[Newspaper clipping: MILL 'PHANTOM' GOES ON TRIAL 'No Shoot Nobody,' Dave Dasco Stoutly Claims in Triple Crime.]
TAT Journal Issue 14
What is TAT?
The TAT Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1973 with the express purpose of providing a forum and meeting place for inquirers into the mystery of ourselves; Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? TAT welcomes all inquirers, adventurers of the mind, laymen in search of truth, seekers of knowledge, the self and the unknown to meet others of like interest. Philosophers, psychologists and scientists, both professional and laymen, are on equal ground at TAT.
TAT is non-sectarian and non-denominational; there are no secret oaths, dogmas or rituals at TAT. Its membership, open to all of serious intent, from all walks of life, is united in the friendship of dialogue and fellowship of human spirit.
TAT believes that you can expedite and intensify your investigation of life's mysteries by working with others who are exploring, perhaps down a different road, so that you may share your discoveries, exchange ideas and "compare notes" in order to come to a better understanding of yourself and others. It is for this reason that TAT provides a unique mountain retreat where its members can meet informally, a Journal as a forum for readers and writers of esoteric subjects, symposia in several cities known as TAT Chautauquas as well as a host of small open-forum study groups in several cities. Your TAT Membership helps support these functions giving you access to friends you might not otherwise have contact with.
Membership in TAT is $20.00 a year (Full Membership). Members are invited to attend four quarterly gatherings on the TAT Farm Mountain Retreat in West Virginia. If you are unable to attend our quarterly meetings but would still like to become a member and take advantage of the many benefits, you may apply for our Associate Membership which is $10.00 a year. This type of membership is basically considered a donation to TAT, but Associate Members make an invaluable contribution and are welcome to visit us whenever they are in the area. Requests for memberships or further information should be sent to: TAT Foundation.
Contents
A guide for the perplexed.
The common sense of traditional sexual morality is being validated by new discoveries about body and brain chemistry, and the differences between the sexes.
Excerpts from his ground-breaking 1938 thesis, including a remarkable first-hand account of a demonic possession, reveal the late Rev. Louis Greene to have been a bold investigator of the paranormal.
As he did in his earlier essay with the same title, Richard Rose brilliantly describes the traps that Nature lays for the unwary seeker after Truth, and the counter-measures that must be employed.
Dorothy Eady of London had the rare opportunity to "re-live" what she felt to be a past life in ancient Egypt. A true story.
An original study of a contemporary Italian medium, healer, bi-locator and stigmatic, by a director of the Southern California Society for Psychical Research.
The "pre-civilized" people of ancient Britain had a profound religion/ philosophy that acknowledged the correspondences between mind and matter, and man and nature.
A journey into the richly varied traditions, myths and poems of the Teutonic peoples.
The amazing story of a West Virginia lawyer who recovered from serious and disabling brain injury following a transcendent experience in a graveyard.
TAT Journal is published by the TAT Foundation, a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation, that was established to provide a forum for philosophical and spiritual inquiry, based upon the principle that cooperation with fellow inquirers expedites one's own search. The TAT Foundation supports workshops, seminars, study groups and related services. The views and opinions expressed in the TAT Journal are not necessarily those of the editors or of the TAT Foundation. Address all correspondence, including manuscripts, to: TAT Journal, P.O. Box 236, Bellaire, Ohio 43906. Manuscripts will be returned only upon request and when accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelope.
©1986 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved.
Editor: Louis Khourey;
Production: Cecy Rose, Paul Cramer.
PATHFINDER
By Richard Rose
Man chooses a spiritual path according to his capacity, the same as he chooses an occupation or profession according to his capacity. Sometimes a man chooses a profession because of emotional association instead of capacity - knowledge, and very often a man chooses his spiritual path for emotional reasons, and does not know it. This latter man does not know his capacity, in fact very few men really know their capacity, because capacity can only be realized by effort beyond limits which we set for ourselves when we engage in an enterprise, whether the enterprise be economic or spiritual.
As in business, so in spiritual things. Capacity is determined by and identified with intense desire and stubborn application of effort. And as in business, the spiritual capacity of beginners is generally recognized by persons, more mature, who have tested their own capacity and proved the merits of their determination, and who know the symptoms and qualifications that make for success. In business, we may be stubborn and determined, and have all the qualification for a "do or die" project, but unless we find an opportunity or opening in a group of successful businessmen, in their business, or among fellows who dream the same dream as ourselves, our dynamism will flourish like a palm tree at the north pole.
And so in spiritual work. Too many think that they can go it alone. Others choose a path because it appeals to their emotions. Some doubt their own capacity, and settle for an easy course of action. Some overestimate their point of maturity and wish to leap ahead and do anything that is hinted at as being the million dollar step or the discipline that brings knowledge of everything all at once. Some even approach this attempt at the giant step with a foolish reservation that they must hurry at it, get enlightenment so that they can go back to a "normal" life quickly and re-enter the game of life.
They never stop to think that when they reach enlightenment, they will possibly have little or no interest in the game of life.
So the purpose in this writing is to join with the beginner for spiritual exercise, in looking at a yardstick of sorts, so that the beginner, (at least he is a beginner in this field or system) will waste no more time than is necessary, and so that he can establish some balance and discretion in choosing the launching point of his endeavor.
It is not enough just to say that man is a victim of emotional determinations. The business of fooling oneself is very elaborate, and while emotions are generally at the root of the delusion, these emotions are skillfully veiled, and their case is argued against the spiritual convictions of the person with an elaborate diversity and cleverness, so that the person must be very astute and intuitive to survive the argumentative onslaughts.
The attacks upon objectives of a philosophic or spiritual nature, are best labeled as forces of adversity. They include Rationalization, Procrastination, Fear, Fatigue, hereditary inclinations, and others. And the knowledge of the existence of these blocks indicates a need to follow a practice of checking our thinking at all levels.
In speaking here of levels, a good method of designation of levels is the system used by Gurdjieff in which the least exalted man is man number one, and the most exalted man is man number seven.
Man number one is Instinctive Man. He rarely pays much attention to religion.
Man number two is Emotional Man. Most people who read this will be in this category, or in Man number three, which is Intellectual Man. Emotional Man, is he who chooses his spiritual path because of his application of emotions to religion or philosophy. He may have had a state of exaltation, if in his lifetime he evolved from Man number one. The decisive change from one Man-Number to the next is accompanied generally by an exaltation, or intense feeling of spiritual conviction that tells him that he has reached the final answer.
When Man number two supplants number one, it means that the man in question has translated his instinctive animal energies into an emotional attachment for survival. The emotional attachment furthermore may be one stimulated by fear, in combination with an intense love for another person (saviour or spiritual guide) which exceeds his love for his genetic urges. In this transition there is a moment of exaltation known as "salvation," or "being saved."
Man is his own greatest obstacle to finding Truth. It is only when his natural instincts, appetites, and egos have surrendered and left his field of consciousness, that he is able to think without coloring his own thoughts with wishful thinking. In "being saved" there is no doubt that there is a dropping of instincts, and a partial rejection of some of the appetites.
At this point, let us pause and see if we are Man number two. Do we believe in a personal saviour? Do we go to church because the minister is charismatic? Do we follow a guru because he allows us to indulge in autohypnotic methods which bring about a pleasant or peaceful feeling? Are we inspired by writings that appeal to our emotions? Such stories may involve moving accounts of little children, their belief in a religious ideal, or their reaction to such beliefs. They may just as well involve stories of monks and nuns, depicting masochistic reactions to the misery of ascetic life or martyrdom, all of which appeals to the masochism or sadism within ourself.
To summarize a bit for identification of Emotional Man, all who follow a religion or ism with blind belief are people in this category. Devout believers and participators in conventional, organized churches and systems should not look further into this system. This system will not do too much for Man number two. ...except in rare cases where, accidently, an emotional attraction to a system of higher number leads the person attracted, to follow it blindly. This is never advised.
When Man number two graduates from his level, he experiences an exaltation of serenity, in which he no longer makes decisions from emotional motivation. He enters the level of Man number three, and embarks upon a frantic, enthusiastic adventure in which he chooses to reach Truth through logical and systematic thinking-processes. One of the things which he attempts is the systematizing and symbolizing of all esoteric knowledge. He treats it like a science, and he will come up with concept-structures all his own. Or he may decide that there is power in symbols and decide on magic or numerology as a means to all knowledge. Or he may simply devote his life to scientific studies in the field of psychology, or pathology. If he has been a devout fundamentalist, he will step over into a methodical study of scriptures such as the Swedenborgian system, a study of the Kabbalah, or of another literal method of appraising the scriptures. Man number three, is motivated by an intellectual ego that is large. In fact it has taken him quite a few years of his life to reassure himself that his intellectuality knows no bounds. When he reaches the point where he knows beyond doubt that his intellect by itself will not take him to Truth, he suffers the loss of the intellectual ego, and enjoys an exaltation that is known as the bliss of mystics. He becomes a mystic-philosopher. He has learned that he will never learn the Truth, and that if he wants the Truth, he must become it. Of course he does not have any direction in his attempts to become and flounders about, often for many years. He looks into yoga and mysticism. Since he is living in an intellectual vehicle, he will become philosophic, and still try to reason. He has now become Man Number Four. He will try to use his instinctive, emotional and intellectual mechanisms to sort things out for the Truth.
Man Number Four is the man ready for the next and last step, the step into Satori or cosmic consciousness. This man will understand these papers (The Albigen Papers) when he reads them, because he has gone through all three previous levels, and thoroughly knows their symptoms. So that Man Number Four is the man I am most eager to encounter in this adventure, for he has a chance of getting more from the TAT (Truth and Transmission) system than the previous three. Others on the second and third level will not be rejected, but they may reject themselves.
Conservation Therapy
by Mark Jaqua
CONSERVATION THERAPY IS BASED on the premise that man can best cause psychological cure or development in himself by a conservation of his sexual energies and the living of a moderate lifestyle in every aspect. It has been the traditional viewpoint throughout history that personal energy is lost in sex expression, but until recently this premise has not been supported by biochemical evidence. Until present times hard physical work was continually necessary just for basic survival. A man soon learned he had to conserve his energies for survival over pleasure. It may be that we have only so much personal resource or "energy" at our command. Possibly it is not mere coincidence that a traditional puritanism in this country coincided with the development of the wealthiest and most creative society the world has known.
For the male, the highest concentrations of valuable chemicals in the body are contained in the semen. Just why this is so is a bit of a mystery when looked at superficially, since the primary purpose of seminal fluid is only to provide a vehicle for sperm. While it has been proven that women absorb some of these valuable chemicals from the male in coitus, it may also be reasonable to assume that if not frequently spent in sex they become available for mental and bodily development. It is curious that in several aspects the chemistry of the semen and the brain are more similar to each other than to any other bodily tissues.
Modern psychology is more in the class of voodoo or shamanism than of a true science. Actually shamanism may show better results than psychotherapy. The true status of psychology is demonstrated in legal battles where the prosecution's psychologist declares the defendant sane and the defense's psychologist declares him insane. The judge or jury then decides which psychologist is correct. If a true psychological system existed, then the man could scientifically be declared sane or insane and both psychologists would agree. That present psychology is impotent to bring about improvement or cure in the mentally afflicted is demonstrated by dozens of its own studies. Basically psychotherapy has been found no more effective than a placebo. Many studies have shown that psychotherapy is even harmful and prevents a person from curing himself as quickly as he may if left entirely alone.
There is no "quick fix" for psychological ills. While insight may occasionally result in rapid change, in most cases bringing inner changes about is a time-consuming process which requires effort as any other accomplishment. Many modern psychological systems recommend ways to "hold the head." They recommend the adopting of a particular attitude or perception that will automatically put things in a new light and make previous problems disappear. These systems are all variations of the "positive thinking" philosophy. They result in the inhibition of serious problems and the narrowing of perspective to a shallow and overly simplistic outlook. The real problems "go underground," so to speak, and the person is impoverished from lack of depth.
A true psychological system is holistic in nature. Every aspect of a persons life affects his mentality and emotions. Sexual lifestyle is a primary aspect of this holism since it is such a central facet in everyone's life. Even psychological systems that label themselves "holistic" ignore this fact. Increasing sexual intensity, frequency or variety is lauded but the concept of what actually constitutes a healthy sexual lifestyle is completely ignored. A hundred diets are prescribed for maximum health but there is no sexual diet recommended. Certain foods are found best for the human organism and we may also suppose that a certain sexual lifestyle is also conducive to greatest psychological and physical health. This proper sexual lifestyle is not subject to fickle human whim or philosophy but has been designed into our organism by the past million-odd years of evolution.
If on a basic level the human organism has been designed according to certain psychological principles developed through eons of evolution, it is reasonable to assume a person must live in accordance with these principles to achieve maximum mental health. If a sex role is designed into the body on a basic biochemical and genetic level, can we ignore this foundation and still be a whole and healthy person? A person who is not intellectually or philosophically in tune with this biological determinism may be tortured on an inner level and never learn the source of his torment. It would be irrelevant if he agreed with this programming; the effects would continue nonetheless. An option may be to consider that our intellectual preconceptions may be shallow in comparison to the complexity and wisdom in the design of Nature.
Conservation Therapy contends that psychological cure and any further development will result from the conservation of personal sexual energy coupled with progressive introspection or self-analysis. Nature has placed in our make-up a proper sex life and sex role and we must live in accordance with this inner design to become fully functioning humans, as well as to provide a basis for any possible further development mentally or spiritually. In essence it is a system originating from intuition and practical observation. While it is supported by recent scientific findings in biochemistry and brain functioning, its validity can only be established through application and an attempt at objective evaluation of the effects of sexual lifestyle on mentality. I have seen the system validated in myself and in scores of others.
This paper attempts basically to deal with research findings and introspection is not dealt with. Elaborate theorizing should be avoided in self-analysis and a common sense attitude toward evaluating one's own attitudes and reaction patterns should be attempted. Self-critical meditational systems such as contained in Richard Rose's Albigen Papers and Meditation and Visualization can be especially valuable.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Men have several times the testosterone levels of women. Testosterone is the primary sex hormone in males, as progesterone is in females, and is responsible for all his secondary sex characteristics. Besides physical characteristics, testosterone is responsible for a host of psychological and motivational characteristics in the male. Testosterone has an invigorating effect on the brain, and neurophysiologist Sachar has likened its effects to that of a psychoactive drug. (1)
High blood testosterone levels have been found to correlate with heightened intelligence in males (as well as females) (2) and have also been found to correlate with greater aggression, motivation, energy level and positive mood. (3) Testosterone is produced in the testes and general energy level, mood and motivation have been found to decrease in castrates shortly after castration (due to accident or disease). Energy, mood and motivation increase immediately after testosterone is administered. In natural castrates with inactive testes, energy level has been found to be directly related to amount of administered testosterone. Energy level is high after administration and declines steadily until the next administration when it elevates again. Complete lack of testosterone in the post-pubescent male results in "eunuchoidism," the victim of which is characterized as apathetic, withdrawn, depressed, lacking initiative and hypoactive.
The effect of testosterone on the brain may be the primary chemical reason why men have historically outdistanced women in every avenue of mental achievement. Even today with the many opportunities available to women, men are still responsible for 98% of all patents issued. (4) While women's primary sexual hormone, progesterone, has been found related to mood, no relationship between progesterone levels and intelligence has been established. Recently the superior spatial ability of men has been linked to testosterone. (5) Apparently it must be present in adequate amounts during a critical developmental stage to augment the ability.
Low testosterone levels have been found in all severe forms of mental problems in males, including schizophrenia, psychosis, and anorexia nervosa. (6) Heightened sexual activity is present in most severe mental problems in males (as well as females). (7) Kraemer (1967) (8) established that lower than normal sexual frequency in males elevates testosterone levels, and we may suppose that it has a positive effect on IQ, mood and motivation because of the effects of the elevated testosterone. In periodic schizophrenics, episodes have been found to always be presaged by increased sexual activity. (9) A reasonable supposition from this evidence is that increased sexual activity may aggravate severe mental problems.
Levels of prostaglandins in the body have been found to be controlled by testosterone levels. (10) It appears that elevated testosterone levels also cause an elevation in prostaglandin levels. Prostaglandins are found throughout the body, having been found in at least 23 different areas. They are produced locally throughout the body but by far the highest concentrations are produced and stored in the male seminal vesicles. The seminal vesicles produce 400 times more than any other area of the body. (11) Because of the seminal vesicles, males produce many times the prostaglandins that females do. Prostaglandins produce very strong reactions in living tissue and are perhaps the most powerful biologically-active, naturally occurring substance known. Prostaglandins are involved in many body processes including blood pressure levels, pain and inflammation, and neuro-transmission. It is thought that they may control the turn-over rate of serotonin in the brain since both serotonin and prostaglandins produce similar effects.
It is curious that almost no animals produce prostaglandins, while in nearly every other way human and animal biochemistry is identical. Only the rabbit, sheep and a few monkeys produce prostaglandins, and humans many hundreds of times more than these animals. As the prostaglandins are produced in the male's seminal vesicles, very large amounts are in male semen. Men "waste" more prostaglandins in a single emission than women produce in a day in their entire body. (12, 13) It is a question just why prostaglandins are present in male semen since they have no reaction with sperm and have been proven to do nothing to insure impregnation in the female. (14) It has been found that females absorb male prostaglandins after coitus in the vagina and uterus (15) and actually have special receptor cells in the uterine wall to receive male prostaglandins. (16) An old wives' tale holds that women gain strength from men during coitus, and on this very basic chemical level this observation seems to be validated. Prostaglandins are one of the most refined of the body's products and women absorb these "super-chemicals" from males.
Since seminal fluid has no apparent purpose than as a vehicle for sperm, why does it have such a concentration of valuable body chemicals? An ounce of semen has been found to be basically the concentration of the most valuable chemicals from 60 ounces of blood. No two tissues in the body show greater similarity in their lecithin, colesterin and phosphorous contents than the brain and semen. (17) Semen has proportionally more fructose, citric acid, spermine and prostaglandins than any other tissue in the body. It is also richer than most any other tissue in zinc, ascorbic acid, inositol, glyceryl, phosphory-choline and free amino acids. It has 33 times the neutral amino acids, 28 times the acidic amino acids and 57 times the basic amino acids as the blood.(18) Women may absorb body chemicals from male semen other than prostaglandins to enrich their body chemistry and health. Another possibility for the chemical richness of semen is that, through a conservative sexual lifestyle, a man may reabsorb and utilize these valuable body chemicals. Instead of continually producing semen, he may use these same chemicals to invigorate the brain/body. While modern psychology believes sexual inhibition unhealthy mentally and physically, it fails to account for the fact that such giants as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, da Vinci, Spinoza, Bacon, Newton, Kant, Beethoven, Spencer, and Tesla were celibates. (19) The purpose here is not to universally recommend celibacy but to point out the absurdity of the modern position.
Several studies have indicated that the human brain is programmed either male or female in the fetal stage. The brain has two "programs" for sex role during life and the level of the hormone testosterone in the womb determines which of these programs is "kicked in." Once the program is established, the person has a male or female-programmed brain for life. The critical time is the fourth to seventh month during the development of the hypothalamus. If high levels of testosterone are present in the fetus, then the brain is programmed with a male sex-role. If low levels are present, the brain is programmed female. (20, 21) This is true regardless of the genetic sex of the child.
If testosterone levels are high enough in the womb, a female fetus will even develop male sexual organs, a male penis with an empty scrotum. Very low levels of testosterone in the genetically male fetus may result in intra-abdominal testes and lack of a male sex organ. If pregnant women carrying a female fetus are submitted to high testosterone levels, it has been found the girl will develop into what is traditionally called a "tomboy." This has been characterized by Money & Erhardt (1971, 1972) as "vigorous energy expenditure in athletics, indifference to the rehearsal of 'dollplay' and greater than average selection of male playmates and non-feminine utilitarian clothing." It must be pointed out that for a female fetus to be exposed to a high level of testosterone (or a male fetus to low levels) is a rare event. The above studies were run on women who were being administered testosterone for medical reasons. That a homosexual's brain would be fetally-programmed in an opposite sex-role would not hold water in almost all cases.
While the brain has been proven to be programmed male or female at birth, it has been discovered that there is even a more basic male-female difference. Women have extensive brain connections between the pre-frontal lobes and the cerebellum which men don't have at all. (22) The pre-frontal lobes are thought to be concerned with empathy and higher intellectual functions while the cerebellum is concerned with instinct, sex and movement. These connections may indicate that women's empathy and logic are tempered with sexual and instinctual aspects that men's are not. Progesterone is the primary sexual hormone in women and is responsible for all the secondary sexual aspects. Levels of progesterone have been found to be cyclic and vary with the monthly menstrual cycle. Highest levels occur at ovulation and this has also been found to be the time of peak feeling of well-being during the monthly cycle. Another time of peak progesterone production is during pregnancy which many women have described as the best period of their lives. It has been found that testosterone inhibits progesterone's production of feminine bodily characteristics. (23) Lesbians have been found to often have heightened levels of testosterone and this may account for the masculine physical characteristics taken on by many lesbians.
In these times of day-care centers and bottle-feeding, it is significant that it has been found that infants breast-fed and raised by their mothers rather than a nanny or day-care center develop higher IQ's and better social adaptation than their peers. In the 40's and 50's in the Israeli kibbutz movement an extensive experiment was made to dissolve traditional family lifestyle and also establish a community with "sexual equality" in every aspect. Women were equally assigned jobs as men, from mechanics to business managers. Children were raised in day-care centers and boys and girls had communal dormitories. Every effort was made to isolate kibbutz members from outside influence. The system began breaking down on several fronts despite the idealism involved. Women began competing and fighting among themselves to secure jobs near the nursery and thus be near their children. Upon pubescence girls flatly refused to undress in front of the boys and thus segregated dormitories became necessary. Women began refusing to take higher level management jobs. Today traditional roles are followed in nearly every aspect in the kibbutzim. (25) Six studies have been carried out on the movement, and all have come to the same conclusion as to their failure idealistically despite every precaution. According to Margaret Mead, among the hundreds of known cultures, there have been none that have not discriminated different social tasks between men and women. (26)
Women are not biochemically equipped as well as men to cope with the stressful lifestyles found in business management and other high-driving professions. On one level women do not chemically respond to stress in the same manner men do. (27) Under stressful situations men's adrenaline levels go up drastically while women's exhibit little change. Adrenaline is the body's chief fast-energy chemical that enables great energy and alertness over a short period of time. In studies of women in stressful occupations, disturbing effects on mental and physical health are revealed. In one study of 141 women M.D.'s by Paula Clayton of St. Louis University, it was found that 50% had a history of primary depression. Of 114 women Ph.D.'s, 32 % suffered from a history of depression. A study at U.S.C. unfortunately discovered that an unbelievable 1 in 15 female M.D.'s commit suicide. (28) In the last twenty years suicide rates among women have dramatically increased, (29) and this may correlate with the changing lifestyles among women over this period.
During the premenstrual week women are especially susceptible to the effects of stress. It has been found that approximately 25% of women are severly incapacitated in mood, concentration and general performance during the premenstrual week while 90% are incapacitated to some degree. Numerous studies have found that between 50% to 80% of female crime, 30 mental incarcerations and suicides occur during the premenstrual week. (31) In England the Royal Society for the Preventions of Accidents has issued a pamphlet warning women about driving during this time since this is when 50% of accidents involving females occur. Progesterone seems to be primarily responsible for mood and performance levels in women and this significantly is at its lowest levels during the premenstrual week. While women are subject to monthly cycles in mood and performance due to progesterone fluctuation, men's performance and mood is relatively stable due to stable testosterone levels. The above evidence is an incontestable reason why women are not adequately equipped for some jobs - air traffic controllers for instance. This would apply to all occupations dealing with critical and highly stressful circumstances.
It is likely that man is genetically encoded with a particular lifestyle, including sexuality, which is conducive to his greatest mental and physical health. Nature cannot design an organism without including within that design a specific lifestyle that is appropriate to it. A genetic code of conduct or "morality" is inherent in our very structure. Some things are good for us and some things are bad. If they are bad for us then they are antagonistic to our genetically determined biological and psychological design. A study over a 10 year period at the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Clinic found that 77% of young incest victims had abnormal EEG brain patterns and nearly 30% of these victims suffered epileptic fits. (32) The researcher went so far as to infer that possibly the children with abnormal EEG's may have seduced their parents because of their abnormal brains. He does not even mention the likely and obvious case that the traumatic incest altered their brain chemistry and even caused psychosis and epilepsy. Modern psychology does not consider that a physical act can have an inherent moral reaction that extends to the biological level.
While Nature provides that our brains be encoded male or female, she undoubtedly also extends her design into our sexual lifestyles. Within our biological design is a sexual lifestyle that is conducive to greatest physical and psychological health. Is it mere coincidence that the current outbreak of sexual diseases such as herpes and AIDS occurs in the midst of the sexual revolution? Possibly 30% of people in this country age 20 to 40 have a sexual disease. Biologically we may not be designed for a "sexual revolution," high sexual frequency or promiscuity. It is a little known fact that refraining from sex will cause herpes symptoms to disappear, only for the symptoms to reappear when sexually excited. AIDS is only one of numerous diseases that occur principally among homosexuals. Diseases of the colon such as ambiasis, shigellosis and giardiasis are others. (33) Biologically we may not be designed to have semen in the colon or feces in the urethra.
Male homosexuals have generally been found to have slightly lower but near normal testosterone levels. What is amazing, however, is that it has been found that they convert testosterone to the feminine hormone estrogen. (34) This strange phenomenon could be the result of the mental attitude of the effeminate male homosexual. As is apparent in the placebo affect, mental attitude has the ability to alter body chemistry. The same may hold true for the findings that at least 30% of lesbians have high male hormone testosterone levels. (35, 36) Her aggressive masculine attitude may cause a higher adrenal output of testosterone. The woman with the passive role in the lesbian relationship could not be expected to have higher testosterone levels, since she still maintains a passive or feminine attitude. A detrimental effect is also realized in children raised by lesbian mothers. In a study by Beverly Hoeffer (U.C. of San Francisco) it was discovered that on personality tests 40% of such boys scored feminine as to sex-role while 50% of such girls scored masculine. (37)
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association's 55,000 members voted to no longer regard homosexuality as a disease but as a sane matter of preference. Homosexuality is either something appropriate or antagonistic to Nature's biochemical and psychological design of the human organism. It is not something that can possibly be voted on or subject to the whim of the populace. If homosexuality is appropriate to our organism, why are there so many diseases associated with it? Anything appropriate to our makeup should have no diseases associated with it. There are, for instance, no diseases associated with a moderate monogamous heterosexual lifestyle.
If we have a genetically encoded morality or code of conduct conducive to greatest physical and mental health - just what is it? We may suppose that animals have a similar instinctive code of conduct that they follow without a hitch since they have no active intelligence to interfere with it. Animals breed only on a seasonal basis while man breeds all year around. There are no oral or other exotic sex acts in the animal kingdom. Our intellect is so dominant that we may be forever out of touch on a purely instinctual level with proper human sexual conduct and sex role. Hans Eysenck, the prestigious English psychiatrist, holds that much of modern mental problems are the result of "the intellectual adoption of attitudes that negate biological determinism." What may be necessary is an intellectual and unbiased (by desire) investigation of a Naturally determined human morality, and then a living by our discoveries.
NOTES
1. Eberhard Nieschlag, "The Endocrine Function of the Human Testis in Regard to Sexuality," Sex, Hormones and Behavior, Excerpta Medica, 1979.
2. Brambilla and Penati, "Schizophrenia: Endocrinological Review," Perspectives in Endocrine Psychobiology, John Wiley & Sons, 1978.
3. Ibid.; Bancroft and Skakkebaek, "Androgens and Human Sexual Behavior," Sex, Hormones and Behavior.
4. Amaury De Riencourt, Sex and Power in History, David McKay Co., 1974.
5. "Spatial Hormones," Psychology Today, June, 1983, p. 80.
6. Brambilla and Penati, id.; van Praag, Lader, Rafaelsen and Sachar (ed.), Brain Mechanisms and Abnormal Behavior, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1981.
7. Ihsan al-Issa, Gender and Psychopathology, Academic Press, 1982.
8. van Praag, et al., ibid.
9. Friedman and Faguet (ed.), Extraordinary Disorders of Human Behavior, studies by Tsuang (1975), Akhtar and Thompson (1980), Plenum Press, 1982.
10. Norman L. Poyser, Prostaglandins in Reproduction, Research Studies Press, New York, 1981.
11. Bergstrom and Samuelsson, Prostaglandins, Interscience Publishers, 1967.
12. Poyser, ibid.
13. Carlson Wade, "Evening Primrose Oil-Magic Medical Breakthrough," Your Good Health, May, 1983.
14. Poyser, ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Bergstrom and Samuelsson, ibid.
17. Bernard, Science Discovers the Physiological Value of Continence, Health Research, Mokelumne Hill, Cal., 1957.
18. Hafez, Human Semen and Fertility Regulation in Men, C.V. Mosby Co., 1976.
19. Bernard, ibid.
20./21. Money, "Phylogeny and Ontogeny in Gender Identity Differentiation," Perspectives in Endocrine Psychogiology, ibid. G. Dorner, "Hormones and Sexual Differentiation of the Brain," Sex, Hormones and Behavior, ibid., Dorner and Kawakami, Hormones and Brain Development, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, 1978.
22. Mary Long, "Visions of a New Faith," Science Digest, November, 1981.
23. Lipsett, "Steroid Regulation of Gonadotropin Secretion," The Endocrine Function of the Human Testis, James, Serio and Martini (ed. ), Academic Press, 1974.
24. Dorner and Kawakami, Hormones and Brain Development, ibid.
25. Ihsan al-Issa, Gender and Psychopathology, ibid.
26. Amaury De Riencourt, Sex and Power in History, ibid.
27. Charles Panati, "Women are Losing Health Advantage," Science Digest, March, 1980.
28. "Woman M.D.'s: Depression and Suicide," Science News, June 9, 1979.
29. Ihsan al-Issa, ibid.
30. Warburton, Brain, Behavior and Drugs, John Wiley & Sons, 1975.
31. Robert Ornstein, The Psychology of Consciousness, Penguin Books, 1972.
32. "Incest and 'Vulnerable' Children," Science News, October 13, 1979.
33. Jeffrey Hart, "AIDS Panic is Spreading," Wheeling, W. Va. Intelligencer, June 11, 1983.
34. Domer and Kawakami, Hormones and Brain Development, ibid.
35./36. Ehrardt and Meyer-Bahlburg, "Psychosexual Development: an Examination of the Role of Prenatal Hormones," and "Hormones and Sexual Differentiation of the Brain," Sex, Hormones and Behavior, ibid.
37. "Gay Motherhood: Rewards and Problems," Science News, September 22, 1979.
LONDON (UPI), July 27, 1984 - If humans are willing to give up sex for decades they may someday be able to double or triple the human life span, a scientist suggested Thursday.
Michael Rose of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, reported in the magazine New Scientist on laboratory experiments in which delaying reproduction appears to postpone the aging process in various living subjects.
He said the technique, which consists of natural selection of fruit flies and other subjects, can be used to postpone senescence in any organism, including small mammals.
"Our work is now turning towards the physiological basis of evolutionarily postponed senescence," he said.
"We want to find out how natural selection makes our flies live longer. If we learn enough about the biochemical changes underlying such increased resistance to mortality, then we have hope of creating them directly in ordinary flies by genetic engineering or environmental manipulation," he said.
"In principle, there is no reason why the same research program should not be followed with mice. This raises the possibility that we might discover methods of directly postponing mammalian senescence," he said.
"The potential for ultimately postponing human senescence is clear," Rose said.
Spirit-World Research
by Louis Greene
THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE IDEA OF SURVIVAL
THE OLDEST BELIEFS IN INDIA were that the dead continued to live in a ghostly state. They used food and drink and frequently came back to their former homes for such supplies as needed.
The Hebrews of pre-Mosaic times shared in the common eschatology of primitive man. At death, according to them, the corpse corrupts but the soul goes to live in Sheol. Life in Sheol is dim and shadowy; nevertheless the souls are thought to have a real measure of conscious life, with memory and interests.
In the early myths of China we find the "Islands of the Blest," figuring strongly. These islands were a region of everlasting life, or as the abode of those who awaited rebirth, or an elevation to some higher sphere of being. In the writings of Sezu-ma Ch'ien, we find references to these Fortunate Isles. The existence of the dead was thought of in terms of the living; they have the same needs, are prompted by the same motives, and are interested in the same things.
The Celts held to a firm belief in a distant spiritual land where souls are reborn. There is a legend of Tuan mac Carell, who was said to have undergone numerous transmigrations of animals, birds and fishes. Modern research into ancient Celtic lore identifies fairies with the spirits of the dead who are waiting in the afterworld for a chance to enter human form once more (note the reincarnation idea).
In parts of Australia and Oceania, fires were built over the graves and kept going for the convenience of those spirits who may have wandered too far from the grave. A sort of beacon. The Yaliu people of New Guinea believed that the bodies may be separated from the soul during sleep and that the souls may visit the homes of their ancestral spirits in far off places, while the Igorots of Luzon believed that souls may leave at will and not wait for sleep.
Orphism, a Greek religious form of mysticism, had its origin about 600 B.C., and it had to do almost entirely with rites pertaining to the dead. The central purpose was to get the worshiper united with God. It was supremely interested in preparing the soul in this life for the successive lives which finally end in the purification of the soul, qualifying it to live with the gods. On Orphic tablets found in Italy and Crete we find the triumphant soul joyfully addressing the gods: "I have come from the pure - I have escaped from the sorrowful road. I have entered with eager feet the desired." In answer comes assurance. "O happy and blessed one, thou shall be god instead of mortal."
One may sum up by saying that the difference between the primitive and modern man on the question of survival is that the savage accepted survival as though it were as much a matter of fact as breathing. He did not doubt or question its reality. Only the modern man doubts. It seems clear that for the savage mind the fact of survival taken by itself seems to have had no sacred associations. In the words of W.C. Willoughby in The Soul of the Bantu, "To the Bantu survival after death is not a matter for argument or speculation. It is an axiom of life. Those who have not been influenced by the white man never doubt it, or even ask why they do believe it; just as they do not question the relation of breathing to life."
Andrew Lang takes the position that what appear to us as psychic phenomena seem to be perfectly normal experiences among certain primitive or savage people.
DESCRIPTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SOME TYPICAL PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
An eminent Congregational clergyman, Dr. Dwight J. Bradley, together with a small group of friends were discussing such matters, when one suggested that they attempt the experiment, and now we quote Bradley: "Forthwith it was agreed. A small table was found in the room and we arranged ourselves about it.... the room was in partial darkness... for about half an hour we sat there, singing well known hymns and talking together.
Just as I myself was ready to declare the attempt a failure, the table began to quiver, and then to rock rhythmically back and forth... By a process of elimination we worked out a code; namely that for yes the table should keep rocking, and for no it should stop. At length we found that the person communicating with us was a close friend of one of our group, a friend who had died ten years since. With him we conversed for more than an hour. Then the table ceased to move and we went home. The burden of our conversation that evening was remarkably fine. We left with the feeling not only that we had actually been in touch with a real individual who, though dead, could still speak, but that the contact had been spiritually and intellectually of great value."
From a book by Rudyard Kipling, called Something of Myself, we quote the great writer. "I am in no way psychic but once I was sure I had stepped along that perilous path. I dreamt that I stood, in my best clothes, which I rarely wear, one of a line of similarly habited men, in some vast hall, floored with rough jointed stone slabs. Opposite me, the width of the hall, was another line of persons with a crowd beyond them. On my left some ceremony was taking place that I wanted to see, but could not unless I stepped out of line. At the ceremony's close both lines of spectators broke up and moved forward and met, and the great space filled with people. Then a man came up behind me, slipped his hand beneath my arm, and said - I want a word with you. It was a perfectly clear dream, and it stuck in my memory. Six weeks or more later I attended in my capacity as a member of the War Graves Commission, a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, where the Prince of Wales dedicated a plaque to the Million Dead of the great war. In black clothes we lined up facing across the width of the Abbey Nave. I could see nothing of the ceremony because of the man on my left. Then my eye was caught by the cracks of the stone flooring, and I said to myself; - but here is where I have been! We broke up, both lines flowed forward and met, and the Nave filled with a crowd, through which a man came up and slipped his hand upon my arm, saying, - I want a word with you, please. How and why had I been shown an unreleased roll of my life film?"
Mr. Scott is city chemist at Steubenville, Ohio. From time to time he has been receiving personal messages, poems, and other forms of literature from various personalities, some of whom were known to him in life. Here is a striking poem.
Automatic script of May 27th 1931. (Pencil began very feebly and haltingly, gathering speed as the writing progressed.)
Where runs the river of eternal things,
Where every bird of endless summer sings,
There is no pain nor sorrow evermore,
Nor fears of Death, the ruler of thy shore.
Fair woodlands these, where we may wander long
In rapt enjoyment of life's perfect song.
Fair mansions, where the soul is daily blest,
Where is love, and labor is but rest.
O life serene! That earth could only know
Thy beauties, rich reward of earthly woe!
How brightly even there that light would shine,
Illumining its dark deeps with rays divine.
So be it that those chosen few
Whose uplift eyes have pierced the shadows through
May be as lighthouse windows, through which earth
May see afar the joys of its rebirth.
That men may know there is no life but love.
There is no veil to hide the world above.
There is no soul interred beneath the sod.
There is no end: there is no good but God!
Then Mr. Scott asked, "Who has written this hymn please?" "One not known to you," came the reply. "Please give your name," requested Scott. "Ozoro S. Davis," (Ozoro Davis was an eminent clergyman who had died not long before.)
At a recent conference of the American Theological Society, Professor Rufus Jones mentioned an experience he once had which illustrates the possibility that a determined future may be altered by a vigorous act of the will. Rufus Jones relates that some years ago (about 1915 I think) when he had written a lecture on Quakerism to be delivered in King's Chapel, Boston, and was looking over the manuscript, he was startled to hear a voice speaking the words, "But thee will never give it"... the only auditory mystic experience he ever had. He spent the night before the lecture in the house of a friend in Boston. That night all present became violently ill from ptomaine poisoning. Dr. Jones was removed to a hospital, where he urged the attendants to do everything possible to have him ready to give the lecture. He was told that if he could get out of bed and stand erect by two in the afternoon without suffering nausea and dizziness that he could give the lecture, which was scheduled for 4:30. At 2:00 the room seemed to gyrate wildly, but after resting a bit longer he got up, dressed, and went to King's Chapel, and though his vision went black when he stood up, and he remembers little of what followed, he delivered the lecture. This seems to have been a clear case of true prediction, except that Rufus Jones, by vigorous willed action of his own, interfered with the prediction.
With regard to Telekinesis, we have the statement of Sir William Crookes, who admitting the validity of the phenomenon, declares, after many experiments, that certain psychic rods from the medium's body are responsible for the phenomenon.
Dr. Ochorowicz, late professor in the University of Warsaw and Lemberg, conducted a series of very remarkable investigations in the field of supernormal photography, and has published his findings in the French magazine, Annales des Sciences Psychiques. He used no camera in his experiments; the plate wrapped in opaque paper was placed either between the hands of the medium or against his forehead, and a definite thought was impressed upon the plate at the will of the experimenter. In all cases Dr. Ochorowicz supplied and developed his own plates and they were never under the control of the medium except for the few moments during which the medium's hands were placed on them.
A well known physician in New York wrote to Mr. J.K. Funk, publisher. "I was on a steamer. During the night I felt myself walking in the air with a sensation of exhilaration and clarity of mental vision. In that state I thought of a friend who was more than 1000 miles distant. Instantly I was conscious of standing in the room with my friend, who, amazed, asked, what in the world I was doing there, as he thought I was in Florida. I heard these words distinctly, but was unable to answer. I had the feeling as of a life beyond the power of time and space. I then decided to return, and saw my body propped up in bed as I had left it, but I still retained awareness of another body to which matter offered no resistance. Then I entered my normal body. Next day I wrote a letter to the distant friend. A letter from him crossed mine in the mail, stating that he had been distinctly conscious of my presence and had uttered the exclamation which I had heard."
The following indicates a case in which the entity contacted seems, at least from our viewpoint, to have a completely altered time sense. This seance was held by the Steubenville Psychic Research Society May 13th, 1935:
Now on July 30th, 1935, a trumpet seance was held by the society under the lead of a professional medium, who was entirely ignorant of the Meyer Achtmann incident. Again transcribing the Steubenville report. -- A voice spoke to JWD in German, calling, Achtmann, Achtmann. Encouraged, the voice became stronger, saying, Ja, Ja, Meyer Achtmann. A short conversation ensued in German. None of this information came from the medium. All of it seemed to come from the trumpet.
One of the most remarkable records is one which deals with the R-101 disaster. The R-101 crashed in flames near Beauvais, France, in the early morning of Sunday, October 5th, 1930. News of the disaster reached London during the morning and some Sunday papers issued special editions during the day, giving a brief account of the catastrophe. But no detailed information was available until the next day. On Tuesday, October 7th, a seance was held at the rooms of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, at which were present Mr. Harry Price, his secretary, and the assistant editor of Nash's magazine. The seance was arranged with a professional medium who was unacquainted with any of the sitters. The sitters hoped to communicate with the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
During the seance, while the medium's control was speaking, he was interrupted by a voice calling itself Irwin, who insisted on speaking. He identified himself as Flight Lieutenant H. Carmichael Irwin, captain of the R-101. He was very agitated, and in a long series of spasmodic sentences gave the listeners a detailed and technical account of how the R-101 had crashed. Some striking information conveyed was: The whole bulk of the dirigible was entirely and absolutely too much for the engine capacity. Engines too heavy, useful lift too small. Gross lift computed badly. Inform the control panel that the elevator had jammed. Oil pipe plugged. This exorbitant scheme of carbon and hydrogen is entirely wrong. Explosion caused by friction in electric storm. Disposable lift could not be utilized. Cruising speed bad and ship badly swinging. Severe tension on the fabric which is chafing. Starboard strakes started. Almost scraped the roofs of Achy.
It will be seen that rather technical language was used in this sitting, such as only a skilled airship man would be likely to know. The medium, says Mr. Price, was an ignorant unlettered woman with scarcely enough education to write her own name.* The expression, "Almost scraped the roofs of Achy" was puzzling to the sitters. The village of Achy could not be located on any maps that were handy. Not until the official map of the air ministry was procured was the tiny village located, and proved to be on the last route of the R-101. Further investigation bore out the substance of the seance communication.
Because of its interest I am transcribing in full the case of Zangara and Dasco (D'Ascanio), from the Steubenville Psychic Research Society, dated November 20, 1937. Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian, was electrocuted on March 20, 1933, for the murder of Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago, in Florida. That same evening SPS Seance No. 104 was held, with 12 visitors present. Psychical conditions were low and transmission difficult. Interrupting a discourse by Dr. Harry Morley, suddenly there came in an entity shrieking hysterically in a high pitched voice. "I keel! I keel! They have keel me, now I keel! I Giuseppe Zangara!" This shouting continued until the guides were able to subdue and remove the entity. He had, however, impressed the sitters that he had gone out of earth life in the stress of violence and craving for revenge on his executioners, and that this condition was indelibly fixed in his mind. This impression was confirmed when he returned some weeks later, somewhat calmer, but resolved to avenge his death upon the society that had decreed it. He had formed a plan. To cast about until he could find a person of his own type to influence, through possession, to commit a series of murders. If possible, he intended to bring about the murder of 12 persons; one for each member of the jury. The whole idea was so bizarre that it was not taken seriously by the sitters, although some effort was made to dissuade Zangara from the thirst for revenge. He stated that in view of our incredulity he would carry out the first of these murders in Steubenville. Just as soon as he could find a proper subject for obsession he would proceed to insert himself into the victim's mind, constantly suggesting to him the idea of killing several persons, as many as possible. There need be no motive. At least three persons would be murdered, and the killings would be so associated that we would recognize his handiwork.
In 1934 occurred one of the strangest series of murders in criminal history, the so called Phantom murders of Steubenville. They occurred at the steel mills of the Wheeling Steel Corporation, in the mill yard, just as the shifts were changing at night, when a throng of workmen were moving in and out the mill. A man would suddenly appear from behind a building, discharge a revolver at one of the men, and disappear in the darkness, unrecognized. In this manner a workman named Welsheimer was shot and killed January 30th, 1934. The murderer could not be found by either mill or city police. On March 25th a man named Barnett was shot but recovered. The phantom appeared again under the same circumstances on July 1st. This time two men were shot, named Messer and Kochendorfer. Both died. This time the murderer had waited too long, and, while he escaped, his general appearance had been noticed by witnesses of the crime.
July 29th, the police arrested David Dasco, Italian mill worker. Dasco was an introspective uncommunicative man who roomed by himself and seldom had visitors. He had no close friends, nor was he personally acquainted with any of his victims. He was considered peculiar, and thought of as a communist sympathizer. Dasco steadfastly refused to answer questions, only saying that if he talked he'd die. He did, however, admit having nothing against the murdered men. Police searched the room of Dasco, and found literally hundreds of news clippings relating the details of the life and crimes of Giuseppe Zangara. It was stated that these articles had been clipped from many different papers from widely scattered cities. They filled an entire drawer of a dresser in Dasco's room.
Dasco was sentenced to life imprisonment on November 2nd, 1934. Zangara appeared among us but once more, shortly after this. He called attention with pride to his handiwork, signified his intention of continuing in other localities until the entire 12 had been killed, and remarked that he was deeply disappointed that Dasco had not been condemned to electrocution, since he had found him a valuable aid and needed him on the other side!
Dr. Titus Bull, president of the James H. Hyslop Foundation, says in a report. -- "Our work with patients shows clearly the proof of intelligent forces of a spiritual nature acting with us in our daily lives. Being a physician I fully realize that much that has been called explanation has really been description, yet I have had the experience of seeing medical conditions relieved through spiritual means in the hands of cult operators." He then cites cases where patients were regarded as hopelessly insane, yet as the result of treatments, the method of which he describes, the possessing entity was cast out and the patients cured. The table of one year's work shows startling results. Of the twenty-three cases treated by psychic methods, people ranging in age from 9 to 52 years, only four were not improved, and one of these had prematurely ceased treatments. The types of disorders which he treated include epilepsy, hysteria, catalepsy, anxiety neurosis, paranoic delusions, mental dissociations, incipient paresis, melancholia, delusions of persecution, and dipsomania.
[Newspaper clipping: MILL 'PHANTOM' GOES ON TRIAL 'No Shoot Nobody,' Dave Dasco Stoutly Claims in Triple Crime.]
The method of treatment includes a diagnosis of the patient's psychic state by a sensitive or medium especially developed for such a purpose. The sensitive sits quietly, sometimes in the patient's presence, and sometimes without him, awaiting impressions that may present themselves to his consciousness. This often takes the form of a temporary impersonation, the invisible communicator being permitted to express feelings, memories, purposes, desires, quite alien to the medium's own. Every item in the dramatization and every word is noted. The physician converses with the entity, elicits information of service in the psychologic riddle involved, and then through a process of education, the entity is induced to leave the victim's body. The patient is then cured.
A remarkable outstanding service in the field of release from spirit possession is being done by Dr. Carl A. Wickland of Los Angeles, California. Dr. Wickland is a member of the American Medical Society, and of the American Society for the Advancement of Science. In his book, Thirty Years Among the Dead, he gives detailed accounts of cures effected through the recognition of foreign personalities possessing the bodies of the living. Quoting him. -- One of the early experiences in Chicago occurred on November 15th, 1906. During one of our psychic circles Mr. Wickland became entranced by a strange entity, fell, and remained in a comatose condition for sometime. The spirit was at last brought to the front and acted as though in great pain, saying, "Why did I not take more carbolic acid? I want to die." Pressed for information, it said her name was Mary Rose and that she lived at 202 South Green Street, a street entirely unknown to us at this time. She said the date was November 8th. (Another interesting shift in time sense). Upon investigation at the hospital we found further verification of the facts and were given a copy of the records in the case.
Cook County Hospital
Mary Rose
Admitted Nov. 7, 1906
Died Nov. 8, 1906
Carbolic Acid poisoning. No. 341106
This case may help illustrate the reality of possession. Dr. Wickland in writing to me says that frequently people with suicidal tendencies or homicidal obsessions among others, are victims of foreign entities. His method of treatment is the same as that of Dr. Titus Bull.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
On August 27th, 1931 I visited the home of a friend who had planned a sitting that evening, partly for my benefit. Among others he had invited Dr. X (because of his profession he requests me not to mention his name). We sat around a small card table. Instantly the table levitated over our heads, turning upside down, and scraping along the ceiling, while we fruitlessly tried to get it back on the floor. Following this we arranged to experiment with a trumpet, used to amplify sound. A collapsible three section trumpet about three feet in length. We placed the trumpet in the center of the table and sat around it with hands under control (a closed circle). At once the trumpet levitated, touching sitters, moving along the ceiling, tapping various objects in the room, and then, a subdued whistle, followed by a voice from the trumpet, while suspended above the sitters. Here was a voice from a discarnate entity. Identified itself as a Mr. Kline and promised to return at future sittings. It was the general impression of all of us, that the unrecognized medium through whose converted energies these phenomena were made possible, was our friend Dr. X. With the introduction of Dr. X as a nonprofessional medium, I have witnessed some of the most remarkable phenomena on record.
At a sitting held on October 21st, 1931, at which Dr. X was present, a trumpet, violin, bowl of water, slate and pencils, were placed on the table, around which we sat. The sitting was conducted in darkness, hands were under control. During the sitting the trumpet levitated, touching the various sitters, the violin strings were plucked, and water was lightly sprinkled on several. A hymn, "In the Garden," was sung by a voice through the trumpet high over the heads of the sitters. The table weighing 75 pounds, was being pushed against the sitters. Frequently three or four phenomena would occur at the same time.
On August 15th, 1932, I was a guest at the house of Sheldon Scott, who at this time was leading a group in psychic research at Steubenville. He arranged a sitting at this visit, and invited four good friends. These five, together with his wife and myself, formed the circle. We invited Dr. X to be present. I suggested that we arrange for an experiment in materialization. Accordingly, selecting a most likely corner, we set up an improvised cabinet, composed of ordinary blankets commandeered for the purpose. Dr. X knew nothing of our plans until he arrived. Reluctantly he entered the cabinet, this being his first experiment of this kind. The usual preliminaries over, prayer and singing, lights at once appeared on the blankets. Then a peculiar mass of white substance, like dough, endowed it seemed, with life. It moved about the cabinet, now on top, running the full length, now sliding down to the floor and evaporating. This increased in intensity and vigor. During most of the sitting, at the request of Dr. X, I controlled his hands through the blankets. The sitting was conducted in semidarkness, the only light coming from a red bulb. It was light enough, however, to distinguish objects clearly. When Dr. X complained of discomfort we discontinued the experiment. The sitting was concluded with trumpet phenomena, voices and the levitation of objects.
Here we had a first hand study of ectoplasm about which there has been so much controversy. We had it produced without a professional medium, and under conditions we set up ourselves. Ectoplasm we found to be a two dimensional filmy substance, capable of assuming all kinds of shapes and figures. The best description I have for it is solidified light without rays. Light, however, that glows in pattern forms. The theory that ectoplasm is energy converted into matter seems to be born out by the discomfort of the medium.
At my request experiments were held the following night. Dr. X was again prevailed on to enter the cabinet. This time figures built up from the floor. On one occasion a form was so perfectly built up that I and two other sitters left our places and approached it. I examined the form most carefully. The features were suggestive of a foreigner, having prominent cheek bones, black mustache, and wearing a four cornered hat of dazzling brilliancy, with a black band below the crown. The eyes were closed. It wavered before me, as if its essence consisted of visible vibrations. I asked it if it knew anyone there that evening. Nodding the head rapidly twice in affirmative, it quickly vanished before my eyes. While I was still wondering about this another form built up from the floor. This form was imperfect, the body tapering above the neck. There was no head. The body was covered with a white tunic caught at the shoulder. Underneath I could discern a black undergarment, strongly suggestive of a Roman citizen's attire. Dr. X in the cabinet saw nothing. In great discomfort, bathed in perspiration, he begged one of the sitters to enter the cabinet and sit with him. Other forms appeared, but not as clearly visible. The seance concluded at the request of Dr. X.
I mention one more sitting I had with Dr. X. I was a guest at his home on August 25th, 1935. He told me he had invited three friends for a sitting for my benefit. He placed on the table his violin and bow and a trumpet. The sitting was in darkness. Hands were not under control. There were the usual phenomena, speaking, singing, levitation, while general conversation was being carried on by the sitters. Two outstanding things occurred. The first, a voice asking for Patsy, calling himself Dad. It was revealed later that one of the sitters was called Patsy by her father. This was unknown to the other sitters. The other was this. With the crashing of the violin and trumpet, striking sitters about the head and body, I feared for my glasses, being rather dependent on them. Quietly I removed them and placed them on a small stand behind me. None of the sitters knew I was doing this. Instantly the trumpet gently touched both of my eyes, as if an intelligent being were rebuking me for my lack of trust.
The Steubenville Group reports sittings with Dr. X at which times messages came via the invisible operation of the telegraph key, set up for the purpose; supernormal writings were found on slates, there was levitation of objects in the light; various objects were invisibly and mysteriously brought to sitters who mentally requested them. To this latter phenomenon I can fully testify. Repeatedly while sitting with the Steubenville group I would mentally request some object, and frequently that object would be gently pressed into my hands immediately upon my request.
I had an interesting experience with a Mr. Arthur Ford at a public seance in August 1936. I wrote the names of four or five people from whom I had hoped to hear. I placed the list in an envelope and sealed it. This was not done in Mr. Ford's presence. Merely by picking up the sealed envelope he read the names and gave what were considered by the audience to be true answers. In my case he described the persons whose names appeared on the paper. He read the names correctly. There was no fumbling or prying for information.
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA IN THE BIBLE.
Dr. Alexis Carrel has made a thorough study of the healing shrines such as those at Lourdes and elsewhere. He came to the conclusion that while suggestion may explain some cures, yet, and this is the amazing thing, - he found many instances of an extraordinary infiltration of tissue to have taken place, a speeding up process unlike anything observed in daily life. Quoting him. -- Our present conception of the influence of prayer upon pathological lesions is based upon the observation of patients who have been cured almost instantaneously of various afflictions; such as peritoneal tuberculosis, cold abscesses, suppurating wounds, lupus, cancer, etc. Sometimes functional disorders vanish before the corresponding anatomical lesions are repaired. --
THE PRESENT STATUS OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.
Says the cautious and reserved Immanuel Kant, who came to a conclusion only after long hard thinking. -- Ignorant as I am of the way in which a man enters the world and the way in which he goes out, I dare not deny the truth of narratives of occult phenomena. By a reserve, however, which some may find singular, I permit myself to doubt each claim in particular, and yet believe in them when taken together.
Professor William James says, "I wish to go on record for the commonness of these occurrences. I am baffled as to spirit return, but as to the claimed phenomena existing I am not baffled at all, for I am fully convinced."
Professor McDougall believes that no one undertaking to review the psycho-physical problem can afford to ignore the results of the investigations that have already been made, without laying himself open to the accusation of culpable ignorance and unscientific prejudice.
Maurice Maeterlinck adds, "In the presence of the mass of evidence collected it would be absurd to persist in denying the reality of the phenomena themselves."
The testimony of Professor Herbert Mayo of King's College, London, is interesting. Says he, "Twenty-five years ago I was a hard-boiled unbeliever. Spiritual phenomena, however, suddenly and quite unexpectedly were developed in my own family. This led me to enquire and to try numerous experiments in such a way as to preclude the possibility of trickery and self-deception. That the phenomena do occur there is an overwhelming evidence and it is too late now to deny them."
Professor Hans Dreisch of Leipsic University, definitely states, "The actuality of psychic phenomena is doubted today only by the incorrigible dogmatist."
Professor Charles Richet makes a frank confession. "To admit the reality of these phenomena was to me an actual pain." He then cites in his treatise on Metapsychics, three fundamental phenomena, which in his judgement have been fully established. Extra sensory perception, telekinesis, and ectoplasm. These, says Professor Richet, have been established and are problems for scientific treatment. In his latest book, The Grand Hope, he says: "In the history of metapsychics, I do not know of a single case, I say not a single case, in which a conscientious observer after two years of study has come to negative conclusions."
Dr. Alexis Carrel, after a critical study of the claims of psychic phenomena says: "This knowledge of the external world may come to men through other channels than sense organs. These facts, which belong to a new science of metapsychics, must be accepted just as they are. They constitute part of reality."
The point to be stressed here is the fact of the phenomena, whatever the explanation or the concluding theory.
Excerpts selected by Robert Jackson Martin from Rev. Louis Greene's thesis, "The Contribution of Psychic Research to the Question of Immortality," submitted at Oberlin College in 1938 for his Masters degree in Sacred Theology.
NOTE: I have known Bob Martin for over forty years, long before he met Dr. Greene in San Antonio. He was one of our initial group in Akron. I met Dr. Greene while visiting Bob in San Antonio. Later I came to meet the members of the Steubenville Psychic Society, including Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Scott and a medium from Michigan. These all were serious, honest students of esoteric direction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Defining The Truth (Part 2)
by Richard Rose
(Part 1 of "Defining The Truth" appeared in TAT Journal No. 9. It was also published in pamphlet form, and is available from TAT Book Service.)
THE DRIVE BEHIND ALL SPIRITUAL AND ESOTERIC searching is the fear of death. And that fear itself is not caused by our own deductions or determinations. Like any other being in the animal kingdom, we are programmed to fear. Pain and the fear of death are preservers of life. But it is a life without quality, if we must be tortured in order to serve out an unexplained sentence, chained in the cave of Plato.* We do not cause ourselves to fear. All creatures, insects, animals, mice and men are programmed to react with fear. Animals likewise are programmed to desperately try to avoid being killed. We may think that they are merely trying to avoid injury, when they flee from predators, but personal observations will show deeper potentials for animals in the realm of thinking and awareness.
Protoplasm itself is programmed to avoid death, or else it would not have been endowed with antibodies for diseases, the ability to heal its wounds and clot the flowing blood. Protoplasm is an example of extremely astute engineering. Which each jackass views as his own possession, even though his own knowledge is incapable of providing self-protection or self-healing. He has to depend upon factors unknown to himself to keep him alive each day.
Man is better endowed than animals. His endowments are discovered by an ever-evolving technology. Yet all of the magnificent technology may only be a distraction for that which might be an even better technology, - the work on a science of the beginnings and limits of his consciousness.
Man finds himself, (by comparing himself with other animals), to be an extraordinary being. He is also endowed with individual self-esteem, or egotism, to believe that he is also better endowed than most other human beings. And yet he individually knows that he must die, and that no eulogy or funereal elegance will alter the finality of disintegration. Yet, man's reaction to his death, and the death of relatives, is not too different from the reactions of chickens. There is a moment of lamentation, and the chickens go back to picking and clucking.
In the human family, each generation has less time for death, and for the moments of introspection that might occur at the funeral of a relative or friend, - introspection, which, in turn might lead the mind to try to solve some of the mystery of life and death.
If we are here on this earth to vegetate, and supply bodies for predators alone, - then the least that we can do is prevent future births into this meat-grinder. It is time that we should not only pause at funerals for introspection, we should also realize that the sex-act is a wilful act, from which much misery is produced. No one can be blamed for being born, and no one should be blamed for the sexual urges with which he is programmed to perpetuate the system that furnishes more candidates for anguish and death.
Now, I have just stated something which will appear foolish to many. For those who think that sex is a wonderful gift from God, or the sole comfort for a drab animal life, let me reply that they should first define God and then examine sex to see how much is gift and how much is a curse.
The statement which might appear foolish, is the advice to prevent future births. There is no doubt, that it is unwise to continue to play a losing game. However when these things are stated, a paradox is immediately set up. It is also unwise to try to thwart a game that is fixed, when that game seems to apply to life forms, on the massive scale that is found in this earthly greenhouse. If as seekers, esotericists or metaphysicians we see a pointlessness to life, we also will have seen, along the way that life is not haphazard. First we realize that the game is fixed. We cannot identify the agency, but we give a name to the code of the computer that monitors life on the planet. We call it Nature.
This Nature-code will react, and its reaction will not be a bolt of lightning from the sky, nor an earthquake. The rumble will come from the zombie-masses, who will blame their crusade on God. The rumble will also come from the individual's body who tries to outwit the "purpose" by abortions, homosexuality, bestiality or ideosexuality.
We also find that Nature is not designed for an uncontrollable overpopulation or a runting-down from premature pregnancies. Nature controls the herd, but does not encourage the herd to multiply beyond a limited food supply. The automatic neutralization that occurs in clans that cause pregnancies in the young females, is manifested in the consequent runting and poverty. The breed tends to extinguish itself. Likewise, overpopulation would ultimately be adverse to any Nature-code that wished to promote the human species.
By observing the existence and habits of nonsexual monastic population-segments down through the centuries, we find that Nature has left a door open for their existence. But this door must be a neutral door.... homosexuality will destroy the monastic sect, but to be sexless (celibate) there will be no blame. Even armies have been slow to attack the monasteries.
The door is the door of neutrality or innocence. In fact Nature may well have the same reaction to armies which destroy innocent monasteries, as it does to individuals who attack or impregnate the children. It is my opinion that this door of escape was not created by a compassionate or maternal deity speaking through the Nature-code. I think that it was a result of positive coding in regard to the approval of sexual restraints. This is a paradox of Nature. There are certain penalties for those who resist reproduction, even in a neutral manner, such as in celibacy. The celibates have to cope with prostatitis and cancer in the males, and in the females we may find amenorrhea, and dysfunction of the pituitary gland, - not to mention the migraine headaches that beset both sexes when sexual routines are upset.
But most of these maladies occur only after the sex habits have been in existence for a while. So that the penalties are delayed for the child and young adolescent. So that if you continue to live as a child, there is found a combination to the door.
Nature definitely leaves a door open for Spiritual direction. The Spiritual quest, however, passes through the door not smoothly, but with great risk. The escapee must be well disciplined, alert and fearless. And he must possess an intuition equal to his courage.
Going back to the paradox which resulted from the statements I made about preventing births for the meat-grinder, and a manifest inability to oppose a game that is apparently fixed, we have now a solution to the paradox.
In that there has been found a door of escape, and in that there may in fact be a Nature-code to protect our detachment from Nature, - there is a hint of solution to the paradox. But there is more to this problem of escaping. People generally escape to monasteries or convents. This is good. There is an Ashram or monastery principle which insures for the individual protection, an atmosphere conducive to serious thinking, and a clearinghouse for ideas among colleagues. But, on the other hand, we find most monastic centers to be counter-productive. They generally seem to be dominated by dogmatists rather than seekers; they become populated by dharma-bums rather than dynamic pioneers; and they fall into a discipline which is necessary in any institution where large numbers of people must share the same space, but which promotes robotism, passivity and forgetfulness of intended purposes and a loss of personal introspection.
And once more the door seems to close. But there is another method, another way of life. Its description is also paradoxical. (Perhaps the only solution to a paradox is another paradox). The human spiritual quest must become a vector, with all of that human's energy behind that vector. And the shortest distance between aim and objective is supposed to be a straight line. But success in a spiritual venture requires the ability to run between the raindrops, which may appear to be a zig-zag course, which may include dynamic feints and matched states of high indifference.
Writers, knowledgeable to the difficulties and hazards of a spiritual path have outlined ways or systems which they believed would take a person a certain distance. There is the Way of Service, (often called Bhakti Yoga), the Way of the Monk, the Way of the Raj Yogi, and DeRopp adds another, the Way of the Warrior. Some of these "Ways" are well defined, and finely detailed.
I have written a paper about still another Way, which is too detailed, and dependent upon all of its details for proper understanding for it to be inserted here. However this new Way evolved from a lifetime of perseverance ending in a final experience.
At this point I do not wish to get too deeply into "Ways," until we carefully cover the stumbling blocks on the path which too many seekers falsely identify certain steps as being true steps.
We cannot start at the top. If we are hooked on thinking that a spiritual system should be peaceful and serene we may be disappointed. So I will try to outline some of these directions or pseudo-steps, in the hope that some readers may recognize which steps are comfortable resting places, but are not steps that lift the party to clearer realizations.
Our original question here was: do we react to unanswered questions about death (and life) only through fear? If not how do we react to the fear of death, and how do we react to our knowledge of our own lack of knowledge?
There are some statistics available, at least in regard to mankind's spiritual directions which are indications of mass beliefs or popular choices. Those statistics would be found in the number of people (in relation to world population) who belong to the Christian, Mohammedan, Tibetan, Hinduistic religions whose members accept the doctrines of heaven and hell. While we can presume that most of these movements may have employed fear to sell their wares, the merchandisers of those wares would not have been successful if the followers were not motivated by a fear of death, or a fear of post-mortem pitfalls or hazards.
It would be extremely difficult to come up with exact figures of that which people believe. People change their minds. Good Christians, Mohammedans, and Hindus may be drifting toward atheism and agnosticism with the help of Communism. And we cannot be sure of that which the individuals,- for instance, who have been caught in Communistic take-overs, - really believe.
To know that which people really believe about subjective matters, it is necessary to talk to people individually. Such a talk cannot be limited to a standardized set of questions. Each individual will have special meanings for words and terms, and may not be sure of that which he really believes, or, may be reluctant to admit that he might have fear as a motive.
And of course we are not interested as much in the motive for believing, as much as we are in the excuses for not acting in face of the knowledge of our lack of well-defined knowledge of that which will happen to us after death.
From my childhood I have been interested in the subject of immortality, and do not doubt that it originated in fear. But I tried to do something about that interest and fear. I began by talking to anyone who showed an interest in religion or esotericism. It was not an easy task. Most professional people recoil when asked about their religious beliefs, or even a simple questioning about their beliefs about life after death.
When I was in the seminary, (age twelve to seventeen) I was slapped in the face, because my questions indicated that I did not accept that which I should believe. I began to look upon priests as ardent members of a union or gang, who felt threatened at the prospects of having a potential member being a non-believer of the party line.
In later years I went to work in different research laboratories, and questioned some of the scientists with whom I worked. I found that most of them were men with technological skills, and their mental abilities prompted scientific egos. Most of them were agnostics, and they believed that any wisdom about life after death would only come from superior scientists like Einstein, and that other scientists such as biochemists and mathematicians should work for the infinite prolongation of life.
There were several exceptions. A man who was a genius in the heat-transfer work related to the atomic fueling of submarines, was also a sincere Christian Scientist. His name was Kooistra. I have forgotten his first name. I was young at the time, and I found it amazing that a man whom I respected as one of the greater scientific minds, could devote an equal amount of energy to an unproven belief system. Christian Science is called a science, but in the stricter understanding of the word science, the two requirements of predictability and proof are lacking.
I became a sort of gadfly to Kooistra, arguing with him about proofs for the existence of God, and about faith in the light of faith possibly being merely wishful thinking. I had been on a few occasions up to Cleveland, and once had stopped to listen to the street-orators in the public square. A Christian Scientist on a podium (the step before a statue) was being confronted by an agnostic. The agnostic told the speaker, that he knew a man who had been a Christian Scientist, had gotten seriously ill, yet had refused to go to a doctor.
"You know what happened," warned the agnostic, "The guy died."
But the Christian Scientist responded, "If your friend wants to think he is dead, let him think he's dead."
At the time, I thought this encounter eloquently indicated the limitations of Christian Science. And of course, I uncharitably used it to test Kooistra's faith... or patience.
But Kooistra was a very solid person, and a person of great intuition. In fact he invented a procedure which the other scientists scoffed at, saying that it could not work. The procedure involved floating an armature in liquid metal, K-Na.
It was this same intuition which prompted the man to see the possibility of mind being superior to flesh, which I believed as possible at that time. I could not prove it then, nor can I prove it now. And I still think that anyone who believes in this mental ability should be very careful of testing the theory in a very serious illness. Perhaps there will come a day when we can replace a limb that is destroyed, or return the dead to life, but not yet.
I have mentioned elsewhere that my life has been a continuous search. The first thirty years were spent in looking for the correct answer, or for the final mental state in which all things would be understood. The remainder of my life I have spent looking for symbols to express my findings, and looking for people as companions on the path... and for fellow-translators of intuitional language and non-dimensional language into words for four-dimensional minds.
I spent some time with theologians. Long after I left the seminary, I continued to meet with priests and ministers when I found that they showed some genuine sincerity. I have met some clerics that candidly admitted that they were running a business. Others were faithfully producing arguments to maintain the Church-Militant. They do not make good companions on the path.
I gravitated toward metaphysical groups. I think that this group of investigators is in reality a pool of frontiersmen in the search for real answers to phenomena, as well as answers to questions about ultimate essence, and ultimate purposes for us.
Like the theists, I found them to be blocked in their various stages of searching. I think it is of a great value to us in understanding them, and to them in possibly seeing their blocks. Of course, if they see their blocks, that in itself is not a major accomplishment, if there is not a concurrent discovery of some technique to help them understand other important points of view. Many people rebel against a religion or a parental belief, but down the line they become frozen into an alternate spiritual venture or obsession with a particular adventure into the world of phenomena. The mere fact that one breaks away from that which one considers to be useless, should indicate that the new obsession may later be proven to be only a step, a phase, or even a device unconsciously used by the rebellious mind, to distract that mind from doing any real work.
THE PASSIVE PERSON
I recently received a letter from a lady who had read several of my books. She told of years of searching, and years of hardship. I gathered that she recognized the searching as the cause for the hardship. She had set out to find the meaning for her existence. Suffering and hardship resulted. She has now taken the passive path to inner peace and harmony.
The warrior comes back scarred and weary. It does no good to guess now about mistakes made in the battle, or the quality of intelligence used in making decisions. The warrior rests in the shade and is overwhelmed by the seeming peacefulness of nature. In this interlude he may have a spiritual experience... may in fact be visited by Cosmic Consciousness. In any event, the warrior is experiencing a spiritual plateau, a resting place between two upward battles or periods of growth. The plateau can be recognized by its accompanying bliss. There is no bliss in the final realization. The final realization is the understanding of everything and nothingness. There is no pain nor bliss there, because there is no polarity.
But, how do we talk with this type of person? What is our point in trying to communicate with dissembled minds? Of course our point (for communicating) is the response to the unwritten law, that a person must give in order to get; and another law that you can only help certain people, not everyone; and still another resolution that we are most likely to find people who will understand our language, in some group whose efforts and evolution might be similar to our own. Such a group is often a sanghat, or a brotherhood, or an unnamed circle of respected friends.
Generally, with the person addicted to passivity, there is little that can be done or said. If the friend is resting upon a spiritual plateau, nothing should be done. It is not for us to judge the duration of that dwelling on the plateau. Confrontation may drive him into depression, not illumination. We can confront action more safely, because most actions spring from a polarizing purpose, in that our actions generally are reactions to neutralize some other direction.
The person whose real mental state is one of laziness, (not recuperation), on the other hand, should be confronted. However, all confrontation should be in the mood of friendship, and not with the attitude of a pedant or critic.
We must always remember that, in this bipolar world, bliss will be best defined by agony. Peace and serenity, which are lesser levels, will be preceded or followed by conflict and trauma. Such transitions are difficult to predict. When the daylight is upon us we can easily predict the night... but for a person who stands alternately in light and darkness, it is extremely difficult to predict a day that never ends.
INSTINCTIVE AND EMOTIONAL PEOPLE
It is a waste of time to argue with instinctive people. The instinctive person reacts with anger at the prospects of being a victim without an ability to fight back. He usually believes in oblivion after death. He is totally digested by his predator. He is eaten by the lion which should have been his slave.
The emotional person babbles about love. In some cases he wishes to make love (have intercourse) with his cause (which he humanizes). He (or she) has a unique approach to the lion or spiritual predator. He makes love to it. And the lion eats his head off first, because the head criticizes the heart.
We should be patient with people whose admonitions for love follow on the heels of suffering from a past habit of hate. On the other hand, there are fundamentalists in many religions who believe that their love for their prophet, saviour or guru justifies murder for that personage or cause. Here the lion becomes flesh, often disguised as a lamb.
We have a tide of people running about the earth preaching social love. The politicians have conveniently taken up the cry and encourage little organizations to spring up by the hundreds to the point that they have become a pestilence. We have "big brothers" and "big sisters," street patrols called "Angels," Mad mothers, Hotline volunteers, Hug-your-neighbor sessions. Save the Indians movement. Save endangered predators. Volunteers to pester the elderly. Brotherhood-ostriches with their heads in the sands of a vicious environment.
Beware of people crusading for love. Some of them are politicians and prelates trying to create a zeitgeist of their own to further their own games. A large segment of the population are at work softening up the larger segment for purposes of domination.
THE LOGICAL MAN
Most logic is vanity. However, we must approach problems in a sensible manner. In spiritual or esoteric fields, logic finds loose footing, whether it be used to qualify beliefs, conceptions or projections.
Logic requires a point of reference. In esoteric philosophy even if our point of reference is the planet earth, that point becomes unstable in the face of inter-galactic comparisons, but becomes even more unstable when we observe it in regard to its ultimate reality in relation to the subtle dimensions of the mind or spirit. Some physicists are leaping ahead of the mystics, in promoting the concept of the Hologram-Mind. In this theory, the human mind may be a tiny sensor in a formidable brain or mind, in which all of the universe is contained... possibly as visions.
I do not know how many mathematical formulae they have employed to give body to this concept, but it certainly says little more than the Indians advised for over a thousand years. To the Indian mystic all that we view with our limited senses is Maya, and theory is expressed in other terms by some Spiritualists who speak of a mental plane which is superior to this dimension.
When the persistent searcher reaches a state, or a state of mind, which is known as Sahaji Nirvakalpa Samadhi, he views the concept of the Hologram-Mind as being a concept that comes close to the experiences of Yogis in the final Samadhi. Yet, no amount of formulation or logic will express the true nature of that region which makes this region look like a nightmare.
I have said elsewhere, that our logical system employs the wrong point of reference when it attempts to deal with the inner spatial phenomena. The mind should be the point of reference. And of course that point of reference will be a moving faculty, depending upon the angle of its view or observation. If the mind looks at this dimension it will see the brain. If it looks within itself, it will see or become an infinite frontier.
Let us take a look now at another type of mind. This is the intuitive mind. The intuitive man is the new pioneer. Where the former man was conceptual (fabricating) and gestaltic, the new man intuitively perfected, will view the memory of man at a glance, and from that storehouse of countless factors or memories, will instantly know and experience everything. The monumental task will be that of individuation... bringing to non-intuitive minds with temporal words the knowledge of timelessness, and mental totality. How does the ocean explain to a falling raindrop that the latter will lose its apparent shape, but never its form, or being.
The intuitive man sees the need for using every tool available to the mind of man to discover the purpose of man's life - and possibly, all life. In the beginning he is not so vain as to presume to answer as to the reasons for the existence of everything. He knows he will be lucky if he can understand the purpose of his own life and the limits of that life.
He sees the need for emotional behavior toward his fellowman, because the assault upon total ignorance requires maximum help. He must have fellow-technicians, an association of observers and experimenters, if need be. His friendship for his fellow-seeker cannot be a pretence. He equates their survival with his own.
The intuitive man cannot be placid or passive. His passivity dares not extend beyond being honest and humble about his ignorance, about his physical disintegration, and his present helplessness. This honesty should not automatically accept helplessness.
He must use his own instinctive pool of physical power for energy and determination to fight back against annihilation, against fatigue, mental and physical.
He must use all the energies of his body to the fullest capacity.
He must use anger against procrastination and rationalization, against dalliance or failure... against any entity, human or noumenal.
If need be, his body must become a laboratory wherein might be found forces to improve his abstract calculations - or intuitions.
Intuition must be his modus operandi.
[Illustration: Statue and Temple of Rameses III]
Omm Sety Of Abydos, Egypt
by Deborah Rosen
How did Dorothy Eady know so much about an Egyptian Pharaoh who lived 3,300 years ago?
"RAMESES IS SUCH A NAUGHTY CHILD," Omm Sety told her visitors, as if the long-dead Pharoah had just performed some mischievous act. Dorothy Eady claimed she knew Rameses and his father Sety I when she lived in Abydos, Egypt 3,300 years ago.
The story began in 1907 at the top of a flight of stairs in London. Three-year-old Dorothy Eady stood there. Then, losing her balance, she fell down the long flight. Her parents heard the thud and, shocked, discovered Dorothy lifeless and still. They summoned the doctor. He examined the tiny form carefully to catch a sign of life. "She's dead," he said finally. The doctor left to get a death certificate and a nurse to lay out the body. But when he got back to the Eady home "the body" was bouncing on the bed.
Seventy years later, sitting in her mudbrick house not far from Sety's great temple in Abydos, Dorothy Eady, now known as Omm Sety, eagerly explained to her visitors what happened next.
"My dreams began - dreams of a beautiful building. Every time I awoke, I begged my parents to let me go home. They told me I was speaking nonsense - that I was at home but they could not convince me. I knew I was not."
Her lively blue eyes sparkling, Dorothy Eady would describe her first visit to the British Museum in London. "I was four. None of the exhibits interested me until I got to the Egyptian wing. When I saw the mummies I went wild, kissing their feet and chanting, "These are my people, leave me here." Her parents were stunned.
And the surprises continued. She found a picture of Sety I's temple in Abydos. "I remember when I showed it to my parents I said, 'Here is my home that I dream about, but where are the gardens and why is it in ruins?"'
She wanted answers but school didn't provide them. Playing hooky, she spent her days with the mummies at the British Museum. Finally, Sir Ernest Budge, Keeper of the Egyptian Galleries, Took pity on her and taught her to read hieroglyphs.
Emam Abd El-Meguid, a young Egyptian teacher, visited England on a mission. He met Dorothy Eady at the House of Commons where both had gone on business. She fascinated him. After he returned to Egypt he wrote asking her to marry him. In love with Egypt and seeking her past, Dorothy Eady sailed for Cairo. "My dream," she told visitors, "was to work, live, die and be buried in Abydos."
Dorothy Eady had a son. She named him Sety after her beloved Pharaoh, making her Omm Sety, mother of Sety. "I was an awful cook and a terrible housekeeper," she readily admitted. "All I cared about was ancient Egypt. After two years my poor husband lost patience. He divorced me and married his cousin who liked to cook and couldn't stand monuments.
In 1956 Omm Sety got a job working on the restoration of Sety's temple. She told archeologists she had lived at the temple when it was new. She believed the temple adopted her after her parents - a soldier and a vegetable dealer died. "I told the guards there was a garden by the southwest wall. You're crazy, they said to me, but then one old guard said wait a minute and showed the others that the guard house had been built over the roots." Excavations revealed the remains of trees, plants and water canals.
Omm Sety's colleagues tried a test. They blindfolded her and told her to find certain wall carvings in the temple. Each time she was right.
A bizarre experience of Omm Sety's suggests the temple still hides treasures. Omm Sety went to the temple every day to pray to the ancient gods. One time she unlocked the temple door, then locked it behind her, placing the key on a pedestal. Suddenly she heard a grinding noise and found herself falling down steps leading to a room filled with furniture. She couldn't see but felt the shape of different objects including canopic jars which hold the entrails of a mummified body. She searched for a way out. The next thing she remembered was light. Custodians found her dazed and covered with cobwebs outside the temple. They were surprised to find her outside because the temple door was still locked from the inside and the key resting on the pedestal.
Omm Sety was subject to blackouts. Did she dream or actually experience the incident? The grinding noise may have been the sound of a stone slab moving. Omm Sety died before she had a chance to solve the mystery.
Like her Pharaoh, Omm Sety built for the future. She prepared her own sarcophagus in a corner of her small walled garden. She had shared the past with Sety I and wanted to share the future. She even predicted her own death, based on ancient Egyptian astrological texts. Her fervent wish - never to spend one night away from her temple, was fulfilled in the spring of 1981. At her death, English relatives tried to bring her remains "home" to England, but Omm Sety was "home" and she is buried in Abydos, the sacred town of ancient Egypt.
[Photographs of Natuzza Evolo taken by the author, showing "thorn" stigmata on her forehead, and stigmata on her wrists. She also has deep wounds on her ankles.]
The Case Investigation Of Natuzza Evolo
by Michael J. Nanko
I. INTRODUCTION
AN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE INVESTIGATION has long been warranted into the voluminous anomalies and claims of the paranormal which characterize Natuzza Evolo, the renowned Italian medium, healer, bilocator and stigmatic. Associated with Natuzza's stigmata is also the phenomenon of hemography. In light of the facts that such claims expand over nearly five decades, attested to by many reputable professionals, that Natuzza accepts no remuneration for her consulting, nor has she ever been observed in any fraudulent behaviors, the Board of Directors of the Southern California Society for Psychical Research determined that this case deserved inquiry. The purpose of this article is to present the preliminary findings of a case investigation of Natuzza Evolo conducted by the SCSPR during September of 1984.
The SCSPR was first introduced to Natuzza Evolo (hereafter referred to only as "Natuzza") via an unpublished Italian manuscript by Valerio Marinelli. Marinelli, a professor of engineering at the University of Calabria, in southern Italy, had conducted interviews with Natuzza and obtained testimony from scores of individuals purported to have had paranormal experiences with Natuzza. Professor Marinelli is one of only three persons provided the opportunity to interview Natuzza in some depth.
We were advised early in our investigation that SCSPR researchers would not be afforded the opportunity of conducting a thorough parapsychological case investigation; virtually all correspondence with parties in Italy (Marinelli, Satriani, religious leaders, witnesses, physicians, etc.) reminded the SCSPR that people would not cooperate with Americans conducting any type of inquiry into Natuzza. Consequently, the SCSPR decided to modify its objectives of achieving a thorough scientific investigation work with Natuzza, and focused instead on attainment of basic information and data which might corroborate or discount previous documentation of Natuzza's alleged paranormal "Powers." (See Marinelli 1983, Satriani 1982, and Mesiano 1974).
It was toward this end that Elizabeth McAdams and I went to the south of Italy, accompanied by an Italian interpreter, to achieve the following objectives:
II. BRIEF BACKGROUND ON CULTURE AND AREA
Natuzza was born and has lived her entire life in the village of Paravati, in the Province of Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy. It is a mountainous region lying between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas with flatland comprising less than 10 percent of the 800 km of mountainous coastline. The region is predominantly devoted to agriculture, and the villagers subsist on a frugal, but dignified family income. To the visitor from an industrial society, entering Paravati feels like a step backward in time, the culture and ideologies of the people strikingly distinct from the more cosmopolitan north. Oxen-carts and corner shrines are common sights here, where men and women socialize in segregated groupings outside their stone-facade homes. (Custom dictates that widowed women sit facing inside their homes and away from the street.)
Professor Piero Cassoli, President of the Center for Parapsychology Studies in Bologna describes the region in which Natuzza lives as the "profound south," "a magical milieu..." (Note 1). It is an area spattered with beliefs in sorcery, witchcraft, charms and spells.
III. BRIEF BACKGROUND ON NATUZZA EVOLO
NATUZZA DEI MORTI (Natuzza of the Dead)
Natuzza is a 60-year-old woman, born at Paravati, where she has lived her life in poverty. She is short-statured, moderately obese with the characteristic appearance of a Calabrese country woman. It is reported that Natuzza received early religious instruction commensurate with her contemporaries, but she never attended primary school. She is completely illiterate. Friends and relatives must help her to answer the hundreds of letters she receives from many parts of the world. At the age of 14, Natuzza was taken into domestic service in the home of the attorney Silvio Colloca and his wife, where she came to live. On leaving the Colloca home years later, she married Pasquale Nicolace, a fellow countryman and carpenter, with whom she had five children.
Although there are several sketchy accounts of earlier paranormal phenomena, it was here at the Colloca house where Natuzza's asserted paranormal abilities first manifested and drew attention. The first occasion occurred while Mrs. Colloca was walking in the country with Natuzza, when Mrs. Alba noticed the appearance of foamy blood on Natuzza's foot, with no evidence of any wound present. At the request of the Collocas, Drs. Domenico and Giuseppe Naccari examined Natuzza and reported that it was a "perspiration of blood" and that Natuzza appeared to be perfectly healthy. This incident proved to be the precursor of what would be scores of other perspirations of blood which surfaced over the years from her feet, hands, face, breast, shoulders, and back.
Mrs. Alba relates having overheard and observed Natuzza on many occasions purportedly in conversation with the Saints, with Jesus, Mary, and other "defunct" souls. Frequently during her adolescence, Natuzza would enter a trance or epileptic-like state while "communicating" with the dead or with the angels. It is from these discarnate entities that Natuzza claims to receive psychic information. By the age of 15, Natuzza was considered a medium within the local communities.
Related to this phenomenon of blood perspiration, and even more remarkable, is the production of hemography. This consists of the spontaneous, independent rearrangement of particles of blood to form designs, inscriptions and symbols (always of religious character) upon handkerchiefs or cloths which come in contact with wounds or profusions on Natuzza's body. The first manifestations of this phenomenon occurred when Natuzza was 16 years old, in the Cathedral of Mileto, upon receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. After receiving the Sacrament, Natuzza discovered, after feeling her shoulder to be wet, the image of a cross (of about 5 cm) formed in blood on her undershirt. The garment was sent by the monsignor to the bishop of the Diocese of Mileto and forwarded to officials at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan; however, no conclusions were drawn.
In the following years, the hemographies increased in number, becoming more elaborate. Claims were also being made by townsfolk of Natuzza visiting them in bilocation, as well as beliefs in her ability to diagnose medical conditions even unbeknownst to the individual. People report healings after invoking Natuzza's assistance. She also provides "psychic" help in other matters i.e., locating lost objects, missing persons, etc.
It was around the age of 30 that Natuzza first became impressed with the stigmata, developing wounds corresponding to those traditionally depicted as those which were suffered by Christ. Natuzza herself insists that these phenomena occur completely independent of her will, completely uninfluenced by her own volition. She ascribes her remarkable abilities to the angels, Jesus, the Madonna, and the Saints. Although Natuzza is commonly regarded as something of a living saint, it would appear that her ardent Catholicism embodies interpretations peculiar to herself. Father Salvatore Sangeniti, (past pastor of the Paravati Catholic Church, and now head of the seminary in Mileto), described Natuzza's belief system to me as being often naive, which may contradict or confuse interpretations and teachings of the Catholic Faith. "Natuzza often mixes up the stories that are in the Bible and will advise differently than the Church would." He is, however, quite supportive of Natuzza. "She does not want fanaticism or to be a substitute for the Church. She is not hurting anyone because she is not a fraud or taking money. There is nothing for the Church to worry about. In fact, she has stimulated interest in the Church... Natuzza believes in Christ to the fullest." (Note 2).
IV. VISITS WITH NATUZZA
For nearly 40 years, four days a week, Natuzza has received the hundreds of people who seek her counsel. Most are there to ask for news of their deceased loved ones, others with questions concerning their own health or that of their relatives. The SCSPR research team met with Natuzza on two occasions. This necessitated arriving at her home before 7:00 A.M. to gain admit tance when her door opened at 8:00 A.M. The crowd enters into an anteroom, beyond which is a small chapel and past that, a garden. To the immediate right is a small room in which Natuzza receives visitors, in which after waiting for hours, most will spend only up to ten minutes with Natuzza. Once inside the house, some of the pilgrims will pray before the altar, some find seating; others wait adjacent to the receiving door awaiting their turn for an audience. Group songs or prayers may break out spontaneously in the crowd. Even so, an implicit waiting system appears in operation. A few patrons with more pressing needs will plead their way closer to the front, but for the most part, visitors are received in the order in which they arrived.
With me at our first visit with Natuzza were Elizabeth McAdams, our interpreter, Ana Leva, and Mrs. Leticia Rotella, a life-long resident of Mileto, who with her husband, Mr. Fortunato, owned the pension in which we stayed in Mileto. On this morning, after waiting at Natuzza's home for several hours, we were befriended by a woman there who offered to arrange an appointment for us with Natuzza later that afternoon so that we might have a longer audience with her. Upon our return there were still over one hundred people waiting to see her. Natuzza informed us that she would not grant an interview "because there are too many who need my help." She told us that she could only talk with us for a short time. We were able to present a few questions; however, for probing questions we were referred to Professor Marinelli.
On a more personal level, I presented Natuzza with a photograph of a male relative. I stated that this individual had been missing for "some time" and could she comment on his situation. Natuzza replied, "He is dead and in Paradise." This target person had in fact died in 1973. Next, each individual in the room questioned Natuzza about their own health. However, she responded in only general terms.
The second meeting with Natuzza occurred 8 days later. For this meeting I was accompanied by Ana Leva, Vernon Miller, G.M. and L.R.S. (Note 3). Aside from some general (nonveridical) information Natuzza also offered some ostensible psi information. As planned, Ana asked Natuzza to provide information about two of her relatives. Natuzza correctly informed Ana that the younger of the two was dead and the older one was alive. More interestingly, Natuzza elaborated on the unique and troublesome nature of the relationship between the two relatives. I followed by asking Natuzza to tell me the whereabouts of my father whom I stated I had not seen in years. Natuzza said, "He is dead and in Purgatory - pray for him." The fact is that he died almost 11 years ago.
Vernon Miller, who served as photographer for part of the Natuzza investigation and who was the official photographer for the international team that studied the Shroud of Turin (1977) asked Natuzza a line of questions related to the Shroud. She responded with, "It is the burial cloth of Jesus, it is genuine, but science can never prove it."
Natuzza next provided some provocative responses to questions of health. I first asked Natuzza to provide a prognosis on my mother whom I presented as critically ill. Natuzza insisted that my mother was "in good health and does not suffer." This was a deceptive question and my mother was in good health. Natuzza went on next to tell Ana that LRS has a " serious bone sickness and that she needs to trust doctors." Ana was instructed by Natuzza to wait until a more opportune time to discuss this comment with LRS. When confronted with this comment, LRS reluctantly disclosed that she does suffer from a rare bone disease, osteomyelitis, but with iatrogenic etiology. Furthermore, Natuzza told Ana "You have a bleeding and you're thinking that the cause of it is a cyst - that is not true. You have a 'fibroma' in the uterus. You need an operation, so don't waste time." Not sure what she told Ana, Natuzza asks "What is a fibroma?" Natuzza's "psychic" diagnosis of Ana's condition was disturbingly accurate. Just two days previous Ana had not been feeling well and just one day earlier she began to have abnormal bleeding.
As soon as she was able, Ana returned to Florence (Italy) to undergo a thorough medical examination. Two weeks later we heard from Ana. In her own words: "I have been to the doctor and he told me there is something strange in my uterus - it seems I had a lot of fibromata, but now I only have the wounds of it. He also said it is a miracle. So my situation is fair and I have to visit the doctor every few months because it was a cancer. Anyways, I have a lot of pain and will have to take medication for 2 or 3 years - but this is OK because I thought I had to have an operation." (Note 4).
Natuzza would not submit to any systematic questioning or to any obvious testing of her abilities. She asserted that the illnesses and injuries she "perceives" in others only happen when the angels are present. Natuzza disclaimed that she is responsible for any "healings" that occur in her presence or subsequent to an audience with her. It may be of interest to note that faith healers or the like are outlawed in Italy and some "healers" have been prosecuted.
[Illustration: Hemography created by Natuzza.]
V. BILOCATION AND HEMOGRAPHY
As previously mentioned, the SCSPR team met with several witnesses to Natuzza's purported bilocations and hemographies. Some historical accounts of bilocation appear to be well-researched in the canonization proceedings of the Catholic Saints by Prospero Lambertini, including the more contemporary investigation done on Padre Pio. Bilocative phenomena are equally known in Hindu, Buddhist, and Tantric literature of the great swamis and yogis. In parapsychology proper, Osis and Haraldsson (1976) have provided some documentation of ostensible bilocation. Psi researchers of the OOBE also project that their work may eventually shed some light on the understanding of this phenomenon.
Marinelli (1978/83) has been able to document some fifty-five cases of Natuzza's bilocation, which he believes represent only a fraction of the actual incidences. In over twenty cases he reports Natuzza's apparition is seen by witnesses. In several cases apparitions of the dead are seen with Natuzza. In others, Natuzza's voice is heard, but no apparition is seen. In thirteen incidents, Natuzza's bilocating self was reported to perform physical behaviors such as opening and closing doors, knocking over objects, flicking lights, pulling hair, etc. In ten cases the apparition left behind bloodstains or hemographies at the reported site of the bilocation.
Hemography, the paranormal patterning of bloodstains on cloth, is directly related to the stigmata in Natuzza's situation. The blood which flows from Natuzza's wounds and sweating pores during Holy Week (the week preceding Easter) has been reported to spontaneously rearrange to form sacred symbols which are always associated with the Christian Faith. Emblems or figures such as crosses, hosts, monstrances, chalices, rosaries, bleeding hearts, crowns of thorns, praying figures, angels, the face of Jesus, and the Madonna, have all been documented to appear in hemograph