Twenty years ago, when the U.S. space program was just being born, one of the first questions which required consideration was whether man was physically and mentally capable of traveling in space. Would his body continue to function normally when subjected for long periods to a condition of zero gravity, or as it is usually called, "free fall" What would happen to the orientation mechanisms of the body, most of which depend upon the pull of gravity as their point of reference:

When discussing a person who is unusually dense or stupid we have a habit of saying that he "is so dumb that he doesn't know which way is up!" To the astronaut in free fall however, there simply is no such thing as up or down. His body will float as freely in one direction as in any other!

It was at first feared that the loss of the gravity reference point for long periods of time might so confuse the mind of the astronaut that he might lose all sense of reality, thus rendering him incapable of guiding or controlling the craft. This problem has not proven to be as severe as was originally feared, although there have been a few cases where the exhilaration of the astronaut reached a point

2 UNDERSTANDING

where he was reluctant to follow some of the instructions of the Ground Control group.

During interplanetary trips there may well be considerable periods of time when dependable communications between ground control and the space craft is not possible.

What will happen when the stabilizing and reassuring influence of Ground Control is not available to the astronaut is not known, but it is a problem which must be considered by every person who is in charge of planning long space flights.

It is perhaps significant that almost all of the astronauts who have been chosen by the U. S. space authorities to date, have been men who have substantial backgrounds of religious training belief and understanding. Such men have available to them orientation which is not dependent upon the gravity of the planet; they have reference points among the stars, and a Ground Control which is both stabilizing and reassuring.

It is a point which we should consider in its application to our own lives, especially to those of us whose natural curiosity and need for understanding sometimes takes us far out into space and time. We have all known people who in their almost desperate search for understanding, have become disoriented and in some cases have lost almost all contact with reality. We feel pity for these people because they are unable to chart or direct the course of their craft, and so are in constant danger of coming into collision with others.

Whether we are astronauts, research scientists, metaphysicians or just curious voyagers into the unknown, let us, before we embark upon the journey, be sure that we have established at least a few solid and dependable reference points as aids to navigation, and that we have a ground control that is available for guidance and encouragement at all times and under all circumstances.

——— ♦ ———

A CITY FOR THE FUTURE

In India, near Pondicherry, on February 28, 1968, was laid the foundation stone for Auroville, a city for the future. It is intended as an international and cultural center, a possible model for planetary cities of tomorrow.

AUGUST, 1968 3

Auroville, literally "City of Dawn," is the dream of "the Mother" of the Aurobindo Ashram of Pondicherry "that there should be somewhere upon earth a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspirations, could live freely as citizens of the world." The UNESCO is giving Indian government is backing the project, and UNESCO it moral support.

The city is named in honor of Sri Aurobindo who is considered to be the builder of the bridge between East and West. The plans have already been drawn by a team of French architects and many of the talents which will be needed to realize the concept of this unique city of the future have already been assembled. The group includes artists, architects, engineers, landscape artists, administrators, financiers and diplomats.

Physically, Auroville will be circular, covering about fifteen square miles, which area includes three natural lakes. Lagoons and canals are to be added, along with plantings, to foster the beauty of the outdoors anti to create a sense of spaciousness. The city is being planned for an ultimate population of 50,000. Residences of one story in height will be placed about the outer perimeter, the high rise buildings about a central hill, called the Garden of Unity. The core buildings though high-rise, will be built upon a pyramidal basis, using slopes and angles to promote dynamic new perspectives of both man and nature and thus inspire creativity.

Auroville will be no pastoral utopia, reverting to the past, but a city for the future, employing all modern technology -- thermonuclear energy, desalinization of sea water, etc.-for the greatest good of all. It is to be all entirely new city for our children. Auroville is to be a constantly evolving city, never finished, combining beauty with companionship, "a totally unprecedented psychological, social, educational and architectural experiment." As a City of Tomorrow it is intended for the New Age for the New Man.

The invitation to participate in the realization of this City of Dawn, as given in "Equals One," calls "to all who would explore living together in fraternity, in a community which seeks to unite the promise of man's limitless possibilities of consciousness with all the promises of future technological and ecological abundance." The city is to be an experiment in which consciousness becomes

4 UNDERSTANDING

"visible," a laboratory of continuous collective effort in which each person contributes according to his special interests and talents for the good of all that man may consciously direct his human evolution. The purpose of the city is to "reconcile the highest spiritual life with the exigencies of our industrial civilization."

The design of Auroville comprises four areas-industrial, cultural, residential and international. Three languages will he used, Southern India's Tamil, French and English. Work will not be to gain a livelihood but rather "to express one's capacities and possibilities while doing at the same time service to the whole group, which on its side, would provide each one's subsistence and for the field of his work." The spirit is to be of cooperation and brother-hood rather than strife and competition.

"Now for the first time we shall have a total city, one in which each house expresses a common realization, a common will. The studio of the artist and the poet, the laboratory of the scientist, the playground of the children are all parts of this single cathedral-which is the whole town, dedicated to the one in man. From the very beginning Auroville must be a place where religions and sects lose entirely their dogmatic character and become pure spiritual experience; where the schools have stopped teaching, as an end in itself . . . and the sole aim of teaching-enveloping all specialized endeavor-will be how to become transhuman."

Auroville envisions much more than modern comforts and technical efficiencies which could isolate man in his home, his contacts with others through electronic consoles." It is designed for the meetings of persons and minds, for the sharing of thoughts and dreams, for the unfoldment of each one's individual potential, for the expansion of conscious-awareness, and for the experiencing of the depth and breadth of spiritual possibilities. It is to be a city for man as the child of God.

The city is intended to demonstrate that. human differences are both superficial and often artificial, and "that people of different nationalities, cultures, religion and race can retain their individual values in cooperation with one another as a vital contribution to the well-being of the whole, so long as they recognize the inner spiritual truths which provide the solid foundations for right outer living. A dream? Listen to Sri Aurobindo!

AUGUST, 1968 5

"You say that the thing is impossible. But that is what is said about. everything before it is done."

(If you share the excitement of this project, so briefly sketched here, may we suggest you write to: World Goodwill, 866 United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017; or to "Equals One," Pondicherry. India, enclosing One Dollar, for the set of attractive brochures which include sketches of the proposed city, and some 146 pages of text..)

——— ♦ ———

UNDERSTANDING

Understanding is one of the four stages in the learning process. It is the last and most advanced step. The first is perception; nothing can be learned unless first perceived. The second is knowledge, which is stored perception with the ability to recall what has been perceived. The third is belief, which is the acceptance of what is perceived as fact, being true or truth. With understanding as the fourth step we are able to determine for self what is true or truth. We are then able to avoid the false concepts, illusions, twists, prejudices, fallacies, and superstitious that interfere with judgment.

Understanding is derived from comprehension of relationships. Since it is hardly possible to comprehend the whole of human relationships, then the best approach is that of comprehending the factors that are most essential to life fulfillment. These factors are derived from comprehension of man's purpose on earth, his goal in life, and his future destiny. We become enlightened according to our understanding; of the relationship of our past origin, present purpose, and future destiny.

There is no better way of understanding man's earth-life than thinking of it as a schoolroom in which he learns the lessons that raise his level of consciousness. As he learns these lessons he is able to comprehend how the Power of God and the energy of the universe are as one. Life trades in energy and our Creator Source is manifest in the energy of substance. We are channels through which the Creator is manifest in the energy of substance. We are channels through which the Creator is expressed, and we act as substations for His power, and subordinate centers of creative activity.

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What we create depends upon our degree of understanding and enlightenment.

Our Creator Source has established in natural law the manner in which things can be done in proper order. This is called the law of cause and effect, action and reaction, or sowing and reaping. From this we learn that we reap what we sow; that the effect attained depends upon the causes we set in motion; that reactions are the result of our actions. We have better understanding of physical things and physical actions are the visible manifestations of the spiritual, invisible, and metaphysical actions that produced them and brought them into manifestation. In this sense, all is spirit and matter, and matter is the visible channel by which spirit is made manifest and identified.

The greatest source of human understanding is attained by learning to commune with the Indwelling Spirit or shark of the Creator Source that indwells in man. We have become sufficiently ingenious to harness the physical atom that may destroy us, but not sufficiently enlightened to adequately comprehend the Spiritual Source that sustains us. The greater one's understanding of life and how to live it, the better channel he becomes for helping to bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. One is given the power to choose whether he prefers companionship with his Spiritual Source that will uplift him, or if he prefers comradeship with evil forces of the devil that lowers him. What he chooses largely reflects his level of conscious development.

-L. L. Castetter, Director, Institute of Human Engineering

——— ♦ ———

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

HOW WE FIND OUT who we are has always been, and is likely always to be, the sixty-four dollar question of one's lifetime. There is within each person his own cast of characters. Our discordant impulses are bound and ordered in a set of identities. But on what billboard that cast is listed, and how to find out what is playing and when, is the mystery life leaves up to us to penetrate. Are we assigned to play Hamlets and Ophelias, Don Quixotes and Sancho Panzas, or do we choose a role freely and make it ours?

AUGUST, 1968 7

In our own time and culture, when confusion covers particularly the myth of the happy American, perhaps I can best make my small contribution to the perennial quest for cues to one's identity by telling the simple story of Carolina, a woman who found out who she is a happy American.

First, to shed light on the context in which the individual seeking the significance of personal identity-all of us, in one way or another finds himself, let us be guided by a background paragraph from The Hero With a Thousand Faces:

In his life-form the individual is necessarily only a fraction and distortion of the total image of man. He is limited either as male of as female; at any given period of his life he is again limited, as child, youth, mature adult, or ancient; furthermore, in his life-role, he is necessarily specialized as craftsman, tradesman, servant, or thief, priest, leader, wife, nun, or harlot: he cannot be all. Hence the totality-the fullness of man is not in the separate member, but in the body of the society as a whole; the individual can be only an organ*.

Perhaps Carolina had never found time to stop and ask herself, in so many words, "who am, where do I belong, and of what am I capable?" She had come to us from south of the border, as a most welcome addition to our household, where she was as pleasant as she was competent. One day something about her seemed to be different, although she was only doing her usual stint of ironing. I could tell that something was up before her voice came from behind the ironing board:

"Senora, I have something to tell you," she announced in Spanish, still the only language in which she felt at home.

"Yes, Carolina, what is it?"

With her color rising fast and a rare smile -- almost a giggle - She answered with obvious relish: "Ya tengo mi importancia!"

This left me completely at sea, although I had taken college Spanish and understood the words well enough: "Now I have my importance!" Rather than baldly ask in just what this new-found importance of hers consisted, I countered with, "Yeso?", meaning,

*Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Meridian Books, New York. 1956, p11. 382-383.)

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more or less, "And so? Go on-" She was ready to burst with satisfaction as it came out : "It's my name, senora, my name-it's in the telephone book! here!"

She was triumphantly thrusting the new city directory under my nose, repeating like an incantation, "mi nombre, senora, mi hombre..."

I was honest enough to laugh, but she had the grace to forgive me, and then allow me to congratulate her when I finally understood. She, Carolina Ramirez, had her name in the phone book ! Now, if possible, she looked even more responsible, more sober, and more like the Rock of Gibraltar than ever, for now she-although always the salt of the earth as far as we were concerned-was clearly someone in her own eves.

After that, we joked a bit in the family whenever it came to placing a date in household matters: Was it before or after Carolina got her importance, we would ask each other. But it was no joking matter to Carolina. And suddenly I sensed what. must have been the full significance to Carolina of the event she had observed in her life, which was nothing less than the significance which her own personal identity had taken on in a national framework. Or, to use the language of our quotation from The Hero With a Thousand Faces, it was the fullness of man seen not in the separate member but in the body of the society as a whole, in which the individual can be only an organ. But to be "only an organ," must, he not have simultaneously glimpsed his own personal sense of identity and grasped his place in history? Carolina, having achieved precisely this act, was a happy American. She could now answer to History who she was, where she belonged, and of what she was capable. She was here to stay and not to be rejected. To prove it, she had a name, and for three hundred and sixty-five days a year it was all just as official and clear-cut and open as a book in front of you-the telephone book.

- Juliana B. Lewis

Marry great ideas have been lost because the folk who had them were not strong enough to suffer laughter!

(The Country Parson)

AUGUST, 1968 9

EUROPEAN UFO SIGHTINGS

(From the German publication, UFO Nachrichten, edited by Karl Veit, Mrs. Ruth Ilton, of Stockton, Calif., has been kind enough to translate for the Understanding magazine the following sighting reports.)

UFOs OVER POLAND

Toward the end of 1961 UFOs have been again sighted over Poland's sky and the Polish press finally commented very frankly, as follows:

(1). The Dec. 6, 1967, newspaper "Wieczor Wybrzeza" published the following letter from one of its readers: "Dear Editor, I wish to send you something which is not daily news, however it is new for me. On Nov. 30 as I was watching my TV, I went to my window to raise it a little. This was about 10:30 P.M. I saw in the sky a lighted sphere. which traveled with great, speed north-east and hovered somewhere in the vicinity of the new harbor. Even though I am an amateur in these matters, I can truthfully tell you that this object was no falling star-my attention was excited by this phenomenon! Very great speed, the fastest jet place is not this fast. There was scarcely any humming sound, but there was very intensive brightness. At the same time I will assure you that I am very healthy in body and mind, in what I have stated here, and send you my hearty- greetings."

gez. 1., from Gdansk-Wrzeszez

(2). Baltic Daily paper, Dec. 7, 1961 This is a report of an UFO sighting from Dec. 5 about 8:30 A.M., made by Ing. Lopuszanski and many of his colleagues that are themselves, as he is, employed by the Polish ship register. All of these people said: "A Very strong lighted dot that revolved and flew horizontal toward the south. The observed dot lead a somewhat large flat form. The ship continued to get ever smaller until it finally disappeared behind the village of Biskupia Gorka, Bischofsberg. The sighting lasted about a minute and was very well visible although that day - Tuesday - was misty and raining. Have we, seen a Flying Saucer?"

(3). And now a sighting not often discussed in the paper, but from a personal friend and old correspondent Mr. Jan Olszewski, out of the provincial city of Konskie who admitted to me that he was working

10 UNDERSTANDING

in the garden behind his home, and as the work was finished about 4:15 P.M. he looked up and saw in the northeasterly direction an orange colored light which at first he thought was a signal light on one of the high elevator buildings. But he soon rejected this theory as the warning light on his building was above the other light and had a very different color. They were only similar in size. After about 10 minutes this light which lead been stationary began to get smaller to about the size of the polar star, and its color also changed to about the color of the polar light. Moreover it retreated from the spat and sank, in a short time to the southeast. This motion lasted a short time, and only-very unexpected- there appeared a very strong fourfold new light. The observer stated this object had a Delta form. Moreover it was in a fixed position, the size of its periphery being greater than corresponding passenger ships. At a distance in the hack sky one could see two small lights. All lights had the same color. It is still remarkable. that as the object changed its spherical form into a deltoidale one you could hear what reminded you of a growl from the airship. At, the same time the ship's speed became greater, the object became ever smaller, until it returned to the size of the polar star and its strong light remained. Finally it disappeared into the southeastern portion of the horizon.

——— ♦ ———

world report

UFO Group Gather in Ireland

Orlando ( Fla.) Sentinel, June 9, 1968

BELFAST, Ireland-Any unidentified flying objects hovering over Northern Ireland in the next few weeks will receive an enthusiastic welcome.

Because during this time UFO experts will gather on the edge of the Earl of Erne's estate in County Fermanagh for what could be called a "fly--in."

About 60 enthusiasts will gather for two weeks of lectures, films and outings to accent UFO sightings.

AUGUST, 1968 11

"We hope to have some people who've had some experience. with extra-terrestrials," said Desmond Leslie, 43, son of Winston Churchill's cousin Sr. Shane Leslie.

"We'll all have our UFO detectors with us. Mine hasn't gone off yet but Lady Ernie's did a week or so ago. Unfortunately she was away at the time," he said.

Lady Erne, 29, has made Lustybeg Island in the middle of Loch Erne available for her brother flying sorcerers because there would not have been enough accommodations around Leslie's 300-year-old home, Castle Leslie, in County Monaghan.

Canadian UFO Research Plan

(Ottawa Citizen, March 13, 1968)

National Research Council is prepared to investigate UFOs.

In response to a question by Robert Coates (PC-Cumberland), the government said that the NRC has agreed to act as repository of unclassified reports of unidentified flying objects and to carry out investigations depending upon the degree of scientific interest in each instance.

The National Research Council has received no reports yet. The Defense Department says it received 1137 UFO reports in 1967. Eight major investigations were carried out, the results of which are public information. RCMP investigated 13 cases and sent reports to the defense department.

(Thanks to "Saucers, Space and Science," 17 Shetland St., Willowdale, Ontario, Canada.)

Interstellar Objects Measured

From the Los Angeles Times

An international team of radio astronomers, including one from the University of California's Hat Creel. Observatory, has reported the first measurement. of the size of stance interstellar objects located about 5,000 light years from earth.

The objects appear to be too bright to be cool, but are, nevertheless, emitting cool radiations. This is an apparent paradox that has been explained as possibly being clue to the existence of a kind of intensified space energy like that of a radio laser or maser beam. Nothing like this has been known outside the laboratory.

According to the astronomers the objects may be new stars in

12 UNDERSTANDING

the very earliest stages of birth. Universities taking part in the joint study are UC, MIT, and Chalmers University in Sweden.

Origin of Moon

(Chicago Dully News, May 11, 1968)

WASHINGTON (UPI)-U. S. Geological Survey scientists are checking a supersensitive new X-ray detector to be used in such tasks as hunting for gold on Earth and studying lunar surface samples for clues to the moon's origin.

The survey said Friday that the device, an X-ray spectrometer, will he used to analyze moon samples brought back by Apollo astronauts and a wide variety of materials found on Earth.

Harry Rose, a survey chemist, described the detector's special virtues.

"All elements," he said, "give off telltale radiations when bombarded by X-rays. But some of the lighter elements-such as boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen--emit such low-energy X-rays that they are absorbed by air. The new detector is enclosed in a very high vacuum, thus allowing these elements to be studied."

The Geological survey has been assigned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study moon specimens brought back by astronauts next year, if the current schedule holds.

This study, Rose said, "will help determine the composition of the lunar surface and gather evidence of the moon's origin."

12 Million Years Ago

Chicago Tribune, May 17, 1968

WASHINGTON - The National Geographic Society said that Dr. Louis S. B. Leakey, famed British anthropologist, has discovered evidence in Kenya that an ancestor of man used a crude stone hammer 12 million years ago. This is 10 million years earlier than it was thought that man first used any tools. Dr. Leakey said the hammer apparently was used to open animal skulls and bones.

Saucer-Controlled Car

Ithaca (N. Y.) Journal, Monday, May 27, 1968

NORTH LANSING-This story of Mrs. Rita Malley of Lansingville, who believes her car was "controlled" by an. Unidentified Flying Saucer last Dec. 12. is featured in the July issue of Science

AUGUST, 1968 13

and Mechanics. The article, which includes several pictures, was written by aerospace writer, Loyd Mallan after a week's visit to the Ithaca area investigating UFO reports.

Mrs. Malley, 24, said an object hovering at a height of ' probably three or four telephone-pole lengths . . . extended a beam of light from underneath and it just completely took right over the control of my car" not far from North Laming on Rte. 34.

Mrs. Malley said her car stopped when the UFO did. "Suddenly I realized that I was moving sideways. The thing was taking me off the road. I twisted and turned the steering wheel in the opposite direction, but no matter what I did - I even tried using the brakes to stop-any car . . . moved ... to the shoulder of the road.

She said her car, which has automatic gear-shift, was in drive, its motor "below an idle," and its lights almost off. Nothing happened when she tried to start the motor.

Mrs. Malley said she began to hear a hum, similar to that of a television antenna vibrating in the wind. When the hum stopped, voices bean, like a chorus speaking in unison in somewhat broken English.

They told her about a fatal accident involving a casual acquaintance. The nest day, the facts she had received were confirmed. Mrs. Valley described the object as 55 or 60 feet in diameter, round, with a dome on top. It had circles of red and green lights but mainly glowed white.

After a period which she estimated at six or seven minutes, her car began to move back onto the road and towards South Lansing. Some three miles later, she was again in control of her own vehicle.

Mallan, calling himself a "skeptic when it comes to flying saucers," said he observed a UFO while in Ithaca.

——— ♦ ———

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

STUDY OF MANKIND

From Kansas City (Mo.) Star, 5/26/68

The noise of demonstrations on a few campuses may get a share of attention, but the chief academic activity at this season is the traditional ritual of commencement.

14 UNDERSTANDING

On days in late May and early June, the graduates assemble in robes of ancient significance. And college presidents and honored guests address them in words that young people, going forth to new adventures, have heard for generations. The occasions, and the speeches, bring to mind an earlier day, when the chief purpose of college was to provide a liberal education. For these are distillations of human experience, addressed to the aspirations of men and women as human beings, and drawn from the shared wisdom and inspiration of mankind.

This is the core of the occasion. Only afterward is attention turned to the specialists and their advanced degrees. But in the classroom, it is the other way around, a group of distinguished educators complain in a recently published collection of essays. 'Higher Education and Modern Democracy."

These educators contend that the unrest in the universities is due, at least in part, to the decline in liberal education. Irving Kristol defines liberal education as exploring "the great ideas of the past as the source of living possibilities for students and teachers alike." The teacher devoted to this sort of education is rather like the family physician, who must know the whole field of medicine and yet receives a minimum of academic attention and professional status.

One of the essayists, Allan Bloom of Cornell, argues that too many students find "a great disproportion between what they study and the lives they wish to lead." and he continues:

"This is not a particularly disturbing situation for the great majority of young people who are content to make careers and do not feel called upon to reflect generally- about themselves or the whole of society. But for that most interesting few who can become leaders, pathfinders and revolutionaries, this is a great source of dissatisfaction."

Many years ago, Alexander Pope said "The proper study of mankind is man."

Pope is old hat these days, or so many believe. Yet every day produces new evidence that men are failing not in their understanding of the most minute particles or the most remote stars, but in their understanding of mankind. It is easier to teach a student the verities of science than to make him understand the subtleties of human nature. This last takes time, and close association with other

AUGUST, 1968 15

humans; especially a give-and-take exposure to the wisdom of a good teacher-the sort who seeks to fill an empty head as eagerly as nature rushes to fill a vacuum.

Many of the great universities are seeking ways to restore an intimate teacher-student relationship. Perhaps they can start by rebuilding liberal education, with its emphasis on the great ideas assembled in the literature and history of Mankind. For here are keys to human understanding beyond the ken of science.

——— ♦ ———

book reviews

Many Lifetimes

(Many Lifetimes: A Book About Reincarnation, Denys Kelsey and Joan Grant, Doubleday & Co., Inc., New York, N.Y. $4.95).

Many Lifetimes, a book about reincarnation, is co-authored by Joan Grant (a born psychic and sensitive) and Denys Kelsey (a practicing psychiatrist) whose work and lives were brought together in 1958.

Joan Grant was born in London in 1907. Even in childhood she had extra-sensory- abilities and as she grew older began to recall disjointed episodes from seven previous lives, four as male, three as female. By the time she was 29 Joan began to relive her past life experiences in detail and continuity rather than merely spontaneously. Eventually the random episodes from the past were coordinated and seven posthumous autobiographies were published. These included such titles as Eyes of Horus, Lord of the Horizon, Egyptian lives; Scarlet Fish and Redskin Morning, North American lives and Return to Elysian, a Greek lifetime.

16 UNDERSTANDING

After the publication of these books Joan Grant did not pursue the subject of reincarnation significantly until her meeting with Denys Kelsey.

Denys Kelsey, a practicing psychiatrist, through his clinical experiences was led to a belief in reincarnation tell years before his meeting with Joan Grant. His use of hypno-regression therapy for mental and emotional illnesses led him far a field from orthodox theory and he concluded with an ''intellectual certainty that in a human being there is a component that is not physical." He then came to the realization that there was something that could reincarnate. Regression into last lives often served to clear up psychological problems of today.

Chapters of the book are written alternately by Joan Grant and Denys Kelsey and are replete with fascinating case histories as well as factual and logical interpretations of the situations presented. "Some of the case studies described rank among the most extraordinary in the history of psycho-therapeutic medicine." Chapter title suggest the contents: Far Memory; the Supra-Physical Body; Cultivation of the Senses; Age of Perception: and Parenthood, as well as others.

If you are interested in the possibility of reincarnation, in the theory that we live many lifetimes with different personalities, you, like the reviewer, may not be able to put down the book until you have turned all 275 pages

——— ♦ ———

MIND STRETCHERS

Some months ago "The Futurist," organ of the World Future Society, offered an imaginative and mind stretching concept: redecorating the universe. Proposed was the placement of sculptures in orbit to make men feel more at home during long voyages through lonely space. The thought was expressed that these extra-terrestrial art-forms, entirely new expressions of artistic creativity, could conceivably serve as a means of communication with alien beings.

Now, in a news item in the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel of June 20th, is another mind stretching thought. Writes Dick Young: "Monuments or `calling cards' left by extra-terrestrial visitors in ages past would have been stashed away in special points in

AUGUST, 1968 17

space and may be there awaiting discovery by space-roving men." E. Fedorov, a Russian scientist, notes that theories of earth visitations in the past by other intelligent beings is regarded very cautiously. But, scientific belief points to intelligent life on other worlds and so it seems logical that of the vast number of civilizations possible, some may have advanced much further than the peoples of earth.

"And if these visits took place before life emerged as we know it now, is there a possibility that some trace: of these space visitors could have survived?"

Fedorov contends that such visitors would not have left "monuments" on earth or buried beneath the earth, because protection against earth changes-sea and mountain building--would not have been possible. Where then to place the record of their passage if it was to be found later

Fedorov theorizes the best place it could have been left for future discovery by intelligent beings would have been in "special orbits" or "special points in space." The special orbit would be a synchronous or stationary perch in the place of the earth's equator. There are also other such "special points" where a monument or calling card could be left with a guarantee that it would remain there practically forever.

Joseph La Grange, a French mathematician, proved in the late 18th century that there are libration points in the Earth-Moon and Sun relationships. "In a revolving system of celestial bodies," says Fedorov, "there exist five libration points at which the forces acting upon a traveling material body are in mutual equilibrium ... As soon as a chunk of matter moves away from these points, forces arise to bring it back to the libration point."

Intelligent visitors might choose such points in the earth-Moon system, or even safer places in the Sun-Earth, or Sun-Jupiter systems.

Suppose extra-terrestrials have placed at these points of equilibrium evidence of their visitations, what shall we find-space sculptures, perhaps?

——— ♦ ———

When a prejudiced man thinks, he just rearranges his thoughts.

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Poet’s corner

Design for Bridging Gaps

Blast down and bind to earth for anchorage,

Plant deep the piers and raise the towers hill,

Between shore and tower, and tower and tower and shore

Extend the catwalks for the men of iron.

With mile on mile of wire spin the strand,

With strand on strand consolidate the cable.

Release suspenders, hoist and lock in place

Floor panels, pour and smooth the concrete road.

Now sweep impedimenta to the clear,

Now dedicate with due solemnity,

Now snip the ribbon, free the human tide

To gush across this mighty arch of triumph.

O fertile minds whose resources and zeal

Can forge a way of linking place to place,

Conceive the blueprint for another span-

To bridge the gap dividing man from man!

A. D. Flaumenhaft

AUGUST, 1968 19

bulletin board

Annual Giant Rock Convention

It will be necessary to pack your near and your car earlier this year to take in the Annual Spacecraft Convention held at the Giant Rook Airport, Yucca Valley, Calif.

George Van Tassel, who sponsors this popular event, has announced that the Convention will he held the weekend of Sept. 28-29. While no speaker schedule is yet available, last experience indicates that you will learn much of interest not only from the platform but from the friends you will meet at ground level.

See you there, September 28th and 29th.

Topeka Unit 66

Mr. Joe D. Bicking, who has for the past two years been deeply involved in UFO research, is the recently elected President of Unit 66, Topeka, Kansas. Congratulations!

If you missed notification of the interesting meeting with Antony Brook of London, in May, please write to Mr. Bicking (P.O. Box 5073, Topeka, Vans.) to be put on the mailing list for future meeting notices. An active year for Unit 66 is planned.

Special Meeting

Although the Merlin (Ore.) Unit 1 planned no summer meetings

20 UNDERSTANDING

a visitor to the area from Kansas City called for a special Home Group Meeting.

On July 10th Mr. E. L. Bates of Kansas City spoke to the group on the philosophy and practice of "Lawsonomy."

Meeting Dates

With so many Units inactive during the summer months we suggest that September meetings be announced through the Bulletin Board of this magazine. Many subscriber, in your area may not be on your mailing list as yet and would be interested in attending your meetings.

Copy for the, September issue should reach Merlin no later than August 5th.

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Yet we, who are borne on one dark grain of dust

Around one indistinguishable spark

Of star dust, lost in one lost feather of light

Can, by the strength of our own

throught, ascend

Through universe after universe.

- Alfred Noyes

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CHECK-THE PYRAMID, 1122 North Dixie, Lake Worth, Fla. 33460, for Metaphysical Study Classes and Lectures. Phone: 965-4639. YOUR NEW AGE PRIMER from Flying Saucers as "signs" to mystery teachings of Life Hereafter. Send $1.00 to Dave Bent, Box 766, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. 33302.

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