- NOTES FROM CORRESPONDENTS -
From a Friend
of Round Robin
Dear Frater: I'm not sure whether the following will be of interest to your readers, but I send it along anyway. A friend of mine, recently discharged from the army, tells me that when he was in Pearl Harbor, at the time of the Japanese attack, he and his company received instruction in a form of Kundalini yoga. The teacher was either a Korean or a Japanese. The men were taught to concentrate on the Muladnara or sacral plexus, and to draw the Kundalini up the spine and let it down again (I can't remember how high it was to be drawn). The alleged purpose was to increase the strength and vigor of the body, and he "certainly felt something after a little practise." But the most important order was that the operation was to be performed three times, neither less or more - or serious consequences would follow... It is interesting that this is being done as an official part of army training."
(We invite our readers attention to the words neither less in the above paragraph. The nor more is intelligible, but why "no less"? Will some student of yoga clear this point?)
"I think I told you of the Japanese trained ascetics who clairvoyantly watched the Russian fleet on its way, in the Russo-Japanese war forty years ago; they knew all that the Russians were doing, and were able to surprise the fleet and destroy it. This I heard from Professor S. (F.T.S.), who had held a professorship at the Japanese Imperial Naval College. It was he who walked the fire walk at Tokyo, and he knew a great deal about Japanese life and their occultism ...
"Have you read Indian Underworld, by M. Paul Dare? (Dutton & Co., 1940) ... It is a curious and instructive work, showing now terribly the great forces of nature, locked up in man, can be abused... In one place he points out how the black magicians of India injure and even kill their victims by laying on the ground pieces of magnetized rag which give a tremendous shock when touched... This is one of the methods used by the Dark Lodge in Tibet, to injure or destroy the chelas of the White masters. In 'The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett', pp 369 and 446, and in the "Letters of A.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett', p.12, a very nearly fatal adventure is described which happened to one of the big chelas who was spiritually off-guard for a moment."
(We recommend Indian Underworld; it is competent and factual, contains many first-hand experiences with Indian occultism.)
_________ _________
From Mrs M.J.H.
Virginia.
About this Kareeta, do you think it could have been a radar-control pilotless ship? I asked an astrologer friend about the date (9th of Oct.) and he said it was a pyramid date, a terminal date... The Tarot cards turned out pretty accurate; they didn't have a third test at Bikini, and I learn indirectly from a man present at the tests that the force did go down to the [16] ocean floor." M.J.H. also sends clips re the Bat Bomb tests of Oct. 16 off the N.C. coast. The Bat is a 12 ft. weapon with a wing spread of 10 ft. and twin tails; its nose is filled with revolving radar gear that searches for the target, and its flight is corrected by a multitude of tiny gyros that operate elevators. It was released from a patrol bomber at 5500 ft. some five miles from the target, lunged thru a solid overcast and struck the target ship squarely on the bow... Going back to the Bikini tests, Vincent Gaddis remarks:
"I suppose you caught the atomic bomb 'concealed information' item in Drew Pearson's column of Oct. 2nd last. It backs up Walter Graham's opinions..."
Now, on August 5 last, physicist Graham called our attention to certain data about how latent effects of the bomb tests, that the wave motion was an earth core motion, not a lateral surface wave motion. "The downward thrust was tremendous, directing a new type of wave motion concentrated toward the earth core, which produced, slowly, a reflected wave motion resulting in a terrific pounding of the coast of Chile." Then in the April issue of American Scientist, there is a lengthy article "Earth motion from the Atomic Bomb Test," by Dr. L. Don Leet of Harvard, which contains data and charts proving that new wave motions, previously unknown, were produced by the tests in New Mexico where the bomb center was 100 ft. above the ground.
"No ordinary channels were permitted to release this censored information. And scientists reliably report to me that there was an earthquake recorded in the U.S. from the second test at Bikini, but military censorship suppressed this information." (W.G.)
We point out that Mr. Graham's predictions relative to the 2nd test were based on the official announcement that a bomb four times more powerful was to be used, and at open sea - neither of which conditions was met. Evidence continues to sift through from many quarters that the basic reasoning of physicist Graham was essentially correct, that only a modification of the plans prevented a disaster, and that there are many alarming facts not yet publicly known.
Round Robin supported physicist Graham throughout the controversy preceding the Bikini tests, and drew attention to the fact that many other scientists were also alarmed over the possibilities; but he was almost alone in making public opposition to this foolhardy experiment. We admire his courage and feel that his scientific views are being justified.
_________ _________
Mrs. G.B.L.,
Littleton,
Colo.
Dr. Doreal, Shamballa Ashrama, his colony, his throne, his temple bells are getting much publicity of late. The Rocky Mt. News, for one, gives them most of a page in two successive issues, and Mrs. G.B.L. sends us the clips. It's in a valley near Sedalia, "surrounded by mountains containing vast lead deposits, which ward off atomic radiation" that his 800 followers are building a city of refuge against the coming days of atomic war. Comment? No comment; but maybe we'll move to Colorado.
"R.G." and the
Kareeta affair
RR friend R.G. writes us, he wonders what his results would be, if he put an ad in the paper asking people who saw something unusual in the sky, any night, to write to him; goes on to speak of the "complete variance" of those who saw anything more than a bat-like object, and of lack of agreement as to the distribution of lights on the object; then winds up by saying that "probably a space ship actually did appear..."
When one assumes there may have been a high-flying craft of unusual design, travelling at varying speeds, very fast, slow, or stationary, seen from points 10 to 15 miles apart, from all angles, noted casually or carefully, under varying local conditions of light, the craft itself being turned at all angles to the observer, maybe obscuring its own lights temporarily, maybe altering them - on just how many points could close agreement be logically expected? We think the agreement on the central fact of some strange craft overhead is all that can be expected, and very striking - and also that R.G. is talking nonsense - or throwing out the baby along with the bath water... but since he then says "probably a space ship did appear", we'll forgive him. That's more than RR has said at any time - tho we have quotes other people who held that opinion.
Mr. Johns,
Dr. Niemand,
et. cet.
Comes also V.O.J., a clever lady, writing that Mr. E. Johns, lately lecturing before the CSPR in San Francisco, seems absolutely sincere, "completely convinced that he has talked with both discarnate humans and nature spirits. Mr. Johns is the radio engineer who wrote a most astonishing letter to Amazing Stories magazine, about weird doings in Mendocino County. But so far there's no check-up - and we hear from RR friend W.C.B. that Mr. Johns has washed his hands of the whole matter, on the ground that "the Forces do not want to be annoyed & claim the territory up there is theirs." Well, the RR Editor knows, along with a million or so other folk, that there is much strange business afoot, in the environs of our daily grind and gabble; nevertheless the upshot of this Johns letter is typical of everything so far connected with the "Shaver Mystery" - that is to say, no upshot at all, except a notable increase in the circulation of the A.B. magazine... Returning to V.O.J., it seems she attended a lecture by Dr. Frederick G. Niemand, well-known psychiatrist. During the subsequent discussion, some one said there was "no proof of survival," to which our correspondent replied, "Sir Oliver Lodge, for one, thought there was." Then psychiatrist Niemand made his contribution, "I don't think much of Sir Oliver's mental capacity." And, says V.O.J., "he had just got thru telling us that we must face any and every fact, no matter how distasteful, and try to get to the bottom of it." One comment is, that most psychiatrists have much to learn and unlearn, including respect for hundreds of names of brilliant investigators in metapsychological studies - and one moral is, if ever you begin to hear voices or see a ghostie occasionally, don't tell a psychiatrist about it, or the average M.D. either. There's precious small chance of your "losing your mind" unless or until one of those twain gets hold of you.
"I wonder just what kind of blow it will take to wake these people up," writes V.O.J. So says this Editor, too, along with a million or so other uneasy people.
- Down Poppycock Alley -
Science Illustrated for November prints a kind of expose of spiritism, under the title "Can We Communicate with the Dead," by one Helen Riesenfeld, and some of our readers want us to "reply" to it. The real expose, as usual, is of the incredible ignorance of the author, and editor of S.I. magazine. There's a kind of theory, among psychic research men and well-informed spiritists, that all such articles, under their many titles, are written by the same person, probably by some badly retarded high school freshman; all of them could be answered at once, and have been answered hundreds of times, and it's a waste of time and effort to thresh the old straw over again - however -
If this "Science" Illustrated really wants to say something intelligent on this subject, why not reprint at least a summary of the recent report of the (English) Society for Psychical Research; there are 67 years of research back of their pronouncements, and the presidency has been held by a score of distinguished scholars. This issue of Round Robin contains a still more brief resume of the SPR findings, and we refer our inquirers to it. That would at least be a public service, in lieu of the stereotyped poppycockians of the H.R. article.
"The fact is," writes Helen-the-Authority, "that without special props, darkness, and carefully induced group hysteria among the auditors, mediums are powerless." (Yes, yes, Helen! We know there are frauds and fools and hysterics in spiritualism, and everywhere else. But this writer has been studying mediumistic doings for some 25 years, and literally thousands of well known men have done likewise, throughout the world, and we do not believe there is a single one of them who dream of uttering such an asininity as we have just quoted. There are probably ten thousand books on this subject, and several hundred which should be read. Why not read one, some time?)
"Not one (medium) has ever convinced a responsible committee of scientists that he can produce supernatural effects." (All facts, all real effects, are natural, being part of nature, tho some may be called supernormal. The situation is, of course, that thousands of competent observers, with scientific and technical training, have admitted and carefully studied psychic and mediumistic phenomena of a supernormal order. But, if they have to be on a committee, both the SPR and the ASPR do their work thru committees, of scientifically trained personnel, and only the most blatant prejudice could lump them all as irresponsible.)
"Not one has ever claimed the $10,000 Dunniger prize, for any effect that he cannot reproduce by sleight of hand..." Old stuff and very shoddy indeed. The trick, of course, lies in the omitted words "under the same conditions." Any competent stage magician can reproduce any given effect, if allowed his own conditions, stage set-up and apparatus. Every psychic investigator has seen scores of phenomena that could not be produced fraudulently, under identical conditions - and nearly all honest "magicians" admit it - as some of the most distinguished of them have done in the past. This is a familiar matter of record - tho obviously unknown to H.R. and the sapient editor that permitted this nonsense to be printed.
For the information of these two, the President of the ASPR is [19] Dr. George H. Hyslop, the First Vice-President is Dr. Gardner Murphy. These with other distinguished officers are listed in the quarterly ASPR Journal - where one does not find Mr. Joseph Dunninger in any capacity whatsoever.
Well, we learn from Helen-the-Hopeless that rappings are produced by rods and weights and buzzers and toe-joints (and so they have been!) and levitation by clever hand-foot-and-leg work, or long thin rods; and spirit voices are "simulated by trumpets"; and spirit writing by chalk on a wire "thrust between closely bound slates" (she actually says that!); and ectoplasm is produced by smoke, or "regurgitation of yards of thin cloth" - and materialization "usually turns out to be the medium himself." And then (says 'Science' Illustrated and H.R.) there's hysteria, and automatism, and other psychological abnormalities. Of course when it comes to ESP and PR effects, the psychologists seem to have something a bit unusual (even this impossible farrago admits that much) - but "There's no scientific evidence that communication with the dead is possible - in fact, the evidence is against it."
It seems to us that what Hopeless Helen and the Editor of "Science Illustrated" require is not an answer but an education!
We could fill this page and another one with the names of men of distinction in all the sciences who have studied the matter in question. Naturally, not all of them became spiritualists over night. But certainly 90 per cent of them accepted the genuineness (= objective validity and supernormal character) of some considerable part of the phenomena studied. In Carrington's Story of Psychic Science, or Dr. Nandor Fodor's Encyclopedia one can find their names by the hundreds. It is almost an axiom among investigators that "the debate over the actuality of the phenomena is closed." A score of universities thru out the world have endowment, scholarships, chairs, foundations in psychic research and parapsychology. This interest grows and rises on every side - most strange, if the weight of evidence is "all against it", i.e. against communication with the dead. Because this theory (and fact) of communication is bound up inextricably with all paranormal investigation, and offers the only present explanation of an immense mass of the phenomena. The SPR admits this flatly, and every honest and thorough student of such problems...
But the more we think about the incredible silliness of this S.I. article, the more we regret writing this one. Because, we begin to think we are having our leg pulled. Because it can't be serious - it just can't! It's a take-off or a rake-off or something - certainly nothing honest or sensible or half-way informed about anything, or above the level of half-wittedness in any respect. And why in the name of all the gods of Blatt one should pay any attention at all -...
And yet we do know - and so do millions of spiritualists everywhere. It's because this business of spirit communication, here treated with such ignorant derision, is profound and vital truth, urgent, imperative, close to the hearts and needs of humanity. We do not condone the faults of spiritualism, but we say that its basic truths are world business, humanity's business, a deathless and crucial issue. Shall we come, some time, to the end of this vicious obscurantism, find understanding and cooperation instead in the field of journalism?
New crackling
of thorns -
About that radio program of Nov. 3, "Exploring the Unknown" - it was the familiar yarn of the rich widow, the rascally medium, the wise and brave M.D. (or psychiatrist, was he?), and the triumph of righteousness in the person of the last, with the courageous help of the police. Everything we said with reference to the S.I. magazine article (pp. 16, 19) applies here, including timid suggestion that Earnest Inquirer skim our synopsis of the SPR reports (pp. 10, 11).
We note one encouraging fact, however, even in such ignorant and vicious drivel as this radio broadcast; the rising tide of spiritism has forced the enemy into new tactics, so that they now take over ESP research as a wonderful new achievement of "science", which will explain all spiritistic happenings and sound the kneel of all spirits. An unthinkable concession, even ten years back - and the very last inference which ESP investigators would want to make.
This appears to be only one more popgun blast in the barrage which is being laid down against spiritism, a confession of growing panic, and exactly the kind of shiftiness and fog-puffing which might have been sponsored by the American Medical Association, or by powerful religious organizations which need not be named. The smug and stuffy scientism of various "learned" societies and university departments, will also find this broadcast play very tasty indeed. When religious and scientific bigotry lie down together, the lamb-and-lion partnership is no news at all.
We don't know, for a certainty, what special and time-serving interests sponsored this broadcast. We only add that it ended with the flat statement "all seances are trickery." Only an ignoramus or a deliberate liar could make that assertion.
_________ _________
We recommend (if
you are interested)...
The works of Lodge and Crookes, founders of modern physics; Charles Richet, the greatest physiologist of France; A.R. Wallace, co-worker with Darwin; M.D. Deputy, Attorney-General, Bordeaux, France; Camille Flammarion, astronomer; W.J. Crawford, D.Sc., Professor of Engineering, Belfast; Frank Podmore, M.A. of Oxford; Dr. Paul Joire (Paris); Professor Bozzano (Italy); Professor Ochorowitz (Philosophy, Lemourg); Professor Lombroso, Dr. Gustave Geley, Professor Eugene Osty, Baron von Schrenck-Notzing (all of international reputation). James Hyslop, Ph.D. (Logic and Ethics, Columbia); Dr. Richard Hodgson (Cambridge); Dr. A de Rochas (Paris); Stanley de Brath (Engineer). Among literary men, F.W.H Myers (distinguished scholar), Wm. T. Stead; Claude Bragdon; Walter F. Prince; T.J. Hudson, Ph.D.; L. Chevreuil (1919 prize, French Academy of Sciences, for best summary on "On Ne Meurt Pas"); Hamlin Garland. We recommend Sir Wm. Barrett, and Balfour Stewart; Alexis Carrel, Eddington, Jeans, Gerald Heard, Harold Cross, Hereward Carrington, Manley P. Hall, Nandor Fodor, Gardner Murphy, Thos. Sugrue... The historian Egon Friedell; biologist Hans Driesch; world-famous psychologist C.G. Jung; Professors Thompson, Schroedinger, Max Planck, A.H. Compton, Bernard Jaffe; the Prince de Broglie, R.H. Lewis (historian of science); Merrell-Wolff, Ph.D.; I. Regardie, Ph.D.; Philip Haley, D.Sc.; S.E. White; Harry Price; A.T. Baird; Dion Fortune - these and some hundreds more, if you "really" want to understand the backgrounds of Illuminism, P. Research, spiritism, occultism, parapsychology!