- PUBLICATIONS -
The Scientific Forum
Published bi-monthly at 1621 So. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. Editor and business manager, Franklin Llewis; associate Editor, Harry LaVern Twining. $3.00 a year; 2yrs. $5.00. Copy, .50.
"One of the purposes of this magazine is to advance the new concept of matter originated by Professor Twining, a mathematical genius who has devoted six decades of thought and experiment to his subject. Another purpose is to announce results of research into the potentialities of of the mind."
March-April issue includes Evolution of the Solar System - Telepathy - Formula for Happiness - Changing the Future - Evolution is Progress. Jan.-Feb. number included Non-Radiating Orbits - Reflex Conditioning (Parapsychology) - Banishing Fear (Carrington) - Polynesian Theory of Vital Force (Max Freedom Long) - Fact of Reincarnation (Walter Belasco) - Perpetual Motion - Transmutation of Elements (Twining) - In December there was a novel treatment of Reincarnation (Max Freedom Long), and an article on Hypnosis by John Hornung, along with eight other articles in the various sciences.
This magazine appears to have an open-minded and highly intelligent approach to psychic problems and paranormal phenomena, as well as to borderland science generally, and Round Robin takes pleasure in giving this extended notice, and in strongly recommending it to all RR readers. It carries no advertising, uses non-professional contributions of competent scientists and occultists, has a circulation of about 10,000, and apparently serves no special interests.
_______________
- THEURGY -
Dr. Francis I. Regardie, of 3923 West 6th St., Hollywood 5, offers a series of lectures and discussions on practical aspects of the Qabalah. It is assumed that the student has done reading in this field and is familiar with the theoretical aspects of the Golden Dawn scheme. Lectures and discussions will cover -
- General introduction to the basic principles of the Qabalah, and fundamental sets of attributions.
- The Tree of Life in practise. Fundamentals of ritual routines.
- Tree of Life.
- Principles of the Art of Invocation.
- Tree of Life. God forms and their usage.
- Idem. Practise of the Middle Pillar technique.
- Idem. Elements of Scrying.
- Talismanic Arts and autosuggestion.
- Divination by Geomancy.
- Divination by Tarot.
- Review of course as a whole.
The course will begin when an enrollment of 20 or more students has been obtained. Each class will consist of two hours of instruction and discussion. Time and place to be announced later. Fee for course, $50.00. (The RR editor is glad to make this unsolicited announcement, and reminds readers that Dr. Regardie is a distinguished author in the occult field, and a Zelator Adeptus Minor of a genuine and powerful Magical Order. The opportunity is an unusual one for all true students of the Qabalistic lore.)
_______________
In Theosophical Forum for May, Dr. Chas. J. Ryan reviews Alfred Metraux's Easter Island. Metraux thinks the ancestors of the present inhabitant came to the island about the 12th century A.D., that the statues are no older than this, and that the island itself is of recent origin. Unsolved problems include the transportation of the statues, the sudden interruption of their carving, the age of the stone platforms, and the amazing workmanship of the great basalt blocks of the stone ahus. The images or characters of the carved wooden tablets also remain undeciphered. The reviewer adds that in 1935, after Dr. Metraux's visit, a party of Chilean naval officers discovered remains of an older race, with a different skull type, and also reported that French explorers had found rock inscriptions resembling those of the clay seals of the Indus valley, supposedly some 5000 years old. This fact, as we understand the report, seems to reestablish the (possible) great antiquity of the platforms and ahus, perhaps of the statues themselves. It is evident (as Dr. Ryan points out) that the data is not all in, by any means . . . The natives say that the statues were transported by the power of sound (magical utterances; the Arabs have the same explanation for the stones of Khufu, and the Huna teacher of W.R. Stewart, among the Berbers of the Atlas, asserted that her ancestors built the Great Pyramid (moved the stone) by enlisting the aid of the Third Selves, or higher Beings, presumably invoked by magical ritual. Similar traditions, relating to the power of sound, or of the creative utterances of both men and Gods, are wide spread. The growth of scientific knowledge suggests that such tales may be more than superstition and invention, and perhaps have some literal application not yet grasped by us . . . The Forum reviewer clearly has these facts in mind, though he does not elaborate upon them.
(Theosophical Forum, Covina, Calif. $2.00 yr.)
_______________
The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, for April, (quarterly) devotes eight pages to A "Discourse" Attributed to Sir Oliver Lodge, William Oliver Stevens. This article deals with the special issue of the Journal of the (English) S.P.R. of June 1945, containing the alleged Lodge communication, which was reviewed at length in a recent issue of Round Robin. A writer in Light expressed disappointment at the communication, considered it little more than an expression of the "Leonard-Feda psychology", and reproved the S.P.R. for its "descent into uncritical spiritualism." The attitude of the writer in the ASPR Jour., however, is that while Feda's statements cannot be taken as evidential, the whole Discourse is a verbatim record made by an experienced investigator, and hence of much value for future students of the Leonard phenomena. The writer, (Mr. Stevens) also quotes the original reporter, Rev. C. Drayton Thomas: "The amount of evidence required for any particular belief varies with different persons and with the importance and implications of the question." Obvious and elementary as this last statement may be, it cannot be repeated often enough to impress to minds of self-styled critics who are incessantly gabbling about "proof". One's only recourse is to demand an exact statement, from the objector, of what constitutes proof in his own mind. This retort is always legitimate, always confusing, usually instructive, and the best bray-silencer yet discovered. (The ASPR Journal is published at 40 E. 34th St. NYC 16. $5.00, copy $1.50)
_______________
MILESTONE:
Dr. Nandor Fodor (psychic research author - "talking mongoose" incident etc.) reads a paper, "Psychoanalytic Approach to the Problems of Occultism" before the Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy, March 30, 1945. - and The Journal of Clinical Psychopathology printed it! - Since the Pope turned Presbyterian, hardly an event more earth-shaking! "Milestone in American psychics!" exclaims Tiffany Thayer in Doubt (whence we take the item). T.T. may have a somewhat tangential mind, and believes Ezra Pound is a poet, but he puts out an indispensable magazine, for all students of borderland science. Doubt costs $2.00 a year, .25 a copy, may be reached at box 192 Grand Central Annex, NYC. Buy it, join the Fortean Society and get some real worries.
PARAPSYCHOLOGY
ABROAD
About the only source of information on this subject at present, is the Parapsychology Bulletin of Duke University (Durham, N.C.) March issue contains notes from France, Holland, Sweden, Poland, England - also 7-8 paragraphs on recent ,books and lectures. The Bulletin is free, for the present.
UNDERSTANDABLE --
that we should like the New York Spiritualist Leader, since it quotes frequently and at length from Round Robin. Impeccable taste!! But anyhow, it's newsy, snappy, nosey, courageous, and wages unceasing war on fakes and gulls in spiritualism. Also, it's a weekly and not weakly at the same time. En avant - le diable est mort! (Box 832 Grand Central Annex, NYC. Yr. $2.)
LIGHT - and more light!
This English publication, LIGHT, now in its 65th year, should have a much larger circulation in this country; its contributors are competent writers and often recognized authorities in parapsychology and occult studies. 12/6 a year, or about $2.70. Order from Bobbitt Agency, 1609 - 10th Ave. No. Nashville 8, Tenn.
SPENGLER, AND RUDOLPH STEINER
It is not generally known that Steiner, in 1920, reviewed Spengler's thesis (Decline of the West) and pronounced it valid. Only, where Spengler saw only the end of civilization, Steiner found latent forces of constructive good. This harmony and contrast are pointed out by Editor Theodore Heline, in New Age Interpreter for April - one of the few "must" magazines on the RR list. (Mo., $1.50 yr. Box 6133 Metropol. Sta., Los Angeles 55.)
We acknowledge receipt of Prediction (Lon., order from Bobbitt Agency); Chimes, Brea, Calif., $1.00 yr; Golden Rays, (101 E. Hamlin St., Eaton Rapids, Mich.); Spiritual Digest, ($1.25 yr., 55 State Road, Hampton Manor, Rensselaer, N.Y.); The National Spiritualist Monthly, edited by Jos. P. Whitwell (765 Oakwood Blvd., Chicago 15, Ill.); Mind Digest, 96 pages, some 35 articles. (Paradise, Pa., $2.50 yr.) . . . The pamphlets entitled HUNA, THE WORKABLE PSYCHO-religious SYSTEM OF THE POLYNESIANS may be had from the RR Editor, or from The Huna Press, Box 2867, Hollywood Sta., Los Angeles 28, Calif. 0.25 ea.
The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE), Virginia Beach, Va., continues to analyze the records of the Cayce clairvoyance, probably the most remarkable of modern times, and to spread abroad the vast fund of information contained in them. This work is in highly competent hands and is of great importance. All RR readers, we believe, should cooperate in this effort.
References
- Métraux, Alfred. Ethnology of Easter Island. Honolulu, Hawaii : Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1940. Print. [Re-ed., 1971: <http://amzn.to/1yqE7O4>]