Rosicrucian Digest, July 1937

8/12/2019 Rosicrucian Digest, July 1937

1/44


2/44

S A N C T U M

I N C E N S E

B U R N E R

Made of Egyptian clay,

finished in antique bronze,size six (6) inches inheight and length, exe-cuted by a renowned Rosicrucian sculptor.

Price $2.00 each

This price includespostage.

On the Wings of the Soul . . .TN THE temples of yore, under starlit skies, kneeling and sway-

ing to a rhythmic chant, the mystics offered their prayers tounseen Cosmic hosts, while in their midst a silver wisp of frank-incense sw'irled upward to the heavens above. No mystical ordevout ceremony was complete without its elaborate, ornamentedincense burner containing scented resin or aromatic gum. Theburning of incense was no fantastic superstition or weird rite,but the symbol of mans attunement in prayer and meditation

with the great Cosmic consciousness. By inhaling its fragrance,man, while listening to the harmony of the chant, and with eyesclosed to all worldly scenes, would have his sense of smell cap-tured and be raised to a complete state of ecstacy. Thus, for themoment, his consciousness being free from distracting sensations,it could soar on high into the Cosmic realm as did the wisps ofcurling smoke from the burner before him. Throughout the cen-turies in the mystery and secret schools, the grottoes and cloisters,beautiful symbolic incense burners have ever been used.

For Rosicrucians, we have designed one embodying the beau-tiful spiritual significance of Amenhotep IVs salutation to thedawn, so loved by all members of AMORC. The face is anexact copy of the sculptured head found in the ruins of histemple at TelelAmarna. The arms are folded in Rosicruciansupplication. Its symbolism, the sun disc and crux ansata(looped cross) have a special significance to all Rosicrucians.It is made of Egyptian clay and is beautifully finished in antiquebronze. It is a useful and beautiful accessory. ADD IT TOYOUR SANCTUM.

T h e R O S I C R U C I A N S U P P L Y B U R E A UR O S I C R U C I A N P A R K S A N J O S E . C A L I F O R N I A


3/44

THE ANCIENT TOMB OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ ?

Has the mythical tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz become an established fact? Is the above illustration the actual tomb of the legendarycharacter . Christian Rosenkreutz? For complete details, and interesting commentary, refer to page 229.

(Courtesy of The Rosicrucian Digest.)


4/44

WAS THE source OF HIS WISDOM

EXECUTION OF SOCRATES

Drinking Poison Hemlock, 399 B. C.

Did the potion of poison, stilling the flowery tongue ofSocrates, lose to the world the source of his wisdom?Were his last words but a challenge to humanity toseek further? Would a man who so courageouslyfaced death that wisdom could survive, selfishly takewith him into the grave the secret of his amazingpowers? What words did he whisper to his grievingcompanions and disciples on the eve of his execution. . . words that never reached the ears of eavesdrop-ping guards? Stealthily, it had been his habit in thestill of night, to meet with others in the shadows ofa grove, there to discourse on the mysteries of lije. Forso daring to inquire into the ways of nature and man,

he was condemned to death. Who were these nightlyvisitors he had? From whence did the knowledge theyimparted come? Were they the secret of his power?Was he but a channel through which a strange wis-dom flowed? Each disciple left the death cell with aglowing radiance. Had Socrates disclosed to them thesource of his knowledge which fashioned the thoughtsof men for centuries?

Today it is known that secret brotherhoods, mysteryschools, wrested from nature herself the wisdom whichgave the ancient sages their personal power. BUT it islittle known that in this day and age these brother-

hoods still endure, and regardless of creed or sect,extend to the sincere, gems of wisdom potent with possi-bilities for accomplishment and extraordinary attainment.

W rite for this Free Sealed Book

Jts truths are stranger than fiction

One of these ageold brotherhoods, the Rosicrucians,(NOT a religious organization) invites you to write forthe free Sealed Book, which explains how you too mayreceive this knowledge. Rational and simply understood,it has been the infallible guide that thousands in everyland have followed in acquiring the finer things andfullness oflifewhich they sought. Use the coupon below.

TheROSICRUCIANS( A M O R C )

~ ~ *1. - - USE THIS COUPON ' =

Scribe S. P. C.The Rosicrucians, AMORC, San Jose, California.

I am sincerely interested in knowing more about thisunseen, vital power which can be used in acquiring thefullness and happiness of life. Please send me, withoutcost, the book, "T he S e c r e t H e r i t a g e ," which tells how toreceive this information.

Name______________________________________________

Address---------- --------------- ----------- ----- - -------------- -

(The Rosicrucians are NOT a religious organization)


5/44

r

I >7

I

l zzrruz

ROSICRUCIAN

DIGESTCOVERS THE WORLDTHE OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL ROSICRUCIAN MAGA-ZINE OF T H E WORLDWIDE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER

Vol. XV. JU LY , 1937 No. 6

C O N T E N T S Page

The Ancient Tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz ?

(Frontispiece) ....... 201

The Thought of the Month:

My Coat of Changeable Color 204Telepathy Today 209

The Holy Guide: Rosicrucian Laboratories

and Inventions .. 214

Summaries of Science: Planetary Communications 219

Along Civilizations Trail: Temples and Tombs 220

Cathedral Contacts: A Soul Necessity 225

The World of Wonder 227

Commentary on Frontispiece............ 229

Sanctum Musings: Is Metaphysics a Menaceto Religion? . 230

The Transition of a Famous Alchemist 234

The Emperor and the Alchemist (Illustration) 237

.

......................................................................................

.

Subscription to The Rosicrucian Digest, Three Dollars peryear. Single copies twentyfive cents each.

Entered as Second Class Matter at the Po3t Office at SanJose, California, under the Act of August 24th, 1912.

Changes of address must reach us by the tenth of the monthpreceding date of issue.

Statements made in this publication are not the official ex-pressions of the organization or it3 officers unless stated tobe official communications.

Published Monthly by the Supreme Council of

THE ROS ICRUC IAN ORDERAMORC

ROSICRUCIAN PARK SAN JOSE. CALIFORNIA

A^RTIN

t AUMd


6/44

THE *

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

MY COAT OF CHANGEABLE COLOR

W ANT to ask myfellow membersfrankly whether itis possible that I

am so vacillatingin my religious,spiritual and socialconvictions that Iam really a con-tinuous turncoat"or wear a coat ofmany colors?

From time totime some readers

of this magazine who do not give care-ful thought to what they read, or aproper analysis of what I have writtenand said in the course of twentyfiveyears, accuse me of being pro this orpro that and anti this or anti that. Fromthe reading of just one article of mine inthe current issue of this magazine, thesereaders will come to a surprising con-clusion and, without recalling what theyhave read in preceding issues, they ac-cuse me of being what I am not.

Our correspondence here at Head-quarters shows that in the past twentyfive years, and especially within the lastfive or six years, I have been accused ofbeing not only a Jew but a secret and

mysterious agent or representative ofinsidious Jewish propaganda; and dur-ing the same period of time I have beenaccused by others of being a very secretagent of the Roman Catholic Church

j 'f ie carrying on a form of disguised propar> qanda for the Roman Catholic religion.

then again, at other times, J am ac-cused of being vigorously opposed tothe Jewish religion and everything Jew-ish, and in fact a member of some

DigestJuly1937

Jesuitical Society pledged to eliminatethe Jews and the Jewish religion fromthe face of the earth. Throughout thesepast years I have been accused very

consistentlv in some Roman Catholicpublications of being bitterly opposed tothe Roman Catholic Church and one ofSatans most subtle destroyers of allfaith in the Roman Catholic religion.Then again, after having expressedsome personal opinion in this monthlydepartment of the magazine, I am sud-denly accused of being an atheist anda spy of the Russian government work-ing against all religions and a disturberof the peace of all individualsJewishand Gentile, Roman Catholic and Pro-testant, pagan and heathen.

When, at one of our national Con-ventions, a representative from Wash-ington brought to the opening sessionthe gold cross of honor of the AmericanFlag Association, and read the citationcertificate making me a Knight of theFlag and an honored member of theOrder of the Flag, equalled by the samehonor conferred only upon ColonelLindbergh, thereby being dignified bythe highest patriotic award the Ameri-can Patriotic Society could grant to anindividual, I was accused of being a

radical kind of American and most cer-tainly a bitter enemy of the Communistmovement, the Fascist movement, andall o t h e r undemocratic movementsthroughout the world.

When in one issue of The Rosicrucian Forum magazine there appearedone of my discussions praising the nu-tritive and other values of the Californiaprune, I was accused of being biased inregard to the food, vegetables, climate

Two hundred four


7/44

and scenery of the various states of thiscountry and looked upon as one secedeing from the American republic and becoming a supporter of a California

empire.When I have expressed some person-al criticisms of conditions in Germany,I have been accused by many or nearlyall of our German readers of being antiGerman and antiHitler. On the otherhand, whenever I have spoken of theexcellent things I have found in Ger-many I have been accused of being apatron of secret alliances in Europesupporting the Hitler regime.

In some magazines and newspaperswithin the past ten years I have been

accused of being a Jew by birth and re-ligion, and of hiding it under cover asthough it were something I was publiclyashamed of but used in privacy to thedetriment of the Christians. On theother hand, some Jewish publicationsand some Jewish individuals have triedto claim that they had evidence that Iwas not born in a Protestant family ofthe Methodist faith as many and un-questionable documents will prove, butthat I was born in a Roman Catholicfamily and secretly educated in a Jesuitschool.

When some years ago I wrote, as Ioften do now, against war and war pro-paganda, I was accused of being aslacker and an evader of the draftlaw, in spite of the fact that I was dulyregistered by our government and givena draft number and was awaiting mycall to military duty when the war sud-denly ended by the signing of theArmistice, and these facts are supportedby government records. I have been ac-cused of being a secret and hidden pro-mulgator of the plans of the colored

race to rise in their political, economicand social position, and these accusershave even qone so far as to intimate thatthere may be a strain of colored bloodin my ancestry. On the other hand, be-cause I was at one time, and probablystill am, an honorary member of TheAryan Society of America I was ac-cused by many colored factions of be-ing secretly in opposition to any degreeof fair play being shown to the coloredrace.

Because of my writings in support ofthe logical and excellent British attitude

Two hundred five

in many regards, critics have investigat-ed my ancestry and found that I was ofWelsh extraction, and therefore a secretagent of Great Britain, ready to become

a British spy in America in case of war,and always proBritish and antiAmeri-can. On the other hand, in addition tohaving been accused of being one hun-dred per cent German by blood and at-titude of mind, I have been accused ofbeing so proFrench that I sing theMarseillaise every time my companionssing the American anthem.

And right now, I am being accused ofbeing one hundred per cent proMus-solini and proFascism, and one hun-dred per cent antidemocratic and antiCommunistic, just because of my recentinterview with Mr. Mussolini and myhonest and unstinted praise of his re-markable accomplishments in Italy andwith the Italian peoole. My accusershave suddenly abandoned all of theirconvictions that I was antiCatholic andantiItalian and extremely proCommunistic and reversed their opinions,this time feeling that they are as ab-solutely sure of their conclusions as theyhave been on so many occasions in thepast years.

And, on top of it, I now find that an

article which I wrote for this depart-ment before I started on the Rosicruciantour in January and which appeared inthese pages during my cruise throughthe Mediterranean has suddenly mademe again a one hundred per cent sup-porter of the Roman Catholic Church,of the Vatican and the Pope, and in factI now find myself in the unique positionof being a papal legate almost ready tobe vested with ecclesiastical robes of acardinal or an archbishop or somethingof the kind.

Why? Because in this recent articleappearing in these pages I ventured toexpress my personal and sincere opinionregarding the efficiency, the practic-ability, and necessity of an autocraticform of government for any great inter-national movement such as the RomanCatholic Church. I do not recallwhether I expressed my personal admir-ation for the character, mentality, andsincerity of the present Pope, but if Ifailed to do that I herewith express myadmiration for a man of his deep learn-ing, his great foresight, and his excel


8/44

lent diplomacy. But my article did notdeal with any endorsement of theRoman Catholic religion or church assuch, but it dealt exclusively with thatform of autocratic government whichhas made the Roman Catholic Church

as an international institution an emi-nent success in the face of every form ofattack and criticism that could be di-rected against it by every type of in-dividual, by every form of government,and particularly by the mad horde ofunthinking individuals who prefer noform of government to any kind. Forthe very same reason, I could have andshould have endorsed the autocraticform of government that controls anddirects the welfare, progress and destinyof the Christian Science Church, for it,too, has a hierarchy much like that ofthe Roman Catholic Church. I am surethat I did say that any form of cultural,educational, cooperative movement com-posed of and operating through the in-dividuals and characters of diversifiednations in many lands and under manyconditions must be autocratic in its gov-ernment and control if it is to be a per-manent success and fight the many bat-tles that will naturally come its way.But this would apply even to suchmovements as the Freemasonic Fratern-ity and similar bodies and our own

Rosicrucian Order.Certainly those critics who have writ-

ten so freely and bombastically aboutmy article that appeared in the Marchissue of this magazine, The Rosicru-cian Digest, did not carefully readwhat I wrote and did not observe thatmy comments were neither a criticismnor an endorsement of the Roman Cath-olic religion as such. I was not writingabout religion but form of government.

All of our members should know bythis time, and our readers who are not

members should gradually learn, thatthe AMORC is not actively interestedin politics or religion. Just yesterdayafternoon I spent a very pleasant hourunder one of the palm trees on a com-fortable bench on the lawns of Rosi-crucian Park, discussing our teachingsand ideals with a priest of the CatholicChurch who is one of our advancedmembers. On my trip through theMediterranean on an Italian SteamshipI again did what I have done every time

I have crossed the ocean, and that is,to spend a large part of my recreationtime in philosophical and religious dis-cussions with the Roman Catholicchap-lain or priest on the ship. I am proud ofthe excellent ideas that I have gained

from my discussions and talks with themany Roman Catholic priests withinour Order and outside of it, but I amalso proud of the fact that I have hadmany similar beneficial talks and dis-cussions with Jewish rabbis, with paganpriests, with Protestant clergymen, andwith all types of religious individuals.I am proud of the fact that I havefriends real friends among thesevarious religious denominations. I havefound extreme peace and inspiration inattending, while in Europe, the lowmasses and high masses and other serv-ices of the Roman Catholic Church, butI have also found similar peace and in-spiration in some of the Sabbath Dayservices in Jewish synagogues and insocalled pagan temples of the NearEast.

I have no antipathy toward any re-ligion, any creed, or any doctrine, andI certainly have no such bias or pre-judice in favor of any one of them thatI would attempt to say that theirs is theonly path, theirs is the only gateway toheaven.

It is true that I have written criticallyof certain religious doctrines found inthe Roman Catholic Church and in theProtestant churches, in the Jewish syna-gogues and elsewhere. I have writtencritically of the interpretations that havebecome standardized in the modernversions of the Christian Bible, but Ihave also criticized other scriptural writ-ings belonging to other sects and creeds.On the other hand, I have praised andshall continue to praise the good thingsas I find them, in church, in politics,

among men and women, and groups ofindividuals.

I am not going to change my opinionsone iota just because a hundred or athousand German or Italian, Russian orEnglish, American or other individualswrite to me and accuse me of being prothis or anti that. I am going to speak ofthe good in all things, in all movements,all individuals, all nations, as I person-ally find them and observe them.

Two hundred six


9/44

Of course I may be wrong in my con-clusions. My observations may not becorrect. But of one thing my readersand the members of our organizationcan be sure, and that is, that 1 am ab-

solutely sincere and that I have no ul-terior motives, and there are absolutelyno secret alliances motivating me inanything I say or do.

In answer to the argument that whenI praise some individual, some move-ment, some form of government, somenation, I am fostering and supportingthat movement and may not be awareof the injustice or the unfairness of myattitude and what results from it, I canonly say that it is my duty as chief ofthis organization to help spread thetruth as I find it, and to bring lightwhere there is darkness and help to de-stroy falsehood. If in my way of doingthis, and through erroneous conclusionsor wrong observations, I am helping tospread untruth instead of truth, it willbe my Karmic debt for which I shallhave to make just compensation, eventhough it is done innocently of wrong-doing and in absolute sincerity. But toaccuse me of having ulterior motivesand of being wilfully, deliberately, andsecretly pro this or anti that, is to be ab-

solutely unfair and unreasonable.In order for these accusations to be

true, I would have to change my coatand turn my coat so many times a monthand year that it would soon becomethreadbare and colorless, or else I wouldhave to wear a coat of more colors thanthe proverbial Jacobs coat. Certainly Icould not efficiently, and to anv degreeof success, assist any of these move-ments, individuals, nations, or peoplesthat I praise by wearing a coat of theircolor one week, and a coat of an oppo-

site color another week. If I wore acoat of but one color consistently andcontinuously, then there might be somereason to suspect that I was so enamor-ed of that color, so enslaved to it andby it, that it colored my viewpoint ofeverything else, and I might even be

justly suspected of being secretly a pro-pagandist for that one color.

I believe that the majority of ourmembers like to have me express myopinion regarding things that I have

seen and observed in my tours andTwo hundred seven

travels around the world, and especiallybecause my connections with the Rosicrucian Order enable me to make manyintimate contacts and to learn things atfirst hand that the average person doesnot learn. One of the things I havelearned is that not one of us can putvery much faithin fact very littleinwhat we read in our own and foreignnewspapers and magazines. Yet it isfrom such sources that the average in-dividual who has criticized me in my at-titude derives his or her knowledge andbeliefs regarding the things I have com-mented upon. And in most cases myopinions and convictions have been op-posite to what is popularly claimed inthe controlled and newspaper pro-

paganda.Fortunately for me and my attitude

in regard to many things of a political,social, economic and educational nature,while in various lands on this recentcruise I was surrounded and accompan-ied by over one hundred and forty Rosicrucian members of every walk of life,professionally and socially, and of everygrade of intellectual and cultural under-standing, and in nearly every instancethey concurred in and unanimouslyagreed with my observations and con-

clusions. These touring members repre-sented not only a very fair crosssectionof our entire membership, but a very ex-cellent crosssection of American citizen-ship. I highly valued their opinions andconclusions, and I was glad to find thatin practically every instance their opin-ions were in harmony with my own,therefore proving to me, at least, thatmy glasses are not colored, and that myattempt to be broad and tolerant inevery respect is not a fanatical hallu-cination on my part.

In the earliest issue of this magazine,The Rosicrucian Digest, it was edi-torially stated that The RosicrucianDigest would become at times and onoccasion militant in its attitude andespecially in its attack upon darknessand falsehood. We are determined tospread the light where it will do the ut-most good. In my department and inthose articles signed by me I shall con-tinue, as an individual, to express myopinion of truths and falsehoods as Iobserve them. No influence by one con-

tingent or another, no threats by mem


10/44

bers or readers expressing the intentionof withdrawing from the organizationor from the subscription list of thismagazine will cause me to withholdwhat facts I think are of interest orwhat beliefs I consider illuminating.

The organization does not insist thatmembers shall adopt the opinions I hold,nor change their religious, social, eco-nomic, political or intellectual con-clusions or convictions in accordancewith mine or those of any officer of the

organization. But at least, in fairness toyourself and in fairness to our motivesin preparing these articles and express-ing these opinions, our readers shouldread them carefully and not try to readbetween the lines certain ideas that are

not there and were not intended. Atleast, if the opinions we express are in-compatible with your own, allow me thesame honor, the same privilege, of be-ing sincere in what I say, as you claimin the things you believe and express.

V V V

ATTEND THE RO SICRUC IAN CON VENT ION

TheRosicrucianD igest

July1937

ANCIENT SYMBOLISM

Man, when conscious of an eternal truth, has ever symbolized it so that thehuman consciousness could forever have realization of it. Nations, languages andcustoms have changed, but these ancient designs continue to illuminate mankindwith their mystic light. For those who are seeking light, each month we willreproduce a symbol or symbols, with their ancient meaning.

THE ALTAR OF LUST

Here we have another com-posite symbol consisting mainlyof the Altar and the Serpent. Inthis instance, the serpent repre-sents wickedness, or immorality.The altar depicts those thingswhich man venerates by his de-votion to them.

The allegorical illustration inits entirety alludes to the de-

struction that awaits a civilization which gives itself over to an in-continent life, or that countenances the depraved conduct of its7T* people. In the distance are seen the ruins of a

SI--------------BD city, and, immediately behind the altar, the re *1--------------K

f l

morseful humans.

A 4 , ._................... -r.TT....... ,03------ l EJ--------------8

Two hundred eight


11/44

TelepathyToday

IT IS A POTENTIAL ABILITY IN ALL NORMAL PERSONS ANDMAY BE DEVELOPED THROUGH TRAINING AND PRACTICE

ByDr . J. B. R h in e , Department of Psychology,

Duke University

Editors Note: Dr. Rhine has become internationally famous in recent years through his veryexhaustive researches in the field of parapsychology. He has delved deeply into the subjects oftelepathy and telaesthesia, and for the first time in the history of experimental psychology andmetaphysics has placed these subjects upon a thoroughly scientific basis. His remarkable findingsand his painstaking methods of investigation have attracted the attention of thousands of investiga-tors, and he has awakened a very wide interest in these subjects. Dr. Rhine visited us during our1936 National Convention, and graciously spoke from our convention platform after having madea careful survey of the various departments of our RoseCroix University. This article dealing with"Telepathy Today" was especially written by Dr. Rhine for The Rosicrucian Digest.

BOUT a half cen-tury ago FredericMyers constructedthe word tele-pathy to indicatethe extrasensoryperception of an-o th e r s mentalstates, and todaythe word is one ofcommon everyday

usage. He also in-vented the termtelaesthesia to

cover the extrasensory perception ofobjects, but this is very little known; theFrench "clairvoyance has filled theplace it would have taken in generalpopular speech.

During the first half of this fifty yearsof the history of telepathy it was studiedlargely outside the university labora-tories. It was too strange to gain anentrance there. Many of those whomade the studies were academic schol-

ars, but their inquiries were made dis-tinctly apart from their college connec-tions. The pioneer need to supply alaboratory and an organization to dealwith such investigations led to thefounding of the Society for PsychicalResearch in 1882 in England, and tosimilar societies in other lands.

But the last twentyfive years haveseen the subject work its way into uni-versity laboratories, receive a little timid

recognition here and a little condemna-tion there, and gradually obtain exam-ination on its merits, in approved scien-tific form. It has finally even achieved aplace in a few of the appropriatetext books and lecture courses, and notalways in a negative way. It has beenendorsed by the leadership of two ofthe five major schools of psychology ofthe day. As such matters usually go,this is fairly rapid advancement.

As far as the public is concerned, therapid growth of interest in telepathy de-pends largely upon the advance of radio

Two hundred nine


12/44

physics and the discoveries of newwaves. Telepathy becomes easily under-standable and plausible through thesuperficial analogies of this mechanicalthoughttransference. But on the otherhand the advance of telepathy into uni-versity status depends upon substantial

evidence.

The evidence for telepathy is reallyof vast bulk, if one does not select verynarrowly. If the nonexperimental caseswere included in the survey, then onewould have to go back as far as historygoes. Even if the inquiry be limitedonly to the period in which careful rec-ords and confirmation may be had, theevidence is still voluminous.

The huge collections of personal ex-periences of a seemingly telepathic na-ture made in different countries affordmaterial for reflection and perhaps forsome tentative generalization. Whencollected carefully, from generallytrustworthy persons, with some sup-porting testimony accompanying, thesecases can be impressiveif only by theinternal consistency found from countryto country where custom otherwisevaries widely. Yet such evidence, be-cause of the many possibilities of seriouserror, cannot be taken as proof of tele-pathy. It has served, however, to war-

rant investigation on more experimentallines, especially in the society stageor preuniversity stage of the subject.

The first experimental telepathicphenomena were associated with mes-merism and later with its successor,hypnotism. Especially did telepathyseem to figure in the hypnotizationatadistance, which was reported by a num-ber of French and English physicians,psychologists, and others during the lastquarter of the 19th century.

The hypnotic state, too, was used in

several of the earlier experiments by theEnglish Society for Psychical Research,as well as by some French investigators.Significant results are recorded withsome very eminent witnesses present,

The such as Dr. Janet and Mrs. Sidgwick.P . . Especially interesting is the Johnsonostcructati SjdgWick serjes in which the agent or

sender and the hypnotized percipient orreceiver were separated by a wall anda distance of 10 to 17 feet, with ob

DigestJuly1937

servers present with each. In this situa-tion, numbers chosen from lotto blockswere apparently telepathically trans-mitted with significant success. Yet atgreater distance there was failure.

But on the whole the evidence for

telepathy without hypnosis is quite asgood as with it. Perhaps it is not ashigh in percentage of successes, but ithas compensating advantages. There ismuch more of it, since it is free from thetroublesome and limiting necessity ofalways hypnotizing the subject. Itwould be impossible to give here morethan fleeting glimpses of the many tele-pathic experiments which have beencarried out since 1875. In England andAmerica they have been especiallynumerous, and there have been othersin France, Germany, Russia, Poland,

Holland. An estimate of about fifty in-dependent researches would probablybe a close one. And nearly all havebeen affirmative of telepathy as a gen-uine principle.

Of all the investigations made outsideuniversity walls, undoubtedly that ofUpton Sinclair and his wife, reported inMental Radio,is outstanding. ProfessorWilliam McDougall in a preface refer-red to it as the best evidence producedup to that time. The late Dr. WalterFranklin Prince, the highest authority

on psychical research, strongly ap-proved the Sinclair work. Einsteinwrote a preface for the German edition.Especially good in Mental Radio is theseries of long distance tests, with thirtymiles separating agent and percipient.The agent drew certain diagrams, think-ing concentratedly of them, while thepercipient, Mrs. Sinclair, tried to repro-duce them. While it is hard to evaluate free material like this, no one could,I think, dismiss the results obtained inthis series as due to mere chance.

The best work from the standpoint ofsafeguarding conditions and avoidingpossible error has been that done in theuniversities, but much of it has doubt-less suffered from the overmechaniza-tion of the routine of the experiments.Delicate capacities are likely to sufferfrom a formal, rigid, and unnaturallaboratory setup. The ordinary subjectwould not be expected to do his best at

Two hundred ten


13/44

any delicate mental task, let us say,composing an original poem or writinga love letter, if subjected to similarconditions.

Of the work done in university labor-

atories, the experiments of ProfessorCoover of Stanford should come first;they have gotten into more text books,perhaps, than any others. His hugevolume published eighteen years agohas become the classic of the oppositionto the acceptance of telepathy. He re-ported failure to discover any groundswhatever for belief in telepathy. Th iswork constitutes the principal negativecase in the history of research intelepathy.

Many, then, were astonished to find

that the review of Professor Cooverswork in the recent volume, Extra~Sen~sory Perception, showed that he hadbeen mistakenthat his results actuallygave evidence of telepathy according tothe standard criteria of evaluation. Sev-eral other academic men have inde-pendently checked the figures since andthere is no escape from this conclusionnow. All unwittingly, if not unwillingly,Professor Coover contributed the firstevidence for telepathy from a psycho-logical laboratory. Those who incline tothink that all such evidence must be the

result of strong prejudice in favor oftelepathy may well pause over theStanford work.

The experiments of Dr. Estabrooks,carried out in the Harvard Psvchological Laboratory under the guidance ofProfessor William McDougall, weredone under better conditions than thoseof Professor Coover. The agent, wholooked at a playingcard selected at ran-dom, was located in one room and thepercipient in another, a soundproofroom. The scores, like Professor Coov

er's, were not high, but they gave posi-tive deviations that chance would hard-ly be expected to give. The acceptedcriteria of the statisticians were wellmet in both cases.

The most finished piece of telepathicexperimentation was that carried out byProfessor Brugmanns of the Psycho-logical Laboratory of the University ofGroningen in Holland. Coover andEstabrooks had taken the ordinary runof college students, but Brugmanns had

Two hundred eleven

selected from a group one unusuallygood telepathic subject. The subject washeavily blindfolded, and seated at atable with a heavy curtain down be-tween his face and the table. He put onehand through the curtain, resting it ona checkerboard with fortyeight num-bered squares. Above, over a hole cutthrough the floor and covered with plateglass, was the experimenter, "willingthat the subjects hand was to move toa certain chosen square and tap on itwith a pointer, when he thought he wason the right one. The successes weremuch too numerous to have been merelucky hits, and one can see no way forsensory cues or guessing to have ac-counted for the results. Unfortunately,however, the subject very soon lost his

ability.

All this work on telepathic percep-tion, however, had one obvious experi-mental defect. It allowed extrasensoryperception of the object itself ( the card,or drawing, or record) quite as well asof the mental image. That is, theoretical-ly it allowed clairvoyance to operatejust as readily as telepathy. Both areextrasensory perceptions, one of ob-jects, the other of mental states. And

unless the conditions discriminate be-tween the two, there is no way of tell-ing whether the results are due to tele-pathic or to clairvoyant perception. Inother words, all the work done on "tele-pathy, may have been due to clairvoy-ance, since there was always an objec-tive basis available for a possible clair-voyant capacity. It does not matter thatthe evidence for clairvoyance has notbeen taken to be as good as that fortelepathythat there may be no suchthing as clairvoyance. It is, rather, en-tirely possible that, as just stated, it may

have been clairvoyance that gave theresults credited to telepathy. The evi-dence for telepathy up to this point hadbeen interpreted as such only by ignor-ing the possibility of clairvoyance.

So the question of telepathy was quiteunsettled. While there was, indeed,good evidence of extrasensory percep-tion of some kind, there was no evidencefor pure telepathy without clairvoyantperception possible, until experimentsbegan at Duke University. In this work


14/44

at Duke the attempt was made to testindependently both for pure telepathyand for pure clairvoyance, and bothwere found. The most astonishing thingof all was that both were found in thesame subjects.

The Duke experiments began about

five years ago, like those of Estabrooks,under the sponsorship of that hardypioneer of the frontiers of psychology,Professor William McDougall. Volun-teer students were used as subjects andafter some surveying, eight were foundwho scored well above the chance aver-age expected. The basis of the testswas a series of five symbols: rectangle,star, circle, wavy lines, and plus sign.Mental images of these were used intelepathy tests, and cards with the sym-bols stamped on them were the objectsused in clairvoyance. Since this articleis concerned mainly with telepathy, theclairvoyant phase will be largely omittedhere.

At first agent and percipient were al-lowed to be in the same room, but theywere separated when they had achievedenough selfconfidence. The assistantsacting as agents were instructed tochoose one of the five symbols for eachtrial and not to record it until after thepercipient made his call. This avoidedclairvoyance as a possibility. The choiceof symbols by the agent was made witha systematic irregularity, changing con-tinually, and made up at the moment.This avoided, as checks showed, repeti-tion of familiar patterns and escapedany normal similarity there might havebeen between agent and percipient.Tapping keys were used to signal whenthe two were within hearing distance;otherwise synchronized watches keptthem together.

TheRosicruciartDigestJuly1937

The results were often remarkablyhigh, and were quite as high when the

two were separated as with both in thesame room. For example, one subjectaveraged (where chance would aver-age 5) a score of 14 hits per 25 trialsin the same room with the agent, butaveraged 16 when two rooms away.This gave him 160 hits in 250 trials,over three times the expected mean forchance. In these he had one run of 25in which he scored 23 hits.

Another subject, 250 miles away,scored 51 hits in the first 75 trials,which were the best of the series. Thechance average would be 15. The oddsagainst these figures being due tochance alone are so great as to shut outthe chance theory conclusively.

With eight subjects and severalagents the weight of the evidence ismultiplied heavily. The work has beenin the hands of responsible assistantsand instructors. All the crosschecksand controls as well as the alternativemethods of evaluation have been ap-plied with a view to finding possibleflaws. But the evidence appears to beunassailable.

One of the most important points ofthe Duke work was the fact that, afterexperimentally separating out telepathy

from clairvoyance, the one seemed tobear a close relation to the other. Thesubjects who showed one capacitydemonstrated the other also. The twocapacities fluctuated together from dayto dav in the same subject. They wereaffected by the same factors. These andother facts point toward a fundamentalrelationship between them, as twomodes or phases of extrasensory per-ception. Professor Hans Driesch in hisrecent book, Psychical Research, con-cludes that telepathy and clairvoyanceare ultimates, fundamentally apart. Buthis is not an experimental finding, andexperiment, which is the final court ofappeal, seems to be clearly against hisview.

Above all, the natural aspect of extra-sensory perception stands out in theDuke experiments. Manv of its psy-chological and physiological relationsseem quite as would be expected. Thefact that it requires concentration of at-tention, freedom from distraction, andthat it declines with loss of interest or

with excitement, is just like what hap-pens with many higher mental abilities.The fact that sleepiness, fatigue, and alarge dose of a narcotic drug loweredits functioning is again naturally to beexpected. Sodium amytal almost blottedout the telepathic ability as it made thesubject sleepy, but caffeine pulled himup again in scoring, as it did in his gen-eral mental functioning. Reasoning

Two hundred twelve


15/44

would be affected in the same way.Composition of poetry or of musicwould suffer likewise for most artists.Telepathy is clearly a natural part ofthe mental system of the human

organism.These experiments are still going on,

and others have taken up the problemin other laboratories. There is no needyet to enlarge here upon the importanceof the problem. Too many thinkingpeople have emphasized this in thestrongest possible terms. Nor has thetime come yet to go at length into bear-ings and implications. As shown in thereport of the Duke experiments men-tioned, the results do suggest a need foran extended energetics, which will re-

quire that fundamental physics expandaccordingly. A new (nonsensory) modeof physiological reception is also sug-gested and various adjustments to gen-eral biological theory are needed to dealwith the facts. In psychology proper,among other bearings the experimentssupport a relative dualism of mind andbody something like McDouqall haslong held logically necessary. But it isnot wise at this stage for speculation torun too far ahead of exploration. Itwould blind one to the facts ahead. The

promise of this work, however, needsno further emphasis to spur its workerson if opportunity and the sinews of re-search are not too limited at the criticalpoints of its progress.

It has often been said that research inthese difficult fields usually raises morequestions than it answers. Such is likelyto be the case in all pioneering studieswhere the phenomena are complex.Among the more frequently raised ques-tions are those concerning the heritability and educability of extrasensory per-

ception. How are these capacities ac-quired? And above all, can they be im-proved by practice, training, or treat-ment?

The research achievements in the pasthave been mainly concerned first toto establish the occurrence of thesephenomena. But little effort has beengiven to these more advanced problemsas yet. Anything said on these points ismore in the nature of clinical impres-sions made on the basis of experiencethat is not exactly measurable. The im-

pression is fast growing among thoseactively at work in the field that ExtraSensory Perception is probably a po-tential capacity in all normal persons,the individual differences in its demon

strability being due to differences in in-hibitory factors.

All the evidence that bears at all onthe question favors the view that it is awholly natural mental phenomenon,normally integrated with the psychicalsystem of the organism and functioningwith it as a subordinate part. This factitself makes it more probable that thecapacity is a general one, belonging tothe normal endowment of the species.When we consider how widespread hasbeen the distribution of cases discover-

ed, in age, sex, national groups, rangeof intelligence and other mental char-acteristics, it is increasingly likely thatit is not limited to a few select individ-uals. There are some data favoring theview that telepathic capacity followsfamily strains to some extent. But evenif we take this at face value, it mightmean that a Certain disposition to free-dom from the common inhibitions mightbe inherited in these instances.

Again there is often given the ap-

pearance of development of the capacityfor telepathic perception in the subjectsstudied in the laboratory. But this canmean at least two possibilities. First,telepathy as a basic process may itselfbe improved. This seems the less likelyin the light of a number of facts thatpoint the other way. Second, there maybe a development of the necessaryhabits of mind we call concentration, inwhich attention can be directed at agiven objective, with complete with-drawal of attention from irrevelant

things. For some people there are manynatural and habitual inhibitions thattend to interfere with this needed ab-straction from surroundings and con-centration upon the goal. These wouldnaturally find it difficult to exercise tele-pathic perception. A certain amount ofwelldirected selfdiscipline ought pre-sumably to overcome some of these.Such improvement is the subject of fur-ther research, however, and in the mainwe must await results before makingstatements of a too definite nature.

Two hundred thirteen


16/44

The Holy Guide

A ROSICRUCIAN MYSTIC LEGEND FROM THE ORIGINAL1662 EDITION BY JOHN HEYDON

Pa r t V

Ro s i c r u c i a n La bo r a t o r ie s a n d In v e n t io n s

E CAME at ourday and hour, andI was chosen bymy fellows for theprivate interview.We found theMaster in a fairchamber, richlyhung, and carpet-ed under foot. He

sat upon a lowthrone richly adorned, and overhis head was a rich

cloth or canopy of blue embroideredsatin. He was alone, save that he hadtwo pages of honour, one on eitherhand, finely attired in white. His under-garments were the like that we saw himwear in the chariot; but instead of hisgown, he had on a mantle, with a capeof the same fine black fastened abouthim.

When we came in, we bowed low at

our first entrance, as we were taught;and when we approached his chair, hestood up, holding forth his hand un-gloved, and in posture of blessing; andwe every one of us stooped down and

The kissed the hem of his tippet. That done,Rosicrucian rest departed, and I remained. Then

he dismissed the pages from the room,and caused me to sit down beside him,and spoke to me thus in the Spanishtongue.

DigestJuly1937

God bless thee, my son. I will givethee the greatest jewel I have. For Iwill impart unto thee, for the love ofGod and men, a relation of the truestate of the Rosie Crosse. Son, to makeyou know the true state of the HolyHouse, I will keep this order. First Iwill set forth unto you the end of ourfoundation. Secondly, the preparationsand instruments we have for our works.

Thirdly, the several employments andfunctions whereto our fellows are as-signed. And fourthly, the Ordinancesand rites which we observe.

The end of our Foundation is theknowledge of Causes, and Secret mo-tions of things; and the enlarging of thebounds of kindoms to the effecting ofall things possible.

The preparations and instrumentsare these. We have large and deepcaves of several depths. The deepestare sunk 36000 feet, and some of themare dug and made under great hills and

mountains, so that if you reckon to-gether the depth of the hill and thedepth of the cave, they are (some ofthem) above seven miles deep. For wefind that the depth of a hill and thedepth of a cave from the flat is the samething; both remote alike from the sunand Heavens Beams, and from the openair.

These caves we call the lower re-gion; and we use them for all coagula-

Two hundred fourteen


17/44

tions, indurations, refrigerations andconservation of bodies. We use themlikewise for the imitation of naturalmines, and the producing also of newartificial metals by compositions andmaterials which we use, and store there

for many years. We use them alsosometimes (which may seem strange),for curing of some diseases, and forprolongation of life, in some hermitsthat choose to live there well accom-modated of all things necessary, andindeed live very long, from whom alsowe learn many things.

"W e have burials in several earths,where we put diverse cements, as theChinese do their porcellane. But wehave them in greater variety, and someof them more fine. W e have also great

varieties of composts, and soils, formaking the earth fruitful.We have high towersthe highest

about half a mile in heightand someof them likewise set upon high moun-tains, so that the vantage of the hillwith the tower is in the highest of themthree miles at least. And these placeswe call the upper region; accounting theAir between the highest places, and thelower, as a middle region. We use thesetowers, according to their severalheights and situations, for insolation,

refrigeration, conservation; and for theview of divers meteors, as winds, rain,snow, hail and some of the fiery meteorsalso. And upon them, in some places,are dwellings of hermits, whom we visitsometimes, and instruct what to observe.

We have great lakes, both salt andfresh, which we use for the fish andfowl. We use them also for burials ofsome natural substances; for we find adifference in things buried in earth, orin air below the earth, and things buriedin the water. We have also pools, ofwhich some do strain fresh water out ofsalt; and others by art do turn freshwater into salt. We have also somerocks in the midst of the sea, and somebays upon the shore for some workswherein is required the air and vapourof the sea. We have likewise violentstreams and cataracts which serve usfor many motions; and likewise enginesfor multiplying and enforcing of windsto set divers motions.

We have also a number of artificialwells, and fountains made in imitation

Two hundred fifteen

of the natural sources and baths, astincted upon vitriol, sulpher, steel, brass,lead, nitre and other minerals. Andagain we have little wells for infusion ofmany things, where the waters take thevirtue quicker and better than in vesselsor basins; and amongst them we have awater which we call water of paradise,being, by that we do to it, made verysovereign for health and prolongationof life.

"W e have also great and spacioushouses, where we imitate and demon-strate meteors, as snow, hail, rain, someartificial rains of bodies and not ofwater; thunders, lightnings; also gener-ations of bodies in air, as frogs, flies anddivers others.

We have also certain chambers,

which we call chambers of health, wherewe qualify the air as we think good andproper for the cure of divers diseases,and preservation of health.

"W e have also fair and large bathsof several mixtures for the cure of dis-eases, and the restoring of man's bodyfrom arefaction; and others for the con-firming of it in strength of sinews, vitalparts, and the very juice and substanceof the body.

We have also large and variousorchards and gardens wherein we do

not so much respect beauty as variety ofground and soil proper for divers treesand herbs; and some very spacious,where trees and berries are set, whereofwe make divers kinds of drinks, besidesthe vineyards. In these we practice like-wise all conclusions of grafting andinoculating, as well of wild trees as fruittrees, which produces many effects. Andwe make (by art) in the same orchardsand gardens, trees and flowers to comeearlier, or later than their seasons, andto come up and bear more speedily than

by their natural course they do. Wemake them also by art much larger thantheir nature, and their fruit larger andsweeter, and of differing taste, smell,colour, and figure from their nature.And many of them we so order thatthey become of medicinal use.

We also have means to make diversplants rise by mixtures of earths with-out seeds; and likewise to make diversnew plants, differing from the vulgar;and to make one tree or plant turn intoanother.


18/44

We also have parks, and enclosuresof all sorts of beasts and birds, whichwe use not only for view or rareness,but likewise for dissections, and trials,that thereby we may take light whatmay be wrought upon the body of man.Wherein we find many strange effects,

as continuing life in them though diversparts, which you account vital, be per-ished and taken forth; resuscitating ofsome that seem dead in appearance, andthe like. We try also all poisons, andother medicines upon them, as well ofChyrurgery as Physick. By art likewisewe make them greater or taller thantheir kind is; and contrarywise dwarfthem and stay their growth. We makethem more fruitful and bearing thantheir kind is; and contrarywise barrenand not generative. Also we make themdiffer in colour, shape, activity, and

many ways. We find means to makecomixtures and copulations of diverskinds, which have produced many newkinds, and them not barren, as the gen-eral opinion is. We make a number ofkinds of serpents, worms, flies, and fish-es of putrefaction; whereof some are ad-vanced (in effects )to be perfect crea-tures like beasts or birds, and havesexes, and do propagate. Neither do wethis by chance, but we know beforehand, of what matter and commixture,what kind of those creatures will arise.

We have also particular pools,where we make trials upon fishes as wehave said before of beasts and birds.

We have also places for breedingand generation of those kinds of wormsand flies which are of special use, suchas are your silkworms and bees withyou.

The

RosicrucianDigestJuly1937

I will not hold you long with re-counting of our brewhouses, bake-houses, and kitchens, where are madedivers drinks, breads and meats, rareand of special effects. Wines we have

of grapes, and drinks of other juices, offruits, of grains, and of roots; and ofmixtures with honey, sugar, manna, andfruits dried, and decocted; also of thetears or wounding of trees; and of thepulp of canes. And these drinks are ofseveral agessome to the age of fortyyears. We have drinks also brewedwith several herbs and roots and spices;yea with several fleshes, and white

meats; whereof some of the drinks aresuch as they are in effect meat and drinkboth: so that divers, especially in age,do desire to live with them, with littleor no meat or bread. And above all, westrive to have drinks of extreme thinparts, to insinuate into the body, and

yet without any biting, sharpness orfretting; insomuch as some of them, putupon the back of your hand, will, aftera little while, pass through to the palm,and yet taste mild to the mouth.

We have also waters which weripen in such a fashion that they becomenourishing, so that they are indeed ex-cellent drink, and many will use noother. Breads we have of several grains,roots and kernels; yea and some offlesh, and fish, dried with divers kind ofleavenings and seasonings. So that somedo extremely move appetite; some donourish so as divers do live of them,without any other meat, and live verylong. So for meats, we have some ofthem so beaten, and made tender, andmortified, yet without any corrupting,as a weak heat of the stomach will turnthem into good Chylus; as well as astrong heat would meat otherwise pre-pared. W e have some meats alsoandbreads and drinks which taken bymen, enable them to fast long after; andsome others that, used, make the veryflesh of men's bodies sensibly more hardand tough, and their strength far moregreat than otherwise it would be.

We have dispensatories, or shops ofmedicines, wherein you may easilythink, if we have such variety of plantsand living creatures, more than youhave in Europe ( for we know what youhave) the simples, drugs, and ingredi-ents of medicines, must likewise be inso much the greater variety. W e havethem likewise of divers ages, and longfermentations. And for their prepara-tion, we have not only all manner of ex-quisite distillations and separations, and

especially by gentle heats, and per-colations through divers strainers, yeaand substances, but also exact forms ofcompositions whereby they incorporatealmost as if thev were natural simples.

We have also divers mechanicalarts which you have not, and stuffsmade by them, as papers, linen, silks,tissues, dainty works of feathers of

Two hundred sixteen


19/44

wonderful lustre, excellent dyes, andmany others. We have shops likewiseas well for such things as are notbrought into vulgar use amongst us, as

for those that are. For you must knowthat, of the things forecited, many ofthem are grown into use throughout thekingdom, but yetif they did flow fromour inventionwe have of them also forPatterns and Principals.

We have also furnaces of great di-versities, and that keep great diversityof heats: fierce and quick, strong andconstant, soft and mild, blown quitedry, moist, and the like. But above allwe have heats in imitation of the sunsand heavenly bodies heats, that pass

divers inequalities, and (as it were)orbs, progresses and returns, wherebywe produce admirable effects. Besideswe have heats of dungs, and of belliesand maws of living creatures, and oftheir bloods, and bodies and the haysand herbs layed up moist; of lime un-quenched, and such like. Instrumentsalso which generate heat only by mo-tion. And further, places for strong in-solations; and again, places under theearth, which by nature, or art, yieldheat. The divers heats we use as the na-ture of the operation which we intend

requires.We have also perspectivehouses,

where we make demonstrations of alllights and radiations. And of all colours,and out of things uncoloured and trans-parent, we can represent unto you allof the colours; not in rainbows (as it isin gems and prisms) but of themselvessingly. We respect also all multiplica-tions of light which we carry to greatdistances, and make so sharp as to dis-cern small points and lines. Also allcolorations of light, all delusions and

deceits of the sight in figures, magni-tudes, motions, colours, all demonstra-tions of shadows. We find also diversemeans, yet unknown to you, of produc-ing of light originally from diversbodies.

We procure means of seeing objectsafar off as in the heaven, and remoteplaces; and represent things near as faroff. and things far off as near, makingfeigned distances. We have also helpsfor the sight, far above spectacles andglasses in use. W e have also glasses

and means to see small and minutebodies perfectly and distinctlyas theshapes and colours of small flies andworms, grains, and flaws in gems which

cannot otherwise be seen, observation inurine and bloods, not otherwise to beseen. We make artificial rainbows,halos and circles about light. We repre-sent also all manner of reflections, re-fractions, and multiplications of visualbeams of objects.

We have also precious stones of allkinds, many of them of great beautyand unknown to you. Crystals likewise,and glasses of divers kinds; andamongst them some of metals vitrificated, and other materials, besides those ofwhich you make glass. Also we have anumber of fossils and imperfect miner-als which you have not; likewise load-stones of prodigious virtue; and otherrare stones, both natural and artificial.

We have also soundhouses, wherewe practice and demonstrate all sounds,and their generation. W e have har-monies which you have not, of quartersounds and lesser kinds of sounds.Divers instruments of music likewise toyou unknown, some sweeter than anyyou have, together with bells and ringsthat are dainty and sweet. W e repre-sent small sounds as great and deep;likewise great sounds, extenuated andsharp. We make divers tremblings andwarblings of sounds, which in theiroriginal are entire. We represent andimitate all articulate sounds and lettersand the voices and notes of beasts andbirds. We have certain helps, which setto the ear do further the hearing great-ly. We have also divers strange andartificial echoes, reflecting the voicemany times and, as it were, tossing it;and some that give back the voice loud-

er than it came, some shriller, and somedeeper; yea some rendering the voicediffering in the letters or articular sound,from that they receive. We have alsomeans to convey sounds in trunks andpipes in strange lines and distances.

W e have also perfume houses;wherewith we join also practices oftaste. We multiply smells which mayseem strange. W e imitate smells, mak-ing all smells to breath out of other mix-tures than those that give them. Wemake divers imitations of taste likewise,

Ttvo hundred seventeen


20/44

so that they will deceive any manstaste. And in this Temple of the RosieCrosse, we contain also a ConfitureHouse where we make all sweetmeats,dry and moist; and divers pleasantwines, milks, broths, and salads, in far

greater variety than you have."W e have also enginehouses, whereare prepared engines and instrumentsfor all sorts of motions. There we imi-tate and practice to make swifter mo-tions than any you have, either out ofyour muskets, or any engine that youhave, and to make them and multiplythem more easily, and with small force,by wheels and other means; and tomake them stronger and more violentthan yours are, exceeding your greatestcannons, and basilisks. We representalso ordinances and instruments of war,

and engines of all kinds; and likewisenew mixtures and compositions of gun-powder, wildfire burning in water andunquenchable.

"W e also make fireworks of all va-riety, both for pleasure and use. Weimitate also flights of birds. We havesome degrees of flying in the air. Wehave ships and boats for going underwater, and brooking of seas; also swim-ming girdles and supporters. We havedivers curious clocks, and other like

motions of return, and some perpetualmotions. We imitate also motions of liv-ing creatures, by images of men, beasts,birds, fishes and serpents. We havealso a great number of other variousmotions, strange for equality, fineness

and subtlety."W e have also a mathematical palacewhere are represented all instruments,as well of Geometry as Astronomy,Geomancy and Telesmes, viz. astronomancyand geomancy exquisitely made.

"W e have also houses of deceits ofthe senses, where we represent all man-ner of feats of juggling, false appari-tions, impostures, and illusions and theirfallacies. And surely you will easily be-lieve, that we that have so many thingstruly natural, which induce admiration,could in a world of particulars deceive

the senses, if we would disguise thosethings, and labor to make them seemmore miraculous.

"But we do hate all impostures andlies; insomuch as we have severally for-bidden it to all our brethren, under painof ignominy and fines, that they do notshow any natural work or thing adornedor swelling, but only pure as it is, andwithout all affectation of strangeness.

"These, my son, are the Riches of theRosie Crucians.

(Concluded next month)

S .................................................................................................................................................

{ T H E F I R S T T E N Y E A R S

It is a known fact that many wellestablished religious, cultural, and educational or jjE ganizations have worked upon the premise that if a child can be entrusted to them for a | period of ten years, or be with them in an environment which they establish, those ten |= years will make such an impression upon the child, mold the character so strongly along E the lines desired, that thereafter the child will resist permanently any influences which eI might cause him to deviate from his early training; and it is true, psychologically. The jj first ten years of a child's life are the most impressionable and the most formative. If || right thinking and proper habits are not developed during that period, the child is definite |i ly handicapped and may never be brought to the proper course in life. Parents overlook E this, and regret it later.

The Child Culture Institute trains parents to care for their children in the proper Ejj way, to give them the right explanations of things, and create a favorable environment jjE and establish impressions of the right kind which will remain with them for years. Parents :

The I need training so that they, in turn, may train their children. The Child Culture Institute =Rosicrucian i lessons are simply understood, interesting, and economical. Parents of children between =Digest = the ages of two to six years should write for an interesting free booklet of explanation. jjj u f Address the CHILD CULTURE INST ITUT E, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.

1937 ^ ..........................................................................................................................................it

Two hundred eighteen


21/44

Each hour of the day finds the men of science cloistered unostentatiously inlaboratories, investigating nature's mysteries and extending the boundaries ofknowledge. The world at large, although profiting by their labors, oftentimes isdeprived of the pleasure of reviewing their work, since general periodicals andpublications announce only those sensational discoveries which appeal to thepopular imagination.

It is with pleasure, therefore, that we afford our readers a monthly summaryof some of these scientific researches, and briefly relate them to the Rosicrucianphilosophy and doctrines. To the Science Journal, unless otherwise specified,we give full credit for all matter which appears in quotations.

Plan etary Co m m unications

F LIFE exists ono ther p l an et s ,and has existed aslong as it has onour earth, such be-

ings should havea degree of intelli-gence equal to orfar in excess ofours. Communica-tion between theear th an d theplanets is not asfantastic or as im-

probable as it was imagined to be onehundred years ago.

That life in some form does exist onsome of the Cosmic bodies above us, is

evident from the fact that a microscopicexamination of fragments of meteorsthat have at times showered the earth,showed that they contained bacteria orliving matter. It does not imply thatsince the meteor fragments containedlife in such an elementary state, that alllife on the planet from which they cameis actually as elementary. We knowthat the amoeba exists on our own earthside by side with man; and if our earthwere to shower another Cosmic bodywith meteors, and if amoebas were

found deposited in those meteors, andTwo hundred nineteen

an intelligence of that other planet wereto presume that life on earth was assimple as the form of the amoeba, itwould make an extremely wrong con-clusion. Therefore, our conclusions may

be equally as wrong if we think that anylife which does exist elsewhere than onthe earth is simpler and more elemen-tary than man. In all probability, thephysical structure of living things wouldbe different from that which exists onour earth, due to thermal and other con-ditions; but the intelligence could, giventime, have evolved to a degree equal toour own.

The bigger problem is, what meanscan be used for the transmission of com-munication from our earth to other Cos-

mic bodies? Or, on the other hand, whatmeans could they use to reach us? Withthe first popular recognition of radio,many imaginative persons broke forthinto print with: Now we have the in-strument and means of penetrating intostellar space with communciationsper-haps reaching the other planets with asignal or message which they can com-prehend if there are persons there withintelligence able to appreciate ourthoughts. Then as vears went by, thisdream was exploded by physicists and

(Concluded on Page 226)


22/44

Along Civilizations TrailByR a l p h M. L e w i s , K. R. C.

Editor's Note:This is the sixth episode of a narrative by the Supreme Secretary relatingthe experiences he and his party had in visiting mystic shrines and places in Europe and theancient world.

TEMPLES AND TOMBS

TheRosicrucianDigestJuly1937

HAD, in my semi-conscious state ofhalf sleep, a sen-sation of choking.It was undoubted-ly this laboriousbreathing, with theaddition of stiflingheat, that awaken-ed me at an earlyhour. I lay still fora moment tryingto sw al lo w ; mymouth was parch-

ed, and a deep inhalation made mesneeze. The compartment was filledwith a fine dust. I could feel it in myears and on my hands.

Kicking off the remaining cover, I satup and, leaning forward, raised theblind at the window. The sight thatgreeted my eyes made me forget the dis-comfort of an Egyptian train in thelate summer. Paralleling the track, one

hundred yards distant, was a twistingbrown ribbon of water. Bowing grace-fully on either side of it were palms,bending far over the embankment as ifadmiring their beautv in the water be-low. Beyond, the sand stretched intothe distance and finally disappeared atthe horizon into the rosy radiance of themorning sun. It was a scene that wouldtax your credence if it were upon can-vas. Egypt was beautiful in a wild sort

of way. Its beauty lay in its extremes;there was no attempt at compromise.Each element gave vent to its powers,and the aggregate was the majesticsplendor of uncontrolled nature.

As we rushed and swayed along, ed-dies of air sprayed the windowpanewith sand, which clung for a few sec-onds and then dropped away revealingnew charming vistas. Beautiful isletsdotted the center of the Nile, crowdedto the water's edge with tall palm trees.Water buffalo looked lazily up at us asthe river lapped at the ridges of theirbacks; and little naked brown skinnedboys pulled at ropes fastened to theanimals nostrils. Little girls stopped intheir tracks and, turning, unconsciouslyposed with earthen waterjars on theirheads, to stare with mingled expressionsof curiosity and perplexity at this mod-ern invader of the land of their an-cestorsancestors of which we, fromanother land, knew more than they.

On either side of this road of steelupon which we traveled, the scene waslittle changed from the time the pharoahs had thundered over the same sandsin chariots, or haughtily surveyed themfrom royal barges which were leisurelypropelled along the Nile. What littleinroad the centuries had made theprogress of five thousand years wassymbolized and embodied in this metal-lic, speeding serpent this Cairoto

Two hundred twenty


23/44

Aswan Express. Like a single thread ofdifferent color in a great fabric, it wasnoticeable, but other than that, there waslittle effect upon the surroundings. Thede luxe trains of Egypt are as yet un-touched by such improvements or em-bellishments as airconditioning, icewater, or club cars. You either remainconfined to your own redplush, heavilylaced, and Frenchmirrored compart-ment, or stand swaying in the narrowaisle outside. It was with welcome re-lief that we arrived at Luxor.

The platform of the Luxor depotparalleled the train for only the lengthof one car. If you were fortunate, youstepped from this one car onto bricksurface; otherwise, into the soft, pow-dered dust of the ground. Each step, nomatter how easily taken, sent a puff ofthe flourlike substance over shoes andtrouser legs. We had become accustom-ed to being besieged by dragomen(guides) and natives in soiled, long,flowing robes with bare feet and shavedheads, who wished to carry luggage orperform some actual or imaginary serv-ice for bakshish (money). At first thepitiful state of their appearancewhichwas often heightened by their dramaticgestures and poses had invoked our

sympathy, and as an act of charity wewould engage a retinue of boys fromsix to sixty to do trivial or unnecessarythings for us. Time, and the experienceof having our generosity taken advan-tage of, had hardened us, and wecoursed through the group around us,saying Imshi! Imshi! (Begone!)

We were escorted to a row of four orfive waiting, dilapidated, singlehorseand teamdrawn surreys. It was not thestate of the conveyances that attractedour attention, but the wretched condi-tion of the animals themselves. Theywere a greater evidence of the povertyand deplorable state of welfare of theEgyptian fellah than his own personalappearance. The horses were not allaged, but were mere frames, coveredwith tightlydrawn flesh. The wholeskeletal structure was, it seemed to us,visible. Most of the unfortunate beastssuffered from mange, and large areas oftheir bodies contained cankerous soresover which the large, leechlike flies of

Upper Egypt hovered. The spirit ofTwo hundred twenty'One

dejection of the animals was contagious,and it was several minutes before wefelt inclined to comment on our sur-roundings.

After riding for a few minutes, westopped before a high stucco wall inwhich there was a large arched portal.We literally had to push our waythrough a throng of mendicants andpeddlers of scarabs, necklaces, beads,counterfeit amulets, and relics. Oncehaving passed through the gateway, wewere free, for apparently a well estab-lished law or custom exacting somesevere penalty of which we were not aware, forbade them to enter. We werein a charming garden and grove. Tall,

stately palms, grouped closely, cast apleasing shade. Strange foliage offeredrelief from the glaring white of thesandy road outside. We recalled thestory of The Garden of Allah, thesite of which existed but a scant milefrom where we were. The ground wasmoist, having been watered recently.The hotel hallways were like those oneimagined the hostelries of the tropicswould have irregulartiled floors andglazedtile walls, with exceptionallyhigh, white, plastered ceilings. Thecrepuscular lighting made them invit-ingly cool. Behind us a native attendantglided silently. The manner in which heappeared suddenly, seemingly out ofnowhere, and almost anticipating ourneeds in advance, was uncanny. In con-trast to the natives of the villageandthose who waited outside the courtyardbelowthese attendants were immacu-lately groomed and spoke excellentEnglish. Their pay, though a paltrysum, exceeded by far that of their lessfortunate brothers, and they were en-vied. The heavy, white flynetting which

was suspended over the beds, and thelarge balcony in each room, from whichone could look over the gardens below,gave ample suggestion of insects andheat to be endured here at this season,both day and night.

Our first duty was to obtain thenecessary permits to take professionalcinema photographs of the monuments.( The monuments is the official termgiven to all ancient ruins now super-vised by the Department of Antiquities

in Egypt.) The one who held supreme


24/44

authority here was the Inspector ofAntiquities of Upper Egypt LabibHabachi. After a brief respite, we droveto his office a low, onestory, graystoneandstucco building, exceedinglyquaint, surrounded by a spacious gar-

den in which stood statuary, busts ofEgyptian figures of different dynasties.They, of course, immediately arousedour interest.

This personal office consisted of arandomsizedplank floor, high ceiling,and French windows. At the oppositeend from which we entered, seated be-hind a wellworn, flattopped desk, andframed by bookcases, facing us, satInspector Labib Habachi. He was a sur-prisingly young man, in his late twen-ties, medium height, closecroppedblack, curly hair, deepset, dreamy eyes;and the heavy, darkrimmed glasses hewore gave him the look of a scholarwhich we found him to be. He was sodifferent from the others we had metthat in our minds we likened him to theancient Egyptian nobility, or the scribesof the past. Lying open before him weretext books on Egyptian hieroglyphs andarcheology, and apparently he had beenidentifying inscriptions on small bronzestatuettes which stood before him onthe desk when we entered.

He was exceedingly gracious, and

spoke in the soft, mild voice of the cul-tured Egyptian. He was a graduate ofthe University of Cairo, spoke severallanguages fluently, and was specializingin the study of archeology, which madeit possible for him to hold his presentresponsible position. It was, however,more than a professional interest; this,one could easily ascertain from his con-versation, for he had a deep reverencefor the achievements of his ancientprogenitors.

When he learned that we, too, had a

love for the accomplishments of pastgreat Egyptian personalities, and werenot there to exploit his country, but tomake her former glories known through-out North America by means of motion

rj'fie pictures we hoped to take, he was ex . . ceedingly congenial. He spent nearly

an hour in comparing for us certainDigest hieroglyphics with the later Hieratic orJuly Demotic writing. In addition to his1937 studies, he had, fortunately, the hobby

of photography, but he was just a be-ginner, and the science of photographywas still quite a mystery to him. Ourcomplex equipment interested him im-mensely. He had apparently never be-fore had the opportunity to examine

sound cinema apparatus. This interestmade him, after a careful examination ofour credentials, enthusiastic in his de-sire to obtain from his superiors in Cairothe permits which we needed.

After the custom of an Egyptian host,he had us served with cold lemonade byone of his slippered attendants. Whenwe left, he bade us return early in themorning to learn whether he had receiv-ed a telegraphic order to issue the cov-eted permit.

The following morning we were pre

sumptious enough to have our guide in-struct the native porters to load ourcinema equipment in the oldmodelAmerican automobile which was toserve as our conveyance to the Inspec-tors house. W e hoped the permissionhad arrived, and if so, we were pre-pared to proceed immediately. Themorning light was best for photography,affording more contrast than the glaringmidday sunlight. Inspector Habachimet us in the courtyard and, smiling,said in a quiet manner, Your wish hasbeen granted. The Minister of Antiqui-

ties, my superior in Cairo, has grantedyou permission to photograph all themonuments with your cinema equip-ment. I have here the official oermit.We gratefully accepted it, and ourspirits were jubilant.

Turning to Frater Brower, InspectorHabachi said, I ask of you one person-al favor. May I accompany you on yourexpedition? I feel I could profit bywatching you operate your equipmentand in turn I may be useful in explain-ing more thoroughly the monuments toyou and reading different inscriptionswhich have not been generally trans-lated.

We were elated, and gladly acceptedthis most satisfactory arrangement.

The present city of Luxor is locatedon the East side of the Nile. Eastward,looking toward the horizon, one sees thedistant Arabian desert, and beyond liesthe Red Sea. Westward, one looks to-ward a range of limestone mountains^

Two hundred twenty-two


25/44

the mysterious and famed Valley of theKings. Where are now located the cityof Luxor and the temples of Luxor andKarnak, there was once the major por-

tion of the great city of Thebes, theformer capital of the great empire. Thecity of Thebes also spread over to theWest bank of the Nile.

Our first site to be photographed wasthe mammoth Karnak Temple, whichbeggars description. The actual signi-ficance of the word, Karnak, is notdefinitely known; it is said the literaltranslation means windows. Thissplendid edifice was built from thewealth accumulated from the earlyEgyptian campaigns in Asia. The entire

length of the Templeor shall we say,series of templesis a quarter of a mile,and it took some two thousand years tocomplete construction. The oldest por-tions of it were begun by the earlykings of the feudal age of Egypt. Laterportions were completed by the Greekkings, or the Ptolemies. The first Ptol-emy was a former general in the armyof Alexander the Great. Originally, theentire structures were done in magnifi-cent colors and gold. They were themost beautiful and decorative of all thearchitectural works of ancient man.

In the center of one of the templesstands the enormous obelisk of Egyptsmost famous queen, Hatshepsut. Itssize can better be realized by the factthat its base is eight and a half feetthick. The most impressive edifice ofthis collection of edifices is the greatcolonnaded hall or Hvpostyle. This hallis 338 feet wide and 170 feet deep.Each one of the enormous columnsrises to a height of 69 feet; and thecapitals of the columns, which are or-

namented after the shape of the lotusflower, are sufficiently large to accom-modate on their tops, 100 men standingin close formation. The entire floor areaof this colonnaded hall is equal to thatof the Cathedral of Notre Dame inParis. The center aisle, or nave, consistsof twelve columns in two rows, seventynine feet in height. They rise slightlyhigher than the rows of columns of theaisles on either side and thus reallyform the first clerestory which was final-ly incorporated as part of the later

Greek basilica, and which style comes

down to us in our Gothic church archi-tecture of today. This clerestory, byrising higher than the halls on eitherside of it, permits light to enter through

the elevated sides and thus enter thelower halls.

The walls around this colonnadedhall are deeply etched with inscriptionsand reliefs dealing with the early cam-paigns and wars of the past kings andpharoahs. Here, cut out of mammothstone blocks, weighing from eighty to athousand tons, are colossal portraits ofthese rulers of a past civilization. Itwould be a considerable engineeringtask today to quarry in one piece suchenormous blocks, and to move themfrom the quarry, intact, to the place oftheir erection. One is forced again toadmire the skill and ability of theseancient builders.

As we stood at one end of the naveof this great temple and looked upward,we saw, high above our heads, at theopposite end, a stone lattice windowthe only remaining one of several win-dows which originally surrounded thatportion of the nave which rose abovethe halls on either side of it; and it isbelieved that from these windows orgrills the temple gained its name ofKarnak.

We profited greatly by the detaileddescriptions and explanations of oureminent companion, Inspector Habachi,and were able to make many notes toincorporate in the dialogue of the mo-tionpicture which at this time is beingedited for exposition purposes. Further-more, we were permitted to set up ourequipment in, and enter places, innersanctuaries of this Karnak Temple,usually forbidden the average visitor ortraveler.

With the passing of each hour, theheat increased. The temperature rose tonearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit; and ournative porters whom we had engaged tocarry our equipment luggage were re-luctant to continue, as it is their customto take a siesta from noon until four inthe afternoon. Our time was limited;we were allowed just one week; and sowe had to disappoint them and obligethem to continue.

We entered the beautiful little templeof Thutmose III, who was related to the

early foundation of the RosicrucianTwo hundred twenty-three


26/44

Order (See picture in November, 1937,issue of The Rosicrucian Digest).There, outside of the portal, in purewhite, in contrast to the gray stonecolumns and pylons about it, was thelittle altar of this early mystery school.It seemed like a dream so quiet, sopeaceful, so sturdy, and yet represent-ing a people and a time of thousands ofyears ago. It did not seem possible thatsomething constructed so long agocould be in such a perfect state of pre-servation. In this ideal climate of Egypt,where rain falls every thirty or fortyyears (which makes of the land a ware-house kept at a constant temperature,free of moisture) all antiquities will re-main in an excellent state of preserva-tion perhaps for centuries to come. Ap-proximately 1000 feet of film were

ground out within this edifice alone. Wereluctantly returned to our hotel, butwere assured that we would find addi-tional splendor in Luxor Temple on themorrow.

The next morning at the same hourwe were once again accompanied by In-spector Habachi, and went immediatelyto Luxor Temple, also known as ElAksur, or the castles. The length ofLuxor Temple, from front to back, isthree hundred yards, and was mainlybuilt under the direction of that famousbuilder, Amenhotep III. During thecampaigns of Alexander, the Great, itwas partially destroyed, and temples ofthe Greeks were set up within its midst.At a still later period, the Christiansentered this magnificent structure anddefaced portions of its beauty bv chisel-ing hieroglyphics and inscriptions fromits walls, and covering them with crude,coarse plaster on which they paintedeven more crude murals depicting inci-dents of the Christian Bible.

To us, this seemed a sacrilege, notbecause Christianity established itself inEgypt and attempted to further its ends;but because there was more to thesetemples than the worshippers' religion,their beliefs in the hereafter, or their in-terpretations of a god; there was theirphysical beauty, their architecture, theirart. These things belong to all religions,and not to any sect; and it is the dutyof religion to preserve beauty, because,as Plato has taught us, through beauty

of the external world man can come tohave greater appreciation of the betterlifethose things which represent thebeauty of his inner nature or his soul.And we felt that this desecration on thepart of the early Christians was not totheir credit.

Our companion also showed us otherchisel marks on the side of a great stonewall. These marks were made duringthe time of our venerated RosicrucianGrand Master, Amenhotep IV. Cen-turies before Christianity, as we know,he had the first monotheistic conceptionthe belief in a single or sole God. Hewas so inspired by this thought that heattempted at once to reform the religionsof the landto make all the peoples ofhis empire realize THE ONE GODa mighty and a just God; and he order-

ed the destruction of the pagan gods,idols, and statues in the temples, andeven ordered the immediate eradicationfrom the walls of the great temples ofprayers of adoration to the false gods.And these chisel marks, deep etchingsinto the stone wall before us, were madeby those acting under his command toremove the tribute to the false gods.Nothing else did he destroy; all otherart he preserved. We could not fail toadmire the courage of a man who daredto change overnight, one might say, thereligion of the people to lift themboldly from their superstition and ignor-ance to a higher and loftier planewhoincurred the hatred of the priesthood bythese acts, and who brought about theruination of his power.

An entire day was spent at LuxorTemplean insignificant period to ap-preciate properly its history or even toattempt a careful study of its architec-ture and its inscriptions, but sufficienttime, with the ideal lighting Egypt af-fords, for considerable photography.

Leaving Luxor Temple, we turned

again to look Westward. Ever sinceour arrival, we seemed to have beendrawn to those purple hills, rugged cliffsacross the Nile. Although they wereforeboding in appearance, we alwaysfelt a strange fascination for them asthe sun set behind their crowns. To-morrow, we would succumb to this mag-netic attraction and cross the Nile tothem.

(To be continued)

Two hundred twenty-four


27/44

The "Cathedral of the Soul is a Cosmic meeting place for all minds of themost advanced and highly developed spiritual members and workers of theRosicrucian Fraternity. It is a focal point of Cosmic radiations and thoughtwaves from which radiate vibrations of health, peace, happiness, and innerawakening. Various periods of the day are set aside when many thousandsof minds are attuned with the Cathedral of the Soul, and others attuning withthe Cathedral at this time will receive the benefit of the vibrations. Those whoare not members of the organization may share in the unusual benefits as wellas those who are members. The book called "Liber 777 describes the periodsfor various contacts with the Cathedral. Copies will be sent to persons whoare not members by addressing their request for this book to Friar S. P. C., careof AMORC Temple, San Jose, California, enclosing three cents in postage

stamps. (Please state whether member or notthis is important.)

A SOUL NECESSITY

V E N if man hadnever set himselfto the task o fbuilding temples

and cathedrals ofmaterial form, inwhich men andwomen c

Documents

Rosicrucian Digest, July 1937