Volume 10, Issue 4, page 17

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-- JULY-AUGUST, 1963
"Just one problem for the
'Gripes to the Editor' column.
Should we run a counter-ad to
Roy Davis Research Labs, which
isn 't me? I bless their work,
whatever it is, but I'm getting letters from all over
asking me about 'my' new viewer. Dcn't know if the other Roy
gets my mail or not. The mail
can be sorted out -- it's the
image that might get roughed
up -- since I'm not dealing in
psychic aids of a mechanical
nature. " -- Roy Eugene Davis,
Garrett Park, Md.
000
"May I register astonishment at something I se e in
Harold Schroeppel 's Lesson 13?
Quite casually, it seems to
me, he says, 'If you have
cosmic consciousness yourself,
try tying the person into cosmic consciousness. ' What I
have learned of cosmic consciousness causes me to put it
in a category of one, worth
its own special paragraph and
all the capitals on the typewriter, if such devices could
succeed in transmitting its
true significance. But perhaps
as with so many words a n d
phrases encountered in the
field of -- (what? Freethinking?)
-- this is used here to mean
something less revolutionary
to the experiencer of it than
the Awakened State, Recognition, or Liberation -- three
words for the same thing which
is also sometimes called cosmic consciousness. If Bucke is
the referrent usage, then the
cosmic consciousness meant by
Mr. Schroeppel is not the utterly transcendent subjective
state but any one of several
less profound states which are
harbingers of actual Nirvanic
Consciousness -- still another
synonym for this great fact
possible to consciousness,
which always has been the goal
of all human effort directed
toward realization of the socalled divine.
"On the other hand it may
well be that Mr. Schroeppel
moves in circles where the
highest experience open to humanity in its present state is
a commonplace. If this is the
case, I would suggest that what
Mr. Schroeppel has to say is
highly worth the reading, altho I myself respond rather
poorly to multiple-choice instruction. Incidentally, I have
found the most definitive and
logically organized work treating of 'Cosmic Consciousness'
to be not Bucke 's book of that
title, but an obscure book by
Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff entitled 'Pathways T h r u to
Space '
"According to what John
lianas has said in his article ,
when I have lost consciousness
thru anesthesia my soul does
not feel the agony of my bunion
operation, but when my body
has lost consciousness to such
an extent that doctors pronounce it dead, my soul feels
the agony of the embalming
process. The two considerations do not sit well together.
"In closing let me say I
have invariably enjoyed articles by Roy Davis for the sincerity I felt was in them and
for the manner of expression
as well as seeming validity of
content. I do not think this
same man would deliberately
try to make money by selling a
tubular diffraction-grating device thru which the purchasers
hope to see the superphysical
human aura. I note his ad does
not actually say this; actually
it seems to me to go to some
length not to say it, but only
to imply it as strongly as
possible. Really, the ad on
this device contains some remarkable jewels of meaninglessness. For example, this:
'Your reactions will welcome
such a new concept .. ' I am
also quite fond of the accompanying expression, 'visual
actual seeing'. In all, this
advertisement is a jewel -- of
some kind! I say, more power
to people who put 2/3rds-page
ads in the good old ABERREE!
They are doing good of a sort,
whether they intend to or not!"
-- Paul Perella, Waianae, Hawaii.
000
"In your April issue the
little article by Art Coulter
on kinship with Dianetics is
very amusing. However, it has
just enough twist to make it
wrong. Having worked with Art
in the 'early days' of Synergetics, and then left to become a Scientology auditor
after a good evaluation of
both, I know Art to be a sincere man and hard-working, but
he is trying to deny that there
is ice underfoot as he slips
and slides on it, and puts up
skyhooks to hold on to, at the
same time.
"I doubt he will ever know
that what he rejected in tote,
he never did find out what it
was. So let him figure-figure
his way thru this small portion
of time, we will pick him up
next time around." -- Jerry Hedin, 108 E.Oak, Villa Park, Ill.
000
"I got a letter from Morris
Katzen with thanks for the
good wish and description of
case progress, demonstration
frustrations, etc... If I understand the situation, Katzen
has done nothing worse than
teach defecation as a sacrament. His physiological exegeThe ABERREE
sis of the New Testament is, I
suppose, formally a heresy, but
I didn't think heresy was illegal in our time. Why this
should cause the Postoffice Department to stop his mail, and
prevent various investigators
from allowing him to attempt
faith healing for nothing, are
two things I don't understand
at all. I don't understand
sacramental defecation either,
but since the Black Moslems
are free to worship their own
skins, surely Katzen is entitled to venerate his viscera.
Probably a case of the creeping clericalism that Lagus
(George W.) disturbs himself
about.
"Now anent 1'affaire Davis
(Albert Roy), I was indeed requested to butter you up about
the advertising. He doesn't
know me too well, does he? I've
read Davis's advertising pieces
(direct mail) and also a copy
of the autowriting course. The
long introduction appears to
have more entertainment value
than information. The instructions proper, the last part,
seem practical enough. They
work, anyway. I agree about
the superfluity of the psychic
pen. Any smooth writing ballpoint pen or ink pencil should
do equally well. Whether just
anybody at all can learn to
write automatically depends entirely, of course, on whether
they have aptitude for it...
"About Art Coulter's letter.
I could make quite a production
of this but I would just as
soon not... I had no intention
whatever of offending Dr. Coulter personally, nor did I intend to derogate Synergetics,
nor to asperse the Synergetic
society. For whatever distress
I have caused him, I offer my
unreserved and plenary apology. As to a public retraction ,
I believe a public rebuttal is
more in order. While agreeing
that Dr. Coulter does not hate
Hubbard, it seems transparently obvious from published
statements that Dr. Coulter intensely dislikes Mr. Hubbard.
As a fellow vintage Korzybskian of the deepest dye, I have
to take notice of Dr.Coulter's
occasional lapses into semantic ambiguity in the published
letter. That Hubbard did viciously attack Don Purcell before Purcell's death and that
these attacks were disturbing
to Purcell's friends, I agree.
That Hubbard attacked Mr. Purcell after the latter's death
implies theoretical considerations of Spiritualism and personal survival after death
which are not empirically established, and with which I do
not concur. In my opinion ,
which is exactly as worthless
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