Understanding Volume 19 Number 10
CONTENTS
December 1974
WAYS TO WORK FOR PEACE ………….. 9
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING …………… 11
♦
THE STAFF
EDITOR ……. Dr. DANIEL W. FRY
asst. editor …………… kerttu campbell
assoc. editor ………….. margaret little
circulation manager ……… clara A. ledbetter
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UNDERSTANDING
VOLUME XIX DECEMBER 1974 NUMBER 10
Dedicated to the propagation of a better understanding among all the peoples of the earth, and of those who are not of earth.
WHAT PRICE SUCCESS?
Because man is a competitive, as well as a gregarious creature, the concept of success has strongly motivated both his thinking and his actions. For virtually all persons it is one of the cardinal principles of life, and for some it is the only one. The person who feels that he is “succeeding” can be content in the most rigorous and trying of environments. While one who fears he is “failing” can be totally miserable, even in the lap of luxury.
We do incorporate in our philosophy certain sayings, such as, “It is not whether you win or lose that counts, but how you play the game.” These, however, are simply ignored by those who believe they are winning, and are useful only as a form of consolation to those who do not.
A basic human problem stems from the fact that, with all of this emphasis upon, and constant struggle for, success, the word itself has never precisely nor very “successfully” been defined.
Concepts of success are akin to human fingerprints in that while everyone has them, they differ somewhat in each individual. In its most common usage the word success implies a level of achievement notice-ably above the “average” or the “norm.” However, since virtually every-one strives for success, in one form or another, it follows that the
2 UNDERSTANDING
“average” man is one who spends his life trying to prove that he is not! Although the individual may derive inward satisfaction from the be-lief that he is succeeding, his ego will seldom permit him to rest until he has persuaded his neighbors or his community to recognize his achievements. For this purpose it is, of course, necessary to establish some criteria by which success can be recognized, and by which the degree of achievement can be measured.
The most often used of these measurements are: A. the quantity of money or other material possessions amassed by the individual. (Since the acquisition of wealth is a highly competitive process, its achievement is considered to be proof of superiority.) B. the social position or public status achieved. (This is frequently, but not necessarily, the result of the possession of wealth.) C. the amount of power or influence exercised by the individual. (This also is frequently, but not necessarily, the result of wealth. Political officials, because of their position exercise considerable power, whether or not they have wealth, and Mahatma Gandhi, who had neither position nor wealth, still exercised great influence over millions of people.)
If we apply our present criteria of success to an individual named Jesus of Nazareth, we find to our amazement, that he was probably the greatest failure of all time. He never acquired any money or other pos-sessions. He had no social position or political power, in fact, he was despised and ridiculed by practically everyone who did have social position or power. In all of his ministry there were only twelve men who would consent to follow him, and, of those twelve, when the true test came, one sold him out for thirty pieces of silver and another denied ever having known him. He was tried for treason and after humiliating torture was executed by the most ignominious method known to man. Finally, he was buried in a borrowed grave!
Yet today, this epitome of abysmal failure exercises, and has for the past thousand years exercised more influence upon the thinking and the lives of hundreds of millions of people than any series of kings, emperors, or presidents that ever lived.
It might be wise, perhaps, as we spend our lives in the headlong, and sometimes frenzied struggle for success, to take the time to examine our position and our course. What is true success and how does one achieve it?
It has been said that only at the moment of death can the success or failure of an individual be determined. As we can see from the fore-going example, however, it may actually be one hundred or perhaps two thousand years before the success or failure of an individual becomes fully manifest.
DECEMBER 1974 3
THE FACE OF JESUS
(The Daily Journal, May 31, 1974, Kankakee, Illinois By: Raymond A. La Joie, Copley News Service)
In the world of Christianity, one of the most fascinating questions of all time is what did Jesus of Nazareth-the Savior-really look like?
In the very early days of Christianity, there were some portrayals of Christ’s face made on the walls of the catacombs in Rome where his many followers met to worship in secret. Among the earliest paintings of the Master is one that has been attributed to St. Luke, author of the Third Gospel.
Interesting it is that a little-known document exists in the Vatican Library that purports to describe Jesus as he appeared in Judea.
This startling letter-sent to the Roman Senate-was written by Publius Lentulus, a Roman proconsul in Judea and also a predecessor and friend of Pontius Pilate.
In it, Lentulus tells the Roman Senate that Jesus was a man of noble and handsomely proportioned features and build. His hair was a tawny color and golden at the roots. It had a high luster of gloss and was divided down the middle as was the custom of the Nazarenes of that time. From the ears down, the hair became wavy and rested on his shoulders.
Lentulus also added that the forehead of Christ was even and smooth. No blemish or mark of any kind touched his attractive face. His complexion was made even more appealing by a tempered bloom, radiating health. The beard was full the same color as his hair, and his soft and penetrating eyes were an extremely brilliant blue.
Lentulus ended his description by stating: “A tall man, Jesus had beautiful straight hands. He is gentle and amiable of tongue and in beauty he surpasses most men.”
The image of Jesus is preserved in two outstanding relics. One of these, the Veil of Veronica, was brought to the Vatican during the 12th Century. Its origin is the road to Calvary when Christ, bearing the heavy cross, stumbled three times.
Veronica-a devoutly pious woman of Jerusalem-ran to his aid in deep compassion and mercy and pressed a liners cloth to his feverish face. An imprint of Christ’s features in sweat and blood was outlined .
on the cloth.
Veronica, later to become a saint, traveled to Rome where the cloth, with its blurred image of the face of Jesus, was placed on display for public veneration. It showed a man with a broad brow, high cheek-bones and a sharp bearded chin.
The other famous relic is the Shroud of Turin believed by many
4 UNDERSTANDING
Christians to be the cloth in which Christ was wrapped for burial immediately after the Crucifixion. Mention of the cloth is found in the writings that go back to the earliest church.
In 1898, a photographer discovered that the 14-foot winding sheet had the qualities of a photographic negative. On his plate, the markings were revealed to be the figure of a man who had been scourged and crowned with thorns that had punctured the brow and head.
The man in the Shroud also had a spear cut in his side and the feet and wrists bore imprints of nails which had punctured through. (The spear of Longinus, a steel-spearhead said to have been used by the Roman centurion who pierced the side of Christ, an incident in the Gospel of St. John XIX:34-37, reposes in the Treasure House of Vienna, Austria. (It recently became the center of controversy when it was connected to Hitler’s desire for power during World War II in a book The Spear of Destiny, Trevor Ravenscroft. )
On both the front and back imprints on the cloth, the markings show that it was a man who had been crucified in exactly the same way as Jesus. He was slightly more than six feet and weighed around 185 pounds.
Bearded and with long hair, he had a majestic face remarkably similar to the many conventional paintings of Christ in Churches, private collections and art museums around the world.
The Holy Shroud has been given exhaustive tests. Blood stains, cloth texture and its age has been authenticated. Microscopic examinations have failed to reveal any fakings or false brush marks of any kind.
Pope Pius XI, an historian and scholar, pronounced the cloth a genuine relic in 1934 as did several previous Popes long before the tracings of a body had been discovered.
Though Christ’s Disciples recorded a good many of his words and deeds, not a single line of description of his features can be found in the whole of the New Testament. Yet, down through the centuries, he has become the most sculptured and painted of men in history.
THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT
This term is normally used to describe the interaction of a subtle force which operates in our economics structure. However, closer observation reveals the fact that the effects of this force extends to many other areas of our lives. This is especially true in the vast area of human relationships.
I realize that the fields of economics and human relationships are large. Therefore, being too specific about how any given force in these fields relates to the rest of the forces can distort the whole picture.
DECEMBER 1974 5
Although I am aware that the subject of economics is quite complex, I do believe that it will be easier to first give some indication of how this force operates in this area.
Take the example that for some reason people stopped buying auto-mobiles. The result of this action would be that the auto manufacturer would cut back production. This in turn would affect all of the companies that supply materials that are used in auto production. Eventually this would cause a chain reaction of lay-offs in all of these industries, thus reducing the purchasing power of thousands of people. The net results of this continuing process is a constant reduction in the demands for goods and services provided by other segments of industry, thus leading to further lay-offs which in the end leads to a recession. Quite naturally during a period of recession there is less a demand for cars, which is where we started in the first place.
However, this subtle force is like many other forces that affect our lives. It continually operates regardless of how it is employed. For ex-ample: this same law will contribute to inflation just the same as it will help create a recession.
Every time any segment of the labor force gets an increase in wages the cost of the product they manufacture reflects this raise at the retail outlet. Following in sequences there is an automatic increase in the cost of living. The natural reaction to this increase is a demand by the rest of the labor force for larger salary to cover the cost of living raise. At this point it is easy to see the end results of this process is an accelerated rate of inflation which in essence is as undesirable as a recession.
I realize much more could be said about the Multiplier Effect in the relationship to the financial world, but I believe this is adequate enough to make it easier for me to show how this force operates in human relationship.
The fact that this force exists makes us as individuals largely responsible for the type of experience we derive from our human relationships. Our own personal attitudes, which are the essence of our personality, affect the lives of many many people. It takes very little effort to recall some of the people with whom we have come into contact and how that experience influenced our lives. Maybe the person was a teacher, plumber, bell hop, doctor, lawyer, laborer, preacher or whatever. It wasn’t the profession of the person which influenced us, but the way they presented a certain attitude. During the time that has passed since this particular incident how many times have we passed on advice based on the attitude which we acquired during that experience?
Imagine how many tires the people you have given this advice to have communicated it to others? In reality it is much easier to affect
6 UNDERSTANDING
the lives of people we may never personally contact than it seems.
In order to place more emphasis on how the Multiplier Effect actually works let’s narrow the scope to our personal families.
Does the way your marriage partner feels have any effect on you? I am certain we would all agree it does and by the same token our attitudes and feelings have the same influence on our mate.
Truth of the matter is that regardless to where we fit in the family structure (father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife) our input into the family relationship tends to modify the other members’ behavior.
It is at this point we set the force of the Multiplier Effect into operation. The way we allow other people’s input to influence our reaction is the crucial decision.
It is one of the primary determining factors as to how much happiness we will derive from our personal relationship. Of course the happier we are, the happier the people around us will be. The more happy people in the world the more all of us will enjoy life.
CECIL W. WRIGHT
CHRISTIAN ILLUMINATION
(By Special Permission of the writer, Simon Grimes, Founder-Director of the Panosophic Institute. This article appeared in the Institute’s publication-Clear Light-Vol. 1, No. 3.)
The Festival of Christmas, remembering the birth of Jesus Christ, is also a time to invoke the birth of Christ-Consciousness within the individual. Following the spirit of worldwide ecumenism, it might be well to know that, during our Christmas season, Vajrayana Buddhists in North India (and formerly in Tibet) celebrate the birth of Tsong Khapa, the greatest reformer of Tibetan Buddhism and founder of the Gelug (virtuous) church. As elements of the solar myth are incorporated into the Western celebration of the birth of Christ, so they are incorporated into the mythical and miraculous legends of the birth of Tsong Khapa.
Human knowledge is today much too advanced for any individual people or religion to categorically state that its own miracles and legends are true, while similar miracles and legends of other cultures are heathenish and false. In a spirit of universal ecumenism, let us try to under-stand the beliefs of all cultures, and see where they are similar, rather than emphasize their differences.
In India and in Buddhist countries thruout the world, Maitreya, the Coming Buddha, has long been considered as identical to the Western concept of Christ. Millions of Asians await the coming of Maitreya from the heavenly realms, even as Christians await the return of Christ.
DECEMBER 1974 7
Sumbolically, Maitreya in the East and Christ in the West represent the coming-into-being of Illumination or Enlightenment, the descent of divine consciousness to the human state and the union of human consciousness with the divine.
The concept of Illumination has been left out of most of modern Christianity. For this reason, many people of the Western culture turn to faiths of the East for spiritual answers, where Enlightenment is openly encouraged. Has Illumination ever been openly advocated with-in orthodox Christianity? One only needs to read Eckhardt, St. Theresa, St. John of the Cross to see that indeed it has. Going farther back, the writers of the New Testament abound with references to Illumination. In our modern era the Jesuit mystic, William Johnston, has written excellent works on Christian mysticism and Illumination, comparing these to viewpoints of Eastern faiths. Another great modern mystic, Thomas Merton, made a study of the Buddhist doctrine of Enlightenment and its application to Christian Illumination.
Illumination, Enlightenment, Krishna-Consciousness, Christ-Consciousness, the Buddha Nature, such terms all describe the same state-conscious awareness of one’s spiritual beingness, united with the One Consciousness, call it God, the Supreme Being, Brahman, Allah, or Adi Buddha. This is not an intellectual concept but real living experience sought in all forms of mysticism and found at the core of all religions.
Let us fully realize that no one religion has a monopoly on God or that universal spirit which we call Christ. Christ is the Light of the Universe-in other terms we could say that the Light of the Universe is called, in this culture, Christ.
The modern churches of the West pay a great deal of lip service to Christ, and to the ideals exemplified during the Incarnation nearly 2000 years ago. Unless they can bring Christ truly into the hearts and minds of the people, and stimulate real living of Christian principles and ideals without hypocrisy, they are in for a most difficult period. This is why distinguished clergy all over the Western world, like Thomas Merton, have begun to search the ways of the East for new methods to pre-sent Christian Illumination or Enlightenment. It is on their efforts that much of the forthcoming worldwide ecumenical movement rests.
PEACE ON EARTH
A change in the usual night noises suddenly woke me. The eerie screams of the hyrax, the calls of the night birds, and the more distant bellowing of the frogs had stopped. Instead there were sounds of stealthy movement in the forest.
8 UNDERSTANDING
I lay still, cold with fear.
The previous afternoon a party of us, including women and children, had left Nairobi in cars heavily laden with food and camp equipment to spend Christmas on the banks of the river Gura, in the forest on the eastern slopes of the Aberdare Mountains in Kenya, the last part of the journey being completed with the aid of porters.
I had spent the day further up in the forest trout fishing, and enjoying the sense of peace always to be found in the forest.
When I had returned to camp, I had been surprised at the warmth of my welcome, and then it had been explained to me that those of the party who had been fishing lower down the valley, had been caught up in an armed military sweep. This sweep had been mounted to try to catch the murderers of two Europeans, who had been killed the previous afternoon in the next valley.
The rest of our party had seriously considered packing up and going home, but this would have meant leaving all our equipment, as the porters were not expected back for several days. Also, no one knew where I had gone. Finally they had decided that we should stay, as the murderers would probably be too busy trying to escape the net to bother us.
All the same, my thoughts were far from happy when I heard the stealthy noises around us.
Rousing the friend with whom I was sharing the tent, and not daring to show a light, we quietly assembled and loaded our shot guns. Suddenly through the night many voices rang out in the old familiar carol-“Once in Royal David’s City.”
What a relief it was to hear the old, well-loved tune, even if the Kikuyu words were unfamiliar to us.
Putting on warm coats, for the night air is bitter at that altitude, we all came out of our tents, and joined in singing carols with our visitors. “Peace on Earth. Goodwill towards Men.”
For the moment we forgot the murderers, men of the same tribe as our visitors.
It was Christmas Eve, and there in the cold moonlit forest clearing in the heart of Africa, we sang carol after carol with the thirty or more Africans who had walked up from their huts several miles lower down the valley to sing to us.
Carol after carol we sang, each race in its own language, until the children woke up, and we had to stop.
DECEMBER 1974 9
WAYS TO WORK FOR PEACE
Can we approach peace with this one idea: Peace-let it begin with me? If so, then here are seven concrete ways by which we can promote peace in our time, each one beginning with himself, so that the ripples may reach out until they make waves which form peaceful seas surrounding peaceable lands.
1. Through exercise. Instead of hitting back, I shall go out and walk it off if I’m angry. When my muscles are relaxed, my breathing steady and deep, I can’t stay angry at anybody.
2. Through work. Life can only do for me what it does through me. My work is my love made visible, translated into action, so that I may clear my own little corner of creation and pay my debt to life.
3. Through rhythm. My task shall be holding the span between the world of time and the world of eternity. I shall act as if I deserved to live forever, but the beat I hear will be the temporal resounding against the far shores of the eternal.
4. Through nature. I shall walk whenever possible close to nature. I shall be quiet enough to see the stars move and to feel the sound of the universe vibrating in the color of a flower or the light in the woods.
5. Through ceremony. A poet once asked, “How but in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born?” I shall try to keep innocence and beauty alive in my life through the ritual and ceremony that remind me to pause and honor them so that they may reawaken. Through custom and ceremony, I shall aim not so much to be con-formed to this world as transformed by the renewal of my mind.
6. Through self-discipline. I will keep my life simple, so that my pleasures remain real ones. I know that self-indulgence erodes me. I do not want a physical body that creaks under its own doom, but one that is united with its soul.
7. Through love. Dostoevsky wrote, “if you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things.” George Washington Carver said, “Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.”
I shall love peace that much. I shall love peace enough that it will surrender its secrets to me,
ALETA LISTER
Do not be so slothful as to ask God to solve your difficulties, but never hesitate to ask him for wisdom and spiritual strength to guide and sustain you while you yourself resolutely and courageously attack the problems at hand.
From the URANTIA BOOK
10 UNDERSTANDING
THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
Christmas is always alive, it can never die. The Christ Child is a part of eternity, a part of the good, the true, and the beautiful in the world. At Christmas time, all the evil takes a back seat-a new spirit is abroad that changes people and nature.
If Christmas can be but a rebirth of great thoughts and firm resolves to make ideals come true, then Christmas is a day to be honored by all good people of every faith and creed, in every village and in every home. Then, each in his own form of ritual can pray for “peace on earth, good will to men,” as the angels sang.
General William Booth of the Salvation Army, one Christmas season, decided to send greetings to every unit scattered across six continents. But cable rates were expensive. So he knew he would be forced to combine his message into one word that would best explain the spirit and challenge of the Yuletide. He chose the word “Others” as representative of Christmas, and his staff agreed with him.
Christmas has always survived in the missions of the Christ, survived volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, wars-such cannot destroy it; not even the darkness of fear can blot out its light; hatred, envy, and jealousy cannot withstand it; greed and selfishness retreat before it-nothing can stop its onward march into the hearts of men. Like a blanket of softly falling snow, the spirit of Christmas covers the world. Once again a Babe is King; once again faith and love and service are abroad in the land. Christmas still lives!
Everything connected with Christmas is different-ordinary conduct is temporarily changed. No one complains of the crowded streets-police have little trouble regulating traffic, or in expressing a degree of kindness that some feel is not a usual part of the profession. Though the stores are crowded, everybody seems happy, an amiable spirit obtains. On the jammed buses everyone is jovial, even the drivers. And, in many other ways Christmas marks the coming into the world of a new force.
The Christ child is born anew. There is a force abroad so human and so compassionate that even little children sing of it with glee, and yet it is so Godlike that the angels take part in it. The fires that burn so brightly on the hearthstones are its altar fires; the cherishing of childrens joys are its psalms; the loyalties of friendship are its shining ritual. Its sacraments are Christmas cheer, Christmas charity and Christmas hope.
How wonderful it would be if we could have a world like this all the time in a spirit of making ideals come true.
DECEMBER 1974 11
Like the stars that are beautiful because of what they are, not because of what they do, so we can make our lives a beneficent influence on others by developing a continual spirit of Christmas within our hearts, our minds and souls.
(From the writing of REV. ENID S. SMITH, Ph.D.)
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
A Changing Language
(Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass. 4/15/74)
AP (TOKYO-A night baseball game is a “nitah,” an air conditioner is a “koolah,” and if a girl is in the “mudo” she can go to a beauty shop and get a “perma.”
The country where this language is spoken is Japan, and some people say that unless you speak English, you’ll never understand modern Japanese.
Staying “uppatodatu” in Japan is complicated by the firm conviction that Western languages-French, German, Spanish, and above all English-are classy.
Older people complain they’re unable to understand television ads, and those out of the country a few months say they have a lot of catching up to do when they get home.
DAILY DICTIONARY PRINTED
One of Tokyo’s major newspapers reserves space in each day’s edition to explain new foreign words used in that paper. These are combined into a dictionary published at year’s end. Last year it was 535 pages, including technical words like capital gain-“kyapitaru gein”-and syndicated loan -“shinjiketo ron.”
“There are some people critical of the introduction of foreign words, but they are in the minority,” says a Japanese linguist. “I put them roughly in two main groups: conservative elderly professors, and college-educated housewives who perhaps want to show others that English words are nothing special to them.
“And then there are the emotional complaints in newspaper ‘Letters to the Editor’s columns. A middle-aged person will write in saying he ordered a hot coffee in good Japanese at a coffee house-only to hear the waiter shout back to the cook, ‘One hotto!’ “
BORROWED FOR SALES MESSAGE
Another Japanese said foreign words are borrowed because they have the connotation of good quality. “French words are used by the fashion industry here because France has a fine reputation in that field.
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“Likewise, many English words are used for cars and machinery.” But the flood of foreign words also is applied to everything from mailboxes-posto-to electronic remote control -remocon.
The words are used freely in college lectures and in television newscasts.
“Many of these words, such as ice cream or hamburger, were borrowed because the objects they describe were new to Japan. Others, like ‘i-dee-oro-jee’ (ideology) were imported because the Japanese word for it may have been too broad in meaning and the foreign word was more precise,” one Japanese professor commented.
“But sometimes we completely Japanize the word so that Americans have difficulty identifying it in our daily conversation.”
USAGE OFTEN BAFFLING
In addition to the borrowed English words spelled in Japanese, there are wholesale imports as well. The English doesn’t always appear to make sense, but it’s evidently good advertising.
A major department store once installed potted shrubs and blasted off an ad campaign proclaiming: “Walk! in green . . . Talk! in green.” That makes some sense, but what about “47 Days Christmas?”
Most people don’t understand English, but that’s not the point. It’s like using Japanese in an ad for a Japanese restaurant in the United States. Even though most people seeing the ad won’t understand it, it gives an’aura of something exotic and interesting.
It’s advertising that’s responsible for most of the imported words, used in Japan as in the U.S. to create a style of life.
So when a Japanese “salary man” gets his Christmas “bonas” he can watch the ads on the “terebi” set and decide how to find the best “bargen.”
A family that owns an automobile is a “mycar” family.
If you’re complaining about not getting paid enough, you could tell the boss you don’t have enough money to buy “myhouse.” There’s even a soft drink called “mylime.”
♦ ♦ ♦
God is always with us. But at Christmas
We are more intensely aware of His presence
He looks out at us from the faces of those we love.
He speaks to us amid the sounds of bells
and the anthems of praise. And his greatest gift
comes to our hearts anew when we hear the beautiful
Christmas story, once again-and believe.
BILLY GRAHAM
DECEMBER 1974 13
World report
Home Shared With A Ghost
[Medford (Ore.) Mail Tribune, 9/16/74]
BOLTON ABBEY, England (UPI) -The Rev. Frederick Griffiths says he and his family share their home in the rectory on the Duke of Devonshire’s Bolton Abbey estate with a ghost -an Augustinian monk who wanders through the living room in black cassock and cap.
“We have seen him many times and happily accept the fact that he is here,” the 61-
year-old Church of England rector said Sunday. “Sometimes we have the smell of incense floating through the house and recently we have had the smell of fermenting mead.”
♦ ♦ ♦
‘Yetti Hair’ Found
(Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Ore., 9/24/74)
COUGAR, Wash. (AP)-The leader of a scientific Sasquatch hunt says strands of hair found with huge manlike footprints in a remote area near Mt. St. Helens have been identified as human.
Robert W. Morgan, director of the American Yeti Expedition, said Monday the hair was found about a month ago and analysis has just been completed.
Morgan, the leader of a summer expedition searching for the legendary Bigfoot, says many people have suggested the Sasquatch is some kind of ape. But he said the new evidence eventually could lead to proof Bigfoot is human.
Trackers have decided the creature that left the footprints apparently heard searchers coming. It went up a small stream about 20 yards, then circled to the left above the trackers.
“That is exactly the movement a primate would make if it wished to observe while not being observed,” Morgan said. “I’m not saying it was a Bigfoot, but it’s very unlikely a barefooted human would be running around in that area.
“And if it was a human,” he said, “why would he want to hide from two other humans?”
He said the hair was examined by Mary Joe Florey, a Portland, Ore., microbiologist. She said it was human hair, possibly from an ankle or
14 UNDERSTANDING
leg.
Morgan said the hunt will continue in the area “until the snow flies.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Unidentified Flying Objects Near Minneapolis
(The Belleville Telescope, 9/26/74)
An unusual formation near Minneapolis in the ground was found by Casper Schlife one day last week as he was fertilizing a field north of his house, readying it for wheat planting.
In an area about 18″ to 2′ in diameter and about 6″ deep, there were five holes, about 18″ deep, an inch and a half in diameter, and five or six inches apart, except two which were about three inches apart. The earth around the holes is baked hard as brick and is whitish looking as if burned.
It is mysterious looking, and makes a person wonder, especially in these days of UFO sightings and such. Speculation is that a meteor could have hit earth, burning out just as it hit earth in fragments, or fallout from some other unknown source.
– MINNEAPOLIS MESSENGER
♦ ♦ ♦
Seaweed For Energy
(New York Times, 8/18/74)
PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 17 (UPI)-Scientists are looking at kelp, a sea-weed, as a new energy source.
The kelp is Macrocystis pyrifera, grown commercially off the California coast.
Two California Institute of Technology scientists, Wheeler North and Howard Wilcox, say that kelp, the fastest growing plant known, may be a bountiful source of energy if it can be grown in sufficient quantity.
About 300 full-grown kelp plants will comprise the first “marine energy farm,” near San Clemente Island off the Southern California coast. The project is designed to see if the kelp will flourish on artificial bottoms anchored in deeper water than that in which it generally grows.
“If we can grow these plants in sufficient quantity,” Mr. North said, “they might provide us with a vast amount of petroleum-like products for generating food, fuels and electric power.” He is the chief scientist for the project.
The idea of using kelp for fuel is probably a new one, Mr. Wilcox said, although it has been used for fertilizer.
The kelp would be harvested by ships and carried, 300 tons at a time, to vats on shore. There the plants would undergo a two-stage biological digestion process in which microbes would convert carbohydrate material
DECEMBER 1974 15
into methane gas.
The marine energy farm has several aims.
First, it will be designed to convert solar energy into useful organic material. If the pilot project is successful, then a farm a square mile in size will be established.
Mr. North said various possible new products will be explored, with the breakdown about 10 per cent for food, 30 per cent for fertilizers and 60 per cent for natural gas and other fuels.
♦ ♦ ♦
poets corner
The Inn Keeper Speaks
“Joseph was not the first I turned away that night,
He was the last of all who came, seeking a place;
Others, too, had asked for shelter, aid or bread,
After the inn was filled, each cranny, nook and space.
“A hungry mother begged, her baby cried for food,
But the evening meal was past, the table cleared and trim;
And when a thirsty boy came seeking for a drink,
With others pressing ’round, I had no time for him.
“A stranger sought a room, how could I take him in,
When the place was like to burst with friends I’d always known,
A tattered beggar next, shiv’ring pled for clothes,
Should I have given him the cloak which was my own?
“Two asked to bring one in. ‘Our friend is very ill!’
I hastened on inside, to join the revelry;
Then one who ran, called out, ‘Come help my son in jail!’
Again I shut the door and said, ‘What’s that to me.’ “
16 UNDERSTANDING
“Long after these were gone, Joseph and Mary came,
‘My wife is ill,’ he urged. ‘Think not of me,
For I will find the barn, and there will take my rest;
But Mary needs the care of your pleasant hostlery.’
“Silent, I heard him out, then slowly shook my head,
I could not favor him, who’d others turned away,
Tis true there was one room, but this I could not give,
This room I always saved, should Herod come to stay.
“Later some shepherds stopped, they woke me from my sleep,
‘Where is the King?’ they asked. I did not understand,
I only looked amazed, the more so when they spoke
About a song of peace, voiced by an angel band.
“I turned and closed the door, and hurried back to bed,
These shepherd-folk are queer, who idle tales relate;
A busy man like me, who runs a hostlery
Has little time for such poor beggars at his gate.”
AVERY D. WEAGE
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When shall men’s good be each man’s rule, and universal peace be like a shaft of light across the land …
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
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UFOs INTERNATIONAL
From A Brazilian Saucer Publication
(Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Sobre Discos Voadores, Setembro 1973-Jundho 1974; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil )
We quote from a two-page English Summary of the contents of a 50-page UFO Bulletin:
#8 Onilson Pattero’s first “close encounter” with an UFO being is described. There are three new features which catch the eye of the ufologist: a) His car, when focalized by a blue ray (emitted by the UFO), turns completely transparent, as if it were of glass; b) O. Pattero’s hair turns dark after the incident, as observed by his wife, but returns to its normal brownish color in the ensuing days; c) a few hours after the incident, an itching starts on 0. Pattero’s skin and after a few days, a skin rash of purple, red colored spots appears, which in the days that follow turn bluish and yellow and then disappear.
DECEMBER 1974 17
Several months after this first encounter, Pattero had a second encounter with an UFO, meeting this time also the crew members. Ortho-dox ufologists don’t accept 0. Pattero’s report, but even so some psychological “hardware” is left-in the form of Pattero’s car, found abandoned at a road-side, by police, 3 days after his disappearance. Also, by sheer luck, at the early hours of the morning, at 5 A.M. a farmer had come out from the town of Colatine, to look after his cattle, and this, 900 km away from the site of 0. Pattero’s abduction and also 6 days later.
This farmer, during an hour, hears shouts for help, from the direction of one of the higher hills of his pastures. The shouts came slowly down from the hill and nearer, until, at the first glimpse of the day, a man approaches him and asks him his “whereabouts.” It is O. Patteros, weak and disheartened who wishes to be taken to the police station, or to a radio ham, so as to get in touch with his family, so that they may fetch him, since he had left his wallet with some money in his car-6 days ago and 900 km away….
Orthodox research does not bother to check all the hardware and also does not check the psychological personality of Pattero, who is a shy man, without an ego-centric trend and without the intelligence (or learning) to make up all the details he reports about the time he was conscious. (He retained consciousness only during a fraction of the time he stayed with the UFO, during which time his own physiological needs have not been mentioned in the report.)
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HAPPINESS
Happiness is finding joy in the work one has to do, and in doing it with praise and thanksgiving.
Happiness is finding each day a priceless coin-new-minted from the hand of God-and spending it wisely, thoughtfully, yet freely too, knowing that no day has ever been the same as any other, and none will ever be the same again.
Happiness is giving and sharing. Happiness is receiving graciously too, for receiving well gives others a chance to share and know the joy of bestowing gifts.
Happiness is finding peace and contentment with what one has and is, yet forever reaching forward. It is forgiving others and oneself. It is knowing God forgives and loves unceasingly.
It is joy, not necessarily pleasure.
It is self-respect, not just self-righteousness. It is being faithful, not fanatic.
It is remembering, not regretting.
It is loving deeply, understanding much.
CHRISTIELUNDCOLES
18 UNDERSTANDING
book reviews
Psychic Meditation Music
(Wilburn Burchette Psychic Meditation Music, A Stereo Recording, Burchette Brothers Productions, P. O, Box 1363, Spring Valley, Ca. 92077. 56.98 postpaid. California residents add 42c per record sales tax)
Once again we bring you a review of a recording rather than a book for this album may well be what many have been seeking.
Follow instructions on the jacket, or better yet, prepare your mind and body with some stretching and relaxing exercises, or Hatha Yoga. Take a deep breath with each stretch, and relax the muscles as you travel over the body, starting with the feet.
Now your mind and body are prepared to feel this music. As stated by Master Burchette, “Do not listen to this music, feel it.” Allow yourself to be carried by the music through a garden of flowers, the garden of your own being. Expect nothing, think only as you feel . . . but firstly feel the music as you travel onward and upward through the Chakras of greater awareness to the many-petalled lotus at the top of your head.
It will be a different experience every time you play the record.
If you feel pressed for time, play the first half one time, and the second side at another time . . . if possible, on the same day. It is a nice way to begin and end the day. If you are fatigued, lie down, or perhaps rest on a slant board to allow the music to cascade over you. Be a water-fall, starting with your feet, feel the music flowing over you, vibrating through you. At another time be a lovely fountain with colored lights traveling over you. Yet another time, sit and feel the music consume you as would flames. Just feel the vibrations of the music flowing through YOU and you become one with it-and, it will carry you through your- own individual experience. This time you are not trying to do any-thing, you are just letting it happen. So you fall asleep, so that is what you should do at that particular time. Another time it will be a different experience.
Thanks Master Burchette for the music we’ve searched for, so long!
VIVIAN HULTGREN, Unit No. 1
DECEMBER 1974 19
Bulletin board
Help! You All!
Your Understanding Staff needs coin of the realm to defray those inflated expenses . . . As usual, Gift Subscriptions are available at Christmas for $2.00 each, but we would be delighted to accept them at $2.50, or even $10.00 or $15.00 …
Seriously, a gift of money, in any amount, to Understanding, Inc. (U.S. Income Tax deductible) would be gratefully received and applied forthwith to current expenses.
What do you receive for your generosity? Who knows what will result from growth of Understanding? Do You? -(A Member)
♦ ♦ ♦
1975 International Cooperation Festival
The 10th Annual International Cooperation Festival is to be held at the Ambassador Hotel, 3400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California, on Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19, 1975.
The Festival is designed to bear public witness to “fostering the emergence of a new universal man and civilization based upon unity in diversity among all peoples.”
The Council consists of 150 members, including Understanding, Inc. Do write to: International Cooperation Council, World Headquarters, 17819 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge, California 91324 for program details.
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Preserved On Microfilm
Xerox University Microfilms has recorded, on microfilm, all issues of Understanding from the first issue, January 1956 to the present. Presently available are two reels, each containing eight years of publication. These are priced at $22.40 per reel plus shipping at 1% of cost (min. 50c). Delivery is about six to eight weeks from receipt of order.
20 UNDERSTANDING
If you wish to augment your favorite library’s file of back issues of Understanding Magazine, write Xerox University Microfilm, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106, for complete information.
♦ ♦ ♦
Election of National Officers
Congratulations to all Officers and Directors chosen at the October 1974 Annual Business Meeting of Understanding, Inc.!
President: Dr. Daniel W. Fry; Executive Vice-President: Grace Graham; Vice-Presidents: Dr. Olin Byerly and Margaret Little; Recording Secretary: Florence Bohnert; Corresponding Secretary, Sharon Tucker; Treasurer: Kerttu Campbell; Subscriptions: Margaret Little; Membership and Organization: Florence Bohnert; Geographic Files: Esther Ells-worth; and Friendship by Mail: Melva Campbell.
Honorary International Directors: Mr. Per Axel Atterbom, Sweden; Mr. Anthony Brooke, England; Miss Edith Nicolaisen, Sweden; and Mr. Herbert Clark, Canada.
National Directors: Dr. Daniel W. Fry; Mrs. Angela Kilsby; Mrs. Norma Ulery; Mrs. Brian Baker; Mrs. Tahahlita Fry; Mr. Lee Yates; Mrs. Hazel Walton; Mr. Don Bohnert; and Mr. Norm Weis.
♦ ♦ ♦
6c per word per insertion; 3 or more insertions same copy, 5c per word.
U.F.O. CONFRONTATION-SURVIVAL or UPLIFTING ADVENTURE. POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION “friendly,” “hostile” CRAFT AND OCCUPANTS. SAFETY REACTIONS AND DEFENSE WEAPON FOR LAND, SEA, AIR, ANY-WHERE. HOW TO COMMUNICATE. PERMANENT POLLUTION SOLUTIONS ENVIRONMENT, GENETIC NUCLEAR WASTES. GUARANTEED.
U.F.O. MANUAL 50c U.S. 75c CDA. $1.00 OVRSS PPD.
Michael J. Campione, * 2202 New Albany, Cinnaminson, N. J. 08077
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KOREAN WHITE GINSENG packed 20 natural roots per box (150 grams). $16.00 prepaid. House of Hess, 1465 Aala St. #22(}4, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817.
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UNDERSTAND your mental-spiritual side better. LIFE IS AS YOU GIVE IT by Louis Conde-Lahissa, explains attainment of Happiness, Health; Mind Development; Handicaps; Employer-Employee Cooperation; constructive Suggestion; Thought Vibrations; New Era; Selected Gems. (155 pages clothbound, $3.25 postpaid.) Non-sectarian. IDEAL GIFT. Ellen Gibbs, 2803 No. Victoria, Peoria, III. 61604.
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NOW AVAILABLE By Dr. Daniel W. Fry To Men of Earth & White Sands Incident (softbound) $2.00 Atoms, Galaxies and Understanding (hardbound) $3.00 (softbound) $2.00 Steps to the Stars (softbound) $1.50 Atlantean Fire Crystals & Physical Basis of ESP (Cassette Tape – 90 min.) – $3.50 Merlin Publishing Company P.0. Box 105 Merlin, Oregon 97532 Please include postage 20c volume |
DIVINE DYNAMICS PRESENTS PUBLIC CLASSES
Immortality Here and Now
Mysteries of Eternal Life
Stop Dying and Live Forever
Each Saturday & Sunday 3 PM
11706 Ramona Blvd.
Room 207, Fidelity Bldg.
El Monte, California
Also available from the author Brother Stanley Spears-
Mysteries of Eternal Life $3.00
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