i

Officers and Directors of Understanding, Inc.

Dr. Daniel W. Fry, Ph.D.

Founder and President Emeritus

Officers:

President:                                    Jeffrey Perry

Executive Vice President:          Barbara Yates

Secretary:                                    Virginia Perry

Treasurer:                                    Clarence Ghalbeck

Recording Secretary:                 Barbara Yates

Directors:

Daniel W. Fry                               Jeffrey Perry

Hetty Miller                                   John W. Boushka

Ralph Martine                              Laura Gilbert

William Hamilton                         Audrey G. Standefer

Nita Holmes

Associate Directors:

David Porter                                Walter Nelson

International Honorary

Directors:

Per Axel Atterbom                      Sweden

Edith Nicolaisen                          Sweden

Herbert D. Clark                          Canada

Legal Compliance

“Understanding,” began with nine members in El Monte, California in 1954. It was incorporated as a non-profit organization in March of 1955 in California. It is presently licensed and recognized as a non-profit corporation in Oregon and Arizona.

The purposes and goals of the organization are too lengthy to reproduce fully. They have been condensed for this purpose. The full content of them is to be found in the Articles of Incorporation. The By-laws of the organization delimit the activities. administrative responsibilities and guide lines for organization of individual units.

Philosophy and Objectives

Of

Understanding, Incorporated

The basic philosophy of Understanding, Inc. is best expressed in the belief that there are more areas of agreement between all men than of disagreement and that finding those areas will bring about under-standing, cooperation and peace to all inhabitants of this planet.

Objectives

1. To chart the areas of mutual agreement in the social science of today as postulates of behavior for man toward his fellow-man.

2. To chart in like manner the areas of worldwide agreement in the spiritual sciences by means of which rapid advance in the understanding of the true goal of life and in the practice of right relation-ships to the Creator of all men.

3. To engage in scientific and other research, study, analysis and investigation of any and all things which contribute toward the establishment of truth and the advancement of all mankind.

4. To acquire and hold such property, funds and facilities and to engage in any lawful business activity incidental to or necessary or desirable for, the accomplishment of the purposes set forth above.

5. To solicit the association, cooperation and assistance of individuals, organizations or corporate entities having similar aims and purposes.

6. To authorize, subject to the supervision of the directors of the corporation, units which shall function to carry out its purposes.

7. To operate exclusively for scientific, charitable, religious, literary or educational purposes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM   …..             3

REINCARNATION   ………….             5

poet’s corner   ………….             8

TEACHING ON THE EQUATOR   ………….             9

UFO DEPARTMENT   ………             11

SPACE COLONIES   ………..             13

CODA-IBA OIL   ………..             14

BOOK REVIEW   ………             15

UNDERSTANDING LOVE   ……..             16

ESP & SYMBIOSIS   …………             18

BULLETIN BOARD   ………..             20

FLASH   ……………             20

——— ♦ ———

THE STAFF

EDITOR ……. Dr. DANIEL W. FRY

Associate editor ……..  florence D. Fry

CIRCULATION EDITOR………. Jeffrey Perry

 

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

 

One year, six issues, $4.00 (Foreign, $5.50) Published

by ‘Understanding’, a non-profit organization

Contributions are U.S. Income Tax Deductible.

Address all correspondence to: Understanding, Inc.

STAR ROUTE BOX 588F, TONOPAH, AZ. 85354

Tel. 602-386-3832

UNDERSTANDING                    4

 

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

THE ADVERSARY SYSTEM

Although our civilization has made great progress in science and technology during the past few decades, there has been relatively little advance in the social arte, often mistakenly referred to as the `Social Science,’ in as many centuries. In the United States, as in several other countries, there are a number of quite anachronistic social habits still in common operation. Of these, the most costly and least justifiable is probably our judicial system. Founded firmly upon concepts developed during the dark ages of medieval Europe, it has made little progress in the past nine centuries and, unless some updating pressure is applied from outside the system, may well dodder along in its historical rut for centuries to come.

The last significant improvement in the English Common Law, from which the United States’ judiciary system was derived, resulted from the Magna Charta,

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forced upon King John by the English barons at Runny-mede on June 15, 1215 A.D. The charter however, failed to dispose of the adversary system of jurisprudence which was universally accepted at that time and, un-fortunately, still is.

Warfare had long been recognized as the only convincing arbiter in disputes between nations or clans, the winner taking whatever he chose, and the loser, if he survived, being forced to accept whatever was left. Since the system seemed to operate dependably in disputes between nations, a similar principal was applied to disputes between individuals. If the controversy could not be compromised, a trial-of-arms, known as atorne, was arranged, the judicial principle involved being that God, in His infinite wisdom, would give the victory to the contender with the greatest degree of justice on his side. Thus might was considered to be the only necessary proof of right, and the facts or equity of the case had little significance, the judge acting only as a referee in the battle. It was recognized that if there was a great disparity in the physical condition of the contenders, for example, if one was a huge giant of a man and the other was a frail and aged woman, it might be too much to ask of God to give the victory in the battle to the frail and aged woman. Either party therefore, had the right to appoint a substitute, known as `Atorne’ to do their fighting for them. In the eyes of the law, the atorne and his client were considered to be one person and the merits of the client’s case were determined by the fighting ability of the atorne.

Seven hundred years have passed since the Magna Charta, and a few changes have come about. The atorne is now an attorney and, although the law, in most cases still considers the attorney and his client to be one person, few attorneys are willing to accept this position, most of them preferring to adopt a stance halfway between the client and the court so that they have a considerable leeway of action in either direction. Also,

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the attorney himself is now an officer of the court and consequently is usually much closer to the judges and other attorneys than he ever gets to his client. After all, clients come and go, but he will still be working with the same judges and attorneys.

The fighting is now verbal rather than physical, and the weapons used are the decisions of previous judges in similar cases. However, since there is scarcely a conceivable case in which different judges have not rendered diametrically opposite decisions, there is always ample ammunition to confuse the case beyond all reach of logic or reason so that the current judge is free to exercise whatever whims he or she may have.

Whatever changes the centuries have wrought, the adversary system of jurisprudence is still in full operation despite the fact that no one in the last century has advanced any logical reason for its existence. The courts, instead of being centers devoted to the determination of fact and the dispensing of justice are actually little more than arenas for verbal jousting which, while it makes a great pretense of dignity and decorum has relatively little to do with truth, equity, justice or even law, except in its most technical sense.

Although the adversary system of jurisprudence is deplored by virtually every thinking person in the country, it continues in existence because, as in a number of social problems, the only persons who are in a position to correct the situation are those who derive the most profit from it.

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REINCARNATION

by

R. Eugene Hitchcock

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the ancient idea of reincarnation. Previous to the present upsurge of occultism, it had appeared to be steadily declining. Before discussing this revival of one of man’s oldest beliefs it might be well to define ‘reincarnation’ as here understood. In the past it has been known by many names: Transmigration, Palingenesis, Metempsychosis are the most used alter-natives.

Here `reincarnation’ is taken to mean: the belief that the self existed before birth, and survives death to be reborn in a new body. The following lines by John Masefield express the idea in poetic form:

“I hold that when a person dies
His soul returns again to earth.

Arrayed in some new flesh disguise
Another mother gives him birth. “

The history of this belief is rooted in the prehistoric origins of the human race. It is known, for example, that certain savage tribes believed the souls of their dead to be resurrected as infants in the same or related families. Thus they tried to recognize the personalities of deceased relatives in new-born babies.

The ancient Egyptians at one time entertained a singular form of belief in reincarnation. They thought only one kind of `soul’ existed, which took the form of animal body in which it was born. Thus the soul could be reborn successively as plant, fish, dog, human: over vast time-periods. Perhaps their artistic inclinations to portray their Gods as having human bodies and animal heads to some degree expressed this belief. Such a

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form of reincarnation through various forms used to be known as ‘transmigration’.

Many noted thinkers have supported the idea of reincarnation in some form. As examples, might be cited Plato, David Hume, John Masefield, Thoreau and many others. Its broad appeal to many types of minds is obvious. But the question remains: what reason is there to believe it?

Ernest Holmes, late respected leader in the New Thought Movement, has been quoted as saying, with regard to reincarnation, “There is absolutely no reason to believe it.” We cannot concur with him on this. The fact is that there are many reasonable arguments for the doctrine. But none have appeared conclusive enough to sway many people toward reincarnation who do not already have a leaning towards it.

Many arguments have been given in its favor. It is said for example to account for the mystifying facts about the precocity of genius. Such as Sammy Reshev sky’s ability to play chess at master strength by the time he was seven years old. Mozart composed a symphony at six.

Reincarnation has been said by its supporters to account for many apparent injustices in life. Thus it might be thought that persons born under some severe handicap might be ‘suffering punishment’ for misdeeds committed in a past life. (A theory which offers scant comfort to those born under such handicaps!

There are people who claim to have remembered one or more `previous lives’. Many will remember the widely publicized “Bridey Murphy” case. Under hypnosis, an American housewife claimed to have lived a previous life in Ireland over a century ago. Investigation was said to have revealed no birth record, but this could be accounted for in ways consistent with the truth of the Bridey Murphy story. Birth records in the past were rarely complete. Furthermore it is conceivable that those who investigated these old church birth registers could have suppressed facts which they

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thought might reflect on the validity of their religion. Opponents of the idea of reincarnation have little difficulty in finding arguments against the above claims. For example, the precocity of genius could be the natural result of a gifted heredity with a favorable environment for development.

Mozart, to illustrate, was born into a family of musicians who gave him every opportunity to develop his great talents. As to inequalities of birth, one can reply in a similar vein, considering them the result of natural causes-‘just’ or not. Orthodox religion considers them differently-as inscrutable acts of God. Alleged memories of past lives can be explained as illusions produced from the unconscious mind as are dreams.

It is only fair to note, however, that the above forms of rebuttal are only negative. That is, they do not disprove the notion of reincarnation, but rather advance alternate theories to account for the same facts said to support it. Yet anything like convincing evidence that reincarnation has actually occurred seems to be lacking.

We may now leave the matter of proofs of reincarnation, and ask whether such a thing, in view of modern knowledge is even possible. The answer one gives at this point would depend very much on his basic world-view and philosophy. If, for instance, one accepts the materialist doctrine that life in all its aspects is the result of purely physical causes, ore could hardly believe in reincarnation. If we are only our bodies, what is there to reincarnate?

Orthodox religion, though anti-materialistic, rejects the notion of rebirth on this planet for reasons of doctrine. It may be seen, then, that reincarnation as a theory has had to contend with two powerful opponents. On one side it is opposed by religion with all the force of centuries of tradition-on the other is the grim wall of scientific materialism. Science and orthodox religion, perhaps the two strongest social forces acting

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today, unite in opposing the concept of reincarnation. It is a tribute to the inherent strength of the idea that it has been able to survive and even grow in the face of such opposition.

What can one in fairness answer to such objections? At the outset, it should be pointed out that 2,000 years of scientific investigation has been unable to show that mental qualities (sensation, emotion, thought) are an outcome of physical causes. Investigations in such fields as psychosomatic medicine have shown how mind and body vary with one another, but this is far from showing that mind is mere `accident’ of the functioning of material organs.

Take, for instance, the process of seeing. Electro-magnetic waves of a given wave-length and amplitude impinge on the retina of the eye. A nervous impulse is thereby sent, via the optic nerve, to the visual area of the cerebral cortex. All this forms a physical chain of causation. Then the mind experiences the sensation of `redness’, which it may interpret as a red object. There is a physical event-then there is a mental event. No one has ever explained the connection-the ‘mind-body’ bridge referred to by Sir Arthur Eddington. The whole matter of the inter-relation between mind and body remains an open question.

In the present state of knowledge, it would appear that the only fair verdict regarding the theory that the soul lives after death, to be resurrected in a new form, would he that the question is unsettled, and remains a matter of personal judgment.

One might ask just what sort of evidence could be considered relevant to a theory as speculative as that of reincarnation.

There are certain very general considerations, which are metaphysical in nature. For example, take the feeling of per identity we all have. We think we are the same persons as we were at birth, yet biochemical evidence shows that a continual turnover of

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the material (molecular and atomic) components of the body takes place. Some scientists have estimated that after seven years, not a single material particle of the body remains the same. If we know ourselves to be the same, it would seem there must be a non-material component of the self, which remains unchanged through time. This of course supports the possibility of reincarnation.

There could be psychological evidence, such as the memory of a past life. As mentioned above, there have been allegations of such memories, but never with such proof as to compel belief. It is absurd to think, with some skeptics, that proof of such a thing as memory of a past life would be ‘trivial’. Rather it could be argued that if one such case could be verified, it would be the most important discovery in human history! For it would indicate the survival of the personality, with all the tremendous implications for human life this would carry with it.

As the question remains open, and is susceptible to human reason, we may hope the future will decide the status of this idea of reincarnation, which has survived so many centuries, and has reappeared in so many settings.

The investigation of this question may in time bring to light evidence as to the existence and destiny of the soul, which could force revision of our entire picture of the purpose of life. A new and better civilization could be the outcome.

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poet’s corner

“PATTY JO”

Silvea Spreely

Down the road and `round the bend,
Lives Patty Jo, my little friend.

She’s six years old, this little girl,
Who wears her hair in long, blond curls.

Her eyes are big and very blue,
And when she smiles, it’s just for you.

She hobbles out to greet a friend,
On braces, `cause her legs don’t bend.

You’ll never hear her cry in pain,
And never once does she complain.

But once at night, I heard her pray,
“Oh, God, please show me how to play.

Please fix my legs so I can run,
If two is too much, just give me one.

I know you’ve many things to do,
I’ll wait my turn until you’re through.

Bless Mom and Dad and sister. Sue,
But, most of all God, I love you.

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IVY

William Paulk

Along two sides a wall grew ivy vines,

One placed on either side by chance design

From some bird’s maw or playful wind dropped there,

Two seeds which lay upon the ground a year

Or more till, sun and season being right,

They slowly germinated in the light

Of spring. Then bine and tendril worked their way

Slow creeping up the wall by night and day

For months and even years before they met

And twined atop the wall, nor would they let

One stone remain uncovered from the sun.

At last, when both the ivy vines had done

Their growing up the wall, across it too,

No one could see the wall at all, and few

Remembered when – what day or month or year –

Or that, in fact, two separate plants they were.

But now the wall which once divided them

Is their support, and they its diadem.

TEACHING ON THE EQUATOR

Juliana Lewis

Ecuador is a country of contrasts – from great wealth to miserable poverty, from cosmopolitan centers to dense jungle, from the extreme heat of an equatorial sun to the penetrating chill of a rainy season.

Steamy Guayaquil, on the coast, and Quito, its 9,300 foot-high capital, are the two major cities. Quito, with its Spanish and Moorish architecture and red clay tile roofs topping the houses, has been called a museum of Spanish culture in the Andes and a precious haunt of folklore.

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Ecuador’s political history, however, with its many revolutions and changes of leaders, has greatly hampered its progress in the field of education. Most of its Indian population is without formal education. Aside from those in the larger and more advanced cities, schools are few and far between.

There are four universities, one each in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, and Loja; and while standard courses in law, medicine, engineering, and other professions are offered, physical plants usually are sorely inadequate.

During the last world war, several movements were initiated to improve the country’s educational system. The Office of Inter-American Affairs in Washington commenced a program to send teachers from the United States to work with Ecuadoran teachers.

It was through this office that my husband and I obtained our teaching positions with the American School of Quito. The operating budget of the school is a joint financial effort of the Ecuadoran government and the United States. And the school is completely ac-credited by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges.

Beginning with a kindergarten for 3-5 year olds, the school continues through grade 12. Approximately 80 percent of the students are Ecuadoran, 10 percent American, and 10 percent European, resulting in a great mixing and mingling of languages and cultures. While we were at the school, both American and Ecuadoran textbooks were issued to the students. My husband taught two fifth-grade groups and I had two fourth-grade classes. Our pupils, as did the others, received instruction twice daily in some of the same subjects – our morning groups going to the Ecuadoran teachers in the afternoons, while theirs came to us. We_. instructed_. in English; they in Spanish. Our curriculum included reading, the English language, spelling, geography, health, and science.

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The Ecuadoran teachers also taught reading, spelling, science, and arithmetic in Spanish. Arithmetic was left exclusively to them as many of their symbols and ways of writing some numbers differ from ours.

One period a week was devoted to the study of religion. Catholic priests came to the school to instruct, as Ecuador is primarily a Catholic country. Protestants were excused from these classes and given a study period instead.

In addition to the priests, there were special teachers for music, art, dancing, and physical education. Soccer, the most popular sport in Ecuador, always was included in the physical education classes.

Baseball, as well, became a favorite. American teachers devoted many hours after school to the instruction of this all-American game, and the Ecuadoran students showed a lively interest in participation. In fact, they expressed an interest in practically anything American.

The pupils seemed to enjoy Mondays most of all. This was the only time the students wore school uniforms, which consisted of white shirts and dark red sweaters, and white skirts for the girls, and white pants for the boys.

A general assembly of all students was held the first period on Monday mornings. These programs began with the singing of “Salve O’Patria”, Ecuador’s national anthem, followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Each week a play or musical skit was presented by a different class.

Pupils were transported to and from school in eight school buses. There was a two-hour lurch period, from 12 noon until 2 p.m. One reason was the time required to drive all students home and back, and another was the Ecuadoran approval of the Latin siesta. School began an 8:30 a.m. and dismissed at 4:30 p.m.

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Holidays were observed with greater frequency than in U.S. schools. Days that ended or commenced a past revolution – and there were many – were considered special, and pupils participated in each of the flag-bearing parades.

Too, there was “Carnival”, a three-day celebration in February that is unique to Ecuador, celebrated mainly by throwing water-filled balloons, or buckets of water, on anyone unfortunate enough to pass by. Christmas and Easter brought two-week vacations. Now and then an unscheduled holiday would be observed when a gasoline shortage incapacitated the buses or another such emergency arose.

Buildings housing the school at Quito were attractive and comfortable, except when classrooms sometimes got too chilly in midwinter. There was no heat in the rooms, but usually none was needed.

Buildings were low to the ground with an outside corridor running their length, allowing for easy passage of groups or classes of students with minimum disturbance to others.

Copious rainfall kept the grass around the buildings a lush green, and gigantic eucalyptus trees swayed gently in the breeze, adding shade and beauty to the well-kept campus.

All considered, Ecuador was a pleasant and interesting country in which to fulfill a two-year contract.

UFO DEPARTMENT

Ever since our first landing on the moon, controversy has raged concerning what was actually seen there, as well as going and coming. Although many thousands of photographs were taken, in space, on the moon’s surface and from close orbit about it, less than half of one percent of these photos have ever been made available to the public through the media or otherwise.

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The few photos that have been released may, of course show only what officialdom believes the public should see.

Every astronaut, immediately upon his return to earth, underwent a lengthy debriefing during which he was probably given rather precise instructions as to how much of his lunar observations should be made public. Nevertheless, after, and even during several lunar missions accounts were widely circulated concerning unorthodox objects seen and even photographed by the astronauts. At that time, however, an assortment of official explanations or outright denials were issued in rebuttal of each account. As time goes by however a number of astronauts and even several officials of NASA have admitted that more things were seen and photo-graphed during the moon trips than were reported to the public. The latest and probably the most significant of these admissions was reported in the National Enquirer of September 11 under the heading of Aliens on Moon When We Landed, it was revealed that:

“The first men on the moon weren’t there alone! “Two alien spaceships landed near Apollo 11 and watched as our astronauts stepped onto the dusty surface, reveal U.S. and Soviet scientists in a stunning disclosure.

“The astronauts saw the UFOs and even photo-graphed them, The ENQUIRER has learned – but the stupefying close encounter has been kept completely under wraps by NASA until now.

“A former top consultant to NASA has admitted the mind-boggling event took place during the historic mission – and was covered up.

“When the (Apollo 11) module landed at the bottom of a crater, two alien spacecraft appeared at the crater rim,’ revealed scientist Maurice Chatelain, formerly under contract to NASA.

” ‘The encounter was common knowledge in NASA. But nobody has talked about it until now.’

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“Incredibly, NASA’s coverup was so massive that the news has taken 10 years to reach the American public – and had to be first disclosed by Soviet scientists, who found out about it two years ago.

” ‘I am absolutely certain this episode took place,’ said Dr. Vladimir Azhazha, a physicist and professor of mathematics at MoscowUniversity.

”  ‘According to our information, the encounter was reported immediately after the landing of the module.

” ‘Neil Armstrong relayed the message to Mission Control that two large, mysterious objects were watching them after having landed near the moon module. But his message was never heard by the public – because NASA censored it.’

“Buzz Aldrin even took moving pictures in color of the UFOs from inside the module – and continued shooting after he and Armstrong went outside, accord ing to another Soviet space scientist, Prof. Aleksandr Kazantsev.

“Dr. Azhazha says that the UFOs flew away just minutes after the astronauts came out on the moon’s surface. Aldrin later carried his incredible movie back to earth – where NASA immediately put it under wraps, the professor charged.”

SPACE COLONIES

William F. Hamilton

A civilization, like an individual organism, dies, but unlike an individual organism, seldom is the cause old age. A society in youth possesses vim and vigor, and while harvesting its crops to feed its young, is moving out into the environment ready to whip the world. Its territory expands, its resources and wealth

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grows. Eventually, after its enthusiasm has smoldered down to contentment with its spoils, the hierarchy grows fat and lazy, until… discontent is born, dissatisfaction with the existing order of things, and some new sprightly leader wants to go off and conquer new worlds and achieve new aims. The old order resists this new wind of change, trys to suppress the new upstarts, and either succeeds, or the new order then supplants the old order. Somewhere in the midst of this hectic life cycle, the civilization has planted seeds of itself on new shores, colonies which give birth to new nations and new frontiers.

Today there is discontent. The old order is accused of crimes against humanity and crimes against nature. Humanity is now railing from the instability of the old social order. Nature is now reeling against man’s maltreatment of the Earth and its precious resources. Hopi Indian legends tell of how the world once teetered off balance, spun around crazily, and rolled over twice. Plato wrote that the world once stopped rotating and this brought great catastrophe. H.A. Brown, an engineer by profession, studied the gyroscopic stability of the Earth and concluded that the ice built-up at the poles could cause the planet to tumble on its axis at least every eight thousand years. Man’s unstable social conditions have led him to test weapons which have demonstrated the power to cause polar wobble. Through our inefficient energy technologies and our mismanagement of natural resources, we have tilted the balance to the point of precarious unbalance.

One of the tragic mistakes among all the hub-bub of discontent was scientific man’s error in not detecting the ether, the energy substrate of the universe and thus entangling himself in a morass of confusion concerning the real nature of elementary particles and the ambient space medium. In the ether, there is no energy shortage and no dearth of raw material from which to fashion a whole new world.

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Is it any less tragic that the old order could not detect that most resplendent of all discoveries, the immortal spirit of man. The old order was too charmed with the dance of atoms, the smell of oily machines, and the seeming intellectual power of lightning-fast computers to take notice that it was they who gave life to the entrancing mirrors of matter.

Where was simple comprehension and under-standing? What breakdown has there been in the divine being of man that has driven him to exterminate his fellows, and wallow in pride for having conquered his weaker neighbors?

Now in its death throes, the old order is crying out that we must be conservative, that we must trust in the old ways, that we should continue to trust the dollar, that we should continue to support our leaders, that we must sacrifice for the times are hard, but who made the times?

A new order has arisen. The old order has planted its seed. The old order started a space program, but the new order bears the dream, and the new order kindles the fire of a new purpose – Space Colonization!

How many times has this drama unfolded? How many times has a race been born with a new conscious-ness and traveled out among the stars to reach the shores of new worlds? Who comes now from this world and that to watch the Earth, to observe the death throes of the old order, and give impetus to a new birth? There is no doubt now. We have visitors from afar and the times are changing. The youth are eager to greet the new age, and so are some old ones who prepared the way.

The challenge is there – to build a wheel in the sky in the place called L5. It is but the beginning of the new order’s reach for the stars. And other changes are taking place. The new order is rediscovering the SPIRIT OF MAN AND THE ‘SUBSTANCE OF THE UNIVERSE! New reaches of understanding are being attained.

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Power to bend a spoon may soon be extended to the power to propel a space cruiser through the galactic star dust to reach beyond yesterday’s horizons, to seek some brand new sun brightly burning on some infinite shore of mind, to ever seek further an explanation for our existence, and the evidence for a creator vastly more transcendent than conceived by the simple-minded materialist-oriented culture of the early twentieth century. This is the promise of tomorrow. This is the true meaning of space colonization.

CODA-IBA OIL

The ability of certain varieties of trees to convert the carbon-dioxide of the air to liquid hydrocarbons, has been known for many years, but only recently has it been discovered that the Copa-iba tree, a relative of the Brazilian rubber tree, growing in the Amazon area, produces a sap that is virtually identical with diesel fuel!

In an article written for Science News, Melvin Calvin, Nobel prize winning chemist, described the golden colored oily fluid that poured from a `bung hole’ drilled into one of the trees. He said that the Brazilians have already put the sap directly from the tree, into a car, and it ran fine! “And you don’t even need an oil Company” he added jokingly.

The trees grow to a height of more than 90 feet and, when fully mature are about three feet in diameter at the base. From a single hole drilled into one of the large trees, from three to five gallons of oil can be obtained in a few hours. However, the very small vertical veins which drain into the drilled `bung holes’ require about six months to refill. No one knows how many holes could be drilled into the same tree without killing it or impairing its function, since the Brazilians who gather

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the sap for use as a base for perfumes and for a healing ointment, have never drilled more than one hole in each tree. It has been estimated however that each of the large trees could, with careful handling, yield between thirty and fifty gallons of diesel fuel per year. While it is true that it would require a lot of trees to supply the world’s needs for diesel fuel, there is room in the Amazon jungles for a lot of trees, and the Brazilians have promised to send seeds to the U.S. for experimental plantings in areas in which they might thrive.

Who knows? The Copa-iba Oil Company may be a thriving concern when the major oil companies of today are only a distant memory.

BOOK REVIEW

“Guidance With Warmth and Understanding”

by Russell J. Fornwalt

BOYS by Paul N. Boughton. 120 pp. Boughton Books, 1’/z Dolson Avenue, Middleton, NY 10940. $ 5.95.

At last there’s a personal guidance book for boys that pulls no punches, makes no apologies for its emphasis on moral and spiritual values, and even recommends prayer. Boys by Paul N. Boughton, born and bred in Brooklyn, and in the real estate business for many years, presents everyday fatherly advice with warmth, affection and understanding.

Boughton, a volunteer Big Brother and youth leader for several decades, is neither hard-boiled nor mamby-pamby. His approach to the problems of boys is straight forward and direct without being preachy or overly pious. Boughton doesn’t weaken his case with the use of “street language” or social work rhetoric.

While Boys is addressed to lads in their teens, it is a book from which parents, teachers, social workers

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and other professionals will gain not a new perspective but a refreshing reminder of an old one. Conceptualization, theorizing and hypothetical speculation are not in Boughton’s bag, and the mature reader may gain the impression that the author. a graduate of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell, never even heard of such things.

On page after page, Boughton brings back to life those old-fashioned values and virtues which somehow or other got lost or at least smothered in modern        , sociological lingo.

For openers Boughton makes no bones about the fact that the Bible is “the most valuable book you will ever have.” And in the next breath he says, “Our soul is that spirit within every living person.” That is followed up by the Ten Commandments and John 13.34 (“love one another”).

Of course, Boughton’s approach will have a “corny” ring to the sophisticate or the ultra-professional. But it is just that down-to-earth quality that makes Boys so understandable and so delightfully different from a more “technical” or academic approach to the subject matter. Boughton revives plenty of platitudes and clichés, but they all make sense.

The author, who still takes boys here and there on Sunday outings, covers the waterfront as far as the, growing boy is concerned. In the book are such subtopics as: Ways to Look for a Job; Hobbies in Review; Friends; Your Disposition and Your Future; Good Health, Sunday School; Syphilis; Bible Verses; Favorite Poems; Money; Changes that Challenge you: Teen-age Commandments, and the White Lie.

Boughton in his warm and friendly “come in a little closer” style helps boys answer such questions as: Are You Bored?, How do you treat your family?, Do you know how to pray?, Can you forget?, How should you act?, Do you know what jail is like?, and So you want to run away?

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One thing’s for sure. Boys and, for that matter, adults can’t go wrong, if they follow Boughton’s many suggestions which include: choose your friends carefully, start from where you stand, learn to speak on your feet, read biographies and autobiographies, let your conscience be your guide, keep your chin up, enter every door of opportunity, and let your recreation be manful, not sinful.

UNDERSTANDING LOVE

by Lois H. Sargent

“I think `love’ is the most over-worked word in the English language,” said a friend. She had read in an article the phrase, “treat the problem with love, ” and it had meant nothing to her.

It is true that the word `love’ is sometimes used with vague or indefinite application to the subject under discussion. It may be helpful to present an analysis of this sublime word, for it has two distinct meanings. Love is both an emotion and a principle of living. To some individuals it is solely an emotion which needs ‘ an object. This person can love parents, mate, children, ‘ an intimate friend, or even a pet, but any other meaning of love he cannot fathom. To him there is no such thing as love in its abstract sense; he must love someone. Such love, when sincere and deep. enriches the life, for it usually inspires patience, cooperation, unselfish-ness, and even sacrifice. But personal love expects or hopes for some degree of reciprocation or it will not long survive. The feeling of love for another individual with whom there is no personal contact is more accurately defined as admiration or respect.

Love as a principle does not evoke demonstrations

25                                                  UNDERSTANDING

of affection. It is analogous to moral and ethical standards. We express this love when our decisions and actions are prompted by what is honest and fair in all our personal and public relationships.

We may practice love as a principle without being aware of it. For example, when a person voluntarily donates money or time to a worthy cause, he is ex pressing love as a principle. If a person finds money or some other valuable object and returns it to the owner without expectation of a reward, he is demonstrating love as a principle. Love in these situations is impersonal -simple good will towards others.

A businessman may not like his competitor, but if he uses love as a principle in his business dealings, he could never take advantage of his competitor, nor do anything harmful to him.

When impersonal love guides human action there will be no greed, subterfuge, or cunning. Prosperity is built upon good will and what benefits one will directly, or indirectly, benefit everyone. This is a very practical principle as well as an ideal of human conduct. The saying that “honesty is the best policy,” is but another expression of love as a principle.

When individuals practice love as a principle they will always give their best in any work they may do in whatever capacity they may serve.

Observing love as a principle may not always reward one with immediate rewards, but it always brings the satisfaction that comes from knowing that one has lived up to the best within oneself.

Meeting problems, or facing difficult or unpleasant situations with this impersonal love enables one to handle whatever comes with serenity and patience.

With the hopeful reaction to the unforeseen, one can wait for an acceptable change or adjustment brought about by circumstances or other persons, or one will receive the ideas and inspiration needed for the right decisions and actions. In this way one “treats the problem with love.”

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ESP & SYMBIOSIS

by Michael Beck, Ph.D.

No matter what condition we ultimately find our-selves in, we all start out in a more or less equal manner. The initial relationship between the mothers and the children is one in which the child is not really a separate entity. They share the same circulatory system and many changes in the mother’s body influence the child irrespective of any wishes that he might have. These ties are not dissolved with the birth of the child and research of recent years has shown just how much influence the mother has on the child. Some remarkable films, made in England, show that the infant child mimics the mother’s gestures in ways they both do not know. This type of communication – a type of non-verbal mirroring – also occurs in adult life, but as we grow older and become more independent we are probably less influenced by those around us because our nervous system is now less malleable.

This is a process which can however be reversed. An individual can become more symbiotic with people around him. This is an experience which people do not often avail themselves of because they fear fusion with the other person with whom they are in contact. They are more likely to fear this fusion if it has some type of negative consequences. One young lady, with whom I had been working for a number of months, eventually recounted in very convincing detail a number of psychic experiences which she had had as a child. As a young child these had been a source of fascination and amusement for her but as she grew older she began to have negative thoughts about her mother which were actualized. In one instance she wished that her mother would fall down the stairs and visualized the position she landed in. Consequently she became frightened of her psychic powers and put an end to them by getting

27                                                  UNDERSTANDING

distance from her mother. She accomplished this by fighting with her. Psychoanalysts learn to overcome this fear of closeness because in their own analysis they learn how to deal with feelings associated with dissolution of ego boundaries and are ultimately interested in the growth of their patient. Thus the therapeutic encounter provides many opportunities to study what happens when two people enter into an empathic understanding similar to what occurs between a mother and a child. What often happens is thought trans-mission. This probably occurs because the ability to communicate in such a manner exists normally in all of us as children but is lost as we grow up and become reliant on other modes of communication.

In my work as a therapist, I have witnessed many examples of thought transmission between myself and patients. Sometimes I am thinking of something and they say it. This is very common and could be explained in ways other than thought transmission. For example, the other day I was sitting in my office listening to a patient talk about his wife. For some reason or other my mind wandered onto thoughts about the fireplace in my office. All of a sudden the patient started talking about his fireplace. Now it is entirely possible that my eyes might have wandered over to the fireplace and the patient might have perceived that subliminally. He would then have begun to talk about the fireplace in order to focus my attention back on him.

Another example is not so easy to explain. A young man had been talking about things in general and I was pleased that he seemed improved. In the previous session he had discharged many negative feelings and his improvement was probably partially attributable to this. For some reason or other I began thinking about the devil. The next words out of the patient’s mouth were, “Do you know anything about devil worship?” My impression was that since I was feeling more

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positively toward the patient we were better able to enter into empathic communication, but again this could be explained by coincidence. Incidentally in this case the patient and his mother had a symbiotic relationship. What he did had a tremendous effect on his mother in much the same way as the young lady who was discussed previously.

The third incident which I will cite is much more convincing since the communication took place between two people who were separated by many miles. The recipient was a psychologist and the transmitter was his supervisor. It seems that his supervisor had received a manuscript in the mail from an expatriate English psychoanalyst living in Mexico. Although initially she had expressed interest in this manuscript and had invited its submission, upon reading it she decided that it really wasn’t appropriate for her Journal. The frustrated author wrote back an extremely vituperative letter in which he accused the Journal Editor and all literary people on the East Coast of being functionally illiterate and unsophisticated. The Journal editor decided that such an attack could not go un-answered and she decided to write to the expatriate in a style which would mimic that great unsophisticate Will Rogers. Unfortunately she could not think of his name. That night her supervisee had a dream about Will Rogers. The next time he saw his supervisor he felt impelled to tell her this dream. He experienced a considerable amount of anxiety during the telling. He and the supervisor studied his feeling and decided that it was related to the anxiety which could be en-gendered by too close a relationship. Being able to communicate in such an extraordinary manner certainly implied closeness and willingness to cooperate which is typical of a symbiotic relationship. The super-visor had demonstrated her desire to be helpful by editing the psychologists manuscripts and guiding his work as a therapist. The case that they had been

29                                                  UNDERSTANDING

discussing for the past two years was that of a symbiotic mother-son pairing. The psychologist, as a child, had had a symbiotic relationship with his mother and felt in fact that he could never really be free of her influence until she died.

In this article I have attempted to provide a rationale for psychic phenomenon based on the concept of symbiosis and the early mother-child relationship. While this type of tie may explain or be involved in many instances of ESP it probably doesn’t explain all of it. The interested reader who wishes to pursue this topic further should contact the Behavioral Science Tape Library, c/o Sigma Information, 485 Main Street, Fort Lee, New Jersey 07024. The related topic is en-titled “Parapsychiatry.”

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BULLETIN BOARD

Apologies are due all those patient people-our sub-scribers who waited and waited–and Waited for the  Understanding magazine. Circumstances beyond our control went into high gear–and what’s worse, they’re still operating. The next two magazines will also be late. Hopefully we’ll catch up by the New Year.

 ♦  ♦  ♦ 

If you came to the convention at Astara, Oct. 27th, you know it was a great success. There were over one hundred in attendance and speakers covered all aspects of the UFO mystique and some other matters got into the act also such as energy devices to operate America without the blackmail submission we currently endure. Some of those ideas may take head-lines for the future. An April gathering is being thought about. And if you missed this one, better keep in touch for the spring event.

Those who are interested in developments in the energy field should write to The Clean Energy Research Institute, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla., P.O. Box 248294, 33124 for the brochure on the 2nd inter-        , national conference on Clean Energy. There is a packed program on Solar and Hydrogen Energy, Photovoltaics and economics related to the development of same. The Institute is jointly sponsored by the International Association for Hydrogen Energy. It’s good to know wise people are doing something constructive about our needs! Ye Old Editor will be there–maybe you should too.

 ♦  ♦  ♦ 

FLASH

Available For The First Time!

A new book by Daniel W. Fry!

Those of you who have read and enjoyed the serious writings of Mr. Fry, now have the once in a lifetime opportunity, of becoming acquainted with his lighter side, through this 50 year collection of his hitherto unpublished verse.

His gradually developing and expanding philosophy of life, from early youth to maturity, is reflected in this volume of sometimes serious, but more often humorous, looks at life and its many problems.

Published by Exposition Press in New York, this excellently done, hard-bound book will endure for a lifetime. The publisher’s price for this treasure is $5.00, but we have a few copies available to our readers and their friends which will be mailed postpaid upon the receipt of the introductory price of $4.00, if the order is received before January 1, and if the limited supply has not al-ready been exhausted. Mail your order to, Verse & Worse, 1606 Mountain View Drive, Alamogordo, New Mexico. 88310. You will be glad you did!!

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VERSE AND WORSE

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If cares of life have got you down,

And you can’t do a thing but frown,

Relax, and read this book of verse,

You’ll see that things could be much worse!

You’ll grin a bit, and chuckle too,

Forgetting things that trouble you.

If you have erred, and played the fool,

And have completely lost your cool,

If you have thoughts of suicide,

What can you do if you have died?

There is no future in a hearse,

Just try a page of Verse and Worse!

Though fools we mortals well may be,

And prone to take life seriously,

There is a way we can escape,

Without resort to Omar’s grape,

If you’ve a date beneath the bough,

Just read her Verse and Worse, and WOW

 

 ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦ 

UNDERSTANDING INC., CONVENTION TAPES

Would you like to be able to have an Understanding convention in your own home? Would you like to present all of the lectures to your friends and acquaintances? They are available NOW!

AVAILABLE NOW – Cassette Tape of the ‘Man in Space’ convention lectures.

AL WRIGHT, (Project Director for the ‘Space Shuttle’) – “The Age of Aero-Space Transportation.”

PAT CODY, (Director of Aero-Space Education, Pacific Region, U.S.A.F.) – “Our Aero-Space Heritage.”

DR. RAY BROWN, (H.M.D., Ph.D.) – “Your Health In Space.”

DR. DANIEL W. FRY – (President of Understanding, Inc.) – “Preparing to Live in Space.”

DR. MERVIN STRICKLER, (Chief of Aviation Education Programs Div., F.A.A.) – “Russian Aero-Space Education Training.”

All tapes – $5.25 ea. (Postpaid). Send orders to ‘Tapes’, c/o Understanding, Inc., Star Route Box 588F, Tonopah, Arizona 85354.

UNDERSTANDING INC., CONVENTION TAPES