave the person and temporarily enter his wife, who was a medium. A discussion was held with the entity through the voice of his wife and it was persuaded to leave the person and go to its proper place in a higher sphere. Most of these entities were believed to be people who had died and did not realize they were dead yet. Others were forcing their will upon the troubled person in order to enjoy different passions through them. Wickland must have realized some success in this method since he practiced it for thirty years until the death of his wife.

[Illustration: Spiritualist, Carl Wickland, and his wife display his "static machine" which he used to drive obsessive entities from troubled persons into Mrs. Wickland, a medium.]

The fringes of science and occultism blend into each other imperceptably. In 1851 wealthy German industrialist Baron Reichenbach claimed he had found an all-pervasive fluidic force with various distinct properties. He called the fluid Od or Odyle, named after the German god Odin and symbolizing an omnipresent power. In this century German psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich claimed to have found a similar force which he labeled the Orgone. Reich built an impressive set of theories and developed many instruments which demonstrated and used this force. His most impressive was the "cloud buster" with which he claimed to be able to control the weather.

The most dramatic effect of this machine was the supposed dissipation of clouds wherever it was aimed. It consisted of a row or rows of hollow metal pipes with one end aimed upward and supported by a rack and the other end grounded in water. Orgone has an affinity for water and by aiming the cloud buster at a cloud, Orgone was drawn from the cloud into the water. If the cloud buster had seven pipes then seven holes would appear in the cloud it was aimed at. Weather was manipulated by changing the Orgone potential of the atmosphere wherever the cloud buster was aimed. The Orgone instruments were some of the last developments of Reich's career and one may wonder if his brilliant mind hadn't grown unstable at this time - since he claimed his cloud buster created a hurricane and attracted flying saucers, among other things.

We like to believe that we have a "handle" on the physical universe, that we understand how things work, and that soon most mysteries will be solved. This view is rapidly becoming outmoded. Science, especially physics, is establishing that our "concrete" physical laws and principles form a shakier foundation than we formerly believed. One physicist has even stated that before we thought of them, there were no such things as atoms! Many inventions on the borders of science have been demonstrated beyond any doubt to actually work even though they contradict accepted laws or enter new territory where we have no guiding theories. Charles Fort claimed that some of these inventors have a "wild talent" of being able to will a machine or principle to work contrary to accepted notions. Some claim that electricity, automobiles and telephones work because we all "will together" and believe they will work. Modern physicists have discovered that the world of atoms and sub-atomic particles exists as much in the mind of the physicist as it does anywhere "out there" in a concrete, physical dimension. Perhaps this key to the microcosmic sub-atomic world also applies to our macrocosmic everyday life.

The Magician of Leavenworth
by Donald Wilson

Editor's Introduction

The story of Hadad, a black Senegalese prison inmate of Fort Leavenworth Prison in Kansas, must be one of the strangest accounts in American literature. In three separate penitentiaries he was reported to have successfully committed suicide only to arise from the dead after being placed in the morgue. He claimed to have attended the universities of Carthage and Oxford and, by profession to be a Haitian Zombi priest. His hypnotic powers were astounding and he could influence guards to hand him their belts for his suicide attempts. He could control seizures of epileptics from a distance and cause the figures of the zodiac to rise in welts on his body. Seemingly, he could escape maximum security precautions whenever he wished. He would simply disappear en route from the back of a paddy wagon and appear again later knocking at the front door of the prison asking for admittance. Hadad's story is doubly valuable since it comes from a conventional psychiatrist with no disposition towards the occult and supernatural. Donald Powell Wilson was psychiatrist in the late 1940's at Fort Leavenworth and his My Six Convicts is an interesting account of his experiences at the prison. This short account of Hadad, taken from the book, is distinctive because it describes a phenomenal person with powers we know so very little about. My Six Convicts was originally published in 1951 by Rinehart and Company.

EVERY SOLITARY CELL contains endemic drama. I learned this one Friday afternoon as my last year was rounding out. Gordon and I had completed our rounds of the psychopathic wards in the cell block, and went below into The Hole to see one of the prisoners, a Negro called Hadad. Thompson and Red, the guards on solitary row, reported that Hadad was acting up again; there had been nothing in his bucket for a week.

I commented that there could not be much from a piece of bread and a gill of water a day. Gordon agreed. But Thompson, he said, just didn't like a man who wouldn't urinate. "'It ain't regular,' he says."

Gordon had seen him the previous day. "He was in the pink. When I asked him about the empty bucket, he said in that damned Oxford accent of his that his guidance had been contrariwise. 'But a thousand pardons,' he said, 'if I have inconvenienced you by my spiritual ascendency.'"

The hospital staff was interested in this psychopathic convict. He was a character right out of Sax Rohmer's inkpot. Weird tales surrounded his origin and history, as is always true of these prophets of magic. He claimed to be a Chaldean astrologer with direct lineage reaching back to 400 B.C. He also claimed to have been educated at the universities of Carthage and Oxford, and that by profession he was a Zombi priest from Haiti. Rumor connected him with voodoo rites and devil worship. He fed these rumors by refusing to deny them and offering his own embellishments. His few intimates informed us that he was part Hindu and part Senegalese. He looked like the latter, large and magnificent in bearing. He was strikingly handsome in a statuesque way.

He had an enviable reputation in some of the large penitentiaries in the country for magic, hypnotism and escape artistry. He claimed friendship with Houdini. To the edification of the prisoners and the mystification of the guards, he was able to escape from handcuffs, strait jackets and cells almost at will.

A warden felt it was an ill wind that brought him Hadad. He completely disrupted the morale of prisons and as often as not left the wardens distrusting their own five senses. How could they be sure when he stood before them whether they were in the presence of his corporeal permeability or his spiritual extenuation? to use Hadad's own fine words.

There were no such things as authentic records on Hadad. They were always disappearing or changing, especially when under his frequent sentences he was in transit from one institution to another.

He himself had been known to be lost in transit between penitentiaries. It was never a matter of his eluding capture. He was most cooperative. He simply would not be in the paddy wagon when it arrived. He would turn up anon, knocking on the main gate for admission, explaining that he had "gotten lost" on the way, or had been detained on business. He never announced his departures, but no one missed his arrivals. He had been seen by some of our staff in the foyer of a Kansas City theater at the close of a concert. In explanation he said, "It has been some time since I have been to a concert, and I felt it would be such a shame not to go. After all, I am just a short distance from the city."

The warden shouted that his sentence did not include theater privileges.

"But sir, I came back, as I always do," Hadad reasoned. "I have no intention of avoiding my sentence. Whom did I harm in doing this? No one even knew I was gone."

For this last impertinence the warden slapped him in solitary for fifteen days.

AS GORDON AND I DESCENDED the stairs to solitary row, Thompson the guard, met us with relief. Hadad was a hot potato for any guard. We went directly to Hadad's cell. There was no response to our queries. Thompson opened the steel door and his flashlight revealed a black body hanging against the bars of the cell gate.

"Cut him down," ordered Gordon, "and get the lights on!" Thompson summoned Red, the relief guard, to help him, and when the latter joined us Gordon gave him a quick look.

"What's holding your pants these days, Red?" Gordon asked. Red's hands flew to his waist. Then he relaxed.

"You had me scared for a minute, Doc," he said. "I'm too old a hand to pass my belt around in solitary."

Thompson stared at Red. "Ain't that your belt around our late friend's neck?" he asked in a kind of croak.

Red looked at the corpse. "What do you mean, belt?" he demanded of Thompson. "Can't you tell a piece of rope from a belt?"

I looked at Gordon, and Gordon looked at me.

"Anyways, what do you mean, my belt?" continued Red. My belt's right here! Can't you see it?" He tapped his waist.

We all looked. He was hallucinating a belt which definitely was not there. Thompson lost his color, but not his tongue.

"The guy's nuts!" he screeched.

"I'm crazy!" Red was losing his patience. "How do you like that, Doc? Who's crazy around here, I ask you?"

"Tell you later," Gordon replied.

We did, when we brought him out of Hadad's post-hypnotic influence. Even then he remembered nothing except Hadad's getting his attention on his first round early that morning. He recognized his belt, of course. He was badly shaken by the fact that he could not remember being hypnotized. Later, when he learned the denouement of the whole affair, Red requested transfer from solitary row, if not from the penitentiary itself.

Upon superficial examination of the corpse Gordon pronounced Hadad dead.

"How long?" I asked.

"Only a few hours," he said. He told Thompson to put Hadad on ice, and as we left the basement he observed that the belt was not pulled tight enough to cause strangulation. "We'll see what the autopsy shows," he said.

With his background, Hadad was a psychiatric curiosity. His autopsy would be quite an event. It was delayed until Sunday when a consulting neurologist could be present to assist Doctor Fellows.

Sunday morning Fellows, the visiting neurologist, Gordon and I met in the morgue and gathered around the majestic body for the final disposition. Fellows and the neurologist agreed upon Fellows making the abdominal incision to excise the lungs and heart, and the neurologist's removing the cap of the skull to get at the brain. The two surgeons put on their gloves, and Fellows was picking up the knife from the instrument table when we heard the soughing sound of a breath. Involuntarily we all looked at the corpse - and saw the ripple of Hadad's gleaming black muscles. He stirred, and slowly rose to a sitting position on the slab, as if he were propelled by invisible gears. He opened his eyes, and in his impeccable Oxford accent said, "Gentlemen, I would rather not, if you don't mind."

Nobody moved. Nobody could.

The knife slipped out of Fellows' limp grasp and clattered upon the concrete floor. Hadad slipped from the slab, stooped down, picked up the knife, laid it on the instrument table, sat on the edge of the slab, and asked for a drink of water.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God!" murmured Fellows, crossing himself quickly.

The neurologist tried to hide his shock, but he choked on a nervous cough. Gordon sucked in a startled breath and swore sharply. I began to breathe again at the sound of Gordon's voice.

There was not a man around the table who had not had some experience, either in his practice or in medical school, with catatonic trances, and who did not have some knowledge of Hadad's corporeal heterodoxy. Nevertheless, in spite of our scientific smugness, none of us were prepared for what had just happened. We had all thought Hadad was respectably dead.

Gordon committed Hadad to an unwilling guard with instructions that he be taken to the psychopathic ward for observation, and we men sat around in the morgue talking among ourselves. We did not feel like going back to Sunday golf. We reviewed our experiences with catalepsy mysticism, and extrasensory perception. Fellows, the religionist, made it quite plain that Hadad was my boy from that moment. That was how I wanted it; he would be an interesting study.

Catatonic trances lasting several days are not uncommon in institutions for the insane, in psychological and medical records, and in East Indian magic lore, in the latter of which it is always given an occult complexion. The laws of many states demand that the undertaker embalm a corpse to avoid burial alive, and because of the too-frequent spectacle of a corpse reviving in time to climb out of the coffin and disrupt his own funeral service. Literature is full of tales of a corpse being committed to the family burial vault, and of having the grieving cortege find that the bones of the last interred member of the family were no longer in his crypt, but in a pathetic heap at the vault door. These tales all have their counterpart in fact. It was not very long ago that an undertaker found himself in serious trouble when a ten-year-old boy who had not been embalmed, resuscitated himself during his last rites.

We all agreed that Hadad's three-day trance was not uncommon, but the fact that he had retained consciousness and memory during the trance, so that he could terminate it before Fellows incision was made, put him in select psychological company.

On Monday morning Gordon and I had Hadad brought to my office. One would have thought it was he who summoned us. He addressed us as if we were precocious school boys, saving us the banalities of questions.

"You are, of course, interested in the phenomena of the weekend. It was nothing. I did it only as a means of coming to your learned attention."

He paused to study Gordon's and my expressions.

"I can see," he resumed, "that, being scientists, you are naturally skeptics, that you must have proof. Very well. Gentlemen," he said, "you will concur with me that among the epileptics in the psychopathic ward there are several hopeless cases with severe brain deterioration, who suffer seizures daily?"

This was true.

And was it not true, he asked, that even with the use of drugs we still could not delay the seizure of a deteriorated epileptic for as long as three consecutive days?

This was true also. Delay for even a few hours was problematical among such cases.

He straightened in his chair and fixed his black eyes on us. His voice was quiet, intense.

"Gentlemen, as a demonstration of the use of mental telepathy in healing at a distance, I will delay all seizures in the psychopathic ward, including these deteriorated cases, from this hour, until the same hour on Thursday. For three days and three nights. As further proof of my control," he continued, "the seizures will resume on Thursday morning, beginning at this hour."

He looked from Gordon to me, and waited.

What he was proposing to do would be spectacular. He was committing himself to two phenomena: the abrupt cessation of seizures at one hour on one day, and the abrupt resuming of them at the same hour on another day.

"What about you, Hadad?" asked the practical Gordon. "Where will you spend the time between now and Thursday afternoon? You have a history of being A.W.O.L. on several occasions, you know."

Hadad smiled at the dig. "I will stay wherever you wish, sir. In my solitary cell, perhaps?"

"'Perhaps' is right," murmured Gordon, "What do you say, Wilson?"

I said I would be willing to let him launch his experiment with the epileptics, that even a three-day respite would be something for them. Hadad inclined his head in thanks. "It is gratifying to find you two gentlemen accessible to the influence of the stars," he murmured. "I can teach you healing, mental telepathy, and psychic control of the body, even at a distance. I can teach you the mysteries of astrology. Not the astrology of the common Hindu and East Indian fakir, but cosmic-somatic astrology."

Neither Gordon nor I spoke, a fact which Hadad may have interpreted as skepticism. I was not interested in hocus-pocus, but if underneath his hocus-pocus the man had integrity and altruism, and could add anything to the existing resources of hypnotic therapy, I would go with him as far as I could.

He soon resumed. "You will ask for proof again. My teaching credentials, if you will," he said, bowing to me. "Very well: in a few moments I shall again return to the astral plane. You learned men will call it a trance, catatonia, or even death. But I shall at all times be completely in possession of all my faculties. Gentlemen, I will cause the signs of the zodiac to appear on my body!"

He rose, removed his hospital robe and stood before us naked. "You will find Aries appearing on my forehead, Cancer on my breast, Sagittarius on the thighs," he said. "All twelve signs of the Zodiac will appear on my body at the appropriate places."

He moved two desks together, lay down on them, and threw himself into rigidity and convulsions. The whole process took only a few minutes.

We bent over his body. It was difficult to establish erythema (red blotching or flushing of the skin) on a body so black, but unmistakable dermagraphia (raised, hive-like patches) began to appear. The wheals and welts assumed a shade that could, with a little latitude, be called red. Then, while we watched there appeared on forehead, breast and thighs the three signs he had mentioned, and elsewhere on his body the outlines of three others. The remaining six areas, even with generous Gestalt, could not honestly be called the signs of the Zodiac. The phenomenon, however, lay in the fact that without external irritation of the skin, and at will, he had produced localized, controlled dermagraphia.

Gordon checked the quiet black body, and for the second time in three days pronounced him dead by all tests. There was no stethoscopic heart sound, no breath on the mirror, no corneal reflex.

"Let's see if he will bleed." For this test Gordon punctured one of the veins in Hadad's wrist. As in death, there was not sufficient blood pressure to cause a flow of blood.

"There's everything here but putrefaction," Gordon said, without further conjecture about the state of things in Denmark. "What about these other signs, Professor?"

"I can't honestly say they look like signs of the Zodiac," I said. At that moment Hadad relaxed his convulsive posture and resumed his precise and patient speech. Our untutored eyes, he said, would properly envision the appropriate astral signs in detail, if we would obtain a large magnifying glass.

This was no ordinary trance or simple suspended animation. It was beyond the usual psychotic catatonia or catalepsy. This was the second time Hadad had retained both consciousness and memory while in a trance, and had terminated it at will. It was not a statistical accident.

While Gordon went for the glass Hadad again induced rigidity, which he maintained until the seance was over. The glass brought out two more signs of reasonable credibility.

Later I asked Hadad how he could remain conscious to the extent of knowing what was taking place, and of speaking to us when he was in such deep trance as to be considered medically dead.

"Suspended animation, Doctor; it is simple," he said.

But it wasn't. The best exponents of the occult cannot, or will not, iterate their own powers. His explanation trailed off into gibberish and superstition.

We watched the epileptics closely night and day in the next seventy-two hours. It was as Hadad had said it would be. There were no seizures in the ward, even among the cases of deterioration. Hadad was kept in his solitary cell, and paid no detectable visits to the psychopathic ward. On Thursday morning the tragic hell of the epileptic broke upon the ward.

Hadad had called this a demonstration of mental telepathy. But inasmuch as he had spent the twenty-four hours from Sunday morning to Monday morning in the psychopathic ward, it was much more probable that the delay of seizures was the result of post-hypnotic suggestion given by Hadad while he was still with the patients from Sunday to Monday. It would have been simple for a hypnotist of Hadad's skill to hypnotize the patients during those twenty-four hours, giving them post-hypnotic amnesia, so that they would not remember being hypnotized. But it demanded hypnosis of a very superior order.

Gordon and I admitted to ourselves that, though science might explain much of Hadad's magic in terms of psychological phenomenon, science was not reproducing it on Hadad's scale. We might explain what his magic was, but, with all our training and knowledge, we could not yet interrupt a deteriorated epileptic's seizures.

We were struck with the incongruity of the fact that here was modern science epitomized in a research hospital with the last word in equipment, and with the best consultants in the country only five telephone minutes away. But no x-ray machine could penetrate, no microscope reveal, nor surgery excise, no cosmic ray illuminate, no test tube break down the rationale of a black man in a dungeon five hundred feet away, quietly working the ancient mysteries of the world outside the body and the senses, quietly reflecting the ancient philosophic victory of mind in the impingement of the unknown and feared upon the known.

We hoped that Hadad might be a man of sufficient character and integrity to work with us in illuminating the unknown and the feared in the "No Man's Land" of the mind. We listened in the weeks that followed for some sign of integrity while he engaged us in dissertations on hypnosis, yogiism, telekinesthesia, mental telepathy and occultism in general. He knew most of the authentic literature in these fields. He made quite a point of the symbolism of his three-day death and resurrection, which he repeated at our request. He explicitly pointed out that from his Friday afternoon suicide to the Sunday morning autopsy was, as the Orientals reckon, three days. The implication was clearly that Christ had nothing on him.

We were not learning much, beyond his strong sense of his own destiny. He was greater than Mohammed, greater than Christ. One day when we began to weary of his egoism, I asked him why, with all his powers of escape and healing, he found himself in penitentiary. "Thank you, Doctor. I have been waiting for you to ask. You see, gentlemen, I am here on a mission. It is, in fact, a dual mission. Both are good, although one is a mission of death and the other of life." Here it comes, I thought. Gordon and I offered him only our combined acute silence, so he continued.

"I am destined to wander throughout the world seeking two excessively evil and malign spirits, and to relieve them of their corporeal anatomy."

Gordon glanced at me with raised brows. Hadad smiled amusedly. "No, no, gentlemen, not you. I have, in fact, already found one of those spirits, and he is not."

Murder in the name of God. I was sorry to hear it.

"The other mission is to find two men upon whom I can bestow my mantle of therapy, the like of which has not been known since Christ. It has been revealed to me that you two gentlemen are the worthy successors."

That was one time Gordon and I didn't look at each other. We both looked at Hadad.

IN ADDITION TO OUR OWN observations and our conferences with Hadad, we conducted some investigations into his past. Reports from two penitentiaries confirmed his boasts that in each he had committed suicide and that all recognized tests for death had been positive. The doctors, always willing to admit new evidence, had quickly revised their diagnosis to schizophrenic catatonia when on one occasion a watchman in the morgue found the stiff flexing his muscles.

We also found verification of a murder charge, but it was not the murder of which he had told us, or those on which he later elaborated. One stubborn piece of data stood on record. At one time, perhaps when he was in search of one of the two malign spirits, he had been a member of a famous gang that was terrorizing the Southwest. He was inside the turtleback of a car when the police closed in and riddled it with machine gun bullets. It careened into a cornfield, and Hadad was extracted from the sieve unharmed.

His time was not yet, Hadad explained to us. "I found it expedient to deflect the bullets from the anatomical headquarters of my spirit."

"What do you make of Hadad's anatomical headquarters?" Cordon asked me later.

"I don't know," I said lamely, "I wasn't there."

As the days passed Hadad became increasingly aware that we were more curious than convinced, and he began to press the matter of our succession to The Mantle.

"Since my cosmic mission is almost completed," he said, "and I shall soon depart this sphere, I wish to impart to you these priceless therapeutic secrets in an initiation, a blood rite."

He told us that according to his Order, the rite must take place at astral midnight, which was two o'clock in the morning according to our time, and in the solitary cell which had been the scene of his "death."

Gordon and I wondered between ourselves whose blood would be used for this rite, and exactly how much? and if something beside his mantle would descend on us at astral midnight?

In his last appeal, Hadad assured us that after the initiation we would never be the same again. We would be, among other things, ageless and timeless.

This we could believe.

The prospect of the midnight rite brought to my mind Gordon's words on my first day at the penitentiary. "A little honest fear's a good thing around here."

Hadad was many times a murderer. His activities as the "fingerman" of the terrorizing gang meant that he had used his occult skills nefariously to draw the gang's victims out of hiding, whereupon he liquidated them.

Further, although he was a superior exponent of his profession, he was also a small-time showman. With his lofty sense of personal destiny, it seemed incongruous that he should spend his time turning up missing for the amusement and consternation of credulous prison populations.

Although in his personal relation to Gordon and me he was always cooperative, deferential and charming, he was all these almost to a fault. However charming he was, he lost me when I learned of his murder mission, and when he invited us to a blood rite. I had too much respect for his ability as a hypnotist to put myself under his influence. Hadad was not above seeking added prestige by discrediting medicine and psychology in a practical joke. Had we placed ourselves in his charge, he could have left us hypnotized in the dungeon, to wake at the morning cell count unable to explain our stuporous presence to the guards or the administration. Or, having hypnotized us, he could have incapacitated us physically or crippled us neurologically. He could have left us mentally dissociated. We could have awakened from the trance insane. He could have given us amnesia for our scientific background and training, and left us wild-eyed exponents of the occult. We had no way of knowing what he might do. He might have killed us.

When Gordon and I declined the Mantle, and when there was no further apparent value in studying his case, Hadad went cooperatively back to the psychopathic ward, and was finally absorbed again into the general prison population.

As has been said, Hadad's parapsychology can hardly be posed as rare in the annals of medicine and psychosomatics. However, the following phenomena in his case were unusual:

The uninterrupted function of consciousness and memory during his catatonic and cataleptic trances.
His control of the depth and termination of his trance.
His controlled, autonomous dermagraphia in producing the signs of the Zodiac upon his body.
His post-hypnotic therapy with the deteriorated epileptics of the psychopathic ward, who in our knowledge were beyond hope.

In explanation of Hadad's metapsychics, psychology would say that his catatonic trances were induced by autohypnosis; and that his disappearances from paddy wagons and cells, his presence at the concert, and his getting Red's belt to effect a fake suicide were accomplished by his generous endowment in escape artistry and contortionism, and by hypnotizing whoever stood between him and freedom at any given time: a keeper, a guard, an attendant; giving them amnesia for the incident in post-hypnotic suggestion.

He was a magnificent hypnotist. Gordon and I were only sorry he could not have passed on to us his skills in some other way that in a blood rite at astral midnight in a dungeon.

Regarding his corporeal impermeability when he was fired upon in the turtleback, I have no further light. I don't know, I wasn't there. I hope it will be something more spectacular than the common cold that finally successfully invades Hadad's charming anatomical headquarters. As I remember, he did have a highly susceptible upper respiratory tract...

Book Reviews

Analyze Handwriting Immediately, Joseph Zmuda, Z-Graphic Publications, San Francisco, 1980, 88pp.

Handwriting analysis has always fascinated me because it seems consistent with common sense to look for a connection between someone's personality and his writing, while at the same time, the logic of that connection is elusive. It seems obvious that a person's mental and emotional traits should affect what his hand puts down on paper, but why should the written results be anything but random, and establish patterns that can be applied to everyone?

I have yet to read a book on handwriting analysis that even attempts to answer this question, perhaps because no answer exists. But if handwriting analysis remains a science without a theory, it is sufficient if it works. Joseph Zmuda's Analyze Handwriting Immediately is a workbook that enables the reader to decide for himself if the method works, because it is designed to take one step-by-step through a complete analysis of a handwriting sample without the need for any prior training.

The book is divided into eighty-six steps that relate a handwriting feature to a particular personality trait. As you go from page to page, you examine your handwriting sample and, after deciding whether or not a particular feature can be found in it, you make an appropriate notation on a worksheet that is provided. The system is ingenious and very easy to follow, especially because Zmuda provides copious and clear examples with which to compare the sample on which you are working.

The final result of the analysis is a completed worksheet that provides a profile of 137 personality factors in nine different categories: depth of feeling, temperament, mental habits, basic personality, interpersonal factors, work habits, success drive, integrity factors, fears, hostilities and major risk factors (e.g. insincerity and neurotic conflicts). Zmuda's text not only describes what handwriting features to look for, but he elaborates on the mental characteristics, helping the reader to construct a comprehensive picture of the subject's personality. In this, he shows a great depth of understanding of psychology as well as a mastery of handwriting analysis. For example, he states that excessively tall t's and d's indicate vanity, and goes on to explain: "Psychologically, vanity begins in one of two ways during childhood: the writers were constantly praised until they began to expect praise as their due even for inconsequential actions. Or the writers were not praised at all: in order to boost up their self-esteem and value for such imagined fears as self-consciousness or sensitiveness to criticism, they gave themselves a superior self-image."

Analyze Handwriting Immediately was originally conceived as a tool for medical professionals to evaluate staff and to gain insight into patients. Its focus is for the professional or employer who must make decisions relating to hiring or who, for some other reason, needs to know "about the motivation, sincerity, bias, probable behavior and inner problems of other people." But Zmuda points out that you can, as well, analyze handwriting in an effort to gain deeper knowledge about yourself, your family and friends. Using the book in this way serves as an enjoyable and fascinating exercise in the study of human nature; continued use would undoubtedly sharpen one's intuition about the character of the people we encounter daily, while conveying the basic principles of handwriting analysis.

Louis Knorey

The New Celibacy, Gabrielle Brown, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1980, 200pp.

Brown's The New Celibacy is oriented toward the group that has "tried it all" in the sexual sphere and now may be looking for a new orientation in terms of celibacy. Much of the book is a rehash and mild critique of the various "liberation" philosophies and "pop" psychologies of the last fifteen years. Brown believes that most people involved in the "sexual revolution" have not found the fulfillment they were seeking, but instead succeeded in reducing sex to a mere bodily function instead of the expression of love and intimacy it should be. This is the only book on the subject of celibacy that has been published in the United States, to my knowledge. The New Celibacy is a rudimentary treatment compared to what can be found in some Eastern treatises, but still it opens a door to what may be a more comprehensive treatment in the future. With every extreme movement, such as the "sexual revolution," there is an inclination for a reactionary trend following shortly after.

Brown's basic premise is that a new and higher type of love can develop between people who aren't concentrating and expending their energies in physical and sexual "love." She writes:

"There seems to be a kind of personal strength and charisma that celibate men manifest. A celibate man who has freely chosen to be celibate and is comfortable with it offers other people the chance to see themselves reflected in his eyes and heart in other than sexual ways. It's a great gift to 'see' and 'be seen' without the imposition of the dominating sexual viewpoint."

Although her basic theme is that new types of human interrelations can develop through celibacy, she also suggests that celibacy can reap mental and spiritual rewards. Conserved sexual energy can find its way into new areas and increase progress in whatever area it is directed. She quotes Thoreau: "Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness and the like are but various fruits which succeed it." From a negative aspect Balzac put the same very bluntly: "If you sleep with a woman, you leave your novel on her bed." Newton, Immanual Kant, William Pitt, Luther, Beethoven, Freud and George Shaw as well as many other geniuses were celibate all or much of their lives. In the spiritual sphere, St. Augustine said that, for the celibate, God can become "the spouse of the soul" and one's aspirations can be directed toward spiritual goals rather than sexual ones.

One point on which Brown is in error (although she doesn't treat it directly) is that true celibacy involves no form of masturbation or other conscious sexual activity. The historic purpose of celibacy is basically the conservation of the sexual energy which is most dramatically lost in orgasm. Masturbation expends at least as much energy as male-female intercourse, and so defeats the whole purpose. Occultists claim that even more energy is lost in masturbation because in male-female sex a degree of energy is exchanged as well as expended.

Brown's book is directed primarily to the victims or exponents of the sexual revolution since "Americans easily participate in what not so long ago they considered the most unnatural of acts -- and which is now often considered correct dating procedure." She explores many of the myths of the sexual revolution such as that permanent satisfaction can ever be found sexually, that masculinity is a function of sexual prowess, and that a sexual outlet is necessary for health reasons. She points out that in the past men were revered for their ability to control themselves sexually while presently everything has been reversed and reverence has been reserved for those with the highest number of "scores." The New Celibacy is somewhat simplistic in approach and loosely knit, but it is to be praised in that it is the only book available on this strangely taboo subject in our "liberated" society.

Mark Jaqua

The Secrets of Spirulina, Christopher Hills, University of the Trees Press, 1980, 218pp.

The Secrets of Spirulina is an excellent collection of seventeen papers by Japanese scientists, doctors and journalists on the seemingly miraculous properties of the new food and medicinal product, spirulina. With some additional material by editor Christopher Hills The Secrets of Spirulina is an English translation from the Japanese original. Spirulina is actually an ancient food product that is currently being rediscovered by scientists and nutritionists the world over. It is a micro-organism or algae which appears naturally in salt lakes and springs in Mexico, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Australia. It has a protein content of from 69-71% and thus, amazingly, contains three and a half times the protein of eggs, beef or fish! It additionally has many unique properties which has caused it to be regarded as a medicinal product for which it has been extensively tested in Japan. From all available evidence at present, Spirulina appears to be a vastly superior food-source and possible solution in obtaining nourishment for the world's exponentially growing population.

Spirulina is a Latin-derived word and literally means "little spiral." An individual Spirulina is barely detectable to the naked eye but under magnification can be seen as a perfectly symmetrical coiled strand of almost pure protein. Its spiral form is uncanny and mysterious when considering that this same shape is found throughout nature from the DNA molecule to galaxies and nebulae. It is indeed almost a magical food since, as well as being perhaps the highest protein food available in nature, it is also the most potent source of vitamin B12 of any food. It is also easily grown in its pure form since no other micro-organisms can survive in the unique alkaline conditions it thrives in. In ancient times, and in some cultures today, it is simply skimmed from the surface of the lake with a woven basket, dried and then ready for consumption or storage.

Japanese scientists have done much research in the use of Spirulina as a medical product and have found positive results in the treatment of numerous diseases and deficiencies. Dr. Tadaya Takeuchi has found it has beneficial effects on those suffering from anemia, diabetes and liver diseases. Positive effects have also been found in treating pancreatitis and hepatitis, and in many cases it has been demonstrated to be more effective than previous medications. It has been found effective in treating cataracts and glaucoma, and in one study by Dr. Yoshito Yamazaki it was found to produce improvement in 90% of 480 cases of geriatric cataracts. Possibly much of the medicinal value of spirulina can be attributed to its immense health value as a food. Only eight grams of Spirulina is equivalent in protein, mineral and vitamin quantity to one hundred grams of the popular health food tofu. Some regard Spirulina as a completely sufficient food in itself. The eighty-five year-old Japanese philosopher Toru Matsui has been living in excellent health solely on spirulina for over fifteen years!

At present the world production of spirulina is one thousand tons per annum, most being produced in Mexico at an amazing spiral-shaped artificial lake two miles in diameter owned by the Sosa Texcoco Company. Initially this facility was designed to extract caustic soda from the potent waters of the vicinity but it was discovered that spirulina could be commercially grown at the same site. The Mexican and Japanese equivalents of our FDA have approved spirulina as a food source and there are plans to incorporate 150 tons per year in the school lunch program in the Mexico City school district. The rediscovery of spirulina could provide us with a food source unequaled in nutritive value and, as well, be a large step forward in solving world problems of malnutrition and starvation in a growing population.

Christopher Hills has also published two other books on Spirulina, Food From Sunlight and Rejuvenating the Body. Dr. Hills is a man of rare abilities and exhibits expertise in areas ranging from science and nutrition to economics and esoteric philosophy. He has authored and edited numerous other books including Nuclear Evolution, Creative Conflict, and Rise of the Phoenix.

Mark Jaqua

[Illustration: Hypnos, Greek god of sleep. Moulding our Inner and Outer Lives - from Birth to Death....]

The Dream Intention
by Linda J. Houlahan

You were born and you will one day die. In between these two absolutes you have in common with all human beings since the beginning of our creation one other experience - you dream. The amount of time you will spend in a dreaming state during your lifetime far exceeds the time you will spend eating your quota of daily meals - an activity recognized as necessary for physical survival - yet how aware are you of the physical, mental, and emotional necessity to dream?

Dream Beginnings in the Lab

Investigations of the dream state, commonly known as REM (rapid eye movement), or paradoxical sleep, began in 1952 in the University of Chicago sleep laboratory of Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman. While routinely monitoring the EEG patterns of sleeping subjects, Kleitman's research assistant, Eugene Aserinski, became intrigued with the sudden frantic storm of alpha wave activity that periodically broke into the tracings of the sleeper's brain waves. He noted that simultaneous eyeball movements occurred in seeming orchestration with these erratic cycles. Upon being awakened and questioned the sleepers reported having had vivid dreams prior to being awakened. The REM dream state had been discovered, sleep research took a monumental turn in its history, and the dreaming state began to claim its place in the future work of researchers. When REM was found to be the rule, and not the exception in the sleep patterns of all normal people, speculation about dreams was inevitable.

Because of an apparent correlation between the sidewise and/or up and down movements of the eyeballs and the reported visual imagery in the dream scene (such as climbing stairs, watching a tennis match, etc.), it was at first believed that the REM's were "acting out" dream actions. The supposition dissolved upon the discovery that even the congenitally blind showed these eye movements. The blind report dreams of an auditory and/or tactile nature - they feel and hear instead of "seeing" their dreams.

These eye movements can easily be observed in infants also, leading to conjecture of what babies could possibly have to dream about. Years ago, before the studies with babies came to my attention, I watched one of my little ones dreaming and was prompted to write:

"Does my child dream when gentle sleep closes sunlit eyes?

Do visions of the world he left drift across his brow?

So close to the borderlands where Spirit makes Its choice

The babe must still remember - a world apart.

In time, the scenes must fade, replaced by images of Now,

And new experience will erase the shadows of that Other Place."

Perhaps one day deeper research will be done, possibly with the new techniques available in regression hypnosis, and we will have a clearer picture of the dreams of the very young.

THE UNALTERABLE FACT remains that dreams do occur, not only from birth onward to death, but also in utero! One school of thought, which is well supported by research findings, holds that there is a correlation between REM sleep and the maturing processes of the nervous system, as well as the physical growth of the brain's cerebral cortex.

It is postulated that in intra-uterine life and early infancy REM sleep facilitates the physical processes which enable a child to develop motor coordination, visual and spatial awareness, etc. Later, it appears to help unite other sensory-fed integrative processes associated with cognitive learning and social development.

Witness the fact that a three-week premature infant will spend approximately 75% of his total sleep time in REM during the first three weeks of exo-uterine life. At the end of three weeks the ratio falls to that of all normal full-term babies, which is 50%. In that period much development is occurring which would have been accomplished in the womb, particularly regarding growth of the central nervous system. The 50% ratio of full-term babies remains fairly constant for the first five years of life, during which time the nervous system is completing its maturation and the child is acquiring motor and sensory capabilities that will carry him through his entire life. At age five the ratio of REM to other sleep stages falls to the 25% level and remains there through adulthood.

Dream content - visual symbols - develop gradually during the child's early years as he learns and assimilates new experiences. It appears that somewhere in the first few months or years of life the REM dreams become less a physical manifestation of the brain, and more an expression of the developing mind. By the time cognitive processes reach their peak, the dream material has begun to perform the functions of assimilating, correlating, and re-presenting new experiences of a social, emotional, and mental nature. As the evidence gathers force it becomes more and more apparent that we all must dream in order to grow, develop and survive.

Taking Our Dreams Away

So strong is the need to dream that attempts to deprive people of their dreams, through awakenings spaced at the onset of REM phases, will lead to some surprising reactions. In one evening's series of awakenings a typical subject may go from mildly irritated during the first few interruptions to downright surly as the night progresses. Toward morning his "internal dream producers" are attempting to pop out dreams with increasing frequency, and the researchers may have to be on their toes to prevent one from sneaking into the sleep pattern. In the meantime our dreamer has reached a point of exasperation. After several more nights of dream deprivation, (all other sleep phases are allowed - only REM is prevented) the subject's mental and emotional condition becomes increasingly precarious. Some people exhibit marked paranoiac reactions, but all note escalating irritability and tenseness, inability to concentrate and a decrease in other mental functions such as simple mathematical problem-solving, along with heightened sexual tension and an increase in appetite.

The degree to which a person may suffer these various symptoms seems to be congruent with his basic emotional and mental stability under normal circumstances. Those who handle stress well and have a positive outlook on life in general may exhibit only mild neurotic responses, while the less mentally stable person may become greatly disturbed. One young man literally "ran off" after several nights of dream interruption, never to be heard from again. Youth and good physical health are important variables which help to offset the more severe reactions.

Experiments in REM deprivation in humans have not gone much beyond four or five nights in any given series for obvious reasons. Once a subject is allowed to return to unbroken sleep he then experiences the phenomenon known as REM Rebound, an acceleration of total dreaming time that is two to three times more than his norm. Normal REM being 25%-rebound dreaming can go upwards of 60%. Rebound appears to be the system's way of "making up" for lost dreams. Once we have recouped the losses, so to speak, the rebound effect slacks off to a normal ratio again.

Drugs and Pills Affect the Dreams

There are other, less controlled methods of forestalling the REM dreams than those which take place in the relatively safe confines of a sleep laboratory. Two of them are so common in our society as to go unnoticed as dangerous to our dreaming minds. They are the consumption of alcohol and reliance on sleeping pills! Let's talk about alcohol first.

Alcohol in any quantity can short-circuit the REM cycle for a single night (depending on one's tolerance for alcohol), but in the case of chronic alcoholism there is a much more serious threat. Since alcohol is REM-inhibiting and has a cumulative effect on the dreaming process, it invariably leads to the terrifying waking reality of delirium tremens - an all too real nightmare provided by a mind too long restrained from its normal mode of expression. The alcoholic who is attempting to "dry out" goes through the hellish process of a form of REM Rebound unlike anything faced by the fellows who volunteer for sleep research REM deprivation. When you consider the various pressures which bring people to a state of chronic alcoholism, the pain and heartache it causes, the guilt and feelings of inadequacy, the loss of self-esteem, etc. and then add to that the devastating after-effects of his attempts to go "on the wagon," you can perhaps understand the alcoholic's plight.

Many drugs, mostly those listed as "psychoactive," "hypnotics," "barbiturates," even some of the more common tranquilizers, as well as the "over-the-counter" sleeping pills turn out to have some side-effects that few physicians suspect. They steal our dreams. Ironically, the so-called "sleeping aids" which are intended to facilitate restful sleep for the sufferer of an occasional "insomniac attack" become the chief catalysts in a vicious cycle of further sleep disturbance. They contain a basic chemical ingredient, which in certain dosages prevent the REM cycle from occurring.

[Illustration: "Queen Katherine's Dream" by William Blake.]

The unwary insomniac resorts to the O.T.C. (over-the-counter) sleeping pill, or gets a prescription from his family doctor - which probably contains the same chemical in stronger form - and goes home looking forward to some relief from his problem. That night he drifts off into a dreamless sleep, and may awaken in the morning to find himself somewhat irritable and tense. The next night he feels edgy enough to justify another pill, and before very long he is on the merry-go-round - very similar to what the dream deprived man in the lab experiences. Dreamless sleep produces tension and tension makes the daily problems seem more difficult to handle as physical and mental stress build, leading to "pill-popping" in the hope that where one failed, two might do the trick. As increased dosages are frantically resorted to, the cycle spins toward more and more severe repercussions.

Unless the cycle is broken it can lead to extremely serious consequences. Once the pills are finally stopped the worst is yet to come. Now the person goes through the REM Rebound phase, which after only one week of dream deprivation can be a scary experience. These rebound dreams usually take the form of nightmares of a repetitive nature. For a person already suffering abnormal sleep patterns the rebound can only add more fuel to the "psychic fire." Not a very fair price to pay for a few nights of sleep - our insomniac might be better off to cooperate with his insomnia by using the wee-small hours to catch up on his reading. Just as an aside: new information is surfacing now that indicates that material which is read and then "slept on" is more easily learned - if we dream after reading it!

So, what does all this prove? That if we don't dream we are likely to go crazy? Well... although it may seem a logical conclusion, it may not necessarily be so. Who would care to test the hypothesis to its fullest extent? For now, it seems enough to examine what is known about the dreaming process and its functions in our internal environment. We know some of the things that happen when we are not given free rein to dream, and from this information can now turn to examine a few of the positive aspects of the subject of dreams as they occur naturally, as the universal expression of human consciousness.

The Unbidden Dream

Why do we dream with such regularity and persistence four to six times (average) each night? It has been proven that we all do it, regardless of whether we remember it. What is happening inside our mental and emotional selves? The most recent research causes the experts to amend their first statements that dreams are the sole property of the REM cycle. It appears that some form of "mentation" occurs in all sleep stages (cycles are labeled 1 through 4): thought in the so-called "unconscious" state of sleep exists as it does consciously, as a continuum. The dreams we recall when we spontaneously awaken usually come out of the REM stage. They differ in tone, vividness, color, detail, and content from those of other sleep states (and memory of them is more accessible). More often than not they are rich in emotional material. Some are so emotionally charged that we find it difficult to "shake" them. Others are full of symbolic puns, or just interestingly funny. Some seem like pure wish-fulfillment, but most recalled dreams appear a meaningless jumble of vague and disconnected images with no apparent bearing on anything remotely connected to us, our lives, or the situations we are in. They are a mystery, and until a real "block buster" comes along we remain content to view them as curiosities and let it go at that. But we shouldn't be so eager to dismiss the hodge-podge of our dreams; chances are that the dream you had last night served a very good purpose, and may have further beneficial effects for you. More about these effects a little later.

The Theories Abound

The earliest theories about dreaming, specifically Freud's psychoanalytical ones, regarded them as mechanisms for the expression of repressed sexual and/or aggressive urges as, indeed, some may be. We must caution that any theory should be considered within the framework of the times and the bias of the theorist who produces it. Freud postulated his doctrines during the Victorian Age of sexual denial and suppression. He based his ideas upon the dreams of a limited number of people as well as his own. His patients had serious emotional problems, and Freud himself may have had a few wrinkles in his mental shirt.*

This is not meant as an indictment against Freud - certainly his contribution to the understanding of the unconscious, the workings of the libido, the mechanics of repression and suppression, his discovery of "wish-fulfillment" in our dreams are invaluable, and the serious student of dreams would be short-changing himself if he were to dismiss them without thoughtful consideration. It is only meant to offer perspective in the hopes that the dream student will not swallow these ideas before chewing them first.

* Read Why Freud Fainted by Samuel Rosenburg (Dobbs-Merrill Co. 1978).

Later, Carl Jung came along with his insights into the nature of the "collective unconscious," the repository of the archetypal images that appear in dreams. He saw the dreaming mind as striving to blend the mythos of humankind into the reality of daily life - a kind of upward movement of consciousness toward a unified whole. Where Freud viewed dreams at the level of libido (below the belt, so to speak), Jung raised them into realms of higher expression, assigning them to the spiritual nature of man, broadening their scope.

Both Freud and Jung constructed the basic foundations upon which others have continued to build. Dozens of additional views about the nature of dream meanings have been added by theorists and practitioners since Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900, from Erich Fromm to existentialists such as Medard Bass, to Perls and Gestalt Therapy; the list goes on ad infinitum.

The problem with all these differing approaches (and some are so contradictory as to cause total confusion to the student), is one of "who do you trust?" In his recently published, and excellent work Working With Dreams, Montague Ullman comments on the dilemma: "The images that appear in dreams are... influenced so that sexual symbols appear more often in the dreams of patients being analyzed by Freudians and archetypal images in the case of Jungians." The dream symbol interpretations "are influenced by the predilections of the therapist." We should keep in mind that the majority of us will hopefully never have the need to go into any therapeutic analysis for our problems. We may, however, wish to read and study, for our own personal enlightenment, the various ideas of the professionals in the field. Then we should strive to retain objectivity, and to avoid reliance on any one method to the exclusion of all others. There is no one unified and totally complete or right method of dream interpretation that everyone can use effectively. Each offers something, but none offer everything.

In reviewing the available sources (and new information is being published in a steady stream, just check your local bookstore), you will find that for the average person who wants to learn from his dreams there is no better interpreter than the self. This is really the bottom line; you and you alone are the final judge of the true meaning of your own dreams. They are the expression of your "internal psychiatrist" - the dream is the dreamer, and vice-versa. Theories can give you techniques to help you understand, but the final analysis is and must be, your personal subjective decision - the gut-level response that says "Aha, that's it!"

Those "Right-Brain" Solutions

Earlier I said that even the dreams we choose to ignore or do not recall may have their beneficial effects. Have you ever had the answer to some plaguing question pop into your head out of nowhere? Have you ever experienced going to bed in a worried state due to a particular problem, and waking the next morning with a curious feeling of optimism and lack of tension about the problem? What about suddenly remembering a forgotten piece of information you had been searching for? Have you occasionally risen after a night's sleep to find that yesterday's stressful situation isn't causing you so much concern today, even though you have done nothing concrete to ease it?

If so, you have probably come to terms with yourself and the worry, problem, or situation during the night's work. While you were asleep and your conscious rational mind was set aside, the controls were taken over by your "right-brained intuitive self." The term "unconscious mind" simply is not valid here, as it implies a lack of awareness, which certainly is not the case of the dreaming mind. When we give over control of the thinking processes of our conscious, waking minds during sleep, we allow the highly efficient right-brain (the brain is divided into two halves, each with its specific functions), to "do its thing" for us. The result can be, and usually is, the beneficent flow of positive and uplifting enlightenment known as "creative thought."

From the new studies of hemispheric brain dominance it is now believed that our dreams, as well as our imagination, conceptualizing, and other creative and intuitive talents are the domain of the right side of the brain. During the waking state we rely more often on the logical, linear-thinking left half of the brain, which is good for balancing the checkbook, but can't help us "dream up" a solution for getting it out of the red - for this we need the right-brain. Because the "silent right side" does not contain our verbal skills, it makes itself known with pictures - visual symbols - it gives us visions of the infinite possibilities within us in the only way it can, and masks its message in order to protect our sleep. (It also literally causes a form of physical paralysis during REM so that we can't "act-out" dream actions).

This "dreaming mind" has as its principal objective the well-being of the dreamer. It consistently strives to bring unresolved conflicts to a state of equilibrium, and to maintain mental and physical balance in our systems. It ruminates on suppressed and repressed emotional material and gives it back to us in forms we can deal with consciously. We have the potential to deal with anything that comes through in dreams - even the upsetting ones - if we would just learn how to use them. The dreaming mind also sorts into order the disconnected fragments of thinking we have engaged in while awake, although it takes some work with dreams to realize this. For those who habitually utilize the "Scarlett O'Hara" approach to their problems it responds with, "No, you won't think about that tomorrow, you'll dream about it tonight," thus foiling our procrastination. When the situation requires that it would be a disservice to bring things to the surface, the wise dreaming mind will put it on the back burner until we are ready to face it. Most important of all, it deals with our stresses, particularly the ones we are unaware of while in a waking state. Conflicts, life's inconsistencies, moral dilemmas, all the internal and external factors that affect our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual selves, are reviewed and transformed in our dreams. This transformative quality is the basic tool with which dream mind builds our sense of self-esteem - always giving us what is needed at the time.

The Importance of Feelings

Though our dreams are valuable in helping us deal with stresses, they truly excel in another area - that of feelings and emotions. Internally we live in a world dominated by them, and we choose how we respond to the things happening to us for various reasons and in differing ways, some healthy, some not. We use such defense mechanisms as transference, compensation, rationalization, sublimation, and repression to varying degrees at different times in our lives. For instance, when things start to build up inside us to an uncomfortable head we may choose to suppress our feelings to avoid the psychic pain they may cause. At other times, we simply will not take the time to get in touch with our feelings - we fill our lives with work, hobbies, clubs, etc. and live so close to the clock that by day's end we fall in to bed totally exhausted. Our external rushing around leaves us no quiet moments in which to become aware of our internal lives. The less we experience ourselves emotionally during the day, the more grist we provide for the dream mill. Through my own experience I discovered the error of doing this.

Several years ago an incident occurred one afternoon which put my young son in physical danger. After making sure that he was alright I went back to my hectic schedule, without even batting an eye about the situation. Actually, I felt that I had handled myself quite well in not giving way to my feelings of anger, fear, and dread of what might have been, and in not becoming a typical hysterical mother. This was a bit of egotistic pride that caused me much pain for the following three nights. Nightmares are not my usual mode of dreaming, but each succeeding night they occurred, becoming more frightening with each one. In all of them I pictured my son in peril of his life - with me standing by not doing anything about it. On the third night the final dream was so devastating that I awoke in tears of anguish. I crept downstairs so as to avoid disturbing my husband's sleep, and allowed the sobs and tears to flow out. I never had the nightmares again - and learned a valuable lesson - that we must feel, recognize what we feel, and allow ourselves the expression of it. Whatever we fail to deal with consciously, the dream must handle for us in order to "clear the circuits" so that we can continue to function effectively from day to day. The subconscious doesn't like loose-ends and will tie them up for us very dynamically.

When we are able to work in cooperation with the dreams by giving them our attention, other facets of dream functioning begin to come to light. Psychic abilities often emerge as we learn to "tune-in" to higher dimensions of ourselves. Problem-solving becomes more creative and operates on an intuitional level. Spiritual guidance is available from the "higher self" within all of us as we begin to reach out to the healing and comforting wisdom from within.

I HAVE WORKED WITH my own dreams and those of others in small study groups, in classroom situations, and on a one-to-one basis with my students for many years. I have also gone for months at a time ignoring my own dreams, as we all occasionally do. There have been times when I felt overwhelmed and saturated to the point of mental exhaustion listening to dreams, my own and those of others. At those times I would withdraw and seek refuge in pursuits of a less "esoteric" nature, what I call excursions to diversions. During the self-imposed retreat times I noticed a definite difference in the quality of my inner and even outer life. There was a lessening of the overall enjoyment of life, a blunting of emotional responsiveness and general inability to cope with stress in healthy ways. This would have all gone unnoticed had I not been able to compare these times with those periods when I was actively involved in dream work.

Yes, you can live your whole life through and not listen to your inner self and you will certainly still survive. You will cope and grow and learn, because life has a way of forcing these processes on us. How much better coping, learning, and growing can be when we have help along the way.

This is the dream intention - to lift us to dimensions beyond our limited vision, and to show us how to enrich our experience in very practical ways. We all possess this inner guidance system so beautifully equipped to aid, support, teach, comfort and heal. We have only to allow it to work for us, to listen to the still small voice within, and to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

The research in the labs goes on, while we also may be conducting our own research in the laboratories of our minds and bodies. We, like the scientists, may find that for every question answered another one appears. Like the convoluted brain that houses the dreaming mind, there are twists and turns, and folds not yet suspected - corridors within corridors of an endless maze - like the images of an intricate dream being woven from the fabric of life. The product of our dreams is a mirror image we can hold up and see ourselves reflected in. For those who are willing to look, the visions we see may take us both inward and upward, to a land of boundless discoveries beyond the outer limits that our minds can conceive.

RECOMMENDED READING

Symbolism

Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung
Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Carl Jung
The Forgotten Lanquage, Erich Fromm

Research

Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep, William C. Dement
Dream Telepathy, Stanley Krippner and Montague Ullman
Sleep and Dreams, Alvin and Virginia Silverstein
The Functions of Sleep, Earnest L. Hartmann
Creative Insomnia, Douglas Colligan
Applied Methods - Popular Usage
Creative Dreaming, Patricia Garfield
Dream Power, Patricia Garfield
The Dream Game, Ann Faraday
The Dream Makers, Hart and Corriere
Working With Dreams, Montague Ullman and Nancy Zimmerman
Living Your Dreams, Gayle Delaney

Linda Houlahan is a teacher, lecturer, and "student forever" of the paranormal. Her knowledge ranges from reincarnation to dreams, and includes a little ESP, numerology, meditation, healing, etc. "They all become interrelated somewhere along the way, and it's impossible to teach any of these subjects without having to delve into some of the others," she says.

A resident of the Cleveland area, she conducts her classes at Cuyahoga Community College's "Lifelong Learning Institute" in Parma, Ohio, as well as for several other adult education branches of school systems in the Cleveland area. She has been lecturing for clubs and organizations as well as schools since 1969, and has made several appearances on local television and radio programs.

Even as a teenager she was fascinated by the workings of the mind, and its effect on behavior. "I read Freud and Jung at age thirteen, and wasn't really satisfied. Then came Edgar Cayce, and Bridey Murphy, and J.B. Rhine who got me rolling on parapsychology. I delved into metaphysics and the occult, and studied spiritualism; there wasn't anything I wanted to miss learning about. By the time I began working in publicity and public relations for the Cleveland A.R.E. the paranormal had become such a part of my life that I doubt if I will ever be able to get it out of my system." No longer officially associated with the A.R.E., Mrs. Houlahan still gives credit to the Edgar Cayce "training" for much of her background. She is married, and the mother of three children.

The Knot

Between the haunted and his haunts
There suddenly occurs a dream,
Where now, devoid of fear and wants,
Things are finally what they seem.

No longer need the mind project
Upon each person, hopeless lies.
No longer need the mind protect
From hopes that can't materialize.

The image he mistook for self
Evaporates, and in its place,
(Removed from ego's sturdy shelf)
He breathes the void of empty space.

And now a part of all that Is,
He marvels at the games he played.
And now apart from all he was
He marvels at how long he stayed.

Loosed from life's unloving spell,
Fearing not what that portends,
Free from death's resounding knell
He whispers towards the Final end.

Till just one breath, alone, remains,
To bind him to illusion's grasp.
He smothers it, or so he feigns.
Does he dare unhook the hasp?

Can he sever that one knot
That fetters him to death and birth?
The battle being this far fought,
Does he now undo the girth?

Beneath the haunted and his haunts
A vision comes, or so it came.
But as with dreams, it only taunts,
And we awaken, just the same.

D.G.

Planning A Sensible Program of Nutrition For the 1980's
by Robert C. Jansky

WE ALL LIVE TODAY in a world that is growing increasingly complex, one in which the War of Ideas, waged in the mass media, affects us all. It is a war of the so-called experts, each of whom holds strong opinions as to their own rightness as well as to the wrongness of all others who disagree with them. We find this war being waged in many fields, not the least of these being in the field of Human Nutrition. Everyday we are exposed to these so-called experts in the print media as well as on the radio and TV.

The decade of the 1970's has made us all aware of the vital role that nutrition plays in the maintenance of good health and in increasing longevity. Most of us want to preserve our health and youthful vigor, prevent the onset of disease, and slow down the inevitable process of aging. With so many claims and counter-claims as to how best this can be accomplished, what is the layman to believe?

Even as a biochemist/nutritionist, I too am confused, for biochemistry certainly has not yet found all of the answers to these problems. Nutrition is still an "infant" science, still no more than about forty years old and still in its "early teens" when compared