issue 60

As you can probably tell we are now writing on a word processor (and have not yet figured out to do columns). We have figured out how to draw a (slightly revised) logo using the linedrawing framing function however, so we can let the machine redraw it every issue.

For the time being we may be slower than on the typewriter, but we're spending more time at the new machine. If you want the newsletter more frequently however the best thing you could do is still: send in a contribution.

The John Foundation has characteristics as shown in the enclosure. I have expanded upon this information information in a draft for a book entitled The HyperSpace Hypothesis written under the pseudonym of John Anthony. The book, consisting of a dialogue between John and J. J. Anthony, opens with an introduction to two gift product lines. [I HAVE BEEN THINKING and WHEN YOU'RE DARING ENOUGH TO GIVE A MERRY JEST]

The book then developes the central theme of "Rest Rooms" designed to provide a quiet place for the general Public to study and contemplate THH.

1. Our three-dimensional universe surrounds, and is surrounded by, other three-dimensional universes in an objective, multi-dimensional reality that has extension in time.

["John" then refers to several authors "supporting one or more aspects of THH", including besides Charles Fort: Richard Bucke, Carlos Castaneda, George Gurdjieff, Jacques Vallee and Colin Wilson, quite an eclectic group!]

[This letter does prompt us to examine which of these aspects Fort supported. Could it be his "Wideness is an aspect of Universalness or Realness. Harmony is an aspect of the Universal, by which we mean Realness." "Solidarity is an aspect of Realness."? Or "We are Intermediatists -- but feel a lurking suspicion that we

may some day solidify and dogmatize and illiberalize into higher positivists. Usually one thinks of the spiritual as higher than the material, but in our acceptance, quasi-existence is a means by which the absolutely immaterial materializes absolutely, and, being intermediate, is a state in nothing is finally either immaterial or material, all objects, substances, thoughts, occupying some grade of approximation one way or the other."? [[It's interesting to note that the WP's spellchecker beeped at

There seems to have been a sudden growth in television programs dealing with fortean subjects recently. In addition to "Unsolved Mysteries", "Encounters" and "Sightings" we now have "The Secret Of...", "Beyond Belief", and The Extraordinary." "Unsolved Mysteries" includes crime mysteries and "Sightings" and "Encounters" overconcentrate on ufology, but they've been keeping our VCR busy.

The stories on Samantha Kuhry have been interesting. She can telepathically "talk" to animals, such as the elephant wanting foot massage or Toby the racehorse promised a vacation or even home-invading ants.

Cereology (the study of crop circles) continues to develop, now including also ice "circles" (and so becomes ugmology, the study of UGMs or unusual ground markings, like the cupmarks written about by Fort) and is associated with ball lightning, musical scales and Mandelbrot sets.

OOBEs (out of body experiences) have been experienced at the Navy gravity lab, if not in Dannion Brinkley's previously mentioned center.

Brian Ellison has written a book called Why We Will Never Win The War on AIDS. He, and he says 200 other scientists, think HIV does not cause AIDS, in fact, do not even think AIDS exists, but is a moneymaking scheme by the CDC. If the facts he cites are true -- that even Dr. Francis Gallos has written of HIV-negative patients said to have died of "AIDS" before HIV was first said to be the cause or without immune deficency, mice injected with HIV staying healthy, that 95% would test HIV-positive, that "AIDS" is not spreading as an infectious disease should -- the generally accepted theory certainly should be at examined.

We also came across an article on the Thelemites, followers of Aleister Crowley, who were told to summon Lam, the claimed true author of The Book of The Law (1904), by staring at his picture reprinted in The Magic Revival (1972) and Outside the Circle of Time (1980). A side effect is enlarged eyes like the abducting

The McDaniel Report by Stanley V. McDaniel claims the Mars Observer data was encrypted after the discovery of the Cydonia Face to keep secret "the City" to the southwest.

In Healing Words Dr. Larry Dosey proves the healing power of prayer. In Angels and Aliens Keith Thompson identifies the two. The Development of Psychic Powers and The AntiGravity Handbook from the Johnson Smith Co. sound like they come from THEM.

We also have accumulated quite a few Impacts and Back to Genesises from the Institute for Creative Research. In the most recent May and June issues we have "Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, "The Greater Light to Rule the Day", and "The Urge to Submerge."

The review of Sagan's new book is by Larry Vardman,the Institute's Astro/Geophysics department head. (The title is a humble description of planet Earth.) He says while speaking with him at an American Geophysical Union meeting Sagan was "very cordial but extremely animated and energetic in attempting to convince me that the Bible is not a valid source of truth." (Or is that Truth?)

Sagan refered to the Creator God in his book, but only to call Him an outmoded "geocentrist conceit." God isn't dead so much as mythical. The awesomeness of creation -- the billions and billions of stars,fantastically beautiful and varied

In the next article J. Timothy Unruh of Back Yard Astronomers, in contrast, exaults the Sun, Sol the solitary one, noting that at the speed of an express train (100 mph) it would take a year to travel its diameter. 1.3 million Earths would be needed to fill it. Eclipses are possible because the apparent diameter of the sun and

that of the Moon are very nearly equal. Only one part in a billion of its energy, not too much or too little, reaches Earth to support all life on it, still the only life known.

After noting that most stars are much more variable, smaller, cooler, dimmer and less massive, Unruh says: "it is clear that neither the Earth nor the Sun are insignificant or typical, and that the Sun is not just another star after all."

ICR President Henry M. Morris writes about the theory of Elaine Morgan, promoted in the New Age Journal and her book, The Scars of Evolution. Although he describes it as a new theory it reminds us Sir Alister Hardy and Desmond Morris' writings from the Sixties. We remember at the time finding the idea of Homo aquaticus interesting, thinking that perhaps the Surfer urge was preternatural. It conceivably does explain the placement of hair mostly on our heads, the dive reflex, and most significantly to evolutionists, the "scarcity" of early human fossils. (Ah, but how do you explain the ones that are where the theory predicts they ought not to be?)

If, as the Bible says, there was a worldwide flood, the Deluge, how long did the Noahites have to deal with the receeding floodwaters? Was the fear of the past repeating itself partial motivation for the building of the Tower of Babel some

Which reminds us that "Encounters" just announced the Jones expedition to investigate Noah's ark this summer. (That's Dr. Vendyl Jones, not "Indiana" Jones of Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge by Rob MacGregor,though Vendyl was said to be the original, incredible Jones -- and we "co-incidentally" got the book the day the episode aired!)

Jones says a quake "co-incidentally" revealed the huge boatlike object buried 17 miles from Mt. Ararat the very day Israel became a nation again after 25 centuries!

With this intriguing title Robert Coburn caught my interest and kept it with new terms like "sparg" (shorts-wearing husband),"flern" (food residue left on a knife), "doxastic" (concerning belief state), "haecceity" (analysable individual essence), "analysandum" (term analyzed), "analysans" (terms of analysis), "polysemy" (multiple meanings for words spelled the same) and such sentences as: "The view that our ordinary picture of the world could (in the nonepistemic sense ...) be radically mistaken in thinking

(b) that the trees and the rocks, houses and cars which are thought to surround us in daily life continue to exist when no one is observing them,

(c) that our experiences to date are not wholly the result of brain probes engineered by diabolical superscientists of whose existence we have not a clue,

(d) that the world did not come into existence two minutes ago, complete with all the memories and other (deceptive) evidences of a long history reaching back to the (apparent) big bang, and even

MacPherson's theory of Entropy -- "It requires less energy to take an object out of its proper place than to put it back there."

McDonald's corollary to Murphy's law -- "In any given set of circumstances, the proper course of action is determined by subsequent events."

Nagler's comment on the origin of Murphy's law -- "Murphy's law was not propounded by Murphy, but by another man by the same name."

Tillis' organizational principle -- "If you file it, you'll know where it is but never need it; if you don't, you won't but you will."


	Fortean Mysteries SIG recent history issue 60 Newsletter of the Fortean Mysteries SIG of American Mensa only 200,000 millicents per 3 issues Published irregularly since Undecember 1658 AC "All things are possible ..." (Mt 19:26) WORDPROCESSING As you can probably tell we are now writing on a word processor (and have not yet figured out to do columns). We have figured out how to draw a (slightly revised) logo using the linedrawing framing function however, so we can let the machine redraw it every issue. For the time being we may be slower than on the typewriter, but we're spending more time at the new machine. If you want the newsletter more frequently however the best thing you could do is still: send in a contribution. ()()()()()() LETTERS To whom it may concern: The John Foundation has characteristics as shown in the enclosure. I have expanded upon this information information in a draft for a book entitled The HyperSpace Hypothesis written under the pseudonym of John Anthony. The book, consisting of a dialogue between John and J. J. Anthony, opens with an introduction to two gift product lines. [I HAVE BEEN THINKING and WHEN YOU'RE DARING ENOUGH TO GIVE A MERRY JEST] The book then developes the central theme of "Rest Rooms" designed to provide a quiet place for the general Public to study and contemplate THH. The HyperSpace Hypothesis: 1. Our three-dimensional universe surrounds, and is surrounded by, other three-dimensional universes in an objective, multi-dimensional reality that has extension in time. 2. The human race can awaken a latent sense to directly apprehend this more complete description of reality. 3. The human race can construct spaceships co-existing with our solar system in a continuum of nested, parallel universes. ["John" then refers to several authors "supporting one or more aspects of THH", including besides Charles Fort: Richard Bucke, Carlos Castaneda, George Gurdjieff, Jacques Vallee and Colin Wilson, quite an eclectic group!] Leon Neihouse [This letter does prompt us to examine which of these aspects Fort supported. Could it be his "Wideness is an aspect of Universalness or Realness. Harmony is an aspect of the Universal, by which we mean Realness." "Solidarity is an aspect of Realness."? Or "We are Intermediatists -- but feel a lurking suspicion that we may some day solidify and dogmatize and illiberalize into higher positivists. Usually one thinks of the spiritual as higher than the material, but in our acceptance, quasi-existence is a means by which the absolutely immaterial materializes absolutely, and, being intermediate, is a state in nothing is finally either immaterial or material, all objects, substances, thoughts, occupying some grade of approximation one way or the other."? [[It's interesting to note that the WP's spellchecker beeped at Fort's "Universalness", "Intermediatists", "illiberalize" and "positivists", but not "quasiexistence."]] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Michael -- NYT magazine of 3-20 has article on Harvard CE IV's psych prof's book out next month: color me INTENSELY skeptical! Bill Bank STRANGE TV There seems to have been a sudden growth in television programs dealing with fortean subjects recently. In addition to "Unsolved Mysteries", "Encounters" and "Sightings" we now have "The Secret Of...", "Beyond Belief", and The Extraordinary." "Unsolved Mysteries" includes crime mysteries and "Sightings" and "Encounters" overconcentrate on ufology, but they've been keeping our VCR busy. The stories on Samantha Kuhry have been interesting. She can telepathically "talk" to animals, such as the elephant wanting foot massage or Toby the racehorse promised a vacation or even home-invading ants. Cereology (the study of crop circles) continues to develop, now including also ice "circles" (and so becomes ugmology, the study of UGMs or unusual ground markings, like the cupmarks written about by Fort) and is associated with ball lightning, musical scales and Mandelbrot sets. OOBEs (out of body experiences) have been experienced at the Navy gravity lab, if not in Dannion Brinkley's previously mentioned center. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STRANGE BOOKS Brian Ellison has written a book called Why We Will Never Win The War on AIDS. He, and he says 200 other scientists, think HIV does not cause AIDS, in fact, do not even think AIDS exists, but is a moneymaking scheme by the CDC. If the facts he cites are true -- that even Dr. Francis Gallos has written of HIV-negative patients said to have died of "AIDS" before HIV was first said to be the cause or without immune deficency, mice injected with HIV staying healthy, that 95% would test HIV-positive, that "AIDS" is not spreading as an infectious disease should -- the generally accepted theory certainly should be at examined. We also came across an article on the Thelemites, followers of Aleister Crowley, who were told to summon Lam, the claimed true author of The Book of The Law (1904), by staring at his picture reprinted in The Magic Revival (1972) and Outside the Circle of Time (1980). A side effect is enlarged eyes like the abducting Greys are said to have. The McDaniel Report by Stanley V. McDaniel claims the Mars Observer data was encrypted after the discovery of the Cydonia Face to keep secret "the City" to the southwest. In Healing Words Dr. Larry Dosey proves the healing power of prayer. In Angels and Aliens Keith Thompson identifies the two. The Development of Psychic Powers and The AntiGravity Handbook from the Johnson Smith Co. sound like they come from THEM. (((((O)))))) ICR We also have accumulated quite a few Impacts and Back to Genesises from the Institute for Creative Research. In the most recent May and June issues we have "Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, "The Greater Light to Rule the Day", and "The Urge to Submerge." The review of Sagan's new book is by Larry Vardman,the Institute's Astro/Geophysics department head. (The title is a humble description of planet Earth.) He says while speaking with him at an American Geophysical Union meeting Sagan was "very cordial but extremely animated and energetic in attempting to convince me that the Bible is not a valid source of truth." (Or is that Truth?) Sagan refered to the Creator God in his book, but only to call Him an outmoded "geocentrist conceit." God isn't dead so much as mythical. The awesomeness of creation -- the billions and billions of stars,fantastically beautiful and varied -- is certainly humbling, but Vardman notes: "God is not hiding. He is waiting for us to see Him." An "us" including Carl Sagan. In the next article J. Timothy Unruh of Back Yard Astronomers, in contrast, exaults the Sun, Sol the solitary one, noting that at the speed of an express train (100 mph) it would take a year to travel its diameter. 1.3 million Earths would be needed to fill it. Eclipses are possible because the apparent diameter of the sun and that of the Moon are very nearly equal. Only one part in a billion of its energy, not too much or too little, reaches Earth to support all life on it, still the only life known. After noting that most stars are much more variable, smaller, cooler, dimmer and less massive, Unruh says: "it is clear that neither the Earth nor the Sun are insignificant or typical, and that the Sun is not just another star after all." ICR President Henry M. Morris writes about the theory of Elaine Morgan, promoted in the New Age Journal and her book, The Scars of Evolution. Although he describes it as a new theory it reminds us Sir Alister Hardy and Desmond Morris' writings from the Sixties. We remember at the time finding the idea of Homo aquaticus interesting, thinking that perhaps the Surfer urge was preternatural. It conceivably does explain the placement of hair mostly on our heads, the dive reflex, and most significantly to evolutionists, the "scarcity" of early human fossils. (Ah, but how do you explain the ones that are where the theory predicts they ought not to be?) If, as the Bible says, there was a worldwide flood, the Deluge, how long did the Noahites have to deal with the receeding floodwaters? Was the fear of the past repeating itself partial motivation for the building of the Tower of Babel some 200 years later ("during the time of Peleg")? Which reminds us that "Encounters" just announced the Jones expedition to investigate Noah's ark this summer. (That's Dr. Vendyl Jones, not "Indiana" Jones of Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge by Rob MacGregor,though Vendyl was said to be the original, incredible Jones -- and we "co-incidentally" got the book the day the episode aired!) Jones says a quake "co-incidentally" revealed the huge boatlike object buried 17 miles from Mt. Ararat the very day Israel became a nation again after 25 centuries! The Strangeness of the Ordinary With this intriguing title Robert Coburn caught my interest and kept it with new terms like "sparg" (shorts-wearing husband),"flern" (food residue left on a knife), "doxastic" (concerning belief state), "haecceity" (analysable individual essence), "analysandum" (term analyzed), "analysans" (terms of analysis), "polysemy" (multiple meanings for words spelled the same) and such sentences as: "The view that our ordinary picture of the world could (in the nonepistemic sense ...) be radically mistaken in thinking (a) that the people we know and love are not really impostors, owing for example to an invasion of "body snatchers" last spring, (b) that the trees and the rocks, houses and cars which are thought to surround us in daily life continue to exist when no one is observing them, (c) that our experiences to date are not wholly the result of brain probes engineered by diabolical superscientists of whose existence we have not a clue, (d) that the world did not come into existence two minutes ago, complete with all the memories and other (deceptive) evidences of a long history reaching back to the (apparent) big bang, and even (e) that there exists -- or has ever existed -- anything other than the mental states of which we are now currently aware." [For a challenge try diagramming that 208-word sentence!] ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ MORE MURPHY We just acquired Murphy's Law Book Three by Arthur Bloch. It lists such well demonstrated items as: De Never's law of complexity -- "The simplest subjects are the ones you know nothing about." Dykstra's law -- "Everybody's somebody's weirdo." Gualtieri's law -- "Where there's a will, there's a won't." Hane's law -- "There's no limit to how bad things can get." Hiram's law -- "If you consult enough experts you can confirm any opinion." MacPherson's theory of Entropy -- "It requires less energy to take an object out of its proper place than to put it back there." McDonald's corollary to Murphy's law -- "In any given set of circumstances, the proper course of action is determined by subsequent events." McGee's first law -- "It's amazing how long it takes to complete something you are not working on." Nagler's comment on the origin of Murphy's law -- "Murphy's law was not propounded by Murphy, but by another man by the same name." Particle physics' second law -- "The basic building blocks of matter do not occur in nature." The Pineapple Principle -- "The best parts of anything are inseparable from its worst." Sagan's fallacy -- "To say a human being is nothing but molecules is like saying a Shakespearean play is nothing but words." Seay's law -- "Nothing ever comes out as planned." (Seeger's law -- "Anything in parentheses can be ignored.") Smith's law -- "No real problem has a solution." Steiner's second precept -- "Logic can never decide what is possible or impossible." Tillis' organizational principle -- "If you file it, you'll know where it is but never need it; if you don't, you won't but you will." [For more such laws see Laws]