During the past twelve months there has been a constantly growing furor of political investigation, accusation and incrimination, growing out of the badly bungled efforts of five amateur burglars to plant various electronic surveillance devices, popularly known as 'bugs', in the office of the Democratic National Committee.

The attempt itself should not have surprised anyone, since surveillance and espionage of various sorts, have been standard tactics, routinely employed by both major parties, since the beginning of their rivalry for power.

The only truly surprising aspect of the attempt was the very careless and amateurish manner in which it was carried out, especially in view of the fact that three of the burglars were former C.I.A. agents, and one had been employed by both the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. Furthermore two other men, who were not caught in the building but were arrested later for supervising the break-in, turned out to be ex-C.I.A. and F.B.I. men.

With all this Super-Snooper talent working together, it would be reasonable to expect a smooth operation, moving quickly to a successful conclusion. (As "Mission Impossible" always does.) However, when a group of five burglars enter a building, leaving a piece of tape in plain sight over a door lock, where the watchman would be sure to see

2 UNDERSTANDING

it, and when they do not leave even one of the five in a position to ob-serve and report the approach of the police, it seems almost as though the failure of the project, and the arrest of the participants, had been a specific part of the original plan, or had crept into it somewhere along the way.

The leaders of the Republican party managed to keep a fairly tight lid on the affair until well after the national elections. Although considerable odor was leaking out, little hard evidence was available since the accused declined to talk, and they had not yet been brought to trial.

In the meantime, those higher-ups who were involved, spent their time stoutly proclaiming their entire innocence and ignorance of the whole thing, and working as best they could, to cover their tracks and to divorce themselves from those who had been caught. ("As always, if you are apprehended or killed, we will deny all knowledge of your activities.") Does it sound familiar? (Unfortunately, the tape did not self-destruct in five seconds, or even in seven months.)

Still, with seven months time and all the power of government to work on a cover-up, the involved parties should have succeeded fairly well, and probably would have, except for three unforeseen complications. The first was the unusual determination of the press, which had so often been frustrated by the Administration, and especially by the White House Staff, to uncover the facts. The second was the unusual determination of Judge Sirica to do the same thing, by threatening the defendants with the maximum possible sentence unless they told what they knew. The third circumstance was the breakdown of James Mc-Cord who, after facing a possible 40 years in prison and a $40,000 fine, decided the game was not worth the candle, and began to talk.

As the tempo and furor of the several investigations increase, other political peccadilloes are being dredge up, and no one knows how much of the normally undercover actions of government may be aired before the investigations finally lose steam, or become sated with the heads of their victims.

As a friend remarked a few days ago, "There's really nothing surprising about the Watergate mess. Actually, everyone knows what is inside a cesspool, but as long as the cover is on tight, we can ignore it. It is when someone pries off the lid and begins probing around, that we are forced to recognize its existence."

The aftermath of Watergate may bring about some temporary improvement in the honesty of high-level government, but it is not likely that politics, as a whole can be noticeably improved while so much importance

JULY-AUGUST 1973 3

is placed on the art and strategy of being elected, and so little upon the task of serving the people.

LOOKING IN

I stutter. As a result, I find torment where others speak easily and intimidation where others feel no stress at all. I feel frustration, fear, and rage of one fenced from society.

How can these feelings arise? When speech hesitation pulls a listener's smile, a six-year-old child learns to dread ridicule and, hence, his stammer. Already trembling with untamed lips, he may find an innocent childhood stammer is reinforced by fear of its continuation. The child leaps from experience to experience with the pain of a caged rat that hops from its charged floor; and he learns embarrassment in situations that cry of his weakness, his strangeness, his distance from society.

Fear disrupts fluency and, in time, the child labels himself a stutterer. Isolation becomes as much a matter of choice as a decision of others to avoid the strange boy. Shame throttles the desire to speak, and the resulting personality is introverted and despairing.

Say "pillow." Feel the lips come together for the "p" sound and tighten. The lips won't release, so concentrate intently on them. Your face will contort but it's all right as long as the sound comes eventually. Try to release the lips but feel them tighten more. Finally the "p" and "i" pop out, but the "I" continues while the tongue crushes the roof of the mouth. The lungs are emptied and the "I" sounds hoarse but eventually "flow" spurts out. Now look to the listener's perplexed or tittering face and hear him say, "What was that? I couldn't understand you."

After several years of stuttering with the resulting isolation, the child feels society scream that he is different, inferior, perhaps not human at all. Destructive frustration twists into destructive self-hatred.

A physically handicapped man can cover himself with friends to compensate for his deficiency, but a stutterer's tortured personality rarely draws friends. Relationships are destroyed by the stutterer's tattered self-image which cannot casually interact with other people. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young sing of this result, as seen by others: "You expect me to love you when you hate yourself, my friend." Repeated social failure jerks away all confidence, leaving the stutterer in darkness. "Open up. Open up. Baby let me in."

After a decade, he is no better. The stutterer speaks and he listens

4 UNDERSTANDING

for snickering that doesn't come. Adrenaline stings his skin. Anxiety twists every pore and the young man's muscles are tense but he can't do anything with his white fists. He imagines laughter-he doesn't think he's losing his mind, though his stuttering has intensified every day for eleven years. Frustration spins his screaming head and throbs in his fists. His anger seeks expression.

Then he hates. He damns the society he cannot enter, the cheerful strangers who do not know him, the friends to whom he. cannot be close enough, the world that will not stop in its orbit for him. He splatters the hatred of frustration on everything and in the end, it returns to himself.

Siegfried Cannon

THOUGHTS ON HONESTY

Honesty is basic to our relations with our fellowman. People who are never tempted to acts of dishonesty have won this battle in a former life. They do not have to waste energy deciding what is or is not honest behavior; they know. Widespread dishonesty in our society indicates that many of those on earth today have yet to take on this struggle with themselves. Those who are often tempted to be dishonest will find that each one of these temptations is a test, and until they are able to over-come all of them, these tests will continue to come.

In personal codes of honesty, each of us has developed his own standard. What would be improper for one man to do, who understands it is wrong, would not be a transgression for someone else, who does not. Sometimes acts are committed by people who do not know until after-ward that they are wrong. It is what such a man does about it then that counts. If he makes restitution as best he can, this shows he has made a step ahead. It is the intention that is important, and we are held responsible for our acts when we are able to reason sufficiently well to arrive at the truth.

Being honest with ourselves is difficult at times, because we try to disguise the truth when it hurts. There is no way to deal with a problem if we do not acknowledge it. So, if you suspect you are up to such mental tricks, do your best to unmask the villainous truth and take a good look at it. Nine times out of ten, you will think, "Why is that all it is!" and give a sigh of relief. But the tenth time will uncover something that is a dilemma to you because you cannot decide what to do about it. When this happens, think the problem over every night before going to

JULY-AUGUST 1973 5

sleep. Ask God for a true answer to this problem that puzzles and troubles You. The rest of the time try to dismiss it from your mind.

An answer will come eventually, and it will be a good answer, because you have not interposed self between your spirit and the truth. This "good" answer may not be pleasing to the worldly you, but it comes from the immortal you and is wisdom in action.

How many people would lie or steal or cheat if they knew every act was witnessed on the spiritual side of life? There is a world around us, very real though invisible, filled with specific spiritual beings who are always our companions. It is not hard to overcome daily temptations if we remember these unseen companions who are placing those temptations before us. They desire us to pass each test, so we may go on to something more vital to our progress. Of course, honesty out of fear of another's knowledge is compliance from outside pressure. The ideal is when we decide within ourselves to be honest on a basis of what is right and just. It should be generally known in the world that every time a man takes advantage of some one else in any way, that act is a debt held against him until he compensates for it and thus marks it off his record as "paid in full." This debt holds not in one life only, but until paid. The people who think they "get away with it" when they break spiritual laws, will have a sad awakening.

Those rare people who are channels for bringing spiritual truth to this plane are subjected to many temptations. Unless they are strictly honest in what they say, they build for themselves an appalling amount of karma. It is as easy for these psychic people to fool an ordinary per-son as it would be for one with sight to deliberately deceive a blind man. However, when a man with psychic gifts serves God by being scrupulously honest, the value of the service he renders mankind is be-yond calculation. His teachings will furnish enlightenment and inspiration for unborn generations.

"HONESTY HONORS MY SOUL." As a reminder, write these words in letters of fire across the night sky of your life.

Margaret Little

♦ ♦ ♦

The Law is that whatever is persistently held in mind must eventually become manifest in the realm of form. We intensify the working of the law by every word we utter. When we think about a thing we are sending forth the word and it is being condensed into form. We should not speak of an idea unless we want to see it take form.

Grover C. Thornsberry-Unity

6 UNDERSTANDING

LUCKY STONES

As well as their "status," gemstones are accredited with "influences." They are said to have a cosmic value. Most are minerals, being created in the dark interior places of the earth, becoming charged with concentrated energies and vibrations. It is man who discovers and reveals their beauty, fashioning them into exquisite jewels. There have also been periods in history when gemstones were powdered and used medicinally.

From out of the mists of antiquity a great gem-lore has arisen. Is there really any basis for the occult significance of gems?

Cosmology, the concept of the universe as a whole, helps one under-stand how seemingly inanimate objects could come to be accredited with "influence." Man has in him, and surrounding him, many forces he can use. Not all are tangible. Some people are more perceptive, more receptive than others. We all have our inspired moments, great or small, when knowledge comes to us "out of the blue," when we just KNOW.

Man is a fearful creature, ever concerned with self-protection. In pre-historic times, less cluttered with the mechanical paraphernalia of modern living, he was able to study and concentrate more on the natural elements of his environment, he was more open to receive the unseen vibratory forces in the atmosphere. He began to know what he could not see, or was it that knowing meant re-discovering what he had lost by his separateness from other living matter?

Stones as gems have long played a part in the life of people. Perhaps they only began to do so when pretty pebbles were picked up because they attracted. Perhaps just one was carried around because an affinity with it was felt. Perhaps it was pierced and hung from a thong, then others were collected and the first necklace made, and perhaps around the night fires, the changes in living were noted that occurred with the acquisition or loss of the stones.

The custom of wearing jewelry has been handed down from pre-historic people. All men are mixtures of different forces, feel drawn fortunately or unfortunately to certain objects.

Natural stones are charged with rays and vibrations. Each gemstone has its own frequency, its own pattern of vibrations. If we discover one that is in harmony with our own, then we are indeed lucky. It may have the power to re-charge and strengthen us. Among the legends it is difficult sometimes to judge what is for us, but I always think, like primitive people, if the gem is important for more than eye appeal, then we KNOW. If you have acquired a gem and you notice nothing seems to go right when you are wearing it, give it away, try another.

Elsoir Davis

JULY-AUGUST 1973 7

THE AREA OF MUTUAL AGREEMENT

This Is the third of the prize winning essays submitted in our recent contest for proposals to be considered by an International Congress "to determine the areas of mutual agreement in the social sciences." It was written by Georgia Martin, of Chula Vista, California.

RESOLVED;

That it is more beneficial for all Mankind to enjoy Individual freedom from suppression than to have the idealism of a few control their physical destinies by means of economic power.

It is best for Unity of God (or Nature) when there is freedom for Individuals to seek the spirituality of their own natures than it is to stifle innate expression by dogmatic or out-dated modes of religion.

That it is better for all persons possessing a good mental attitude to be freely given opportunities to obtain education in any field to which they are best suited or desire, than it is for those persons to become liabilities in their environment.

It is more advantageous for society-at-large to guide the very young in the ways of Love, than it is to place penalties on them at a later time when their thoughtlessness has produced injury.

That educating the Young in terms of World-Wide Brotherhood is more desirable than to train them in Nationalism, therefore creating selfish attitudes in territorial acquisitions and/or in boundaries, thus inciting reasons for war.

That the uplifting of all Mankind is better for the survival of Earth and all its Creatures by allowing each therein to maintain a life of peace, prosperity and Goodwill, than to effect a cause for conditions inducing suspicion, jealousy, hatred or fear.

It is most conducive for the practice of Goodwill if the accumulated knowledge and new discoveries of Science are shared by all Peoples of Earth than to have any one group be without such (if needed for survival or happiness) thus subjecting them to rapid degradation.

That it is better for a person or a Nation to share the "wealth" than to be ultimately destroyed, by the shear weight of it, along with the rest of the World or worlds.

That it is more Profitable for all, in times of over-population, to practice simplicity in modes of living than to deplete any country's natural resources.

That it is more economical, and provides steps toward Universal Ecology, to work out problems of pollution by International co-operation, than to have separate groups make wasteful trials and errors, thus causing more waste of the Earth's natural resources.

8 UNDERSTANDING

THE NEED FOR WASTE BASKETS

A waste basket is indispensable for all these days, as we live in the Age of Anxiety, in a Century of Fear, when even the music we make is based on fear.

Our waste basket should be used for our physical, mental and spiritual rubbish. We are taller than our waste basket and we can look down upon it, even as we look up to God. We should pack our basket full for burning with our fears, dreads, worries, forebodings, pride, jealousies, false values, bad habits, worn-out ideas, unworthy ambitions, and other negatives.

Our Creator expects us to be free of excess baggage to serve Him and Humanity, to travel lightly in this school of Life. A few things we should always remember: The person is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest; his horizon should be beyond his elbows; he cannot kill time without injuring Eternity; the peacock of today may be the feather duster of tomorrow; and the head never begins to swell until the mind stops growing.

To handle our problems with help from our waste basket first let us put into the basket our upset conditions, our tenseness and nervous-ness, and, then, the thought that our solution must come immediately. Time and silence can bring our answers, together with composure and self-control. "Be still and know that I am God," says the Bible. Divine guidance is always spoken in a still, small voice. Some say they have never found a friend as companionable as silence, solitude, and being alone with God.

It might help if we took a lesson from the Japanese. When the writer was in Japan, she noted the great self-control of the Japanese. They never seemed to be excited nor in a hurry. In fact, their word for "immediately" is taidema, which can mean any time in the next six months. However, their practice of quietness, means in our language, "a taste of coolness, or a refreshing." So, when we have a problem, let us keep cool in all ways possible. After filling our waste baskets with all undesirables, we should relax muscles and untense the mind-drop our problem into a pool of spiritual quietness.

Faith is stronger than fear. If we will sit quietly and meditate prayer-fully for our solution, we will intuitively get answers to all our difficulties through the Inner Light. At other times answers may come during a walk in the country, in a quiet grove, in a park. Einstein used to get answers to his problems (he told me) when he wheeled his little son out in the open air. We can often do likewise, in effect, and get results if we

JULY-AUGUST 1973 9

have used our waste basket well.

Emerson has said, "Do the thing you fear and the death of the fear is certain."

Practicing these techniques and using our waste baskets properly, usually, rather soon, we are given the answer to our problem, and our personal walls of Jericho fall down as they did in the Bible. We can not fail with faith, prayer, gratitude, the virtues, clean living, and putting on the whole armor of God. The Great Spirit of the Universe says, "Fear not, for I Am with thee."

Rev. Dr. Enid S. Smith

THE INTRIGUING SKY OVER PIEDMONT

(This personal report was sent to us by Marvin A. Hilton, who on April 4th wrote: "Last week-end I personally visited Piedmont, Missouri where there is currently a great deal of excitement about UFOs. This article is a result of that trip.")

Come all ye curious to Piedmont and let us gaze into the sky together. The mystery over Piedmont, Missouri, an aptly named village in a re-mote section of the Ozark hills has been beckoning hundreds of people in recent weeks. One motel has erected a sign, "Welcome UFO People." Two notables among the throng have been Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Project Blue Book fame from Northwestern University in Evanston, III. and Hayden Hewes director of the International UFO Bureau.

The excitement began when Piedmont High basketball coach Reg Bone and five players, returning from a game, spotted a brightly lit object about fifty feet above the ground. Bone stopped the car on the shoulder of the highway and everyone jumped out to gape at the silently hovering object. They saw four lights, red, green, amber and white coming from what may have been portholes.

Since this first sighting on February 21 the UFOs have been seen hovering and flying about the area by several people. Police chief Gene Beardon saw it from his yard and described it as flying silently with red, green and white lights. Appliance dealer Leonard Adams saw a light blinking behind a railroad embankment and stopped his car to get a better look. It rose from behind the railroad bank blinking an intense white light. "With each blink it rose another five or ten feet," he said. At about five hundred feet a red and green light began flashing and then it left the scene without a sound.

Mrs. Edith Boatwright, a religious woman living in a quite rural area south of Piedmont, noticed a red light pulsing on her curtains and rose from bed to look. She saw an object passing over the power lines in her

10 UNDERSTANDING

yard. "It had flashing red, green, and amber lights with portholes glowing white. It made a wooshing sound and rose up and passed over a nearby neighbor's house and circled around behind some trees."

Joe King and Ron Miller, college students commuting together from Piedmont saw a mysterious object in daylight hours. Ron Miller de-scribed it as, "a round silvery disc that flew silently and rapidly away." Miller says he doesn't have any idea what the object was. "It flew too fast for a jet, but I know one thing for sure, it was real."

At last report, April 4, the objects were still being seen and a myriad of descriptions have been compiled. Some of the reports are authentic but no doubt many are merely car lights and etc. observed by people looking intensely for UFOs.

Piedmont's mystery has also been Piedmont's blessing. Besides the obvious boost to the sleepy little town's economy the phenomena has wrenched people away from TV sets and thrust them into the open with no walls between. You can stand behind a man at the super-market and not say a word to him. But for some reason you can't stand beside the same man and stare into the sky and not say something. Leonard Adams noted that while UFO watching he has spent more time with his family in just the last few weeks than he has in years. "I've seen people talking that had nothing to say to each other before," he said.

A Piedmont service station operator, Charles Montgomery, said, "I hope they (the UFOs) stay all summer. No doubt the UFOs flying about Piedmont's friendly summer skies would be a financial and social boom to the town, but if only one would land on Piedmont's main drag and say "hello, Earth people!" That would be one small thump for a space creature and an incredible and enlightening giant leap for Earthlings.

♦ ♦ ♦

Youth is not a time of life-it is a state of mind. It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions. It is a fresh-ness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite of adventure over love of ease. This often exists in a man of 50 more than in a boy of 20. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals.

Edgerton, Wis. Reporter

Even a perfect egg must break for a new life to be born.

Ed Eaglo

JULY-AUGUST 1973 11

People

GENESIS 1:31 ... And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good-People : . . God breathed Life into Man and each Man has a share in that breath ... Each Man is a vital organ in the body of humanity and each needs one another . . . Man is a social being who finds it difficult to live alone ... Men seem separate and apart but by the power of a common purpose, they are united ... Teamwork is never spelled with an "I" . . . Mar: does not grow and prosper by himself but only through interrelationships with People . . . Man most easily satisfies his own needs when he associates with People ... The spark we call Genius in Man is the total result generated by a multitude of People imbued with the fundamental attitude-Love of People . . . bringing to every, task spiritual values-Living a life of Value to others . . . Man can preach a better sermon when he lives it . . . People are like finely cut diamonds, reflecting a variety of colors, each playing on each other's personality ... Through the warm glow of brotherly love, one can draw from others the delicate rays of kindness and understanding ... Only that which comes from the heart can reach the heart . . . It is a beautiful experience to see life in People as It really is and respond to its beauty and abundance.

12 UNDERSTANDING

UFOs INTERNATIONAL

La Razon, Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 10, 1972, Bahia Blanca. The subject of flying saucers has again become actual, when several people saw these aerial objects over Bahia Blanca and surroundings. Even from the naval air-base Commandante Espora the passage of the UFOs was confirmed. A guard in this military section said that the luminous object flew at great speed from south-east towards north-east. He added later that from this object two other objects detached them-selves and flew in a straight line and in the same direction, showing a very bright light.

But the more interesting narrative comes from Alberto Vazquez, who was traveling in a pick-up along route 3. He was accompanied by Mad-arietta and Navarrete. At about 11:00 p.m. while driving along kilometer 840 near Pedro Luro, they noticed that the motor began to vibrate and the radio showed strong interference. They stopped the car and looked for the cause of the trouble, when there appeared a bright object, shaped like a plate with a dome from which shone a strong reddish light. The object was about 2000 m. high and moved parallel to the ground in a steady way. Then it began to ascend and descend rapidly at a 900 angle. Then they saw a second object which some thought had detached itself from the first, while the others thought that it came from another place. This latter object was smaller. The objects could be seen for 6 to 7 minutes and then disappeared over Stroeder, district of Patagones.

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Cronica, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 19, 1972, Santiago de Chile. An unidentified flying object has been observed on two occasions in the Antarctic by officers of the Chilean Air Force and the Army, it was officially announced here.

According to the bulletin released by the Air Force the UFO had been seen on Saturday in the Antarctic for about fifteen minutes towards the South-West, in a stationary position with a 150 inclination. Its luminosity was three times greater than that of a star and varied from red to green to a grayish blue. The report states that no noticeable alterations were observed in the radio system, but that in the 3.200 kilocycles the signals were weaker during the presence of the UFO. However the communication with the continent was not interrupted.

The sighting took place on a clear moonlit night without wind, but the officers could not take a photograph of the object. This sighting coincided

JULY-AUGUST 1973 13

with another which took place on May 8 at the Military Base of the Antarctic, where seven members of the Chilean Army watched the passing of a UFO in the direction North-West. The reports dispatched to Santiago declared that while the object remained stationary there were noticeable alterations in the radio communications.

♦ ♦ ♦

We rarely fear what we clearly understand.

Remember?

Has it ever occurred to you:
That other people may find it difficult to get on with you?
That you were young yourself once?
That others have a right to their own opinions?
That home is where you are to be at your best, not your worst?
That you can begin again?
That you might have tried harder?

H. L. Gee

CONSIDER THE CONCEPT

Though a chip-on-the-shoulder co-worker may be making your life difficult, a touchy co-worker is not really out to "get" you or anyone else. Instead, his anxious, aggressive behavior-"You can't tell Joe any-thing . . . he's got that chip on his shoulder . . . simplest thing starts him going"-is brought on by his being afraid and insecure. It's not power he's after. Just the opposite. He's using his unpleasant attitude towards others to protect himself and his job. Because he's so unsure of himself, the chip-on-the-shoulder worker has trouble taking any suggestion or criticism about his work, even if you deliver it gently and constructively.

He's the fellow who, even when it's plain he has made a mistake, goes right on insisting that it just isn't so. Because he's so anxious, he's also the worker who frequently exaggerates and misinterprets action and remarks that weren't even directed at him.

If you can help your touchy co-worker to feel surer of his position and his capabilities, he may be able to relax and be easier to work with . . . Or is it possible that your co-workers may regard you as having a chip on your shoulder?

S. R. Redford

(In "Family Weekly," Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah, Oct. 22, 1972)

14 UNDERSTANDING

No Doctor Needed

(Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Ore., April 21, 1973.)

Carson City, Nev. (AP)-Nevada has become the first state to allow acupuncture without supervision by doctors. Gov. Mike O'CaIlaghan termed the bill he signed Friday "landmark legislation." The bill creates a board of Chinese medicine to oversee acupuncture-use of need-les to relieve various ailments-but no doctors are required as board members.

Dust Over Ocean

(Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Ore., April 17, 1973.)

Washington (AP)-Man-made dust is polluting the air over vast expanses of ocean east of the United States and eastward from Japan and the Asian mainland, a government scientist reported Monday. William E. Cobb, a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said pollution higher in the atmosphere could be even more significant and should be investigated.

New Sightings in Russell County

(Hays Daily News, Dorrance, Kansas, February 11, 1973.)

A sighting of an unidentified flying object has been reported in Russell County by a group of five Girl Scouts and their adult leader. The girls said they watched the blinking green light move west and then back east.

The sighting is the first reported in Russell County since the rash of sightings last August.

Smile a Little

(Daily-Courier-Democrat, Russellville, Ark., March 28, 1973.)

Little Rock (AP)-To reports from the Piedmont, Mo., area that un-identified flying objects have been seen on recent nights, after surfacing from Lake Clearwater in southeast Missouri, the Corps of Engineers announced today: "Visitors from outer space using Corps of Engineers'

JULY-AUGUST 1973 15

campgrounds at Clearwater Lake after May 24 will have to pay camping fees just like any other camper."

May 25 is the date fees go into effect at lakes in the district.

A Huge Light

(Enterprise, Berwick, Pa., January 23, 1973.)

An unidentified flying object was seen Sunday night in the Muhlenberg area by Mrs. Daniel Jenkins, her eight-year-old son, and a number of motorists who stopped their cars near the Jenkins home.

The description was given as "A huge light that circled the area, then remained motionless for an estimated three minutes, after which it slowly ascended and disappeared." A similar object was reported in that area, about two months ago, by a Trumbower youth.

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A Sighting at Burney, California

(Record Searchlight, Redding, Calif., December 20, 1972.)

Marlene McCullar, 27, of Burney, reported the sighting of an unidentified flying object in the skies above Burney at 7:30 P.M. Monday. According to the report, Miss McCullar filed with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office, a reddish-yellow glow streaked across the sky, remaining visible for about 10 minutes. Miss McCullar said her father spotted the glow first. "He called my mother and me and we watched the glow descent in the vicinity of Hatchet Mountain."

The Oakland Federal Aviation Administration Center reported a similar sighting by a U.S. Navy aircraft in the Burney area, but no identification was made,

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Big Comet Heads for Sun

(Los Angeles (Calif.) Times, April 8, 1973.)

A big comet, according to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., is now inbound toward the sun, and will provide a spectacular Christmas time show. It may prove to be one of the most striking astronomical sights of this century.

Named after its discoverer, Dr. Lubos Kohoutek, Czechoslovakian astronomer, the comet was found, accidentally, in March. It is a really big comet, notes Dr. Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian. Most comets are only a mile or so across (in their nucleus) but this could be any-

16 UNDERSTANDING

where from 10 to 100 miles across, probably near 10.

Comet Kohoutek will zip to within approximately 13 million miles of the sun on December 27th, then head out to the far corners of the solar system. The closest it will come to earth will be 75-80 million miles, in mid-January.

According to Marsden it should be visible some six weeks before and after its closest approach to the sun. It should become visible to the naked eye sometime in mid-November and gradually increase in bright-ness until mid-December, when it should shine as luminously as the star Sirius.

Life Readings by Astrological Studies

(By special permission of Barbara Donchess)

Evidence of reincarnation has been found in a person's birth chart by Barbara Donchess, a practicing astrologer from Canton, Mass. One of the objects of her research is to allow people to find out who they were, and what they did, in previous lives, in order to make the present one happier, more peaceful and more successful.

"I draw up karmic astrology charts, and this tells me a great deal about the person's previous lives," she says. Once the chart has been set up, she examines the positions of the various planets in the twelve zodiacal signs.

Barbara holds that the 1st, 7th, 9th and 10th houses of the chart indicate the influences a person should be using now to find a better life pattern. They are concerned with the results of past good karma. The 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th houses are the houses of future karma. They tell what a person will be in his next life. The remaining houses contain our past bad karma. Studying these a person understands why certain things are happening to him, and he can take action to correct his faults.

According to Barbara, knowing your karmic path has many advantages. "Once a problem has been met and conquered, you never have to face that problem again in any of your lives. And, any talent learned now will be brought over into a future life to be used to the person's benefit."

While Edgar Cayce did life readings while in a trance, Barbara Don-chess is doing the same thing by using the science of astrology rather than trance.

The Weird World of the Occult

At the Evening School of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,

JULY-AUGUST 1973 17

Tenn., according to Robert W. Pelton, the instructor, a class is being offered in "The Weird World of the Occult."

The class, lasting ten weeks, "deals with many interesting areas of the occult world. Subject matter covered will include discussions of palmistry, tarot, crystal ball reading, teacup reading, ESP, dreams, phrenology, charms and spells, superstitions, etc. Each class covers one or more areas of the occult. An entertaining and educational presentation."

Mr. Pelton was educated at Columbia University, has written 29 books, and has lectured extensively. The fee for the course is $30.00.

———————————————

Energy Plasma

(La Razon, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 1972.)

Recently there has been discovered what has been termed the "energy plasma body," which is another body, invisible to the eye and which adheres to our body and seems to feed on the air we breathe. Its existence has been proved by special photographs. It is part of every living matter, including vegetable matter and microbes. For instance, a section of a leaf has been cut away and then the leaf has been photo-graphed to show its invisible body. After the slide was revealed, it showed that the leaf had not lost the cut-away segment which looked dark as if it were dead. This energy plasma body is perhaps the one which clairvoyants call aura or astral body.

———————————————

Seat Belts Tested

(The Cincinnati Enquirer, March 25, 1973.)

Heidelberg-A research laboratory testing car seat belts here is using corpses in an attempt to save motorists' lives, West German newspapers report.

At least five bodies have been used since the beginning of this year to test the effects of deceleration.

A former employee of the Heidelberg Forensic Medicine Institute said corpses, bandaged from head to foot and dressed in orange coveralls, were belted to a sled. The sled was hurled a distance of 20 feet, reaching a speed of 30 miles an hour, and suddenly stopped.

An autopsy then showed the effects of the test on the human body. Institute director Georg Schmidt said judicial authorities provided him with the bodies of people who had no close relatives. He added that the automobile industry gave financial support to the institute.

18 UNDERSTANDING

poet’s corner

to the blind

a blind child asked me

what color was up and

how many shades of down did i know,

and i looked at him and cried

cause i didn't see the colors

of the dew or the look of the trees

i didn't know the color of the wind

or the shade of snow before it fell

i didn't know the color of my socks

or laughter or me

a blind child asked me

and i didn't know.

Kenny Roberson

A PROPOSAL

Why do some people live only for themselves

and some people give unto others?

Why can't some realize the good of life

and live as if all were brothers?

Why do some people take others for granted

while some people cherish a friend?

Why do some exploit all they may

while others give what they can?

JULY-AUGUST 1973 19

If everyone paused to think for a spell

about what they could give and not take,

If everyone gave only part of themselves

what a better world it would make.

Lahna Martin

COMPANIONSHIP

The geranium plant that was in my room,

Was cultivated, but it did not bloom.

I set it down by the kitchen door;

The plant disliked the cold, stone floor.

I moved it out near the lemon tree

Where all the other flowers would see

How stubborn it could be. Then, suddenly,

That geranium blossomed a bright, bright red!!

"Now I'm not lonely!" I think it said.

Margaret Barbrick Purcell (First Rights Only)

Bulletin board

Reminder to Our Readers

Publication of material-articles, news reports, advertisements-in the Understanding Magazine does not constitute an endorsement by Understanding, Inc. nor the staff. At times, even the editors disagree as to the contents presented.

So, please read with an open mind and understanding heart. You may learn something about your brother though you may disagree with him.

20 UNDERSTANDING

Merlin Meetings

During the Spring of the year the Merlin Unit of Understanding has "Examined all Things." Meetings have included a talk by Dr. Joseph Cullen on "Science of Mind"; Ardee Bridges on "Food for Thought, Thought for Food," and an evening devoted to music, listening to the recording of Wilburn Burchette's "Seven Gates of Transcendental Consciousness." The June Meeting was given over to the inspirational message of PEACE PILGRIM.

As with many of the Units, meetings will not be held during July and August.

Meetings at Inglewood, California

Inglewood, Unit # 15, has offered in recent months a variety of subjects at its monthly meetings. Lectures given have included "The Return of Kung-Ho" by Hal Wilcox; "My Latest Contact" by Lawrence W. Foreman; "The Need is Now" by Chan Thomas; "25 Years of Flying Saucers" by John Otto; "Adventures in Reincarnation" by Franklin S. Sullivan; and "A Personal Picture of Our Space Friends" by Gayne Myers.

To be advised of forthcoming meetings we suggest you write Mrs. Barbara Yates, 4516 Valdina Place, Los Angeles, Calif., 90043, or telephone her at (213) 293-4743.

♦ ♦ ♦

Do you leave every person, place, condition and thing you contact better because you passed that way?

Hope Magazine

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THE LIFE SOURCE, Its very detail open to view in FUNDAMENTALS OF THOUGHT, by L. Ron Hubbard. Send $3.00 to: Book Store U, Founding Church of Scientology, 1812 19th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009.

The AQUARIAN ESP HERALD is a national, high-quality, spiritual newspaper with no advertising. Its purposes are to bring synthesis, abolish totalitarianism, spark action to improve the human condition, and to bring in the New Age. Retailers and individuals wishing to spread the Good News regularly may write us at 3859 Valley Creek Road, Newport, Minn. 55055.

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