Most of the thinking people in this country today, are asking them-selves what basic changes, if any, in our political format, will come about as a result of the continuing disclosures of widespread cynicism, corruption and outright criminal acts, in the highest echelons of government. Wherever the investigators dig, more dirt comes to the surface, and no one knows for sure, how long the investigations will last, or how many more persons will be exposed.

Very few citizens have become outraged or indignant about the disclosures, probably because most of them are aware that the same general situation has existed in the ranks of the Federal Government for many years, but that never before has there been so much intensive and determined investigation, and never before have there been investigators who simply would not take gobblegook for an answer.

Actually, it is those who have been indicted, and are being tried on criminal charges, who are confused and somewhat indignant. The right to deceive and to rob the people (within certain limits) has long been considered to be one of the standard 'fringe benefits' that automatically accrue to anyone holding high public office. The ancient motto, "To the Victors Belong the Spoils," has never been an idle one in American politics, and the companion saying, "All is Fair in Love, War and Politics," has been taken too seriously, for too long, by too many

2 UNDERSTANDING

politicians.

The true importance of the Watergate, and allied investigations lies not in the greed, graft and lust for power that they expose, these facets of human nature have been with us always, and are likely to continue as factors in politics for some time to come. What is most significant is the fact that the 'continuing investigations' actually do continue to investigate, and to expose, in spite of the tremendous efforts, made at high levels, to close them down. They serve as a needed reminder to the politician, that he is the servant of the people and not the master, as so many have come to believe. They also serve to remind the people that government is still responsible to them, if they have the energy and the courage to demand an accounting. (A simple fact, but one which has lain dormant under the mantle of political dominance for several decades.)

The salutary effects of the investigations, on government in general, are almost certain to outweigh any temporary problems resulting from its hesitancy to act, and the effect upon the peoples of other countries will be to demonstrate that the peoples of a democracy can still demand honesty of their elected officials. (A quality for which the peoples of many other countries would not even dare to ask.)

OTHER PLACES-OTHER PEOPLE

(This is the second in a series of four articles on the "Orient Odyssey" of Under-standing member-MALENE ENGLESTAD-of Santa Monica, Calif. The 38 day trip was made during April and May 1973.)

TAIWAN, Republic of China

A moist, hot air hit us mercilessly the moment we stepped out of the plane in TEIPEI, capital of Taiwan. The Chinese are very proud of the newly finished memorial to Sun Yat Sen, a huge building housing a huge picture of the General. Many of its rooms are to be used for civic affairs. Here they also have a beautiful National Palace Museum which houses a treasury of priceless Chinese scrolls, porcelain and jade brought over from the mainland in 1911 and 1949 by refugees of two revolutions. I felt an undercurrent of discontent, apathy and resentment. Was it because they were separated from the mainland Chinese . . . or was it revolt against the newcomers, as the group which came with Chiang Kai Shek has taken control of the country?

The Grand Hotel built by Madame Chiang Kai Shek has a notable stairway where two huge white lions guard its red carpeted steps. It was here on an early morning, walking out, that for the first time I witnessed a group of men and women doing their exercises: Tai Chi movements.

MAY 1974 3

The movements seem to have different meanings for each individual. They climb a hill-a mountain-especially where there is a church, temple, or a shrine, by foot, motorcycle or car. In groups or singly they start different body movements. It becomes a ritual for many, a prayer, and in silence their every movement includes heaven. Facing East toward the sunrise they move slowly and rhythmically. Others in groups chatter while their bodies exercise, each constantly moving slowly. A couple of them invited me to join them. Later on I saw this spontaneous early morning exercise in Thailand, Hong Kong, and many other locations. What a beautiful way to prepare for the day.

An hour's flight and we were on the Eastern Coast of Taiwan, at the city of HUALIEN amidst corn and sugar-cane fields. Our destination was the famous Toroko Gorge. Carved from solid granite and marble it is one of the natural wonders of the world. Below was a noisy, fast moving stream. We stopped many a time to walk through the tunnels and admire the fantastic rock formations. Fascinating)

At one of the stops we crossed a long bridge to the Shrine of Eternal Spring built over a lovely waterfall. There is a feeling of complete peace and harmony with which a thousand years of worship has imbued the rocks and trees.

Our plane back to Teipei was delayed and we stopped at an outdoors puppet show. A gaudy, noisy affair which had attracted a group of children and oldsters. When we arrived the show was forgotten . . . all eyes were turned to us with never a smile, almost scowling. Sign of a people who have lost their identity? Or just shy?

THAILAND-formerly SIAM

In contrast, Thailand is a gracious country, the product of many centuries rule of benevolent monarchs (the Ramas, I-VII), some type of a constitutional monarchy since 1958, and headquarters of SEATO. It is reported that GI money and U.S. gifts all have made the people greedy, selfish, and corrupt.

The Bangkok Delta is a beautiful country of plenty, green with blue klongs (canals) wandering through the city of Bangkok, capital of Thai-land. Although called Venice of the East, the klongs here are more a background for farmland. Life on the klongs is easy-going, crowded with children and daily activities of bathing, washing, gaily decorated barges peddling their wares and serving the tourists.

In Bangkok we visited the 18th century Grand Palace, the old walled imperial city, where we saw the famous 23 inches tall Emerald Buddha, (actually green jasper). This is a city of 400 Buddhist monasteries with their ornate, glittering pagodas and saffron clad monks.

A fascinating project we visited was the fabulous Ancient City, a

4 UNDERSTANDING

gigantic undertaking of the past ten years where at a cost of $20 million replicas of 1,000 years of Thai history have been constructed to three-quarter scale. Temples, Palaces, houses and such have been painstaking-ly erected to original models . . . 216 acres of a panorama of ancient Thailand, very excitingly represented. One man's vision realized, a dream put into action.

BURMA

Burma awakens memories of rather a backward, unknown country ... a country still living in its past glories, and mysteries. The country is covered with thousands of brown stupas (solid cylindrical mounds serving as Buddhist shrines) ... Actually about 5000 left out of 13,000 after the country was sacked by the Mogul Emperor, Kublai Khan, during the 13th century. These are intermingled with the golden and white pagodas.

Burma, in the minds of some members of the tour, was not a happy memory. They found a couple of innocent cockroaches in the bath-room ... the product of hot, sultry, moist weather. While traveling in the Orient and Asia one has to remember to be tolerant. Lack of efficient maintenance is often deplorable. However, over and over one is reminded of the fact that extremely hot seasons followed by monsoon rains is depleting to human energy, and devastating to paint, and mortar. In the month of May the extreme heat just before the monsoon rains was almost unbearable.

The Inya Lake Hotel in Rangoon, capital of Burma, was built with communist money about fifteen years ago. Having seen Russian architecture there was no doubt in my mind the massive, rectangular, bold, stark building was of Russian origin! However, after about ten years they had turned it over to the Burmese government. In Rangoon it was still the best hotel . . . Air-conditioning inadequate, water sometimes brownish, and service inefficient. Lack of water and electricity makes it difficult to cater to the tourist industry. I think we were the first group allowed to enter Burma for some years.

But the memory of Burma is most exciting to me now that I am sit-ting comfortably at home. The Inya Lake was beautiful ... Flamboyant trees with scarlet blooms brilliant against the mirror of the quiet lake . . . Jacaranda trees, flowers like candles pointing to heaven . . . Poinsettias, white and pink blooming in profusion.

An excursion to Pagan, in northern Burma, brings many memories: There we walked barefoot through the many temples, scorching our feet in the almost unbearable heat. We met "many faces of Buddha," thousands of them, and learned of the "endless wisdom of Buddha." At one temple we climbed 63 steps to the upper terrace where the

MAY 1974 5

bricks were exceedingly hot ... but the memorable view of Pagan, the whole valley with its thousands of stupas, pagodas, temples and the River Irrawaddy which begins in the Tibetan mountains and ends in the Indian Ocean, in the distance, will never leave me. I would love to see it all when green.

(To be continued)

TO MEET THE UNMEETABLE

When we get up in the morning many of us have to go forth to meet the unmeetable in situations facing us. We may at one time have thought we could arrange our lives and our world so that everything would be sunny and cozily embraceable. But more and more we have confronting us the unpalatable, the unmanageable, the downright unspeakable. How do we, then, meet the inevitable, the things we do not like but cannot change, in what awaits us?

The writer knows of at least three ways open to us. When we see that a flower is not blooming as we hoped and expected, we can try holding a shotgun to the plant and shouting, "Bloom, flower!" This is a technique attributed to W. C. Fields, and should guarantee the maximum in comic frustration. We could play it for laughs, but not for much else in the way of results.

The first method we might for our purposes call the "Bloom or boom! School." The second is the "Come back, little Sheba!" idea. This comes from a play of the same name in which Shirley Booth played the lead. A frowsy housewife, she calls out repeatedly and pathetically for all that has abandoned her-husband, dog, youth, looks, romance-to come back to her, little Sheba being the missing dog. It's great for pathos, but doesn't bring back little Sheba or anything else except an echo.

The third approach is so simple, yet so deep, that it takes the Bible to bring it to us. It is being able to say "Thy will, not mine, be done" to whatever happens with the understanding of the dialectics operating in back of those words. This requires us to do our homework.

These six words taken by themselves might sound like an invitation to let resignation set in, to be passive and reconciled to the inevitable. But fortunately the Bible gives us a valuable clue in another passage as to how to proceed. We are advised not so much to conform to the uses of the world as to transform ourselves through renewal of the mind. In other words, even though we cannot always help what happens to us, we can help how we take what happens. The last Biblical passage hints at how to do that without merely accepting events passively. By

6 UNDERSTANDING

transforming things, renewing things, making them and ourselves afresh in our mind, we assume an active role even in what happens to us. We make it our fate, our destiny, but not our bad luck.

Method No. 3 will work, but not instantly. It takes a while for "Thy will, not mine" to be recognized for what it is. Patience is required. The Orientals, long famous for theirs, have a poem called "Patience" which sums up what is needed:

It is no patience which you can bear patiently, Patience is to bear what is unbearable.

Patience is to bear what is unbearable, unpalatable, unmanageable, unspeakable, unfathomable-all the undesirables.

That is the only kind of patience that will find out how "Thy will" and "mine" can become one. Then we will not be afraid of meeting with the unmeetable within ourselves and without.

JULIANA LEWIS

WITCHDOCTORS AND PSYCHIATRISTS

The term witchdoctor, according to E. Fuller Torrey, psychiatrist and anthropologist, is Western in origin, imposed on the healers of other cultures by explorers of the 18th and 19th Centuries. "The world was simpler then, and the newly discovered cultures were quickly assigned their proper status in the order of things. We were white, they were black. We were civilized, they were primitive. We were Christian, they were pagan. We used science, they used magic."

Dr. Torrey, in his book: The Mind Game, Witchdoctors and Psychiatrists, holds that we have much to learn from the therapists of other cultures, for "witchdoctors and psychiatrists perform essentially the same function in their respective cultures. They are both therapists; both treat patients, using similar techniques; and both get similar results. Recognition of this should not downgrade psychiatrists-rather it should upgrade witchdoctors."

In an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer (7/23/72) Dr. Torrey ex-plains the similarity of the techniques, the four common components of curing used by doctor-healers all over the world.

The first of the components, as he terms the techniques, is the naming process-telling to the patient of what is wrong with him. His problem then is no longer unknown, someone understands, and this implies that a cure is possible. "Further, the act of naming what is wrong is therapeutic in that it may activate a series of associated ideas in the patient's mind, producing confession, emotional reaction and general catharsis." Therapists in all cultures use the "naming process" in exactly

MAY 1974 7

the same way.

The second healing component, common to all therapists, is their personality value. Research reveals that certain personality characteristics-accurate empathy, non-possessiveness, warmth, genuineness-are crucial to effective therapy. (This suggests that our selection of therapists should be based more on personality fitness than book learning and number of degrees earned.)

The third component of the healing process that appears to be universal is the patient's expectations, and healers all over the world use many ways to raise these hopes. Among the factors to create these expectations are: impressiveness of the building where healing is offered; distance needed to travel to reach the healer; evidence of a period of training-college degrees or tribal training to become a medicine man.

And finally, "high fees are the rule for psychotherapists in many countries and often there is thought to be a correlation between how much the therapist costs and how good he is. There are few starving witchdoctors in the world, just as there are few starving psychiatrists."

To Dr. Torrey the fact that the two healing methods have so much in common suggests "changes in selection and training of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric social workers. It suggests new sources of mental health manpower. It suggests changes in the community mental health manpower, and in the mental health center approach for large segments of our population. It suggests radically different types of mental health services for other countries. And it suggests we have been remarkably nearsighted in undervaluing the contributions of other cultures to psychiatry, while we have overvalued our own."

We add: that as we understand we no longer belittle nor judge an-other's ways.

THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF MEDITATION

(Excerpts from Article by Terri Schultz, TODAY'S HEALTH, April 1972)

Terri Schultz didn't really believe Transcendental Meditation (TM) could do much for her, but she embarked on this "mystery tour of the mind" only four days after first hearing about it. She says " . . . on this January night, after three months of meditating for 20 minutes twice a day, something happened which prodded me into unwilling belief. I usually keep an alarm clock tucked between the couch cushions during meditation and peek at it to see if 20 minutes has passed-the suggested time period for each meditation. This time the alarm went off accidentally. The shock was immediate. My eyes opened wide, my heart pounded frantically, my limbs were weak and shaky, my stomach was

8 UNDERSTANDING

queasy. In short, I felt as if I had surfaced too fast from a deep dive. And my first question was---where have I come back from? What is happening to my mind during these thoughtless, timeless minutes?

"That night I was forced to notice for the first time all the gradual changes in my life. My study was cluttered with free-lance articles I had contracted for in the last few weeks----after years of procrastination. Sewing interested me for the first time since high school, and new drapery material lay ready for the needle. In the last two months, I had entertained more friends at home and tried more new recipes than I had in the entire previous year. I had somehow changed, and all I could attribute it to, the only thing new in my life, was transcendental meditation."

The phenomenon of TM is so new in America that so far no one knows what makes it work. The most substantial medical research has come out of Harvard Medical School where Dr. Herbert Benson tested student meditators who felt they could lower their own blood pressures while practicing TM. After preliminary tests showed definite physiological changes, Drs. Benson and Robert K. Wallace, who had been working independently, joined forces and continued their studies together.

The results of these tests show physiological changes the doctors say cannot be produced through hypnosis or sleep. Their research shows that after five to ten minutes of meditation, oxygen consumption de-creased 17 percent, a change equivalent to seven hours of deep sleep. Blood lactate concentration decreased-a possible sign of anxiety reduction. Skin resistance and alpha waves increased, consistent with deep relaxation.

The phrase "Don't get excited-your blood pressure will go up," suggests that in today's world it's difficult not to get upset. Dr. Benson says "if environment causes harmful physiologic changes, a useful therapy might lie in controlling ourselves and our reaction to our stressful environments." Initial Benson-Wallace studies show meditation does produce bodily changes that conceivably could have some future use in preventive medicine.

The technique of TM was brought to America 13 years ago by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of India, who directs his work from his Majorca headquarters. TM is unrelated to religion, he says, and can be learned by housewife, student, or genius. It does not require concentration or years of study, it can be learned in seven easy lessons, and the benefits are immediate.

Charles Donahue, Midwest regional coordinator of TM, explained " . . . at the base of our thinking is a field of consciousness, and each time we dip into that field we expand our potential for each subsequent

MAY 1974 9

thought. It's like a clear pond, with sand at the base," said Donahue, who graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in logic. "The sand is our field of pure consciousness, our source of thought. Its characteristics are energy, creative intelligence, fulfillment. An air bubble is released from the sand. In our analogy, the bubble is a single impulse of consciousness. When first released, the bubble is powerful and concentrated. Energy is always powerful close to its source. As it becomes more gross, pushes to the surface level of the mind, it becomes less powerful. When it bursts on the surface, it is a thought.

"If we could lower the surface level of the pond, the bubbles would burst earlier, giving us greater mental potential. Then we could say man was not only fulfilled, but that he was free, with the freedom of being open to himself."

Around 80,000 Americans now practice TM. For them, of course, the real importance of the technique lies in the profound effects which it is said to produce on the quality of every-day life. These were summarized recently in a lecture given at Stanford University by a physician, Dr. Demetri P. Kanallakos. They include increased energy and efficiency in performing any kind of work; increased tranquility of mind coupled with decreased physical and mental tension; partial or complete loss of desire for hallucinogenic and similar drugs including alcohol; increased creativity, productivity, and intuitiveness. These effects, Dr. Kanallakos emphasizes, come about rapidly, easily, and quite automatically and do not depend on the adoption of any new beliefs or strange style of living.

Research into TM is very new, and much more must be completed before any definite answers will be available. One group of doctors (who meditate themselves) is planning to conduct a test of the metabolic changes of meditators over a 10-year period. They are especially interested in finding possible treatments for psychosomatic-related illnesses, such as hypertension, peptic ulcers and neuroses.

Anyone interested in Transcendental Meditation may write to the Students Inter-national Meditation Society, 1015 Gayley Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024, or phone 213-477-4537 for further information.

UFOs INTERNATIONAL

Sightings at Turin, Italy

The February 10th issue of the National Enquirer offers an article on the November sightings of UFOs in the vicinity of the Caselle Airport in Turin, Italy.

On November 24th, 1973, a University of Turin biology student photographed a bright object in the area, at the time the newspapers

10 UNDERSTANDING

were receiving reports of many sightings. Franco Contin and his fiancée saw a luminous point moving across the sky-then it became dull-then turned red like a burning ball. Contin took some photographs, which when developed "showed a distinct cigar-shaped outline and another showed it like a ball of light disappearing behind a hill."

Domenico de Francesco, a security guard at the Caselle Airport, said he had sighted the craft on several occasions before it was photographed on November 24th.

Then on November 30th, professional pilot Riccardo Marano, was re-turning from a flight in a small plane when the control tower told him a UFO was hovering high over the runway. The tower said it was the size of a DC-8, and asked Marano to take a closer look.

"Suddenly, when I was about 2-1/2 miles from the runway, I saw it-an enormous luminous globe, giving out a tremendous light which went from violet to blue and even red," said Marano. "I'll admit I was frightened, but when it moved away I followed it."

The pilot thought it was traveling at about 300 miles an hour-when he lunged for it, "it took off with a whoosh, straight up in the air at about 3,500 miles an hour, and disappeared completely."

The object was also chased by Giovanni Mezzalami, of Alitalia Airlines. "I was alerted by the control tower, and I saw a bright object moving squarely cross the sky," he said. "I followed it about one and a quarter miles in my DC-9 airline, but turned back when it disappeared at great speed."

Even before the airport sighting, thousands of people had seen the object hovering over Turin, and hundreds had called the newspapers to describe the object's strange pattern of hanging in the air, and then moving quickly and changing course with abrupt 90 degree turns.

Over Nagai, Japan

(CBA International from Mainichi Daily News, Japan)

Police sergeant Yoshiyuki Matsuda, of the traffic section of Nagai Police Station, while investigating an accident around 11 p.m. on July 9, 1973, photographed a luminous object with a trail streaming and flying away from northeast to southwest.

The police sergeant said the night was cloudy after the rain and no star was to be seen. His negatives were examined by CBA International and proved to be without flaw, ray leak or ghost image.

Meanwhile in Yamagata City, which lies close to Nagai, a few round objects, shining in milky white, appeared in the vicinity of Mt. Ohmori. More than 50 inhabitants saw them appear and disappear repeatedly for over four hours from 9 p.m.

MAY 1974 11

Poet’s corner

NOTHING AS WELCOME

There's nothing as welcome

as the sun when you're cold,

a light when you're scared

or love when you cry.

There's nothing so needed as,

water when you thirst,

music when you're sad

or a bed at day's end.

There's nothing man wants more than

a lover for his love,

a listener when he speaks

or god when he's alone.

There's just nothing people want more

than a home

when they have been away for long,

a peace for all men or all men for peace

CHUCK BUDDE

TIMING

It is a little known fact that

walking along the same road

only minutes behind the Samaritan

was a man from Perea

who was every bit as sympathetic

and willing to help someone in need.

Thus

because of timing

the word "Perean" is not

invariably preceded by the word "good."

JERRY SPINELLI

12 UNDERSTANDING

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

Jealousy

(SHADOWS, Edited by Inmates of the Oregon State Penitentiary, September 1944)

Edith Hamilton, the author of Mythology, tells us in one of her lovely chapters, that man, when created, was a perfect being until Pandora opened a small mysterious box and many tiny insects swarmed out and from that time on man has been beset by a multitude of evils. Somehow it seems superfluous to have had more than two, Jealousy and its inseparable companion Hate. These two seem the breeders of all evils men possess.

Jealousy is like a boa-constrictor that strangles every God-like sentiment within the heart. It distorts the mind and poisons the soul. It wraps us more fiercely in its coils until imagination and hallucination replace reason.

Jealousy in love cannot be anything but an inferiority complex, and is manifested by showing despicable traits of pettiness. Love is unselfish, love is trusting, yet it can be destroyed by jealousy.

Envy of accomplishment is again an avowal of inferiority-plus the admission of slothfulness; if it were not we would strive tirelessly until we too had attained the same knowledge by effort and study. Instead of being jealously hateful we would admire and admiration would be an incentive to emulate attainment instead of envying them.

Jealousy of material things is the lowest form of a cancerous evil. When Greed becomes our God, we singe the immortal freedom of the soul and become slaves of perishable things that we had not at birth and will not have when we return to dust.

Jealousy destroys beauty. Darting eyes and tightened lips are not beautiful. Medusa-like, it repels the beholder, for it reveals a dead soul. There is nothing more admirable than unselfishness-the antithesis of jealousy. Was not Florence Nightingale, Pasteur, Madame Curie and in-numerable others who have made this world of ours a better place for us and future generations, splendid examples of unselfishness?

If they had devoted their lives to jealousy and selfishness, would they have done so much for humanity? We can admire people who have attained the heights. Why not also unselfishly admire the smaller accomplishments of our neighbor? Why not encourage those we envy, help the women who are talented in this little community, praise their work, admire their endeavor, yes and even be proud of them? Then without envy we can share a common field of endeavor, of study and gracious living-even here.

There can be no happiness in jealousy and undermining tactics against

MAY 1974 13

the object of our envy; in malicious lies about those who through hard work, and study have achieved enviable records here. Let us be generous and unselfish, for it brings serenity and contentment. It leaves the soul free and young; it brings us closer to the Likeness unto which we were created than any other quality we possess.

Let us be generous and unselfish without show, humbly, sincerely, and we will find, at the most unexpected times, that we have a trust-fund-in heaven.

MARY JO-The Clarion

World-Space Song

(Composed by Sister Celine Fleischanderl for Understanding, Inc. Sister Celina, an International Contributing Member, is a teacher in a Girls' School of Upper Austria.)

14 UNDERSTANDING

world report

Harnessing the Sun

(South African Digest, Feb. 22, 1974)

South Africa's abundant sun shine has come to the rescue in the present fuel crisis. Cape Town engineer, Mr. A. Weideman told the S.A. Financial Gazette that more than 100,000 South African homes and several industries will be using water heated by solar energy by the end of 1974.

The demand for solar water heaters has been so great that two new factories are planned in the Transvaal and the Western Cape Province which will eventually pro-duce 200,000 water heaters a year.

The Parow factory, which makes stainless steel cooling plates and boilers-mainly for the Cape wine industry-is operating around the clock to produce 60 heaters a day.

An Australian engineering firm has bought the rights to produce the stainless steel, glass-insulated units under franchise, and Mr. Weideman is working on a second model which will generate steam as well as heating water.

Old Tires

(Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Oregon, March 9, 1974)

AKRON, Ohio (AP)- More than a half-million scrap tires were banded into bundles and dropped in the ocean this year to build artificial reefs off the nation's coasts, according to the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which provided scrap tires and tire compacting machinery for the projects.

The reefs are now providing havens for numerous species of fish.

Pakistan Video Fights Illiteracy

(Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Oregon, March 9, 1974)

RAWALPINDI (API) - Pakistan Television Corporation later this year will launch an ambitious scheme aimed at overcoming one of the major drawbacks to progress in the country-illiteracy.

At present about 55 million out of Pakistan's total population of 65 million are illiterate. Every year the number of people who can neither read nor write grows by one million.

Aslam Azhar, managing director of Pakistan television, says: "There

MAY 1974 15

can be no question but that the campaign for adult education is the most clear, urgent and yet neglected need in Pakistan. Indeed it is here that education is engaged in a race against disaster."

It is to combat this situation that Pakistan TV is introducing educational television.

Because the cost of a television set-about $400-is far beyond the reach of all but a small minority in the country, educational TV will revolve viewing centers.

The first 200 of these are to be set up in the Punjab province in the spring. Each center will be staffed with teachers trained to make use of the literacy programs that will be transmitted by PTV.

The literacy course lasts for six months. At the end of that time, if there is a 100 per cent success rate, the 200 centers in the Punjab will graduate 12,000 men and the same number of women able to read and write.

By spreading the centers all over the country and assuming the necessary teachers are available, those involved say that in theory it should be possible to make 41 million people literate in nine or ten years.

Tasks for Pets

(The Mail Tribune, Medford, Oregon, March 7, 1974)

By ROBERT MUSEL

LONDON (UPI)-The programming of family pets to perform various tasks and various deeds, good or evil as required, may be fairly common practice by the year 2000, according to an American psychologist.

Dr. Boris Levinson of Touro College in New York, a specialist on relationships between people and animals, said that by the end of the century pets controlled by brain electrodes may become commonplace. Recent experiments make this a strong probability.

Dr. Levinson told a symposium organized by the British Small Animals' Veterinary Association, "In a sense the electrodes will make the animals become living robots. They will be able to open doors, close windows, adjust beds and even call for help."

He said pets could even be used for warfare and for espionage and if the knowledge of the genetic engineering involved fell into the hands of insurgent groups they could be employed in bombings and in plane hijackings. Criminals might use them in the commission of theft, robbery and even murder.

But he said most pets would play a highly beneficial role in society-"a very important safety valve in a sick society"-as specially trained companions to invalids, old people, childless couples and even astronauts.

Dr. Levinson's remarks brought quick reactions in this nation of animal lovers,

16 UNDERSTANDING

Aromas Linked to Compatibility

(Houston Post, Houston, Texas, Dec. 30, 1973)

MANCHESTER, England (UPI)- Dr. Ivor Felstein has been sniffing at love. He claims you should be able to find your ideal partner by smell. Writing in the medical newspaper Pulse, he said there should be a new kind of specialist, the semmologist, he could tell couples if their aromas were not compatible, the doctor said.

"When one considers the overall value that a sense of smell may have for the physician or social worker, it is surprising that neither is asked about this sense at interviews."

Whistling 'It' Lands, Lifts

(Southwest Times Record, Fort Smith, Ark., Feb. 19, 1974)

VINITA, Okla. (AP)- A silvery, flashing object "the size of a bedroom" and emitting a shrill whistle terrorized a dairyman's herd and frightened his herd dog into hiding before dawn Monday, the dairyman told officials.

The object took off and landed three times in a pasture near this northeastern Oklahoma town, Clay Knight told Deputy Sheriff Joe Davenport.

"The man was scared or shook enough that you could tell he was startled by whatever it was," Davenport said. "It wasn't any prank or fake call. He was really sincere about it and was scared."

Knight said the object, first sighted about 4:30 a.m., was a shiny, silver color and had flashing red or orange lights, the deputy said.

"He said it was making a high-pitched noise, real shrill," the deputy said. "It was a sort of whistling sound."

The dairyman was getting his herd out for early-morning milking when he saw the object.

Family Chased by UFO

(Southwest Times Record, Fort Smith, Ark., Nov. 11, 1973)

OTTAWA (AP)-An Ottawa family says an unidentified flying object with flashing white lights chased their truck along a highway at speeds up to 100 miles an hour last week.

Rick Bouchard, 25, his wife Donna and their three children, were re-turning to Ottawa on Highway 417 Thursday evening.

"Then I noticed these bright lights in my side-view mirror," said Bouchard.

He said he drove at speeds up to 100 m.p.h. to escape a 10-foot wide, oval-shaped object with flashing, white lights.

MAY 1974 17

The object came within 15 feet of the truck during the chase and hovered about four feet over the road, he said.

The object finally disappeared behind trees and the Bouchards telephoned police.

Fish Could Save Us From Disaster

(Sunday Express, London, Oct. 14,1973; Courtesy IGAP Information Service)

The trouble with earthquakes is that they usually occur without warning and people in danger areas have insufficient time to escape from the upheaval.

But there is a good chance that the next big quake, especially if it occurs in California, will not erupt without the community having at least a few hours' notice. And, unlikely as it may seem, the warning could come from a suffering catfish.

This, at any rate, is what I hear from Professor A. J. Kalmijn, marine physicist at America's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego. The professor, who has carried out hundreds of laboratory tests with catfish, says these ugly, bewhiskered creatures have such sensitive nervous systems that they can detect the onset of an earthquake from six to eight hours before it strikes.

The way they do it, he says, is by "feeling" minute changes in the earth's electrical field which occur before an eruption. The changes put the fish in such a state that they become visibly agitated and thresh about in the water.

Nearly 30 years ago Japanese marine biologists noticed catfish be-coming agitated for no apparent reason. They also noticed that this curious behavior was often followed by a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tidal wave. But they did not have any means of discovering exactly what caused the agitation. So the idea was not followed up.

Professor Kalmijn came across it while checking through old reports relating to earthquakes in Japan. He decided to give the idea a proper scientific work-out using modern instruments and techniques.

Now he reports:-

"It is indisputable that catfish can detect an approaching earthquake. We have proved beyond doubt that this fish reacts violently to any change, even the most minute, in the earth's electrical field."

♦ ♦ ♦

It is not what you eat but what you digest that makes you strong.

It is not what you earn but what you save that makes you rich.

It is not what you learn but what you remember that makes you wise.

JOSIE ATWOOD

18 UNDERSTANDING

book reviews

Love and Will

(Love and Will, Rollo May. W.W. Norton & Co. Hardbound, $7.95; Bell Books, Paper, $2.95)

Love and Will, by Rollo May, discusses the predicament in which a great many men and women find themselves today. Repression of sexual expression during Victorian years resulted, predictably, in rebellion. The current universal permissiveness in sexual matters resulted. Unfortunately, what is available today is sex separated from Eros, the creative love force of nature. We cling to each other and try to persuade our-selves that what we feel is love. Eros is our capacity to participate in the constant dialogue with our environment, the world of nature as well as persons.

Love and will are interdependent and belong together. To help one is to strengthen the other. Will without love becomes manipulation, as in the Victorian era. Love without will becomes sentimental and experimental. We do not will because we are afraid if we choose one thing or one person, we lose the other. Sex for many people has become more meaningless as it has become more available. We grasp more fiercely at research, statistics, and technical aids (Kinsey) in sex when we have lost the values and meanings of love.

" . . . in this failure of will," says Leslie Faber, "lies the central pathology of our day." In such an age of "disordered will" the individual is driven back into his own consciousness.

As we are forced to search for the sources of love and will, perhaps we shall discover the new forms which these essential experiences need in order to become viable in the new age. We are seeking the bases on which morality for the future can be founded.

Every sensitive person finds himself in Stephen Dedalus' position: "I go forth . . . to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race." When an age is torn loose from its moorings ... more people can take steps to find and realize themselves.

Our problems have a curious characteristic not yet adequately appreciated:

MAY 1974 19

they predict the future. A few psychiatric patients in the 1940's and 1950's were probing problems through therapy that are now wide-

spread and apparent on every hand. Our psychological enigmas express our unconscious desires. If there were not some new possibility, there would be no crisis, there would be only despair.

The Psychological patient is the one who tries to express and live out the subconscious tendencies in the culture. The usual defenses of the culture do not work for him. He cannot solve his problems by living them out "in work, religion, or education." He cannot or will not ad-just to society. He is more sensitive than the average person and less able to manage his anxiety. He may possess more than ordinary originality which pushes for expression, and when blocked off, makes him ill. The neurotic, unable to express the meanings and contradictions of his culture, is progressively unable to cope with it. In contrast, the artist is able to express his conflicts, and gives us a communication springing from unconscious levels of those living on the frontiers of their society, living with one foot in the future.

People in therapy reveal useful data only when the human being can break down the customary pretenses, hypocrisies, and defenses behind which we all hide in "normal" social discourse. It is only suffering that will lead people to endure the further pain and anxiety of uncovering the roots of their problems. An individual's psychological problems re-veal also archetypal qualities with meaning to all of mankind, for example the stories of Orestes and Faust.

When we feel an emotion, if we come out with it no matter how destructive it is, then we are left separated, alienated with no bridge to the other people in our lives. Most people in our society experience their emotions this lonely way. To feel, then, makes them more lonely, so they stop feeling. Emotions, we should learn, are not just a push from the rear, but a pointing toward something, a call to mold the future the way we want something to be. Emotions, therefore, need to be channeled and controlled, since they are a way of communicating with the significant people in our world.

There is a wealth of material in this book that will repay study, especially symbology, archetypes, and myths and what they reveal to us about ourselves.

MARGARET LITTLE

♦ ♦ ♦

Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.

20 UNDERSTANDING

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