The ROUND ROBIN
Vol. 1, No. 8
September 1945

[1]

THE MODERN MAN

-o-

C.C. JUNG (scholar, psychologist, world-famous) once formulated his concept of the modern man(*). It seems that he is hard to find, no common fellow at all, no "blood-sucking ghost or uprooted human being" like the "great horde of worthless people" who think of themselves as modern folk. He is the man who is at all times solitary, because he escapes from submersion in the mass mind, in the vast collective hypnosis, the universal somnambulism.

On the lowest psychological strata, people live like primitive races, in the most elementary stages of culture. That they possess the toys of civilization, signifies nothing. The truly modern man cannot find values in this kind of existence; he is estranged from the masses and becomes "unhistorical". And this is the "Promethean sin, and in this sense he lives in sin. A higher level of consciousness is like a burden of guilt." The modern man is acutely aware of the present in its transitional aspect - the only aspect in which it has real existence. His criterion is proficiency in creative ability.

This true modern man, who is the very best of us and a most rare creature, is both the fulfilment and the supreme disappointment of all ages of history. But because of his unfoldment of consciousness, he is himself well aware of this. He has seen everything tried - law, government, education, science, religion - and- "two thousand years of Christian ideals are followed, not by the Messiah and the millennium, but by barbed wire and poison gas. What a catastrophe in heaven and on earth!" Now behind every new palliative is a gnawing doubt. "Modern man has suffered an almost fatal shock, psychologically speaking - and has fallen into profound uncertainty."

So far, we summarize the great psychologist. His words were written between 1930 and '33, and they remain true, and his pessimism has been justified. Other writers have put what we take to be an identical question. "What" (it has been asked) "is a human being? Is it enough to have arms and legs, a human-shaped body, to eat and speak and beget offspring?" For ourselves, we do not think so. We suggest that the true and real human being is one in whom development and improvement are both possible and actual, who aspires and desires light and seeks for it, who considers the problems of destiny, duty and service, and perfects his acts in accord with widening ideals.

It is a melancholy and terrifying reflection, that there are untold millions of so-called humans who do not satisfy such requirements, or who possess these qualities only to the eye of religious faith and mystical idealism. After the fiendishness, the unspeakable demonism of this war, it should not be necessary to argue this proposition. Civilization in the sense of technical achievements has spread throughout the world, but civilization as culture, as moral idealism and insight, is the precarious tenure of the few. If we are to be "true moderns", we must recognize this fact explicitly, confront it with courage and with wisdom. This we conceive to be the "bare bones" of our imperative human problem - the ghastly simulacrum of destruction, which the true humans, all too few, must somehow exorcise.

(*) Modern Man in Search of a Soul, p. 227 ff. (1933).

[2]

OCCULT REVIEW

for July has an Editorial on Yoga v. Astral Projection, and articles entitled Global Alchemy, Awareness, You - and the Greater Struggle, The King's Touch, The Mysterious Brethren of the Rosy Cross, Thomas Chatterton, Mithraism and Christianity, Romanian Folk Lore, Occult Factors in Mental Conflict, and a short book review. - 105 pages of reading matter (6½ x 4) Rider & Co. 68 Fleet Street, London, E.C. 4. Quarterly, 4/6 per annum, or $0.90 (plus cost of money order. If the RR orders it for you it costs $1.35). It's more competent and scholarly, on the whole, than any similar publication in the U.S.

The Yoga article mentioned above is concerned largely with a booklet issued in India by one Basil Crump, barrister and editor, and called Replenishment from the Central Source by a New Method of Raja Yoga.

The Review editor has been reading Theos Bernard (Heaven Lies Within Us), is impressed by the harshness of the physical disciplines, is very doubtful whether the objective attained makes them worth while, and on the whole considers that barrister Crump confirms him in his doubts. The process of communication with the Source is described in substance as follows:

"After meditation, clear the mind of all thought. Relax completely (arms and legs not crossed). Bring all your energy into the desire to make contact; send your soul toward the goal, appealing to that Power to replenish it. Act as if you were switching on an electric current. Will yourself to watch the Spark float away and you will surely see it leave you. After a few minutes you will feel it return but you will not see it. You will feel . . . warmth penetrate your body and a sense of well-being."

The Review editor comments that this greatly resembles astral projection, in which process he says there is a "thrilling and wonderful influence . . . one can often see the self leaving the body and building up in the astral . . . there is an astounding sense of freedom . . . one experiences the real joy of dying and loses all fear of death . . ." He adds that Mr Crump makes no mention of the exploration of the various planes, as practised by Western occultists, and feels that the results described, while very remarkable, hardly justify the heroic methods of Yoga - especially since even better results are obtainable by astral projection in the Western sense.

We are quite in accord with these opinions, and have considered expressing them in our own words, but was always deterred by feeling that our knowledge of the Yoga literature was inadequate. Consider the achievements of the occultist YRAM, who owed allegiance to no School whatever. We do not know who he was, have never been able to find out, but his Practical Astral Projection speaks for itself, is verifiable in every major principle. No Yoga literature, so far as we know, gives a record of comparable exploits. And what about Tattva clairvoyance, which amounts to astral projection? This practise is of Indian origin, and is a means for the exploration of the planes of the Four Elements; it is exceedingly powerful and dangerous in unskilled hands. But for circumstantial accounts of its employment we must turn to the Western Qabalists; if the Orientals learned anything from it the reports are not accessible to most of us.

We feel that the Review editor is somewhat restricted in his notions about the experience of astral projection, seems to have the idea that it is about the same for everybody and that its characteristics can be generalized. But as a matter of fact it varies widely with the individual case. The preliminary requirements are extremely simple in principle however difficult they may be in practise, and can be summarized very briefly. (1) One must give himself precise instructions: e.g. [3] "I now desire to leave my body while retaining full consciousness; I intend to remain close to my body (this for all beginners), to see and hear everything clearly, to re-enter my body safely, and to retain clear memory of all that has happened." This preliminary autosuggestion must on no account be omitted.

(2) With the body completely relaxed, the mind should be stilled as completely as possible, and the attention directed outside the body, preferably to a remote object, such as a star, or to a point in space. The body should sleep, while the mind remains awake but passive. As soon as the necessary stage or degree is attained, the self-suggestion already given acts with instant and compelling force.

We offer this as the simplest procedure known to us; there are many other ways of working, and it is likely that the technique will also vary with every individual, and can only be determined by experiment - sometimes over many months or years. YRAM writes that he experimented continuously for some 12 years before gaining full control of his senses and movements on the astral level, but he does not say how long it took him to effect his first escape. Some people succeed almost immediately, but are never able to repeat the process, or do so only after long effort. The majority, of course, abandon the attempt after a few futile assays.

Recurring now to the matter of varying experiences: we have encountered the "instantaneous projection" and the "projection by whirlwind" of which YRAM speaks, and have this phenomenon to add. There may be at first a blowing or rushing sound, somewhat like that of a wind passing in gusts, and in the beginning of the experiments this sound may be very powerful and somewhat frightening; later it will decrease and eventually disappear. It is of course "subjective" but has all the reality of an external source. One will often hear the heavy sigh uttered by the body at the moment of separation, and this too is sometimes frightening, until the source of it is realized. Usually, at first trials, one cannot see anything; everything is dark. All sounds heard are greatly magnified. It is necessary above everything to remain calm and unafraid, and to try to gain control of the astral form. This form responds in the most miraculous and instant manner to the slightest command of thought. If one hears sounds in the street, and fastens his attention on them, he instantly finds himself in the street. Everything has to be learned as if for the first time, as the child learns, through many years, how to govern his own body, to creep, walk, run, and play. All this you must do for yourself.

To speak of such experiments in the first person has long been considered taboo among occultists, and even yet invites a questioning of one's sanity among the uninstructed (including, certainly, most of the medical profession). But now all this knowledge is accessible in scores of books, and astral projection has become almost a fad - or rather, abortive attempts at it have become so; so perhaps the more knowledge offered, the better. We recommend YRAM's book especially, but we neither advise anyone to attempt these experiments, nor dissuade from it. But they should never be attempted in ill-health, or if the heart is affected in any way.

* * * * * *

[4]

What! No Mystery?

We owe Mr Keith J. Hayes, physicist (Palo Alto, Calif.) a debt of gratitude. He's been down to the MYSTERY SPOT, so-called, near Santa Cruz, accompanied by his wife, his sextant, his camera, his compass and his common sense, and makes us a report on his findings. Readers would bear in mind that this is not the House of Mystery located near Grant's Pass, which Ernie Pyle wrote up and which has puzzled many good observers. Also we want to say that Mr Hayes is known to us personally, and is entirely open-minded and receptive toward mysteries, tho' allergic to humbugs. With this much preface we quote the substance of his letter:

"First there's the matter of what the owners claim for the place. The operator we talked with says that Baumgartner is an easterner who never has seen the 'spot' (Baumgartner gave the place a fancy write-up. Ed.) He says B laid it on thick about animals avoiding the spot. He claimed compasses are deflected, but do not 'spin like weather vanes.' He has never heard of photo-cells not working here. No one mentioned or demonstrated a thrown ball 'drifting slowly across the room.'

"The management does claim that gravity is highly irregular, that the compass points the wrong way, and that people look shorter when they're to the south-east of you.

"We tested the first claim by measuring the angle between the direction of gravity and the direction of the sun. It would have been unsatisfactory to make the measurement with respect to anything within the area, since everything would have been affected equally. We used a bubble sextant and the angle could be determined to within a few minutes of arc. The change in direction of the sun is of course slow, regular, and predictable. The angle found inside the area was equal within a fraction of a degree to that outside - in other words, the mystery spot has the same kind of gravity your own front yard has.

"The direction of the magnetic field of the earth was also measured with respect to the sun, with a combination sun-dial and compass, accurate within a few degrees. The magnetic field inside the area is normal. (It was only the direction of the gravitational and magnetic fields that was said to be different).

"To test the shortening effect we took photographs from the positions from which the effect was supposed to be seen, and the images of the persons photographed were then measured and compared. There is no significant difference in the size of the images. (Photos enclosed. Ed)

"The trip gave us an opportunity to see a remarkable example of the psychology of suggestion and illusion applied to making a living. The bulk of the phenomena centered around a shack which had been deliberately built at a 30 degree angle to the vertical, and this was surrounded by a high board fence so that we lost sight of the trees and other vertical objects outside. The conflict between our eyes, which said we were tilted, and our organs of equilibrium, which said we were upright, made us feel dizzy and tend to lose our balance.

"The guide who took people thru the place in groups of about 25 took pains to tell what was going to happen - and kept repeating the description while it was happening - very reminiscent of Hull's Hypnotism and Suggestion... People were paying an average admission of some .30, at a rate of 50 to 100 an hour on the Saturday afternoon we were there... Of course, the Grant's Pass House of Mystery is still an open question."

* * *

[5]

We call the attention of our readers to two articles (among other excellent ones) in THE HIBBERT JOURNAL.

The first of these is by Leslie Belton, M.Sc., The Implications of Telepathy. "The assertion may now confidently he made" (says Mr Belton) "that any theory of natural science which disallows telepathy or is obtrusively incompatible with it, is itself rendered suspect by reason of its denial of a proven fact."

He adds that he cannot set out in detail the research work of the last 60 years (mainly by the SPR); nevertheless he succeeds in giving a fairly good synopsis of it through the four pages following.

As to the explanation of telepathic phenomena, Mr Belton thinks the radiation theory may apply sometimes and in some instances, particularly when the persons concerned are near each other. There may be "waves" from the brain which decrease in strength with the inverse square of the distance - but this is not what he calls telepathy proper, which is usually spontaneous and on the subconscious or unconscious level. Eduard von Hartmann accepted a dual theory of this sort, and Edward Bozzano revived it in 1933.

One obvious implication is, that there is a natural linkage of all minds, and that any one mind is separate only so far as it assumes its separateness and apparent isolation. Hans Driesch and Professor Erick Becher held views similar to this. There seems to be some kind of super-individual mind which penetrates the individual mind and operates through it.

This fits in with Samuel Butler's "unconscious memory". It bears, of course, on all the facts and theories connoted by such phrases as group suggestion, group telepathy, crowd psychology (Le Bon), collective response, and harmonizes with many of the views of McDougall. Many of the phenomena of instinct and intuition are also explicable from this point of view - as are also the "dynamics of prayer."

But no complete explanation is likely until there is "an expanded world view and a larger psychological outlook."

The chief psychological significance of telepathy is said to be, that "it makes untenable the idea that mental processes depend on cerebral changes", and that it suggests "the independence of the mind as to the physical organism."

We do not know that the dualistic theory has ever been explicitly advanced by occultists (re telepathy), but it would be easy to show that every other point in the above resume has been stated many times by competent occultists. This in no way detracts from the value of Mr Belton's article, and it is a source of satisfaction to find this authoritative summary in a magazine of distinction.

* * * * *

It is with equal pleasure that we turn to the second of the two articles: Is There a Force Unknown to Physics?, by B. Abdy Collins, C.I.E. "The object of this article is to show that from the early days of Psychic Research there have been tests (of physical phenomena) with positive results, under satisfactory conditions, by scientists of standing." The article makes extended reference to the 1938 Presidential address of Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., before the English Society for Psychical Research. This address was a summary of PR work from the time of Crookes, and Mr Collins refers especially to Crooke's experiments with the medium Home, whereby pressure was developed on a board (and scale), 6 to 9 pounds, while Home merely touched the end of the board with his finger tips. (Compare the Alreutz will-board [6] described in the last Round Robin).

Mr Collins, still following Lord Rayleigh, goes on to consider the well-known experiments of Crawford at the Goligher circle. Crawford, of course, by interrogating the communicating spirits, worked out a complete explanation of ecto-plasmic cantilevers and brackets for the movement of tables and other heavy objects, and "impressed many scientific men." Nevertheless Crawford affirmed that one could put his hand through these levers almost without feeling their presence. How a lever can be substantial enough to move a table, and yet so thin, airy or vaporous as to be invisible and almost intangible, leaves Mr Collins much befuddled as well it might. Such an apparatus is certainly one of the "unknowns" Mr C. is looking for.

(We interject our own comment. It has been many years since we read the reports of the Goligher circle, but as we recall there are many pages where the conversation consists of leading questions, and yes or no replies. "Is the lever applied to the edge of the table?" Yes. "Was the table too heavy for the first lever constructed?" Yes. "Is the fulcrum two-thirds of the distance from A to B?" Yes. Now, information derived by questioning like that is usually thrown out of court by research students - but never have we seen any objection raised, by critics of Crawford's lengthy reports.)

Mr Collins then takes up Dr. Eugene Osty's experiments with Rudi Schneider (published in 1932). The seances took place in complete darkness, but the object to be moved was protected by on infra-red guard ray; when the ray was intercepted a bell would ring. The bell rang, all right, sometimes for half a minute, and flash-light photos showed that the medium had not moved, and that his hands and knees were being firmly held. But the object was not moved either. A galvanometer was substituted for the bell, and it was found that its pointer kept moving in a precise frequency relation to the medium's breathing . . . Whatever this energy may be, its reactions to light are inexplicable and contradictory - as much a puzzle as Crawford's levers. The point is, that we have here indubitable phenomena which do not square with any of the concepts of contemporary physics.

The article closes with a discussion of PK effects on dice (Dr. Rhine's experiments at Duke University). "It seems that the PK force is not the same as that manifested in the work of Crookes, Crawford, and Osty." It is to be hoped, Mr Collins adds, that Dr. Rhine's studies will lead other scientists to a reexamination of the experiments of these three older investigators.

(The Hibbert Journal - A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy. 178 Tremont St., Boston. Printed in England. About 100 pages, full size. $2.50, and 75¢ each).

* * * * *

One Lt. Davenport (of Detroit), on night flight in Western Pacific area, saw a light blinking below him, circled for seven hours, finally got in touch with a PT boat which sped in and rescued an injured pilot, adrift 40 hours. But the boat crew saw no light, and the pilot said he had none, made no signal - all he could do was to "pray for help."

- - - Christian Science Monitor.

[7]

CALIFORNIA SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH

Dr P.S. Haley, President of the California Society for Psychical Research (521 Shreve Bldg., San Francisco 8), sends us the following paragraphs on the history of the California Society:

The first California Society for Psychical Research seems to have been one organized in 1895. It was called the California Psychical Research Society, Inc., formed under the laws of California. Its headquarters were at Sutter and Mason Streets, on the corner in the Wenban Building, San Francisco. Details may be found in a book entitled Pamphlets by California Authors. The pamphlets were presented to the library of the University of California by Mr C.P. Huntington, the industrialist magnate.

Details, including such things as educational leaflets, announcements of meetings and lectures, with names of officers and lecturers are given. The Society had a Board of six directors. The name of the secretary was J. Dalzell Brown, well known San Francisco business man. Addresses were presented by Professor Joseph LeConte, Berkeley geologist, and by David Star Jordan, author of books on evolution and President of Stanford University.

Apparently the fortunes of the Society coincided with those of the Boston (American) S.P.R., since it fell into the discard in a short time, being revived in 1912 as the California Psychical Research Society, incorporated in 1918. This time the first secretary was Emma L. Hume of Berkeley. Professors David Starr Jordan, John Coover, and Lillian J. Martin of Stanford took part in its Work, as did Professor John Stratton, Professor Warner Brown, and Professor French of Berkeley. Various of these people were either officers or lecturers.

(Dr. Haley also gives us a note concerning spiritons (vitality globules) to the effect that he has already published all his objective evidence, and doubts whether our readers would be interested in his clairvoyant observations. About food materialization he adds the following):

"I have a mass of material about food materializations, but have not found time to analyze them for publication. Our experiments as reported in my book Modern Loaves and Fishes numbered only 54. They now number, at a rough estimate made from memory only, about 428. Among these only a much smaller percentage than shown in the graph in my book were negative. The failures seem now only to occur when we change our technique for procedure, or when some or more persons who becomes an inhibitor is present. This influences something (apparently the psyche of the medium or mediums). Perhaps also, in the matter of changed technique, the 'psychic technique' (or habits? machinery?) do not have time to change, or cannot change."

* * *

[8]

WITH THE PERIODICALS

East-West is a quarterly publication of the Self-Realization Fellowship, established by Param hansa Yogananda. The July-August-Sept. issue contains The Value of Tradition, The True Object of Action, Poised or Poisoned, Renunciation, Death and Eternal Life, What does a Deity Represent, The Path of Pure Consciousness (Jnana Yoga) - also science notes (including one about a potent shark-scarer made from dead sharks), and health items.

* * *

Lucifer is the official organ of the Theosophical Society, published every two months, at 30 Huntington Ave., Boston, 16. $1.00, and 20¢ each. Usually one or two articles of general interest, but mainly devoted to affairs of the Society.

* * *

World Order is the Bahai Magazine. Monthly, Wilmette, Ill. (110 Linden Ave.) About 30 pages. $1.50, and 15¢ each.

* * *

Voice of Pure Spiritualism (See list at back of this bulletin). The July '44 issue, only one, had some remarkable reproductions of "spirit slate pictures" showing a wealth of almost microscopic detail. There are literally thousands of slate portraits in existence, as well as other drawings and paintings, many of them received under satisfactory "test" conditions. This phenomenon, of course, is inexplicable on any other than supernormal grounds - and it is quite in accord with the dim-wittedness of our times that contemporary science, psychology, psychobiology, philosophy and religion, are utterly unable to assimilate it, have not a single syllable of explanation or inference, can do nothing except ignore it - or like Asmodai, fear and flee away from what they consider its "fishy fume" . . . The RR editor knows nothing about the bona fides of these pictures in Voice, but accepts them tentatively because he knows that the phenomenon itself is (on occasion) entirely genuine, and by no means rare.

* * *

The National Spiritualist has usually one or more long articles, much news of Spiritualist activities, a page of book titles, roster of Churches of the N.S.A. Monthly, 765 Oakwood Blvd., Chicago, 15. Ill.

* * *

Harbinger of Light. Dr Nandor Fodor recently made comment on the "seance room of the future"; everything will be in darkness (total), he says, but observers in another room will see on a screen everything that happens. Television, ultra-violet photography, blood tests, sound recorders, graphology, cinema pictures in the dark - these will "revolutionize psychic research" - in fact are already doing so . . . This Harbinger is the oldest of psychic magazines (1870). $2.60 per year, copy 25¢. Bobbitt Agency (page 25 of this bulletin). Australian publication.

* * *

World Service. 13 Ghesham Place, London, S.W.l. Monthly, about 25 pp., 7 x 10. 7/6 for a year ($1.52). Includes, along with psychic material, articles on health, healing, social reform, new era planning, animal welfare. It's worth while to send for a sample copy (Babbitt Agency, 25¢)

* * *

Article in Two Worlds (March) informs us that Professor S.G. Soal (precognition experiments) has received the D.Sc. from the University of London in recognition of his work. It is interesting to note that Dr Soal is himself a trance medium and automatist - as well as a mathematician of distinction. "This makes the fourth doctorate conferred by the leading British universities for dissertations on psychic subjects." (Hettinger in Philosophy, by London; Bendit, in Medicine, by Cambridge; Rev. Kirk-Duncan, D.Phil., by Oxford). T.W. is a Manchester paper, 13/-, and copy 10¢ from Bobbitt.

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[9]

Professor Hyslop once remarked, that when the orthodox Christian Churches got around to accepting the facts and teachings of spiritualism, each one would still proclaim some particular point of view, and all of them would declare that such teachings were old accepted truth, which they had known all the time.

Something very similar to this is now going on in the scientific world. The integration of occult and scientific concepts goes on as inevitably as one-two-three. It has been going on for some time, and one could fill a small book with examples and proofs, and probably all scientists who are educated outside of their specialties are well aware of these facts. When the data of paranormal studies is finally forced on their acceptance, they will gladly take the whole credit ("We proved it, didn't we?"), and forget their whole century of intolerance and contempt. And this sequence is as inevitable as Monday-Tuesday. Of course, we're talking about the run-of-the-mill scientific worker.

* * *

Spiritualism as Spiritualists Have Written of It - by Fr. O'Neill, with preface by the most Reverend Richard Downey, D.D., Archbishop of Liverpool. The literary supplement of the London Times has a review of Father O'Neill's little contribution. It seems that the good father pours out all his vials of contempt on the credulity of spiritualists, including Lodge, Wm. Stanton Moses, and the Rev. G. Vale Owen. However, Fr. O'Neill does admit a residuum of genuine phenomena, and these, he asserts, are beyond question due to evil spirits. The distinguished Archbishop also adds his bit, about the "appalling drivel of modern mediums". All this is exactly the kind of thing we have learned to expect from a certain type of Catholic Prelate - and not a rare type by any means. (Some Protestant Bishops think the same way but are getting too smart to say so) . . . Well, the Times reviewer is quite dispassionate about the book, but does get in a final dig. "We will anticipate the spiritualists by calling attention to the fact that since he (the Archbishop) wrote his preface, his parliamentary vote has been taken away from him and given to his house maid. No right thinking person can fail to see the connection between these two occurrences."

* * *

MIND DIGEST for August has articles entitled Courage and Personality - Honors Without Brain Fever - Practise of Fake Telepathy (Dr Rhine) - Increasing Your Investments - Metaphysical Therapy - Regeneration and the Mind (Dr F.H. Curtiss) - How To Live Long - A Symbol in Stone (the Sphinx) - The Four Horsemen (interpretation of their symbolism) - Do We Choose Our Parents? - The Way of Escape - The Four Phases of Prayer - The Hell of Human Will - other titles up to a total of 34, plus 2 pages of excerpts from the work of Edgar Cayce, and a book review.

The Unseen Guest (told to Alma Eckard) is a short, quite unusual death-episode. In A Vision of the Past, Hereward Carrington has the assurance to re-tell the old-old story - of Misses Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain visiting Versailles on the anniversary of the death of Marie Antoinette, and having a clairvoyant vision of all things as they had been in that long past day . . . In The Mortal Mold, Ed Bodin gives a partial background for a reprint of his Message. Apropos of this Message, we recognize a certain beauty and eloquence in it, and many ideas familiar to the ancient Wisdom, but somehow do not greatly profit. We feel somewhat inspired, but cannot decide to, for, by or with what. Sorry!

(York, Pa. $2.50 a year, and 25¢ Monthly, about 100 pages)

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[10]

MESSAGE OF THE EAST - the Vedanta Quarterly. Published at 420 Beacon St., Boston. The summer issue (No. 2, vol. xxxiv) contains 62 pages. The Swami Paramanda seems to be the guiding light of this publication; he's the author of numerous books and booklets, several volumes of verse, and two of translations.

We're particularly pleased with this issue of the MESSAGE, because it prints a short article called Dare We Break New Seas, taken from the announcement of a course of lectures on Comparative Mysticism, to be delivered at the University of Southern California, auspices of the Department of Philosophy. The "new seas" refers to the inner life and the necessity of a spiritual renaissance. "There is just one field of sanctity - the individual personality . . . The intrinsic worth of every personality as a child of God, real or potential, is the supreme social fact. Herein lies the spiritual resource at the heart of all religions . . . But the tolerance and insight called for is nothing short of revolutionary. It is based on world-wide recognitions of righteousness wherever it exists, without respect to traditions, divisions and exclusiveness . . . and Christianity as a universal religion is called to lead the way."

There's a slightly sour note in that last line, by our way of thinking, and all the rest of it is familiar as pater noster. But NOT in publications of departments of philosophy in universities. It's a view point of esotericism, the ancient Wisdom and the Higher Christianity; any time the intellectuals take note of it, there's hope for them. Maybe the dry staff will put forth leaves. There's about 10 other articles in the MESSAGE, various short items and bits of verse, and the title gives an idea of the general approach.

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ROSICRUCIAN MAGAZINE for September (No. 9, vol. xxxvii), Oceanside, California - the Max Heindel foundation, not the San Jose fraternity. $2.00 a year, and 20¢. 45 pages in this issue. Looking Forward by Kittie S. Cowan is the lead article. She's optimistic, approves or Dr Fosdick ("A Great Time To Be Alive", Liberty Magazine, May 26), and, me presume, of Robert Browning "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world"), and is impressed by coming wonders of industrial science. Some other articles are Occult Aspects of the Theatre, The Wheel of Life (fiction), Quotes from Max Heindel, and Saturn, Friend or Foe?, There's an Astrological department, Readers' Questions, Nutrition, Healing, and Monthly News.

* * *

INSPIRATION - "A balanced interpretation of metaphysical, mystical and esoteric Christianity", is published at Vista, California (box 116). Quarterly, $1.00 a year, and 25¢. 32 pages in last issue. Flower A. and Lawrence G. Newhouse are editors; most of the articles are by the former.

Some of the titles are The Law of Brotherhood - God's Peace is Ready Now - The Power of Humility - The Moulding Power of Thought. About seven others, various items, and verse.

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[11]

PSYCHIC OBSERVER for August 25 has a five-column article on apports (Grace P. Schafer), editorial on same subject, with photographs. Maurice Zolotow, "Saturday Evening Post writer" has an impromptu seance with Mrs Sophia Williams, received some good clairvoyance and (apparently) direct voice. Horace Leaf, F.R.G.S. writes on extrusion pr escape of the psychic body; Dortch Campbell has three columns under the title of Inspiration; Ada Rodgers writes of various psychic experiences.

Also, there's an editorial headed West Virginia's Startling Phenomena. The locale is Rand, Kanawha Valley, about 25 miles from Charleston, residence of J.J. Weaver. An "image" is said to have appeared on a stuccoed porch poet, shortly after the death of a child of the family; it shows a child's head in profile, shoulders and piled-up hair.

This image is said to have drawn as many as 4,000 visitors in a single day; it has been reproduced on souvenir folders and widely sold at 25¢. "Within a month after this image was found" (reads the folder), "three world figures died or disappeared, and V-E day was declared by the United Nations. It has been sent to soldiers and sailors all over the world."

We might add that an atobomb fell in Japan, Joe Stalin drank too much vodka, Congress adjourned, the divorce rate remains the same, and steaks are rare even when well-done. Not to question the alleged image, which may be a supernormal event for all we know, but we're a bit hazy about relationships - or, A comes before B, and 1 before 2, but "so what"? The Psychic Observer, we're happy to say, doesn't lend itself to the imbecility of this folder, but merely reports the facts as related by a correspondent.

* * *

We thought PATHFINDER was too smart to get involved in the ball lightning controversy - but they printed a weatherman's remark that b.l. was only an after-image, and received enough indignant letters "to fill an issue." Fort's contribution was that "thousands of objects have been seen to fall from aloft, and have exploded luminously and have been called ball lightning." But he doesn't rule it out as an electrical phenomena also ...

David Dietz, Scripps-Howard Science Editor, received hundreds of letters from b-l witnesses; a friend of his, a columnist, reports more than 3,000 letters in support. Dr. W.J. Humphreys of the U.S. Weather Bureau received about 300 letters, but believed all the instances could be explained "some other way". Professor J.G. Albright told Dietz, in 1940, that "no scientist has ever seen ball lightning". But then comes Dr. Frank A. Perret, volcanologist, and says he observed it "under perfect conditions at Stromboli in 1907", which seems to give Professor J.G.A. a small set-back.

For ourselves, having learned A-B AB of this subject by a small personal experience, we have long been concerned only with the forms and causes of the phenomenon. Something ball-shaped that shoots through the sky, explodes in mid-air or on hitting something, starts fires, arguments, and fits, may very easily be a falling object (as Fort believed). Fireballs that come out of columns of volcanic smoke (Dr. Ferret), or dolly along fence tops, pop out of telephone instruments and sings house-oats, light on flag poles, bounce around like hand-balls (invisible giants playing with them?) - these seem more likely to be electrical phenomena only. Our motto is, assume more than one cause for every phenomenon - and a bas or Ah Bah with Occam.

* * *

Long Catwalk heads an item in the San Diego Tribune (June 22 last). Wife of a naval officer moved from San Diego to San Francisco, left Ginger the cat with a neighbor. After "a few weeks" Ginger showed up "with a file of three kittens as weary and worn as herself." It's about 650 miles.

* * *

[12]

EXPERIMENTS FOR AMATEURS

The ASPR Journal for April 1933 printed the following paragraph, by Dr. Gerda Walther, who summarizes an article from the June 1932 issue of Zeitschrift fur Parapsychologie. Amateur investigators could easily follow up such experiments and perhaps formulate much useful data.

L. Deutmann, M.D. (Den Haag, Holland), "On the true nature of so-called animal magnetism". The author made some interesting experiments in order to solve this question. He made magnetical passes over inanimate objects, especially a stick of sealing wax, without touching them. After this, the stick attracted two sewing needles, one hanging in a silk thread, the other in a linen thread, which it had not done before. Also the other ends of the thread were attracted. The same was the case with little pith balls, which were always attracted but never repelled, even if the stick was turned round. The same results were obtained with a stick of ebonite and a glass rod, tho' the latter could not be magnetized by passages but only by holding it in the hand for some time. If he touched the pith balls with a stick of sealing wax which he had electrified by rubbing it with a woollen towel, they were repelled if suspended by a linen, not by a silk thread; this was not the case with the magnetized sealing wax, which also attracted both poles of a magnet. The author thinks the reason for this was, that "animal magnetism" may be a very fine sort of electricity which can always find conductivity through ordinary threads which isolate the usual current. To prove this, he suspended the pith balls with a thread twenty times thinner than the original one, and now the balls were again repelled after the stick had touched them. The author concludes that animal magnetism is a special, very fine kind of electricity. (Of course, it depends on what you call "animal magnetism". In any case, I don't think all physical mediumistic forces can be reduced to electricity, as already Ing. Gruhnewald in his experiments found that the forces of some mediums seemed to act like electricity, while those of others do not. Cf this Journal, Sept. 1932, p. 339 f. G.W.)

--------   --------

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and THANK-YOU'S: to Mrs Helen Lotreck (Mass.), Mr. E.C. Krieger (Ind.), Mrs H.M. Graham (N.M.), for clips, suggestions, commendatory remarks -- the same to Mr Jack Tate (Ky.), Dr. N.W. Jansen (San Diego). Tiffany Thayer (editor Doubt Magazine, gives the RR friendly mention); R.G. Pressing, editor Psychic Observer, quotes from a RR article; so does the editor of the bulletins of the A.R.E. Editor Joseph P. Whitwell (National Spiritualist) is a new-found friend. Author R. DeWitt Miller (Los Angeles), attorney William G. Randall (Pasadena), author Thomas Sugrue (N.Y.), Professor J. B. Rhine (Duke Univ.), editor Laura Abbott Dale (Jour. ASPR) have sent us words of approval; all but one are RR subscribers . . . We congratulate poet Eleanor Hughes (Wis.), friend of the RR, on receiving deserved honors for literary work . . . Our deepest sympathy to Mrs May Halton for the death of her husband Mr Nat. Halton, a distinguished stage magician, who has many friends throughout the country . . . Best wishes to author Sugrue, in his new and important editorial position in New York City. He thinks the RR continues to improve - and here's hoping! Clarkson Dye (Secretary, Psychic Fellowship. San Jose) and Dr Hereward Carrington (Hollywood) like the RR and send words of encouragement.

[13]

- TENNESSEE MYSTERY -

Columnist Robert O'Brien tells an alleged incident (San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 9, 1945) that we think is worth repeating. Mr O'Brien heard it from another staff member, Charles Baudebaugh, and Mrs Graham (New Mexico) sends us the clip:

In the 1880s a Tennessee farmer left his house and started to walk across a field. Watching him as he left was his wife, who stood on the porch. Also watching him were two neighbors who were walking along the road in front of the farmer's house. The farmer looked up and seemed about to hail them. In that moment, before their eyes and the eyes of his wife on the porch, he vanished.

Screaming, his wife broke from the porch and ran to the spot where he had been. The horrified friends vaulted the roadside fence and raced to the location. But there wasn't a trace of him. Not a button, nor a shred of cloth, nor a drop of blood.

Geologists, investigating the mystery, found the soil solid and rocky. There was no hidden swamp there, nor any quicksand that could have swallowed him. They and other scientists shrugged their shoulders, wagged their beards, and gave up the search for an answer. It was a mystery, they said, that would never be solved.

The story goes on to say, that Ambrose Bierce became interested in the matter and sought for an explanation. Years later, a Viennese scientist offered what seemed to him the most logical. "It is possible," said the scientist, "that he met an atomic whirlpool, a tiny field of irresistible atomic energy, and disintegrated. It would be a coincidence in an infinity of coincidences, but it is just possible that this is what happened."

That was in the fall of the year. Driven almost to the point of insanity by the experience, the wife sold the farm and moved away. The next spring the new owner noticed a curious thing. His crops grew beautifully except in one place - a rough circle 15 feet in diameter, exactly where his predecessor had been when he disappeared. There, the earth was as barren as stone.

Columnist O'Brien says that he gives this "for what it's worth." But it's not the first and only incident of its kind, as he seems to think it is; there's a considerable list of similar happenings, and some day they may add up to something more than curiosity tickling. Maybe the disintegration of the unfortunate carpenter reported in a recent issue of DOUBT belongs in this category. And that train of freight cars that evaporated some 30 years ago, and the man who walked back into his empty house and so vanished forever, and quite a number of "mysterious disappearances" that are just a bit too mysterious for our mental comfort. Perhaps Nature has her own ato-bombs, in the shape of small sporadic atomic disintegrations ("Viennese scientist"). (Recent English investigations, according to press reports, say that a single atom, disintegrating, may release three million horse power of energy per second)... Well, about these disappearances, we're only waiting for a bank, or a bank president, or an industrial "magnet" or a movie star to pop off that way. Then we'll have a real honest-to-God investigation and MAYBE learn something.

[14]

THE MEDIUMSHIP OF CARLOS MIRABELLI

(Continued)

(The July issue described Mirabelli as a speaking and writing medium, also various grotesque telekinetic phenomena; the August number continued with levitation, apports, and materialization. The following summary describes the results of the SEANCE AT SANTOS).

"At Santos, where the headquarters of the Academy (for Psychic Research) are situated, a seance, the results of which are attested by sixty signatures, was held at half-past three in the afternoon.

"The first apparition was that of a woman who engaged in conversation with those present, and then vanished; a few minutes later a bell rose into the air and began to ring. Mirabelli woke from his trance and asserted that he saw a venerable figure, clad in white linen and surrounded by an aura, standing by the table. Meanwhile, the bell in the air was ringing incessantly . . . Presently Colonel Soares and Dr. Calvacanti announced the presence of the deceased Bezerra de Meneses, well remembered by all present . . . The apparition spoke to those present concerning himself, and his language and positiveness made a deep impression on all. His voice was carried by megaphone and photographs were secured.

"Drs. Assumpcion and Mendonca subjected the figure to an examination for 15 minutes, and declared they had before them an anatomically perfect human being. All the scientists who were present vouch for the correctness of this conclusion. The spirit then shook hands with the spectators and announced that it was about to depart. It soared off like a flying machine. The feet vanished first, followed by the legs and abdomen, while chest, arms and head remained visible. Dr. Mendonca tried to grasp the visible portion, but instantly fell to the floor unconscious. On recovering, he declared he had felt a sticky mass between his fingers.

"On waking Mirabelli was greatly exhausted. His fastenings were found to be intact, as were the seals on the doors and windows.

"The report of the Committee contains 34 illustrations (photographs)"; one of them shows Mirabelli with his forearms dematerialized. There are 18 photographs of the spirit, most of them showing the spirit and the medium on the same plate. In others, the incarnating spirit is shown seated at a table with the members of the committee, looking for all the world as if he were one of them.

(Note on the sources for this series: The Zeitschrift fuer Parasychologie (Magazine of Parapsychology) was a Leipzig publication of high scientific standing. During 1926, it published reports on the mediumship of Kluski (see RR for May and June), and in 1927 investigated reports on Mirabelli appearing in a Brazilian Book. These were substantiated in a 12-page statement by the Zeitschrift. Much of these two reports was quoted in extenso by Johannes Greber, in a book translated from the German under the title of Communication with the Spirit World (Macoy Pub. Co., N.Y. 1932).

In quoting and summarizing portions of this material, we have made use of all these sources. It is already familiar to most students of psychic matters, but deserves to be more widely known for its exceptional character and complete verification.)

[15]

THE SECRET PLACES OF THE HEART

It is a trite yet pregnant reflection, that nine-tenths of the rascality of this world depends on secrecy - is nourished by it and flourishes because of it. Evil grown powerful and self-confident indeed walks abroad by day, but its beginnings are in darkness, else its serpent head were soon scotched. If every thought and act of each of us were known in its true nature, blazoned forth for all the world to see, what a mighty scurrying and upsetting, hunting down and driving out there would be, on all the highways of mankind! For it is only by denying its own nature, by pretending to be good, that any evil will has power among us -

Edgar Cayce, in the last work to which he set his hand (1) touched this subject lightly but with true insight. All his life he had a measure of clairvoyance, other than that of trance; he could see the aura quite easily and naturally. He found that many other people had this gift also; and he learned to read the aura skilfully. Whoever loves or hates, fears or trusts - all that is written in the changing colors, for the eye of whoever can read. So too with health and illness, and disease of every kind; and when death impends the aura fades, withdraws and vanishes.

It was the belief of Cayce that this power to see the aura can be acquired by nearly everyone, and also that it is emerging slowly as a natural endowment of vision - and in this opinion he is by no means alone. Yet the implications of such a change have been grasped by few. Short of a universal telepathic power, what could have more revolutionary moral effects? On the other planes, in the "realms of spirit", we are told no desire or trait of character can be concealed - and the secret of this is largely in this self-same fact, the tell-tale of the auric emanations. If we who are spirits incarnate should come at last by this same vision, perhaps the fangs of the serpent would be drawn, the kingdom of Asmodeus shaken -

"In the aura I see the man as he is," writes Cayce. The images of past incarnations are there - and hence the basic clues to human character. The nature of the child can be read from it, and by this means the education of the future will be reshaped. Medical diagnosis and prognosis, treatment and cure, will be founded on another and more sure basis. Dangers, accidents, impending change will be foreknown, and prophecy become sure knowledge, where now it is too often guess work, divination or half-guessed intuition. The significance and the healing power of colors, already dimly understood, will be the commonplaces of science.

This unfoldment, which speaking in cold blood we believe ordained in the progress of humanity, is a problem to be solved and a goal to be striven for. Let those who are contemptuous of such studies and effort enlarge their vision - lest while they prate of the worth of "practical, normal, and useful matters" only, they turn blind eyes on the real, the higher and the more enduring values.

(1) "Auras", by Edgar Cayce. Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. Virginia Beach, Va. 1945. (Introduction by Thomas Sugrue).

[16]

- CONCERNING FALSE PROPHECIES -

WHAT IS ONE TO MAKE of false information, given under the highest auspices, with every aspect of genuineness, and with every sign of sincerity and urgency? We have in mind, as one illustration only, a prophecy concerning the war which has just ended. The beginning of this war was correctly dated, and some of its major aspects were faithfully described. But the grand event was to have been the impact of a meteorite, in the third year of the War, destroying most of the European populations and causing immense damage throughout the world.

This prediction was given through automatic writing, there is no reason to doubt the good faith of all persons concerned - and it is uttered with the greatest sincerity, force, and gravest concern. The communicator, moreover, alleged that she was merely transmitting events shown to her, on the "other side", by spirits of the loftiest degree.

The problem involved is a general one, not merely a matter of this particular prophecy. Pre-cognition is accepted by all esotericists and by many scientists. This "information" was obtained by paranormal means, there was no apparent cause for suspicion, and part of it was correct. It was said to come from high sources - and in the main it proved to be false. Because it was false, we are compelled to say that either ignorance, or deceit, or serious cause of error existed somewhere.

It is our inability to detect, in advance, the existence of this "somewhere", without Waiting for the Verdict of events, that is the nub of the problem. Cases similar to this occur frequently, and are sufficient to completely destroy our confidence in specific predictions. To be sometimes right but many times wrong is small service to humanity. Prophecy may serve to put us on our guard, but can do little more than that, so long as we retain any sound critical judgment.

These constant, conspicuous, and often inexplicable errors in predictions (and other information also) have the effect of casting grave doubts on a whole class of supernormal communications. A prophet may be sincere, his record good, and our confidence in him considerable; nevertheless, the prophecy itself cannot be trusted. It may be uttered as if with the tongues of angels, and yet be entirely wrong. It is true that many sources of error are known to us, but that does not affect our main problem.

The only practicable criterion we know of, is the concurrence of numerous forecastings on the same point. This was notably the case prior to both the world wars. It is true that many here-living people also foresaw and predicted these wars, but that has no necessary bearing on the question. So far as we know, predictions of the end of the world, or of great cataclysms of Nature, have come from individual seers only, not from a concurrence of prophecies. Psychism is wide-spread, and it is possible that disasters have been foreseen many times, but if so, the predictions are not generally known.

We believe that a great body of occult knowledge exists, but we base our acceptance on concurrence of testimony, and on principles more than on factual details. We do not accept any particular prophet or prophecy, except under the terms possible, or (sometimes) probable. This does not endear us to enthusiasts, religionists, alarmists, or super-optimists. But when a number of predictions become fairly specific, and draw to a focus and agreement, we are disposed to lend then our most serious attention.

[17]

VIVISECTION DEFERRED:

We sum up the argument, or reasoning so-called, of a recent article in a magazine of national circulation. It seems some scientist has announced that human character and fate are determined by the cytoplasm, the food of the growing cell - and that the condition of the cytoplasm depends on the weather, and the weather depends on the time (season, month, day) of conception. Therefore, human fate depends on the weather - only be sure to figure in the sunspots too, because they are said to be responsible for genius.

Upon this lapsus mentis (though it sounds like a hoax) the writer we referred to descends exultantly. The weather, he exclaims, is "the result of universal cosmic conditions" ("Else why do we call weather men meteorologists?" !!!). Is not weather determined, he asks, by the reactions or/and positions of all the planets in the solar system? Behold, Science has discovered Astrology - is even in process of verifying and openly accepting it!

We had in mind, for a few moments, to dissect this abortion of logic inch by inch; it's an unusually horrid example of the stuff palmed off as thinking, even by reputable magazines, and presumably lapped up like cream by kitten-minded readers (NOT, thank God, of the RR calibre). But Something stayed our hand - sense of futility, perhaps, or yawns of our Guardian Angel. So we only say, there's something both childlike and vicious in such twaddle, and both its author and its editor know it. And completely unnecessary!

We really think this project of elementary "psychic education" for the public is serious, difficult, and dangerous - no tin pan alley product at all, nor free ride on the giraffe.

-----

Our friend Mr A.V. Bragg (National City, Calif.), long-time spiritualist worker and close friend of medium H.R. Moore, lately deceased, takes exception to our criticism of an article in Mind Digest dealing with the Rev. Moore's seance phenomena. He assures us that Rev. Moore was a remarkable medium, with a clear record and entirely above deception. This of course is in agreement with the Mind Digest article. Our own comment, which we must let stand, was that Rev. Moore was indeed a genuine medium, who nevertheless at times employed fraudulent practises.

-----

"The evidence for telepathy, clairvoyance and pre-vision has been resisted not because it was not considerable and deserving attention, but because to allow it meant the end of Mechanism . . . The fact that physical scientists have so often refused to investigate shows that they are right in maintaining how much is at stake . . . Scientists, in the vast majority, have shown that they are more loyal to theory than fact, and by refusing to investigate they have reduced themselves to the level of Galileo's judges who refused to look down his telescope. The failure of Mechanomorphism is complete. The world waits until that structure of mind, too crabbed for growing knowledge, is condemned by the building authority, and a new structure be reared overarching its site."

(Gerald Heard, The Third Morality, pp. 126-128 pas.)

[18]

-- REINCARNATION AGAIN --

Our small essay called Conditional Immortality has brought in a good many comments, mostly adverse, and from readers whose opinions we esteem highly. It is with the greatest respect for them that we make two principal comments here; first, that the reincarnation doctrine requires a good deal of understanding and reflection; and secondly, that most of us have never tried to grasp the real meaning, but have hood-winked ourselves and allowed others to befuddle us with meaningless verbiage.

Let us make clear that we do not deny reincarnation. Personally we are inclined to agree with the prolific Dr. Cannon, who remarks somewhere that there is good evidence for reincarnation occurring in some cases, but none to show that it is universal. This seems to be a widely held opinion. Spirit communicators do not help us much; it is notorious that they have both affirmed and denied reincarnation with equal vigor. Many others (often communicators of a high order of intelligence) have said flatly that they do not know.

Theosophists tend to regard such communications with amused contempt - their idea being that all such spirits (at least all who deny, or say they are ignorant) are very stupid and unevolved, not to be compared for a moment with the lofty seership which affirms the doctrine. They may be right, but the argument is not good enough to prove it. And if reincarnation is a universal law of Nature, it is passing strange at least, that knowledge of it is not generally diffused in the spirit worlds - so that philosophers, scientists and educators who have been on the "other side" for 50 or 100 years have not picked up even an inkling of the truth - or else give opposed opinions concerning it.

There are many books, some of them very difficult reading, devoted to the laws and mechanism of reincarnation, so that whoever tries to simplify its statement is likely to be snubbed up short by the pundits. But the all-important point is, that the reincarnating entity is not the personality; it is the Individuality, or Ego, or Higher Self. This Self functions on its own plane of consciousness. The personality is not even aware of its existence, unless or until it evolves sufficiently to make contact with it. The personality, or earth consciousness, survives death, goes on living for (say) 1200-1500 years, occupies a succession of bodies (vehicles), dies out of each one in turn. At the end of that time, IF it is sufficiently evolved, it may integrate with the higher Self. From its own point of view, this is an "expansion of consciousness". It is then preserved on that higher level of existence and the Self does not need to reincarnate.

If the personality is not sufficiently evolved, the Self or Ego reincarnates as another personality. But this new person is NOT the John Doe of the former life. He has some of the "psychic stuff" of John Doe, and the Ego which creates him is a continuous existent - but to say "John Doe reincarnates" is an error. Otherwise expressed, you reincarnate if by you is meant the Ego - but not if by you is meant your present here-living personality. The distinction is not difficult to grasp, but it is continually neglected or glossed over, and the confusion is harmful. If we are to concern ourselves at all with such thinking, let us try to grasp the ideas clearly.

[19]

Is LIFE Too Short?

As may be told by any pathologist, there is no known reason why any individual entity should not live as long as it desires, And there is no death, save in thy consciousness. Because all others have died, ye expect to - and ye do! These are a part of thy consciousness, in what? In the mental and in the spiritual -- and the physical body reacts to these . . .

* * *

"But remember, just as that expectancy - because your great-great-great-great-grand-father died you will die too -- is there, it is part of the expectancy of every cell of your body! It can be eradicated, yes. How? By that constant activity within self, of expectancy that this condition does not have to happen to you!"

* * *

" . . . And by what authority! WHO, WHAT do you put in authority in your earthly experience? In your spirit? In your mind?"

* * *

" . . . As to the physical conditions that are a part of the pathological effects in the body: at certain periods, have tests made of acidity, albumin, the balance in chyle activity through the body, in its glandular reactions; and these will indicate the positive or negative flexes in the body. Knowing the tendencies, supply in the vital energies what you call vitamins, or elements. For remember, while we give many combinations, there are only four elements in your body - water, salt, soda, and iodine. These are the basic elements, they make all the rest! Each vitamin as a component part of an element is simply a combination of these other influences, given a name mostly for confusion to individuals, by those who would tell you what to do for a price!

* * *

"Then add - in the proper balance - that which will maintain this equilibrium. And if you set your life to be 120, you can live to be 121!"

(Cayce Trance Communication,
ARE Bulletin, August,1945.)

* * *

MEMORIAL DAY ---- 1936

Memorial of what? Of stupid hate?
Of young men butchered in a needless war?
The Bloody Angle in the Wilderness;
The Bloody Shirt of later, tawdry years?
Forget these things! They are not worth recall.

Memorial of what? A people stirred;
A vision, dimly seen, of something more
Than sordid gain, for which to live and die;
A Leader, rising in his country's need,
And some -- enough -- with faith to follow him.
Take courage and have hope, remembering this!

Somewhere a new Emancipator waits
His call of Destiny. GOD! Clear our eyes,
That we may know our Lincoln when he comes!

-- William G. Randall

* * *

[20]

[21]

THE TREE OF LIFE

We're going to include in this Bulletin, a diagram of the Otz Chiim, or the Tree of Life, or the Tree of the Holy Sephiroth (as it is variously called). We're not carrying on any propaganda for esoteric Qabalism, but this great glyph or composite symbol should be better known. We think it's the finest thing of its kind, the human mind has ever produced, and a meditation system of extraordinary power. It's a system of categories, but much more a psychological method than a body of doctrine. We print it as a matter of information, for those who are interested and since encyclopedias and Theosophical literature give almost no correct information on it.

The only work giving a systematic modern exposition is "THE MYSTICAL QABALAH" by Dion Fortune (Williams & Norgate, Ltd, London, 1935). But the TREE OF LIFE, THE MIDDLE PILLAR, the Art of true Healing, and the GOLDEN DAWN volumes, all by Dr. Israel Regardie, contain a wealth of information on the same subject (Aries Press, Chicago for the last 3 volumes, and Rider and Co., London, England for the first).

In philosophic terms, Qabalism is monistic and evolutionistic emanationism. "Qabalah" is also spelled, Cabala, Cabbala, and Kabala (and, incidentally, the accent is not on the second syllable, but always on the first contrary, to popular misusage).

Anyone interested in it as a "development" system (meditation, psychism) should examine the book by Dion Fortune first of all.

* * *

The Ten Holy Sephiroth stand in 3 vertical "Pillars"; on the right the Pillar of Mercy, on the left the Pillar of Severity, in the center the Pillar of Mildness or Equilibrium. Seen thus, the Tree represents the Macrocosm; but when representing the Microcosm (the nature of Man) it stands as if one turned his back to it, so that Mercy is on the left and Severity on the right.

Severity is negative and feminine; Mercy is positive and masculine, But each Sephirah is negative to the one from which it issues, and positive to the one which it emanates. The Pillars are the positive and negative forces of Nature, free force and form, destruction and construction. The Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar represent levels of consciousness, and the planes of existence on which these forms of consciousness function.

The zigzag line which goes from one Sephirah to another in the order of their numbering, is the Lightning Flash, or the Descent of Power. It represents the order (not necessarily a time order) of the Emanations. Its source is in Kether, the First Moved, and it descends to Malkuth, which is the level of brain consciousness.

The Sephiroth themselves are not places, but phases or aspects or emanation. On the left, Severity corresponds to Yang and Pingala; on the right, Mercy corresponds to Yin and Ida.

Behind Kether (and not represented on the diagram) abides the Great Unmanifest, the Infinite Negative Light -- Him of Whom Naught Can Be Said. "The Limitless Ocean of Negative Light concentrates a Center." Then this "movement", or dynamism, is named Chokmah, the 2nd Sephirah. And as the free dynamism becomes tied in interlocking stresses, and so assumes "form", it is represented as Binah, the 3rd Sephirah or condition of the primitive emanation.

[22]

And on the Tree are 3 "Trinities". 1, 2, 3 form the Supernal Triangle; 4, 5, 6 form the "Ethical" Triangle; 7, 8, 9 form the Astral Triangle.

And every Sephirah of the Tree, and every thing represented and included by these 10 categories of Being, is related to every other thing or force; so that the whole Glyph is a maze of interlocking and counter-balancing forces.

There is no force or thing in the Universe which does not find its proper place and representation upon the Tree; and once we have placed it rightly, we begin to see its manifold relationships.

The unfolding consciousness of the adept rises out of the darkness of Malkuth-Erthe, to the Astral Sphere of Yesod, and thence still upward along the Path of the Arrow, which is the Central Pillar - - even to Tiphereth whose name is Beauty - - even perhaps to the blinding white radiance which lies beyond the Abyss, at the borders of Kether.

The key to meditation on the Tree is the symbol; for by symbols the unfolding consciousness is led from one level to another, and by them the adept walks in the Unknown on a sure Path of his own choosing.

The PATHS of the Tree are shown by the lines connecting the Sephiroth; they are subjective and microcosmic, and the major trumps of the Tarot fell upon them.

How each Sephirah has:-

(a) its Title (b) its Magical Image (c) its God Name (d) an Archangel (a personalized aspect of the Creative Energy) (e) an Order of Angels (f) 21 material manifestation (g) a Spiritual Experience (h) a Virtue and (save for Kether) 9. Vice (i) a correspondence in the microcosm (the human body) (j) a symbol, or symbols (k) a correspondence in the Tarot cards (l) an existence in the 4 worlds and a characteristic color in each.

I. KETHER, the Crown. Image, an ancient bearded King seen in profile. The God-Name is Eheieh (I Shall Be). The Archangel is Metatron. The Order is that of the Holy Living Creatures. The manifestation is the Primum Mobile. The Experience is Union with God. The Virtue is Attainment. The correspondence in the body is the cranium. The symbols are the Point, the Crown, the Swastika. The Tarot Cards are the Four Aces. The color is white brilliance, or flecked with gold.

For the other Sephiroth we give only the Four Homes of Power, to avoid extending this topic unduly.

[23]

So, in these notes, we have touched the great Glyph as if with the tips of our fingers, giving scarce a hint of its inexhaustible potencios. And in closing, we quote from Dion Fortune, perhaps its best modern expositor:-

"The Universe is a thought-form projected by the mind of God, and the Qabalistic tree is like a dream-picture arising from the subconsciousness of God and dramatizing the subconscious content of Deity."

* * * * * * *

[24]

- THIS - N' - THAT -

The booklet on GEOMANCY (mimeographed) announced in the July issue of the RR, should be ready by the 25th of this month. Geomancy is an ancient and curious mode of divination by the element of Earth, still employed in various occult Orders, and highly esteemed by many students. Interesting, whether you believe in divination or not - and there's no other separate treatise now in print. Compiled by the editor of the RR.

(Published by Talk of the Times, Box 128, SAN DIEGO 4, Calif. $2.00 postpaid)

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LETTERS TO A SOLDIER: mimeographed booklet, 4th printing, reduced in size but nothing omitted. Despite its title, this is not a war publication only; it is a very simple and direct explanation of what happens at the time of death, according to the consensus of esoteric studies and teachings. The Second Letter (second part of the booklet) is a simplified summary of basic ideas found in occultism and spiritualism. No propaganda, religious or otherwise - but a good first book for persons unfamiliar with "occult" modes of thinking. By the RR editor.

Published by Talk of the Times, Box 128, San Diego 4, Calif. $1.00 per copy; 3 copies for $2.00

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Repeated requests have come to the editor of the RR for copies of several short articles and bits of verse published by him in various magazines - particularly for the Meditation Against Sorrow, The Pleasure of Dying, Beneath What Stars (articles), and Credo and Aldebaran (verse) as the supply of magazine clips has long been exhausted, it has been decided to mimeograph these and a few other pieces and distribute them at a nominal cost price. We may also mimeograph the long poem Idus and Marpessa (this, for those who have made special inquiry about it).

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THE BOBBITT AGENCY, 1609 - 10th Ave., Nashville 8, Tennessee, specializes on spiritualist, psychic, and occult publications, sells sample copies, and accepts subscriptions. Will order publications from abroad. List of their offerings and prices is sent on request, and the service is an undoubted convenience. (The Round Robin, however, has no financial interest in this or any other agency).

References

1. Jung, C. G. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1933. Print. <http://amzn.to/1nNAKtu>
2. Crump, Basil. Replenishment from the Central Source by a New Method of Raja Yoga. Calcutta, India: Esoteric Yogachara School of Tibet, 194?. Print.
3. Bernard, Theos. Heaven Lies Within Us. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, Ltd, 1939. Print. <http://amzn.to/1oKot5M>
4. YRAM [Marcel Louis Forhan]. Practical Astral Projection. London, New York: Rider & Co. Ltd., 1935. Print. <http://amzn.to/1n3Dapr>
5. Hull, Clark L. Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach. New York, London: D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1933. Print. <http://amzn.to/1oMj5Po>
6. Belton, Leslie. "The Implications of Telepathy" The Hibbert Journal 43: 250-251. Print.
7. Collins, B. Abdy. "Is There a Force Unknown to Physics?" The Hibbert Journal 43: n. pag. Print.
8. Haley, Philip S. Modern Loaves and Fishes – and Other Studies in Psychic Phenomena. San Francisco: Philip S. Haley, 1935. Print.
9. O'Neill, Herbert V. Spiritualism As Spiritualists Have Written of It. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd, 1944. Print. <http://amzn.to/1qJXeLb>
10. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. April 1933. Print. [May be available from aspr.com.]
11. Mikulasch, Rodolpho H. O Medium Mirabelli: O Que Ha De Verdadeiro Nos Seus Milagres, E a Sua Discutida Mediumnidade Posta Em Prova. Brazil: Santos, Est. Graphico Radium, 1926. Print.
12. Greber, Johannes. Communication with the Spirit World: A Narrative of Scientific Investigations and Experiences, of a Catholic Priest, with Practical Teachings from Spiritual Planes Clarifying the Sacred Scriptures. New York: Macoy Pub. Co, 1932. Print. <http://amzn.to/1lxJUFv>
13. Cayce, Edgar. Auras. Virginia Beach, VA: A.R.E. Press, 1945. Print. <http://amzn.to/We4iX9>
14. Heard, Gerald. The Third Morality. New York: W. Morrow & Co, 1937. Print. <http://amzn.to/1t8aElB>
15. Fortune, Dion. The Mystical Qabalah. London: Williams and Norgate Ltd., 1935. Print. <http://amzn.to/1kCoM2K>
16. Regardie, Israel. Tree of Life: a Study in Magic. London: Rider and Co., 1932. Print. <http://amzn.to/1zB5H9u>
17. Regardie, Israel. The Middle Pillar: a Co-relation of the Principles of Analytical Psychology and the Elementary Techniques of Magic. Chicago: Aries Press, 1938. Print. <http://amzn.to/1nyb4mk>
18. Regardie, Israel. The Art of True Healing: A Treatise on the Mechanism of Prayer, and the Operation of the Law of Attraction in Nature. Leaf Studio, 1937. Print. [Revised ed., Helios Books, 1964: <http://amzn.to/1kUF1Xc>]
19. Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn: An Account of the Teachings, Rites and Ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Chicago: Aries Press, 1937. Print. <http://amzn.to/1oWlBnE> [Revised 4th ed., Llewellyn Publications, 1982: <http://amzn.to/1n1w5VS>]