Officers and Directors of Understanding, Inc.

Daniel W. Fry                               Founder and President Emeritus

Barbara L. Yates                         Executive Vice President

Jeffry Perry                                   President Pro-Tem

Clarence R. Gahlbeck                Treasurer

Rev. Marie Jean Cullen              Membership Chairman

Board of Directors

Dr. Daniel W. Fry                        Alamogordo, N. Mex.

Jeffrey Perry                                Woodland Hills, Ca.

John W. Boushka                        Dallas, Tex.

Hetty Miller                                   Phoenix, Az.

Dr. Robert Reid                           Coleharbor, N.D.

Rev. Ben T. Cullen                      Spring Valley, Ca.

Rev. Audrey Standefer               Santa Fe, N. Mex.

Virginia Perry                              Woodland Hills, Ca.

International Honorary Directors

Per Axel Atterbom                      Sweden

Herbert D. Clark                          Canada

Edith Nicolaisen                          Sweden

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.

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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 understanding, 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.

3                                                    Understanding

Table of Contents

WHAT PRICE ENERGY?   ……….             3

AMERICA: MAY SHE ALWAYS BE BEAUTIFUL   ……….             4

Poet’s corner   ………….             6

CAN YOU TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?   ……….             7

UFO DEPARTMENT   ………             9

CHAOS AT THREE MILE ISLAND   ………             11

BOOKS! BOOKS!   …………..             14

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR   ……             15

BULLETIN BOARD   ………..             16

DOCUMENT NOW OUT OF PRINT   …………….             16

SOME REVEALING STUDIES ON “BRAIN SIGNALS”   …………..             17

ANCIENT AMERICAN UNDERGROUND CITIES   ……….             19

The Staff

EDITOR ……  Dr. DANIEL W. FRY

associate editor ……..  Florence D. Fry

 

Subscription Rates

One year, six issues, $4.00. (Foreign, $5.50) Published by Understanding,Inc., 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.

 

WHAT PRICE ENERGY?

With double digit inflation already impoverishing all of those millions of older citizens who are unfortunate enough to be restricted to a fixed income, and who are constantly forced to accept lower and lower standards of living, as their meagre funds buy less and less of even the minimum necessities of life, it seems a bit bizarre that our Chief Executive should be making every effort to bring about still another massive leap in the inflation rate.

Under the banner of energy conservation, all energy producing corporations are being encouraged to raise, without limit, the cost of their product. Needless to say,

the said corporations will not need a second invitation. While such a program will probably save a small amount of energy by pricing it beyond the reach of those in the lower income brackets, the fact remains that the great majority of energy in the United States is used in the manufacture, the transportation and the distribution of the necessities of life, from food and clothing to tools

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and housing. Since the cost of any product is largely determined by the cost of the energy required, the proposed doubling of the cost of energy will automatically result in an increase of sixty to eighty percent in the price of virtually everything that can be purchased. Such a tremendous jump in the cost of living will, of course, trigger immediate demands for equal increases in wages and salaries. The lid will be off, with little hope that any action by government or economic leaders can have any significant effect. Since the present galloping inflation is caused almost entirely by the rapidly rising cost of energy and government, it is difficult to see how doubling the cause can lower the effect!

The progressive debacle of mechanical failure compounded by human error, that took place at Three Mile Island, has exploded for all time, the myth of infallibility of nuclear generating plants, and only a merciful providence prevented it from becoming the cataclysm it might well have been. Whatever explanations and excuses may emerge from the many inquiries and investigations sure to be held, the public will continue to equate nuclear plants with unsinkable ships such as the Titanic, and fireproof theaters such as the Iroquois. In any event, the development of significant nuclear energy sources has been set back for many years.

It may be that nature is in the process of forcing mankind to return to the use of natural energy sources from which it was beguiled by the discovery of vast quantities of oil. Now that the oil supply is running low, we have difficulty envisioning any sort of existence without it. Actually, if one half of the time, energy and money that has been spent upon the development of methods and devices to use oil and coal, had been spent upon the development of solar energy, there would now be no need to worry about an adequate supply of energy, ever again.

The sun delivers to the earth every day, energy equal to more than five hundred thousand kilowatt hours for each and every human being on earth! It has been delivering this incredibly huge bonanza of energy

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for the past four billion years, and will continue to do so for at least three billion years in the future! It is a highly efficient nuclear energy generator that is three hundred thousand the mass of the entire earth. It needs no human controls and is immune to human error. All of the waste products of the nuclear process remain in the sun, so there is no disposal problem. Yet we seem determined to ignore this ever present source of available energy, and to dot the surface of the earth with hundreds of tiny nuclear generating plants that are tremendously expensive to build, and have all of the problems and hazards that the sun does not. The usual excuse that the development of solar energy would require too long and be too expensive, has no validity, and is used only by those who are influenced by the fact that the great majority of capital investment in energy today is concentrated in the fossil fuels, and any major investment in solar energy would tend to undercut the value and importance of that investment.

So long as the political and economic leaders of this country refuse or neglect to take the logical steps to ample energy sources, perhaps it is well that nature will soon force us to do it for ourselves.

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AMERICA: MAY SHE ALWAYS BE BEAUTIFUL

by Juliana Lewis

The early American Indian left a spiritual legacy to this beautiful land which contains a highly practical message. It is a message which has to do with power as well as beauty, and if there is one field in which we have expertise, it is surely in the domain of the nature and exercise of power. But power is tricky to handle, and perhaps the “primitives” understood that better than we do. The ancient Romans knew and wrote, but did not practice, that power should neither be always sought nor always accepted. And the Indian knew it when he said: “Grant me, Lord, a little light, but no more than a glowworm giveth which goeth about by night, to guide me through this life, this dream which lastest but a day, wherein are many things on which to stumble, and many things at which to laugh, and others like unto a stony path along which one goes leaping.” Yes, power is by its very nature and up-and-downward thing.

But don’t get me wrong. I am not here to protest personalities, but rather to speak up for a true materialism, i.e., a respect for all materials. What I refer to is the balance of power in nature. America is changing, but it is not changing blindly. We have a hand in it and who, if not us, should understand that old mother nature has to carry a balanced load? We cannot have a permissive attitude toward bad technology that destroys nature rather than cooperating with it without having eventually to answer up to such questions as “Who shall survive?”

The Indians used to say, “I walk with beauty behind me; I walk with beauty at the side of me; I walk with beauty facing me; I walk with beauty above me.” They understood that all things are the works of the Great Spirit; they knew that he is within all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and all the four-legged animals, and the winged people. They

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knew that man doesn’t learn to understand anything until he loves it, and he loves it when its existence is as real to him as his own.

Let us hope that we may walk in kindred moccasins. We may be about to solve the genetic code and have placed men on the moon, but this is still the land in which we take our daily walks. And although it may be progress the inevitable that we are marching with, didn’t four Nobel prize-winning scientists testifying before the Senate warn of a possible “new dark age” ending in human cannibalism or exploding into possible nuclear warfare in an already people-polluted world? Didn’t one of the poets crack that, “The world will be a safer and healthier place when we can admit that every time we make an atomic bomb we corrupt the morals of a host of innocent neutrons below the age of consent?” And didn’t all “primitive people,” whether red of skin in America or black of skin in Africa, realize in the beginning that the forces of nature must be pacified and kept in harmony, so as not to engulf us?

And speaking of engulfed, let us work toward not being by poisonous fumes from gas-fueled motors billowing thickly into our “for spacious skies.” For isn’t that precisely where our old dreams can go, upward like smoke-rings; won’t they just dry up, if we let them, and get blown away by the wind, away up there in the sky obscured by chemical clouds and dust?

Let us strive to give her back in medicare what was taken from our old mother earth’s belly from under her protest and discarded and discharged into her air under protest, hers and ours. Let us redress her grievances rather than await her retribution for this can be known to have a kind of geometrical rigor that operates automatically to send civilizations down the drain once and for all. What better chance could America afford us to be inscribed forever in the highest Halls of Fame than to right her wrongs now that she has celebrated her 200th birthday?

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Poet’s corner

GROWING OLD?

Nancy W. Farmer

They tell me I’m growing old
But I don’t for a moment, agree;

So long as I can sense happiness..
And the beauty around me, see.

They tell me I need counseling
To make my days seem brighter;

More frequent physical check-ups, maybe
Would make my load much lighter.

But no. If I lose my glasses I’ll find them..
I usually have them on anyway;

Besides, young folk sometimes forget..
Not only the wrinkled and gray.

And If I forget to take my vitamins..
Or take two instead of one..

Well ..maybe ’twas two I needed
To make this frazzled machinery run.

And if I leave the bottle cap off..
And misplace the bottle, too..

‘Tisn’t that I suffer a lapse of memory..
But that searching gives me something to do.

If I take a little longer to get out of the car..
For this, I make no apology;

It doesn’t mean I’m getting old..
I’m just a real, live, study in GERONTOLOGY!

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CAN YOU TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?

by C.A. Bertolino

For many years now, psychologists and other experts have been telling us that the average person uses only about one-tenth of his mind power, and that we all have potential for far greater achievement than what we demonstrate. And, in light of all the recent information about ESP, spiritual healing, and the success of the human potential movements, etc., more and more people are beginning to realize that it’s actually true.

But are you one of those people who say, “I believe all these wonderful things I read about how I can transform my life into a thing of beauty and accomplishment.

I read book after book on the subject, and yet I never see any actual results in my own personal life. How come it works for some people but not for me?”

This is exactly what I used to say until finally I realized what the problem was. The problem was me! I had read all the books but hadn’t actually put into practice in my everyday life the ideas that were contained in the books. But, once I started applying the ideas to my daily life, then wonderful things started happening.

There are ways to live, ways of experiencing life on this plane, that can be highly beneficial to us, personally, if we put them into practice, but only if. We may even believe that we are trying to practice what we read, but careful self-analysis of our thoughts, emotions and actions of our daily lives will reveal to us, if we’re honest, that we aren’t actually living up to what we know to be the best way to live.

There are definite, workable methods that never fail to produce wonderful results in anyone who makes the effort. It is positively true-the average person, even you and me, can indeed, become “better and better, every day, in every way. “We can become wiser, we can accomplish more, we can improve our physical health,

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our human relationships, and even our financial income, by employing certain methods.

Are you going to spend the rest of your life just reading about these interesting and inspiring ways of living life to the fullest, and yet failing to benefit from any of them simply because you don’t put the into practice in your day-to-day living? I sincerely hope not. Don’t cheat yourself out of the satisfying, fulfilling, and joyful life of achievement that can be yours with a little effort.

Resolve to actually put into practice, starting right now, today, any or all of the following suggestions, and you’ll discover it’s really true- you can magically transform your entire life into something greater. And, by so doing, you’ll be making the world a better place for all mankind.

1.         Believe! Believe, and become firmly convinced of the fact that you possess far greater potential for service in the world than what you are presently demonstrating. Remind yourself frequently of the fact that you are far greater than you think you are, and that your possibilities are limitless. Your only limits are what you believe to be your limits. Begin now to set higher and more perfect spiritual and mental standards for yourself, and you’ll find yourself becoming a finer person, thereby setting a wonderful example for those around you to follow.

2.         Become a more positive person and eliminate all the negativity in your life. The benefits to be accrued from a positive attitude are not over-rated. Resolve that you will allow nothing to discourage or depress you if you can possibly help it. Let go of all your troubles and worries and promise yourself that you will only consider them long enough to determine if there is some constructive action you can take. Then perform the constructive actions that are called for, and release the worry and concern about them.

Actually try to look at the world through rose-colored glasses. See only the best in every person and situation in your life. As this becomes a habit with you, you’ll be amazed at the wonderful results you’ll receive

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in the form of increased physical and psychic energy and greater happiness. You’ll even find yourself thinking and working more intelligently, more decisively, and with far greater wisdom and foresight than you thought possible.

3.         Visualize. Close your eyes right now, and picture in your mind the most ideal vision of yourself that you can imagine. See yourself, dressed as you would like to be dressed, doing work you love to do, work that contributes something to all of humanity. See yourself as a strong, highly virtuous person, in peak physical condition, and in the surroundings of your dreams.

This is not wishful, unproductive thinking, but is actually the true pattern of what you were intended to be. The fact is you are not living up to your full potential. What can you do abut it? To begin with, you can hold this picture in your mind’s eye steadily, and distinctly, until it becomes imprinted in your mind as a model. This isn’t a false, overly-optimistic picture of yourself. On the contrary, it’s the real pattern of what you can and should be. As you hold this picture in mind, day after day, week after week, you’ll find yourself almost automatically and gradually developing toward it. It works, believe me!

4.         Use affirmations regularly. An affirmation is something declared or maintained to be true. An example might be, “Every day my work becomes better, as I perform it more intelligently and efficiently.” This is only one example. You can make up your own affirmations to fit the particular area of your life which you desire to improve. Say these affirmations over and over, aloud, if possible, or else silently in your mind. Or write them down on paper, ten, twenty, perhaps fifty times. Feel them to be true with your emotions, believe in them with all your heart, and wonderful results are guaranteed.

5.         Have a goal. Choose a definite project, and study about it, practice it, and become more and more knowledgeable and proficient at it. The goal will gather

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your energies and ideas together, and you’ll make daily, steady progress until one happy day you’ll find yourself successfully achieving the goal you set. Practice and study in one certain direction, if continued for a period of time, will eventually result in great skill and ability along the special line you’ve chosen.

Now, put this article down, and begin to put these ideas into practice in your life today. Believe, set a goal, be a positive thinker, use affirmations, and visualize.  You’ll soon discover it’s true-you can transform your life!

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UFO DEPARTMENT

From the Christian Beacon

March 29, 1979

UFO REPORT

By Robert Barry, Director

20th Century UFO Bureau

1979 – The Year for UFO Action

“Beginning in Early October, 1978, UFO sightings began to increase in the United States and other countries. These sightings continued through the months of November and December with no letup in sight.

“Then we ushered in the new year of 1979, January showed another sharp increase in UFO sightings with close encounters of the first, second and third kinds continuing. There does not seem to be any tremendous decrease in the sightings as yet. The nations of Israel and Russia have had a series of unusual UFO actions thus far.

“In discussing these latest incidents with others, including a government source and UFO researcher, we all agree that if the trend continues to increase, the year of 1979 could reveal something important in this sky mystery.

“In London, Britain’s House of Lords debated the UFO subject recently. The Earl of Clancarty accused the British government of hiding information on the subject. He warned of a `panic’ if the continued UFO activity resulted in UFO landings. He said that a panic could result in Britain because of a public unprepared on UFO data. Another of the 12 peers sounding off in the UFO debate, Lord Kimberley, pointed an accusing finger at the United States for hushing up the fact that a UFO incident of importance occurred in 1978 when a

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balloon in which three Americans crossed the Atlantic was trailed by a UFO.

“It was during October, 1978, that dazzling UFO’s over the nighttime skies of Honduras created power outages on two separate occasions. This was not an isolated incident. During the late months of 1978 and early 1979, power failures also occurred in Argentina and Brazil in increasing numbers.

“Too many documented cases of UFO-related power failures exist over the years, covering many countries, including the United States.

“While all of this UFO activity was in progress during January, 1979, it was interesting to note that Dr. Hans Mark, undersecretary of the Air Force, spoke at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne on the subject of `the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence.’ All part of the groundwork for reality!

“As we continue to explore the UFO mystery, coupled with the open discussions on ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence), NASA is filming the greatest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, and its mysterious `red spot.’

“In weeks ahead, the bureau will offer an occasional special report on the Milky Way Galaxy of which our little solar system is a minute part.”

VISIT COMES TO BAY CITY

(Bay City, Texas, Tribune)

“Project VISIT (Vehicle Internal Systems Investigative Team) is a non profit corporation consisting of professional members, doctors, aerospace engineers and scientists as well as supporting members, such as secretaries, artists and news personnel.

“Houston area members of Project VISIT include, John F. Schuessler, Aerospace Engineer; Dave Kissinger, Chemical Engineer; Allen C. Hope, Astro Physicist; Granvil A. Pennington, Theoretical Physicist; Dr. Richard Miemtzow, M . D . , ‘Radiation Oncology; Richard B. Caudell, Computer Systems Analyst; Gerald

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Johnson, Electrical Engineer; Don R. Tucker, Graphic Communication.

“Within the field of UFO study, the national organization has focused its efforts on the scientific and engineering study of the internal systems of Unidentified Space Vehicles (USV) and of the physiology of the beings which occupy these vehicles.

“Scientific and engineering data is obtained from (1) -transcripts of conversations between psychologists or case investigators and the UFO abductees,

“(2) – follow-up conversations with the abductees, “(3) – abductee critique of mockups of USV interiors built by VISIT,

“(4) – physical evidence resulting from the contact (including medical evidence),

“(5) – physical evidence at the location of the encounter.

“The objectives of the research are to:

“(1) – determine if there is a correlation of scientific and engineering data from case to case,

“(2) – identify internal systems which are most prevalent,

“(3) – evaluate the purpose for these systems,

“(4) – determine how these systems operate,

“(5) – share the information obtained with the public at large.

“To date VISIT has catalogued 40 abduction cases, 18 cases for which information is available, 15 indicate that medical examinations were performed on the abductee.

“Similarity, of 19 cases, 15 indicated the presence of some sort of light beam and of 18 cases, 15 indicated medical aftereffects.

“Of 17 cases, 15 have some sort of description of the spacecraft.”

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CHAOS AT THREE MILE ISLAND

For the benefit of those who have heard a great deal in the news about the events at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility, but who are still somewhat confused as to what actually happened, we are presenting here the most specific and authoritive account possible at this time. It was compiled by the Science News publication for their April 7th edition. After perusing the account carefully, your editor was forced to the conclusion that, “compared to modern nuclear generating plants, the inventions of the famous Rube Goldberg seemed to be very stable and dependable.”

Although the exact chain of events which caused the accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant #2 are still not known for certain, a rough scenario has been mapped out. It is believed that a valve in the demineralizer, through which feedwater flows to the steam generators, initiated the event. Probably due to moisture in the air line, a valve closed, halting the flow of water to one of the steam generators. This closure caused the suction pressure to pumps in the feedwater line to drop, causing them to shut down. At this signal, the turbines also shut down. Sensing trouble, the reactor should have automatically dropped its fission-quenching control rods. Even though shut down, the reactor would have continued to generate heat through radioactive decay.

An emergency backup system designed to kick in immediately, didn’t because two more valves failed to open the auxiliary feedwater line. All of this occurred in the secondary coolant system.

The primary system carries cooling water through the reactor core. Heat that it picks up in the reactor is transferred through the walls of its pipes to generate steam from clean nonradioactive water in the secondary system. Steam drives the power plant’s turbines.

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But in the early hours of March 28, with the secondary heat-removal system shut down, the primary had no place to dump its heat. As a result, pressure rose to more than 2,200 pounds per square inch. When the pressure reached 2,350 psi, a relief valve opened on the primary system’s pressurizer, venting water and steam from the reactor into a “Quench” tank within the reinforced containment building housing the reactor system. When the valve opened, the reactor’s pressure immediately began to fall. The valve was supposed to close when the pressure returned to 2,300 psi. It attempted to, but didn’t. In the reactor’s control room, however, engineers received a signal indicating that it had shut. As the coolant continued to escape via the unsealed valve, pressure in the reactor and its coolant system continued to fall.

Back in the control room, an operator noticed that the emergency valves had not opened. Opening them manually, he dumped cold water into the affected steam generator. Having gone without feedwater for some time, the circuit was now boiled dry. The shock of dumping cold water into overheated pipes ruptured primary coolant pipes running through the steam generator. Radioactively contaminated water from the reactor’s core poured into the formerly “clean” steam generating system.

With the steam generator drawing heat out of the primary again, the reactor’s pressure dove further. At 1,600 psi, the emergency core-cooling system (ECCS) began forcing high pressure water into the reactor. Water continued to escape through the pressurizer, eventually bursting a rupture disk in the quench tank. Thousands of gallons of radioactive water flooded onto the containment building floor until an operator manually shut a blocking valve in the pressure relief circuit. But much of the overflow had already been transferred from a sump to a tank in an auxiliary building. It overflowed that and flowed onto the floor where it eventually began to evaporate, releasing radioactive gases into the environment. Radiation levels of 30 to 35 millirem per

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hour were monitored at the plant gate. Readings of 20 to 35 mr. per hour across the river in Goldsboro, a town of 600, quickly dropped to about 1 mr. per hour. (Editor’s note – 35 mr. is equal to the radiation received in 3½ chest X-rays. For a period of time the 600 inhabitants of Goldsboro were subject to radiation equal to 3½ chest X-rays per hour, after which the level dropped to only 1 mr. or about 2½ chest X-rays per day! Of course there is as yet no very sure way to determine how much of the radioactive gas or water vapor was inhaled by the population during the time when it was first drifting through the town, so that the mere exterior monitoring may not have much significance.

Initial readings within the containment building were much higher. One monitor, hit by steam from the pressurizer, read 6,000 rem per hour, but the utility said a more accurate measure was probably 80 rem per hour. (Editor’s note: One rem is equal to 1,000 millirem and at even the very low estimate of 80 rem per hour would require less than a two minute exposure to cause death. The formation of the huge hydrogen bubble in the reactor dome was, and still is, a matter of speculation as to its cause, but one thing all engineers agree on is that formation of such a bubble had never been anticipated in the calculations of possible accident scenarios! This fact inevitably raises the disturbing question as to how many other catastrophic possibilities have been overlooked in advance planning of nuclear plants.)

Once the bubble is gone and the reactor cooled, the mammoth job of cleaning up a critically damaged and severely contaminated reactor will begin. The most optimistic estimate being made by NRC’s Robert Bernero, is that it will be at least one or two years before the facility can be made operational. Others say four years. The cost will be at least $40,000,000, and probably a great deal more.

Cleanup would involve removing nearly 80,000 gallons of radioactively contaminated water from the reactor’s primary cooling system, and as much as

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200,000 gallons of radioactive water from the floor of the containment building. Then comes the problem of finding a way to dispose of this vast amount of waste. A nuclear power plant usually generates about 35,000 cubic feet of waste per year. Cleanup of the damaged plant may involve ten times that amount. Then there is the problem of removing damaged material from the reactor. As of last Tuesday, radiation levels registered near 30,000 rem. in the dome of the building – enough to cause instant death to humans. There was some speculation that damage to the plant may be so extensive that it may never operate again. Only three months old, it would be an expensive and untimely end – and one that consumers would pay for in much higher electric bills. A power plant that costs more than one thousand millions of dollars to build, and lasts for only three months of operations, does not seem to be a very profitable investment, especially when such a plant requires from six to eight years to build.

If, however, we compare what did happen to what might well have happened under the circumstances, we must realize the outcome, however costly in money, was still a very fortunate one. Very little has been said in public, about the full results of a core melt-down. Most references to such an event merely point out that if the core melted down completely, it would also melt through the floor of the containment building and produce considerable radioactive steam from the moisture in the ground. What is conveniently overlooked is that any temperature high enough to melt through the floor of the containment building would also be amply high to melt the roof of the same building, within which there would, by that time be gas pressures of many thousands of pounds per square inch. Also overlooked is the fact that the mere melting of the core would, in no way diminish the rate of heat production but, on the other hand, quite probably would substantially increase it. The result would be that several thousands of tons of vaporized material containing levels of radioactivity fifty times that of the “dirtiest” A bomb ever made, would

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rise into the air to be wafted in whatever direction the wind might choose to blow. The fallout would contain lethal levels of radiation for fifty to one hundred fifty miles and would spread out to from five to fifteen miles wide as the cloud moved onward. Any city, town, village or hamlet in the path of that cloud would become uninhabitable for decades, and unhealthy for centuries. Quite a price to pay for trying to steal the sun’s nuclear processes, and to duplicate them on the surface of the earth.

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BOOKS! BOOKS!

The book for those sincerely and seriously wishing to return to the Father’s House may be one from the mind of Rudolf Steiner: “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. ” The Anthroposophic Press, New York, third ed., paperback. We owe our knowledge of its content to Henry and Lisa Monges since it was originally published in German.

Many of you may already be familiar with Rudolf Steiner’s words but Mr. Steiner, like Shakespeare and other of our immortal writers, bears continued study.

So briefly, if you’re needing a renewed resolve to follow the Path, this book is for you. The contents include such profoundly simple topics as “The Stages of Initiation; The Conditions of Esoteric Training; Some Results of Initiation; The Splitting of Human Personality During Spiritual Training and Life and Death; The Greater Guardian of the Threshold.”

Four points picked at random from the chapter on Initiation are as follows: 1. Pursue the path of veneration; devotion to truth and knowledge and revere those persons of great character who have preceeded you on the Path. 2. Daily withdraw from the small ego into the real Self. Learn through observation of animals and flowers their life secrets but do not exploit that knowledge once gained. 3. Pursue Knowledge but not for the self alone; knowledge must be shared. It is for growth and ripening within the realm of cosmic force. Every idea which does not become an Ideal, slays a force in your soul and every idea which becomes your Ideal creates within you a life force. And finally, 4. Set aside a time each day to do something different; review all the feelings of the day, experiences and actions you have taken. Regard all of them from a higher point of view than previously-as though they were the behavior of someone else. Then sever the acts from the actor and develop inner tranquility through meditation.

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No complicated techniques involved here, no financial out-lay but a most simple and profound exercise to bring about spiritual awareness if that is what you want. The book is recommended as one of the best guides to the attainment of higher consciousness. And higher and higher!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I see where people are now pushing for state laws to prohibit smokers from polluting the air in all public places.

This makes sense. People have a right to smoke and poison themselves; that’s their privilege. But, non smokers have a prior right to breathe smoke-free air. This second-hand smoke is not only poisonous and cancer-producing but is actually repulsive and nauseating to non-smokers.

Actually, we shouldn’t need statutory laws for this problem. There is a moral law involved. An innate sense of right and wrong. One wouldn’t deliberately sneeze onto someone’s plate while they were having dinner. Why is smoking and poisoning the air any different situation?

Why don’t you smokers, you tobacco addicts who have been victimized by the millions of dollars worth of tobacco industry propaganda, smoke at home or out in an open field someplace?

Yours for sanity in an insane world,

David Stry, owner of the

Villa Vegetariana Health Spa,

Curenavaca, Mexico

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BULLETIN BOARD

From the President Pro-Tem, Jeff Perry, comes the word that there will be a meeting of the Board of Directors and Officers May 27th at 1:30 PM at the L.A  Yates home. Plans will be made at that time for the October convention and annual meeting.

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Ye Olde Editor is doing it again! Getting ready to present to the world of poetry lovers a book of his own creation. He has mischievously given it the title of “Verse and Worse (mostly worse)”. Exposition Press will publish it in hard back cover and fine quality paper. Those who have had the privilege of hearing some of the work will surely want a copy and those who haven’t heard any of it will be intrigued with the tongue-in-cheek work which parodies the words of the great. In it such gems as “If”, “Shooting of Dan McGrew”, “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, “Hiawatha”, and others equally famous are given a complete reversal of meaning.

There will be some fifty pages or more of laughter provoking verse. Watch for the advertisement in the next issue of Understanding. The price will be right.

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Don’t forget your contributions to Understanding help in the battle to inform the general public of just where civilization stands today. And mostly it’s on the brink! We hope all Understanding members and magazine readers are like the five wise virgins-lamps filled with oil and ready for whatever comes. (It could be a space ship for takeoff, you know!

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DOCUMENT NOW OUT OF PRINT

Bert Kissinger

It was Coronado Beach, California, the first West Coast site of an airship flight in the year 1897-the airship having previously been constructed for Chicago’s Exposition in the year 1893.

In an old document, published by the Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, California, the Better Days Publishing Company, in the early nineties, the author describes the wonderful feat in one chapter of the text. Using modern day language, it all came about through the efforts and financial status of a millionaire philanthropist of the times. The promoter, whose name was probably non-de-plume, selected his operations and experiments on the fabulous beach in that era because of the Mecca of the entertaining world of yesteryear. To quote the phrase, “The airship, `Petrel,’ built by the Aeoronautic Company at their headquarters in Chicago, was dismantled and shipped to Coronado Beach and reassembled. The airship was cigar-shaped, one hundred feet in length and twenty feet in diameter, and was built of a flexible imported wood-the toughest of all woods. Her engines, with fans and propellers, as well as the gas generator and tank for benzine, were all constructed of tempered aluminum made by the new Kentucky process at a cost of only eight cents per pound. Being stronger and tougher than the finest steel, and only one-third the weight of that metal, it was especially adapted for the construction of the airships. The machinery of the `Petrel’ was propelled by a gas generated from benzine. The fluid was carried in an air-tight aluminum tank, and passed, drop by drop, to the generator. This gas, almost as powerful as the vibratory ether discovered by Mr. K____, was much safer because it was more certainly controlled. The airship, with two tons of fuel in the tanks and ten men on board, supplied with water for food for fifteen days,

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weighed but ten tons more, to a height of five thousand or even ten thousand feet. Without any aid from her folding aluminum parachute, she was able to maintain herself there for a fortnight, at a speed-in a still atmosphere-of fifty miles per hour. No balloon was attached to the `Petrel,’ as she relied entirely upon her paddles and wings, both for propulsion and as a means of maintaining herself in the air. She was constructed upon the principle of aerial navigation furnished by the wild goose. That bird maintains himself in the ether during a flight of hundreds of miles without a rest, simply because `his strength or muscular power is greater in proportion to his weight. Aerial navigation never presented any other problem than that of procuring power without weight. Once able to obtain the power of a ten-horse power engine, of less than one ton, one might fly all over the world, at a speed of fifty or even one hundred miles an hour.”

27                                                  UNDERSTANDING