CONTENTS

For November, 1963

 

 

PREPARING FOR SPACE TRAVEL   ..........................................................................             2

world report   ...........................................................................................................             5

CONVENTION AT   ...........................................................................................................             9

GIANT ROCK   ...................................................................................................................             10

REPORT ON CALIF. STATE FAIR PROJECT   .........................................................             11

FANTASTIC ESP EXPERIMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA   ............................................             13

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR   .........................................................................................             15

Poet’s corner   ..........................................................................................................             16

bulletin board   ........................................................................................................             17

 

——— ♦ ———

 

THE STAFF

 

EDITOR ........................................................................................... Dr. DANIEL W. FRY

asst. editor .............................................................................   cleve twitchell

circulation manager ...........................................................  edna basmajian

staff artist ...................................................................................  gus tanasale

——— ♦ ———

 

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

SINGLE COPIES 25c • ONE YEAR (12 ISSUES) $2.50

 

Published monthly by ‘Understanding,’ a non-profit organization

 

ADDRESS ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO

UNDERSTANDING, P.O. BOX 76, MERLIN, OREGON 97532

 

——— ♦ ———

 

UNDERSTANDING

VOLUME VIII                               NOVEMBER, 1963                                   NUMBER 11

Dedicated to the propagation of a better understanding among all the peoples of the earth, and of those who are not of earth.

 

PREPARING FOR SPACE TRAVEL

During the month of September it was our privilege to speak to the entire faculty of two school districts in the southern part of Oregon, in Medford and Ashland. The lecture contained a number of points that we would like to express in this month's editorial, but inevitably when one attempts to transcribe a lecture, he finds that it is about 10 times too long to be suitable for use in print. Therefore we shall succumb to making use of news clippings that appeared in the Medford Mail Tribune, the daily newspaper in Medford, Oregon, following our talks. They follow:

" `There are students in our high schools today who will stand upon the surface of Mars and Venus before they are 30,' said Daniel W. Fry, former missile engineering executive, in a talk for the teachers of Medford and Ashland schools yesterday.

" 'We must do everything possible to prepare this generation for what it is going to do,' he told the teachers. 'We are going out into space, and we must be prepared for what we will find there.'

"Fry went on to voice the opinion that earth beings will find intelligent life on other planets. `It is statistically certain,' he

2                                                    UNDERSTANDING

said, discussing estimates made earlier this year by a Harvard astronomer, `that at least one million planets in our galaxy attained the ability to travel in space two million years ago.'

"The speaker addressed a group of 500 at Hedrick Junior High school yesterday morning for an hour, and then spoke for two and-a-half hours for 140 Ashland teachers at Ashland Junior High school in the afternoon.

"Specifically, he urged the teaching personnel to prepare today's generation for going out into space by teaching them to keep an open mind, submerge their egos and increase their scope of reality.

" 'The human ego is the greatest obstacle to human learning,' Fry remarked. `Up to now we've stayed in our own back yard, and we've been able to beat ourselves on our chests and think how important we are. But now we're getting ready to go out into other people's back yards, and we'd better prepare for it.'

" `We once thought we were the center of the universe,' he explained. `Then our ego took a blow when we discovered that, the earth merely revolves around the sun.

" `Then our ego took another blow when we found that the sun is merely an insignificant star in a galaxy that has around 100 billion stars, and still another blow when we found that our galaxy is merely one of many galaxies, at least 10 billion of them known today.'

" `The human race at that point still took comfort in believing that it was unique in the universe, but then astronomers began to discover that planets are a common occurrence throughout creation,' Fry said.

"Referring to the Harvard astronomer's statistics on extraterrestrial life, he said the most pessimistic estimates are that only one star out of 10 has planets, but that. each solar system has an average of 10 planets. Therefore if we assume there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, then there are about 100 billion planets,' he explained.

"Next, he said the most pessimistic estimates concerning which planets have conditions for life are one in 100, which would leave one billion planets in the galaxy with such conditions.

"Then, he asked the audiences to assume that only one out of

NOVEMBER, 1963                    3

every 10 such planets with suitable conditions had actually developed life, which would still leave 100 million with life.

"Finally, assuming that only one out of 100 of these had passed the earth's present level of development, there would be one million planets with space craft engaged in travel.

" `Life develops in the center of a galaxy first, and earth is located on the outer reaches of its galaxy,' he said, explaining why he thought numerous civilizations in the Milky Way had achieved space travel as many as two million years ago.

"One member of the audience at Ashland asked Fry how beings would traverse the immense distances in space, to which he replied that he thought there was no limit to the speed with which men can learn to travel.

"`The theory of relativity does not say that man cannot travel faster than the speed of light,' he remarked. `It merely says that no one on earth can ever see him do it.'

"In other portions of his talks, Fry called the rocket concept outmoded and compared it to propelling a rowboat across a lake by throwing stones out the rear. `The problem is to propel the boat plus all the stones that remain to be thrown,' he pointed out.

" 'No intelligent man would use this concept if he were aware of other possibilities.'

Referring to `other possibilities' in regard to space travel, he predicted that the United States will within eight years develop craft that use the gravitational field mechanism method of propulsion. These craft will literally fall off the earth by reversing the path of gravity that holds everything to earth, he predicted.

"He said the only reason such craft have not been developed before is that earth men have only recently come to realize that such propulsion is possible.

" 'Throughout history, man's stumbling block has been his refusal to recognize that something is possible,' Fry said. `Once he recognizes that something is possible, it isn't long before he actually does it.'

Recognizing that things are possible was one of the points Fry appeared to be getting at when he urged teachers to enlarge the scope of their student's concept of reality.

"`Reality doesn't exist at all,' he said. `It is infinite. People

4                                                    UNDERSTANDING

just draw a circle around what they consider to be, real, and all that circle shows is the level of consciousness they have reached.' " A few days after the above article was published, a columnist in the Mail Tribune added these comments:

"There were a number of interesting points that we were unable to squeeze into last week's story of the talks Daniel Fry, the former missile engineering executive now of Merlin, gave for the teachers of the Medford and Ashland districts.

"The news story led off with Fry's prediction that there are students in high school today who will walk on the surface of Mars and Venus before they are 30, but we didn't have `space' to go through the somewhat complicated explanation of how he arrived at this prediction ...

Fry thinks that present-day scientific development, is traveling upward on a rapidly rising curve. Developments made during the past 10 years equal those made in the previous 100, he argues, and those made in the previous 100 equaled what was accomplished in the preceding 1,000 years, and so forth. `Some anthropologists estimate that it took one million years for man to progress from the stone ax to the bow and arrow,' he said. `An engineer today could do it in 30 minutes, or in an afternoon at the most.'

Applying this curve theory to the subject of landing men on Mars and Venus, he looks at it this way: `Ten years ago we thought we could do it in about 200 years. Eight years ago we thought that perhaps we could do it in 100. Five years ago the estimate dropped to around 50.' And so on. That is why Fry thinks earth man will land on Mars and Venus in about 10 years.

" `The Saturn rocket, which has the thrust to reach Mars and Venus, has been tested with results that exceeded expectations, ' he said. `And we have put men into orbit. If we weren't as concerned about the safety of our astronauts as we are, we might be able to put one on Mars or Venus within one year,'

"Looking at scientific development in general, he made the remark that, when Jules Verne wrote his science-fiction books, he was writing to the limit of the imagination of that era. `Just about everything that, Jules Verne imagined then has come to pass, so extrapolating the same situation upward on the curve, we can predict that everything within man's imagination today will become

NOVEMBER, 1963                    5

reality within perhaps as little as 20 years.' That's quite a statement, but he holds to it.

"This curve theory is one explanation; Fry gives when people ask him how man can possibly hope to travel to planets and star systems that are hundreds, thousands and millions of light years away from earth. He sees no reason why man cannot learn to travel at tremendous speeds, well in excess of the speed of light.. .

"At one time, earthlings believed that no man could travel as fast as 60 miles per hour without being crushed by the atmospheric pressure, he points out. Today, astronauts go 18,000 miles per hour when in orbit,

"In the talk at Medford, Fry stayed away from his controversial story in which he states that he took a ride in a spacecraft from another planet while employed at White Sands Proving Ground, N. M., in 1950. But after repeating the same talk at Ashland and answering a half hour's worth of questions, he was asked by Superintendent Stanley Jobe to tell the audience his White Sands story. (It appeared in the Mail Tribune Jan. 6, 1963). He told it in an hour with quite a bit of sincerity. The teachers didn't exactly all swallow it, but they appeared to find it difficult to disbelieve. . . "

——— ♦ ———

world report

Flying Saucers Seen Over California

(From San Jose, Calif., News, Sept. 26, 1963)

SUNNYVALE-Three public safety officers and several citizens Wednesday sighted a strange flying object in the sky over Sunnyvale.

Reports said the object passed over Sunnyvale sometime between 4 and 4:30 a.m. Air Force radar and Moffett Field observers failed to spot it.

Public safety officers Galen Anderson, Ron Girrard and Lt. John Haag described the object as a round disc, more solid in one part than in others, with a light that faded in and out.

Another report by Mike Taylor, 19, of 1340 Mastic St., San Jose,

6                                                    UNDERSTANDING

said the object was "like a giant squid or jelly fish, shooting out a trail of gas." Taylor spotted it while driving through downtown Sunnyvale.

Other persons described the object as "moon-shaped," "roughly spherical" and "like a blimp, but bigger."

The reports indicated the object was heading southwest toward Los Altos when it disappeared from view. Officials had no explanation for the phenomenon.

Russians Report Loch Ness Type Monster

(From United Press International, Sept. 30, 1963)

MOSCOW The Soviet Union has its own sea monster with a taste for hunting dogs, Radio Moscow reported today.

The "dragon like creature" lives in Siberia's Lake Labynkyr and has frequently been seen by local inhabitants."

"On one occasion the monster swallowed a hunter's dog," the broadcaster, a student of biology at. Moscow State University said. He cited monster sightings in the west-including one off Brazil and in Loch Ness-and said an expedition had gone to Lake Labynkyr and will return next month.

The lake is 220 miles north of the port of Okhotsk on the Sea of Ohkotsk, east of Alaska.

Bright Object In Sky Excites Londoners

(From Reuters News Service, Aug. 2, 1963)

LONDON-Scores of people telephoned the air ministry and the BBC Thursday night to report a mysterious triangular-shaped object in the sky over London.

An air ministry spokesman said he could give no explanation for the object, reported for the second night in succession.

One man described it as close to the North Star and "brighter than the brightest planet."

Ice Chunk May Be From Outer Space

(From United Press International, Sept. 8, 1963)

MOSCOW-An 11-pound chunk of ice which fell on nearby Domodedovo a few days ago might have come from space, the Soviet news agency Tass said Saturday.

"There are grounds to believe that this ice is of space origin,"

NOVEMBER, 1963                    7

Tars said. "Science, it is true, does not know any precedent. But theoretically a meteor body of ice can exist in space."

It said astronomers, geochemists, glaciologists and other specialists are trying to solve the mystery of the chunk of ice, which weighed about 11 pounds and splintered on hitting the earth.

They believe "it is absolutely impossible for the ice that fell in Domodedovo to be of atmospheric origin; clear sunny weather prevailed on that day in that area," Tass said. "The hypothesis that this ice fell off a plane flying at a great height is also rejected."

Big Fish Survives Bombs and Bullets

(From United Press International, Aug. 31, 1963)

SAIGON-Hundreds of Vietnamese Buddhists staged a sort of pilgrimage today to a pond near a village north of Saigon where a - big fish reportedly has survived bullets and bombs-resisting all attempts by government troops to kill it.

The Buddhists, engaged in a bitter dispute with the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, regard the apparent invincibility of the fish as "Miraculous."

The government is trying to disprove the fish's "miraculous qualities," by killing it but so far has proved just the opposite, Buddhist leaders say.

Buddhist leaders said the fish was first seen in the pond about two months ago-at the time when the Buddhist-government dispute started. Some Buddhists were reported to regard the fish as a re-incarnated disciple.

Troops, according to Buddhist sources, fired bullets from automatic weapons into the pond, lured it to the surface and tossed a couple of hand grenades into the water. Later, they set off mines.

"They blew up and killed everything in that pond except the fish," one source reported. "That fish just kept swimming." Vietnamese Buddhists, regarding the pond as a shrine, have been flocking to its shores and filling small jars with water they believe to be sacred. The government printed an item in the village newspaper, warning that many persons had died from drinking the pond water.

The pond is located 30 miles west of Danang in an area where 80 per cent of the population is Buddhist.

8                                                    UNDERSTANDING

Giant Tracks Found Along River

(From The Oregon Journal, Portland, Ore., Aug. 8, 1963)

WOODLAND, Wash.-Is one of the Hairy Apes of Mt. St.. Helens Lurking in the thickets along the lower Lewis River?

The folks who live down there think so, and they all are looking over their shoulders whenever they go outside these days.

The tracks of a "monster" or whatever, found on the riverbank, Sunday by 11-year-old Jimmie Erion, his brother and his father, Charlie Erion, really convinced them.

The tracks are 16 to 18 inches long and 8 inches wide. They show that whatever made them took 4 to 6-foot strides. Residents inspecting the tracks estimate that "the thing" weighed about 1,000 pounds.

A few days before the monster footprints were found, a. Portland couple fishing in a boat on the river had seen a lumbering 10-foot-tall beige-colored monster in the brush along the river. They said it lumbered off into a thicket as they watched.

Erion, a logger who owns a 320-acre cattle and truck-garden ranch on the Lewis River, was walking with his sons Sunday when they discovered the tracks. They quickly summoned Arland Brawner, Portland businessman, visiting in the area, and a boom man who operates the log dump nearby.

The boom man, who took pictures of the tracks, asked that his name not be used because he was afraid he would be kidded about "seeing things." He said he was sure the prints were not a fake.

"It would have been impossible for anyone to have gotten to the place to make the tracks unless he did it with a helicopter," he declared.

The tide is about 4 feet in the Lewis River where the tracks were found. The prints were clearly visible in the sand and mud below the tide line. There were no human tracks or signs of a boat near them, the boom man pointed out. The tracks circled out of the river, onto a road and then led back to the water.

The boom man said he had no idea what made the tracks, except that "they are human, only way too big."

The area surrounding the place where the prints were found is a tangle of brush for miles and would make an ideal hiding place for anything that wanted to stay in the wilds, he said.

NOVEMBER, 1963                    9

"Horse Fish" Washed Ashore On Island

(From Associated Press, Sept. 30, 1963)

OAK HARBOR, Wash.-A body believed to be that of an oar fish was washed up on Whidbey Island just west of here Sunday. Witnesses said it was about 25 feet long and had a thick hide with spots from which hair was growing. It had a head like a horse, mane and all.

A similarly described body was washed up at Malibu Beach, Calif. Walters, an ichthyologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said it was an oar fish-a creature usually found only at depths of more than 600 feet.

Group Will Study Ball Lightning Phenomena

(From Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1963)

Those little balls of colored lightning that, float along the ground, come into houses through open windows and disappear up chimneys will be studied by Pasadena scientists with a grant from the Office of Naval Research.

Called "ball lightning," the phenomena have been seen by thousands of people but have baffled science for decades. Some physicists even say they do not exist at all, but are merely after-images caused by bright flashes of lightning.

Investigation of the ball lightning will be done at the Rocket Power Corp. research laboratories, 3016 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. Stanley Singer and Nak Goo Kim, of the Rocket Power lab, will try to reproduce ball lightning in the laboratory.

The balls of lightning have been reported countless times, Singer said, but seldom by witnesses who are scientifically qualified to analyze what they saw. Most common reports are of a luminous ball as much as 2 ft. across. Colors reported include blue, white, yellow, orange and red. The balls may stay in sight several minutes.

Singer said ball lightning has been photographed and has often been seen in homes and schoolrooms after coming in through an open door or window.

In 1938 the pilot of a British airplane saw a glowing ball of lightning enter the cockpit of his ship and explode. Seconds later a second ball appeared, singed his hair and eyebrows, then bounced into the back of the plane and exploded.

Singer said the balls often make a hissing sound or loud report when they disappear. Many people have reported a pungent odor.

10                                                  UNDERSTANDING

CONVENTION AT

About 2,000 persons attended this year's spacecraft convention at George Van Tassel's Giant Rock Airport. Once again Understanding had a table at the convention. Among those manning it were, left to right, Edna Basmajian, circulation manager of Understanding magazine; K. Campbell, treasurer; Flo Twitchell, corresponding secretary, and Rose Wilson of Grants Pass, Ore.

 

Dan Fry, president of Understanding, addressed the crowd from the speakers' stand high up on the rock.

NOVEMBER, 1963                    11

GIANT ROCK

Talking with Dan Fry at the convention were Orfeo Angelucci, left, author of "Secret of the Saucers" and "Son of the Sun," and Art Aho, center, who also lectured.

One of George Van Tassel's principal projects at Giant Rock is this Integraton, the purpose of which is explained by the sign.

12                                                  UNDERSTANDING

REPORT ON CALIF. STATE FAIR PROJECT

Understanding Unit No. 46 of Sacramento, Calif., has been prevailed upon from several directions to make a detailed report on the State Fair project which has just come to a close. This big undertaking was supported by the many units across the nation, as well as Sweden and British Columbia.

The fact we are an international organization added to the amazement of the many thousands who visited the `Booth' and viewed the slides which were being shown for twelve consecutive hours each day for thirteen days.

The `Booth' was located in the Educational Bldg. and we were fortunate in getting double space which turned out to be phenomenal as far as being adequate with the possibilities of being converted into a dark room for the slides with ample space for thirty chairs. This building is covered with an open-air roof and would have been anything but suitable had not our president, Steele Goodman, Dick Kverno and Wendell Tarr applied their talents with the hammer and saw to eliminate all extreme light, exposure from above as well as the plywood wall to the front, size 13 x 18 ft. This space was utilized for a display of Flying 'Saucers, and some of the group designed three huge spacecraft, each 6 ft. in diameter. These were black with silver hi-lights and were very effective in catching the eye of those who are flying saucer-minded!

The large counter at the front of the entrance room afforded us ample space to greet the public and pass out all literature which had been prepared in advance and pertained to Understanding, Inc. since the date of its inception. Across the front of this counter was printed in large gold letters: UNDERSTANDING. On the second day we noted that several letters in the center had been removed by pranksters, leaving the word to read: UNDERST…DING. Naturally, this gave an enigmatic atmosphere to our `Booth' but only for a short time as these letters were replaced the following morning

In addition to the literature on Understanding, Inc., we handed out hundreds of circulars for the convention being sponsored by the Oakland and San Francisco Units on Nov. 2nd and 3rd. We also passed out 10,000 circulars on the lecture of George Adamski

NOVEMBER, 1963                    13

which not only publicized his appearance in Sacramento for the 15th but also gave the dates of his lectures in San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco on the 12th, 13th and 14th and we understand it has reaped its reward.

We also took advantage of this golden opportunity by asking those who were wishing to be notified of future lectures to sign the register. Many responded and we now have approximately 400 names to add to our mailing list as well as many to mail to San Francisco and Oakland.

Each day seemed to bring forth a more enthusiastic crowd to view the slides and we felt we were progressing 100% until we approached the eighth day and discovered the tape recorder would have to be repaired as we kept a tape for the narration, running simultaneously with the projector. While this meant we could not show slides for a period of several hours we still continued to hand out literature. During this period of being bogged-down who should appear on the scene but, the National President. . . traveling incognito, but the eagle eye of Durward Fairfield caught the disguise approach and ushered Dr. Dan Fry into the `Booth.' This visit happened at the psychological time as our supply of Understanding magazines was completely exhausted. Dr. Fry made a hurried trip to southern California and brought back another supply.

We wish to extend our appreciation and gratitude to the many units across the nation for their contributions and prayers, for we are aware this project could not have materialized were it not for your support!

We still have some money in the fund for next year and the majority of our small nucleus feel we should attempt this project again in 1964. However, we have recently learned the State Fair officials have established a seventeen day session as their goal. Perhaps we shall have grown stronger by that time, both physically and spiritually. In any case, with the aid of other units we will not hesitate.

Should there be other units wishing to sponsor this same type project ... please contact us for support and advice as we will lend you wholehearted assistance in every way possible.

-Understanding Unit No. 46

Sacramento, Calif.

14                                                  UNDERSTANDING

FANTASTIC ESP EXPERIMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

(From Sunday Times, South Africa, Sept. 1, 1963)

A fantastic series of experiments in long-distance extra-sensory perception (ESP) is being carried out in South Africa-and the results so far are remarkable.

A Cape Town Hollander, an engineer, Mr. W. van Vuurde, has been trying for hundreds of nights to wake up at a time selected by random by Dr. Arthur Bleksley, head of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Witwatersrand.

Mr. Van Vuurde, a 52-year-old bachelor, has succeeded more often than is mathematically probable-in other words, he has beaten the "bookmaker's odds" in an experiment which has fascinated Professor J. B. Rhine, the great authority on ESP at Duke University in the United States.

The experiments will soon enter a new phase, for Dr. Bleksley flew to Cape Town last week and arranged to meet Mr. Van Vuurde. Dr. Bleksley had deliberately refrained before from getting to know Mr. Van Vuurde intimately to eliminate the chance of telepathy because of a close friendship.

Meanwhile the mystery is what mental aptitude exists which can trigger a man in Cape Town to wake at a time, entirely unknown to him, indicated on a clock hidden in a locked cupboard 900 miles away.

A broken alarm clock in his office at the main block at Wits., Dr. Bleksley told me, may become one of the most famous clocks in history-for this long-distance ESP during sleep experiment has no parallel.

Three years ago Dr. Bleksley received a letter from Mr. Van Vuurde detailing the results of an experiment he had carried out under home-testing, and therefore unscientific conditions. Mr. Van Vuurde had become convinced from experience that he was able to wake at a time he chose before going to sleep.

He wondered whether there was a reasonably precise time-keeping mechanism operating below the level of the conscious, like a built-in alarm clock in his brain-or whether some form of ESP was involved.

He devised an experiment in which he set the hands of a clock to

NOVEMBER, 1963                    15

a time target of which he was not consciously aware. He put the clock, unseen, in a closed box next to his bed. Before going to sleep he tried to instruct his subconscious mind to wake him up at the unknown time indicated on the clock face.

When he woke during the night he noted the time, and next morning compared this with the time indicated on the hidden clock. The results were so promising that he wrote to Dr. Bleksley. Dr. Bleksley thought the results "so remarkable as to border on the fantastic."

He decided to test this "confident and enthusiastic percipient" by setting target times daily which Mr. Van Vuurde could not possibly know.

Mr. Van Vuurde sent Dr. Bleksley a broken alarm clock and then went off on a holiday to Holland. For 135 nights, as Mr. Van Vuurde sailed to Holland and later spent his vacation in Europe, the experiment provided just enough positive evidence that the two men were not wasting their time-'but was not really significant.

Then Mr. Van Vuurde visited Johannesburg and met Dr. Bleksley for the first time.

He suggested that as they had met, his scores might be better. Dr. Bleksley then set up a more complicated second experiment consisting of 150 nightly trials.

He had not got in touch with Mr. Van Vuurde at all during the first experiment to say how he was doing, nor did he tell Mr. Van Vuurde his score until after 100 nights of the second phase of tests; then he did give Mr. Van Vuurde the results up to that stage-to maintain his enthusiasm.

Dr. Bleksley set up target times on the broken alarm clock every day shortly after arriving in his office. He determined the times by arranging a series of completely random numbers-and then electronically turned even those random numbers topsy-turvy.

The effect was that all sorts of odd times were set on the broken alarm clock, carefully locked away in a cupboard in Dr. Bleksley's room. Dr. Bleksley kept the key himself.

In Cape Town Mr. Van Vuurde set his own alarm clock every night, put it in a box where he could not see it, and every time he woke pulled a string that stopped the clock. Next morning he recorded the time at which it had stopped.

16                                                  UNDERSTANDING

He told himself: "Look at that clock (subconsciously) when the times correspond and wake me then."

As Series Two Test went on, Dr. Bleksley changed the whole experiment. First he set up the target time on the clock every day. Then he set the clock every day at 9.49 p.m.-an unlikely hour for Mr. Van Vuurde to be asleep-and merely wrote down the target times.

Then he made further variations by working out all the target times in a single session, not setting them on the clock until later. The times on which Dr. Bleksley worked were assumed to be between midnight and 7.59 a.m. The period covered 480 minutes. The odds against Mr. Van Vuurde being bang on the minute were thus 480 to 1. In fact, in 74 trials using the clock, he was dead right three times-more than 18 times as often as would be expected on a basis of chance.

The odds against his being on a "one-minute error hit" were 244 to 1.

In fact, Mr. Van Vuurde was as close as this five times in the 74 clock trials-more than 15 times as often as would be expected if pure chance were operating.

His "total hits"-dead right or within a minute either way were thus eight, in 74, or better than 1 in 10-instead of the mathematical odds of one in 160.

Dr. Bleksley as a mathematician has calculated the "probabilities" of Mr. Van Vuurde's results as one in one hundred and twenty million.

——— ♦ ———

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Greetings and Best Wishes:

To keep boosting our radio station into the air, it is my wish to contribute a little each month.

Besides our prayers and well-wishes, it requires financial support from all of us to make a community thrive.

Until the time is propitious for my journey to Merlin, it is my intention to serve as a part of Merlin, to the best of my ability. Spreading the word regarding this project is also important. It is good to talk metaphysics, self-development, psychic phenomena, etc.,

NOVEMBER, 1963                    17

but we must remember, on the east coast as well as the west, that momentarily we may be in need of some place to go for food, shelter and clothing. Unless we are endowed with a convenient "sky-hook" which will take us up and out of it. In that case, they are the privileged few, perhaps, who may have friends on other worlds.

With that thought in mind, I leave you in Peace and Love from the Cosmic.

Fraternally,

-Marian E. Nigl,

President, Unit 51,

Sayre, Pa.

Dear Editor,

The editorial of the August issue on the subject of the CIVIL RIGHTS PROBLEM seems to miss the point, apparently attempting to create the impression that discrimination in this country is a vague and doubtful thing.

The editorial equates the misfortune of the colored people with the misfortune of certain segments of the white population of this country. In this connection it should be pointed out that the question is not one of balancing the, fortunes of one group with another, but that it concerns a long history of actual discrimination, supported over many years by police brutality, social pressures, and economic pressures, both public and private, principally in the fields of education, housing, employment, and voter registration. These discriminatory practices have been very real to those affected, and cannot be sloughed off with a few temporizing remarks. They have been a cancer in the society of this country for a long time. An operation is overdue, and pressure that brings it about has been increased by our apathy toward the race problem for many years.

I believe Martin Luther King effectively sums up the problem as it relates to national karma when he states: "The Negro's insistent demand for equality must be approximated, if not totally fulfilled. It is the only hope for the soul of this nation. The negro is the most glaring evidence of the white American's sin and hypocrisy." In view of this it seems right and proper, at this juncture, that we acknowledge past errors and recognize that our mistakes have been born out of tragic ignorance. This a time of repair and cleansing,

18                                                  UNDERSTANDING

a time of new hope and spiritual awakening. This crisis is one of the signs-.one of the tests. Let us hope that we can pass this test and many others we shall be given in these opening hours of the New Age. By recognizing them and learning from our mistakes,

“WE SHALL OVERCOME."

-Arthur Seelye

Spencer, Mass.

——— ♦ ———

Poet’s corner

 

Of Common Heart

How do you answer a child's soft voice,

So pledged to a world of innocent's choice,

"Where does the Kingdom of daisies go,

Eluding the sting of the cold Winter snow?"

How do you savor the Youth at play,

With the basic truths of yesterday,

Now launched in a capsule and offered to Space,

For a measure of theory the eye can not trace?

One prayer of thanksgiving-my boy's delight,

In praising the moon and the mystery of night,

And may with tomorrow each twinkle descend,

Closer to heart in the orbit of men,

Divine be the orbit regardless of Creed,

Crafted from hopes of the Ancestor's seed...

-David Livingstone Lantz

Bloomington, Illinois

NOVEMBER, 1963                    19

bulletin board

 

News of the Units

Two units in California put on lectures during September by George Adamski, author of "Flying Saucers Have Landed," "Inside the Space Ships" and "Flying Saucers Farewell." Adamski spoke for San Francisco Unit #11 on Sept. 13 and for Sacramento Unit #46 on Sept. 15. He showed color motion pictures of spacecraft and spoke of his recent experiences.

Perle and Ed Johnson of Santa Cruz, Calif., Unit #9 are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year.

Dan Fry spoke for the Merlin, Ore., unit #1 during September. His talk, on Friday the 13th to be specific, was entitled "Science and Superstition." Portions of it will be published in a future issue of Understanding.

Inglewood, Calif., Unit #15 heard Dr. Joseph Hansell during September. He spoke on "UFO Research in South America." He discussed many unusual sightings that have been reported in South America but which have never been published in the United States. This November marks the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Inglewood unit.

Gift Subscriptions For Christmas

Once again during the Christmas season, Understanding magazine will offer a reduced rate for gift subscriptions. Between the dates

20                                                  UNDERSTANDING

of Dec. 1 and Dec. 31 you may order as many subscriptions (including your own) as you wish for $2 each. Order from P.O. Box 76, Merlin, Oregon, U.S.A.

Radio Fund Report

Recent Merlin Radio Fund contributors are:

Harriet Foster, Del Mar, Calif.; Peg Ham, Merlin, Oregon; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Johnson, Merlin, Oregon; Merlin Unit, #1; Muriel Shaw Erlewine, Big Bear Lake, Calif.; Unit #15, Calif.; C. E. Twitchell, Medford, Oregon; Mrs. Roy Welton, Grants Pass, Ore.; Revs. Emma and J. R. Kingham, Fresno, Calif.; Col. and Mrs. Harry May, Grants Pass, Ore.; Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Spencer, Somers, Montana; Mrs. Isabel Shearman, Vancouver, B. C., Canada; Mr. John Nunez, Merlin, Ore.; Mrs. Chester Stock, Pasadena, Calif.; Mrs. Marian Nigl, Sayre, Pa.; Mrs. Verna Barker, Riverside, Calif.; Unit #11, San Francisco, Calif.; Mr. Donald Knight, Milford Mich. ; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Maupin, Los Angeles, Calif.

There were also several anonymous donors.

——— ♦ ———

Address manuscripts to Understanding, P.O. Box 76, Merlin Ore. 97532

 

——— ♦ ———

——— ♦ ———