[12]

- CLIPS and QUOTES -

The Mystery of
Findings

In RR 1-III (Jan. '47) we printed an item about the finding of the body of a drowned person by means of a hat, which sank over the right spot. Professor Charles J. Ryan supplies us with two similar clips from his own files. One, from Time, Sept, 1926, describes the finding in Lake Zoar (Conn.) of the body of a drowned woman by the floating of five loaves of bread, one of which came to a "purposeful halt". One theory is that the floating objects reveal the currents that also moved the body.

The second clip is from Progressive Thinker Jan. 5, 1907; in this case undergarments of the drowned man's mother were used. They floated for some 30 minutes, then sank - directly over the body, thus ending a long search. Still a third item (our error, sup.) is a news item from Dublin, 1926, concerning the finding of a boy's body by floating a sheaf of oat straw (properly blessed), which spun around above the body. Professor Ryan adds adds certain references to Isis Unveiled: p. 611, vol. II in particular.

To cap the climax, we quote from a letter from RR friend J. Edward Morgan, of Oakland: He quotes an account given him by a woman friend concerning a 'finding' in Minnesota. A Swede had been drowned in a river, and his Swedish friends "went in a boat on the river, taking with them a rooster. They rowed about until the rooster crowed. Then they stopped the boat, dived, and found the body." The lady told us that was a Swedish practise for finding a drowned person's body... A rooster crowed at Peter's living ... Do Nature spirits manifest thru roosters? And then Shakespeare -

Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes / wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, / this bird of warning singeth all night long / and then no spirit dares to stir abroad / no planet strikes, no witch hath power to charm ...

Mr. Morgan is half-humorous in his conjectures, but the 'Swedish custom', if such it is, is most curious, and the notion of Nature spirits (or Devas) making use of animal bodies, and even of speaking through them with a human voice, is familiar to occultists... RR Editor even has 'information' (unverified) of a parrot that kept the family of a soldier informed of his whereabouts thruout the last war, a distinct advance over the polly-wants-a-cracker vocabulary. Probably the number of 'findings' similar to those quoted is very large, and whatever the true explanation may be, the hypotheses of currents, chance, coincidence, and downright lying seem to be far from adequate.

And Other
Oddities

A fire-ball roaring thru the sky, reported from San Diego to Bakersfield (called a meteor and a rocket - maybe). The ice-covered cylinder which fell on the campus of a military Academy in Oregon ("explained" - but the explanation still fails to satisfy many folk) -- A so-called meteor in Michigan, 'zooming' across a heavy overcast -- the still unexplained mystery of the flying objects over Sweden (which completely disintegrate after exploding, leaving no trace whatever of their nature) -- Ripley's note of the snow which refuses to melt after being kept for 10 months (believe it or not!) -- the alleged case of Albert Herpin of Trenton (recently died [13] at age 95) who had never slept during his whole life -- the 'great Serrano', gifted California horse, who 'can spell any word in any language', finds hidden objects if he is told their color, has the adding machines backed off the boards when it comes to computations -- mysterious blast over the Bradford area, gray smoke, 12 ft. hole maybe connected with it, maybe not -- for these and others we're indebted to Lloyd Adams, Helen Lotreck, Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Hyde - and to other readers for similar material.

Returning and Continuing (§), to-and-with the subject of Findings; we should have quoted Blavatsky more fully on this point. She remarks that the belief is common in Russia and India, and continues:

We have even seen the experiment successfully tried with the sacred cord of a Brahmin. It floated hither and thither, circling about as tho in search of something, until suddenly darting in a straight line for about 50 yards, it sank. At that exact spot the divers brought up the body.

She then quotes from a Pittsburg paper a circumstantial account of a similar happening - "absurd as it appears, this belief is wide spread ... This phenomenon is explained by the laws of a powerful attraction between the human body and objects that have long been worn upon it." The whole subject is treated by HPB under the head of Magnetism ("animal magnetism")... Most students of occult matters (we believe) accept the phenomenon; and once it is accepted, the hypothesis of "laws of a powerful attraction" is obvious and natural, and hardly does more than restate the problem... Our point here is, that Blavatsky, and many writers and scholars of the Theosophical movement, have the merit of recognizing and studying a great number of outlaw phenomena thruout a long period of pseudo-science and shoddy materialism. Whether one "accepts Theosophy" or not, has no bearing on this matter. A lamp has been kept burning thru the darkest hours of our Western world, and the future will pay tribute to it - if any records of our time remain.

FALLS:

Concerning the matter of the 'Fortean' Falls, we append, for whatever worth may be found in it, the statement of the seance control Lo Sun Yat, (Mark P. seances). As readers of Charles Fort know, an almost endless variety of materials and objects have fallen from the sky, apparently, at various times and in all parts of the world. Questioned about these, Lo Sun Yat replied that part of these were cast up from our earth in ages past, 'by violent volcanic action' and that they were caught and retained by the aerial ice-fields: the latter sometimes partially broke up and precipitated the objects. (The ice fields, too, are a Fortean hypothesis). Other Falls, however, were of objects produced in other worlds. "Your scientists", said Lo Sun Yat coldly, "turn up their noses too much. They have yet to learn that [14] there are worlds within worlds - material worlds, whose vibration rates happen to make them imperceptible to your senses. But objects from such planes can materialize into your dimensions, just as, for example, I myself can materialize into a dense body if conditions in your seance room are right..."

It is rather a pity, in our opinion, that the Fortean Society, officially at any rate, feels obliged to avoid and discredit everything that smacks of psychism. They are constantly dealing with borderland phenomena, constantly getting nowhere with them, and yet ruling out the only methods of approach which can be productive... The psychical research societies have gotten a notch beyond this, but they too go on collecting volumes full of strange happenings, repetitions as grandfather's clock... The parapsychologists, meanwhile, are really trying to pick the lock of the chamber of mysteries, but since every finger wiggle has to officially blessed (if only by Heterodox Science), a crocodile funeral is presto-accelerando compared with them. Our notion is that irritated Nature or the impatient Gods are going to cram a number of despised facts down the throats of all of us, no long time hence... People who would rather die than believe such stuff will have prompt opportunity of doing so...

From a woman physician, an M.D. and a practising psychiatrist, the Editor has a letter containing the following paragraphs:

In 1908, in a lonely, wooded spot, I was lying in the grass, tho not asleep. Suddenly a creature some six inches high, of a translucent, pale-green color, appeared close beside me. Its little face was neither animal nor human, with very bright, alert eyes that examined me with curiosity. When I was a small child I was often visited by a much larger creature of the same order, but gray in color... In later years a number of more fairy-like nature spirits appeared in my garden ...

One afternoon, at Bryce Canyon, a non-human entity appeared and frightened my fierce watch-dog into a whimpering heap. This entity was columnar in shape, about 10 ft. tall, flaming red in colour, and communicated with me mentally. He claimed to have directed the erosion in producing the innumerable shapes of stone in the canyon. He used water as a sculptor uses his chisel... he explained where he got his ideas... he was with me about half an hour...

The writer goes on to describe sky shows of innumerable forms, moving about 500 ft. above the ground, and her sight of a huge Being and a company of worshipping Indians, on the desert... We add that this physician is well-known and her professional standing beyond question. §

We quote from such letters occasionally, not because similar facts are novel to the informed, but to emphasize the fact that 'psychic' and 'occult' experiences are by no means confined to uneducated minds, or to careless, imaginative, and incompetent observers.

§¹ The Blavatsky reference (Isis, vol.II, p.611) is also sent us by Professor Ryan... We hope our readers will be tolerant of a too hasty organization of RR material... and of temporary failure to use, or even acknowledge many excellent items and interesting letters: it is a question of time, work, lack of help and of facilities.

§² The writer adds that she enjoys Round Robin and Flying Roll, because "it is wonderful to contact people who are not money mad and who have eyes to see and ears to hear."

[15]

NOTES FROM THE SEANCES

(Mark P., Medium)

* * * *

********

(This communicator could not recall even the major facts of his earth life, but asserted, "As soon as I withdraw from this medium my mind and memory will be all right again." People who complain that many spirits cannot establish their identity should bear such facts in mind. Good communicating usually requires practise.)

************

[16]

- Prophetic Years -

Big Book,
   Bad Book!

The Greeks had a word for the wise, as usual: "Mega biblion, mega kakon." One is tempted to parody it by saying "big sale, bad book", but it would be true only nine times out of ten. One of the few exceptions would be Wing Anderson's Prophetic Years, which is selling remarkably well and in our opinion is definitely worth reading. Of course, it's chock-full of mundicidal fantasies (we thank you, Dr. Fodor, for giving us that word). Some of the material is already familiar to most readers, and at least one item (Washington's Vision, p. 82) may be regarded as now discredited. Nor do we recommend it as a 'merrie booke and right joyous' and add that, for better or worse, it's liberally sprinkled with Oahspe quotations. But the book as a whole is interesting and highly instructive. It begins with a chapter on fulfilled prophecies, then classifies most of its 235 pages under headings of the various nations. The prophecies of the Mormon seers, of the Finn Anton Johanson, and many sections dealing with Russia, England, and the United States contain material not easily accessible elsewhere. Its mere existance is impressive, whether you 'believe in prophecies' or not...

Voice of
the Raven

One comment would be, that hardly anyone, ever, sees anything good in store for the human race - or at least not this side of a far-off millennium. Wars, death, destruction, the wind Euroclydon bloweth, Apocalyptic Horsemen ride! Well, does the voice of human history sound otherwise than this? And have we now grown wiser and better - or learned some craft for the sowing of tares and the gathering of wheat?

"Prophet," said I, "thing of evil! Prophet still if bird or devil / Get thee back into the tempest and the night's plutonian shore!"

The lugubrious raven perched upon the bust of Pallas is a kind of multum-in-parvo of our racial past; the fascination of its croaking prophecies is more than a pathology of the human mind. Perhaps (and indeed it is very probable) we know subconsciously the tale of things to come, and when in the prophet such knowledge rises a little into the light of awareness, our own deep-buried prescience awakens and responds. The glass of the seer is darkened, his sense of time distorted, his vision instinct with cloudy symbols and half-guessed whisperings; yet there is something in us, more than fear or morbidity, which lends a credent ear. And if all prophecies be no more than disordered dreams, we maintain that every realist should study them carefully for a dream is itself a fact and a happening, an effect and a subtly-working cause, a shadow and a Presence round all the ways of man.....

As to this particular book, it is like all other books and events and things, the mirror of the beholding mind, giving back by a spurious creation of its own whatever thoughts and imaginations, hopes and fears we place before it.

Prophetic Years - 1947-1953, by Wing Anderson, C'Chief, American Essenes of Kosmon. Kosmon Press, Los Angeles. 234 pp. with bibliography. 1946. $3.00. (This book may be ordered thru Round Robin).

[17]

Round Robin in Review

(Frater F.G.H. comments on our February issue)

Concerning "The Abominable Snowman", (p.3): "The heavens are opening," writes F.G.H., "to foreshadow the coming of the Teacher, the Lord Maytreya."

"As for Tiffany Thayer, he hasn't gotten over the discovery yet that the stuff promulgated by the Churches is nonsense. Like the boy who discovers that all children are the product of sex and then hates all women, his mother included." (RR. p.5)

"Tell Ardyth H. she had better begin believing in reincarnation. I know many people who for many lives loved one another. Her Pat is quite evidently a former love who in this life is separated from her by circumstances. Love is the only everlasting thing in this cosmos. As to consummation in the astral, that may take several forms depending on the status of the lovers - from the completely physical union to the highest spiritual bliss. Or even materialization by one or both here in the physical." (RR 6, ff).

"What Lo Sun Yat calls the Monad (11.10) is the Ego. The Monad is quadripartite and beyond his vision: otherwise his statement is correct."

"The great Pyramid was built 50-60,000 years ago, as a temple incorporating all the mathematical formulas and relations of the solar system in the smallest possible space. It was never used as a tomb. The stones were cut by thought-control and transported by gravity control (flown). The Mexican pyramid builders were also Atlanteans and were led by the same Adepts." (p. 11)

"Concerning the article by Mrs. H.M.P. (p.12): she separates her astral body, or part of it, which has its own consciousness. The only thing rare is the bridge between day and astral consciousness. This same method is used by Adepts to be in many places at once, altho they do not usually take the trouble to maintain the bridge, since each part is able to take care of itself. It is little realized that the day consciousness is neither the only one nor the highest. The dense body, astral body, mental body and the personality each has its own consciousness. In the waking state the three are united by the Person into the personality. But there is no law against splitting the personality and using its parts independently, and jointly. Lo Sun Yat left part of his astral in the medium but took another part, and his astral consciousness along with him." (p.13).

Re, p.14 (Space-Ships Again?) "Evidently an etheric materialization of a nature spirit." (The RR Editor personally considers this the least likely of several hypotheses.)

P. 20. "If that was lightning it did NOT eliminate the ghost."

P. 21. "The two wars I referred to were not both atomic: the 2nd disaster (Ragnarok) occurred when three comets were thrown upon the earth. But there were other wars in Atlan, in which heat rays, atomic explosives, monsters, poison gas aircraft, gravity control etc. were employed. The next will be one of these minor war, altho the last but one. The green glass in Mesopotamia may be from atomic explosion or from the heat ray - probably the latter. Many north European prehistoric fortresses show effects of heat-ray attack." (v. Chas. Fort on this. Ed.)

P.22. "Thanks! In my home town the house of Leibniz and the tomb of Helmholtz were also blasted out of existence - along with many [18] irreplaceable treasures of the ages."

P.24. "The 'lovers' knot' in the anchor chain was either the prank of a deceased seaman or of a nature spirit. The trouble is, such things seldom get into the papers. Such a thing might happen naturally if the ground is a rock flat, the chain falling over the anchor and the flukes not having a chance to dig in. But Los Angeles harbor is mud and sand, and the knot was too far up the chain."

"It is evident that the veil is wearing mighty thin, and that the coming change is casting its shadows ahead. This is the mid-point in the evolution of this race, where those who cannot make the grade are tested and weeded out, so that the others are not any more kept back by those that either are too young, or cannot or will not cooperate. In the long ago past nature spirits lived among the humans and cooperated with them. They soon will do so again, after the change. they can do many things easily which we either cannot do at all, or else do poorly."

"Once in a while a lower type incarnates in a human body: we then have these 'moronic freaks' who can do involved calculations in seconds which take mathematicians hours, or have incredible memories. What if the higher nature spirits come to live again amongst us? - as high or higher than ourselves in development. Think that over"

----------------

So writes F.G.H., who has previously, in RR pages, predicted a third great war for 1959 or 1960.

Comes now George H. Earle, former Governor of Pennsylvania, undercover agent for the Roosevelt administration in Istanbul, and said to be in personal touch with atomic research. Says Mr. Earle:

"I don't think there is better than an even chance that five years from today more than 10 percent of us Americans will be alive." (AP, Feb. 19)

But Trygve Lie says, "Talk of a third world war is the dream of a madman."

From 1909 to 1914 every critical observer of world affairs knew what was coming; and so too, from 1930 to 1940. Because such foreknowledge seemed too terrible to be true, we hoped and even believed that it was no more than dreams of madmen. Now, once again, this evil dream which is no dream creeps upon us.

We do not believe that events forseen, necessarily come to pass. That which is truly inevitable as circumstances now exist, next month or next year may become doubtful or impossible. There is an element of indeterminism in history, and freedom of the human will within narrow boundaries. Because of this, we do not say that another war is inevitable. But at this moment it is evident that all the social, political, and psychological factors which brought on the last two wars are still operative. We find no ground for optimism in the present situation. The slow building up of fear and suspicion will do its deadly work.

Our position with regard to publishing such misgivings is this: The danger is real. To ignore or deny it is folly. To proclaim it may be useless, and distressing to many - but it is the only hope we have. If enough voices cry alarm now, some remedy or respite may be found. But to say nothing and do nothing - that is the true "mundicide."

[19]

A Note from
Clarkson Dye

"In the last issue of Round Robin you touched upon the sad plight of the swarms of earth-bound ones, and our responsibility for their condition. Some years ago a clairvoyant tried to describe them to me, and I remember saying that if we could only see the misery they are in, we would never again be careless and indifferent.

What rouses my indignation is the smug apathy, the silly program and aims of the (self-proclaimed) high-minded societies for psychical research. With vast libraries of accumulated, well-attested data, they are more interested in directing carpenters to add more shelves, than in a search for truth. Their method is equivalent to stacking huge piles of gold ore without extracting the precious metal it contains. With thousands of isolated persons and groups all over the world interested in the spiritual implications of life, the great mass of humanity, including the churches, wanders in blindness. Many have wondered what plan could be devised for the awakening of humanity. Eminent persons have tried in vain, thousands of books have sent out their futile messages, and many other efforts have been exerted to no avail? We are assured that those on the 'other side' are eager to help us. Why then do they not instruct us how to open the eyes of our fellow men? Can it be that the time is not considered propitious, even with thousands sliding into the abyss daily? Ask your friends to think this over. Perhaps the Great Plan will come to one of you... I dreamed once that Hearst had opened his chain of newspapers to proclaim the validity of survival. This was indeed but a dream - but some such means would seem necessary.

Forty years of study have convinced me it is the duty of conscientious men and women to do something about this, for the sake of their loved ones if for no other reason... But to too many folk, spirituality is a 'queer' region, like the north pole, and its proponents are like so many penguins..."

----- -----

Not Mr. Dye alone, but a multitude of informed and right-thinking people everywhere are distressed by these world conditions. And if the psychical research societies constantly thresh old straw over again, the spiritualists are particularly blamable with regard to the plight of the earth-bound spirits. For the spiritualists, with all their naivete, are aware of these basic truths and make some point of proclaiming the fact; they devote millions of hours of seance work to holding friendly little chats with their dear departed, about every kind of triviality. Our notion is, every seance room in the world ought to have half its time devoted to rescue circles - and if we often fail to help these others, the effort to do so might go far toward 'rescuing' us from selfishness and indifference.

If only you and your friends knew (let us say) that water is good to drink, if you saw the whole world searing its throats with concoctions of one kind and another, desperately thirsty, but refusing to believe lakes, springs, rivers, and rains good for anything except boat sailing and crop-growing - surely then the world-and-his-wife would seem very extraordinary to you, lamentable and incomprehensible. People who know the facts of survival and communication, along with many things concerning the life to come, often find their contemporary world no less remarkable, nor less delivered into the hands of pretentious ignorance.