During the last few months, it has become increasingly obvious that the science of mathematics will play a major, and perhaps a decisive role in the coming election campaigns. It is no longer considered feasible to base individual or party platforms upon simple, and relatively understandable statements of position and of purpose. It is plain that if statements of purpose are made which can be understood by the public, they may be accepted by some but are certain to be rejected by others. Thus many votes may be lost which might have been retained if a more devious approach had been made.

The present administration must, and will. base its hope of reelection principally upon a number of figures, such as the number of U.S. troops still in Viet Nam on November 1st; the number of unemployed persons in the U.S.; the then current rate of inflation; the balance-of-payments deficit, etc.

Such figures are, however, seldom absolute, since they are virtually always manipulated to some extent by the application of various forms of “adjustment.” For example-The Administration recently announced, quite optimistically, that the “Seasonally adjusted percentage of national unemployment had dropped significantly, even though the actual number of unemployed persons was some hundreds of thousands

2 UNDERSTANDING

greater than it had been during the previous month! (The amount and direction of each such ‘adjustment’ will, of course, depend upon the Q.E.D. factor, or what is intended to be proven by the adjusted figure.

Those who hope to replace the present incumbents in the coming election will probably use similar figures, but will apply quite different adjustments and will thereby reach opposite conclusions. This rapidly growing Political Numbers Game has proven to be a relatively safe election gambit, since there is virtually no opportunity for any average voter to verify even the basic figures used, much less the validity of the various forms of adjustment.

Another phase of the Numbers Game is the multitude of public opinion polls which are certain to be taken, and which virtually always favor those who initiate them. Of course, if the voters can be convinced, by the use of ‘Public Opinion Polls,’ or any other statistical stratagem, that a given person is practically certain to be elected, there are many who will switch their votes to that person, just “to be on the winning side.” This switch of votes will, of course, greatly increase the probability that the seemingly favored individual will, in fact, be elected.

Whatever may be our political beliefs or preference, when choosing the square in which to place our X, it might be well to remember that, while the old adage states “Figures Don’t Lie,” it is equally true that, in the hands of an expert manipulator, they can readily be persuaded to support any desired conclusion!

 ♦ 

THE DISINHERITED RACE

Born here ages before white men came, the Indian had the entire country to himself, its streams, lakes, forests, mountains and game of all kind. Land to the Indian is indispensable to life. He did not consider it merchantable property but its users had every right to enjoy it. This feeling still persists among the Indians today.

They were a happy carefree people. The great out-of-doors was their school and mother nature their teacher. No man owned the wood of the forests, the waters of the rivers nor the soil of the earth. They were the harvest of the land that belonged to the nation.

Strangers came to their land. The strangers became many and filled the country, pushing the Indian out. They made their clothes from the

MARCH, 1972 3

hides and wool of animals that eat the grass, raised cities out of the stones and rocks; they dug in the mountains for gold and built houses out of the trees of the forest. All of this came from the land that was first given to the Indian.

The Indians of today know that their Indian ways will soon perish. But they still continue to cling to the ways of their ancestors. I feel that in their society and in their religion they have values well worth preserving. Their ideas on unity and their reverence for mother earth are two very good examples.

Some say the Indian is a child of nature and it is a mistake to try to civilize him. It is felt that civilization might spoil him. To educate him would make him common like the rest of us. I feel that many trails lead to the same road. By using the values of all races we should grow spiritually stronger and richer, especially if the contributing trails are not shut off but allowed to run into the main road of our society, where they can be used.

Yes, we brought under control the Indian along with coyotes, rattle-snakes and mountain lion. The true Indians of old did not need legislation to enable them to keep their native religious concepts. Their existence seems miserable as compared with ours but it is satisfactory to them. They believe that there is no better way to live. They have no other ambition than to be alive. They are content among themselves. To engage in manual labor is beneath the dignity- of the hunter and warrior. We are indebted to a people poor in things but rich in spirit. Let’s not let the values of these great people become extinct along with the Indian population.

–Dawn M. Tiietje

 ♦ 

A CHILD’S SPECTRUM

The little white girl reached out to grasp the hand of the little black boy as they walked out of the door of the neighborhood settlement house. They appeared as carefree as any four-year old children as they descended the steps, swinging their clasped hands in a certain rhythmic pattern.

Suddenly the girl turned her face toward the boy, her blond pony tail swinging to the side and, in a matter-of-fact voice, asked, “Are you going to have supper tonight?”

4 UNDERSTANDING

The little boy’s round brown eyes met hers and in the same matter-of-fact voice he answered, “How should I know.”

Then they descended the last step and together made their way out into the early evening.

I watched them cross the street, their tightly clasped hands still swinging while their heads began to bob from side to side in matching rhythm. Suddenly their small voices burst into song. I strained my ears in vain to hear the words; the melody was unfamiliar to me. It sounded like a fun song, as children say; the tune was catchy and the rhythm lively. They then crossed the street and entered the next block. Their song was becoming more faint as it blended into the many noises of the street. I stood there on the steps watching them until they looked like black and white dots with swinging arms and bobbing heads disappearing into the dusk.

How naturally they live, I whispered. They simply like each other. Suddenly I realized that I had just seen a rare and precious gem emerge from the black sands of our, so often ugly and hate-filled world. For a few fleeting moments I had the rare privilege of witnessing a most beautiful relationship, and it was born out of the naturalness of children. Their black and white clasped hands swung freely in perfect rhythm to their song.

“Oh God,” I sighed, “What if the whole world were so magnificently color blind.”

How hate would be crucified and love would have free reign.

–Jean Heuton

 ♦ 

WORLD ECOLOGY YEAR 1972

WHEN Tweedledum (the “free” capitalist world) and Tweedledee (the earnestly dreary communist world) had agreed to have a battle

Just by then flew a monstrous crow

As black as a tar-barrel,

Which frightened both these heroes so

They quite forgot their quarrel.

Because today every political, international, ideological, and racial dispute is piffling and irrelevant beside the fact that human beings, with misapplied technology, are about to destroy their planet. Air and

MARCH, 1972 5

water, for example, cannot be divided by political boundaries; the rich must breathe the same air as the poor. We are, as the saying goes, all in the same boat-and the boat is sinking.

· The planet is dangerously overpopulated, and there will be a world-wide famine by 1975 unless food production is increased by 25%.

· Water is the most essential ingredient of life in shortest supply. We are wasting and contaminating it at top speed.

· The very existence of nuclear weapons and radioactive wastes presents the problem, not merely of avoiding atomic war but how to get these materials off the planet.

· Likewise, we have created, for military reasons, chemical and biological poisons whose mere presence, much less actual use, is a danger to all life on earth.

· We are increasingly being suffocated not only with the gases from burnt oil, but also under mountains of paper (involving also the disasters of deforestation) employed for recording life rather than living it, and so representing an insane confusion of reality with words. Thus, doctors and nurses must devote so much time to paperwork that they can hardly practice medicine.

· Human life depends on coexistence with a vast variety of animals, insects, plants, and bacteria, many of which are in danger of ex-termination through industrial wastes and ill-conceived methods of hunting, pest-control, and commercial fishing.

THEREFORE:

· The individual must acquire a new sensation of himself-not as a skin-bounded person threatened by the rest of the world, but as a localized action of the entire universe, inseparable from every other biological, geological, and astronomical process.

· There must be a World Ecology Year in 1972 (at the very latest) to divert the attention of all nations and peoples from their trivial quarrels to the overwhelming and centrally important problem of man’s relation to his physical environment.

· Many bridges are being built toward this MUST by 1972, including:

o The Swedish Delegation to the United Nations (825 Third Ave., New York, N.Y.) which has already taken the preliminary steps for this action under the auspices of the U.N.

o The Growth Centers of North America (some 90 independent organizations involved in the Human Potential-Humanistic movement-would like to invite a large number of ecologically concerned leaders in science, philosophy, sociology, and other disciplines to spend from 6 to 12 months in 1972 as guests of these Centers to conduct seminars and lectures to determine action on these problems.

6 UNDERSTANDING

· Many other individuals and groups unknown to us are concerned with the ecological problem, and we invite them to get in touch with their nearest Growth Center, with the Swedish Delegation, or with the Esalen Institute, P.O.Box 31389, San Francisco, Ca. 94131.

This manifesto is issued at the request of the Growth Centers of North America, at a meeting held in San Francisco in July 1969.

RICHARD FARSON

MICHAEL MURPHY

ROBERT B. SHAPIRO

ALAN WATTS

 ♦ 

ON BEING AWARE

(This series of articles is offered with the special permission of Janice Aurah Kramer. The full text may be had from Miss Kramer at P.O. Box 26515, Edendale St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90026. A donation to cover printing and postage would be appreciated.)

Part 6-Self Portrait (con’t)

Are you afraid of aging,/dying? Do you want, or did you ever want, to die? Were you suicidal? Was this merely playing a game or did you really want to die? With, whom were you playing the game? Has anyone you loved died? Do you have guilt about their death? Have you made peace with them, with yourself ? What serious illnesses have you had? Which ones do you fear? In your opinion, is there a hell, heaven, afterlife, between life? Is death the end, the beginning, what? Is there a God?

What religion, if any, did your family bequeath to you? Did you accept your family’s religion? Did you go on a “God” hunt into other religions? Was one found that fit, or are you still hunting, an atheist, agnostic? If you still are hunting, have you turned within for the

MARCH, 1972 7

answers? Remember, you know all there is to know, but you don’t yet know you know.

Focus now on your day-to-day physical habits and the way you live in your body. What physical habits do you have that you want to change? Do you bite your nails, play with your hair, stutter, blush, take pills, smoke marijuana, drink? Do you find pleasure/pain in these patterns? Under what circumstances are you apt to retreat into one or more of these habits? Do certain persons make you respond that way? Do they initiate the behavior or did you?

Do you want to modify the behavior or remove it? What techniques have you used in the past to try and change the behavior? Did they work? If not, why? Did you receive encouragement for the change or did you do it out of rebellion? Can you trace the history of the behavior? Is there someone in your early life who has that particular habit? How does this person affect you?

In understanding the where, how, and why of the habit, decide if you, as an adult, still want this habit as is, modified, or dropped. If you want to change, devise ways to do so from where you are in the present. You created the habit. You know how to change it. But, remember, the habits you dislike the most will be the most deeply rooted. Thus, they will take the longest time to change. Be patient, but sometimes be impatient, but also be neutral and watch yourself changing.

The body within which you are housed is unique to you, in whatever condition it is functioning. Some impairments may be from birth, disease, or disuse, but you can begin today to take better care of yourself. Who else is more responsible for your welfare? And if your body is malfunctioning and it has burdened you, your positive attitude toward the handicap can make you stronger.

There are many things you can do to improve your bodily functioning, but first you must be aware of the ways in which you have been mistreating the marvelous, mystifying machine in which you live. For example, do you line your body? What do you feel about it? The shape of it, the skin, the way it functions, the feel, some of these, all of these, others? Look at yourself. What do you see? Someone too fat, too small, too tall ? Have you had a part of your body corrected by surgery ? Was this physically necessary or a luxury? How did the charge help or hinder you?

This is the body in which you will be living for the rest of your life.

s UNDERSTANDING

Whatever shape it is in, it is the constant companion of your emotional, mental, and spiritual life. If you treat it with wisdom and love, it will respond in kind. You will find things like headaches, menstrual cramps, stomach aches, constipation and many other physical ailments may lessen and disappear.

Don’t believe. Test for yourself. How? First identify the parts of your body that give you trouble. For example, if it is your stomach, when does it get upset? Is the upset tied to food, person or event? Do you keep making the same mistake over and over again? Do you often overeat, or under eat, to punish yourself or someone else? Does anyone in your family have the same physical problems? Did they predict you would have illnesses? Did anyone in your family have an unusual amount of sicknesses that could be caused by negative thinking, improper physical care, neglect, etc? Is this true of you?

Trace each illness or habit to the source in time and place. Did it begin as an infant, in puberty, teenage, adulthood? Tie it to an event/ person, if you can. When not in a similar situation, does the symptom persist?

Look at your face now. Do you like your features? If not, what a waste of emotion. Eyes are to see, nose to smell, ears to hear, and mouth to speak and eat. Rather than concentrating your energies on disliking-or hating-a part of your own unique individuality, concentrate on improving and refining the sense.

Your body is truly your temple, and if you have abused it-or continue to abuse it-who are you helping, who are you hurting?

To be concluded in April issue

 ♦ 

VISION OF UNDERSTANDING

In the world’s best selling book, The Bible, you will find the admonition – “In all your getting, get understanding.” And truly it is something great, for Without it nothing can be accomplished, while with it, the limits of possible accomplishment are only the limits of understanding. With the exception, of course, of the limits of the extent of its application. For it is obvious that one can understand how to do something, but if the understanding is not put into practice, it will do no good.

MARCH, 1972 9

To progress logically, let us commence with a definition of under-standing. To me, understanding is a knowing of the true relationship of cause and effect. This is a study which never ceases, a life time adventure in learning. Sometimes we learn easily and swiftly, but often slowly through the hard school of experience.

The many Understanding Units have done a great service in helping to bring some of this expanded understanding in an easy, pleasant way. They have presented lecturers who were experts in many phases of life; carried on study groups; and, in many ways, assisted others to greater enlightenment. The subjects covered have been many and varied and interesting, specializing in many areas which are still new to a large part of mankind. These have included ESP, (extra sensory perception) in its many ways of application; reincarnation or re-embodiment; life after death; former civilizations and prophecies of things to corm; astrology and numerology and kindred occult studies; the human aura; control of thought and of feelings and their relationship to health and success in life; and, perhaps greatest of all, the learning of space ships, the so-called flying saucers, and our friends from other planets and the great help and expanded understanding they are bringing to us.

So, in these meetings, conventions and study groups we have learned much. But this is not enough! If the understanding gained is not used sufficiently, the interest lags and the groups become inactive. We have been learning; now it seems we need to be doing-working toward our vision!

Our personal task becomes one of maintaining a feeling of loving kindness to all we contact. We must endeavor to become like a small Sun, shedding light and blessings on all.

Likewise, as part of our vision, each Understanding group should also become a Sun of light and peace in its community. Each group should become a focal point for developing and initiating projects to further the illumination and spiritual growth of the people in its area. Our high ideals and purposes will draw into the groups many community leaders to assist in expanding peace and harmony everywhere.

In turn, these groups will inspire other community organizations into greater cooperation. The churches, the service clubs, the women’s clubs, the business organizations, and other, will find a true brotherhood in mutual assistance.

10 UNDERSTANDING

The vision expands. This loving harmony, starting with an Under-standing Unit, would increase to blend with other groups in the state; each state would expand to include the nation; and then circle around the world. As the world comes into this Universal Brotherhood, we will have done our part to prepare for the Great Golden Age of true Peace on Earth.

– Mark Brownell

 ♦ 

THOUGHTS

(In appreciation to my darling Tahahlita and my dear Dan who, along with others, “Pulled Up the Shade” and I saw God in all my beautiful people.”

THOUGHTS are things …
once THOUGHT they stay…

So I THOUGHT to myself
OH GOD. .. help me today!

I have searched so long
for YOU up above

OH God… please come
For I NEED your LOVE.

Then a voice inside me
seemed to say.. .

STOP looking UP
for that’s NOT the way …

So I looked WITHIN
and suddenly felt FREE. . .

OH MY GOD. . . MY GOD. . .
MY GOD’S INSIDE ME!

I felt so upraised
as HE lifted my load. . .

So filled with HIS POWER
I thought I’d EXPLODE …

I wanted to SHOUT.. .
Dear Friends look WITHIN

And LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING
in your life will BEGIN.

MARCH, 1972 11

LET GO of your fears.. . of
distress and doubt …

The GOD POWER WITHIN
will start to FLOW OUT …

The UNIVERSAL FORCE is
for everyone who lives. . .

Be it on EARTH
or the PLANET that IS…

For GOD is for ALL…
and GOD’S EVERYWHERE…

GOD IS LOVE
for us ALL to share …

So think good THOUGHTS…
for once THOUGHT they stay …

THINK LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING…
FOR OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD EACH DAY!

 ♦ 

world report

UFO Sighted By Three

Charleston Gazette, (W. Va.), Jan. 8, 1972

After almost a year of no UFO activity, an “unidentified flying object has been sighted in the area.

Three persons said they spotted the object Friday. All described it as fish shaped.

One caller didn’t want to be named, but Mrs. Helen Masters and her husband, Ora, described the object a being of a “pretty good size.”

Mrs. Masters said she thought at first it was a jet, but it stayed in one place.

Both observers said the thing they sighted was orange in color. The Masters live at 215 Roane St. The unnamed caller said she lived at South Charleston.

The object hovered over the St. Albans area for several minutes and then vanished, according to both callers.

12 UNDERSTANDING

African Laws Adapt to Witchcraft

Mount Vernon (O.) News, October 28, 1971

GRAHAMSTOWN, South Africa (AP)-When witchcraft comes into the courtroom, criminal law in South Africa adapts to it.

Supreme Court Justice Donald Kannemeyer says this sometimes results in lenient sentences in murder cases which would amaze other parts of the world.

Murders involving witchcraft would not always be called murder in the sense that it was understood in other countries, Kannemeyer said. Unlike Britain, South African criminal law has recognized extenuating circumstances in murder cases since 1935.

“In South African criminal law we look at a man’s intention subjectively and not objectively in terms of a mythical `reasonable man.’ “If the court can accept that the accused really believed he was not killing a human being but a tikoloshe (evil spirit) he will be found not guilty of murder although he will be found guilty of lesser crime such as culpable homicide (manslaughter),” Kannemeyer said.

There were three kinds of murder arising out of a belief in witch-craft. A man might kill somebody believing him to be a witch who: would endanger either him or, more probably, members of his family.

There was a kind of hypnotic trance believed to be caused by witches, when the sufferer killed someone he thought was not a human being. The judge said he had been the first to use this hypnotic state, known as “mfufunyana,” as a defense plea in a murder trial. It was now accepted as an extenuating circumstance.

A murder charge also might arise out of an actual intention to cure Kannemeyer gave as an example a woman herbalist who, after years of practice had a patient who died. It was found that the patient had not followed her instructions.

Supernatural explanations for inexplicable disasters were natural among people of simple technologies, the judge said. In cases of sickness, drought, floods, the death of children, it was the explanation which was important to the man in the street.

Chinese Women Liberated

By Arlene Lum, for UPI, Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Ore., Feb. 2, 1972

Women in China have taken their places alongside men in schools and universities and the military, and they are swelling the ranks of labor.

MARCH, 1972 13

Every pair of able hands is important, so although the government’s birth control program is quieter than in year’s past, contraceptive drugs .and devices are available free to any married woman.

Aside from freeing women for work, birth control also holds down the population, believed to be near 800 million. An ideal family, I was told, consists of two children.

A 41-year-old woman, Liu Jejiu, said her life had been difficult but that “now after liberation we (women) are not looked down upon by others. I do the same work as a man. I get the same pay.”

The personable woman added, “I have the same position as a man politically and economically. I can attend every meeting a man can and can say what I think is right.” She and her husband discuss family matters as equals.

I met women who were officials of schools, hospitals, communes, factories and government committees. But I also saw women who were digging ditches, planting rice, driving trucks, pedaling heavy carts or carrying heavy sacks on their backs.

None of these women could have been mistaken for men as some observers have said. They wear no jewelry, but there is a charm and a beauty about their clean, well-scrubbed plainness.

A delightful example of how women’s roles have changed is a common sight-father’s carrying and cuddling their children and happily taking them on excursions without mother along. Perhaps she was working!

Satellites, Power Without Pollution

By Howard Benedict, for AP, The Eagle-Gazette, Dec. 20, 1971

CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. (AP)-To solve a growing power crisis on earth, man is studying how to use orbiting satellites to convert the sun’s rays into pollution-free electrical energy.

The Air Force, the space agency and some industrial concerns have looked into the possibility of placing a network of satellites in stationary orbits. The idea would be to have their banks of solar cells capture solar heat and transform it to electricity. Generators then would convert the electricity to microwaves, which would be beamed to an earth station for reconversion to electricity.

The studies show such a system could be developed in this country. It initially would be costly, but proponents say the eventual saving to the environment might make it worthwhile.

14 UNDERSTANDING

“The ecology of the earth simply may not be capable of sustaining or even tolerating the growth of power-generating capacity so long as power plants are based on the principles of thermodynamics and have to utilize the surface of the earth or its atmosphere as a heat sink or as a repository of its waste materials,” he said.

That is why science is looking to the sun as a possible power source. Glaser reported.

Delphos UFO Site Studies

Salina (Kansas) Journal, January 21, 1972

Delphos-A scientist connected with Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Professor of Northwestern University, again has visited the Durel Johnson farm near here, where a UFO was sighted November 2, 1971.

Ted Phillips, Sedalia, Mo., returned to the Delphos area January 11 for further investigations. He previously visited the site in early December. He is gathering information and soil samples from the dehydrated ring left by an unknown object at the Delphos farm.

“An analysis of the UFO soil is being conducted by the University of Missouri but no results are yet available.”

As a means of further experimentation, Phillips planted seeds in both the soil where the UFO hit the ground and in regular soil. The seed in the UFO soil did not sprout, whereas seed in the regular soil grew normally.

Phillips said other UFOs have appeared across the nation since the Delphos incident. “At St. Petersburg Fla., a photographer took photos of a formation of UFO objects in the air, Dec. 30, 1971,” Phillips said.

Trash Plant Makes Oil

Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Ore., Feb. 5, 1972

LA VERNE, Calif. (UPI)-An oil company Thursday unveiled a plant that turns garbage and trash into oil, metals, glass and charcoal. The byproducts of trash can be sold and the money used to pay for some of the cost of collecting America’s millions of tons of waste, the company said.

With officials from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and authorities in San Diego County looking on, Occidental Petroleum Corp. demonstrated a four-story high pilot plant that the company said could process four tons of waste a day.

A research engineer vacuumed some trash into a pipe, and oil gushed out the other end.

MARCH, 1972 15

It is potentially an excellent system, particularly in areas where power plants are designed for oil or gas fuels,” said Steve Levy, an EPA official.

“It’s the only way to go,” was the reaction from Case Houston, director of the San Diego County Department of Sanitation and Flood Control.

According to researchers the plant will produce a 42-gallon barrel of low sulphur content synthetic fuel oil from each ton of organic waste, such as food garbage. The fuel oil is worth $2.50 to $4 a barrel.

The pilot plant has had technical problems with the tricky process however, and so far has produced only 15 gallons of useable oil. And the end product oil is dirty and must be filtered, it was reported.

If all the garbage and waste in the United States could be fed through such a plant, the oil produced would fill half the U.S. energy requirement of 1980, company spokesmen said.

The plant can be fueled by itself, by the gas, charcoal and other combustible, products it produces, which can run electrical generators, spokesmen said.

 ♦ 

CONSIDER THE CONCEPT

“In the early nineteen twenties a Dr. Hanish made known his findings on the Divine Atom. He said within the back of the fourth chamber or left auricle, there was a fifth chamber; within this chamber was the Divine Atom. This chamber is an airless cell and maintains a perfect vacuum. When exposed to a microscopic camera and when enlargements were made up to a million times, the magnified Divine Atom became visible. It appeared as a mature, sexless, human being in perfect youth; it is the same in an old person as in a new born babe, mature and youthful. It is and remains free from all human qualities. It stands upright without touching the cell walls anywhere.

“Within the Christ Flame in each one’s heart is the perfect image and likeness of his Creator. There is the Divine Pattern, just as it was in Jesus. Each one should let his Christ Self burst the tomb of his own human concepts and externalize the Divine Plan.”

(Life and Teachings of Jesus and Mary, A.D.K. Luk Publications)

16 UNDERSTANDING

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

What the Bible Can Tell Us

“How can you command people to love?” the college student asked me. “The Bible commands us to love our neighbors, or love our enemies, but everybody knows that you can’t love on order-it has to originate on the inside, as a feeling.”

“It comes from poor translation,” I said. “Do you imagine the wise men who wrote the Bible were so psychologically naive that they imagined anyone could be commanded to love, even if God orders it?

“Here is a Hebrew construction that can only be rendered archaically in English as `love to your neighbor,’ and which means `act lovingly toward him.’ And that is the commandment.”

Obviously, it is not within our power to love or not love; charitably or uncharitably. Love, as we commonly understand it, is an emotion, and emotions cannot be legislated; but loving acts proceed from the will, and we can will ourselves to behave kindly toward those we do not like, which is the real merit.

Not only were the authors of the Bible not psychologically naive, they even anticipated the sages and philosophers of later times, in many of the precepts they handed down to us, which we misunderstand.

Why, for instance, are we commanded to act lovingly toward our neighbors and our enemies? Not just because God wants to, or because it will help us “enter Heaven,” whatever that may mean, but because it will benefit us as well as them, and because it teaches us what love is.

Virtue, as Aristotle wrote long after the Bible, is a habit of the will. Just as, when we exercise physically, our muscles get stronger, so when we exercise our will in virtuous ways, we strengthen our character. And if we act lovingly enough, we begin to feel lovingly. Just try taking care of goldfish for a couple of months, much less a person, and you will recognize the emotional truth of this.

As long as “love your neighbor” is regarded as some pious injunction, or as some impossibly Utopian prescription for the future, it remains an inert truth mumbled by people on Sundays and forgotten the rest of the time. Once it is understood as a dynamic psychological axiom that can open up a life as the coming of a summer opens up a flower, then it become; a living force that can be stronger than any other element in our social life.

MARCH, 1972 17

The Bible has for too long been captured by the wrong people, for their own narrow or self-righteous purposes. If today’s young people were equipped to read it as it was written, it would prove more “liberating” to their spirits than any of the “modern” slogans they cling to -so desperately. If you want to learn what love is, that’s where to go.

-Sidney J. Harris

 ♦ 

PERSPECTIVE

We poor smart fools! -Enslaved by logic, scourged by conscience to struggle against ourselves endlessly,-Have we even forgotten our permanent home, that we came here from Oblivion for a visit? Why are we never homesick?

The vaunted intelligence of Man is its own appraiser. How does it rate in context with the universe? Can the men who design and build computers match the skill of a robin? Let them try using only their mouth to build a nest strong enough to hold them safely in a swaying tree. Which of our navigating devices equals that of a salmon or a Monarch butterfly?

The bit of life in man is so tightly bound,-limited by physical laws, monitored by the brain,-nearly a stranger to its host; barely recognizable as part of the amorphous pool, as cloud vapor or a raindrop is a temporary separation from the Sea.

The man who would know something of the spark of life within him must tolerate the scorn of the crowd. He is shunned as a harmless mystic or caged as being crazy.

Withdrawal is the polite term.

♦ ♦ ♦

Origin – Destiny – (we live in between for a moment.)

-Carl A. Taylor

 ♦ 

PRAYER OF A PERFECT WIFE

Help me, O Father, not to try so hard. Let me own my possessions; but let them not own me. Give me the courage to let our house look a little lived in, to leave dishes in the sink sometimes, to tolerate a towel hung crooked on its rack. Stay my feet when I might rush in to wipe away all traces of my husband’s shower. Gentle my tongue when he

18 UNDERSTANDING

does a service for me but not to my liking. Help me express my gratitude to him, and to accept that his way need not be my way. Remind me that my house is the home of our marriage, that my husband has rights and opinions and desires as important as mine

Permit me now and then to know that I am wrong, as others are; give me grace to admit it aloud. Let me allow others their mistakes and their faults as they allow me mine. Grant that I may learn the lessons in humility You would teach me.

And dear Father, please enable me to give more fully of my inmost self to those who love me. Free me from the fear that in loving and touching and closeness with another human being, I might stand re-revealed, inadequate. If You would have me strive for perfection, let it be in my love for others. Keep me remembering that the only perfect One was He in whose name we pray.

Amen.

-Cornelia M. Parkinson

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Inglewood Unit Offers Dr. Fry Tape

Mr. and Mrs L. A. Stevens, members of Unit 15, Inglewood, Calif., have voluntarily donated their services for tape-copying the Dan Fry lecture-The Area of Mutual Agreement.

The tape, on a five inch reel, is available for a donation of $3.00. Funds realized will be used by Understanding, Inc., to further this message.

MARCH, 1972 19

Do write to C. R. Gahlbeck, Unit 15, 4515 W. 170th St., Lawndale, Calif. 90260, for your copy of this significant tape.

Understanding Convention

We are making our plans. Are you making yours?

The Third Annual Understanding Convention is now scheduled for the weekend of June 23, 24 and 25, and will be held at the International Cultural Center of Understanding, Merlin, Ore.

Please advise us if you wish a copy of the printed program when it is available – probably in May. A self-addressed stamped envelope would be very helpful.

Address Changes

In order not to miss any issues of the Understanding Magazine you are requested to send your address change promptly.

With increasing postal costs and our minimal subscription price we can no longer afford to forward your magazines returned to us because of an address change. We already are charged ten cents for each issue returned.

Your cooperation is needed and appreciated.

April Understandorama

Mrs. Esther Ellsworth announces that another Understandorama is to be held on April 16th, at the Grisworld Inn, 515 West Foothill Blvd., Claremont, Calif.

The program will commence at 10 A.M., with a Special Evening Session from 7 to 9 P.M. Donation for the day program will be $3.00, for the evening, $1.50.

Speakers include: Margaret Rompage of Arcane Workshop, Dr. Kathryn Whiting of the Phoenix Institute, Dr. Douglas Low of the Manley Hall Center, Col. Arthur J. Burks, Akashic Record Reader. Music will be provided by Caroline Nuckles, pianist and Vicki Ready, vocalist.

Complete program details may be had by sending stamped, self-addressed envelope to Mrs. E. Ellsworth, P.O. Box 616, Morongo Valley, Calif. 92256.

Advertisers Note!

Understanding, Inc. is contemplating a Special, enlarged newsstand issue of the Understanding Magazine sometime in 1972. Details are

20 UNDERSTANDING

not yet finalized but we suggest that advertisers interested write to our Merlin address for rate schedules. These will be mailed as soon as. determined.

Units Elect Officers

Congratulations are due the recently elected officers of the following Units

Merlin Unit 1: President, Dr. Daniel W. Fry; Vice-President & Program Chairman, Harvey E. Campbell; Secretary-Treasurer, Mrs. Aleta Johnston; and Mr. & Mrs. Wm. Lekey, Publicity.

San Jose Unit 80: President, Elmer Neville; Vice-President, Heather (Buckley) Neville; Secretary, Dorothy (Chenoweth) Sager; and Gene Sager, Treasurer.

North Muskegon, Mich.: President, La Verne Nelson; Vice-President. Mary Stone; Secretary, Carolyn L. Civis ; Treasurer, Bea Evans ; and Librarian, Linda Bletsch.

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6c per word per insertion; 3 or more insertions same copy, 5c per word.

THE ATLANTEAN CHRONICLES By HENRY M. EICHNER

AT LAST! Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Atlantis! The Atlantean scholar will use this book to check on the possible locations of this lost continent. He will also use it to locate English language stories about Atlantis, as over 100 books are reviewed. $9.50 from Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc., 1855 W. Main St., Alhambra, Calif. 91801.

WANTED: UNDERSTANDING Printer (15 Years!) looking for a $5000 loan, secured by printing equipment. Will pay 10% interest. Repay on monthly basis. Excellent payment record. Bill Crawford, 14351 Alwood, Baldwin Park, Calif. 91706.

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Understanding, Inc. P. O. Box 22, Sta. C. Pasadena, Calif. 91104

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EDGAR CAYCE ITEMS

FREE PRICELIST

of natural herbal remedies recommended in the Edgar Cayce readings available on request. Includes Her-bal Cough Syrup, Herbal Spring Tonic, Herbal Mouthwash for gum problems, natural oils for massage, Inhalant for respiratory problems, and many, many more.

THE HERITAGE STORE

P. O. Box 444

Virginia Beach, Va. 23458

FLYING SAUCERS OVER QUEBEC!

A New Authoritative Paper Reporting and Evaluating Strange Aerial Phenomena Over the Only French Province in Canada. Full of Brand New, Authentic Pictures of Bizarre Little Monsters, Lake Plunging Disks, Observations of Mother Ships in Operation “Research! Promising Conclusions are Offered by the Authors who’ve Deeply Delved into The M y s t e r y of Extraterrestrial Visitation to Earth … Send $2.00 for 12 issues to:

COSMOS-EXPRESS

P.O. Box 3

Jonquiere, Quebec, Canada

“TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE”

Writings

JANICE AURAH KRAMER

God and Me and Everything

On Being Aware

On How to Become a Universal Citizen

On Living Life As An Adventure and a Trip

On How to Have An Honest Relationship With Self, Others and the Universe

Donation

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One year: $66

These rates are for additional insertions of the same copy. The charge for copy change is $3.00 per quarter page. For other rates, please write. If proof is desired, copy must be submitted one month in advance of publication.

Copy limit, 20 lines to quarter page

Memberships in Understanding

Understanding, Inc. is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the propagation of a better understanding among all the peoples of the earth so that they may live in harmony and be better prepared psychologically and sociologically for the space age.

Several types of membership are available to those who wish to support our endeavors either with dollars or with time and service, or both.

The Associate Membership is Two Dollars per year; the Contributing Membership, Ten Dollars per year, including the Understanding magazine; Sustaining Membership, Twenty-Five Dollars per year, including subscription; and Life Membership, Five Hundred Dollars, including subscription to Understanding magazine.

Welcome to the Understanding family!

UNDERSTANDING, INC.

P.O. Box 206, Merlin, Oregon 97532.

Understanding Volume 17 Number 3

FIGURES DON’T LIE”

THE DISINHERITED RACE

A CHILD’S SPECTRUM

WORLD ECOLOGY YEAR 1972

ON BEING AWARE

VISION OF UNDERSTANDING

THOUGHTS

world report

CONSIDER THE CONCEPT

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

PERSPECTIVE

PRAYER OF A PERFECT WIFE

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FIGURES DON’T LIE”