January 5, 1969

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

World’s End, King’s Road,

London, S.W. 10

Dear Friends:

New Years started off most propitiously here. My own followers were joined by Dr. Rev.
Neville Warwick and his disciple. They gave us a most inspiring cosmic fire ceremony based on Vajrayana Buddhism. It was so totally different from the claptrap, personalisms, and dialectic superficialities that have been passed off to as oriental wisdom, we want to have it again. Perhaps we shall use it also on Buddha’s parinirvana day, which many so-called Buddhists do not celebrate.

I am writing for quite a different reason however. The Temple of Understanding whose headquarters are in Washington, D.C. has been arranging a convocation of all the world’s religions (they have held such meetings before). It had originally been called for Istanbul. Their reports, collaborated by our own experiences here indicate that the present regime in Turkey is very reactionary in all respects so the convocation is expected to meet in Geneva.

The dates are uncertain, but I have already talked to my travel agent who tells me we may stop At London, either en route or afterwards. This matter will have to be discussed also with the officials of The Temple of Understanding.

In any event I have been most anxious to return to your region, especially to visit my dear friend

Rev. Jack Austin

100 Roundwood Way

Banstead, Surrey

I am also sending him a copy of this. He has been an earnest leader in real Buddhist studies, and has tried to rise, with not much success, above the sectarianisms, personalities, and superficial dialectics, which have been substituted for the dharma.

I notice with some satisfaction that you have a representative in the city of Berkeley not far from here (Shambala). We may also try to get your publication on the market both in San Francisco and Los Angeles. This would come in the natural and normal order of our own private business.

I notice with considerable inner satisfaction that there is a common element in your art work, what “we” are doing here, and the posters received from the new communes in the state of New Mexico. I expect to visit that state after my return from Europe and would be glad to report to you on what is going on.

The chief influences are the philosophy department of the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and the work of former Professor Richard Alpert of Harvard now filling and fulfilling the role of Swami Ram Dass. I have had only good reports about him, but those are as yet too desultory for an article.

Love and Blessings,

Sam

6 February 1969

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace, World’s End

Chelsea, London, S.W. 10 FLA 6156

Beloved ones of God:

I was exceeding delighted to be given copies of your apparently new publication. This from two entirely different points of view:

1) There is now a publication in this vicinity called The Oracle. I believe their general approach, their general policies and general philosophical and social outlooks are very similar to your own. I am therefore turning these copies over to them, hoping there will be mutual exchange etc.

This does not mean I shall not subscribe. What I would like to know is what an annual subscription would be:

A. one copy regularly airmail

B. copies

C. mail

This would be in addition to any exchanges which would not involve money.

2) The article on Jelal-ed-din Rumi immediately struck the heart target, There is a vast difference between the Sufism of the Sufis and intellectual articles of linguists and book reviews (bolstered by university degrees and titles).

I find your Alex Lowsiewkce a kindred soul. For your information I have long since been elevated to the grade of murshid and have been trained in the disciplines and practices of numerous tariks. Also, I am perhaps the first man In history to have passed spiritual and mystical tests in real Zen Buddhism etc. This history has been almost uniformly rejected by the “proper” people and authorities and almost unanimously accepted by the young.

My campaign “Joy without Drugs” is one of emphasis on the joy, not of opposition to the drug. I have begun teaching dervish dances, a synthesis of those of the Mevlevis, Bedauwis and Rifa’is, plus psychic applications of the Names of God (Allah). These have been most successful in increasing not only the capacity for joy and love, but also in effecting the corresponding awakening.

With all love and blessing,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Avenue

San Francisco 94110

February 25, 1969

Gerry Snelling

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

Chelsea S.W. 10

Dear Gerry:

Never mind your typing, your letter of February the 14th is delightful. First as regard to subscription. I am enclosing my personal check for $10 here, and ask that you seen copy to:

The Khankah (Garden of Inayat)

910 Railroad Avenue

Novato, Calif. 94947.

I am doing this so we can get a copy as early as possible after publication.

I have already spoken to my disciple and colleague, Phillip Davenport, of the Oracle. They are having a meeting at this writing and, among other matters, hope to arrange an exchange with you. Within the next two days, I shall have reasons for conferences with Phil and other staff members of Oracle, so it is possible there will be a postscript.

I am at the present time writing up incidents of my meetings with real Sufi teachers, either from memory or extracts from my diaries. There is no reason why I cannot do this equally with Zen material, although in this case there are a number of incidents no longer on record, because my earlier diaries were destroyed by fire. In an case I have asked the disciples who are extracting Sufi stories to begin the same with Zen stories—very real, very much in the here-now, easily substantiated, and none written in enigmatic translations of enigmatic stories of exotic peoples of another age.

In fact, my chief secretary and I have just returned from a mission connected with Korean Zen, and we have another matter to take up with the Vietnamese Ch’an Buddhists. All very much in the here-now.

However, I may also send some materials extracted from the works of the late Nyogen Senzaki of this region. My life motto is: “Reality, not realism.” Incidentally, this motto and its intended mission is making rapid headway in the far-famed Haight-Ashbury district, where publications such as Gandalf’s Garden have a huge market … this will be followed either by a postscript or by suitable enclosures.

Namaste, metta, Allah Mubarak,

Samuel L. Lewis

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif.

18th April, 1969

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

World’s End, King’s Road

London, S.W. 10

Dear ones:

I have the impertinence to review your Issue 4 and to make some remarks, more for the sake of communicating “news” than all else. You look like a little of California transplanted. I’m an old hand in this field, and have seen generations come and go and have also the impertinence to live on in good health and vitality to the dismay of elders who are adept at criticizing but never listening, and the delight of the young who are clustering around me more and more every week. And if “visions” are correct there will be more of this.

On the negative side there has been a delay in the appearance of The Oracle, due go accidents to the press. This is not only a set-back personally but I believe there are so many hidden values both in this publication as a joint effort and I the individuals who are taking part in these efforts that the sooner their work becomes public the greater the benefit to everybody. One man’s view of course, but maybe more than one man’s view.

I began occult studies early and then Aleister Crowley was presented as an incarnation of Mephisto. Years later I read him and found him too profound—and I mean profound and not just complex—to come to any conclusion. If there is any “conclusion” it may be that certain contenders are correct from their several partial views.

As to Edgar Cayce that is different. I have lived at Virginia Beach. It is time we record pluses and minuses of predictions of certain people and not just set them up as psychics or seers without any regard for efficiency. I am a veteran both of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and Santa Barbara earthquake of 1926 and have gone through similar but lesser occurrences especially in Japan and Pakistan. I not only do not see any such catastrophe but deplore the rejection of the existence of God and the protection which may be coming as if from heaven by real Masters who are implements and incarnations of mercy, compassion and wisdom.

I felt World War I in 1910 very definitely and World War II in 1936 very definitely. The “psychic” impressions seem to be in full accord with those of the later Winston Churchill. But my “prophetic” utterances came earlier and the percentage of accuracy is so far beyond that of any of the named personalities that it is almost tragically humorous. One does not try to see fame, much less notoriety in this field.

Another bit of folk-lore or “old wives’ tales” that passes for “occultism” is concerning the Great Pyramid of Giza. I studied under a person who knew the French Sahure and was amazed to find in Egypt a pyramid which not only fulfilled his descriptions but was identical to what I had “seen” in vision or cosmic memory. This view was shared by all the initiates I conversed within that land. And I happen also to have been one of the few initiated disciples of Paul Brunton (author of Search in Secret Egypt).

One result of my Egyptian sojourn is that I am now teaching, and rather successfully, Joy through sacred dances, beginning with a rather modernized version of Dervish dancing, by synthesizing those of several schools and embellishing them with sacred phrases of the Islamic faith. From this point I have gone ahead with Mantric dances and am now working on ceremonies and yoga dancing.

On the first Sunday in May we hope to have a Maypole and are combining a Wesak ceremony with dances of Sun, Moon and Wheel. Dr. Neville Warwick, a leader in Tantric Buddhism, has promised to lead in the Buddhist ceremonies of which he is adept but I also have my own Swastika ceremony synthesizing Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana.

We are now having a seminar on mystical experiences under the auspices of the University of California. It has been annoying to some when I told them I could name a hundred living mystics right off hand. Hard facts are the hardest things to put over. Too many believe what they want to believe.

I am very much interested in Glastonbury. I wish someone would give us the Arthurian tales with the English interpretation of the names.

Incidentally, who discovered tin? How was it used? What is behind it? I do not accept “accidents.”

I have nothing to say about Atlantis but when I told the New York Geographical Society some years back that their maps were all wrong, instead of kicking me out (which is what Lord Snow’s “other culture” does regularly) they invited me in. I have seen land rise an inch a year and one creek mouth move a mile. I report, do not interpret.

The May celebration is also an effort to restore real old folk customs and I have another idea for “All Saints Day.” Others may suggest. My following has slowly but steadily increased every week this year, praise to God.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

August 1969

The Garden of Inayat

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

Gandalf’s Garden,

1 Dartrey Terrace,

World’s End, King’s Road,

Chelsea, London, S.W. 10

I have recently returned to this spiritual home after a short visit to the State of New Mexico. Most time was spent at

Lama foundation, Box 444,

San Cristobal, New Mexico, 87564

I am giving this address because I wish you would send copies of Gandalf’s Garden to them, if possible making it retroactive to the beginning of this year. I am sure that many of the people connected with Lama and also some of their better neighbors would appreciate your publication. But let’s make this a start.

I have been particularly interested in the discussions concerning Meher Baba. In this life I have been variously a disciple of Paul Brunton (the real thing) and a devotee of Meher Baba. But I have found that the other devotees of Baba care not at all for any moral law and think that if they only lean on some personality that will take them on a flight through the heavens. There is no serious effort to follow the moral teachings of Christ or Buddha or Mohammed, and I think the present day world would be shocked if serious studies were required of the moral teachings of these and other Divine Messengers. I will require some convincing that any “Avatar” would dare to repudiate the words of Jesus Christ:

“Whatsoever ye do to the least of these, my creatures, ye do it unto me.” And so far as the Hadith of Rassoul Mohammed are concerned, enthusiasts put the burdens elsewhere.

Lord Buddha directly initiated four hundred thousand (400,000) devotees to awakening mostly by his glance (Darshan). Jesus and Mohammed both functioned in bodies of Light, Pure Light. And those close to them both felt and saw.

It is pretty hard to see the cosmic virtue of one who would play lightly in the affairs of men by making predictions which did not come true. But with the present American adulation of Jean Dixon and Edgar Cayce, certainly if adulation is to be paid to those who do not pierce through the veil of time, Meher Baba was much nearer to perfection.

Having met so many qualified Masters in this life and also seen the beautiful disciples of a number of them, if “by their works ye shall know them” something more has to be manifest than enthusiasm and arguments.

The first business to attend to on my return was to visit the offices of The Oracle. And in five minutes I learned of another “Avatar” and also one “Messiah.” They both suggested that as a living Guru or Sad guru was needed and as this was the teaching of Baba himself who is no longer in the flesh, their own claims were not so vain, although neither seems to have proclaimed that one must have a flesh-guru.

It is rather awkward to appeal to honesty and sincerity since generally the followers of the various “Messiahs,” “Avatars,” “Maharanis” make no such appeal, but look to personality. Yet in all honesty and sincerity I have recently met devotees of Meher Baba who actually think his work included fulfilling the moral teachings of Buddha, Christ, Mohammed and others; and also to have a universal, not a personal outlook verbalized as “universal,” when it is so obvious it is not.

Now there is another matter, and perhaps I should address myself to John Howkins,
34 Belwell Land, Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. He says—on what authority—I do not know, that Sufism is not mysticism. Having no idea as to what he means by “Sufism” and what he means by “mysticism.” The term tasawwuf can be anglicized, and has been anglicized as metaphysics, occultism, theosophy, etc. I should say none of these terms are wrong. They were presented as the English equivalent of teachings or persons actually met. Real experiences of real persons and have nothing whatsoever to do with any underground, etc. or imaginings of others.

The late president of India was a well-known disciple in tasawwuf and there are many in high places in Islamic countries also. No matter what historians and non-communicating intellectuals may say or argue, all the basic teachings of tasawwuf are found in the sayings of Mohammed, especially the moral injunctions so by-passed by enthusiasts.

` No Sufi would ever say to anybody, “Go out and practice it.” The Sufi becomes a Sufi by offering his personality, his body and mind to Allah in loving and willing self-surrender, and by his achievement of emptiness makes accommodation for the Divine Light and Life. And for this usually a practicing attained Teacher is needed. I advise Howkins Sahib to throw away his “humility” and just accept a little from Prof. Links or others, graduates in Western intellectualism and also in directly experienced mysticism. Facts, substantiable, not enthuisiams limited to ego-self.

God bless you,

Sam

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

17th December, 1969

Gandalf’s Garden,

1 Dartrey Terrace,

World’s End, King’s Road,

London, S.W. 10

Dear Friends:

Your Issue 6 has just arrived and it is so Californienna or so “New Age” I am both amazed and delighted. My colleague, Dr. Oliver Reiser, had already sent me copy of Message to the Galaxy to my San Francisco address. In this case I am too prejudiced, or too much in agreement to say much. For the life is in two definite parts which correspond almost exactly to Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus. Although my next immediate project shows a sort of overlapping:

I am digging up all the Ginger-root here, cutting it to supply the New Age food stores with “organically grown” Ginger which they say is the finest tasting. The first year of a rather desultory organic garden has been really marvelous in every respect, This is too long to write about now but a philosophical report has been sent to Organic Gardening of Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

The article by Muz Murray strikes a resounding note. The success and failure of the last visit to India was on the theme. “Pan-guruism” which was cordially accepted by the Sufis and followers of Papa Ramdas, but did not resound with the various—and there are many of them—”world movements” each with its own particular “Messiah,” “Avatar,” etc. I am, however, sending personal cheque for Ten Dollars for your Garden Ashram Fund.

I am not at all sure of the cosmic symbols in the next article but a local Indian dance teacher has promised to teach at least one of my groups the Mudras and variations of these symbols also are used in the Om Namo Shivaja Dance…. Incidentally, “Dances of Universal Peace” offered in turn to so many of the “world (?)-movements” have been shunned by them, each with their particular “world-saviours.” And there has been nothing but success in their response from the young.

I am, of course, acquainted with the “Krishna Commune” but my “Krishna-consciousness” is much more extensive and inclusive. I shall also check to see if you have copy of my The Rejected Avatar. am very busy on cosmic epic poetry among other endeavors.

Well we celebrated Ramadan, Hanukkah and are ready for a Santa Claus-less (he is out with us) Christmas. I am glad to have your “The Cosmic Circuit” and will also call at Shambala in Berkeley at the earliest convenience.

As-salaam aleikhum; Merry Christmas: and Hare Krishna!

Sam

Feb. 28, 1970

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

Worlds End, Kings Road,

London S.W. 10

Beloved Ones of God:

It is with great joy that one acknowledges your letter of 24th January. At this writing we are planning to leave here between 28th and 30th March en route to Geneva, and have placed booking for the Green Park Hotel for April 5 or 6th. I stopped at the Hotel when in London a number of years back, and their treatment was courteous. I feel in honor bound to go there again. Actually the main center of attraction is Gandalf’s Garden. We are now gaining the good will of an ever-growing number of young Americans, offering spiritual teachings mostly thru dance and song, so much so that we no longer have any free days, and the weekends are filled with engagements.

I am very glad you have some Sufis meeting with you. There is no compulsion in Sufism, and every effort is made to extend the scopes of love and harmony and beauty.

I shall be going to Switzerland wearing at the same time a Sufi robe and a Korean Buddhist robe. The reason for two robes can be seen in the number 5 Tarot card called The Hierophant, which is my present line of life. But the robes also signify, as the Qur’an teaches, “The Light is neither of the West nor the East.”

There will be a few other groups to visit in London, chiefly the headquarters of “Studies in Comparative Religion”; also the Royal Asiatic Society, etc. But I also wish to visit again my old haunt—Kew Gardens. I am given to understand you are not so far from that place, but I have no map of London at this writing.

Your words and sentiments are greatly appreciated, and they also truly reflect our own feelings.

With all love and blessings,

Sam

March 6, 1970

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

London S.W. 10

Beloved Ones of God:

With two homes, each with complete programs, it is a little hard at times to keep up with correspondence properly. We are now booked to leave San Francisco on the 28th and must stay in Geneva 6 days. There have been slight changes in the hour of departure for London, and also for the hotel booking. We will advise you, in any case. On the surface, the Geneva convention will make history, but to us, our coming to London will affect humanity much more.

Personally I am far more against useless resolutions, than against so-called “evil.” We are not having peace in this world. We are certainly having a growing number of so-called world movements, organized and dominated by elders, in the name of youth of course. Personally, I intend to give Mansur, my secretary, full scope for expression and not waste any time myself chittering and chattering about the “youth” to whom I am superior in age. End of superiority.

Things are happening very very rapidly in this state:

growth and interest in organic farming

great profit in health food at a time of so-called depression

the first films taken of our Dervish and spiritual dances. This was only a try-out but the producers expressed very great satisfaction.

we intend to present some of these dances to you. I cannot do my best work in the Sri Krishna dances without a Radha, and so far this has not been easy. But when one does find a Radha, it is superb. (Incidentally, Dr. Milton Singer of Chicago U. has sent me a gift copy of Krishna: Myth, Rites, and Attitudes)

I am assuming we shall be available on April 6, and want to be with you as many hours as mutually convenient, until our departure for this land.

Copying from a recent letter from Vice-President Giri of India: “Let the words from Ishopanishad ring in our ears: ‘He who sees all creatures in himself and himself in all creatures—such a one does not dislike or hate anybody.’” There is nothing to add to that is there?

Love,

S.A.M.

March 13, 1970

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

World’s End

King’s Road, London S.W. 10

England

Beloved Ones of God:

Your aerogram (undated) has been received and it pleases us no end. Our ticket requires to remain abroad two weeks. And six day of the two weeks must be spent in Switzerland, so at this writing it would appear we must remain in London at least 8 days.

The situation is complicated by the crisis in the family life, with dying brother. Relatives have been informed that this must not interfere with the forthcoming journey. You know Jesus Christ has said, let the dead bury their dead, and both my secretary Mansur and I are most anxious to meet you. Indeed, we wish to arrange our program in London to vouchsafe full cooperation. I have sent for a map of the city and have been told you are not very far from Kew Gardens. Actually, these are the only places I am interested in. I shall keep you informed from Switzerland, and also let you know what hour we are arriving. I do not know the details of the program offered by my travel agent, but this of itself may not be of supreme importance.

The robes are being worn for ritualistic and credential purposes. Yes, I shall also wear them of course in visiting any Pakistani restaurant, etc. It is not necessary to promote Dancing, and it is also wise to introduce it, but the same applies to chanting, which does not require such a large space, to lectures and teachings, etc., and much will depend upon the weather, and also your relations with the Sufi group. This letter in a way suggests the carrying of additional robes which from your point of view will be in order.

At this writing I am having “excitement,” perhaps too much of it: a dying brother; the filming of all my activities; music; dancing; spiritual teaching; ordinary everyday life; extraordinary everyday life; in fact every aspect of existence. And in addition, the laying out of programs for the next few months with travel complications which would not be complications whence the family dis-equilibrium terminates, one way or another.

On the whole we wish to accommodate ourselves to your program. We should be arriving in London April 6 or 7; will let you know.

Love and Blessings,

Sam

March 28, 1970

Miss Joyce Best

70 Boldmore Road

Eastcote, Pinner

Middlesex, England

Beloved One of God:

The writer is one of the last living direct disciples of Hazrat Inayat Khan. I do not recall whether a letter was written to you in 1967 when I was preparing to visit Great Britain, but Allah ruled it otherwise, for one had an attack of ptomaine compelling one to be in the hospital for some time, and afterwards something like a miracle occurred in that one’s efforts to spread the Message of God, which had previously always failed, now suddenly began a career of success.

I do not know what your aged father would say about this. I understand he is devoted to the late Meher Baba, which is of course his own right, but it may also be that this has not prevented him from remaining true to the spirit of Hazrat Inayat Khan as he saw it.

This successful program soon involved and enveloped the work of Pir Vilayat Khan. There was an immediate coalescence, and a determination on our parts to cooperate fully with the eldest son of the late Pir-o-Murshid, not because he was the son of the Pir-o-Murshid, but because he was giving every evidence of his own spiritual prowess. This cooperation and the fruits thereof are now growing into a magnificent structure.

When we surrender to the will of God, miracles happen. Pir Vilayat happening on our large and growing organization, asked for the establishment of a drama group, and before we could even consider it, the drama group manifested of and by itself so to speak, and much is happening of the same type because evidently it is the Will of God Himself that the Message of Sufism is to spread far and wide, is spreading far and wide.

My secretary Mansur and I are preparing to leave this vicinity now, to attend a conference of all the religions of the world. Pir Vilayat himself will not be able to attend. He rather successfully introduced a program based on the unity of Religious Ideals last year, and has deputized me to continue in the same general direction this year, which will be done, God so willing. But I am not so involved in this as in a further program to present the divine Message to the young of your vicinity. The Geneva conference ends on 6th of April I understand and we shall go straight ways to London to appear at Gandalf’s Garden on such occasions as they shall have programmed us. We expect to remain a week or ten days, inshallah.

I understand that already a group of Sufis is cooperating with us. We certainly shall be happy if you could attend any such gatherings. If you are in contact with your father please give him my best wishes and tell him that despite so-called age, the one who is enveloped in the Divine Sifat may continue on in the body in full control of mental and physical qualities.

Love and blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

May 11, 1970

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace

Worlds End, Kings Road

London S.W. 10

Dear Muz and Beloved Ones of God:

Mansur and Murshid are home after a rather successful stopover in Boston, Massachusetts. Indeed, our welcome there was so warm and rewarding, both socially and financially, that we hope to re-visit it later in the year. This visit might cover the whole northeastern portion of the United States.

I am not yet sure of the extent of increase in income, but if the general trend continues as of now the possibility of a troop or entourage coming to London in 1972 is very great. We feel a strong kinship with you. I long felt that Gandalf’s Garden was a sort of misplaced California in London. But our visit to Boston and Cambridge, Mass., followed by the events of the day, show a whole spiritual revolution, rather leaderless at the moment.

One reason I am writing is because of the consideration now being given to multigraphing, mimeographing, or otherwise reproducing some of my dance and walk forms. Here I must say that today I am being supported by a growing number of intelligent and capable young men, almost unanimously they are of the New Age outlook. If this project goes on, or rather when it goes on, we shall see that you get copies.

We are exceedingly busy at the moment. Mansur and I have to leave shortly for the state of New Mexico where we have to work in combined projects: spiritual dances, Sufic teaching, organic gardening, building of a commune from the ground up both literally and symbolically.

Even more “exciting”—and I mean this word literally—are the efforts to make Pir Vilayat’s summer camp successful. The Living God, to Whom we send all our praise, seems to be favoring this project. All the initial steps and surveys have met with nothing but the most wonderful success and cooperation. Please tell this to our friends. It looks so wonderful now, and we are preparing to send a large caravan. But to write further means to take our attention away from this very project.

Faithfully,

Samuel

14th May, 1970

Gandalf’s Garden

Chelsea, London

Dear Muz and Beloved Ones of God:

The Metamorphosis has arrived. This is a hurried letter for it would seem, God willing, we are also going through a Metamorphosis but in entirely “favorable” directions. This trip put me some two thousand ($2,000) dollars in the hole, but the death of my brother will undoubtedly increase income. This seems to be a small portion of it.

We were so welcomed in Massachusetts we are planning to return in the Fall. And at tis writing Mansur and Murshid Sam are very busy preparing for our Summer session at Lama Foundation in the northern part of the State of New Mexico. We shall be spending the whole month of June there, and are fortunate that they have another program for July. Some of us will be leaving here very, very soon.

A larger number will then go to the short retreat of Pir Vilayat, and the staff here is much concerned with preparations therefore. It would seem that this is a Divine blessing for this undertaking—everything so far has been turning out like a miracle. Mansur and Murshid, of course, will not be there, but on the other hand we shall be with those who have not yet been initiated into Sufism. Many of these people, however, have received other initiations and this will be one of the subjects.

The Dance inspirations keep on coming and this also means typing, teaching a pilot group, then the dance class, then the general audiences. It means no days off but at least a most glorious, and apparently rewarding schedule.

The session with F. Clive-Ross in Middlesex suggested a visit again in 1972 with an entourage or dance troupe. We have found that there is a very reasonable fare for certain types of longer visits. This is complicated, but not marred, by other considerations: (a) some disciples may be going on a Mediterranean cruise late in 1971; the peace programs in which Mansur and Murshid are involved.

The blatant statement of both Jews and Arabs are simply untrue. Most of them will not meet with each other but desire rather another “Green Table” performance like that of the Americans and Viet Min. I am trying to force the issue even at the cost of hostile criticism. But having had always hostile criticism and the doors and floors barred by both sides, in this New Age we may be able to force a show-down.

The first efforts at Geneva are now bearing fruit. And it is remarkable that for the first time senior and sedate persons are accepting my efforts, backgrounds and person seriously. Clemenceau said: “War and peace are two things too serious to entrust to diplomats and generals.” What we have done is to entrust them to politicians and newsmen and special “experts.” None of these “experts” showed up at Geneva.

But we have been approached by others who want us to join in a massive athletic and peace festival in the Holy Land in 1972 and we may have to coalesce this with a visit to your country.

As I look now on your issues, they excite me; the very titles are exciting and I could use more of them. I shall receive word next week of my presumable income and ignore to some extent the paying off of debt. I could use all of these issues and more. Things are changing so rapidly—and in glorious directions both for Pir Vilayat and Murshid Sam.

We have had the same trouble with “The Oracle” but at our meeting this morning the skies look very bright that there is a possibility of “do it yourself.” It is too early and I am writing now some encouragement, which will be followed up as soon as possible with something more.

All love and blessing,

Samuel

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

July 12th, 1970

Gandalf’s Garden

1 Dartrey Terrace,

World’s End, King’s Road

London S.W. 10

Dear Muz and Gardeners:

I have before me your letter of 15th June and for one day (only) was struck with a quandary. My affairs are financially much better but the expansion of our work has thrown things into a sort of turmoil—nothing evil, just too much. And we are needing several meetings to straighten things out.

Of my three chief secretaries, the one who has been looking after my finances may be leaving here to take over the spiritual work in the Southwestern States of Arizona and New Mexico. This includes spiritual instructions in Sufism, helping a new publication (properly endowed), organic gardening, spiritual music and dancing, etc.

Mansur is occupied with the dancing and filming and this alone is overwhelming. Wali Ali here is overworked but it looks as if help were on the way.

Last night I spoke with Walter, a new disciple of Pir Vilayat and he is leaving shortly and will call on you as soon as convenient. We do not promise anything but we certainly wish to do something if possible. Besides your idea for a restaurant excites us and we want to be with you, not only spiritually but materially.

What has happened roughly is that both Pir Vilayat and Sam have been separately successful in adjacent parts of the United States. But Pir Vilayat like Baba Ram Das, is going abroad leaving this one, so to speak in “charge” in the United States and while this is going on all sorts of doors are opening. One does not like to tell you to pray and be hopeful—anybody can do that—one only asks you to be slightly patient, that help may be coming from God and man both.

Please tell Joyce that everything is moving and booming in this land and that Pir Vilayat has some marvelous plans.

Love and blessing,

Sam

Mr. Samuel Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Sam:

I was very surprised indeed to learn that you have cracked the hippy metalanguage code. Now perhaps for the first time it will be used for constructive purposes. Congratulations! My old hippy friends have an excess of missionary zeal—every time my head is turned they try to spike the coffee with LSD. To my knowledge they have never been successful, but I refuse to get lost with the question of how I know whether or not I’m turned on. One would think hippies would be preoccupied with such nonsense.

Sam, I very much appreciate your generous gesture in standing me to membership in the AAAS. And I plan to demonstrate my appreciation in a very concrete way: By reading and giving some thought to their publication.

Come by soon and let’s have some tea and cookies & talk.

Cordially,

Russell Joyner

United States Hydrocarbon Company

July 20, 1966

11:30 A.M.

Mr. Samuel L. Lewis

772 Clementina Street

San Francisco, California

Dear Mr. Lewis:

I have just returned from a most refreshing visit with Dr. S.I. Hayakawa and others of the International Society for General Semantics.

It was brought to my attention that you are also interested in Semantics.

My itinerary reflects that I will be lecturing in California sometime in October. With hopes that our schedules coincide, I should like to meet you.

But, before we can be together in October, I invite you to correspond in the areas of communications you personally favor.

Kindest regards,

Sincerely,

U.S. Hydrocarbon Company

Alan J. Greenbaum

Postcard from S. I Hayakawa

Box 100

Mill Valley CA 94941

Nov. 5 1966

Dear Sam,

Thank you for copies of your letters to Reiser & “Guru.” I have read them with interest, but with little comprehension, since I know nothing about Buddhism or the Upanishads or any of the other things you mention. My own position is anti-religious and anti-mystical, so that I am no doubt beyond redemption. Alas.

Best wishes,

Don Hayakawa

A Review of “Language in Thought and Action”

by S. I. Hayakawa

by Samuel L. Lewis

9/5/1967

This is not a “book review.” It is not even a review but a proposed adaptation of some points of view which may be gained by studying the Mathematical Philosophy of Bertrand Russell and more especially Cassius Keyser. One regrets that the semantic movements have failed to take into account either the friendship between Alfred Korzybski and Cassius Keyser, or the outlooks presented in the basic works on Mathematical Philosophy to relate them to the new Language-Arts or to modern linguistics. There may be some suggestions here which could prove fruitful fields for research, or papers, but even that is not the purpose of this article.

Lord Snow has presented his “two cultures” which may be roughly referred to as “scientific” and “literary-humanist,” but only roughly. The term “science” is generally defined pragmatically rather than rigorously and here one presents the Russell-Keyser view that Science deals with categorical propositions and Mathematics with prepositional functions.

No doubt a good deal of Russell and more of Keyser appears in Science and Sanity but on the whole these portions of the great work are by-passed or only superficially treated. The result is that many persons use the words “Science” and “Mathematics” without distinct definitions or referents. And also they seem unable to grasp the import or Russell’s “confusion of types.”

We can reword this also to indicate that Mathematics, along with Logistics, deals with measurers and matrices rather than what are usually called “realities.” We utilize measurers, matrices. etc., in order to comprehend things and phenomena.

The term “logistics” is used because too often Logic refers to the special system of Aristotle. Traditionally there are at least two other systems of Logic which have effected men’s minds but which Western scholars have overlooked, i.e. the Nyaya Logics of India and the Buddhist Logics, or logistics. Briefly speaking Nyaya is nearer pure Semantics for it differs from Aristotelian Logic in demanding a referent.

Buddhist Logics, especially that of Dignaga, holds that when syllogisms differ from human experience there is something wrong with the syllogism. This system would not have suffered by the discovery of Radio-activity, or the potential acceptance of Parapsychology, etc. (This is not to uphold Parapsychology, merely to indicate it would fall well within Buddhist Logistics, or could apply Buddhist Logics.

We thus find traditionally three systems of Logics corresponding with some analogies to the doctrines of Euclid, Labochevski and Riemann. Meta-mathematics began when it found mankind could not be limited by either a system of Logic or Geometry but would manipulate them to explain some experiences of mankind, that all the “space” and other experiences were not always explained by one of these doctrinal Geometries.

Actually East and West came closer with the presentation of Relativity for the Logic of Dignaga’s Buddhist presentations ended with a strong defense of Relativity rather than absolutism. And there is some question whether any system of traditional Logic or Mathematics alone could uphold Absolutism, but instead would fall within the errors pointed out by Russell’s “confusion of types.”

In other words each system of Mathematics and each system of Logic (until modern Polish systems were devised) could be used to explain phenomena and/or thought. Thus the conclusion is that both Logic and Mathematics, dealing with prepositional functions, have a definite place in human culture, coordinate but different from what is known as “Science.”

The suggestion here is that “Language In Thought and Action” belongs in this field, a field itself perhaps not thoroughly studied. Therefore any analytical or “book review” of Hayakawa’s work could be self-defeating. We cannot expose Euclid though we can criticize his theory of parallels. Yet Euclid was long used.

Surveying has resulted in quite different pragmatic parallels from E-geometric parallels; parallels of Longitude meet, parallels of Latitude do not meet. Therefore there must be some adjustment either as Einstein did in his work on relativity and use of Minkowski, or as Hayakawa has done there.

In other words, the test of “Language in Thought and Action” must come in application and its success of failure in the solution of problems. But it is proposed here that if there are any short-comings in “Language in Thought and Action” these can only be corrected by further work in the same or related fields.

The first physicists no doubt used balances and foot-rules. The vernier, the caliper, the slide-rule, the pump, etc. came along later. The use of complicated instruments did not invalidate the simpler ones; they helped to perfect the science and art of measurement. Therefore if there are any short-comings in the views of Dr. Hayakawa as to “prepositional functions,” etc. which are the subject of this work, they would be uncovered or discovered later. This is what one hopes.

Published by the International Society for General Semantics

ETC.
A Review of General Semantics

Dear Sam Lewis:

Why not try a rewrite in the light of my marking-up of your paper here. Perhaps we can make something out of it, suitable for ETC., if we work in stages.

Why not try writing in first person—I, me, my, etc.

You might put some of your points in parenthesis where they are awkward in the body of your writing (only roughly).

I’m not sure what you mean in your comment about pragmatic vs. rigorous definition of science. Perhaps also you could make your points on Russell’s theory of types in parenthesis, e.g. (much could be learned, I think, by reconsidering Russell’s theory of types in this….) That is, either do something explicitly with Russell’s “types” or stop mentioning it, except in a passing way….

You could say a little more about Eastern logic systems than you do….

I feel you’re on something in your article. I have a few intimations about what this is. But it’s far from clear. Let’s make another stab at it, Sam. And again, and again, if it seems promising.

Sincerely, etc.

John Keel

ETC.

Box 100

Mill Valley, Cal.

S. I. Hayakawa

Sept. 26, 1967

Mr. Samuel L. Lewis

410 precita Ave

San Francisco

Dear Sam,

You are always very kind to send me copies of your letters to others (such as Prof. Reiser) and also original long letters. I know I have been quite remiss about answering them—or even acknowledging them. But you must know the effect of your letters. They leave me without a thing to say in reply!

But since I always find your letters absorbing and fascinating, I hope you will continue to write and to send me copies when you write to others.

And incidentally, thanks for the help I know you have been giving to ISCS.

Sincerely,

Don

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, 94110

November 7, 1967

Mr. R. Joyner.

International Society for General Semantics

541 Powell St..

San Francisco. 94108

Lowgic

Dear Russ:

It is not possible to turn out a Science every day and what is more a science which concerns itself with non-scientists. For ever since the appearance of Science and Sanity there has been a rush pell-mell to get on the science wagons. But Science requires disciplines and this has given the Sanity-ists no chance to express themselves. Lowgic is the science by which the Sanity-ists can speak and I can only give an outline here. After that I may go into my anti-laboratory and do some further research.

Sanity-ists, unlike Scientists who unite men, divide them. Roughly speaking men are divided into Equal, More Equal and Super and the Supers always use Lowgic, the more Equal occasionally and have to be corrected; and the rest of the world consists of Hearers, who are audience. We have to have audience. If we did not have audience the Supers and the More Equal would not be permitted to function.

Scientists need education and discipline. Supers or Sanity-ists need prestige. Prestige may be obtained from military colleagues or no education is needed. Unlike Topsie, Supers are born like Pallas-Athena or Minerva, whole, fully equipped and ready and raring to go.

In this first report I can only give an outline. Sanity-ists for example can tell us “How to Fight a War.” They don’t tell us how to win it, but how to fight it. They all crib from “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” written by a man who graduated from the More Equal people which includes the entire Fourth Estate. They can tell how to fight, but they can’t tell how to win. Anybody that does not agree is guilty of Free Speech and in Free Speech audience may talk back to the More Equal and Supers and this is questionable. For now they can be guilty of treason without any need to declare war.

Among the discoveries of Supers has been the fact of Parthenogenesis among the enemy. There is no question that we can build better highways, bridges culverts, aqueducts, etc. These are among the reasons for our being in Vietnam. But the enemy has the secret of parthenogenesis. No matter how many times we destroy them, they are ready within a couple of weeks to be destroyed again and they are. It is like stage rehearsal, but again this all in the Script, “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court.”

The Supers are always able to count the enemy dead. Unlike the More Equal who can count the enemy alive—which is rather rude, they count the enemy dead. Win, lose or indecisive, they can tell exactly how many enemy-corpses there are. We don’t have to win—we can retreat or we can lose but we know exactly how many of the enemy are on the ground as corpses and sometimes we can tell exactly how many have been carted away to hospitals. Indeed this is such an exact Sanity-stat, one wonders why we did not know it during World II or when Braddock got defeated, was it in 1755.

Another difficulty is that while we are lead by Supers, the other side is lead by More Equals. If we want Peace we invited the More Equals. We never invite the Audience. The Hearers. It is rather difficult. More of the Vietnamese are peasants, more are audience, most don’t want to fight and most do not believe in gadgets, miniskirts, Las Vegas morality, “excitement,” and electricity in their homes, tractors and everywhere. Here the Supers are even willing to agree with the More Equal, including Mao, but never Ho Chi Minh. We simply gotta give these things to the Hearers, the Audience. Any other course is “unthinkable.”

 As to the More Equals. They have communication. It is a modern discovery. All history is full of war and peace and sometimes Viennas and Versailles. Viennas and Versailles are more entertaining than either war or peace but the Supers have abolished them and the More Equals want to restore them. If Senator Fulbright, who knows everything, wishes to negotiate, he is a traitor, a villain and a misleader: but if Dickie Nixon wishes to go to Moscow or Peiping or Tirana this is in the name of humanity and we all ought to laud his efforts.

The trouble arises. The More Equal, excluded by the Supers, have conferences on communication. These are put on by TV station KQED; they are not open forums. The Audience is excluded. This makes the Audience happy for soon the More Equal are at each other’s throats discussing how to end hostilities. Charley Chaplin cannot retire; we don’t have to pay for this talent.

But as the More Equal have the tendency to become too severe the Limelight is thrown by the Super Drew Pearson against the more equal Ronald Reagan. RR does not realize the existence of the Supers. Dickie Trickie discovered this when he was beaten running for President that tricks don’t work on Supers only on Audience and More Equals. He is still a More equal and wants to be a Super. So now we have Drew Pearson and Ronal Reagan and as you have said. “Don’t let facts spoil the issues.” In Lowgic this never happens.

End of first draft of this new and marvelous Super-science.

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

June 26, 1968

Dr. S.I. Hayakawa.

Box 100,

Mill Valley, Calif.

My dear Don:

I am in the most ticklish position, but you, not I, are on the hook.

I once was ready to write a paper on “The Semantics of

‘Space’” and may have the notes in my diary. But in reading “The Semantics of ‘Space’” in the June 1966 issue of ETC. I found we are not communicating at all. A five-letter word is used and there the resemblance ends.

The changes taking place in the private life instigate the idea of writing a paper on “The General Semantics of General Semantics,” which is on the agenda for the August meeting. But as written before, disciples of Cassius Keyser seem to have no place in the present I.S.G.S. movements and I shall continue in a vain hope—or maybe there is such a thing as human consideration—that the Keyserian points of view will be presented to a G.S. crowd before being summarily dismissed.

My paper on “Space” was the result of looking at three books all purporting to be on “Outer Space” (Whatever that is.) Two written by Americans, one by a Russian, found in the library of the National Research Center in Cairo, UAR. Of course Sam Lewis has never had any difficulty in getting to top levels among the presumptuous laboratory-scientists, or maybe he is the presumptuous one, but somehow or other we could discourse with what used to be called “communication.” No trouble whatever.

However in considering this word “Space” I also had in mind drawing methods and theories taught by various teachers with both Euclidean and non-Euclidean doctrines. And also the “space” doctrines of Anne Halprin, Martha Graham and my “fairy-God-mother,” Miss Ruth St. Denis. They all ought to fit in somewhere within the Korzybskian matrices—but hardly in the sub-Euclidean matrices of the day (want to bet?) G.S. seems to have accepted entirely and without comment the sub-Euclidean amphitheatric “space” accepted by this culture. And any effort to bring the Keyserian interpretations into A.K.’s teachings seem to have fallen far afield.

In the same issue Paul V. Johnson states that he “finds Korzybski’s Manhood of Humanity more profound and meaningful to me.” As Keyser himself recommended to this person the reading of Manhood of Humanity long before most of your colleagues and yourself were even aware of A.K.‘s existence this is something. And I must say and am telling others now, that so long as General Semantics is associated with the “to me,” and the “to me” depends upon whom the “me” is where are we?

Instead of being permitted to introduce a Keyserian interpretation of G.S. I was attacked personally by a group of presumably devotees of G.S. And why was I attacked? Because of efforts on my part to reconcile our mutual differences, and forget the personality and work for a cause. But your associate, John Keel, without investigating what was going on, joined the majority, and there Sam Lewis was left far afield trying to defend Prof. Hayakawa amid a lot of foes and John Keel joins in the attack. And this was “General Semantics 1967” and there is no way out, unless … and I left that to you.

I am therefore sending a copy of this to Alan Watts because in the cause of honesty, objectivity and what is called “science” by scientists (I am a member of the AAAS, and these people have let me speak at their conventions, tra-la-la).

Lloyd Morain has highly praised Oliver Reiser’s works and evidently at the moment—and I mean it, General Semantics is that cult that when Oliver Reiser says are Psi experiences he is right and when Alan Watts says the same thing, he is wrong.

This is an application of the “referent” and “reference” for the above “to me.”

I beg you to reconsider you stand. For as matters are, there is the possibility of the financing of an entirely different school which will study Science and Sanity along with the fine print and the mathematical sections and if so, we are going to have a “neo-semantic movement” not based on “to me,” but on the study of human behavior universally as in the “pure” sciences.

Alan Watts says, “All that you say about having vivid awareness of the world without psychedelics is true enough….” I always thought that General Semantics held that “words are not things.” Where is the evidence of the “vivid awareness of the world”—what world?

This is a tough beginning for a paper on “The General Semantics of G.S. 1968” but as this person has found the answers to a number of scientific problems in A.K.” and Keyser’s work, and as these answers have previously been rejected or ejected by your colleagues and yourself what is the answer to this dilemma. I cannot even defend you. What? And have John Keel attack me and you then defend him? I had better criticize you directly and let others know. What is “General Semantics?”

And in closing I list some of the problems I have tried to present with G.S. “solutions”:

Mendel-Lyensko dispute                        Vietnam

“Silent Spring”                            What is “Zen”

Collaboration with Dr. Chandrasekhar

Solution of problems by “Integration”

“The farmer and the cow-hand should be friends.”

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

June 26, 1968

Mr. Russell Joyner.

c/o I.S.G.S.

540 Powell St.,

San Francisco, Calif. 94108

Dear Russ:

Without any ill feelings I am getting real tough. The key to the letter enclosed is the very last note, “the farmer and the cowhand should be friends.”

The great dreams that Luther Whiteman and I had for Science and Sanity have long since been shattered and the world is full of a number of problems which I personally think could be causally solved, or dissolved if principles and matrices found in Korzybski’s works were put into operation. But operation seems to be that last item on the G.S. calendar.

The first steps have already been taken of sending a few books abroad and more have been asked for. There is a strong possibility either of outside financial help, or being summoned by wealthy people who were interested in solving some of the problems of confusion of the day. There is a tremendous gap between Sam Lewis being called down at the AAAS meeting for being silent, and criticized by a John Keel while presumably defending Don Hayakawa and Dr. A. Kaplan. There was neither “science” nor “sanity” and if G.S. is to be the society for the obliteration of “science” and “sanity” it should come out boldly for this. I dissent. I have dissented before against whole organizations to see them go into oblivion, and unlike the “General Semanticists” I can give facts, referents and references.

Indeed when I submit the paper on “The General Semantics of G.S. 1968” I shall quote from A.K. himself, point after point which would be in sharp disagreement with both policies and articles in ETC. I am not doing this on any personal level, but one has not only long passed the point where he gets excoriated for dissent, but is now being so accepted that empty words may be applauded, a very dangerous situation, but a very true one at the moment.

The young have found the shams, the pretenses, the power-complexes of their elders. I placed all of Keyser’s works in the library at San Francisco State hopping that G.S. Students could and would read them. I may have to purchase more.

If the world had produced any sane psycho-logics or logistics that could be used to “solve” present day confusion, it could be different.

In my private life I have just been successful in a forty-two year effort, to try to prove that I had certain interviews with a certain person on some very important matters concerning bringing East and West together, not the symbolic “East” and “West” of some narrow agreement between Alan Watts and Don Hayakawa called “vivid awareness of the world” but some actualities including geographical and demographic “time” and “space.”

The young are coming to my lectures and—in greater numbers every week and efforts in real, Rand-McNally Asia also expand. On ne passe pas.

Sure, more books will be purchased but scientists are based on some sort of humanism, not on agreements between friends.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Ca. 94110

Nov. 29, 1968

Mr. R. Joyner

I. S. G. S.

540 Powell St.,

San Francisco, Ca.

My dear Russ:

This letter is being written from Novato where I live part time and where I am resting, a much needed rest.

The recent part of my life is a “dismal failure” because in the efforts to play the role of Pied Piper, I have reached only the young, every week more and more. At the upper age limits of these young are those who have received the “liberty, democracy, humanity” verbal treatments and are tired of it.

The time has come when your associate and principal, Dr. S. I. Hayakawa must get out of his sacred ivory towered “realism” and face reality. Whether he can do it or not depends on how much there is in him. We expect words, a plethora of words, words, words and We shall be the first to recognize if he has anything in him besides the vocabularies which he pretends to despise.

Watching the history of Vietnam where my closest associate long lived and watching the events on the campus at Berkeley a few years back, one is forced to confirm at every step that Facts Must Not Confuse Issues. So far they do not, nor do eye-witnesses count. A drama is written and only the leading actors may play a part. It is not true that “all the world’s a stage,” only Us must play roles but it is difficult to determine who We are, compounded by the fact that very, very unsemantic usages are made of words and personalities and I find your chief colleagues indulging in the very programs which they, if they really believed in Korzybskian philosophy, would have shunned at all costs. But limelight is limelight and words must displace realities. That is the Game.

 The other day I met a man who told me exactly what was going to happen at S. F. State. There was no evidence that he was an enrolled student. But within 48 hours he was televised, programmed, interviewed, etc., etc. He knew exactly what to do. He is important; the mass of students who wish to learn are not important.

The big break between your esteemed colleagues and this putative Pied Piper is that I accept Lord Snow and they do not. Scientists want facts; non-scientists are interested in personalities qua re persona grata. To be important is what counts, and otherwise nothing counts. And if you are an eye-witness on the wrong side you are a fink and will be shouted down. This is “liberty-democracy-humanity” at work.

I find most students are on campus to study and a minority for sex or love or sex-love. I consider this natural but evidently the noise-makers do not. Roughly speaking I find students enrolled in the Sciences, Arts and Humanities which includes the so-called Social Scientists. Only the latter count.

Not only do only the Humanities-Social Scientist students count but a non-enrollee, or a part-time student in the Humanities ranks far, far above a full time student, graduate or even instructor in the arts and sciences. It is they who cause the turmoil, it is they who are interviewed, it is they to whom the press, radio, TV, and magazines go.

I am not saying the protestants are wrong. I have either been one or allied with several in times past. But now there is no cause, just “I-Me” taking over the vocabulary. In Count Korzybski’s words which unfortunately your colleagues do not accept, even despise, Infantiloids, especially demonstrative Infantiloids rank far, far above Cortex users and this is ultimately going to destroy the present so-called “Semantic” movement.

I have been through too much in life to warn or advise. I know the patterns of the so-called “Leftists.” I see now a repetition of a form of Naziism which the so-called “leftists” join and if it were possible for Blacks to take over as the Nazis did in Germany, “whitey” would be the first to suffer, especially the “leftists.” Words Are Things Because Your Associates Prove That in Their Lives and Actions—most unfortunately. They make them things and they are not representatives of the “pure” sciences.

These words will reach Don’s most severe critics at a time when he needs friends. As he judges by personalities and not by any system of Logic, Aristotelian or non-A, he will have to come to grips with himself and now in a public dramatic way.

There are no issues. For a long time the University of California Extension had it that 15 people who paid, and sometimes did not have to pay much for a course got it. I do not know whether S. F. State has such a policy. But you cannot expect the Black Militants, the “Third World” handful, the press, the radio, the “excitement-mongers” to examine any hard facts which would disturb the issues (your own words).

I have enrolled in two courses in African Anthropology, no Negroes in the class. One in African Archaeology, exactly one Negro in the class. What is Swahili? Do you know the “Esperanto” of Central Africa? I am not going to push forward my very unwelcome (to your colleagues) knowledge.

Today “solutions” means, who has suggested them. We, and even you I.S.G.S. people, are far, far away from Cassius Keyser’s “Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking.” Korzybski quoted Keyser at every step but the future is going to look askance at egotists who are scared, and I say they are scared of a real disciple of the real Cassius Keyser, friend and mentor of your A.K.

This is evident from the groveling acceptance of Oliver Reiser and the equal disregard for his actual philosophy and teachings. Real Integration started in Mathematics and in the “Fluxions” of Leibniz—which are ignored. But the principles of Integration gradually infiltrated into other arenas.

 We have the essence of them in our own Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We sent crusaders into the South to work for racial integration and now we have “crusaders” who wish to divide and divide and divide. A few years back “Blacks” were insisting there was only one race—the Human Race. From the standpoint of Integration that was true whether biologically “true” or not. But as your colleagues join with their opposites in that “a word means exactly what I mean it to mean, just that and nothing more,” there can be only confusion and there will be only confusion until General Semantics jumps out of theology and joins the ranks of Science.

 Of course I am in agreement with Oliver Reiser. But I am doing something. All the praise for Julie Medlock, his close friend, but when it comes to real action, where does Julie have to go? And the young are finding out the difference between verbal expressions and heart-participation.

It is easy to propose constructive measures but as one is not in the script—in a so-called “democracy” one keeps quiet. Universities have student bodies and elect officials and they are almost always ignored when a fracas takes place. This is our “liberty-humanity-democracy” climax. (I use the word “climax” in the biological-scientific sense)—I do not expect non-scientists to understand this at all.

The letter remains incomplete. I shall consult with my young associates. The Pied Piper does not despise the young. He even listens to them.

Wishing you the same,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

December 23, 1968

Stewart W. Holmes.

English Department.

Castleton State College, Vermont

Dear Mr. Holmes:

I have read with interest the published articles by Mr. Henry I. Christ and your good self which place side by side the “irony” etc. with very exact context: with something called “Zen” of quite different context.

Unfortunately I was a student of the late Cassius Keyser of Columbia University, friend and mentor of the late Alfred Korzybski. It was Keyser who introduced me to Korzybski and recommended him and it was Keyser with whom I have talked as man-to-man, something absolutely forbidden by the later persons who now have control of ETC. They have refused absolutely and adamantly to accept this hard fact in the life of a man eligible to contribute financially but not otherwise eligible.

 I have read Science and Sanity through many times, including portions which have seldom or never been read by some of those who play leading roles in the semantic movement. Not only that I had read the majority of books referred to by A.K. when Science and Sanity appeared and had long before that read The Manhood of Humanity.

At that time I was a student in Zen under what used to be called “Zen Teachers,” all of whom were Orientals. I even now have a number of unpublished manuscripts of these worthies. But that “Zen” has little to do with the type of “Zen” accepted by ETC. which is the childbrain—and I think a very good childbrain, of a number of noted Englishmen. I have nothing to say about these Englishman but when a clique is permitted to deliberately go contrary to the teachings of Science and Sanity and make identities, and make words into things, so that objective Zen from Chinese and Japanese sources is not only equalized but identified with dialectics called “Zen” coming from those mostly of Western origins who did not study under recognized Zen masters, we are at an impasse.

 In 1923 I introduced Nyogen Senzaki to the Sufi teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan and they immediately came together in a mystical experience but also in their mutual acceptance of a non-Aristotelian system of Logic which ETC. has absolutely and adamantly refused to consider during the years. These non-Aristotelian philosophies and logistics dominated a large portion of humanity including the forebears of the present controller of ETC.

 Before even daring to write of Zen, I had not only had the Zen-experience of Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese (can give referents, data, etc and no nonsense). Apparently it is quite different from another sort of “Zen-”experience which is dominant among those of Western birth. I am not decrying the Western experience, but it is quite contrary to the pseudo-identity practices condemned by Korzybski but permitted in ETC.

When Dr. Huston Smith was here and mentioned Phillip Kapleau I purposely almost upset the class by applauding out loud. There is no use to relate my experiences; this has been done very well by my fellow-American Phillip Kapleau. But Dr. Huston Smith who is privileged to write told me he failed in his Ko-an efforts and this person has not so failed—i.e. he has been recognized by Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese, but not particularly by Westerners, excepting the young who are in revolt.

Sure, I have a whole tome of material on my own Zen experiences and also on the Zen experiences related to me by others who had been monastically trained. These may or may not be published in my life-time. But I have no need to battle against dialecticians who hide behind other titles and do not accept objectivities and referents if they come from “the wrong people.” This last phrase is used by our English experts on their “Zen.”

When Master Thich Thien An came to this house—he only visited here when he was in San Francisco, he said, “I do not wish to offend anybody because there may be a future Buddha among you, and therefore in doubt I shall regard you all as Bodhisattvas.” This is the general behavior pattern of the real Zen Masters under whom I have studied.

All of them decry quoting ancient sages and Buddha himself definitely laid down a dictum against it.

This morning I reported to a real scholar of real Buddhism that as all efforts to introduce Lord Buddha’s first Jhana have been successful I now introduce the second Jhana. I believe the young want honesty, objectivity, direct experience and some of the moral teachings of Lord Buddha himself. Modern Western-Zen has abrogated these.

Dialecticians are unable to look through any Galilean telescope. Why don’t you try to come closer to living Zen masters. There are plenty of them and some can speak English quite well.

Faithfully.

Samuel L. Lewis

Venerable He-Kwang (Zen-shi)

cc-Christ

cc-Hayakawa

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

March 7, 1969

Mr. R. Joyner

My Dear Russ:

I hate very much to seem to go contrary to the present “love, not war” by having to write and also to enclose a copy of a letter to one of my several real friends with whom I have not been on good standing. It is no fun living in a social world where one group refuses adamantly and absolutely to accept any intellectual contribution and the other group shuns one who has any form of association with the general semantic movement however defined and however functioning.

I think it is highly dangerous to see as administrator of an important intellectual institution a man who should be properly classified as an anti- intellectual. I have seen few publications in recent times as anti-scientific as ETC.

I shall no doubt have to purchase again all the books of the late Cassius Keyser and re-present his marvelous teachings. Fortunately I can do this today in collaboration and cooperation with Cosmic Humanism on the one hand and quite a few new organizations and publications of the young on the other. The young may be derided, but the young are. Some of them are liable according to the law of probabilities to remain on earth a little while longer than some of the rest of us. I am expecting to meet socially soon various Messiahs and high-priests of other movements all of whom have in common the use of s.r. terms. I think some of them are quite equal to emulate your associates in this, but they are against your associates.

It is all very well to proclaim one’s adherence to sound intellectual thinking. This stand can hardly be supported by equal adherence to proficiency in s.r’s. I am constantly re-reading the conclusions of Science and Sanity almost as if they were a Bible. I am no longer going to appeal. The world is going to find out. The doors are open for me—elsewhere.

One of my greatest sins next to having been introduced to Korzybski by Cassius Keyser was to have known Lloyd when he was a boy. Your colleagues say that God may forgive us our sins, but our subconscious nervous system will not. I do know I have never been forgiven for these two sins and others like that by your colleagues. I am no longer a scapegoat or a stepping-stone and can hardly be blamed if I enter the public arena now as I well may. I have little use for some of those in revolt, but I’ve never had the slightest chance, not the slightest, from those who wish to be in authority.

You and everybody else will be welcome at the affairs referred to in the carbon attached.

Ersatz love,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco 94110

March 11, 1969

Mr. R. Joyner

I.S.G.S.

540 Powell Street

San Francisco, Calif. 94108

My dear Russ:

This g-n-a-t is so busy he can hardly find time to leave this house excepting on emergency errands. You may wonder under these circumstances why so much time and attention is given to quarrels in which he is not directly involved.

Last night one told an audience (all young people of course) that when Science and Sanity appeared, he thought it might be possible to solve many of the world’s greatest problems. Instead most of the problems of the year 1933 remain and a lot more have accumulated. And instead of the principles carefully explained in Science and Sanity being applied to problems great and small, it has developed, as Dr. Anatole Rapport has pointed out, that a small group has taken hold of the general semantics movements. These people seem quite incapable of indulging in what Cassius Keyser called “rigorous thinking.”

I am not going into this more here, but instead I am enclosing copy of Logical and Scientific Method in Early Buddhist Texts, by G.S.P. Misra. I have already discussed this subject matter with a number of leaders of the so-called Third World Front. I have not been particularly sympathetic with these people, but find on talking with them they are complaining about the American inability to accept Asian cultures. This is all the more marked when your principal, part Asian himself, has adamantly and absolutely refused to look into the cultures of his ancestors and kindred peoples.

No doubt this article will speak for itself. But equally true it is going to be published in part by the most severe critics of the present policy of “ETC” unless there is some way for “ETC” to get out of realism and into Reality.

I am still seeking time to come and pay more than my respects; time not money is my present need. Every day now, not only every month, shows increasing respect and response from both the young and instructors in several of the great intellectual institutions of this vicinity.

With kindest personal regards, I remain,

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave

San Francisco 94110

April 10, 1969

I.S.G.S.

509 Sansome Street

San Francisco 94111

Attention: R. Joyner

My dear Russ:

In one sense, maybe in more than one sense, I owe you a profound apology. In another sense, I am fighting, so to speak, for my life. When a person is brushed aside, when he offers solutions to problems, perhaps it does not matter; but when the problems remain, one may ask: what has been gained?

The outstanding example of this can be seen in the series of rebuffs to my now long deceased colleague and friend, the late Robert Clifton. He lived and worked in Vietnam. Despite this, he was either rejected or ejected from one end of this land to the other. And the continued persistence in our accepting the opinions of the important person who was not there or only occasionally has been there as against the direct experience of the unimportant person who was there stands as a black mark against our culture.

In this instance, we are spending untold millions and losing many lives. Instead of learning from this, even now the President of the United States is considering intervention in Biafra; and we are very timid about joining the big powers in effecting some kind of peace in the near east.

Every week this year the total attendance at my lectures has increased, and now also the collections are mounting. The young people, and more recently some not so young, are willing to listen to the little man who has been there. But since seeing you, lifelong efforts in the field of promoting real Asian-American cultural exchange have again been thwarted by another non-American non-Asian to head the project. I simply no more will stand by and be smothered. I am going to fight back.

This week there are some Gandhi celebrations. I have followed non-resistance patterns and have both been smothered and ignored in public, excepting at the meetings of the AAAS where I was bawled out for not speaking. Actually, we accept only partially Gandhi’s teaching. I have the misfortune to win an international competition concerning Gandhi given by Vincent Sheehan. It turned against me all the local people who thought they knew something about Gandhi and Indian literature. Socially, I have never recovered; but with the Indians themselves and those now in charge of the teachings of Asian culture on several campuses—especially those of the University of California—it is a different matter.

When Science and Sanity was published, Luther Whiteman and I thought we had the implements which might solve many problems.

I list among these problems: the Mendel-Lysenko controversy; the disputes over Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring; the very severe problems connected with saline soils; the semantics of the word “space,” etc. etc.

There has just been another revolution in Pakistan. This country was established as an ABCDE republic. ABCDE was verbalized as “Islamic.” After 15 years of independence, it was discovered there was no valid semantic definition of “Islamic.” ABCDE remained as a word, anglicized as “Islamic” but no referent. Too often persons become more important than referents. This I believe is the basis of both Korzybski in his time and Lord Snow now.

The “guru” of Field-Marshall Iyaub Khan has had many conversations with me, and he has put aside funds for a chair at the University of Islamabad wherein semantics or its equivalent could be taught. This “guru” at least solidly believes that the word “Islamic” should be semanticized. He has the money, the organization and the backing. Letters written at his request have been ignored—I don’t want to go into this anymore; we want to do, not gripe.

Before the end of next month, my God-daughter Miss Khawar Khan will be here; or I should say Professor Khawar Khan or even by that time Dr. Khawar Khan. I have already introduced her to both semantic literature and the writings of Oliver Reiser. I shall certainly be in a financial position to purchase anything you suggest. Pakistan and perhaps much or all of Asia needs some understanding of semantics as science and art and no longer as the speculative literature of individuals qua re their personalities.

Of course there is another outlook more important than griping, and that is in the real integrational approach, both as summarized in Oliver Reiser’s Projects Krishna and Prometheus, but most of all in his Cosmic Humanism.

Every day this week, I have had to face or must face something big. The difference is now I am either being sought or listened to. I fear beyond all things the establishment of a personality cult. Even if it is necessary to retrace many steps, I think we can really help solve real problems and many—if not all of them—through the general principles found in Science and Sanity and literature and philosophical and scientific achievements since 1933. I have.

I have most important interviews scheduled for both Friday and Saturday. Each of them has potentially world bearing. Sometimes one is like Emerson’s mouse-trap inventor. Fortunately, my health and the hard but simple fact I have irons in both horticulture and philosophy maintains a high level of health and energy—and even perhaps intellectual acumen. But Cosmic Humanism must not be limited to personality cult.

I shall definitely want copies of everything from Alfred Korzybski, Cassius Keyser and Oliver Reiser. Also perhaps from Charles Pierce and others whom I consider belong to American American philosophies. This would include Professors who have functioned especially in the large universities of the city of New York, several of them. I shall also be glad to buy any books you suggest.

No doubt I shall have to calm down more, nor become too ebullient over either the successful affairs of this week or the immediate appointments which follow in the next few days. I shall drop in as soon as possible.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc Fiske

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco 94110

April 10, 1969

R. Joyner

509 Sansome St.

San Francisco 94111

Dear Russ:

In re: Campus Disputes

I am compelled here to accept for the moment Lord Snow’s philosophy of two cultures. An assayer or petrologist would report in toto rock or lode analysis. The question of “minority and majority” would be of no particular importance. To begin with the laboratory report would have to come close to 100% totality. The chemical and economic evaluations might be totally unalike.

(In additional to any philosophical background, I have been active in both laboratory and field, in soil analysis, to the point where parts per billion could affect the economic end pathological interpretations. I am not going to try and convince people of this. Egos are egos.)

There is a custom if not a law in this land that if one political party is given time on the air, the other political party must be given equal time. We are constantly being faced with two-way Aristotelian choices. In my forthcoming paper on Pakistan, I shall write on the heritage of Manichaeism which has had a baneful effect both on parts of Asia and in the west entirely. Many of the objections to Aristotelianism are in both fact and effect objections to Manichaeism. All this good/bad, right/wrong, me/thee, proper/improper etc. has stemmed from the once wide-spread teachings of Mani.

Despite the efforts of Saint Augustine, dualistic teachings arising from Mani (and thus back to Aristotle) definitely penetrate the mass/mind. In looking at the campus disputes, nearly all published articles coming from Lord Snow’s literary humanist culture follow Mani’s dualism (and thus Aristotle). These people do not understand the assayer-petrologist’s views, that there are many ores, many minerals, even many gems in a rock. Diamonds cannot be found in sand because the sand is in the majority.

So it is that whenever campus outbreaks take place, spokesmen for both the Regents (the establishment) and for the protestants are given ample time on the air. In my writings on soil science I have called attention that few even know they are dealing in the world of Silicon. So it is in campus outbreaks: few consider that they are dealing with students and teachers and not with very small minorities, representing or misrepresenting power structures and pseudo-revolutions.

I have just heard that the University of Oregon may establish its own TV broadcasting station. 6 great universities around the city of Boston have their broadcasting stations, and I can assure you it is the most objective and information carrying institution in the whole country.

Therefore, I have suggested to Senator Moscone: that there might be a law that every time a TV station gives any time to a non-representative speaker concerning the affairs of any campus, equal time should be given also to an official of the student body and also to an official of one of the teachers’ or professors’ groups.

The terrible thing that has happened is that those in charge of communication—both the power structured people and the pseudo-revolutionaries— ignore the marvelous achievements of present day education. It is stupendous. I myself have a very good idea compared to most people of what is being done on the campuses of the multiversity of the University of California. But I also know Columbia, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and to a lesser extent, Pittsburgh, Texas A and M, Kansas State and other institutions in this country. This indeed is a very small section.

I have received recently a very nice letter from the alumni association of the University of California. But with all their defense of the present educational system, I am unconvinced that they actually know all the merits of even a single campus—they only feel it. However much I have griped in the past, or even the present, I avowedly believe that today we have the most wonderful people of the world, not only of the present but maybe of all times giving instruction and learning in “the halls of ivy.”

To sum up, we need a combination of the approaches of science and Oliver Reiser’s Cosmic Humanism. I mean actually and effectively. I hope this is clear.

Sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

Feb. 28, 1970

Mr. Russ Joyner

449 Myra Way

San Francisco, Calif.

My dear Russ:

This has been a most busy day. Started in the morning my writing a diary letter to Oliver Reiser, then sundry letters, personal and philosophical, and then not the rains, but the mail came. Boy! I received so many letters today from young people in so many distant places. These are chiefly in response to my work in the dance or to articles which appeared in the now defunct The Oracle. There is no question in my mind that the young are different. They are not only different, they were predictably different. They are non-Aristotelian, non-Euclidean, and integrative in outlooks. This should be self-explanatory.

My present peace program is simple: so long as audiences look upon the personality of speakers and judge by their emotional reactions—generally ending by passing resolutions—we are not going to have any peace. Also my “peace program” to learn to listen to others is no doubt too simple for dialecticians, but it has its advantages.

There is no rest for us guys. Mother Divine Vocha placed in my hands Some Neglected Factors in Evolution by one Henry M. Bernard. I found in it everything I want—that is everything that agrees with my conclusions about the biological world, a world so far from the “nature” of the dialecticians and existentialists there is no way to bridge the gap, nor is it necessary. The general philosophy in this book supports my own writings on social evolution and the establishment of the new form of commune.

love,

Sam

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

March 12, 1970

Mr. R. Joyner

507 Sansome St.

San Francisco 94111

My dear Russ:

At the moment there is nothing like spare time, complicated by the fact that most of my very fine young followers feel I lose caste if I walk; while I feel I lose time seeking for parking places etc. in your vicinity. On rare occasions I am able to sneak away and carry on most necessary personal business and I do have most important personal business in your vicinity.

The lady whom I call mother Divine had placed in my hands “Korzybski’s Concept of Man” which was a lecture of Cassius Keyser in the year of our … 1922, and which was published by the institute of General Semantics in 1946.

I was not aware of the Institute in that year, but I am quite aware of the original lecture and I had naively assumed that a logic and logistics based on this lecture would be welcomed by the ISGS which has not been the case. But I have no intention of going into forensics or logistics at this time. I am developing my own personal philosophy which for want of a better term I am calling Bragmatics, or maybe that is the best term. My youthful audience listen with glee to stories of accomplishments and also stories of a priori rejections by many important persons and groups, solidly wedded to words, words like liberty, democracy, humanity, etc. etc. But now the fat is in the fire so to speak.

I am all prepared to attend an international peace conference where they permit the unworthy as well as the worthy to state their views. Someone has discovered that you can’t establish peace by crushing and squelching. I realize this is not a very popular view and it is often quite in order to prevent the unqualified from interfering in discussions which purport to solve some problems. But while this has been going on some people have had the nerve to assume that even the most unworthy may have a rationale, and that they cannot always be stopped from presenting their case even if they are entirely wrong. That is to say, they are permitted the floor; they are permitted to state a plausible point of view and their egos are not attacked for daring to express and opinion.

The combination of a situation of accomplishment on one hand and rejections on the other hand by what have been called establishments is now making me both a folk hero and a personal hero to an ever growing number of young people. Three different persons or groups so to speak independently felt my work should be televised. It is now being televised, though when where and how it may be shown is beyond my present picture, because I am concentrating on attending a world peace conference, a conference where the floor is open, and where referents are required from the worthy and unworthy, and the passing of great names coupled with emotional chairmen will not avail. Anyhow, the directors of the pilot efforts have actually demanded I express in full both my experiences and opinion, and these may be publicized sooner or later.

I am not forgetting here Keyser’s lecture on Korzybski. I can overlook here that all efforts on my part to get this knowledge better known in this region have been brushed aside in the past, but that past is passing, and sooner or later armed with the great American virtue ze-dollar I believe we can establish forms of communication that will communicate and not just please certain types of personalities who operate as if name calling, proper name calling of course, held the key to solution for everything.

I find after many years that my basic logistics has not changed; that I still am operating under the principles and promises of Keyser’s philosophy; and today, people are listening to me, chiefly the young and university professors. This for me is sufficient. But my point of view is of no value unless it is properly pragmatized.

The public exhibition last night under camera klieg lights and sound equipment did not touch my ego so much as the breakfast I made for Mother Divine Vocha Fiske this morning. Of course Vocha had a full view of rather successful efforts and also she having been connected with stage and screen and speech arts was better able to judge the worthiness or unworthiness of these efforts than most people. But now I am preparing to work even on a world scene and of at least being cautions enough to know peace is not obtained by mud-throwing on the part of anybody. I also feel that the day of lamentation over the rejection of Cassius Keyser’s points of view is over with considerable regret that the so-called scions of A.K. have failed to examine those basic teachings upon which so much of Science and Sanity was fundamented.

I am having this brochure of Keyser copied. I am going to use it. I am going to have it distributed to many of the leading philosophers of the area. After all these years I think it is still most wonderful, and I am hoping, in fact I know, that the young people of today will easily pass through real differentiation, partial differentiation, and other sound principles of mathematics and logic to seeing how such principles can be incorporated into higher and perhaps less than higher education, and into the thinking of the day.

I am finding many of the scientists of the day writing splendid articles on philosophy and psycho-logistical research. Their methods, their schemata, and their conclusions are often far from the methods, schemata, and conclusions of parlor scientists. I have always differed from Julian Huxley, the saint-pope of those who do not believe in saints and popes, who wrote Religion Without Revelation. I believe in exactly the opposite point of view: revelation without religion. This has been enough to exclude me without any question from audiences dominated by those who admire the saint pope as above, but now bringing me into contact with much larger audiences of refreshing young people and frustrated university professors. As I am leaving for an actual world conference, I should at least be able to express whatever might be expressed without any name calling or word throwing. How many of the problems of the day are actual problems and not verbal ones may be difficult to determine. It would seem that every sociologist knows more of problems which we should imagine could be handled by laboratory scientists and so we are faced with a most curious situation. According to the customs and laws of this land no one presumes to say anything about the diseases of the flesh of human kind, but “everyone” is allowed to discuss endlessly diseases and problems of the bodies of plants. I am unable to understand this. It is even worse, because I have studied the plant sciences. I have even cured sick plants, and this alone cars me from respectable discussions on Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring.

The so-called open forums on “Silent Spring” gave all the doctors lawyers “Indian chiefs,” law-enforcing officers, psychiatrists—indeed everybody but gardeners and etymologists—the right to dispute endlessly on subjects for which they had no backgrounds. That was only the beginning. How we have “pollution,” “drug,” “ecology,” etc. etc. in which social prestige or a university degree on any subject whatsoever gives one full right to say anything at all; while the pragmatism of those actually engaged or involved in these problems is of no avail.

You see Russ, I am now in an excellent position to speak or roar whether it be on the Judeo-Christian Bible or the literary efforts of Count Alfred Korzybski or the historical existence of Wm. James and not only the young but more and more professors of actual philosophy will listen, so I am about to leave this area in great hopes not of success abroad, but of ability to have a communication system which communicates and does not resound only to the public or implied praise of those who write articles on the subjects. One of the greatest achievements or rather pseudo-achievements of this present age has been the ability to have articles accepted labeled communication which actually do not communicate anything.

The other night when the reports came in about Laos I had a friend in the house who had lived in Laos etc. etc. I asked him shall we laugh cry or roar? Yes, he said, shall we laugh cry or roar? And it is tragically amusing to be informed of the non-arrival of the wounded of the surreptitious battlefields at the American Hospitals in Laos. While this is no doubt an extreme case, it is no doubt a typical case. So we are left not only with problems of pollution etc. but with the greater still problems of the words used in and by the press and by inference in public discussions. In all this it has been as you have declared, “facts must not disturb the issues.”

Now it is my opportunity, and your colleagues have given me absolute ample scope, to bring out in public the conclusions of A.K. in Science and Sanity and use these as bases for public and private utterances. And with emotional disturbances and value judgments, this leaves everything in my hands for accomplishing what I have been hoping to accomplish for many many years.

In conclusion I shall not indulge in value judgments in which your colleagues are so much more proficient than I am. I certainly do not believe, nor will I accept that value judgments can in any way promote the cause of peace in this world.

Sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

April 2, 1970

Mr. R. Joyner

ISGS

507 Sansome Street

San Francisco, 94111

My Dear Russ:

Here I am at a “Summit” meeting. Summit meetings should of course be held in high mountains and this in a sense is no exception. Why, there is even a delegate here from the Dalai Lama. He hasn’t done anything yet, but this being a summit meeting he should be here as he is used to summit meetings.

Well Russ, it is not only prophets, it is even scamps who may be not without honor far from home. By being my small abnormal self, I am already facing tomorrow morning with a special private interview with a special news reporter to be followed with another interview with a “holy man” of India. There are a lot of “holy men” from India here, who will receive unusual consideration from all the Christians and atheists, but not from each other. Generally speaking, an important person is one who speaks at the drop of a hat, but a “holy man is just one who speaks, he has no hat to drop so he doesn’t bother, he just speaks.

This may turn out to be a peace conference. So far not a single delegate from the various “world peace groups” or “world union groups” or the “world federation groups” or the “world whorled groups.” They would have to face each other and that would be something. Indeed, there are not a few who believe peace might come through concessions to others, that peace is not going to come by jamming fixed programs down other people’s throats through bursts of applause. Really. A lot of people realize that we don’t get peace through jammed programs or through diplomats. There was exactly one diplomat who was introduced to the audience tonight and he never said a word. Almost inconceivable but true. Maybe this is a new age.

Of course I can’t tell what it all means—cameras and lights and prestige and conferences and nobody a priori rejecting me—this just isn’t done. Why, they don’t even reject. Of course this is something that has happened before. Now I am carrying my secretary with me so he can see for himself and he has become convinced. Even converted. Maybe peace is not entirely a dream after all. And there are some who believe we can have population control without using military weapons on others.

 Or maybe alchemy consists in turning venom into honey.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

Geneva Swisse

April 3, 1970

My dear Russ:

This is Geneva, not San Francisco. We have just had a long session on population control and world peace. One listens attentively to big people and excellent orators, men of renown. But here, far away from home one is also permitted to speak and listen to with some attention and then told that what one says carries weight. Why Russ, even the photographers pay more attention to me—the beard of course, and that is one of the reasons I wear a beard. Sneaky no doubt, but why not. After years of having chairmen who are “experts” deny me the floor, and in a sense guarding the door against my entrance, I came in through the window or the furnace flues, but I do come in, and I can tell people with perfect honesty about my experiences and researches, and they are accepted.

It is remarkable how much the sociologists and religionists agree on handkerchief drooling and tear jerking. When it comes to thinking, they are often on different sides, they seem to agree that handkerchief drooling and tear jerking are very important in “solving problems.” By “solving problems” each means that everybody else should condescend to accept “my” views. Only, when you have 1511 different “my” views getting in each other’s way, even a simple shrimp like myself can sneak it over.

Well Russ, I did not get much applause, but the few young people said I talked sense, and even some of the older people gradually respected it, but Russ, I won the debate. I won it hands down. I won it hands down because the lady who is the organizer of this peace conference threw her arms around me and I had to hold my hands down.

I don’t know what is going to happen when I come back. By this time I am sure my picture has appeared in many of the European papers.

Why, even the Rabbi of Jerusalem has condescended to me, and a lot of people who may not like my ideas have to admit that I am more picturesque. I purposely make it that way. Among the elite, trickery of course is the best of arguments.

I am going to England soon to meet the hippies there and to meet the orientalists who are orientalists. I get along fine with the orientalists I meet here. I even get along fine with the Orientals. In fact when I look in the mirror I get along fine with myself, but not otherwise.

Everybody is crying about the young. I don’t know what they mean. I do know that the handkerchief drooling and tear jerking must go on. When you do this long enough, you don’t have to listen to any young person. You give a long speech about love and consideration and brotherhood—a long speech of course—and then you are too tired to listen to the young when they get the floor. So I call myself the devil of the conference. I listen to everybody during the meetings and I talk to everybody between the meetings. The “big people” talk to everybody during the meetings and keep quiet during the recesses. So you see that I am neither an expert nor a diplomat. I do not call my ideas and conceptions “facts.” I call my doings facts. Maybe I’d better come home and study some semantics, but this is better than a vaudeville show. Anyhow, I am on the verge of waiting for Pope Paul to come out for birth control and insist it was always a catholic dogma. And in the city of Geneva everybody blames Calvin, of course, why not?

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

May 29, 1970

Mr. R. Joyner,

c/o I.S.G.S.

507 Sansome St.,

San Francisco, Calif. 94111

Dear Russ:

Yesterday I thought I had closed the books anent my departure for New Mexico, but after that first Vocha telephoned as an ambassador of good will and then very late came the news that some of my “non-existing” camp followers who seem to have acquired a considerable amount of American virtue ($$$$$) are planning to establish a publishing house beginning with one of my manuscripts. I have been totally unprepared.

True, I have been to a top peace conference in Switzerland and met some of the potential or real leaders of humanity, including some very un-British-like exponents of what used to be called “Zen.” They amazed me at the end by saying I looked, talked and acted like Walt Whitman, a conclusion anybody not a “Whitmanian” might accept. I am not, however, of the same sexual group as WW and I did not have the advantage (or disadvantage) of starting out as an editor with no publishing problems. Anyhow some of those big-wigs also are planning to publish other of my manuscripts.

In a certain sense I felt this was coming. My first name is that of the inventor of the electrical telegraph and in general my life resembles his remarkably. In the end he was successful just as honesty, integrity and factual knowledge, and especially factual knowledge must in the end be in control. And my droll, “Peasants must obey traffic laws” is not nonsense.

Our President now comes out for a “spiritual and moral revolution.” When Big-shot U Thant was here he did the same. Almost everybody joined in an ovation and I saw nothing but bloodshed. Who was right? For years I tried to get some peace society, some church, some anti-church group, some “universal brotherhood” to permit a Cambodian to speak. Well, after getting the brush off from the multitudinous “liberty, democracy, humanity and peasants, shut up,” people, you can guess how far I got. But when a local professor wanted to go to Rand-McNally’s Cambodia we got here a top introduction.

Now we have lots of problems. Luther Whiteman and I were wrong. We wrote enthusiastically about Science and Sanity and thought this was a measuring stick to help solve and even avert problems. How wrong we were! I love you and think Korzybski was tops, but so was Jesus Christ and you have unfortunately gone on record with the priestcraft. I don’t know what is to be done. Evidently we have to have the priestcraft. They may change their religions, but they have to direct the “traffic laws.”

 I don’t feel good about it. I have been given a summer school. It is my first adventure in directing and organizing. The young people think I communicate; to their elders the very thought is anathema. But this is only the beginning. I am being beseeched by a number of young to encourage another approach to education and communication that communicates—not an empty sound “communication” which stands in the way of two-way traffic or complex-traffic between human beings.

When I was in London I was taken to a Japanese Zen Master. He suddenly became voluble. My friend said, “That was strange! He has never talked before. He is usually very quiet and while you were there he talked; why is that?” “Didn’t you know, I am Master Big-ears.” Now it is rather strange, in England they look to Japanese to explain Zen Buddhism and ETC. has looked to Englishmen! Of course this can be changed and I am hoping some day you will be open to having it changed. But that is on the books and don’t kid yourselves that the universities do not know that!

If I were to return toward the end of next month I should be at the conference of top scientists. They have invited me and they would probably extend the floor as they have in the past. (Rather odd, isn’t it?) But I want to go ahead with my projects and then work on Peace for the Near East. Just as I have always believed the Cambodians were human beings and not wild game, I have known of a number of outlooks and groups in the Near East which our “experts” and those in charge of communication (!?) ignore.

Of course the President has a program and it is re-echoed, “Kill them all, the Lord will know His own.” The only people I’ll accept as believing in peace are those who are willing to listen—and I mean listen with ears—to all sides. I read all of Science and Sanity. I studied mathematical philosophy before that. I may have to revisit Columbia U. again. I should prefer not. Besides the young are coming out to champion me. And if I ever read out the list of those “champions of humanity” who have a priori rejected—and I guess rejected a lot of people, there will be h… to pay.

I don’t want it that way. I believe Keyser and Korzybski and Reiser and now their successor who is in New Mexico have the keys to help solve the real problems, including “ecology” and “environment” and “pollution” and a lot of other things. I differ entirely from your colleagues about Lord Snow’s The Two Cultures. I should like to find some non-laboratory(?) “scientist” who is willing to listen and can reply without indulging in personalisms and personalities.

The door is open for me to establish a Korzybskian school and not call it “general semantics” or rather promote Oliver Reiser’s Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus. I should have preferred doing it with you, for you, etc. (by which I mean etc. in the traditional, or rather outworn definition.)

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

P.S. When I return I may plan some lectures on “Supersex.” That is enough to keep the oldsters away from my meetings. But I have seriously the problem of looking up halls. The few places used now are overcrowded—by the young, of course, not by the “Nixons” who so admire the young—in words.

San Cristobal, New Mexico

Sunday morning

Mr. R. Joyner

I.S.G.S

509 Sansome St.

San Francisco, Calif. 94111

My Dear Russ:

This is written high in the Rockies, many miles from a post office, and still further from villages. It had not been my intention to write at all, but events have been piling one upon another, and having time on my hands now, and perhaps not later, certain reports are being made.

1. The first is entirely negative. Before I became acquainted, I heard a terrific report against Don Hayakawa. I had assumed I was summoned here by a number of young people, to find that many were not so young, and ultimately, a large sector were university professors, including PhDs, and at least two professors of Philosophy from Harvard.

It seems that there is an underground against Don all over the country. The basis is not particularly noble, because the nucleus has been Black Power and Third Front people. But they did not have to do anything. Don has appeared before huge audiences, and made himself an exemplary of automacy, despotism, and intolerance. He has lost all his audience, and very serious scientists and instructors have turned against him all over the land. I doubt very much whether this can be communicated to him.

The reason for writing is that one can expect riots and even bloodshed. The foundations have been laid with the assumption that even he himself (Dr. Hayakawa) will ignite the flames….  In the end, he will not be defeated on either his virtues or faults, but because he is an atheist and this will turn his erstwhile supporters against him. They cannot afford to put an atheist in a high place. And I doubt very much if any warning or advice will be accepted. These will be brushed aside, and we may look for trouble.

2. The next is personal. All that has been rejected, and mostly a priori rejected by colleagues and others, now stimulates the article “General Semantics vs. General’s Semantics.”  My papers, my talks, my offerings, are being accepted one by one, on every subject which has been pooh-poohed, and if God and the nervous system don’t forgive, man and society are going to forgive my two basic sins: (a.) having studied under Cassius Keyser and (b.) having known Lloyd Morain when he was a boy. This will soon become public property.

3. The third point is more constructive. I came upon a group of physicists and philosophers here discussing

The Basis of Scientific Thinking

Samuel Reiss, Philosophical Library

15 East 40th St., New York 16

I looked at the book and found it is based on “psycho-logics.”  He has cribbed both phrases and material from A. K., and why not? Since a good General of Semantics does not have to be an adept in “Science and Sanity” and most of that work has been abandoned, it is not surprising that the abandoned portion has been appropriated by the Philistines.

I have read other books along the same line, and find no difficulty communicating (or being communicated to) by laboratory-scientists, in contradistinction to parlor-scientists where there has been dismal failure. But these men accepted my theme on “The Semantics of Space” just as the entomologists and ecologists at Berkeley have accepted my “The Logistics of DDT.” And before the evening was over, I found all kinds of professors, including PhDs, at my feet.

4. My final task here will be to visit the University of New Mexico, where there is reasonable assurance the philosophy department, already in alliance with Oliver Reiser, will give some consideration to my work, which is catching on here at a remarkable pace. I have still to do some field work for Oliver. I wish this could have been done for ETC, but the day of personality judgment and a priori rejection is over. There is going to be some kind of humanistic endeavor. And for the while, it will be in accord with Reiser’s Project Krishna and Project Prometheus.

I hope to see you next week some time, but things are moving terribly rapidly in both private and public career.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

[page 1 missing]

Letter to R. Joyner, June 10, 1970

It is true that I was once trained to be a logger, not only to fell trees right, but to preserve what was then known as ecology—any resemblances to the 1970 use or misuse of the term being coincidental. We also fell to preserve the total output of tree growth and to prevent erosion etc. etc. etc. etc. But this kind of background has no bearing on Esscience.

It is true that we have been adding the proper soil amendments and manures to change the texture so that even last year we had a surplus. Today I find the soil a very rich sandy loan, full of organic matter, about as excellent as I have ever encountered. I am not going to give you any more backgrounds of this other than to say when I was at Arnold Arboretum I could breathe and speak and also at any agricultural University or experimental station. At those places I could speak and breathe.

When I visited Oliver Reiser once he showed me how the city of Pittsburgh dealt with its problem of pollution; I have recently in London which is remarkably different today. But why get into a fight where I do not belong.

Esscience demands good essayists. They have to be able to write. Sure they use some facts which according to General Semantics might be regarded as “referents” but these referents may be totally disjunct. The name of the author is the thing. Just after I wrote last to Oliver Reiser—I believe I sent you the copy—I came upon one of the recent books on “ecology.” It seems today that the dialecticians and existentialists are everywhere. Their facts must be facts; the pertinence of these facts is beside the point.

Now ordinarily any attempt of an outcast to speak would be shunned, but I must use super-logic:

A. My income has gone way up.

B. Nader is affecting the young people of the country more than Marx, perhaps more than Martin Luther King (I mean the flesh and blood human beings who are young, not the newspaper reports about such persons.)

C. The organic gardening industry, its attendant food stores and the restaurants are thriving and expanding.

D. The fight against drugs—I mean drugs by which I mean drugs—is causing the young people to bypass anacin, excedrine and aspirin in all its forms; and Sleep-eze and no-doze and a lot of laboratory derived beauty additives.

This is pinching a lot of shoes but swelling my coffers, and when rigorous thinking touches the pocketbook and touches it favorably it cannot always be thrust aside.

To me the life and work of the late Lord Russell (in his mathematical and logical articles and some on science,) Cassius Keyser (and a whole host of philosophers at Columbia University and perhaps NYC,) Count Korzybski, Oliver Reiser and now Archie Bahm, are opening the doors to honest, impersonal logistics.

I am about ready to write on “meta-semantics” and pollution problems. In General Semantics you have to have a “referent,” you have to have facts, but these facts do not have to be coordinated. In meta-semantics they must be. In other words—and I say it regretfully—General Semantics is related to Esscience and Meta-Semantics must be related to science and no nonsense.

A General Semanticist may be a verbalist; sometimes he must be; a Meta-Semanticist may also use words, but he must connect them in the same manner a statistician uses graphs.

For example, I throw at you certain problems and words which GS has bypassed:

Ecology               Pollution                                            Middle Class

    Drug                                       Psychic                                   Psychedelic

Hallucination                                                    Environment

                            Phosphate                                                                              Deterioration

    Progression                             Evolution                               Education

 I think Russ, that is enough, I am no longer bemoaning. I am meeting more and more and more young people. Every single week since the beginning of the year, more new faces and there are signs now that when I return to San Francisco my audiences will increases immensely. The young want objectivity honesty and purpose.

You should see the procession of apologies I have been getting from people and groups that snubbed me in the past. I always felt with my first name I should have to go through the same rigmarole as Samuel Morse. My position is strengthened from reading recently a lot more of another Samuel i.e. Clemens, known as Mark Twain. I wish that every pretender had to read what he said about the receptions that Morse and Darwin and other contributors to our culture received from the establishments of their time. I don’t think any of your colleagues care to know that Darwin was turned down for associating for the “wrong people.”

But now a reaction has set in. Youth wants to know. The elders have been teaching the virtue of excitement and the importance ofSuperemotionalism. No more rigor. The result is after having heard me speak, they are ready to throw the book at all the champion book throwers—and that is wrong too.

I am leaving this letter open excepting to tell you I am sending a copy of it to “Science.” It would be interesting if you would attend some of the meetings of the scientists, the real scientists, at the forthcoming convention in San Francisco.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

June 16, 1970

Dear Russ:

It is not yet 6 A.M. We are off on a tour to meet a lot more young people. I am now welcome everywhere from the Colorado border to Albuquerque which is becoming a large city. It is mostly the young excepting some professors at the university. The doors are all open and I expect more to open today.

When history is written and we get rid of the slop of the day, it will be found that there is a movement, a sort of pioneering endeavor here, easily comparable to that of the Mormons, indeed not too far from the land of the Mormons, where enterprising young Americans are coming. Only here they are finding communes.

There are roughly speaking two kinds of communes: (a) animal farms which get a lot of publicity; (b) new age endeavors which of course, do not. Both the New Left and the Establishment don’t want that!

Between times I talk on pollution. Everything is important but facts. The same with ecology. In our endeavors here we are considering ecology, I mean the ecology of the scientists, not of the press, the sociologists and all those classes abhorred by AK who nevertheless monopolize the platforms and the channels of communication. I tell them where problems have been solved. But they, already prejudiced against the establishment and all its scions, eat these facts up. So I become doubly popular.

I have already written on this subject either to you or sent carbons to you. The other night I had a long discussion, and nobody shut me up, on the short- range pessimism and long-range optimism. Fortunately I have received a very cordial letter from one of the world’s top reclamation engineers who has been most successful in all things but—you guessed it—publicity. Solutions which do not establish somebody’s ego, or pocketbook are not wanted.

But I understand that before the end of the week at least one more curious writer and soon at least one, more curious film-taker is coming. Perhaps more. And this is only an iota of my now public life. I’ll add more when I return.

June 17, after return. We purchased a number of books including Lord Snow’s A Second Look. I see problems, I see solutions and I see personality-reactions dominating both problems and solutions. And “The Tyranny of Words” marches on. Communication with the young grows facile, and successful. I do not want to be a recluse but I am no longer going to knock on doors that do not welcome me. I have, besides all things referred to directly and indirectly, a grand project of (or more than one) in the Washington area and in the Boston area. I shall have enough to do on the Berkeley campus. They are taking me seriously now and the same may soon be true with other campuses. I still stick to Lord Snow: there are men of objective experiences and other (maybe even wiser) of subjective opinions. They are still apart in emotionalized conflicts of the day.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

July 5, 1970

Mr. Russ Joyner

ISGS

507 Sansome St.

San Francisco, Ca. 94111

My dear Russ:

It is very early Sunday morning. I reached home late Friday night and had an exceedingly busy Saturday, chiefly because it was the birthday of my god-grandchild. I am still, I hope, human and humane enough to observe and honor some social customs. Also I have today world correspondences. The term “world” being in accordance with universal geography and perhaps “God.” But any resemblance to the term as commonly used or misused in social practices is quite coincidental and may be unimportant. But finding a letter from Vocha even if I telephone later makes one feel that things should be put on paper most definitely.

I am at a sort of crossroads but if you accept this term in a Euclidean sense it means nothing. Someday I hope to convince some of you Euclideans of the functional possibilities of non-E space, and that this can be applied in meeting non-spatial problems; but I feel exactly like Shaw when he said he felt he could convince a banker of the truth of socialism but never a banker’s clerk.

Inasmuch as we do not live in either Euclid’s 3+ dimensional space or in the present day accepted pseudo-Hegelian sub-Euclidean space (right, left, center,) literary communication is a farce. The word “communication” has been captured by the Philistines making it almost impossible for man to actually communicate with his fellowmen. I am asking nobody to accept the sound solid fact of having been an Emersonian for generations, that when I actually went to live in the far off woods in northern New Mexico hundreds of young people—human biological beings, not thoughts in the minds of some statistician or editor—actually came to see me. And if you want to get very human or sub-human, I am almost worm out from lip-service to beautiful young girls. I have no intention to try and convince any dialectician of these presumable realities for if I have been bussing girls I have also been hugging young men by the multitudes, and expect this career to continue as it has, with or without publicity.

Quite accidentally one of the “world saviors” also appeared in my neck of the woods, which was a neck of the woods and not a figure of speech. This was Christopher Hills, and it is a little awkward for an incarnation of Hans Christian Anderson’s young imp from “The Emperor’s New Clothes” to perceive be had nothing on. Today you can speak against God all you want, but there are certain Untouchables, and it is remarkable that super-God made all untouchables British, Americans, or Hindus. Nobody else, not even Jews. I can’t say that the mighty have fallen because I never saw any might in them.

This will be posted before the events of the day. All the upper portions of the Rio Grande Valley look upon me as a potential folk-hero, but I never know, nor do I care to know, whether this is because of studies, knowledges, and achievements; or because of the rejections by establishments. I began my meeting in Albuquerque with a prayer :

“Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven

 Excepting in the Near East and Vietnam. Amen.”

That did it. I had the crowd before the celebration, but the crowd, all young, kept on increasing in size until I had to go.

Well Russ, I got a beautiful letter from Dale Woelfle. He has just left “Science” and has a staff job at the University of Washington in Seattle. I have written my friend Bryn Beorse about him. My actual life has demonstrated at every step the doctrine of Lord Snow that we have two cultures: 1. based on facts and 2. based on opinions. Both are needed, both are very necessary, but they are quite different. I cannot impose but it is certain that there is a vast difference in outlook. I am not even trying any more to reach subjectivists, for there are a number of situations piling into both my private and public lives, which are extending my life and career to the uttermost.

The first information I received upon return was that a publisher of some means was coming here to get my life story. I am calling myself Timon of San Francisco, a sort of Timon of Athens in reverse. I certainly do not intend to impress or impose upon personalities who do not wish to be impressed. They will go on spreading confusions, as in now being done with regard to pollution, and make it most difficult to solve problems of the day which could easily be solved if they would get out of the way, which they certainly will not. Anyhow this man is coming here very shortly, and it is not going to be very nice to find a Christopher Hills quoting AK all over the place and therefore being accepted while a pupil disciple of Cassius Keyser not only continues to hammer on, and is beginning to win the young multitudes as the maestro did, but in greater numbers.

From this point on I can only tell you there is an explosion in my private life. Every rejection, every snub, every turn down by the high and mighty has new become a weapon in my hands. The success at Geneva is now bringing one a sort of fame among the famous. But I do not believe and never have believed that personalisms and name-droppings solve anything. In fact, I am frightened about opening mail because further good news at this time would mean too many missions. Let me tell you one, and this one illustrates the great gap between myself and all sorts of establishments:

I am excepting to meet in a very short while a Rabbi from Jerusalem and a Palestinian Arab who is a citizen of Israel. While the great men who appeal to greatness of names and paucities of facts hurl or demand actions, but never get into actions themselves, this person and his very close associates expect to have some of the raucous sitting down together at tables, to be performing what others are demanding but never do, and sooner or later some of our literary people may accept the policies of scientists and legalists, that a few sound facts are worthy of consideration, even if they come from the “wrong” people.

This dynamic pragmatic program for the Near East is not new, far from new. I have no intention to waste time trying to convince the literati and egocentrics of any hard facts of history or of life. It is not worth it.

Following the letter from Dale Woelfle, I expect to attend some meetings at the California Academy of Sciences where the “wrong” person will ask some Andersonian questions:

Which cities in the world have the worst traffic problems?

Which cities in the world have the most smoke problems?

Which cities in the world have the most congestion problems, including slums, etc.,etc.

What coordination is there between these various types of problems?

What efforts have been made to solve these problems?

When are we getting to permit coordination of answers to these various dilemmas to be published independently of the personalities involved in the various discussions?

You see, Russ, as you have said, the tragedy of the world is that we do not permit facts which confuse issues. We stick to personality. In Europe, in many lands, only scientists are permitted to write or speak officially on scientific problems. In America, it is the top commentators.

Well, Russ, we are going to have a breakthrough, and if it does not come from one source, it is coming from another. I have been hoping now for generations to see a science of semantics comparable to laboratory sciences, as AK wished. I am no longer bothered. The doors are opening everywhere else. I may have to go to Washington as soon as I can clear affairs here, and no nonsense. The young are coming in greater and greater numbers. I have more and more contacts in high places all over, and I have friends who, though they may be few in number, are solid friends. And their social geography is an actual time-space geography and not an editorial or literary claim. And I am too busy in constructive efforts to be mad at anybody.

Recently, I have had a series of personality conflicts in which I demanded and received absolute surrender, unconditional surrender. And in every case, it was followed by strong bonds of friendship. So that as soon as the personality was removed, we have been working together in solid fraternal terms, and forgotten all earlier differences. I wish some Americans would sometimes study some American philosophies, including “the solution of the egocentric predicament” by the non-realists of NYU.

Faithfully and sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

Mr. Lloyd Morain

1274 Filbert

San Francisco, Ca.

July 24, 1970

Dear Lloyd:

One of the great weaknesses of this century has been the failure to apply the logistics of Science and Sanity to the problems of the day. Today “problems” are confusions which can be clarified only by the “right” people and no one knows exactly who the “right” people are or should be. But the failure to apply the principles of logic and logistics found in Science and Sanity and Lord Russell and elsewhere, are going to give me splendid opportunities which I may not deserve but I certainly have the opportunities.

The headlines today are concerning the legends very popular in Americas that grains are the source of proteins perhaps even the best source. It is so. No unknown person can get up and protest. It just isn’t done. True, I was permitted to participate in great food conferences when they were dominated by scientific scientists. Indeed, I have been a welcomed guest at scientific conferences which discussed food problems, but I have enough sense, after the nonsense in the discussions on psychedelics, to keep quiet. In those apparent public forums who you were mattered, and what you knew did not matter. And this is giving me today the most splendid opportunities, not necessarily deserved, to speak on some subjects which I claim to know, but have been barred from speaking on by practically all so-called respectable groups in this area. Amen.

I attended a gathering of scientists recently concerning pollution. The commentators had everything down pat. The chief speaker among them said “we are all to blame.” The scientists in the audience did not agree. But I guess we are all to blame because the polite “right” people said we are all to blames and who am I to dispute with the polite “right” people. Nevertheless, I may be sent for to do some desert reclamation work in Arizona. At least the money is being offered and I certainly have the goodwill of the department of dry lands research of the University of California. But I notice in reading scientific magazines that it has been specifically discovered that the deadliest poison destroying the fish of Lake Erie comes from mercury compounds, even more than from sewage or from factory wastes. It is this sort of thing which make some partially pessimistic of our culture in general. Instead of thinking it through, or even thinking at all, we have high-level emotionalism from prominent persons carefully selected by other prominent persons, to discuss or even solve the problems of the day, and this includes semantic along with all the other forms of popular logic. Only today Lloyd, I am very close to striking the jackpot and you have no reason to object to my mentioning the hard but simple fact that the disciples of Count Korzybski as presently organized have far more interest in the personalities writing or reporting than in the knowledge conveyed. True, the ISGS is not necessarily as intransigent as the prose and most magazines in suppressing facts in order to proclaim personalities. I certainly have no reason to protest anymore for the doors are opening wide for me and I have piles of notes to support any stand I take.

The conclusion of the scientific-scientists that mercury poisoning may be the chief cause of the death of fish of Lake Erie is of course contrary to the views of experts. But I think now, with the rise of men like Nader, and the expose’ of the fallacious but exceedingly proper outlook that proteins come mostly from grains, we may save this nation and even the world. I can hardly protest that my logistics have led me to conclusions quite different from those of the official semanticists but they may not be quite different from the laws of nature, and I am going to be given the opportunity to demonstrate this, as I already have in establishing organic gardens here and elsewhere.

The proper people will continue to believe that proteins come from grains and ISGS has nothing to say. The scientists demonstrate otherwise. The proper people will blame everything on DDT while scientists uncover mercury or other kinds of poisoning, and ISGS has nothing to say. ETC.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Sept. 15, 1970

International Society for General Semantics

Post Office Box 2649

San Francisco, Ca. 94126

Dear Russ and company,

I am enclosing $8.00 for two copies of Understanding in a World of Words. I shall be very much interested in receiving this book.

This is being written at a time when one is receiving more and more commendatory letters from some of the most important people in the world. Also when colleagues and disciples have been most successful in accomplishing what all the verbalists, including all the semanticists who are verbalists, have not succeeded in doing: bringing Arabs and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims together in dinners and other impossibly impossible accomplishments.

This is being done at a time when sociologists, members of peace organizations, churches and humanists, are 100% united, against. We are going to let them be united against.

These joint affairs will continue when this person leaves for New York and a speech at Columbia University also is in his itinerary. We are hoping the time will come when writers, such as the author or authors of Understanding in a World of Words will be willing to listen even to prove their own theses to such a person as,

Sincerely yours,

Samuel L. Lewis

October 12, 1970

Mr. Russ Joyner

I.S.G.S.

507 Sansome St.

San Francisco, California

Dear Russ:

I have sent you copies of critical letters. Last night something happened—I am not going to try to follow it up, but will report. I heard a tail-end of a broadcast by the N.Y. General Semantics Society in which the speaker deplored the existence of so many problems caused not so much by the problems themselves, but by the verbal and emotional atmosphere and conclusions which seem to dominate society.

I have always been ready to write on the hopelessness of the American situation. Everybody is supposed to be firm for the word “democracy.” The chairman, of course, is a superior being, but he is always very inferior to the speaker, who is so marvelous, that it is considered rude to dispute—except in politics where everybody is supposed to dispute. This is the first time I have felt any hope for any sane consideration of pollution. The young protesters go around here with stickers on their cars to stop pollution. Magazines are full of hopelessness, but the scientists themselves whom I have contacted, declare the hopelessness is due to the verbal atmospheres, and we are not going to stop verbalisms—yet. Yet I am glad that some people, calling themselves Semanticists, are willing to face logical and unemotional discussions of actual problems besetting the world.

Circumstances beyond my control made me feel it necessary to work for peace in the Near East. Yes, this is much more difficult than facing pollution. In facing pollution, one can make an actual breakdown into actual facts and factors, although this is not done in literary articles and seldom in open debates—except among and by laboratory scientists.

The atmosphere here is almost at times one of despair. It is by far the quietest October I have ever witnessed in New York during a political campaign. The Times has nothing but politics—page after page after page. But you never hear these things discussed by the people, and there’s been a singular lack of opposition to any of my proposals for or toward peace in the Near East. The complete absence of anything like Keyser’s, “The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking,” has given me a clear field on the subject where the floors and doors have been barred to me in my native city—God bless San Franciscans. The News I have had is excellent. Here I have had no trouble with Arabs, Jews, the young, or university professors. I am getting brave enough to wish to tackle the press.

The low esteem with which General Semantics is held by the Philosophy departments of Cornell and Columbia is, of course, balanced by the fact that your colleagues believe a peasant has no right to interfere with the sober discussions of gentlemen. But Russ, this is a New Age. Fortunately for me personally, Professor Blau, the last disciple of Cassius Keyser in this region, has a low opinion of these Philosophy departments; and we are pretty much in accord on everything. But, of course, I am the wrong person?

The young people have discovered that all my statements on Palestine are based on knowledge of history, religion, geography, agriculture, etc., etc., etc. (any resemblance between this etc. and that of the magazine which capitalizes these letters is coincidental, or is it?).

The young have discovered that during years of existence in this world I have occasionally or more than occasionally met the “right” persons. Some of these “right persons” have been quite willing to listen or have been pleased by the way I have listened to them. Or, in the ease of Professor Blau, not only listened but succeeded—although not a single organization, church, or other worthy in San Francisco has ever permitted any expression from me. And this, in turn, is making one a hero, not because of knowledge but because of rejections, generally a priori rejections by the “right people” in a Democracy.

In a few days I shall be going to a rather secret convention and then to Boston and then back here. I am unable to find time to write articles for the editor who wants them. It is even possible that a few people here will look at the Oakland Tribune clipping I shall be showing them. The young do not want war. They are even willing to listen to the virtues of Nasser and to accept his accomplishments outside of international complications. Their elders are not. And believe me, Russ, most unfortunately, the people of coming generations will look askance on this one which rejects facts unless the person presenting the facts pleases them for some artificial unimportant reason.

These very complications have made it impossible to pursue certain programs which would have redounded to your immediate benefit. I still think it is possible to have either a science of philosophy or philosophic science. I still think it possible to rise above Euclidean nonsense and the almost universal stupidity of judging every person according to the relation of his views with the way some rather illiterate Frenchman sat in a convention after the great revolution. No, Russ, I don’t fit into Euclidean and sub-Euclidean universes, but I find the great majority of young people do not either.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

October 22, 1970

Mr. Russ Joyner

I.S.G.S.

507 Sansome Street

San Francisco, California 94111

Dear Russ:

The surprising news that associates of Dr. S. I. Hayakawa and possibly the General himself is behind projections coming out of this person is so marvelous that I am sending copy of letter written to Professor Archie Bahm, the friend, colleague, and disciple of Oliver Reiser.

The day is over when smart people can render personality judgments on any Jude the Obscure. This itself is one of the reasons why we have constant war in the world. People who exploit others cannot promote peace. But there is one difference now, that I may not write my diatribe against Generals of Semantics. The two big things are the exceeding cordiality from Professor Blau at Columbia and the fact that Don and his friends are behind a peace program which originated out of this ego. I may doubt whether he would have listened if he found that this ego was the originator of the program, but let that pass. Peace is more important than any ego either of a General or a Jude the Obscure.

I have always wanted to work with and can now overlook the self-important people who simply wouldn’t let me speak on subjects which I thought I understood.

I already wrote you about the attitude of philosophical departments at some of the universities I have visited. One could easily add to this list. If we go by car, we shall certainly visit Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Howard. And I am on the agenda to speak at Howard whenever I wish. I am not in the least interested in the ego reactions of those persons who thought that the world would be saved by stepping on every Jude the Obscure who came along. I am not very good at value judgments and even less at psychiatry. But when the very top people of the very top world organizations greet one as an equal one gets a little tired of unnecessary blockages.

If we can work together for peace in the Near East or anywhere, I can overlook the past.

Kindest regards,

Samuel L. Lewis

c/o L. Less

27 W. 71 St.

New York, New York 10023

October 26, 1970

Mr. Russ Joyner

I.S.G.S.

507 Sansome St.

San Francisco, California

My Dear Russ:

Life is so full of drama, one actually gets tired. The more one reads non-scientific books, the more one becomes aware in our culture that the great majority of writers treat other human beings as if they were some form of concepts in their own minds; or mannequins or robots to be handled according to certain formulae. Then if the formulas do not work, one gets angry.

This is so true. I regret to see the failure of many attempts to establish Shangri-Las, especially in India and the United States. I noticed in India and Pakistan that farmers and producers considered it part of their “liberty” not to copy the successes of their neighbors. It might bring them more wealth, but it lowered their sense of self-esteem.

A similar thing is happening in this land where more and more experiments are being made in social living. The generic term commune is used. I am not going to ask the semanticists to define commune, or for that matter any of the terms which are thrown about as “solutions” or “explicators” of the problems of the day. There is too much before me, and some of the situations promise more money, more followers, more friends, and more understanding. Sooner or later it had to come to this.

You may get some ideas from items in the letters enclosed. I told the people at the Christian Science Monitor in Boston that there are no problems; that there is just refusal on the part of literary people to accept answers which did not make them comfortable. They could not answer this without going contrary to their own teachings, so the door is open, and a lot more doors are open or opening. Do not know when I will return.

Sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

c/o Lonnie Less

27 West 71 Street

New York, New York 10023

October 30, 1970

Russ Joyner

I.S.G.S.

507 Sansome Street

San Francisco, California

Dear Russ:

It is very hard to impress certain people that there may be a moral law in the universe; or that we can stop wars by our constant shunning eye-witnesses to world events. The letter to Art Hoppe is not nonsense. It has been followed by more of the same. I think there is hope in the country. At long last the press is paying some attention to eye-witnesses of world events.

We’ve had this endless war in Vietnam because the press and the state Department thought it was very smart to reject the eye-witness report of my best friend who died of a broken heart. Last night I went to a meeting and publicly called down a cleric. In the end he apologized to me, and so did his own claque one by one. The telephone has been ringing like anything, especially long distance calls between here and the Pacific coast, both ways. The local press which has previously refused practically every eye-witness account from me is now interviewing my colleagues and disciples. The University of California has a class in my own work, and it is possible that other institutions will follow.

The day of smart-aleck a priori rejections is over. But I may not have to make this a theme in my autobiography, which is now being sought. There has practically been no trouble anywhere. Sooner or later honesty and objectivity are going to win. We are not going to have any more “Jude the Obscures.”

Next week I go to Washington for a few days and then return. Then I must write because a publisher wants my things—no more smart-aleck a priori rejections. I am no longer angry at anybody. The people who did that have done me favor. They have caused me to be more alert and more careful, but never silent again when I am in the right … that is, when I have information on the subject being discussed. I am going to be very careful, and even gentle and compassionate, in an age which understands compassion as its predecessors did not, would not. Everything looks exceedingly promising.

Best Regards,

Samuel L. Lewis

772 Clementina St.

San Francisco 3, Calif.

5th May 1969

Rev. W. Cecil Gibbings,

Longthorpe Vicarage,

Peterborough, Northants, England

Beloved One of God:

It is a long time since I have received your last letter and your admirable booklet, “The Message of God.” No doubt there is a timing for all things and the present condition of the world with its apparent material impasse and the rise of new forms of knowledge cause men either to think more deeply or to see more widely of both.

One sometimes wonders about the value of certain things in the past and there is a certain compulsion—through experience—which causes one to view developments in the light of a number of factors which do not at first to seem to have any connection with those developments.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan left India on September 13, 1910. He initiated Mrs. Rabia Martin on May 15, 1911 and therefore she, and some of her followers, regarded that as a sort of day of commemoration. I understand he gave bayat to about a dozen people at this time. One of them, Munira Norn in New York has lived on but does not seem to have advanced very far in the direction of higher development which are known as “states” and “stages.”

Many of the first papers of Pir-o-Murshid were not collated. Murshida Martin never systematized them, many disappeared, more were destroyed in a fire on December 31^st, 1949 and others were seized by Mrs. Duce and kept as her private property. The latter may have even been destroyed by this time as Mrs. Duce, under the aegis of Meher Baba, seems to have devaluated these original teachings.

The original “constitution” was the same as I found among the brethren of Hyderabad and it recognized four great religions: Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. In this country two distinct types of organization were proposed. One of them was Western and rather corporate or legal. This resulted in a temporary constitution and later in a legal international headquarters in Geneva.

The other was based entirely upon development in Zikr plus some other signs which followed strict mystical evolution. I have found that the latter is in force in the brotherhoods I have visited and is very impersonal. One’s position depends upon one’s growth and development and upon nothing else.

The three highest stages of ordinary Sufism are aligned as

fana-fi­-Sheikh, or effacement in the living teacher

fana-fi­-Rassoul, or effacement in the perfect Ideal

fana-fi-Lillah, or effacement in the supreme

Occasionally man attains to fana-i-baqa or baqa-i-fana, which means “effacement in subsistence” or the state of continual cosmic consciousness.

The impersonal Zikr-spiritual development leads to the Hierarchy which is strongly stressed in certain part of Pir-o-Murshid’s writings, such as “The Unity of Religious ideals” and just as strongly by-passed by all those who consciously or unconsciously seek power and position rather than God. This Hierarchy is acknowledge by all the Sufi Brotherhoods, and at its apex is the Kutb or Axis who is regarded as the regent of God on earth and who has under him lieutenants and legates of varying degrees. Many of these are presumed to have reached cosmic consciousness.

This Hierarchy differs alike from that of Christianity and Buddhism. It differs from that of Christianity in that it is hidden rather that overt; and that its members are chosen only after they have had experiences of grace. So there may be many vacancies. Besides, the members do not necessarily contact or know each other. It differs also from Buddhism in that none of the Sufi saints are archetypes but are historical personages. Many of them are respected and regarded as having reached the same stages of cosmic function as the Buddhist archetypes.

So far as I know there is nothing which prevents complete development via Jesus Christ instead of via Mohammed as “Rassoul-lillah.” The terms “same,” “different,” “higher,” “lower,” etc. do not have the same meaning in fourth dimension realms or true mystical experiences as they have in the finite world. Although Mohamed said, concerning the prophets, “We make no distinctions between them,” he was not successful in this, usually. Nor has Pir-o-Murshid been in his prayer, in particular Khatum.

There are two vast differences in my view of prayer from that of Westerners, both exotericists and esotericists. I differ from the exotericist in that, after praying, I listen or wait for an answer. I have had so many examples of answer that there is no doubt in my mind. But, again, I doubt if I have offered more than 20 prayers in the last 20 years. The vastness or narrowness of the prayer has nothing to do with the success that comes from waiting for an answer.

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

6th September, 1968

Rev. Cecil Gibbings,

Longthrope Vicarage,

Peterborough, England

Beloved One of God:

This person is now preparing to resume his talks on the First Epistle to the Corinthians. This is possible because this person has had sufficient spiritual and mystical realization to explain that book, and it is evident now that there are enough near awakened souls to listen. But I must add that no permission has been asked from any church, corporation, legal or illegal body for this purpose.

I have always understood that the Grace of God was preeminent in religion. The rise of semantics can give validity to the word “grace” and despite the ignorance of his kin-folk, and they are miserably ignorant, the word “Inayat” means grace.

This series of talks has been made possible through that same Jesus Christ whom you venerate, but this was done without seeking any permission of anybody, anywhere. The strange disease which prevented me from coming to England last year was accompanied by a Message of that God “Whose voice cometh constantly from within” without seeking any corporation permit. The contents have come true and today one is the spiritual leader of a goodly number of young people. Added to that have been a series of strange letters from drop-outs, persons who now live in other parts of this country, claiming loyalty to their Bayat.

This Bayat is a peculiar thing. It says that “God alone was Founder of Sufism.” I did not know this was untrue or illegal but with the last issue of “Divine Healing” I have found it is illegal. There is nothing strange in that; all kinds of persons are being thrown today into all kinds of prisons for all kinds of behaviors. But I doubt very much whether this egocentric corporation in Holland is going to do anything.

I was taught and I believe you were taught that Sufism holds God Alone Exists. Also that “A Sufi is one who sees from the point of view of another as well as of himself.” I am not going to argue but I am amazed that you take the view that this is wrong and that a Sufi is now one who adheres to some modern corporation just organized in Holland. What this has to do with God I do not know; what it has to do with the actualities of Crucifixion and Resurrection I don’t know. I do know that without asking permission of this corporation this Septuagenarian is functioning in a “reborn” body and mind which function in ways which his ego-mind does not comprehend but functions none the less. And I do not know where and when, after Hazrat Inayat Khan declared that God did not function in Suresnes alone, that He had been transferred (His permission was not sought), to some an all group in a small country.

I do know and I can predict with as surety, that this corporation is suddenly going to exhibit compassion. For a local publishing company has just published a magazine dedicated to Toward the One, The Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty, The Only Being, United With All the Illuminated Souls Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, The Spirit of Guidance. They did not ask permission from any corporation on the face of the earth and I do not believe any corporation is going to dare to do anything, about it. They do not dare to challenge God; they will not challenge God and thus they will become self-defeating and moribund.

Not only has this publication presented the Invocation of Hazrat Inayat Khan, they have already published one of his brochures and I do not believe that corporation, legal or illegal will do anything about it. And I do know that this publishing house has not more than a single persons and he in a very subordinate capacity, that has until this July been in any way connected with anything called “Sufism.”

Of course there are millions upon millions of livings beings in Sufi Orders that have never heard of any modern corporations. The idea that one must join a corporation to become God-conscious is a challenge to Lord Solomon, that “there is nothing new under the sun.”

We are now preparing a team to go to India to join at the convocation for The Temple of Understanding. There the real religious, ecclesiastical and spiritual leaders of the real world and real humanity are meeting for the first time in history. There, the humanity, and not some silly corporation is going to fulfill the New Age of God. Hazrat Inayat Khan—of blessed memory to some of us—said, “The Message is in the Sphere.” Of course it is and it would be wonderful if the “humble” people could learn to listen. It is too bad that humility prevents “listening” and every prophet of God emphasized listening.

The results of all this may be that with God’s help—regardless of all the corporations in the world—Vilayat might just step forward and lead, or help lead in the spreading of the Message of God. Personally I had little to do with this corporation here publishing from Inayat Khan. I doubt whether that corporation there will do anything. I am hoping that you and your followers will not sacrifice, “In God we live and move and have our being.”

God bless you,

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

September 26^th 1968

Rev. Jahangir Cecil Gibbings,

Longthorpe Vicarage

Peterborough, England

Beloved One of God:

Tuesday one began the expositions on the first epistle to the Corinthians, based on the assumption that one had the requisite spiritual and mystical experience to resumes such expositions. And one also began with the chapter on Love (agape) instead of going through the Epistle in the ordinary manner. For this Epistle posits both Love and the Spiritual (soma pneumaticos) Body and both of these are beyond the operations of ego and mind, in the ordinary sense.

It has been said that a Sufi sees life from the point of view of another as well as of himself and occasionally, very occasionally one does meet a Sufi who operates as if he has this capacity and one also operates as St. Paul wished, that we harmonize in our mental activities also.

There is no question while Hazrat Inayat Khan was alive there were operative Murshid and Murshidas and also senior Khalifs. But this did not prevent him from receiving more than any other Mureed in regard to organization, succession, the history of the movement from its inception. The conversation held in the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1926 called “Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan” have been rejected—and indeed had to be rejected—by those who did not accept them. But they were certainly accepted in Asia and unanimously by those who were in attendance on Pir-o-Murshid during his last days. And it is equally certain that the last words of Hazrat Inayat Khan given to Hasan Nizami, his followers and some initiated disciples of Hazrat Inayat Khan in the then undivided India supported in every detail the “Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan.” Before God, I swear it; before God I have sworn it; before God I shall continue to swear it on until the life hereafter.

To this person’s amazement Hazrat Inayat Khan gave him the tawajjeh of strength. Before God I swear it and will continue to swear it and persons who do not and will not accept the points of view of others may continue not to accept the points of view of others. Not once has this person refused to accept the statements made by disciples of what Pir-o-Murshid told then; but seldom has the reciprocal happened, that they agreed to accept what this person said, and will continue to swear before God (Allah) or Christ or whom you will exactly and on into the eternity. And from this comes the source of strength and power and love which is so manifest today, despite years, that one works on untrammeled be the vicissitudes of time, space and conditioned existence.

One does not know what disciples otherwise have the experiences in fana-fi­-Rassoul and fana-fi-lillah. Certainly in his conversations with me, Hazrat Inayat Khan told exactly where others stood, especially those living who were in superior posts. And certainly there are two living supporters of this even now after all the years. One cannot compel others to listen or accept and one will continue to swear before and on the Living God to Whom be all praise, world without and, and no nonsense.

It does not go to well in the world of God that disciples who were not present during these interviews refused to accept them. Before God each refused when it crossed their egos. But Mr. Paul Reps, who was outsides mostly, but inside some of the time, accepted the reports. Besides this he has had some reports himself and they correspond or harmonize with what person will continue to swear, took place in the Beverly Hills Hotel.

This person has long since ceased to be amazed by Western culture which simply will not accept “a little child shall lead them.” Yes, we think we can get the lion and lamb to lie down together but a little shall lead them?

If by “Movement” you mean a corporation, that is a conclusion that is very questionable. Sufism has always been lead by those who experiences ahwal and makamat, states and stages of consciousness. I myself had to witness what happened in another Sufi Order when the Pir-o-Murshid passed away and there was nobody immediately capable of stepping into his shoes. But having facts, having experiences, having all knowledge internal and external does not always effects the consciousness of these who do not wish—and perhaps they have a justification, that “A Sufi is one who sees from the point of view of another as well as of himself.”

Now a private corporation is establishing all the tenets of initiation which also appear in the printed literature of “The Sufi Message” and by the expressed wills of persons who have never themselves been accepted by any valid Sufi Order, nor show any aptitude of having experienced hal and makam and fana—which means effacement, this is a new item which has never appeared in historical Sufism before.

Of course I do not know anything about Vilayat casting you off. Well he cast me off. But then there is God and God lifted the veils. Besides, Vilayat demonstrated proofs, proofs to the mystic, and they have been confirmed by members of other Sufi orders, especially those to which Hazrat Inayat Khan was connected. It is a long history but it is hardly in order, once the “Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan” are set aside, to bring up these proofs or testimonies. Love has been laid aside, the experiences of God in or not in Christ have been laid aside, and the term fana has been retained without any content.

Certainly one Sufi Pir, Murshid, and Sheikh after another has accepted this persons. And the last living persons who were present at the demise of Hazrat Inayat Khan expressed tremendous joy in finding that this person had stepped aside and recognize Vilayat as a Pir before God-Allah, regardless of what any Western corporation has decided. Certainly the Pope, His Holiness, has a greater claim to be the representative of God Almighty, Inshallah.

Having experienced the Glance of many holy men of all faiths, it did not take any more time than that to know where Pir Vilayat stood and stands. Sufis say, “The lover is a mere nothing, the beloved is All-in-Allah.”

My dear Brother, there is nobody that has turned this person down harder than his own present Pir-o-Murshid in Pakistan and it proved to be a test. If we are going to reject—and we are going to reject Series III on “Moral Culture” published in one of the volumes of “The Sufi Message” we are on pretty flimsy ground.

The true devotee is in constant remembrance (Zikr) of God. This person returned a Murshid, invested, initiated and ordained by Sufis in other parts of the world. How much evidences is needed? How much acceptable?”

Hazrat Inayat Khan, who is not accepted by a corporation acting in his name, said, “Proofs do not make the teacher: it is his teaching that make the teacher.” I should like to see any corporation affirm or deny this?

Yes, this person is teaching, openly teaching what Pir Vilayat said in his lecture here. The demonstrations are by proofs which touch the hearts of those with open hearts and more and more every week, praise to Allah.

If you are in touch with Lord Jesus Christ, why don’t you ask him and reply, instead of replaying from another base. This would baying us together. If you are in fana-fi-lillah, then why won’t you write, “In the name of God?” This person is quite willing to write “in the Name of God” or “Bismillah” or anything else.

Now Pir Vilayat (on whom be peace) is being given the chance to manifest before the whole world, and I mean the whole world. My prayers are with him and I have enough faith in him that if he fails, by test, he has enough humility to surrender to God and act as God-Allah wishes!

One returns to the chapter on “Love” in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. One will continue to lecture on this splendid work.

With all love and blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad-Chisti

14901 Lorain Ave.

Cleveland, Ohio

Nov. 7, 1953

Dear Samuel,

It’s been a long time since I have written to you. As you know Paul has been out of work since July. Today we just heard that the Supreme Court has upheld the Taft Hartley law. That means that Paul will come back from Pa. and start work next week I hope. We both have spent the summer at the farm and I believe I will make a good “hick.” I really enjoyed the peace and quiet. It is so easy to understand the Devotees not wanting to live in the world.

I suppose heard about Vilayat. Our small group here is very loyal. They now feel that we should have some sort of a nucleus here in the U. S. A. We are not trying to establish anything or be the head of anything. We just feel it is time to try to get together with others who feel the same way.

This is what we have been discussing. We feel that you perhaps feel as we do. Here is our proposition. We have $200 dollars in our treasury. We will send you that for your fare. For several days you could stay ay Ruth Lavender’s and her husband Fred’s house. They are colored people but are very fine people and have a beautiful 8 room apt. Then perhaps we can find a room somewhere handy for you. Our group doesn’t have to much money so it would be necessary for you to contribute to your expenses. However I hope this will be OK with you for I think it would be a good move for the Sufi Movement. You could be such a big help to all here.

If you can come after the Holidays would be an ideal time. From now until the 1st of the year everyone is always so busy. Well Samuel we will be awaiting your reply most anxiously. We are all well and hope you are too. Want to mail this now. Will say good bye for now.

Sincerely,

Viola Harris

Cleveland, Ohio

April 19, 1958

Dear Samuel:

Yes I am still the among the living. How alive sometimes I’m not so sure. I’ve enjoyed your letter so much and reread it quite often.

You asked about our study group. We are lucky enough to have quite a few of the Gathas and Gathekas. We also read from the different books. On Sunday Mrs. Peck sometimes reads and sometimes talks extemporaneously. She is a very devoted person and sincere and earnest. Of course Bachti so far hasn’t given us any of her papers and I don’t suppose she will for she still blames us for starting our own center.

So much has been happening that I haven’t been very faithful this last month. I hope things will clear up a bit for there is nothing that I would like better than devoting all my time to the work of the movement. Last month Jack went to Florida and I was the baby sitter and at my age that isn’t so easy. This week Baron (my dog) has been quite sick, and going on 15 yrs. It isn’t so easy for him to make a comeback.

The weather this week is really something to crow about. Of course it won’t last but I am enjoying it and so is everyone else. Last week no flowers no leaves on the trees, today almost everything is in bloom.

Remember me telling you about Claire being here? Well she expected to hear from Vilayat while in Cleveland and didn’t. Up until several days ago she hadn’t heard a word she has written to other people in Europe and no one seems to know or will say anything. She still thinks Murshid is alive. Tell me can anyone see the body in the tomb?

Did you know that the part of the property in France that the Temple was to be built on has been claimed by Ali Khan? And I understand that apartments are to be built on the property.

Samuel, do you know anything about the procedure of the Healing service? Did you during Murshida’s lifetime have the Sunday Service and the Healing? We are doing it and following the directions that Murshid left in his book. Well I’m leaving Jack’s office for the day and want to mail this so will say bye for now and hope you can read this.

This is a small world and all the interested Sufi’s seem to be forming a nucleus. We heard about Peter from Bachti and Vilayat. By the way Bachti has herself listed in the telephone directory as Rev. Fatha Engle. Is that proper procedure according to Sufi Law?

I am mailing this now or will forget about it. Sometimes Samuel it seems as if there are as many laws as there are people.

Have a happy time.

Devotedly,

V. Harris

Cleveland, Ohio

May 3, 1958

Dear Samuel:

On Monday I received a most unusual letter from you. It was addressed to “My dear Vilayat.” I was wondering whether you sent me the wrong letter or whether you meant for me to have this particular letter. If it had been a carbon copy I wouldn’t be asking about it.

The odd thing about your writing some of the statements is that I was discussing some of the same things with our group. Especially about the papers. You see when Vilayat was here, he said he would send us papers. Apparently he doesn’t have the earlier papers of his father but I understood that he had a lot that All Khan did not have. We have received 2 papers since. He doesn’t answer letters of any one not even Claire. I feel as you do that if these papers can’t be published or mimeographed in Europe they could be sent here and taken care of, not even for us but for the future. I feel Samuel that there are not too many people left who have the good of the message at heart.

There are only five really interested people here. Yet with the years of study they had with Fatha they still do not know what we are talking about. When I said that if Vilayat has no one there to do the necessary things in European he could delegate some things to be done here, this is the reaction of several mureeds. I quote, “We must have faith.” If we believe and have faith everything will be all right. “We have more material now than we can ever use.” I feel Samuel that the time for passivity is past and the time for action is now. Now this feeling that I have is not one of rushing into things for I have been passive for many years and never felt the urge as I do now. Unfortunately I know so little.

In several of your letters you mentioned the Temple that Murshid specified. Would it be violating a confidence if you explained it to me? I am so much interested. Also in your Beloved. Is there any possibility of her coming to the United States? It would be so wonderful for you.

This is quite long for me and my back is beginning to ache so will say bye for now and hope to hear from you soon.

Faithfully yours,

P. S. Paul and I are feeling very low because our dog Baron who has been with us for over 14 years passed on this week Wednesday. I feel as part of me is gone. God bless him and may he rest in peace.

Cleveland, Ohio

June 28, 1958

Dear Samuel,

I missed your letters very much. You remember I said I was not a very good correspondent. Also, I am not a very interesting person. Things go on pretty much the same here. The weather has been cool and wet. Very unusual for June. The flowers must like this kind of weather though, for the roses are beautiful.

It seems so long since I heard from you I forgot what I wrote to you. No difference for nothing much has happened. Jack and his family took a short vacation and I baby sat with the baby. It is fun and yet my limbs don’t like the stairs to well. However I believe I would get my girlish figure back if I did much of that.

Mow for news of the Center. Bachti has closed her Center. She had her last Universal Worship on Easter Sunday. Since then she hasn’t had any activity at her Center. The rooms she rented were rented to someone else and it was necessary for her to vacate. She went to New York first to visit her sister and from there was going to Los Angeles to visit or rather stay with Jalela & Bob. I rather think she hated doing that for she wants to freelance and not feel that she is being tied down. Although I understand she is coming back to Cleveland Again. I don’t believe she will ever locate here permanently again. If you go to L. A. it would be very interesting for you to meet her and see what you think or her as a Leader in the Sufi Movement. Personally she is charming as a Leader, Heaven forbid.

We are not having our regular activity during the Summer months. About twice a month we will have the Universal Worship in the informal manner. The Healing service will be held perhaps twice a month. Then in September we will resume the regular schedule.

We are looking forward to your coming this fall or winter. I do so hope you can. I am looking forward to meeting an exchange student from India who is here studying Engineering and who is staying with a friend of a friend of mine. Will let you know the outcome.

We have had so much rain that I am having some difficulty with my joints again. However my general outlook on life is not affected. Spiritually, Mentally, Morally I never seemed to be more attuned than I am now. My understanding of so many fazes of life seem more acute and I am called in more and more to help with problems. Really Samuel all one does is listen and pray for Guidance for the problem and know that the individual will work it out to the best of their ability. Inshallah.

Will say Bye for now and hope to hear from you soon.

With Love from

Viola Harris

Cleveland, Ohio

Sept. 25, 1958

Dear Samuel,

Well I am still among the living. Such a summer. Heat, cold, rain and then more of the same. As far as activity is concerned I am “Blah.” Every year I think this summer is going to be different. Well Samuel it is different but not the way I planned.

Paul bought off the rest of his brothers and sisters share in the family property in Pennsylvania (about 10 acres) and we have spent a lot of our time there this summer. No one has lived on the place for over 50 years so nature has reclaimed her own. The buildings were born down a number of years ago. We are planning to dig out the side of the hill (it is the foot hills of the Allegheny Range) and build a garage of some kind. It will give us a place to live as we go down for our vacations during the next 3 years. If we like it we will move our trailer and add on a room when Paul retires. It will be economical living.

What have you been doing this summer? I expected to hear from you even if I am a poor correspondent. (Ha Ha) . Did your Light of Love come, to the U.S. or is it this fall you are expecting her? Have you met Bachti? We hear she is house mother at some university.

I met a young man (23 yrs. old)—from India. He is attending school at Fort Wayne, Ind. His folks are paying his tuition. He is very interesting. I also met a Bishop of the Methodist Denomination (a Hindu) at Lakeside Ohio this spring. Neither one seemed to know much about the Sufi’s. Somehow I was under the impression that the greater part of the Hindu population or Muslin was very familiar with the Sufi Doctrine. What was your impression? Of course your mission was to contact Sufi’s.

This summer we have not had our regular activity. The group is having informal Sunday Service at Mrs. Peck’s home. It is so lovely and cool at her home. The Healing Service on Thurs. is being held at the Center. I have not been to faithful for there has been so much other activity. In the winter conditions get back to normal.

Am at Jack’s office today to help out they are so busy. Have to get back to work now so will say Bye for now and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Viola Harris

Dec. 6, 1958

Dear Samuel,

Today is blowing and snowing and blistering cold. Winter has been with us for a week now. I hope you enjoy living in S. F. again. It seems so long since I heard from you and I know it is a long time since I wrote you. We are all well and getting along nicely. Paul has been working five days since Oct. and that has helped a great deal.

I haven’t been going to the Center very much this fall. The outside attendance has been nil so after this month we are giving up the Center. We have been paying $75.00 a month for rent plus gas and light. Also we have been meeting on Sunday’s and Thursday’s. That was too many meetings for only five people. I think the meetings lose their zest when the same people meet so often. I believe we will meet in our homes again and will only meet two or three times a month.

Have you heard anything about the overseas situation? We heard through the grape vine that Ali Khan passed on. Is that true? Also have you heard how it will affect Vilayat’s status? We haven’t heard one thing here. Claire left for France in Sept. Promised that she would send Gathas and also a list of books available and an idea of the general situation in Europe. Again we have heard nothing. It seems se futile to try to carry on for it is hard to know if one is doing right or not. Have you seen Bachti or heard anything about her?

How are you progressing with your writing? I know you are meeting interesting people. What is the general progress of Sufism? Today I feel like a pessimist. Of course the Xmas rush may have something to do with it. I always feel sad at this time of year.

Well, Samuel it is time to close this letter for I am going home in a few minutes and I want mail this today so you will receive it on Monday or Tuesday. So with best wishes for this holiday season and every Happy New Year, I remain faithfully,

Viola Harris

14901 Lorain Ave.

Cleveland Ohio

Feb. 7, 1959

Dear Samuel,

The letter I received from you before Xmas was so full of information. I so enjoyed your interpretation of the meaning of the birth of Christ. Now that the Holidays are over and the hustle and bustle is over I am hoping that life will resume tranquility again. So far the New Year has been just as busy.

The first week of January I was sick with some new kind of virus that we are being plagued with. The second week Paul had it and lost four days work. The third week Paul’s brother passed on and we went to Franklin Pa. and were in the middle of the flood that you must have read about. Since then everything seems to be going along quite smoothly.

How is your health these days? We are feeling a lot better and the weather is some better. Not quite as cold as it has been. The forecasters are predicting an early spring and believe me it can’t come any too soon for me. This is the worst winter on record for this part of the country and I hope it is the last.

I am unusually dull. I’m afraid that I haven’t been doing too much for my soul these days although I have been trying to help other people. In doing so I really have been helping me for I am feeling much stronger and far more alive. The Sufi work here has been sort of slowed up on account of the weather and almost everywhere has been affected by this horrid virus that has plagued us this winter.

Have any of you heard from Europe? We heard that Ali Khan has passed on. Have you had any information about him? Have you been to L. A. lately? I am happy to hear that you were favorably impressed with Bachti. I hope you will be able to work with her to the mutual advantage of you both.

Paul and I are not planning any trips in the near future. We are going to spend all our time and money developing our place in Pa. It will be suite different and we feel healthy. For working in the soil and fresh air will be a new adventure. And we hope profitable.

Will say bye now and hoping to hear from you soon. As always

Viola Harris

Cleveland, O.

14901 Lorain Ave.

Nov. 21, 1959

Dear Samuel,

Was so happy to hear from you and so glad it will be convenient for you to stop here for a while. All the others are happy about it too. I know you will hear from them too. Mrs. Peck will write you. She is a nice person to get things done. She also has a lot of contacts. She is a very great admirer of Allan Watts. He was here last week for three lectures and was very much liked. Mrs. Peck has read all of his books and has been impressed with his thoughts for years before she met him. I know she will mention him to you so please say something complimentary about him. Thank You.

Now for some information. The most convenient and inexpensive place to stay is the YMCA. You would have complete freedom and be close to all downtown activity. Also I think it would be as reasonable as any place. However if you would prefer a private home I know that could be arranged also.

If you want to ship your radio and typewriter I have one of each that you can use while you are here. The typewriter belongs to a friend of mine. It is a portable and not a real new one however I know it would be satisfactory.

I should have congratulated you at the beginning of this letter on the coming marriage. I wish you every happiness and comfort. Paul and I are in good health and busy as usual doing nothing.

Today is sunny and warm. I hope when you come that the weather will be as pleasant as today. I also hope Steel settles their contract so that Paul will continue working. Well Samuel I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and don’t eat too much.

Sincerely,

Viola Harris

November 14, 1968

My dear Sharab and Paul:

Thank you for your letter of the 12^th. There are items in Sufi practices which assure one of contact with the unlimited and these are given to mureeds almost at Bayat in Nayaz and Nayar. We don’t always think much of them. The health, the vitality, the blessings are in the Space itself and can be obtained through the breathing; also by attunement with a real Teacher. And you may not be surprised that the ravages of time are not upsetting this person. Rather the other way around. That it almost seems Eternity is expressing through the human vehicle, praise to God.

There are some few healing practices in my possession. Most were seized by Mrs. Duce and never used. Now you can some to Samuel and get a Darshan for a small contribution or you can spend $1500 and go to Meher Baba, but the effects of Samuel’s Darshan are quite evident. For he is surrounded by the most wonderful young men and girls, who all people regard as exceedingly handsome and beautiful. No doubt some were pretty to being with. But the ability to communicate at all levels, and especially with the heart-body is manifesting both to mureeds and non-mureeds.

I begin with the least things. The Dance have a folk-story. “Money can buy anything.” Poor Jacqueline will find that out. People who are born with silver or golden spoons in their mouths are quite unprepared for the real life and when her time allotment is over she will be most unfortunate. She had many opportunities which she threw away.

The election was a matter of total indifference. A spiritual man is interested in issues, not persons. I am now awaiting another Vietnamese leader who may be here next week. We ignore these people and invade their country. We pay no attention to Asian cultures and there is nothing for the weak but to await who is going to destroy them and their culture. This will come out later in other matters.

Great things are being accomplished by Americans abroad: you do not hear about them. Vilayat is involved and he may have played his cards already. He has rivals. A Mr. Dikkinson of Seattle is fighting for the opposition—all personalisms and no God. You have that with Mrs. Duce, too. They have social prestige, money and profound ignorance. You cannot stop them but the young will no longer fall for that guff.

The New Age is being mish-meshed by the press. Somebody said that the Black Panthers consisted of 500 Negroes and 10,000 newsmen. Even the old leaders of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement are against what is going on now. We start with Non Violence and end with extreme emotionalism, bodily harm and all else. The conservatives want that so they can stop real free speech and the gangsters want it because this gives them free play. All events are preceded by the papers and police being informed, they rush to the campuses and then the students think they are being molested and object. It has nothing to do with liberalism, humanitarianism. etc.

We are caught in the middle. My disciples and colleagues have drawn much larger audiences than the Black Panthers but you never hear about them. The New Age demands collectivism but the rioting Negroes are extreme individualists with no social consciousness whatever. Nor any morals. And that is what the press wants and certain power-structures want. They use the situations as excuses to lower the booms and do.

You are right in “Winter is the Time of the Soul.” Samuel wrote on “Zavaliat” and Mrs. Duce kept the papers under the assumption that Inayat Khan wrote them while she returned the highest Ryazat or spiritual practices under the assumption that they came from Samuel! This is the Insight of the unwise. Now one is drawing larger audiences. The Living God said that the visit of Vilayat would mean Samuel would have 60 disciples. There are about that number of the books excluding three elsewhere but including a few dormant. It comes out even.

Paul Reps was here. He is advertising his “Ten Ways to Meditate.” One doubts whether he has done them. Today we had our second meeting on “The Ryazat of Inayat Khan.” This is a long slow labor. My poetry alone has a full time secretary and no time yet for Oriental papers. And now four secretaries and hardly a scratch in what one has to do.

The introduction of Dervish Dances had been followed by Yoga Dances and Dances of types belonging to the ancient mysteries. They are being most effective. We use the Names and Epithets of God only mostly Arabic but some Sanskrit. The increase in obvious joy and love is something not witnessed in the Western world, and the girls are becoming noteworthily beautiful.

Samuel as Murshid now lives part of the time with three loving couples at a Khankah in the city of Novato thirty miles to the north. It is only two miles from the place dedicated by Vilayat as Center of International Meditation. All is in accord with the fore-visions called “The Garden of Inayat,” destroyed in the fire of 1949 or else lost in moving.

It is raining now and it would appear we may have a wet winter, which is preferable to a cold one. But that will interfere with outdoor dancing. We do have a big barn at Novato which we may use for this purpose.

Bhakti and Samuel keep up a warm friendship. She has seen the core of the mureeds, that is those who are now the central circle, but the number has increased considerably. We shall have to write up our work on Walk, Dance, etc. and later send to them, but it may be climaxed by Vilayat’s return.

It is Friday morning and so much has happened in the last few hours. On the home front the furnace is out of order and the landlord is delaying fixing it, fuses went out, etc. Then another long-distance call from Jack Schulte, the man who has promised to organize the work here. This is at least his fourth call to Samuel, and this excludes a number of other calls and it has been, “Grant me Heaven or Hell oh Lord, but not Purgatory” and we have been plunged into the midst of Purgatory.

This home is shared with one person, not a disciple. Now several disciples wish to establish a commune. It would cut down on overhead, meetings, office work, everything. We had decided to go ahead anyhow. The Khankah has not only started out fine but is gradually becoming an example to others, especially the New Age types. Besides Sam is not working with the kind of people Pir-o-Murshid had and still less than Rabia Martin had. They are alive and having had some kind of “high” experience with Psychedelics they welcome rather than shudder when one has the real mystical insight.

The Thursday night meetings had become small as there are Gatha classes going on but last night we had a lot of “strangers.” One group because of the poem, ”The Rejected Avatar” which is reaching the young. Another is the dissident movement from Big Sur. Some of my fellow students started the Esalen Institute and they are as afraid of real mystics and real mystical experiences as many whites now are of the coloreds. But the dissident movement has grown and grown and has no leadership. So some things have leaked out.

Next they brought children and this has produced a “nice” point. The Dervish Dances are gradually being adaptable to children and the sign is to go south as soon as possible and give them to Bhakti. With a very full program it is impossible to say just when. But now we have firms of the spiritual Message in the Dance and especially Gathas I ”Symbology” and some allied subjects. We have hardly looked into this. Mansur is my esoteric secretary and his wife, Jemila is the selected dancer (selected in vision only to find she is a frustrated ballerina) . Mansur’s birthday comes shortly and other things follow. It is shown by inward vision an overfull program. This has had the effect of making the immediate workers see how much Samuel (Murshid) has to do.

On the other hand one must keep referring to Beloved Lord, almighty God, through the rays of the sun, through the waves of the air, through the all-pervading power in space, purify are revivify me and I pray, heal my body, heart and soul. Stick with it, it is majestic and marvelous.

Love and blessings.

Samuel

cc-Shamcher

cc-Bhakti

The Garden of Inayat

910 Railroad Ave.,

Novato, Calif.

April 11, 1969

Paul and Sharab Harris,

Star Route 2,

Guy Mills, Pa.

Beloved Ones of God:

Now that spring has come, at least, here, I am hopping you may be well established. With some people few things happen; with this one there is never a dull moment. Almost every day brings some event of excitement. Yesterday we visited a great ceramicist potter, a German lady who was at Bauhaus. But her classes are full. Jamila, my chief secretary’s wife, is both interested in pottery and in returning to her career of school-teacher. But she is also training in esoteric dancing.

In one of our classes we put on the pageant of the Sufi Symbol. Jamila takes the part of Heart and Mansur her husband as Star. But last night we added all of Saum to the Pageant. We want to have this ready when Vilayat comes. We expect to have at least one station wagon with young people to attend his Colorado Seminar.

We do walks for Salaat. It is complicated. Each of these walks also has developed into something more, and there is now a whole panorama of Dervish (Sufi) dances and Mantric dances. The last blend into Yoga dances. We have also begun a form of choral singing based on sacred phrases. And it would appear now that my youngest disciple may go to India to take up dancing professionally. My last team failed God and me. Although Debby does not know it I shall contribute to her trip if she will visit Pir-o-Murshid’s tomb first. Besides with Gandhi’s centennial this can become very important.

It has been a period of revolution. One fights and studies all one’s life and sees the glory snatched. The first problem came here and I had to put my foot down and demand Toward the One. It proved to be most effective. It is not only this group but a number of communes are beginning to look to us for advice and leadership. I had to fight for the simple fact that one had done research into this field earlier. Now Mansur has the whole spirit of myself and earlier partner, Luther Whiteman, now deceased. He should be going to New Mexico in May and Colorado in June, Inshallah.

The Temple of Understanding is an attempt to have a house of prayer for all religions. They have accepted my reports and when they met in Calcutta followed Pir Vilayat’s advice. But now they have fallen under the influence of one of our supreme non-American, non-Asian “experts,” a man neither of moral integrity nor of any standing with Asian peoples. (I omit his name; it would ring a bell.) It is this sort of thing which has destroyed every move toward world peace and brotherhood; the “important” person is always important! And the largest and more ideal movements always go smash.

This same sort of firm fighting has to go on in several fronts. I shall not mention them now. As Pir-o-Murshid said, “These two things cannot exist together, self and God.” They don’t. There has been too much “self.”

Not a single ”expert” on Oriental philosophy showed up at the Indian’s students picnic. My representative, Daniel, did some mantric singing for them. He will now record my themes. His life and that of several others close to me have changed since this period of firmness and they are beginning to earn honest livelihoods. It is very awkward that while in addition to a now good stipend, Murshid has now a larger income from outside sources than many mureeds. But it means working every day, although there is a change of pace and even the two homes, San Francisco and here.

The total attendance at meetings has increased every week. I think I had 80 people at the last Southern Marin meeting. This group has been constantly on the increase with some very faithful disciples giving full cooperation. As to Northern Martin. The place which Vilayat dedicated has had so many changes I cannot tell you, but the leadership is gradually going to Shirin, a most beautiful and dedicated young woman. She, and some of the rest of us are wonderful whether Vilayat wished to acquire the property. The difference is that now he would have some faithful devotees to work with which was not the case when he was here before; it was just ”excitement” and interest.

There has been a delay in the publication of The Oracle. But it will have articles, I understand, by Paul Reps, Shamcher Bryn Beorse and Samuel L. Lewis. But one item in the delay has resulted in the appearance of financial backing and other things point in that direction.

The hardest handicaps has been the lack of the higher papers of Pir-o-­Murshid. There were two sources I had turned to and each seems to have expected the other to cooperate. The result is that one goes along with commentary work and also the opening of the deeper Inner Sciences which were not written up by Hazrat Inayat Khan. This is also necessary because of the advancement of some of the most faithful mureeds. In this respect Samuel believes he has been much more fortunate than Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir-o-Murshid had important people and money but little spirituality and mysticism.

Today one must return to San Francisco, presumably to meet an associate of late Thomas Merton, the Jesuit priest. This holy man was on route to San Francisco to meet this person when he left this world. The idea is to learn the esoteric sciences, etc. There is more here than meets the eye, much, much more.

Tomorrow the seminar on mystical experience will take place in San Francisco. I must not permit the previous age method of reading from books by some famous man and letting that pass. When Kaplau’s Three Pillars of Zen came out I danced. Mansur is very close to Dr. Huston Smith of MIT, the best known savant on real Asian culture.

I shall be wearing both a Sufi robe and Zen robe, and thus look like the Hierophant of the Tarot. Also carry a real Zen stick. But one has no idea of behavior.

There is a large and growing number of beautiful young girls in my entourage and others are attracted because they find these girls so beautiful. And they surmise, and rightly, this comes from devotional practices. These awaken the inner bodies and produce a glow.

Even more interesting has been the slow accumulation of slightly older men, all university graduates and generally teachers, ex-teachers or engineers—the kind of people Pir-o-Murshid wanted to draw into the Sufi Movement. But the frustrations from others sources, especially from the now “famous” Dr. Hayakawa and his associates, has made me invade universities in self-defense and there is no question that God has come to my aid so I shall not detail.

One manages to keep one’s health. Besides there is not only a large garden, The Garden of Inayat here, but the Ranch above and others call on one. And I expect to dedicate soon The Garden of Allah in Southern Marin. At least we are going to visit the pace today. We have planted vegetables, flowers and a few fruit trees. It is too early for the summer planting but yesterday one cooked a special dish from the vegetables here for breakfast and once in a while Murshid also cooks another meal from the crops here. The peas will soon be coming too. The strawberries are all in bloom.

You have heard of direct predictions. Samuel has laughed and said that Allah will not destroy California by earthquake but he may wish to wash it into the ocean. The rainfall has been tremendous and it is not the end of the season either. But intermittent warm weather produces run-off.

The silliness of it is found in that these predictors, who are called “occultists” (my eye) ignore the astrological factors. There is nothing like it in the horoscopes. The Oracle may have some of my own predictions and they came invariably true. But it resulted in extreme unpopularity even among so-called “Sufis.” The “popular” predictors do not have to be right; they remain popular. I won’t name them; they can be wrong every time and remain popular. But I do have some seers among my followers and am taking every precaution to stimulate and protect them.

Perhaps because of Divine Grace, perhaps through the realization of the spiritual practices one feels no sign of age or wear, and one cannot understand it, nor is it necessary. The largest project is the commentary work on Pir-o-­Murshid’s writings. This was one thing he took up in detail with me; the other was the building of the Temple. There has been failure and frustration in communication but not in effort, and now one of the transmitted articles is being published. As he said, very often the non mureeds are better than the mureeds in helping the Message, but in any event that which comes from God comes from God. “Neither can I be broken nor God but the one who would break me, he is broken.” One has never seen this fail, and yet lessons are learned very slowly indeed.

One teaches more and more by movement and this has been most successful.

Love and blessings,

Samuel

May 3, 1969

Dear Sharab and Paul:

Peace unto you. This is probably my last letter before a certain fame or notoriety or even infamy descends. In a short while I shall be leaving for the Khankah, called “The Garden of Inayat.” We are celebrating the Buddhist Wesak and the traditional May Day Together. The Maypole is up and there will be dances around it.

The first lectures of Hazrat Inayat Khan in the West were on ”Yoga Dances.” He had to leave off and hardly anyone has even in inkling. But today we are performing spiritual dances, and more and more with ever greater response.

The difference between the traditional Sufis and those of today is that traditional Sufis held that God was the only Being; also there is one Master and Teacher which is God. The previous generation could accept this as philosophy or belief but hardly as reality. The young people who are looked upon with askance are so different. A few hundred young, many not students, causing a disturbance on the Berkeley campus made world headlines; a much larger group, turned away from an Indian drama and concert did not reach the paper at all and this without considering the throng that did attend. We are in a New Age, but hardly the press, the TV, all news media from the so-called communists to the so-called Birch followers, all subjective, all living outside of reality in their own private “realisms.”

The Oracle is out. This started as a Hippy paper dominated by Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary. Leary is still in the background but he is over concerned with Sex—not in the emotional manner in which it is treated in the press but still in a very egocentric manner. Every year while maintaining his ”messiah-ship” he has a different cause. So his following dwindles but more young take Marijuana, at least.

When Vilayat was here I saw the jump from 20 mureeds to 80 and then a following of about a hundred though I expect more people today. One is fighting a whole culture. One wishes to restore the innate spirituality of Nature wherein people respected the Sun and Moon and seasons and saints. We are far from that. But one has choreographed a large number of dances and every time there is any inhibition, any time there is opposition or insomnia, one receives a new Dance or dances and the same will be true today. These Dances ooze out of one as aphorisms and poetry do from others.

When we were children there were Mayday celebration for those between 8 and 14, at least and no politics. Then the Marxists took over, so the anti-Marxists took over and no more children’s festivals, just babies, the offspring of leading politicians.

The Oracle not only has material from Paul Reps, Shamcher Bryn Beorse and Samuel L. Lewis, it also has pictures and articles about Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti and also larger literary contributions from my chief secretary Mansur Johnson and the chief art work by my Begum, Fatima Jablonski. Mansur was a star pupil of Prof. Huston Smith of M.I.T., the most accepted American authority on Asian faiths.

The day of the English and European ”Experts” on Asia is receding. Gradually Asian Studies are under Asians and Americans who studied under Asians. I am now as welcome on the Berkeley Campus in the Asian Studies as I have been in the scientific studies. And right under Prof. Hayakawa I have projects with the two chief philosophers of San Francisco State.

Income and attendance have gone up but this money is being used to help Vilayat at the Summer School. I am glad we received several applications. It is exceedingly difficult to impress older people that the Voice of God comes constantly from within. Previous letters were that one was unsure whether there would be a station wagon or a caravan and it certainly is not going to be just a station wagon.

Meanwhile everything is coming right, praise to God. Mansur will soon be off to New Mexico on his own and may (or may not) call on Bhakti and Mrs. D’Mitrieff, the chief secretary of Vilayat. But I shall later have to go to New Mexico myself. There are now spiritual communes just as one has seen and foreseen. What one has seen and foreseen is being published in The Oracle, not with my consent but it is appearing. One may moan the loss of my diaries in the fire of 1949 but what has been saved is so ”auguric”—we misuse the word ”prophetic.” All sorts of emotional psychics from Edgar Cayce up and down get great overage but the predictions of sages and mystics, not a word.

There is a book on Chinese Buddhism out and I remain an associate of the two chief characters in it. This has to be rejected because it hurts somebody, but why? And it is barely possible that facts will be accepted, sooner or later. The hugest joke of our culture has been the Moral Re-armament Movement with its Absolute Honesty as a motto and you can stop right there. Mottoes yes, realities?????

Now I hear that Fazal, misled by wealthy backers, may try to get at either Vilayat or myself or at Vilayat through Samuel. The hard fact and truth is that the actual Sufis—and I can name some of them—long ago expressed willingness to accept Vilayat and absolute refusal to accept the rest of the family. One had to make a quick decision and one did and has and no regrets before the Living God—a huge farce, Sufism without God!

But no sooner did one hear of the possibilities of Fazal plus $$$ descending one, that one received a tender of friendship from one of the followers of Sheikh Idries Shah who wants to unite the Sufis in this land. Add to that the ”Sufism Reoriented” movement. Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti wrote a letter excoriating a follower of Moin-ed-din Chisti for jumping on, then off the Meher Baba bandwagon with a long essay on La Illaha El Il Allah. It had just the opposite effect of our egocentric logic! It brought him to realize he is far from accepting God as the Only Being and a beautiful response came. This is the true Repentance.

Older Americans love band-wagons and younger Americans love Brotherhood. My dances have been based on those principally or entirely for men, those principally or entirely for women (excepting the Guru), those with partners and those for everybody, sex not mattering. But when I took up this matter of the women commingling with the women I received on answer of the New Age, for it is obvious that there are not the usual sects and factions and cliques.

Mrs. Vocha Fiske, my oldest and best friend, is home now dividing for time between here and Novato and she has been amazed to find the objectification of everything held for years and not only that but there is Peace and Brotherhood and cooperation among the disciples. One day I saw about 20 coming down the lawn with arms around each other, sex not mattering and I saw the New Age, and they are like that. I have a much larger following today.

There is even the question of junior disciples which has to be faced. I do not wish to go into this but while the late Sri Aurobindo predicted a higher evolution as did H. C. Wells and Bulwer Lytton, it is very difficult to convince other people.

Sam challenged The Oracle asking why it was not an oracle. Then things began to happen. This American is a thorough pragmatist. He has an Oracle based on Gayan and Vadan and uses it an gets disciples to us it. This has in turn awakened those disciples who are natural Oracles. And the other night the chief one said: “I saw everybody in light and you in the greatest light with Inayat Khan standing beside you and really directing everything.” Of course this is so and the work of 1911 is coming to fruition now.

Excepting for New Mexico and Seattle, I do not wish to travel, may not even travel until Vilayat comes. One never really gets a day off; the last one was used to purchase plants for the Khankah.

Then there is the possibility of ”real estate” expansion. We got the Khankah by following Pir-o-Murshid’s directions which have been almost universally rejected. When one of my chief disciples was rejected the above Oracle saw nothing but good and the result was the obtaining of a much finer place at less rent in the same district.

So w dedicated The Garden of Allah Tuesday night and my friend, Vocha Fiske, as above, said she never saw anything like it. There was not only love for Murshid but for each other and light and enthusiasm all around. Sometimes I feel ashamed because I do not think Pir-o-Murshid ever experienced that.

I am waiting for Vilayat to ordain two Khalifs the (he may ordain more and Sheikhs as he will)

As one draws—The Message is in the Space or Sphere—so do others. The Journey is one which Murshid and Mureed take together.

Of course much more is going on but one cannot write research papers and direct a festival by staying at the typewriter. So I close.

With all love and blessings,

Samuel

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

June 2, 1969

Viola Sharab Harris,

R.D. 2,

Guy Mills, Pa. 16327

Dearest Sharab:

Peace. One supposes the only reason why one did not join fully in the pains and tribulations to Paul and thus to you has been because today one has a large and growing family. “The old order dieth giving place to new and God fulfills himself in many ways.”

It is barely possible that you may get this letter in time to telephone to Cleveland,

Mrs. May Larson

5861 Wilton Mills Road,

442-0711

Vilayat will be there on the 3rd and 4th. On the 5th and 6th with Miss Margaret Leach,

330 East Liberty Drive. Apr. 2,

Wheaten Ill. 60186

3 12-668-3780

I as sending copy of this letter to Vilayat c/o this last address. There has already been occasion to write to Miss Leach. She is acting as secretary-treasurer for the Colorado Summer camp which holds forth later in the month.

We shall hold a silence today and tonight when the Dervish Dance group meets. The attendance has been very good. But we have stopped our Sunday meetings here and will hold forth at the Garden of Inayat in Novato until further notice. At the end of next week it will be necessary for either Murshid or Khalif Moineddin or both to go to Hollywood to join Vilayat and I shall take this letter along then, in case he does not get copy of this. I shall also write to Bhakti. There is plenty of traffic back and forth these days and Bhakti and her family (the Fraleys) have been invited to meet us at the Khankah at Novato and to stay there for a while.

It does not bring comfort when one’s own body is in fine shape and “stoop labor” is not only a need but an accomplishment. One can look upon your place and also see its spiritual possibilities because of the atmosphere built up. But I do not know Vilayat’s plans and do not wish to make too many suggestions, involved in creative spiritual dancing. This is going on at a bewildering rate, often taking one into realms of spiritual ecstasy. While this is not a compensation it does balance the terrific labor one is compelled to face at all times.

I think I told you we have a marvelous birthday party for Begum Fatima Jablonski on May 20th but this person inwardly cried. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, with all his magnificence never gathered around him the souls who could establish spiritual brotherhood. And this person, though appointed by God and confirmed by Pir-o-Murshid as leader in a real World Brotherhood effort is only now after many many years going ahead. But today the proceedings are almost as easy as they were difficult before. Then one had road-blocks and obstacles, today too many calls. But one must expect this.

The young people want Spiritual Brotherhood and not some exclusive leadership called “spiritual brotherhood.” The young accept love, harmony, and beauty as realities, their elders only as words. The first efforts to read Sufi poetry among the Hippies have been entirely successful; the first efforts among seniors is still to come. But this month a course starts in “Creative Poetry as influenced by Oriental Philosophy” and I not only expect to enroll but also to have my secretary Mansur.

Mansur is away in New Mexico whither I must go later. He then goes to Colorado for the camp with Vilayat. We have anywhere from 5 to 10 signed up. Then Vilayat will come here, and he is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday evening July 2, we may have a large meeting. While the average attendance at such meetings is about 50 people, it has run up to 80 and when you have to give attention to so many, it is hard, for one treats all as “Beloved Ones of God.”

I feel sorry for Tiger. We had a cat here named Nassim A young female joined him. We soon had more and “good” mureeds also deposited kittens and I had to clear the place of them with just the one male. We have many at the Khankah but there is room and also gophers and mice which I abhor.

Have had hardly a poor day of weather this year and in the changing back and forth always on the lucky side, praise to Allah.

I shall not impinge on Vilayat’s time before he comes on July 2nd but may see him at least occasionally beforehand. I shall always keep you in heart.

All love and blessings,

Samuel

June 18, 1969

Dear Sharab:

There was a work, “Between the Desert and the Sown” and one feels a little like that at the moment waiting for the station wagon to go to Novato with just a few hours before the caravan departs for Colorado, with several reports and a number of instructions and dashing off this letter because all the secretaries will either be gone or working at specialty jobs in this general area.

I can understand how you feel. I have an aged uncle who has been in despair since my aunt died and living alone, and to me, in the wrong city. But if I had had any wish it would be to go to Cleveland where I hear Anne is also lonely although there is now a New Age.

As one teaches that God is in everybody, that everyone is the beloved of God there is not empathy for those who look down on the Hippies. Sometimes one takes refuge in the ”Armenian”: The money of all men was created free and equal and it is stupid and unholy to refuse to trade with people. The result is in a few years we shall see a evolution—not the communist revolution which people claim to be afraid of, but one in the direction of honesty, brotherhood and a humane outlook.

Bhakti’s liking my beard out-vetoes a lot of criticisms from other older women who have not the spiritual élan anyhow. The young who have non-traditional outlooks are growing in number. It is a mistake to regard them as communists for their communes are based on some form of love and brotherhood. I shall know more later when I see my secretary (Mansur’s) reports. Then in August I may go to New Mexico.

I have returned from a flier south. We had two visits with Sheikha, Robert, and Jelila and it is important to keep in close touch. Please excuse me for not reporting details—there are a lot on many subjects and all most friendly and cordial. We then visited Ramdas’s grandson and his wife and friends and ”then the fun began.” It was fun, but more adventure than fun and took us in several directions the next two days. Then we are with Vilayat again in North Hollywood.

He had spent an hour here before we left—he stayed here a little longer. There was not anything but cordiality but of course he had details to discuss with some people as he did at the meeting in North Hollywood. I am totally satisfied with what is being attempted. It has been necessary to have a legal organization and if I can get rid of a certain amount of irresponsibility here we should become a tower of strength to Suzanne D’Mitrieff, his American secretary. I am not bothering with appointments and officials he selects having too much to do with teachings, writings and such. Only I can say so far I see much more hope in the workers than his father had. In fact I am almost as fanatical as Bhakti in some of these matters, the difference between only that perhaps I am slightly more sober!

From several quarters come reports of attempts of Fazal to take over. Vilayat assures me he has taken all the necessary legal steps and certainly in case of legal suit my testimony would put a shame to all enemies, within or without.

There is a big sign as you enter or leave San Francisco. ”Happiness consists of making other people happy—Meher Baba.” I think I could sue the pants off of them. For they certainly grabbed all my Sufi papers and a lot more and attacked me publicly and privately and were almost successful. But they made other attempts to rub me out afterwards, too—in the name of ”Divine Love.” But they use the title, “Sufism Re-Oriented” Which is a joke.

If you ever come to The Garden of Inayat you will find a lot of hustle and bustle. True, this is our first year. The tomatoes may be ready when I return and lettuces, cabbage and carrots have been most successful. Shall know later about other things. We also have many kinds of flowers and flowering shrubs, but God has preserved my strength which is better than when we were last together. This is true of mental vigor also.

There are times when I feel the necessity to write commentaries of parts of Volumes X and XII. That on “Cosmic language” has been completed but there is a lot of Gatha and Githa work to be done. The so-called ”headquarters” has done everything possible to withdraw the papers, and I doubt if they have anybody who can really teach the deeper phases. Oh, Vilayat is all right there and shows the acumen into hierarchal initiations. But few, even in the whole world, not many, know this.

Out work in music and dancing goes on and as soon as there is a secretary it will be written up. But one has to work day in and day out 12 hours, and often more with only internal warnings to take part days off. Others preach at one but do nothing. There is no help in verbal advice and it is often confusing.

At the other extreme are more and more expressions of deep love and reverences which is marvelous and increasing.

I realize that we would be ”outlawed” in other parts of the world. But we purchased our house, have had no trouble with neighbors, obey all laws and no psychedelics, lewd language or behavior of politics. Indeed the dancing calling on God in many ways is most effective.

Had a short but more enjoyable visit at the studio of Ruth S. Denis. So it goes and mostly everything well.

Love and blessings,

Samuel

July 28, 1969

My dear Sharab:

I have your letter of the 21^st . One is going back and forth constantly between two homes. We, as a group, are busier than ever with a Mime group, a choral group and an cumbersome dancing class. Every sign is that Vilayat will succeed if God wills.

No effort has been made to go to Colorado. The idea seems to have been that Vilayat wanted younger people. Even now I wish to start in for his the boost the next year’s camp. It looks very, very propitious and auspicious.

We are also going to use his methods of meditation so far as he wishes. We have had too many kinds of medication and too few fruits of meditation.

I am now about to write to Dr. Radhakrishnan. Yesterday there was a big Krishna celebration here, all young people. The very rival Sri Aurobindo and Ramakrishna movements appeal to the elite. They have some membership and of course, money, but they are not getting the young blood.

Then there is the Sivanananda movement which is both highly intellectual and highly spiritual. All of these groups and others are apart. But gradually we are getting ”in” with the universities and I mean ”in.”

My God-daughter, Miss Khawar Khan who will return this week, wanted me to go to Ithaca. I think I wrote asking whether you would be in Guy Mills or Cleveland early in September. Now the thing is getting more complex. “Organic Gardening” has asked me to write an article on the Khankah. It seems we are having unusually good fortune with our vegetables. Why we sent just two days’ squashes to the market to barter and you should see what we got in return!

We have surpluses of Broccoli, Tomatoes, Squash, and have so many figs and fruits which we keep for ourselves. The first Beams came out so wonderfully I have put in more. This is just the side show.

I understand that Vilayat is also using the dances. We have so many, but still short of secretarial help. The men at the Khankah all have part-time jobs; one woman is away and another becoming a mother. So we are short-handed. But some of the new mureeds are beginning to help in the office.

Now you should breathe in often. Concentrating on Ya Shafee with the inhalation. Ya Kafee with the exhalation. If the pain stays in a particular place, concentrate on it and breathe in and out with Allah, and also feel the sound Allah in the place of pain. This should be most helpful.

I am waiting next either for a call or visit from a lady mureed in Washington State, or from New Mexico. August is already over-crowded, but that is life.

Yes, that is my picture with a beard. I wear a heard now, and it is very popular, in fact almost too popular, keeping me extraverted.

I do not know Vilayat’s intensions. His secretary has written we shall get full details. But the attendance at this meetings has been excellent and there is much more vitality and exaltation and it brims over for we are getting more and more visits from his disciples and we all integrated
excellently.

Copy of this to Shamcher.

Love and blessings

Samuel

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

December 20, 1969

My dear Sharab:

Your beautiful but sad letter of the 15th is here. This person is far from being in retirement and his life is full of blessings and aches, but it is possible, inshallah, that these aches are in preparation for something big. This is supposed to be my “day off” and it is only a little after 8 in the morning and the house is crowded with loving mureeds. But as we are preparing for Christmas, they will go to work and one hopes joyously.

We are planning a Cross and a Manger, but no tree. Zeynab, my local ward who goes to art school will have charge of building and decorating the Cross first and then the other things. Baby Samuel Vilayat will be the Child. We have a lot of infants and they all seem to love each other in a remarkable way. We shall have dancing and chanting and then carol singing.

The news is that the spiritual dances are wanted more and more and Vilayat maybe here in January to consult me and he wants the choreographies, but I am short of secretarial help.

At least we do not have extremes in weather although lately it has been raining very hard.

We shall be with you in spirit on your Sufi Service. We have a lot to do here for robes, altar clothes, etc., Also gradually going in for robes and costumes. There are a lot of fine young men ready for Bayat, too.

I am not planning for Pakistan. There will be a congregation of all the world’s religions in Istanbul, Turkey, in next March. Both Vilayat and Samuel are preparing and he wants the dances and there is no reason why he should not have them.

Your re-reading the Sufi Message books is the same as mine. There are so many and when you leave them for a few years they are like new. This is wonderful as it brings “rebirth.”

Personally I should like to see you with others but equally I loved your scenery, it was to me marvelous and I can keep it in memory.

Plans are many and all progressing—garden kiln for ceramics, printing (in cooperation with the disciples around Seattle), etc. More classes will be starting soon, and I do not want to get ahead of Vilayat. He has so much to do.

Bhakti seems more or less confined but she is loved and admired by the young. The young in the different centers get along wonderfully with each other. It is a New Age.

Love and blessings,

Samuel

Jan. 24, 1970

Mrs. V.A. Harris

R.D. 2

Guy Mills, Pa. 16327

My dear Sharab:

I was very happy to get your letter of the 20th. It sounds so much more cheerful. The weather out here has been close to my ideal, warm and wet; so wet that we have had floods and landslides, so warm that the houses are comfortable by themselves, hardly ever getting down to 50 degrees. Besides, with the growing population, we certainly need more water.

I tell everybody that there is too much drama in the life to crave for excitement, whatever excitement be. Not a dull moment. Vilayat came both on and off schedule. At his unscheduled meeting he said, “You have not only started the year right, you have started the decade right.” At our regular meeting we had some 150 people, to say the least. We were all too busy to count.

You will pardon me; at this moment my goddaughter’s husband phoned; he is in severe difficulty, perhaps for the first time, and wants help, but read on.

Vilayat returned and, I understand, he addressed a San Francisco audience. The San Francisco esotericists are roughly divided into two camps, and whether by accident or design, he addressed one of the groups with whom we are on excellent terms, and the reports have been very favorable. Our own meeting was so huge, we had to use three circles in the dances, and we did almost everything Vilayat had asked for. We not only did the whirls of the seven planets, but also Uranus.

He wanted to sing, rather than talk, so we had a sort of sing-fest. Our choral group performed two of Maheboob Khan’s creations. Vilayat was entranced. Then he sang, sang like a man just released from terrible tension. Then I told a story about the donkey and the camel; that the donkey wanted to sing. He gawked. Then I had everybody get up and join me and we sang very loud:         

“Pir Vilayat zindabad, Pir Vilayat zindabad,

Pir Vilayat zindabad, Vilayat Inayat Khan.”

Tears came to his eyes—all these young people expressing appreciation.

We are pretty much in agreement on so many subjects. I said he could have all the people under 28 and I would take those in their thirties. The next day I received an invitation to give spiritual teachings indefinitely at Lama Foundation in New Mexico, most of whose members are in their thirties. There is every sign of the next summer camp being a huge success. There is every sign of him now embarking on a career far greater than that which his father had. There may not be so much money or prestige, but there are living hearts with all the zest of life. There is a different kind of disciple today. I have just initiated six young men and one young woman, but I have had to ask one of my Sheikhs to join also in this work. These are no longer just ex-psychedelics, but a very fine type of spiritual seeker.

This morning we attended Indian Independence Day celebration, and again had excellent contact which will open doors. The dancing classes are now filled to satiation. Vilayat wanted the choreography. This has kept me so busy. Perhaps rightfully busy, but busy to the point of exhaustion. He believes there is a tremendous future in them. I think he realizes his father left a treasure with me.

We have agreed on the schedule and policy to be adopted before the next congress of the world’s religions, scheduled now for Geneva at some near date, not settled. But in the meanwhile, I have been invited to so many places in the Eastern States, you would do me a great favor to let me know where you are and when, even if you did not write otherwise.

While this and a lot more is going on, I have my brother in the hospital, capital operation and under sedation; with the slightest turn of events, perhaps greatly affecting my future. All past animosities are gone, inshallah forever. And he is in a position to make me a wealthy man. I am certainly not going to force him or anything, but the time may come inshallah, when I will be relieved from all duress. At the moment, the pressures are so great it is difficult for me to think and write as clearly as I might. You may not notice this, but it is so.

With all love and blessing,

Faithfully,

Samuel

Feb. 20, 1970

Mrs. V.A. Harris

R.D. 2 Guy Mills,

Pa. 16327

My dear Sharab:

I feel queasy in writing this letter. To begin with, so far as weather is concerned, it has without question been the best one of my whole life. If there has been any frost, I have missed it. There was a flash flood in Novato, and I was in San Francisco at the time. One has to be humble here because we read in “The Unity of Religious Ideals” that holiness has an effect on the weather. In fact, the weather was so beneficial I have already planted potatoes on a large scale and lettuce, chard, and garlic on a small scale.

But this is almost the only exercise I get apart from dancing. Nothing like a day off; nothing like a half a day off so far this year. Excepting for a rare radio or television program, no other relaxation. The fact that Allah has preserved my health means that one gets importuned. My brother has been in the hospital for some time and no sign either way. My close spiritual brother Shamcher Beorse has been quite unwell, etc., etc.

The spiritual dances are taking on, taking on at a very rapid rate. I am therefore taking a flash visit to southern California to see Bibijan, the secretary, two teachers interested in spiritual dancing, and then, inshallah, Bhakti and the Fraleys on the way back. These dances and the accompanying and related forms of music consume all one’s time, but of course, to good purpose. My two classes here in San Francisco are full. By the Fall, I shall either have representative teachers or devote more and more time to the classes.

Every time Pir Vilayat comes here and makes even a half-suggestion, soon we are doing it. The dancing of the spheres, and last night the walks of the spheres, took on stupendous proportions. These, of course, belong to “the music of the Spheres.” The next thing Vilayat suggested was the possibility of our work being televised. Among my newer mureeds, I have Bill, who is very advanced in Musicology, and Fred, who is all equipped now for pictures and sound equipment. Fred has been to one, at least, of Pir Vilayat’s camps, and his wife, Julie, to at least two. It is remarkable how these things are picked right out of the ethers. You can understand why I am queasy when you are close to being “stir crazy.” With me it is the opposite—guests at practically every meal. Yesterday I cooked breakfast for 14 disciples at Novato. You may have real grandchildren—I have ersatz-grandchildren and some of them marvelous. Their offspring still more marvelous.

Plans are to go to Geneva late in March; no plans after that. This will be a conference of the world’s religions, and Vilayat said he may not be there so I was to carry on. Well, I am ready. After all these year’s preparation, I am ready. But I have invitations to at least 5 places in Eastern States, and I do not know at this writing how I can handle it. It is certain that I shall be having my own summer school, perhaps in the state of New Mexico and more and more and more—no dullness, no tranquility, and a day of the spreading of the Message, “May the Message of God reach far and wide” has come. At least 15 disciples were given Bayat this year. And more coming—the most beautiful young men and women you ever saw.

Well, the phone has been ringing, etc., so please excuse me for stopping abruptly at this point.

Love,

Samuel

May 1, 1970

My dear Sharab:

Love and blessings. The world looks very bright. It is a wonderful Spring here now, and was even more wonderful at the Khankah in Novato. Tomorrow two disciples are being married and we follow that with a Spring dance festival in Fairfax, in the Deer Park section not far from the old Kaaba Allah. Disciples are constantly pilgrimaging there and getting great inspirations.

Well we are kinfolk. I have been to London and Boston and also left my address book home! The daffodils were in bloom all over in England, in great masses. Some in Switzerland and some in Boston and also other Spring blossoms. The Forsythia in particular was out and the Magnolias beginning in Boston. We visited both Kew Gardens and Arnold Arboretum but it was cool and gloomy most of the time. But outside the weather nothing negative.

Our going to Switzerland certainly justified all previous endeavors. We received profound apologies from the rabbis and protestant ministers who ignore our mail. My big thing was a program for Palestine and this has opened up still bigger. We were the only ones who could discourse with every group—and did. We knew the leaders of the Hindus and Buddhist.

On the third day we were having a confab and I saw Pir Vilayat going out the door. He was surprised and delighted. He was the only one to receive two recognitions. Most of the rest, great and small received one, even this person. Next Friday night I shall be speaking in public but I have no more concern with older people and organizations that would not take me seriously, even turned me off, And what is on now? Wars and confusions and turmoils.

We were welcomed in London by the top Orientalists and the young. And in Boston in particular by the young. We hope to return in the Fall. Present uncertain plans would be to fly to some point and rent a car and travel from Washington to Boston to Cleveland all points between. It is uncertain, but!

When I arrived in London there was a cable announcing the death of my brother. This leaves me in a much better financial position—it was not so bad, now it looks wonderful. Wonderful also the response of the young, and the Dances of Universal Peace may be taking over, because that may be God’s will. It is certain I have a Summer School awaiting me in New Mexico, enrollment all filled.

I am trying to limit the number of my students and have them attend Vilayat’s Summer Camp. That looks very, very assuring at this writing. It is a new age, Sharab. A mob greeted my farewell and almost as large a one my return and the first public meeting was crowded! Feeling fine physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Love,

Samuel

May 23, 1970

Mrs. Viola Harris

R.D. 2

Guy Mills, Pa. 16327

My dear Sharab:

I am very glad to have your letter of the 18^th and to know that you are feeling much better. It is not always pleasant to write and tell others how beautiful the weather has been. You know in California we have a much longer Springtime than in many other parts. In addition to that we have very ambitions garden plans, and some of these are even fulfilled because of the growing number of loyal mureeds. At times I want to sit and cry. Pir-o-Murshid never had such followers.

There is not a dull moment. Not a dull moment. Secretary Mansur and I will leave in a few days for Lama, a spiritual commune in the northern part of the state of new Mexico. They want me there as a functioning Guru, or rather Murshid. This had been partly due to the fact that I have already been there, rather successfully, and even more to a sort of heritage of legacy from Prof. Richard Alpert. This man has been a professor at Harvard. He engaged in psychedelic research. He took to what erroneously and mistakenly is called “drugs.” He went to India and had a spiritual conversion. Although he feels that he gained much in India it has not satisfied him and the last news is that he is preparing to leave the country to study Sufism.

While the Lama exploit will include 30 to 40 people and last a month, the summer camp of Pir Vilayat, which will be held in the state of Arizona, while lasting just a week, will include many more people. I have two views on this subject: A. I wish to help Pir Vilayat; B. I wish to see a large flourishing spiritual endeavor which will put to shame pretenders and phonies and velly-­exclusive universal cults, which often are more restrictive than the organizations from the past. The result is that we are almost fever-pitched trying to promote this camp, or camps. I cannot exaggerate this either.

The main enigma before me at the moment is my geography. It is an enigma because there is a log-jam on invitations, and there is considerable uncertainty about fitness. Don’t get any idea that there is a tragedy; it is not that. The directors of my father’s estate have not come to an absolute final conclusion. That is one thing. On the horizon are signs of a new increment for myself, and also increased individual and total incomes of disciple close to me.

This letter has been interrupted, and properly interrupted, by the young. Telephone, visits etc. We are having joint birthday parties and farewell Sunday. I cannot tell at this writing whether we shall try to reach you, but I can assure you that our plans at the moment include car rental to cover the area between Washington, Boston, and Cleveland.

There are a few problems, or matters of policy, I am hoping Pir Vilayat will straighten out. These include mostly the relative values of his writings and those of his father, and how far he wishes to use each in exoteric and esoteric classes. I am not particularly dogmatic here, but I feel there should be something like order in our work. All I can see is that the Message of God is going to reach far and wide, illuminating and making the whole humanity one single brotherhood in the Fatherhood of God. There are too many signs for it, too many in all directions.

I am hoping that ultimately you could move to Cleveland or elsewhere and bear up with whatever now conditions may arise.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

Aug. 22, 1970

Mrs. V. A. Harris

R. D. 2

Guys Mills, Pa. 16327

My dear Sharab:

I am most happy to have heard from you. You are certainly correct in presuming things are different today. They are totally different.

To begin with, the problems are very different. I have lost two of the three chief secretaries because of the expansion of the movement. The third secretary is now being paid a little, and if vision is correct, this will with increase, inshallah. I am again working seven days a week, with no break, with no desire for a break. As Pir-o-Murshid said, “Sleep is resting, but awakening is interesting.” That is the way things are. Also, unfortunately, while working very hard, the chief Khalif, Moineddin Jablonski, has been very ill, spending much time in the hospital. I have found some of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s more advanced healing methods. These had been entrusted to Rabia, who never gave them out. This is fortunate and unfortunate. They certainly have to be applied, are being applied, at a time I am absolutely surrounded by dramas. Most of them are most glorious dramas, but they are going on.

Financially, I am much better off than ever. The income from my father’s estate is now entirely mine.

The income from the dancing classes has gone up. The income from dues and Bayat have gone up. I am now even on schedule for public paid lectures. The departments of philosophy of the University of California at Berkeley and Southern California have sent for me, etc., etc., etc.

I think I wrote you that Vilayat was the only person called upon twice to stand up in Geneva. While I am sometimes a little disturbed by his constant occupations and presumed reports about his health, he not only seems totally devoted and dedicated to the Message, there are many signs that he is being accepted more and more and more and more. He is going to visit many holy places of the world and will be accompanied or joined by some of my mureeds. The undertakings are stupendous and tremendous, and evidently Allah favors them for there has been some success in the raising of funds therefore.

While this is going on, other disciples are making every effort to bring about real world peace. There were a few people who took me seriously. With one exception they were connected with the University of California in some way or another. The name of the exception was Gunnar Jarring, a man whose name appears in the paper very much these days. He told me I had presented the most sensible plan for the Near East he had ever heard of.

One of my disciple, Phillip Davenport, had already published my Toward Spiritual Brotherhood. He is personally involved in both of the above undertakings. I failed utterly here in earlier efforts to get the public to accept my reports on “Real Saints, Real Sages, Real Shrines.” Now Vilayat is visiting many of these persons and places, inshallah.

Sunday morning. I am still rather “high.” The lecture yesterday on the 12th Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians was one of the finest of my inspirations, from my point of view. There was an excellent audience, practically all young people, showing more spiritual intelligence than one usually finds, or at least found in the past. It is a New Age, with a new type of soul manifesting in bodies, and showing deep interest in real spirituality.

I wish to emphasize this because one of fizzle-Fazal’s disciples has published a book about Inayat Khan, the same emotions, the same hyperboles, the same ultra-claims as you find among the followers of Meher Baba and his many competitors—no devotions, no consideration of God, no recognition of humanity and history, or for that matter spiritual development. The advanced dancing class last night was fully attended—replacements taking the place of absentees. I as yet do not know how to get out of states of intoxication easily, and this keeps one more in tune with the young people who have the same behavior. But already the phone has rung, that we might be excepting another class, the intermediary dancing class today.

If the problem works out right we should be leaving these parts as soon as possible after Hejirat Day, the presumable first destination is New York City where my new secretary has a car which we shall use for traveling. Further than that I cannot tell you at this writing exactly what our program may be. The first problem in time is to go to Ithaca where my God-daughter is, but she has failed to give me a definite date or even a definite program and she may come out here. We have very heavy programs for both the Washington and Boston areas. There are also roving disciples who may return and give us some news about New York.

While the programs are increasing, while the lectures are increasing, while the Gatha classes are prospering, while the advanced disciples are progressing in all directions, two of my best secretaries have outside jobs, and my chief Khalif has been ill for weeks. My second Khalif now realizes this, and he shall do everything possible to promote the classes in San Francisco and the East Bay. There is also one very good Sheikh, and representative teachers in Marin County. In other words, I am faced with a problem I knew was coming—of becoming an executive.

I don’t want to tell you more, because that will take time away from accomplishments. The trees are in blossoms; the flowers are sending out their perfume and are most beautiful as well as fragrant. I am surrounded by an ever-growing number of young people, beautiful physically and spiritually. A few months ago I gave a short talk on “May the Message of God Reach Far and Wide” and said it was about to happen. It is happening. We are working, very closely I believe, with Vilayat, and it is almost as if “God is in His Heaven, all is right with the world.”

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

Nov. 16, 1970

My dear Sharab,

I think I have written to you while on my recent Eastern trip, but found your letter of October 6 not filed, so one is writing again.

The trip to the East Coast had to be terminated because successes began piling in one after another. It is strange that at this time in life one has five different careers, all successful, praise to Allah. True, they somewhat overlaps and they do involve some of the same disciples in more than one project. It seems that if the Message itself had a purpose, that this purpose resembles a tree with several branches, and each giving rise to foliage, fruit, and flower.

I returned home in excellent physical and mental shape. New York was difficult as you might surmise because of the over-heated, shut-in, apartments. I had to leave two places well worthy of visiting because of this artificial heat and cramped quarters, so I am delighted with your news of non-pollution. Actually, the great thing in this country, and it makes me exceedingly angry that President Roosevelt said once, “We have nothing to fear but fear,” and it seems as if the press and the advertisers are so over-stressing to fear that in New York City people are afraid to approach each other.

We never ever ran into bad weather; we were living near Central Parks and with excellent Fall weather the park was almost as empty as the one in Richmond, Virginia, which I visited during cherry blossom season. One can almost judge a city, its spirituality, and future, by the groups one meets in public places. Indeed, I never saw such a quiet political campaign, and such sham excuses for non-interest. But the prevalence of fear was evident in Manhattan, but not fortunately in the Boston area.

Some time has elapsed. This house is a veritable beehive, and perhaps this is as God wishes. So many things are happening, so many wonderful things, that they over-shadow any bad or unfortunate news. The next enterprise is to write up again the six interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan in 1925. Or rather to write up all the interviews, for the first interview was repressed. It simply was not accepted. All the gush gush and mish mosh of love, harmony, and beauty has never led to the acceptance of the first interview with Hazrat Inayat Khan in 1925. Or rather its acceptance only by Paul Reps who was inside on at least one interview and outside the door on the rest. Not even Kismet Stam accepted these interviews. Certainly not Rabia Martin, and even less Maheboob Khan. And to counter-balance this absolute acceptance by Sufis in other lands. One wonders what people mean when they verbalize “One single brotherhood in the fatherhood of God.” I certainly do not understand what many people mean when they use the term “brotherhood.”

Of course there is no ill will now.

One of the interruptions between the commencement of this letter and its resumption has been concerning a program to be given at the University of California on Sufism. This program will certainly make it much easier when Pir Vilayat comes.

I won’t tell you much more because then you will not get the full idea of how great and grand the Divine Message is since the tree has begun to put out leaves. It is stupendous; it is magnificent. I have often said, Inayat Khan would have given his right arm or his tooth for such disciples. He did not have them. What have they done in this world? This is no longer true.

The hardest thing in the life is to keep from breaking down and crying when I have to watch the magnificent work done by the mureeds of the day. Vilayat’s agent was here yesterday. When he presented plans he received nothing but yeses from this person, and the plans seem so easy that one can be sure the Message of God is reaching far and wide and that the spiritual teachings of the day are taking a firm hold amid the young humanity.

I do not know Vilayat’s exact program. I do know it will be very easy to put it into operation.

I now have the tremendous job ahead of getting my creative writings ready for the market. So many doors opened in the East, so many are opening here and now. All we can do is praise God and go to work.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

Dec. 4, 1970

Dear Sharab,

Thank you for your letter of November 27. We had a very successful Thanksgiving at the Khankah. We have a new type of stove, self-cleaning, with two ovens, one very large, and it easily accommodated the 30 lb. turkey. Members of both houses joined together, and this will be done, perhaps, at Christmas, and certainly at New Year’s. That is the birthday also of Khalif Moineddin Jablonski, who is house-manager. He had been in the hospital two months and was released the day before Thanksgiving.

I am giving you a copy of letter written to Sufis Speak. Everything is moving rapidly in all directions excepting secretarial help. The work mounts and mounts, and at the Khankah there is now no secretarial help at all—just parades of ironies, not tragedies, but they make it very hard for me. I have a lot of loving and lovely disciples, but have extremely ironical situations that despite constant pleas not to bother me about where they should live or how they should live, I am getting more and more problems in this field, to the point that I may lose my temper publicly. For there are disciples who have rooms to let, some “easy” and some slightly expensive, and there are others who constantly come to Murshid despite appeals and admonitions and ask him where they should live, and they pay no attention to the other disciples who have places.

We have had the wettest early winter in California history, excepting in 1926, but that year I was living down in Los Angeles. The rain does shut out the frost, and it is possible that the vegetables will be growing.

My closest friend, Mrs. Vocha Fiske, was our guest at Thanksgiving and has seen the Dances. She was very close to Ruth St. Denis, and so more than anybody else realizes what is happening.

Now as to my family. I don’t know how many times I was kicked out of my parental home. Every time my brother did anything wrong I was punished. For all this, he died a broken-hearted man, discovering that the people whom he had trusted were like himself very questionable. I find now, as I had suspected, that he gave them nearly all the family heirlooms. A few years ago I had my cousin Mildred visit me at a open public Sufi party. She returned, saying we were absolutely wrong about Samuel, to the family; we were absolutely wrong.

Last Sunday I was invited by her daughter Mary Lou to a big party at the old home on 9th Avenue. To me it was wonderful in every respect. Then Mildred came to the Sunday afternoon dancing class and said, “I never saw so many beautiful young men and women in my life.” This was also the conclusion of my friend Vocha and others. And I think this may be why Vilayat wants to spend more time here. I don’t believe he will be disappointed.

We will let Vilayat know about you. One of his secretaries is expected any time now, and I may be able to find about his program. We are a little divided. Some of us feeling he is traveling too much and not resting enough. The same conclusion has been reached by non-Sufis, who are his friends, but this does not mean it is the right conclusion. He may be strong enough to carry on.

I think I have given the rest of the news in the letter to Atiya, (copy enclosed). Yes Shamcher is very busy there and also continues his grand careers.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

May 8, 1970

Rev. John C. Haughey, S.J.

Associate Editor America

106 W. 56^th Street

New, York, N.Y. 10019

My deal Father Haughey:

I have returned after a rather dramatic period following the convocation at Geneva. Evidently God, so to speak, favors my endeavors. On reaching London I learned that my brother had died during my absence—it was expected as he had had a very very long illness. This apparently means a fair increase in my monthly allotments enabling me to travel anywhere, and already invitations have been coming—from the young.

My presumable schedule would take me East, covering a triangle between Washington, Boston and Cleveland, where Mansur will probably drive me by car. I want to work within the organizational outlines and this means a bridling of both enthusiasm and personality. For example, I have been involved in a number of hypothetical efforts to bring the religions of the world together. I find in general that delegates have been hand-picked and often hand-picked by non­religious groups for selfish or unselfish reasons.

I was informed that certain of these groups, like the Baha’is, had been vetoed. The Baha’is claim to have a universal outlook and that the day of universality, their particular kind of universality, was to supplant all the traditional methods. But it seems within the last century or so there have arisen a large number of parallel movements with vaguely the same general claims. In previous years a convention of the world congress of faiths of London broke up in turmoil because of the personality hostilities between two groups with broadly the same outlooks.

Therefore in listing group and organizations with the same general outlooks of The Temple of Understanding, while I can list several of them, my reactions are not always impersonal and dispassionate. I find they fall into two classes: a. those who in their enthusiasm for a personality tend to discard high moral standards; b. those who are intellectuals or actually have in mind some propaganda. This includes the University of Hawaii, whose supreme board of 15 has at least 4 Jews and no Muslim at all. There are parallel instances.

Here I feel like saying: “I have come to fulfill, not to destroy.” Still, if it is desirable to have on record all groups and organizations that claim to be working to the same common goal, I would be glad to assist in your obtaining such information, but I am not too enthusiastic about it.

I feel very different concerning some of the unknown African cults which are now for the first time being studied from their own points of view. Also concerning some of the now movements in Japan, whom in actual numbers are far superior quantitatively than the new groups of quasi-universal outlook.

For years I worked with the late Dr. Henry Atkinson. But 40 years research was turned down by all his associates. This matter has now been straightened out. But there is no question that Dr. Atkinson was impeded largely by a rival organization under one Dr. Charles Weller of Chicago. Theoretically, I was doing research for the World Church Peace Union, and when Dr. Weller discovered it he begged me to do the same. It is a pattern. You do the research and the pioneering and then you are cast aside. Against my earnest pleas, Dr. Weller invited the Humanists and Communists. He gathered enough momentum to overshadow Dr. Atkinson’s work, but his convention terminated in an uproar and riot.

A few years later the Roerich Museum proposed something of the same sort. It is remarkable how hypothetical spiritual groups and leaders can pooh-pooh and belittle any suggestions from an unknown. Their convocation ended in a worse uproar and riot, because it became international news, and the wounds were never healed. I feel, Father, if we are to make mistakes let us make original mistakes.

On the other hand, I seized every opportunity to promote a program for peace in the Holy Land. I believe his Holiness Pope Paul would favor a program which includes him, that is the Papacy and Church, and other Christians. I have even become nasty recently concerning Israelis who cry about wanting to meet with Muslims and then turn down every offer; and with intransigent Arabs who are sometimes even worse. I do not wish to given economic and social interpretations to “The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof.” But I think something like that, and something like the Biblical teaching may be applied, must be applied, to that part of the world.

My welcome by the young and from the young was astonishingly cordial and London, in Boston, and on return here. And now I have several invitations from the young in various parts of this land. I am hoping to establish a pilot “Temple of Understanding” in New Mexico within a few months, God willing. My main work has been in spiritual dancing, and this autumn I hope to help re-vitalize some Christian choreography.

The question here is, how can I be of service? I am very satisfied with all the person selected on the various committees. I was also approached by two worthies after the convention who want to cooperate with me (rather than asking for my cooperation) and this has been most stimulating.

Faithfully and Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

Pontificia Universita Gregoriana

00187 Roma – Piazza Della Pilotta. 4

Telef. 681.443 – Telegr. Pugi – Roma

May the 30^th 1970

Dear Mr. Lewis,

I hope you will excuse me for my ever bad English. I was much pleased in receiving your letter which is frank, friendly and realistic.

It is not difficult for me to assent to many of your declarations

—That God is Light and Love, this is what the Apostle St. John, after Jesus himself, has told us many times. And if God is light and love, the whole world He created should be the same.

—When you say that prayer is not primarily petitioning for favors, You are in the line of the Lord’s Prayer, which you quote explicitly. The principle point is to work in order that the world may really become “a Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace,” as we, catholic priests, demand in the Mass.

—And you are completely right when you say that a man should be ready—as you are—to support the aims he expresses, by any useful action….

God and man, each of them at his place, should collaborate and will collaborate to the ideals of peace. If a Christian prays, it does not mean that he renounces to act; it means, on the contrary, that he is concentrating in keeping in contact with the First One, to understand better and promote more vigorously the ideal of Love and Peace whose Source and first promoter is God himself.

We all know that this is not an easy job; and we must confess that many person (we too, sometimes) do not do what they could do for the Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace. Therefore our good intentions may sometimes clash with less good dispositions of other persons (and of ourselves). All the religious men have noted that in such circumstances, we shall gain nothing by quarreling and fighting but that we should, according to the words of the Bible: Not be defeated by the Evil, but defeat the Evil by goodness….

To come now to what you say about you possibilities of helping the common effort for Peace we shall try to do with the committee. I think the most practical way would be to contact Mr. Dunne and Fr. Haughey, who are the most central members and stay in the States. They are now busy in:

—completing a list of the inter-religious organizations in the World.

—contemplating the possibilities of the future meeting, with perhaps Peace as a topic.

—and also thinking of some publications on the point.

They also are trying to gather some money to sustain the ordinary running of their activities.

If you write to them, they will probably be interested in having a good friend and collaborator at the other end of the States, as they are in Washington and New York.

I hope you will achieve something in this line; I would be very pleased indeed if you succeed.

Wishing you all possible blessing, peace and joy, I remain

Sincerely yours,

J. Masson

Sept. 21, 1970

The Rev. John C. Haughey, S.J.

Associate Editor America

106 W. 56^th St.

New York, N.Y. 10019

My dear John:

A combination of circumstances prompts this latter, and we may even say that it is God Himself who is behind this prompting. In any event, all my affairs have greatly improved since the visit to Geneva, and the private affairs of my then-secretary Otis Mansur Johnson have improved even more. For he has a full time job in connection with a series of films and tape recording. These began with “Dances of Universal peace” which seem to be dedicated to the Temple of Understanding because other groups, pretending to be universal or world-wide have, almost without exception, rejected them.

But the filming is going on. Many of the top people in the Temple of Understanding have given us utmost cooperation and our financial outlooks in every direction seem to be improving.

I have already purchased my ticket for New York city. Stopping at Ithaca on the way to see my god-daughter, I should arrive in New York City on Monday the 20^th and will try to contact you. As you may know, I am opposed to any kind of settlement for Palestine that does not given full consideration to the Christian religion and Christian holy places. I even feel His Holiness the Pope should have a place there.

One was once told me that he thought my plan was the best he had ever heard of. His name is Gunnar Jarring. Most of my material came either from my own efforts or from the accomplishments of Professors and Departments of the University, or better, the multiversity of California. The only people that ever let me speak in this region have been your own colleagues at the University of San Francisco. When I completed my talk the chair declared the meeting over because all problem were solved. The audience consisted entirely of engineers and scientists and their wives, and Jesuit friends. No sociologists, no “realists,” no peace-mongers.

At Geneva I played a game of being an incarnation of “Nathan the Wise.” It is now no game. My young friends and disciples, God bless them, have successfully put on joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners, ignored, but now not ignored. Even the most latent press and radio stations have been jolted.

I don’t want to say much more. I think we should have a good consultation.

There are now hundreds and hundreds of young people who want The Temple of Understanding, and with God’s help this will soon become thousands. Everything is getting better, praise to God, and I would like to share this with you as soon as possible.

Love and Blessing,

Samuel L. Lewis

c/o L. Less

27 W. 71 St.

New York, N.Y. 10023

October 18, 1970

Father John Haughey

America Magazine

106 W. 56 Street New York, New York

My dear John:

This is written in Boston. I am not forgetting the committee appointed in Geneva to take note of endeavors theoretically parallel to the efforts of the Temple of Understanding. Nor am I forgetting that on the committee I am serving under you. Indeed, the greatest obstacle at the moment is not any barrier to success but the dangers arising from my name being over-mentioned and subsidiary successes used to further the prestige of groups which have contributed nothing toward those success.

It is truly amazing, and we are constantly thanking God for it, that the program to promote joint Israeli-Arab-Christian dinners has gone ahead on a much larger scale than the original operators had hoped for. And the last news has been that there is both some success and greater hope in the raising of funds. I had told my young enthusiasts that, while we might expect some cooperation from the Temple of Understanding, on the financial side we should be helping them; and at this moment I see several ways in which and by which our young New Age crusaders may be helping, God willing. I can write further on this to you or tell you in person after we’ve returned to New York.

We attended a conference of so-called New Age spiritual teachers which met first in Los Angeles, California and then in Rye, New York. Verbally these gatherings were to promote world peace. Actually, they were used to boost rather unknown personalities who proceeded without any human consideration to take over and dictate. Now, the way this person became a spiritual teacher was because of achievements and experiences validated by already authorized personalities and movements. The gathering not only made others an equal, to which one did not object, but the time was almost entirely consumed by those others, chiefly Hindus. Their putative following of about a thousand personalities was exaggerated and extolled. True, on the surface they may have ten to twenty times the number that I have in this land, but I actually represent millions upon millions of human beings in other places while their organizations are almost all strictly America, and most of them claim to be giving out Indian teachings.

This presumes that Indian teachings are superior to those of other people, and unfortunately a lot of young Americans have accepted, are accepting, that anything obtuse and Indian is automatically superior. If we are working for world peace of peace or any basis, the emphasis on any form of superiority automatically kills the possibilities for peace.

There was no consideration either of age of achievement at Los Angeles or Rye. So far as India is concerned, the Birla family and Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj have already approved of the efforts of this person. We have had some wonderful letters also from several persons and organizations in India which have either endorsed or been endorsed by the Temple of Understanding.

Pressured by these various Hindus, the leaders are being expected to raise funds, and the way this peace movement, so-called, has started, if they did get funds, these would be used to support various self-styled spiritual leaders who have as yet contributed nothing to cultures.

There are a great many statements by Jesus Christ which I am totally unable to estimate, and I personally cannot see them cast aside; emotionalism will not bring peace.

It is true that there are some young people who have been very successful in promoting peace-endeavors. The face that one of them has the good-will of the President himself is being used by others to promote their own activities. The President, with all his faults and virtues, appears to be a devout Christian, and I think he would be horrified to find that any peace movement which he has accepted should be used to support financially unknown yogis, swamis, and self- established “spiritual” leaders.

The news from India runs parallel. The Sri Aurobindo movement in Pondicherry is, in a sense, a parallel undertaking to The Temple of Understanding. They have recognized its existence; they have supported an effort—and I name here Christopher Hill—to a joint scientist-yoga international gathering. Actually, there were three such other gatherings in India these past months and all what I call veddy select. They are taken seriously by some mystical groups and by many of the misled young. The Hindus start out that yoga means union with God, and then they abolish God. I wish this were not sarcasm. Whatever we think of Indian teachings, they all began with devotion, but now devotion itself is being demoted. Madison Avenue methods and emotions are being used to promote certain activities, and some portions of young people are being attracted and captivated.

The partial news from Indian came from my disciple Philip Davenport. He had already participated in a joint Israeli-Sufi dinner in Jerusalem. He has been regaled by Sufis in Iran, and at least partly due to the activities of our good friend Professor Seyyed Hussein Near. His reception by some of the so-called spiritual people in India was not so amazing; it confirmed to details my own predictions. It is the easiest thing in the world for politicians to promote movements labeled as spiritual, and these cover their activities. Even the Communists have been successful here because the United States has not made the proper objective studies of many Oriental ecclesiastical endeavors. I expect to find more details when I reach New York and will be glad to share them.

All in all there has been satisfaction in this area. Had an hour interview with the program director of local radio station WGBH. This will be put on the air either today or next Sunday at 1:00 pm. It may attract, but I am not remaining here too long. Pir Vilayat Khan should be in New York on the 26^th. To me it is unfortunate his programs are being presented in small halls, limiting the number of the audience.

Tuesday afternoon I shall be seeing our good friend Doctor Huston Smith, and this will determine the final projects I may be engaged in before leaving here. Copy of this is being sent, of course, to Washington. And we shall probably telephone when we pass through Greenwich on our way back. Judith has told me her visit to Japan will be a short one, and she would like to contact us before we leave New York either for Washington or the West.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif. 94110

July 25, 1970

Prynce C. Hopkins

1920 Garden St.,

Santa Barbara, Calif. 93101

My dear Mr. Hopkins:

I have before as your letter of June 25th. Since leaving Lama in New Mexico I have not had a single day off or anything like it. I could not stay in Santa Barbara beyond a very brief visit with Mrs. Connaughton. She is a friend of some fifty years standing and has seen me through thin, and now, praise to God, thick. For the last two years have shown that with each endeavor there has been at least monetary satisfaction and now a growing group of young people have expressed satisfaction with what I have been attempting.

My main work of the present has been Dance of Universal Peace. The ideas and principles were “inherited” from the late Ruth St. Denis. A disciple decided to throw his “all” into taking pictures but this project has been snowballing, and I should say in the “right direction.” There are many wonderful personalities on earth about whom one dose not hear and who are doing what the editors, common stars and moralists are always talking about. This is just one small factor.

Evidently my appearance in Geneva, an unknown then, among the top spirituelles of the world must not have been in vain. The youngest person in attendance has come all the way here. True, in California we have a lot of “experts” who could not come before any real congregation of learned persons. They have not all departed from the scene. It was a matter of no small concern that in my home state professors of Europe, especially of German lineage, should have the prowess to limit even my appearance at East-West conferences. This also holds for the University of Hawaii although there it is persons of Jewish, not German or European lineage, who are able to block this person.

The silly thing about all these bombastic egotists is that they have roused opposition both among the learned and the wealthy. The University of California, especially the Berkeley campus, has been roused by excellently press-agented “Orientalists” with little depth of background. But now a rather wealthy man has come into our limelight. He was hunting for the real mystics and he believes he has found them. And when I gave him letters of introduction, he seized and acted upon them and this house is being visited more and more by persons who seek East-West understanding, and this is in total contrast to the last two generations with their socially-acceptable “experts.”

Everything has changed favorably the past two weeks. The efforts to bring Israelis and Arabs together (wrong person, of course) is progressing. My prayer with the lines: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven excepting in Vietnam and the Near East” will probably be broadcast before long. And first three man of some note; Paul Reps, Vilayat Khan and Baba Ram Dass (Richard
Alpert) all notified their audiences they were leaving this land and should look to Sam Lewis!

The classes are growing; two secretaries lost to remunerative employment, and now the best disciples have come together with plans to help their “guru.” This is the best period of life.

In my own district I am known as the anti-litter champion, doing, not screeching. I wrote a strong letter to Dale Woelfl of “Science” calling attention to the danger of pollution of the English language by commentators and ivory-towered “experts” dominating the air-ways and literature. We saw a picture, “The Death of Lake Erie” (which now should be called “Lake Erie’) and the comments were horrible. “We are all to blame.” I have blamed smoke-poisons, factory discharges and sewage. “We are all to blame” is the standard nonsense of establishment-defenders.

Fortunately this week, Mr. Woelfl’s association, Phillip Abelson, has an article on the mercury poison dischargers, a real specific. And when I read in the papers today that the Department of Justice is getting into the act.

We are not all to blame. I have four times in my life been engaged in land-clearing projects with ecological factors being considered. I am now asked to start another this winter, elsewhere, of course. The organic gardens I am connected with are beautiful, and the crops large and tasteful. More and more disciples are being employed in health-food stores, so we are prospering. More and more telephone or mail inquiries to attend national convocations of “holy men.” More and more letters from foreign parts. Nothing bad but quantitative difficulties.

And more and more classes, and larger ones of young people who want the real Oriental philosophies and wisdoms. And now a class on Christian mysticism, to a wonderful start. Only surpassed by meetings on Jewish mysticism in this area where I sit in the audience.

“Goddess” Margaret Meade has damned the communes. Those I have been connected with are prospering. Others are written up, when they show signs of failure, sex or drug-abuse, but the successful ones! But this is true of India also and of Egypt where they were established by Americans, not by Russians!

But all efforts are being submerged, I hope, in campaigns for peace, for peace with understanding, not “with justice” (which even Hitlers can accept.)

This is a flyer being other activities. If, as and when I can move next time I shall write ahead.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

August 2, 1970

Prynce Hopkins,

1920 Garden St.,

Santa Barbara, Calif.

On Our “Culture” and Buddhist Art Objects

Bodhisattva:

It would appear now I must come south late in August on what might be important mission. I have always said that the two greatest achievements in my life were my being a guest of honor to the Imperial Palace in Japan and having a free meal from Armenians, but when it comes down to it the most outstanding fact has been the rejection thirty-three times of my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism. Our cultures simply do not want that kind of thing. Our cultures all rely on the way delegates sat at the first assemblages after the French Revolution and our particular relations to the resulting philosophies. If you don’t belong to one of them you are treated as non-existing. This covers everybody from the extreme Birch people to the latest “New Left” and all the “great” organizations whose “greatness” consists of memberships, not of achievements. (Every letter I write to scientists is answered; to non-scientists??????? Excepting the young.)

Now the long-distance calls increase and the young have the bizarre idea that an eye-witness might know more of events than the top essayists and commentators who were not there.

When the late Robert Clifton last visited this land in a vain effort to inform us what was really going on in Vietnam (he failed miserably and all us “respectables” are paying a tremendous price), I said to him: “Grand Phra, you and I are me nobodies. Together we can’t get thirty persons to come to our meetings. But I don’t think there is a king, prime minister, cabinet official, holy man, professors, or peasant from one end of Asia to the other whom we could not meet if we have not met them already.” “Too true, Samuel, how true.”

We pay billions, and permit anybody to write about Vietnam who is an important man. And I think all our groups almost, from one extreme to the other, including even your best friends and associates accept: “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity, and peasants, shut up!”

I can only say at the moment the young are calling on me more and more. This includes the youngest delegate to the conference of the real religions of the real world which met at Geneva. We have never permitted such a gathering since the original one at Chicago in 1993. In America the delegates are carefully selected and nothing is accomplished. But an unknown like myself who was totally successful at communicating and listening, is now being accepted. Here in San Francisco the audiences are in utter awe before Sir Zafrullah Khan, and at Geneva he was really humbled. Big people who accomplish nothing are beginning to be despised, as they should be.

Anyhow, the moral reactions (“Good-Buddhists” do not have to apply karma and theosophists even less) follow exactly what the teachings say. There is a steady increase toward increased emoluments, audiences, teachings and invitations among all those who want Realities, not “realism.’

Now I not only have been a guest of honor at the Imperials Gardens in Japan, I have seen tremendous Buddhist art collections in many lands and have even visited Takht Bhai. The museums of Peshawar and Lahore are under obligations to me, etc, etc., etc., etc. But what can one who has had his paper on “The Buddhism of Vietnam” rejected thirty-three times? That day of nonsense is over. Not only the young but at least one powerful publisher is now behind me. An I have started a number of things which will break out probably in Washington or Boston (not here) before the end of the year.

What does the above mean here? Absolutely nothing. I won’t repeat. But in cleaning up we found some most valuable Buddhist pictures—there may be other object in my collections also. I showed one of them to a Japanese friend who is a Japanese-Zen Buddhist (not an American surface devotee). He suggested what I should do and one of them was placed in the hands of Kennett Roshi who has a Zendo in Oakland. She was a disciple of the above-mentioned Robert-Clifton-Phra Sumangalo.

I am hesitating about others but am sending a copy of this to the Dr. Young Museum. They, having practiced the usual, very usual “Judeo-Christian” ethic, this fact is going to be made public.  Only important people are important! But Lord Buddha (not “Buddhism’) taught of the vanity of the ego.

I have no doubt that the collection is worth thousands but I have no intention of selling anything. I may have just two or three but perhaps many times. I am half thinking of giving one to the Rudolph Schaeffer School here and another to the Asian Art Department of U.C.L.A. And as my memories are demanded I am going to make it very clear that the only way to have peace on earth is to have the open heart.

I was able to have two-way communication at Geneva with representatives of every living faith. Both Count Ohtani and the Senior Birla acceded to me, etc.

I don’t know yet of the purpose for my being summoned to Los Angeles, but after all I do know all the religions of the world and am so far, I believe, the only person who has passed the qualification to be a spiritual teacher in quite different religions.

I shall keep you informed of my schedule, etc. hope you are well. My physical and mental healths have been presented marvelously.

Faithfully, Samuel L. Lewis

cc-Brundage collection

cc-U.C.L.A.

April 17

Art Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:            So Little!

I was going to write on this in memory of the late Edna Ferber. And she is in no way to blame for the behavior patterns that are characteristic of the dominant personalities in this country.

So long as we insist—and do we?—that some people are more equal than others, I do not see any way out but murder and assassination. The death of Martin Luther King was exceedingly dramatic and a repetition no doubt, of that of Mahatma Gandhi but have we any alternatives?

There is an article in the paper today which is characterized by two elements: (a) suspicion of the press against the exceedingly severe “only in America” form of censoring without a censor; (b) the inability of a learned public to take the press seriously.

In any event it is remarkable that a Nation which can solve problems of navigation, curing diseases, building up a vast education superstructure, is still trying to solve other problems by sermons, editorials and a plethora of words.

So long as any of us accept, or regret the dastardly death of a Negro, we are letting ourselves open to be compelled to accept, or regret the bastardly assassination of, let us say, an Arab, or somebody by an Arab. I am taking this as one of the many flagrant instances we try to solve problems by avoiding mentioning them; or by emotional editorials.

Shylock may have certain physical and emotional qualifications that would compel his being considered as a human being. But where are the same with and toward the Arabs? I am not urging any “solution” of any Palestinian complex nor can I because the Arabs “though right” are not considered and the Israelis— who are unfortunately confused with the Jews as a whole, “though wrong” are always considered equals.

The President is demanding democracy in Vietnam and yet excluding Vietnamese from conferences. But he is typically American, unfortunately. It is always what we can do for others: the others are not considered, until they either kill or are killed.

There is no Jew nor Greek nor Barbarian nor slave nor free in Christ Jesus.

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

March 5, 1965

Dear Samuel:

Consider Sag On to be declared the new capitol of West Vhtnnng, which is the Southeast Asian country I write about all the time.

Most gratefully,

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

November 4, 1965

Dear Art Hoppe:

Eye Not-Witness. In the paper this morning on Pridi Phanomyong expresses a Thai point-of-view. It is very interesting.

I have already told you what happened when her Serene Highness, Princess Poon Diskul, came here. Well I was with her in Thailand, and we are very close. But being her Sir Walter Raleigh I have tried to present her point-of-view.

You know by this time that some people are more equal than others, and those “bastard” Russians are equal but people of S.E. Asia are not. Every time I tried to present Her Serene Highness’ point-of-view I was told to sit down, politely or not politely.

By this time there have been several men, usually on the UCLA campus who have been entrusted with the affairs of S.E. Asia and who do not believe in our “Great God Brown” or UP-AP with top commentators versions which is the basis for all public discussions. Facts may determine Sally Stanford cases but they have no place in international affairs-discussions.

This afternoon I shall see one or two professors concerning a peace proposal for South Asia. It is based on eye-witnessing and and-witnessing. I has taken nine years to get Pridi Phanomyong’s point even presented to the American public.

I think when I get back to Asia I shall establish parades and anti- parades to determine the future of New York City or the Oroville Dam. This is what our marchers and counter-marchers are doing. I am glad that at last a human being has been given a little space—right or wrong.

It has taken nine years to get this point of view presented. Now I am hoping someday, somehow a Kashmiri—or a Ladakhi or a Belti or a Shina or a Dard may be permitted to express himself on the future of his country. We are about to dedicate a big hunk of Asia to the Chinese. If you can’t lick ‘em laugh at ‘em. That is what the Chinese are doing now and I am talking realities, not
“realism.”

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

December 2, 1965

Dear Samuel Lewis:

I like your style. I always mingle with the natives.

Most gratefully,

San Francisco Chronicle

January 4, 1966

Dear S.A.M.:

I can’t think of anyone who could make better use of a legacy. Please keep me posted on where you are and what you are doing.

When the thoughts which you have planted in my mind ripen into a column, I want to send you a copy immediately.

May your plans meet with success beyond your hopes.

Happy New Year,

San Francisco Chronicle

July 28, 1966

Dear Sam:

You are so right; it would be a wonderful day. Your joyful philosophy brightened my return to work after my vacation and two weeks in the East.

Thanks so much.

Gratefully,

San Francisco Chronicle

August 3, 1966

Dear Sam:

You consistently delight and amaze me. I shall be looking for that further notice.

Gratefully,

San Francisco Chronicle

September 22, 1966

Dear S.A.M.:

You are most certainly alive; I think you are probably the most vitally alive man I know. I particularly liked the idea of keeping the American men in Vietnam to love and learn to learn from the Vietnamese.

Gratefully,

San Francisco Chronicle

October 19, 1966

Dear S.A.M.:

That was a fine comparison of reality as compared to realism. And I liked your Oriental garden in Santa Barbara bit, as well as your analysis of hair length. But tell me more about that movement to put trousers on the statues of Jesus Christ; that really tops them all for Occidental vs. Oriental “realism.”

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

October 27, 1966

Dear S.A.M.:

Your latest literary efforts are priceless. Have you ever considered having some of those lovely remarks you make printed in book form?

“to say the least…,” “funny things … to the Forum,” “Everybody counts but Asians….”—to name a few.

A friend sent me a brochure on a conference to be held at Palm Desert on Southeast Asia. He was mainly concerned (because of the registration fee) with the cost of saving the world. But you should enjoy the fact that the whole thing substantiates yours thesis; even the ersatz Oriental hotel.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

November 2, 1966

Dear S.A.M.:

You are so right. Now that you have made me aware of it, I keep seeing evidence of the apparently deliberate confusion of headline Asia with RM Asia. Sometimes it is funny, but more often, tragic. I am reviewing our correspondence in the hope of coming up with a column. But my space is limited and you are not. Wish me luck.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

January 3, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

Thank you for your kind Christmas greeting and for your thoughts on saints, sinners, and particularly the younger generation.

It seems to me you are doing a wonderful thing with your young people. I hope they can understand and really value the things you have to give them.

Happy New Year,

San Francisco Chronicle

January 20, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

I don’t blame you. The closer we approach our most greatly desired goals, the more frightening it becomes, even when we know it’s right. And opening doors have all sorts of things behind them.

Good luck with your crusade. I think it is a good one.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

March 7, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

You have convinced me. And, like you, I will say, “I am leaving.” To collect a few facts.

So I’m off to London, Moscow and points east, leaving San Francisco the end of the week. I’ll try to check the European version of reality vs. realism.

Keep the faith,

San Francisco Chronicle

April 7, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

How good it is to come home and hear of the wonderful progress you are making. With both the hippies and MIT coming to you for real facts, I too am greatly encouraged. I have great hopes particularly for those young people and their viewpoint. And I have great respect for what you are contributing to that viewpoint.

Love,

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

May 20. 1967

Art Hoppe.

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco 19, Calif.

Dear Art:

I am slowly recovering. My diet eschews salt and welcomes acids so if my letters are tinged with that is part of my regime.

I am enclosing copy of letter to Senator Kuchel. His interest in salt-water conversion is to me, highly important. I have been shocked by California politics that in the midst of everything else so little attention has been paid to water problems and we have to face them. But we are. And this may be the first stop toward a new world.

I have around copies of letter written to Arnold Toynbe and it I find it it will be enclosed. My Pakistani friends all complained that it was so easy to talk to and with the British savant and totally impossible to communicate with Mr. Salzburg (I think Arthur) who visited each place between A.T. and yours truly. Only my visits could not possibly be real of important. Anything that promotes misunderstanding is important and news: when man bites dog it must never be mentioned. All my Asian “adventures” were man bites dog type.

I am about ready to write to the new President of India, Hon. Zukair Hussain. The contents are “impossible.” There was once a man named Fielding Hall who wrote “The soul of a people” regarding Burma. This book must be avoided; it would lead to understanding real people of real Asia. Another of the same type was Dr. Gardner Murphy. Murphy is in the dog-house, the Indians love him. Ambassador Bowles is in the pent-house, Madison Ave. loves him. This is “America.” Therefore “everybody” must listen to Bowles but nobody must listen to Senator Cooper who did not go around India with cameras and who quietly penetrated the hearts of Asians. This is, of course, off course.

Next week I hope my first interviews on “How California Can Help Asia” and I expect no difficulties whatsoever. We have Lord Snow’s “The Two Cultures, the scientists (who love facts) and the literary-humanities (who love conclusions). Like Shaw who hoped to convert some banker to socialism, I am still hoping to convert some of our literary-humanists to the world of facts.

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

June 15, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

What do you mean, “nuisance”? What do you mean, “last”?

Not only do I admire your knowledge, persistence, and hopeful work with the young, but my vast ignorance of the East would have been even greater without you and your letters.

Don’t desert me now.

Desperately,

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

June 30, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

How would I ever have gotten through my sessions at the United Nations and in Washington without you. And then, to return to San Francisco and find your delightfully true comments on the Israeli untelevized war was delightfuller.

Thanks to you, I now keep a watchful eye out for Asian Asians when I want to know about Asia.

Most gratefully,

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

September 1, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

As you know, I was out of town when you had the fair, but I understand that my friend, Eloise Mitchell, enjoyed it and particularly enjoyed her visit with you. I expect to have a full report from her next week.

I particularly enjoyed your bird battle letter. I think the Crows sound the most interesting, too.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

September 27, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

Good luck with your seminar. Perhaps you can throw in your “Superzen.” Your letters, as usual, are full of things to think about.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

October 20, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

I am pleased to note that you are so busy with things relevant to your philosophy. Objective awareness is a good thing to pursue, methinks.

Gratefully,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

November 15, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

The last batch of “Sqawk’s” were absolutely enjoyable. They were all so good I can’t single out the best.

Yours in faith,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

November 22, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

With you in there belly-aching and fighting to get knowledgeable people to be the experts, maybe the Aryans will let the Asians be Asians.

The best,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

December 1, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

Maybe if we could find the child in us that became disillusioned and change that habit we will be in a position to learn from the youth outside us. I for one am glad they are searching for God consciousness.

Keep the faith,

Art

P.S. I’m stealing your idea about Vietnam and Texas for a column next Tuesday. Many, many thanks.

San Francisco Chronicle

December 18, 1967

Dear S.A.M.:

I am glad your seminar for you was such a success. How about—“If you can’t lick ‘em, laugh at yourself”? Best wishes in your doing.

Peace,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

April 15, 1968

Dear S.A.M.:

Your letter on Dr. King’s passing was one of the best I have ever read. I only hope that that much of humanity is indeed awakened and not asleep.

It is hard for us to remember ourselves all the time and be aware of the deaths, births and resurrections of life daily that we must attend to in order to keep our self awake.

Peace,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

May 24, 1968

Dear S.A.M.:

I can’t decide whether you have actually bridged the generation gap or have changed generations. Whatever it is, I like it.

You are the one who can challenge the script, too

Keep the faith,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

October 30, 1968

Dear Sam:

But I want love and reality, and I’m not young.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

November 6, 1968

Dear Sam:

I love to, but can’t—I’ve already made plans to take the family out of town that weekend.

Shouldn’t a beautiful philosophy have beautiful followers?

Love,

Art

November 10, 1968

Mr. Art Hoppe   

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco 19, Calif.

Dear Art: Angel-Strators

There is nothing in which I profess to be more proficient than in plagiarizing. Even from my best friends and when I read your editorial on Demon-Strators. I thought it was time to present the other side (something permittable in many lands not claiming “democracy.”

Evidently I have lived—judging from my last birthday and not having been born a robot I have read and among those read was one Havelock Ellis. Especially his literature before he became an “expert.” Chief among these was The Dance of Life that you could judge people (even those in North Beach) by their dances.

And if you came into this house instead of having a “Big Brother is Watching You” we have “Sri Mati is watching you” meaning the late Miss Ruth St. Denis. And methinks she is very much alive and is constantly “blessing” me with new dance patterns. They are all Pied Piperish in that the young join in and the old sit by and criticize and criticize. The theme to the Psychedelics “Joy without Drugs” is demonstrable but not newsworthy. If a man builds a better mousetrap and lives in the midst of the woods the world will beat a pathway to his door but the newspapers and TV, never. You go to demon-strate, and the demons are all over, demon-strating.

Yesterday as we completed our lessons on the Precita Park Lawn (we accept anything but Keep Off the Grass, all interpretations). I saw all my young people, men and women with arms around each other—they not only love their teacher but each other. Such “love” ain’t Hashbury and it cawn’t be, but it will some day, Art, it will.

After writing this I am prepared to do my “thing “in G.G. Park below Hippy Hill.

Workers of the whirled unite. You have nothing to lose and you might gain a lot of delightful chain-reactions, by which I mean chains.

Tonight we are going to shock or please our friend, Mr. Paul Reps. We have lots of revolutions, but none “newsworthy.” And two big meetings coming up for San Francisco State, where I shall present real Asian philosophies of real Asians. And by the way, Art, I met the new Swami at the Vedanta Temple. It was just like with Rabbi Schlomo, the last thing that “could possibly happen” between a … and a ….!

Samuel L. Lewis

San Francisco Chronicle

November 19, 1968

Dear Sam:

My sympathies for your petering “Pied Piper.” Please continue….

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle 

November 20, 1968

Dear Sam:

A way out is for it never to get in. And, sadly, the wise and knowing are too often soft-spoken.

Sincerely,

Art

November 22, 1968

Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

Mission & 5^th Sts.

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

I am a scab. You can pay $10 to hear a German named Lama Anagarika Govinda speak on something he calls “Buddhism” to a veddy select audiences. Or you can come here and hear an Asian speak on his religion, also called “Buddhism” at nothing per. This, of course, is contrary to our culture.

It came about this way: My campaign to become a pied piper has been attracting only the young. Lots of ‘em and they want me to do more Pieding and Pipering. But last night a more mature person invaded this place:

My friend. Prof. Thich Thien An of Vietnam and UCLA came here and was very welcome. Of course he had the wrong “credentials” and of course he is totally ineligible to make any suggestions about his country.

Once we elected a man named Woodrow Wilson who came out for “self-determination” of nations. In fact he got re-elected. But people not adept at spelling had to get rid of “self-determination” and substitute “experts” which we now have. Along with war, misunderstanding and oodles of editorials from experts of all kinds, excepting they don’t speak Vietnamese, have never mingled with the people and are totally ignorant on the history and culture of S.E. Asia.

I must say that Dr. Thien An is also a gourmet. That will never do, but I hope to take him out today anyhow. His talk last night was enjoyed by the 20 odd young people here. They all prefer an Asian to speak on Asia over an “expert” either at $10 a throw, o less.

Peace, it is wonderful.

November 29, 1968

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif.

My dear Art:

I have for some time taken a cynical attitude toward the General Semanticists. They have never forgiven my primal sin of having studied under Prof. Cassius Keyser of Columbia, the friend and mentor of Count Alfred Korzybski who is regarded as the chief exponent of General Semantics.

We are still almost totally under the analytical psychologies and regardless of our word, stem mostly from Aristotle or Hegel. As my G.S. friends have seldom studied higher mathematics or Mathematical processes it is impossible to establish communication with them on the very levels on which they purport to base their teachings.

My own God-son is a Negro and I have worked alongside of “blacks” both in the Deep South and here, something most of the proponents of “radical” movements have not acutely done. I consider this as part of life and have dwelled among persons of all races often as one of them.

In the letter, copy enclosed, a few hard facts are given in regard to the policy of the University of California Extension. I can say further that UCLA especially and Santa Barbara in part have already granted or include in their basic policies some of the things the so-calling “Black Students” claim to want. We cannot have African Studies all over, but we have plenty of them ignored by all connected with channels of communication of every ilk. Propagandists want propagandists.

I may follow this by writing to the U.C. Alumni where unlike Hayakawa, they read my articles and accept them very seriously and where I can go any time and talk man to man. I am also placing a copy of this correspondence into the hands of one of the leading philosophers of their region who is neither an Aristotelian (or the variant of Aristotelian called non-Aristotelian) nor a Dialectician nor an Existentionalist.

The “young” will receive copies of this correspondence too, and I think some of them will do something.

Faithfully,

December 9, 1968

Mr. Art Hoppe.

S.F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

What has come over “The Chronicle?” This morning they had articles written by students enrolled at San Francisco State College: how come? Since when are we permitting “Vietnamese” to express themselves on the future welcome of their country.

I eye-witnessed the Berkeley campus melodrama. It was two years before I saw an article in print from the president of the erstwhile Student body. It just isn’t done! (in a “democracy,” of course.) The article was from my point of view absolutely honest. Objective and direct reporting of events in which the person participated.

Therefore it was useless to go to S.F. State. I saw many TV programs, all kinds of stations and they all had in common ignoring the students and programming the participants in “the show.” “The show” must go on. They never asked whether the mouths were in the bodies of enrolled students. First comes, first serve and it was obvious non-students stole the show.

In fact I met a man who told me he was a Trotskyite organizer and what he was going to do. He is not a student at S.F. State. Two days later he got top billing on TV: Along with Negroes and non-Negroes not enrolled at the college. Students and processors are alike ignore by the radio, TV, Press, publications and others. They are the last ones to be given consideration.

Now General Hayakawa, one of the founders of the “science” of communication (!) is in charge. He had to rely upon Irish logic having long discarded Aristotle and perhaps Irish logic is the one which is needed now. Having frozen his own ears he may be surprised he has founded a cult of frozen ears, and these cultists are out to get him. Nobody thinks of upfreezing ears. Perhaps it might help but I won’t suggest it.

Faithfully,

July 6, 1973

Dear Art:

This is written at Malmö and I am anticipating by writing ahead of time.

World Prize in Literature, won by Sady Tompkins, graduate of San Francisco State College. “And what were you doing during the turmoil in 1968?” “Oh, that!” “We thought it was the antics of some Hollywood producer, we paid no attention. What about class attendance?” “I never even noticed; it was so usual.”

World Prize in Botany won by Ralph Slobatsky, graduate of San Francisco State College. “And what were you doing during the turmoil of 1968?” “Oh that! We were so busy collecting Afhega Bulzabai; it was such a wonderful discovery. Indeed class attendance was above normal.”

World Prize in History won by Angela Icaresque, graduate of San Francisco State College. “And what were you doing in the early winter of 1968?” “Oh that, I was in Cambodia getting the real facts, of real history. I have no time for fiction mongering.”

World Prize in Radio-Active Cosmology won by Paul Von Paul, graduate of San Francisco the College. “And where were you in December, 1968? Weren’t you on the campus?” “Sure, but we just had some new equipment which needed adjustment and we were busy day and night.” “Didn’t you notice anything strange happening?” “Something strange is always happening. But the universe is so big and the earth so small, what did you expect us graduate students to do then?”

And son on and on. (Don’t newsmen and cameras ever get into the class rooms and labs and ascertain what is going on?)

Cordially,

Sam

San Francisco Chronicle

December 11, 1968

Dear S.A.M.:

As “the show goes on” it could sure use some canned laughter.

Love,

Art

December 16, 1968

Dear Art:

This is a delicate letter. I know that any newsman found talking to an enrolled student during the times of turmoil may be fired from his job. His task is to interview only the dramatis personae whomsoever he sees doing a “thing” and he never asks them if they are enrolled students and what courses they are interested in. This is not in his script.

Now Prof. Hayakawa of Japanese ancestry believes, or believed that Zen Buddhism was the produce of brilliant British minds. “Brilliant” meant he knew or knows them, e.g. Alan Watts, the late Aldous Huxley, etc. In fact he turned his back on Japan because he felt it was unworthy and incapable of producing such a wonder as “Zen Buddhism.”

A friend of Hayakawa has said, “Facts should not confuse the Issues. Actually Prof. Hayakawa is not only an ignoramus on Japanese culture, he is an absolute wizard on American culture: I am not fooling. He knows more and has shown more interest in American Studies than the whole gamut of non-students who themselves have never shown any interests in African Studies and are demanding courses in subjects just to put up a show of power. And if we had a real examination for real professors in real African Studies, Prof. Hayakawa might outdistance some of our Black Power friends just as his own friends in his “Zen Buddhism” would be outdistanced by his presumable blood-relatives, anent Asian culture.

None of this shows sense. But if Prof. Hayakawa believes that we should have Englishmen and Germans “teach” Asian culture, he would be eligible under his premises to teach “African Culture” and there’s the rub.

Isn’t this confusion more fun than the TV-dramas? The show must go on.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

San Francisco Chronicle

December 18, 1968

Dear S.A.M.:

I’ve certainly enjoyed your letters on the S.F. State situation and particularly the details regarding Hayakawa’s interest in African Studies.

An Afro-Asian-American!

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

December 19, 1968

Dear S.A.M.:

What do you mean-apply?! I thought you already were.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

December 23, 1968

Dear S.A.M.:

Om.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

January 6, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

It is hard for me to imagine you holding your thumbs.

Love,

Art

AKA Mark Twain

January 7th, 1969

Mr. Art Hoppe   

c/o S.F. Chronicle.          

San Francisco. 94119

Dear Art:

In re: Dr. S. L. Hayakawa

It is very awkward to permit the personality to interfere with any problem demanding logic, foresight, facts and wisdom. But we are also facing a complex in which nearly all the various factional leaders wish to fore logic, foresight, facts and wisdom I am a firm believer in campus revolts, but am even more adamant against campus invasions and regard this San Francisco State College imbroglio as a complex of invasions in which the students are ignored and hardly a newsman, reporter or investigator has gone into a classroom, laboratory, workshop, etc. to find out what is really going on in what I consider a splendid educational system.

It is wrong and even rude to select a single individual but unfortunately everything is now merely a mess of personalities without any regard to any principle whatsoever. And Dr. Hayakawa, in permitting himself to function as the champion of anti-Aristotelianism has actually made himself the champion of anti-logistics or any sort of reasoning on any basis whatsoever. It is a pity, no doubt, to attack a person qua re persona in the midst of a conflict demanding judgment but that is his, Don Hayakawa’s standard and he does not rely on any standard whatsoever excepting to judge on personality and personalism alone, shifting his ground in every situation accordingly and taking refuge in the very word system which he verbally attacks in books and lectures which pay him well.

For the sake of history I am going to limit this to three confrontations. I committed an absolutely unforgivable sin to which I have referred from time to time in letters, of having studied under the friend and teacher of Hayakawa’s teacher, Alfred (Count) Korzybski. I have never been forgiven, and have never been permitted to present any article or give any talk to any group with which he is associated. This despite the very hard fact (which the so-called semanticists deplore), that this man was the late Prof. Cassius Keyser of Columbia University, one of the most beloved of American teachers and also one of the most serious, and a monument of deep thought or “rigorous thinking” as he called it. The door is still open for a paper on this man, whom Korzybski himself idolized but not the “generals” who have taken over semantics.

Being once enrolled at San Francisco State College where Dr. Hayakawa teaches, I approached him on the subject: “The Application of G.S. to Research Laboratory Experiments.” He was very busy and asked me to present it to a class of scientists then enrolled at San Francisco State studying general semantics—the class was limited to scientists and teachers. I presented the paper, was given an ovation and told Don. He asked for it. I sent it. That was the last I ever heard. It was neither published nor returned.

Later I was told be an acquaintance who said he was there when my paper arrived and Dr. Hayakawa crumbled it up and threw it in the waste-basket. There is no reason not to accept this report and there is nothing in the later actions of Dr. Hayakawa which do not support this publicity.

So far many of the papers that were sent to Dr. Hayakawa have been accepted by other universities and some even published. I do not wish to go into that. But when I protested against his publishing articles by Englishmen (who had never been to Japan or studied under Zen Masters) that they did not represent Zen, I was rebuffed. Here is a person of partial Japanese ancestry who has ignored the contribution of his paternal forebears to culture and instead accepted totally subjective articles by personal friends as representing (or misrepresenting) great areas of Oriental culture. For that matter he has absolutely refused to consider the leading non-Aristotelian logical systems of Asia, absolutely and without any demure and so when we reject Aristotle we have no alternatives excepting sophistry and egotism.

Nevertheless I tried to make up with him and when I befriended him in public I was immediately attacked in private and when the majority, being against him, turned against Sam Lewis, his own secretary coming in, seeing the trend also joined the attack without seeking its Nature and finally he and his friends also! And this is what is generally known as “general semantics” and anti-Aristotelians.

It is a pity for I personally am opposed to all campus invasions by outsiders including the hard, hard factual system that newsman and reporters do not go into the class-rooms, Laboratories and work-shops to see what the students are doing. How they think and feel.

Enemies of Hayakawa have met with this person and they would like this information—which settles nothing. To have a man who is actually anti-intellectualism and anti-honesty in charge of a great educational institution can bring no good. But to give in to mobs of outsiders invading educational of public institutions can bring nothing else but evil.

Only today I am becoming more and more of a hero to the young in revolt and shall soon have full opportunity to get my history of rejections in print and cause a lot of red faces to run to cover for they cannot explain. Besides I am not the only one to be so treated. This is a long and complicated history, hardly to be told in the middle of campus disturbances. But as a friend of Hayakawa himself says, “we should not let facts disturb the issue.” The issue is merely which self-centered dictator, person or group, is going to mislead students who want to be educated and take part in society, etc. There is no conclusion. Only a report here….

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

January 13, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I so agree with you that hope is youth.

Do you think that there is a tranquilizer big enough that could give the whole world a dose that could last a generation?

Love,

Art

January 14, 1969

Mr. Art Hoppe.  

c/o S.F. Chronicle.          

San Francisco 19 

My dear Art:

I am sorry I have been unable to disturb you this week. You see I am working on the petition to the students at Brandeis that they should march on Howard University and demand a department of Jewish studies. Why not? Anyhow I am sending a copy to your friend, Herb Caen, who may be Interested.

I am also thinking of adding a demand that Howard give Sammy Davis Jr. a Ph. D. Don’t you think this is a good idea? I bet Sammy could beat any Cleaver in an intelligence contact. But why becloud the issues?

Another disturbing thing is that the Hindu students are inviting me to partake in their Intendance Day celebrations. This impertinence to our “only in America” experts on Oriental Philosophy (??) out of Leyden, Oxford, Heidelberg, Upsala and their students in our universities may cause us to question foreign aid. Yes, the Hindu students are taking over their own celebration and the fact that I have some excellent fresh material from Indian-India will be welcomed—by them. Why they even accede that I am a friend of their present President and former President, but don’t let that disturb you. It never disturbs the press, radio and TV anyhow, so don’t let it be you.

Anyhow I am getting ready to lead a delegation of American youth to join the Hindu youth in studying Indian-Indian philosophy and the Americans love curry and the Hindus like American girls. (You don’t hear these discussed in our ??classes?? on Asian psychology, especially at Esalen.)

My classes in Yoga Dancing and Dervish Dancing are prospering fine, but any such silly idea of building up peace and brotherhood through the dance is strictly against prevailing dialectics of the “left” in these dances. We have men and women. Odd, isn’t it?

Why Art, somebody even sent me a small endowment this week, for my bombastic claim to know something about those philosophies which all Asians say I know. Of course those who reject my claims will be glad to share the endowment but this time, no sir, not I, sir.

Faithfully.

cc-Herb Caen     

San Francisco Chronicle

February 7, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

Please continue to amaze me.

Gratefully,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

February 12, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

War is a way of “life”?

Love,

Art

Feb. 12. 1969

YES!

Art Hoppe         

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

Yesterday I met a policeman. He was not in uniform. I made a suggestion. To my amazement and stupefaction he thought it was a good idea. So I pass it on to you:

Why don’t you stop using mace and substitute laughing gas!

Yours to accept, reject, or plagiarize.

Sam

February 14, 1969

Dear Art:

Flayboy it is.

They got some facts correct. See the March issue, they did not put me down as a giant—I mean in physique. They even said what I said, but when it comes to medical and psychiatric diagnosis, Flay boy is flay boy. Evidentially they have to do it. But they did spell penis correctly in referring to my use of it. Le Femme present were all young, some very beautiful. Ergo, she was called an “Acidhead.”

(I have yet to meet an acid lip.)

So I am going to tell my lawyer, I am guilty by association. The association is only geographical which makes it worse. I have also earned additional flaying from these who were not put on the frying pan. Now I am going out to Haight Street and will undoubtedly be a here. My facts being facts, the young like them. I am leaving the opinions to the status symbols.

Valentine’s Day Love,

NO!

Art Hoppe,

c/o S.F. Chronicle,

San Francisco. 94119

Dear Art:

I am preparing to sue Playboy because they have written about me without my consent and made some detrimental (along with some favorable) remarks. But the chief reason I am going to sue is that my good friends are advising me not to. I have had plenty of advice. I have had all kinds of suggestions and once in a while succeed when out of sight of the people with the suggestions and advice.

Now I must explain this title. I am now reading one of my poems to the young. It was turned down ten times by the Christian churches (it is about Christ) and by the poets, including Allen Ginsberg who goes around crying that there are no Blakes and Whitman’s.

This poem was written in 1942 in the midst of darkness and ever single prediction in it came true, several soon after. You can understand—or can you?—why the Aileen Garrets, the Cayce Foundation, the Jean Dixons, etc., etc. will not have any of me. They need the baksheesh for research, especially the baksheesh. The research is not so important. Only now every week more of the young (crazee isn’t it) are in my groups. Yesterday I held them spellbound and now they want to boost my Friday meetings on Haight St. where only the young will show up anyhow. And some fine day the various Avatars and Messiahs—there a lot of them, including my friends Leary and Ginsberg may doff some of their “humility” of which they have no end—and listen, actually listen! But I don’t know whether there will be any room for them.

The same thing is happening with my Dervish dancing and I am planning to besiege the Iranian Consulate not on who should or should not be King Prime Minister, but in praise of Iranian Culture and Persian poetry of which I am not an “expert.” But then “only in America.”

So I’ll go to court because I have a friend who knows about these things. He also committed an irretrievable sin! Born in Asia with an Asian father, he looks European like his mother, and although he had lots of training in the real Asian discipline he hasn’t a chance, but “only in America.” So we may go to court, only this will involve the State Department and the foreign policy for as I have long said: “European are human beings, Asians are thought forms!”

It may take a while and then, maybe, perhaps, question? I can get my paper accepted on “The Religion of the President of India.” “Only in America” we do not permit such things.

Samuel L. Lewis

February 18, 1969

Dear Art:

Today your essay, “War is a Way of life” came and also a letter from the lady who was the secretary of the late Alfred Korzybski. She knows Semantics without any “generals” and could lecture on any portion, any portion of “Science and Sanity.” She does not go around Ph-deing or talking “meta-language” and go thou but don’t do likewise.

She has sent me some clippings, and alas, Art, you have rivals, colleagues or fellow-conspirators, and I can’t tell which.

Now after hearing a lady Professor talk on the real Vietnam and Vietnamese (she has only been dere, Charlie), I got a phone call from the Vietnamese to have me come and talk to them about Zen, without asking “Hiawatha” or his erstwhile British colleagues, who have had the audacity to take psychedelics without his permission.

So I have been coping from real Buddhist scriptures stuff which Dr. Apriori Rejection has, and these are going to be circulated. As there will be a course on “Semantics” (without generals) soon on the campus of the University of California, I am going to see they get this and other material.

I have thanked Playboy because they recognize I am alive, but from the description you would not otherwise recognize me or my audience!

New out to lecture to some real young. I only give one lecture, the rest of the time I commune. And why not?

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

February 21, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I am thanking me, for you, because I am aware that you are alive—and have been for a long time.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

March 3, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

With all you do, you still manage to read “Dear Abby.”

Admiringly,

Art

410 Precita

San Francisco 94110

March 6, 1969

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

This is some more not-news which ought to become news. In any event we are sending a copy to Herb Caen, to the associates of the acting President of San Francisco State and to others, and I am not fooling in the least. Yesterday I was in the 21^st century, the real one. I was a guest speaker at Sonoma State College. The subject itself is unimportant, excepting that unless there has been a complete change of heart and mind, the acting President of San Francisco State would either have forbidden it or sneered. There has been no turmoil at Sonoma. When the students asked me what I thought, I said I felt like being fragmented into a multitude of pieces, each one incarnated in one of them.

There was a very aged gentleman in the audience, an official of the college. He was very delighted to hear somebody talk on Whitman, Emerson and James, three very American personalities who are either smeared at ignored or absolutely derided by the Generals of Semantics so-called.

Evidentially the talk must have gone over, for not a few of the audience came all the way from Cotati to Corte Medora to hear me at night. My efforts to introduce the Asian philosophies of Asians are slowly penetrating the minds and hearts of the young wherever I meet them. And I am meeting them. And I expect to fellow this up by another visit to the Berkeley campus where they new realize that there may be Asian philosophies which are products of Asians and not of former friends, English and European, who were once very friendly with the acting President of San Francisco State.

While I had intended to write you in this vein, humor reaches an exceedingly high point in Ron Moskowitz’s article on page 14 of today’s paper. Toward the and of the speech, the acting President is quoted as having said, “that happiness is a man who is thoughtful, educated, rational and reflective.” Every time this man has faced me, he has used nothing but derision and personality, nothing but the sneer, the scoff and audience appeal. This is bad enough in private life, but in public, coming from a man who has pretended to present the philosophy that “words are not the things they represent,” it is either ignorance, hypocrisy or risibility at its upmost.

I tell you Art, you would learn much if you mingled with the young students in our campuses today. We are going to have a “thing” at 910 Railroad Avenue, Novato, on Sunday, March 23rd. This will end a several day festival for the joint birthday parties of Gavin Arthur and several of my disciples. Believe me Art, I have the most wonderful disciples, growing all the time in quantity and quality. To be a disciple of Emerson, Whitman and the James family has been out of fashion. I have been fighting for years for a traditional American outlook, based on the personalities and teachings of some Americans whom I admire (the subject of Mark Twain has already been discussed). When “Science and Sanity” of Alfred Korzybski was first published, I saw in it a synthesis of all the finest in American culture, plus much more.

Having been a student of the late Cassius Keyser of Columbia who was the friend and mentor of Korzybski, I called on the acting president of San Francisco State a number of years ego. He was conducting a seminar and was too busy to see me. He asked me to address a group of scientists, because their meeting conflicted with his program. I did and was given an ovation. My report on this was later thrown into the waste basket by the acting President in the presence of a friend who told me so. Certainly the report was never acknowledged, returned or published. This from a man who dares to say in public, “that happiness is a man who is thoughtful, educated, rational and reflective.”

Even at this writing I am still on bad terms with a number of people for my defense of what has been called “General Semantics.” Although I think neither God nor Browning could tell what this phrase means.

Apparently it means whatever the General of Semantics wants it to mean.

I believe a great many problems of the day could be solved by applications of an integrative philosophy, inherent in Korzybski and now openly proclaimed by my friend and colleague, Professor Oliver Reiser of Pittsburgh.

A lot more could be said Art. But I am too busy doing. The Pied Piper campaign is going on apace. More and more young people every week. Playboy may sneer, but at least they recognize one’s existence. To have the champion of sneering as head of a great intellectual institution is damnable and damaging, and don’t you think that a lot of teachers don’t knew this?

However Art, I take final refuge in George G. Nathan, that your meeting my beautiful girl disciples might be more effective than all words, arguments or uneven compliments.

Love and ersatz kisses,

San Francisco Chronicle

March 12, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I had thought it was a beautiful idea to meet some of your Beautiful Girl Disciples, but my Beautiful Wife didn’t. But I consider myself fortunate enough to read your written word.

Gratefully,

Art

410 Precita Avenue

San Francisco, Cal. 94110

March 12, 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

My Dear Art,

There is a teaching in Indian classics that “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I have had a very odd career of being the scapegoat for a number of persons and groups that ought to have known better. The case of the acting president of San Francisco State is merely more dramatic than others. In a number of instances the dupes and scapegoats have been too frightened to do anything. In one instance when he tried to become a member of the Marin Rod and Gun Club, offended sons and daughters of prominent families protested, nor did they protest in vain. The facts were never made public.

A few minutes ago I received a telephone call from the office manager of the I.S.G.S. asking me to call off my private witch hunt. He further asked for a manly interview, something I’ve never been able to obtain in this direction over the course of many many years.

On paper we should be friends. On paper our philosophies are very similar if not identical. On paper.

The last two weeks have seen a number of breakthroughs in my private life including those great American virtues, social and financial improvements. More important than this is that all the professors on Asian subjects whom I have met in the last month have accepted without question my personal experiences. It is one thing to have one’s philosophy refuted; it is another thing to be constantly given the lie as to one’s to one’s whereabouts. A whole generation of so-called “experts” has done just that. Practically all of them have passed from the scene. The professors on Asian subjects at the moment on the various campuses are objective, fact-gathering, and open.

Despite the radio, TV and news media I have had a very unclear view of the Third World Movement. Unlike so-called eye-witness news gatherers I have kept away from the melodramatic theatrical amphitheaters and listened to students on other parts of several campuses. Almost unanimously these representatives of the Third World Movement simply want a balance between Asian subjects and European subjects. They want these quantitatively through the additions of more courses on Asiatica; and qualitatively by having the same standards for teachers of Asian subjects as for teachers of European subjects. This would mean the replacement of the so called authorities experts by real Asians or by Americans who have lived and studied in Asia. (The American University in Beirut stands out pre-eminently in this field, and at least one of my present mentors has been connected with this institution.)

I realize, Art, this is a heavy letter. It is a fundamental part of my ceaseless campaign reality not “realism.” At this writing I am very optimistic. Doors are opening and even my financial situation as above is continually improving.

I think one of the most in fortunate elements of the so-called campus crises has been the neglect of the so-called “silent majority.” The majority has not been silent; it has simply been ignored. What is so horrible to me is our pretense to “democracy” and our ignorance of the views of the by-passed so-called silent majority.

I am all for the higher echelons of education in this state of California.

Sincerely,

San Francisco Chronicle

April 2, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

It is a joy to know that laughter is still free.

Gratefully,

Art

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

April 3, 1969

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

My dear Art:

On the Solution of Problems. We have plenty of problems of course. Apparently the only way our culture is dealing with them at the moment is to find a “right” person or a right formula. If one of these is proposed, there will be the competition from all other “right” persons and “right” formulae. If none of them is proposed, the problem is swept under the rug.

There are 3 problems in my private life or public life: the psychedelic complex; the controversies arising from Silent Spring; and the establishment of the same human and humane bases of cultural and other exchanges with Asians as with Europeans. Years of brush-off have not dampened my spirits. I am now in position to deal with each of these on what might be called either “cosmic humanism” or integrative processes. Both of these have been offered to the world by my friend and colleague Dr. Oliver Reiser of Pittsburgh University and others.

A solution to the psychedelic complex. My proposal Joy Without Drugs offered at the psychedelic conference in 1965 was ignored mostly because the important people ware too busy getting at each other’s throats to have anything like a sane seminar. At that time Leery leaned on Alpert, and both of them on Sidney Cohen, and all of them on Huston Smith of M.I.T. It is notable that none of the first three even answer my letters. In contrast, Huston Smith always does.

My audiences, particularly here in Marin Country, have grown so large we must now seek a public hall. I had 100 people at this place on my first open party this year, and expect more at the next. As I have written you sarcastically, the campaign to become a Pied Piper—only the young show up. Now, not only are my audiences larger, but people in their early 30’s are coming and all of these university graduates and usually professional men and their wives.

A practical solution to the psychedelic or any other problem not coming either a renown or Madison Avenue bloated individual may not easily get public attention. But it works Art; I assure you it works. The successful formulae are simple, found in great literature, and almost as impossible to apply as the Sermon on the Mount. But this America, or rather the establishments, rejecting Pragmatism, stubbornly adhere to one workable formula or to men of the hour whoever they should be. The problems remain. Or do they?

Silent Spring. I was once a professional spray operator. I am one of the few gardener-horticulturalists who have some knowledge of organic chemistry and, of course, of entomology. When there were public discussions on this book, I was either snubbed or publicly insulted in efforts to be heard. These snubs and insults were most notable from what I call the “generals” of semantics. The opposite was true only of entomologists. Yesterday, in talking with nursery man I believe I have enough of practical programs which would end the uncontrolled emotions arising out of problems emanating from Silent Spring. I have met too many entomologists and plant protection people in this world. I had hoped that the semantic movements could be used to propose solutions on integrative bases. Instead, these people are no different from all others in giving the brush-off when some private intellectual privilege is in danger. I think we suffer more from ego-motives them from profit-motives but can’t prove it.

(The above also applies to a number of other problems; e.g. those of food and water etc.) Communication with laboratory scientists is easy; with most other people impossible. It is the same story of “freedom, liberty, democracy and peasants shut up!” About half the speakers at the top conferences of our greatest scientists are simple persons like myself. None of us are ever welcomed at popular gatherings on similar subjects.

Asian Relations. Sunday, some of us are going to the Hindu student’s picnic. So far, I have noticed that not a single popular “expert” has been invited. I am taking with me on that occasion copies of my poem The Rejected Avatar. I haven’t the slightest doubt about its reception. The strong contrast between the local snubs (especially the Generals of Semantics) stands in marked contrast to the grand cooperation between myself and The Temple of Understanding in Washington and also between my colleagues Miss Julie Medlock, working in Auroville, India. I have some letters from Julie now in San Francisco which will be answered next week.

On the spot Americans who have not the “right credentials” have as yet too little a place in our culture. But now I am in with more and more of a new type of professor of Asiatics. The new type if composed simply of Asians and Americans who have lived and studied in Asia and not of “experts.” Communication is simple, direct and beautiful. If I want to get philosophical, this demonstrates the Two Cultures of Lord Snow.

It seems in the end honesty and integrity sometimes pay off. The young want them. The Oracle will be out shortly. We shall see that you get a copy. It does not belong to the pseudo-universe of “realism.” It represents reality in a world sadly needing realities.

Faithfully.

cc Reiser

cc ISGS   

April 6, 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

You are wonderful. I used to know about the Platypus. Which I think was called Ornithorhynchus anatinus or something of the kind. I gave up on the spelling and platypus reminded me too much of my private Greek mistranslations, which is to say, “flat foot.” And “everybody” knows what flat-foot means.

But I am excited. This morning I read about the rites. It was only yesterday instructions were given to the dancing class on “The Sun Dance” (men only), “The Moon Dance” (mostly woman) and “The Wheel-Dance” which began with eight men and eight women. These things really should be called ritual or mystery dances. We are going to present some in May and we have also the audacity to celebrate Lord Buddha’s birthday in May which is very un-Buddhist like because the various temples and sanghas around here will be doing something entirely different.

I guess my trouble is I liked the early Stravinsky. Also studied Anthropology. Also studied about the mysteries with my friend Srs. Becker-Colonna who teaches a lot in this field. I must say here classes have people of all ages.

I am still promising you a picture of the Dance Class which is growing. These young have the audacity to accept the efforts to be a Pied Piper and every week more of them. Last week some people slightly over 30.

Today is Easter and we did our own ritual work for it and maybe more tonight but my talk Friday was this time to celebrate lots more Easter and lots less “Passion” because the world had been fed on sadness and too little Joy. Why some of those young rapscallions actually believe in one’s methods to increase Joy in the world.

Wishing you the same.

Samuel L. Lewis

P.S. Phone call that some mature people want to see and even join in the ritual dances. What am I to do? Are elders going to escape from “realism” into reality?

San Francisco Chronicle

April 14, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

So you’re the one that gets Spring sprung.

Love,

Art

April 16, 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

This is one of the most encouraging letters there has ever been occasion to write. Saturday was at the University of California, and we conclude our seminar this week. No nonsense about liberty, free speech and peasants shut up. Everyone spoke freely, and however the various persons felt, there was a general agreement that we have to get out of “realism” and into reality. Of course it is annoying when one substantiates statements by naming persons, giving examples and stating facts. I am pleased to say those annoyed are in the minority. And these she seek reality were certainly in the majority in this and all the recent sessions I have attended at the University.

It is noteworthy that the leading spirits in this real move toward real freedom and reports of real facts are headed by professors of San Francisco State University.

In my absence there was a work party at this, my Novato residence; we had a family meeting in which it was clearly laid dawn that no collective establishment could succeed when the members said “no” to each other and “yes” to outsiders. Filled with this collective family spirit, not only were all the items on our agenda accomplished but many more. In addition, the art work and the embellishments were inspiring and astounding.

We are not in the news, because we have had no scandals, no psychedelics, and no animal love. Indeed, we may become an exemplary for others to follow.

We are planning a May celebration in which a May pole may be used for teenagers and adults and not solely for the tiny grand-children of important politicians. We may be reestablishing the maypole as a folk custom, and I certainly have dances and ceremonies ready for the occasion which will probably be the first Sunday in May.

The goal “Joy without Drugs” slowly but steadily advances. We may not be in the news yet, but we are optimistic that The Oracle will ultimately appear on the stands with some reference to our work and accomplishments.

Cordially,

April 20, 1969

Dear Art:

It is with great regrets that one must report a victory in debate. My friend, Paul Reps, once wrote: “God is dead, but Allah is alive.”

Now in all the assemblages at the universities there has been much concern, since God is dead, that California, lacking divine protection, would be destroyed by an earthquake. But I said, au contraire, Allah was alive and that He intended to wash the State into the ocean.

The morning paper shows this has begun. We used to have a lot of lakes in the San Joaquin Valley. Please don’t refer to early Geographical text books because this would be automatically confirmed and thus effect real estate booms. Well they drained the lakes and made a lot of farming land and somebody got prosperous.

As Jonah was busy elsewhere, God dead, Allah or maybe Jupiter Pluvius took over and it has rained and rained (Jupiter) and snowed (Allah). Now the snows are melting and the water (following the Robinson Jeffers script) has nowhere to “go but down.” So it is.

Now the good people of Marin are busy damning the engineers who are trying to dam them but the waters will be catching them if they don’t watch out.

Once I had a friend. He was boss of Kansas City (and maybe of Harry Truman). He built a $50,000 ditch and charged a million. All the republicans of the country were horrified. The next year there was a deluge and flood. Kansas City was saved. Harry was elected President. The United States was saved. Pederast is still a hero.

But nobody is stopping Allah. The waters are coming, and soon the bay will be filled with debris, detritus and a lot of things I can’t spell.

Say, Art, in the last two weeks I have made friends with two professors of philosophy. And they both teach at San Francisco State. What’ll I do now?

April 24, 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

The other day I was on the Berkeley campus. Not a uniformed man around and all was very peaceful.

The big not-news was the discovery or uncovery of one more professor after another doing big things who are never published. And no doubt my greatest surprise was to find a man who has already catalogued all the achievements I wanted to include in “How California Can help Asia.” It is marvelous and stupendous but don’t let the press and TV, the Hayakawa and Raffertys find out such things!

Along with this is the new age wherein Americans and Asians are now teaching the Asian-Asian philosophies and cultures without benefit of “experts” and PHDs, who don’t know much. The whole trend is toward honesty and objectivity and therefore not news.

My first meeting in the San Francisco Theological Seminary brought twenty strangers, all young, in addition to my “regulars.” And I am getting ready to send emissaries to certain foreign lands who will live with the humanity of these lands. Quite a few. And this will bring understanding if not peace.

I am all ready for combination on May and Wesak festival and expect an even larger attendance at my Novato “home.”

But Gosh, Art, with two news friends in the philosophy department at San Francisco State, where do we go from here? Nothing but good news, like the weather.

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

April 28, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

Your dedication bears sweet fruit this spring.

Joy,

Art

May 6, 1969

Dear Art:

The Degeneration Gap.

It is said that confession is good for the soul so I confess. I was born in a fairly well to do family here and was #1 at Lowell High School which is not exactly a moron’s paradise. And my parents “discovered” they had not enough money to send me through college.

They needed the money badly to keep my brother from matriculating at S.Q. Varsity and although it cost them a pretty penny (all pennies are pretty) they were successful, he was successful and he is well known about town and I am not.

Then my father confessed on his death bed and I am matriculating in coupon-cutting which pays about twice as such as I could earn honestly and my brother could earn. Period.

Yesterday I gave a party and some 150 showed up and nearly all young. Suffice to say that the way I hugged the young men proves … and the way the young girl kissed me also proves … although these contradict and interdict each other.

We had a Maypole and they did my dances, and we also had a lot of Buddhist-Ceremonies for Wesak Day.

In the meanwhile The Oracle is out, and it is mostly about your humble servant and his colleagues. And another paper and another photographer were at the Maypole party photographing everything—everything including the hugging the young men and having the young girls kiss one.

As her imperious majesty Margaret Meade has concluded—this is Science and therefore incontrovertible that no elder can possibly understand the young—ipse dixit even it or because a female, something has gone wrong, the young have not read the script right and never do.

Thus the de-generation gap.

Worse to follow. I have just seen the head of the Philosophy Department of San Francisco State and was given a welcome. Proxy has wastebasketed everything I have ever sent him including the reports he wanted from me, written at his request. Watch for the future news about Proxy. I have some under cover to tell at the right time but this is enough now.

Cordially,

San Francisco Chronicle

May 14, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

Now what have you really got against smut?

Faithfully,

Art

Garden of Inayat

May 22, 1969

Dear Art:

Back to Religion.

Let Us Spray.

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

June 1, 1969

Art Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

This is one of my moments. I am writing today a number of serious papers: for East Asia to General Lansdale, copy enclosed; for the Near East one on Nabatean Architecture; and for South Asia, one on Pakistani troubles which will be shared with professors at San Francisco State and the University of California—press don’t copy, “solutions” not wanted, only excitement, excitement, excitement all day long and bloodshed. We are looking like the Romans.

Actually the background of this letter is most sad. It is not the only case, nor will it be the only case where the eye-witness accounts of people who have been there are shunned and shunted by the opinions of important people who were not. You can take your choice of who is “important.” If you think the Hawks are bloody, you should meet the Doves who prefer the questionable reports of a single British communist to a multitude of those of Americans who are not so communistic.

I am not going to relate my relations with General Edward Lansdale. He was my war hero, but there are things one does not talk about.

Only now at least one young editor—actually three—are discovering not only my backgrounds but the long history of frustrations and dejections and not only of myself but any and all of us who finds that things are not exactly as in “Counterspy,” “Mission Impossible,” etc., etc., and you may add to the “etceteras.”

As to Pakistan, I wrote incessantly to Dr. Samuel (Don) Hayakawa because there has been a demand for semantic studies there and this very “broad-minded” gentleman ignored these as well as practically all letters over written him. We are going to get Semantics to the Orient and without “Generals,” Wait and see.

Seriously but faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

June 6, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I just love your thought on God having been impeached.

Keep the faith,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

June 13, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I’m beginning to feel awful that I haven’t had one of your letters published. But I have enough trouble trying to publish my own stuff.

Keep the faith,

Art

910 Railroad Ave.,

Novato, Calif.

June 30, 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

The Great Rank Robbery

Yesterday was very, very big with lots of not-news. My Pakistani Goddaughter was here for a few hours en route to Los Angeles, but will return later. She is working for a Ph.D. in clothing, fabrics, design, etc. and she put on a costume show in my San Francisco home that was a wow. I thought I had some beautiful young girls in my entourage, but when they were costumed! Their husbands and boyfriends just went ga-ga.

This young woman once on an All-Asian philosophical conference with a paper written by … and so my name has gradually reached the ranks of the Untouchables, that is those Untouchable by the-various “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity and Peasants, Shut up!” Societies.

Indeed in the course of the day I had a confab with an editor who will accept my criticisms of the “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity and Peasants, Shut Up! Society,” although I would rather settle this peaceably. But you know, Art, facts must never be permitted to interfere with issues. Besides, aren’t all problems solved by finding the right man? When you do that you call it “science” although this has nothing to do with what goes on in laboratories.

In addition one received word that my miserable efforts to become a Pied Piper have inoculated a lot more young with promises that the program will go to Europe and Asia. I mean the real European and Asian peoples as distinguished from the thought-patterns used by “science” writers who never work in laboratories.

In the meanwhile I shall write another paper on DDT which will be considered by laboratory-scientists, but not, of course, by “experts” who have never sprayed anything but people’s reputations.

Feeling fine and hope you are the same,

San Francisco Chronicle

July 2, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I gave up trying to save the world, too. And I shall continue to admire you.

Keep the faith,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

July 10, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

If I wanted to know if Karl Marx ate yogurt, do you know who I would ask?

You.

Best,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

July 16, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

Please continue to do what you do best. Teach love and brotherhood.

Sincerely,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

July 30, 1969

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Thought Mr. Hoppe is away on vacation until the middle of August, I am sure that he would want me to convey his thanks for your letters. I shall keep them for him to read upon his return.

Sincerely,

Patria Scruggs,

Secretary to A.W. Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

September 2, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I am so very sorry I can’t come to your dinner. It is my daughter’s birthday and we have already made plans to go out of town to honor the event.

But I will be thinking of you, and your joy.

Apologetically,

Art

September 21, 1969

Dear Art:

Well I am back from a vacation during which we visited many of the great forests to the Northwest, also the Columbia River highway and Crater Lake and Tahoe. I only visited one campus which may be visited again, the old game of a priori rejections by self-styled VIPs is sooner or later going to become a public matter and self-heroes are not going to remain self-heroes much longer. No doubt the rise of campus riots will make it unnecessary to jump into the fray but the legends that certain persons are “thinkers” when you cannot point to a single instance of their actually adding anything to thought or accomplishment will not go on much longer. Besides the young are not only seeking, they have repressed faculties which they wish to use and they are going to use.

The present mock-game of “espousing” a “New Left” which has few followers or a “Communist Party” which has less is only helping the “New Age” young. If you want to meet them go to the New Age Health Food store on 9th Avenue in the Sunset, or for that matter to other health food stores.

The a priori rejecters are all part of the parlor science cliques which know almost nothing of laboratory disciplines. My own work and contacts in horticulture and food problems (which the parlor-scientists and Fourth Estate “scientists” have almost unanimously rejected (a priori of course) will become public, and perhaps even soon.

About 200 young people bade adieu. Part of this audience was due to my Pakistani God-daughter putting on a fashion show; part to my own efforts.

Apart from this I am being welcomed more and more by professors of philosophy at the various campuses and am scheduled to attend a world philosophical conference next year at which I am sure I shall be programmed. Although my financial condition is pretty good the aforesaid God-daughter is ready and will help finance this trip if necessary. She won an All-Asian Philosophical content once. The paper was written by U NO HU who has been barred on the one hand by the “only in America” European and English experts on Asia. But she has won friends at each university she has attended and the young are unanimously against the “only in America” experts on Asia (who are non-Asians) and also against all the self-esteemed a priori professors, even those who may be campus presidents!

I have not yet opened my mail. The time is coming when we shall welcome persons on knowledge and character and not on wealth or prestige of self-esteem. You will be informed.

Faithfully,

September 30, 1969

Dear Art:

You have offered me a conundrum.

There have been many conferences on world religions and Asian philosophies, all properly manned by people of proper lineage—i.e. they were over 30. I was always excluded.

But last week there was a seminar started here in San Francisco and the participants were 90% under 30. And I was introduced as the chief “expert” and “adviser.”

Then yesterday I came to a meeting all under 30 and they are planning a convocation on world religions and Asian philosophies as represented locally and they made me chief adviser.

But then I also got a letter from Washington that there is to be a world conference on world religions and Asian philosophies, and they were nearly all over 30, and they have also selected me as one of the top advises.

I don’t know what this means but I may keep you informed. Those darn people under 30! I tried to be their Pied Piper and they have accepted me. This is not in the rules book. What shall I do now?

Inquisitively,

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif

October 6, 1969

Mr. Arthur Hoppe,

c/o S.F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif.

My Dear Art,

In the past two weeks I have received no less than six apologies from VIP organizations, all having in common the general formula: With your money and our brains we can save the world. No doubt this is sarcasm but unless you have money or fame or a solid backing, all the logic and knowledge is of no avail.

It is only that next year I may be one of the chief speakers in an international convocation—we could not possibly permit it here—yet where those have had access to facts will be given some opportunity, along with VIPs and others to express themselves. It will become a matter of history later on that I have been sent on a peace-feeler mission between India and Pakistan, to be berated by the Foreign Office and have the respective countries call in Kosygin. And that my “peace program” accepted by the Arabs, Israelis and especially the UN functionaries who particularly admired it was smothered by our own State Department and the important ?”peace”? organizations.

One of the groups that apologized was the Muslim Studies Association. I called them down on fourteen points and was amazed that not only did they answer but conceded many. This is because they do not follow the current Christian-Jewish ethic. One never gets replies from those who accept the Christian-Jewish ethic. And although I have worked outside of politics, and would be in danger of martyrdom and no nonsense, if I called attention to the hard hard fact before Mrs. Goldie, that representatives of Zionism simply ignored Muslims and Arabs and now she is crying! This is the stuff that always gets away.

And before you get this the subject will be out. There was a meeting of putative Pied Pipers and they all acceded to this person who will formally acknowledge shortly. Young of the world, unite, you have nothing to lose. I may speak on the free travel opportunities—they won t have to go to Vietnam: they can choose between the Near East and the Nigeria-Biafra complex and other places where we sell war weapons and goods to both sides. The Greeks use to do that but they are involved at home.

I remember the last peace organization approached. They had twelve alternative plans for Vietnam: nine from Americans (of course); one from an Englishman (you can t leave them out); one from Hon. U Thant and one from a Vietnamese ! Please send your contribution! (I forgot the address).

The Humanists, who also do not seem to adhere properly to the Christian-Jewish ethic have already sent for me and let me speak on a subject where I had direct experience.

I do not feel proud of this. The dominant hypocrisy; the use of formulae, aphorisms, slogans, etc. is nothing but self-hypnosis. I don’t want the young to fight for me in the Near East or Nigeria, now that we may be withdrawing from Vietnam.

I am not particularly thrilled with retractions. We still do not permit lectures on the dominant religion of Vietnam—this being part of the current Judeo-Christian ethic.

I have seen very few Americans of African ancestry attending classes on the marvelous Archeology and Anthropology of that continent until very recently. Good Muslims are not enrolled in the courses on Islamic and Arabic culture. And we still have English and Europeans (not Arabs) as instructors in this field. This is also apparently part of the ethic.

But it is not only the young who are calling for a Pied Piper. Many more senior people are with me—or I with them—in calling for the American-American philosophies of James, Dewyr, Peirce, Thoreau, Emerson, etc. We do not need any Existentialism or Dialectics and these, to me, are false gods. But false or not, more and more adults are interested in the revival of American-American culture.

Pioneers ! O Pioneers!

Faithfully,

October 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

Peace it is wonderful.

Last night I told the poetry class at the University of California that my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism being rejected 33 times, I gave up not because of these rejections, but because a Vietnamese friend of my wrote a splendid paper on this subject. I let him take over these rejections.

Tomorrow, after I read about the peace demonstrations, I shall take a positive stand on this subject. But last night I was asked at the poetry class of the University of California to speak on “Contributions of the Vietnamese people to general civilization.” I must say that this subject has been as anathema to the “peace organizations” as to those purporting working in the field of American-Asian cultures with the fortunate exception of Asia Foundation and The American Society of Asian Arts. These people actually recognize the prowess of non-Aryans! Your delightful editorials are fortunately un-intelligible to those not trained in the super-wisdom of Lewis Carroll. (I have a cat who has inherited the Cheshire cat’s grins, and this is also both helpful and beneficial.

Unlike the great Socrates, I was not called upon to drink hemlock and now am leading many of the youths of the region astray. Or as I said recently, “Youth of the world unite.” (Of course, I am as much a youth as Karl Marx was a proletariat.)

I shall write you further after my 2 day birthday celebrations, demonstrating the folly of my efforts, to become a Pied Piper—only the young show up, and how!

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

910 Railroad Ave

Novato, Calif. 94947

October 9, 1969

Mr. Arthur Hoppe:

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

The danger in lowering the voting age can be seen at once from the event at The Family Dog at the beach. Some 1500 young people welcomed this person, his disciples, his dances and their chants before this audience. Many joined in the chants, and so far as available in the dances also.

This is a far cry from the yesterday when Asian Studies, so-called, were in the hands of respectable gentleman, educated for the most past in Great Britain or Europe. Some of these gentlemen are still in high places, mis-informing our young who are trained for the Peace Corps and producing an endless array of untoward incidents, seldom exposed. While this is going on an every-increasing number of young people, Americans and non-Americans, are going to the real Asia and especially the real India and learning what the aforesaid respectables taught just ain’t so.

Locally the respectables are divided into camps, all pretending to teach deep Asian wisdom and few if any of them capable of facing much loss passing an elementary examination in the subjects of which they are reputed teachers. At the worst, both use a text on the spiritual practices of India, written by every respectable European-educated gentleman, and I doubt if you can find any of these practices among the actual Hindus. That is of no avail; an expert is an expert period (.). At the worst the teachers of one of these redoubtable gentleman treated me as an equal; his pupils as an inferior. But now our own universities are training our young in the real cultures of the real countries of the real world. Today I am welcomed by members of the oriental departments of our universities and colleges as I have been in Asian Asia.

Last night, the actual cultures of actual Asia were represented by their own devotees. And along with them Americans who believe they have spiritual and world missions. Whether they have or not is beside the points. They were all permitted to speak and mostly well-received. None was introduced by an emotional chairman with any florid speech. All were on their own.

This came shortly after my first epic poem on an Indian theme was accepted by a representative of the University of California. Such material has been summarily rejected in the past, both by the gentleman holding classes in “Oriental philosophy” and by the leaders in this region. I think that day is over! And tomorrow I shall be permitted to appear as an authority on certain aspects of Buddhism in which I believe I am well-grounded, and which has been generally accepted in Asia and now by the American professors of Asian cultures in much of this land.

I have long harped on the total neglect to such American achievements as the completion of the Mangalore dam in Pakistan by a local corporation. Such wonders are never news. And I continue to harp on a non-achievement boasted and bolstered by American editors concerning the Aswan Dam. It is remarkable that the communist press, the Birch press, the syndicates have all editorialized this remarkable non-achievement, while by-passing actualities. There were born in this region also—in Berkeley to be exact—2 Americans who have also played leading roles in trying to establish objective Asian America cultural relations. I don’t think we hear of Nealer Cram Cook any more, born in Berkeley, she spent her last days in India highly honored. But you would never hear her name by any ersatz professor. Harold Lambe was more fortunate. He died recognized in the eastern part of this country, especially by the American friends of the Middle-East. I intend to memorialize both of those people when I appear at the next Parliament of Religions which will be held, we hope, in Istanbul next spring. There will be no ersatz experts, nor pompous chairmen standing in the way.

The danger is not that one has been by-passed or rejected … that day is over—the danger is that the young people now acclaim one as much from his previous rejection as from his actual accomplishments. I suppose this has to be. It is certain when I tell the young who and what has rejected what I have already presented them I am met with cheers and applause. They think it is part of the game.

I said last night, “Youth of the world unite, you have nothing to lose.” “We must dance together instead of march together.” Etc.

I did say I expected them to do their stuff next Wednesday, when there will no doubt be a national, and perhaps more than a national, protest against war, not just against wars, but against war. Of course, that is their thing.

Now the young want me. They accept this one as Pied Piper and I will have to prove my merits out in the open, not behind closed doors; not contrary to the emotional autocracy of some pompous chairman. And I must likewise become calm and considerate. I think this will be done; I am ready to do this in the case of one Englishman regarded as the top expert on Oriental culture, but “only in America.’

Well Art, I have gotten Jew and Christian, Muslim and Hindu to dance together and to chant together, and I shall continue just that. And I foresee when both our professors and students will demand the same objectivity in the non-sciences as in the sciences.

This is enough belly-aching for one day.

Cordially,

October 19, 1969

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

How Do They Control Pests in Russia.

Don’t get any wrong ideas assuming that there are ideas which are not “wrong ideas.” Jedgar had a marvelous anti-crime crusade by which he got rid of communists. Then he tried another to get rid of Hippies. But communists are manufactured by dialectics which is rather ersatz and Hippies by biology which is more complex.

The commies tried the same thing: How to get rid of Trotskyites and other poets. They got rid of the Trotskyites which are ersatz by dialectics. How about other pests?

Now I once went to school and learned all about “integration” by studying Mathematics and all about “ecology” which came by studying Biology. That is all changed. We now have “Sociology” that marvelous “science” which manufactures, sells and solves “problems”! All the “pro science” people study Sociology.

Now they are taking over “ecology” as they took over “integration.” They are taking over “ecology.” These grandsons of Hitler have found the “Jews” only the “Jews” are not called D.D.T. (both D’s here mean “devil” and have no relation to chemical compounds). Once the sociologists get hold of something you don’t need any chemistry any more.

So they are out to protest the use of chemicals (about which they haven’t the slightest knowledge. Vide: the French revolution—that got rid of Lavoisier—“the Revolution has no need of scientists.” It is the same now. We don’t go after Hitler’s “Jews” we have something “better.” At the moment it is DDT but DDT has never been accused of causing Cancer. There is another “Jew” for that.

It would be very interesting if these sociological-ecologists had the program which Russia uses to control its pests. I am sure they have. But will the sociological-ecologists protest that! Wait and see!

Copies to certain chemical companies. They just might get some ideas for real sound propaganda based on facts. As for the Entomologists. Those “misled” people accept all my reports. They are also off limits as I am with the sociological-ecologists.

I am having too much success to be involved with with-hunting by anti Jedgarites.

Cordially,

Oct. 20, 1969

Dear Art,

As you can ascertain from correspondence herewith both to you and Congressman Burton, I had a big birthday celebration yesterday.

Among my presents was a picture from which I saved the wrapping:

San Francisco Museum of Art

I think that is wonderful: San Francisco Museum of ART.

Why not?

Cordially,

San Francisco Chronicle

October 27, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

You are truly an exceptional person. You do so much good, for so many people. I hope you had a wonderful birthday.

Love,

Art

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

October 27, 1969

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

To start Monday morning, write! This will not disturb your vacation, but next year I shall probably make every effort to get my autobiography accepted. It can be done in such a way as to make Jean Jaure’s J’Accuse look like kindergarten stuff. There are two interpretations or rather translations of sacred text: “Peace, good-will toward men” and “Peace toward men of good will.” Establishments accept the second, each choosing those of “good-will,” meaning ego-agreement.

It looks now as if I shall be going on a world-mission. I did not want to do this but the overwhelming majority of “peace” societies call for “liberty, democracy, humanity and peasants, shut up! “ Today the Rabbis are protesting against Vietnam. I am going to have a Vietnam day here as soon as it can be arranged. I don’t know whether we shall protest against the Near East conflicts, but if Rabbis can protest anent Vietnam I do not see why Cambodians and Laotians and Vietnamese should not be permitted to protest on the Near East conflicts.

The only trouble is that my Vietnam day will be in the hands of my Vietnamese friends, otherwise no go.

One reason for writing is that there is a new organization coming here calling for “One World.” That is its cognomen. They left out a phrase, “under our leadership.” The boss-man was a disciple or pupil of Dr. Radhakrishnan, philosopher and quondam President of India. When he was President of India, I phoned and came in and saw him, just like that! This is absolutely verboten. (Incidentally Dr. Radhakrishnan is also a very good friend of Her Serene Highness, Princess Poon Diskul.) But with such friends I have no more place in World Union than in any of the multifarious “peace” groups and “world” groups whomsoever.

In the classes at San Francisco State and University of California there are now open discussions on the new religions and cults and also on traditional groups shut out by our “liberty, humanity, democracy and peasants, shut up” organizations. Everything is absolutely above board. You won’t read about that in the press, but it is. And so after long, long years I see my “Reality versus ‘realism’” coning to a successful conclusion. It has to.

The miserably ending of my efforts to become a Pied Piper was that about a hundred young people gave me a birthday party. Imagine that! And this apart from what is going on at “The Family Dog,” and other places. My classes are slowly increasing in number and also in attendance at each session. The young seem to have come to quite different conclusions from their elders. There is no question where they stand on “Reality versus ‘realism.’”

My mission will be related to and may even affect the conflicts in Vietnam, South Asia and the Near East. The first thing I do is to garner facts and then more facts and more facts. This may be “scientific” but it has little place in “society” and in facing “social”-problems!

We have two methods of “solving” problems:

a. Emotions         b. Selecting to the right leaders

For this there are only two credentials, money and public support. And it is not amusing to find that group after group which has refused to give me an interview, much less talk, are still seeking financial and popular support. And I am unable to deliver it because I am definitely less equal.

I wish to be less equal. My rallying cry: “Youth of the world, unite, you have nothing to lose” is going ahead. It is not in my hands. I have not asked for “leadership” but the youth are finding out that all statements from this person are supported by objective facts (not emotions or opinions) and have at least historical validity to being with.

The plan for “Dances of Universal Peace” is going ahead more rapidly than can be handled. It requires understanding and knowledge, not rhetoric and/or emotion. It is remarkable how these are shut out by the various “peace” and “universal” and “integration” groups—incidentally we have racially very good integration.

Yes, I am for world union and for brotherhood and for understanding but not necessarily under my “leadership.” Let him who would be greatest among you be the servant of the rest.

After I leave this region again and as given the opportunity to address the “proper” persons, I do not think that the “liberty, democracy, humanity and peasants, shut up groups” will be no positive in their stands. It is certain that the poetry and musical groups are open. There is hope that others may follow. No bad news and plenty of high hopes.

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

October 30, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I’m so glad you had such a wonderful birthday party, and that all is going so well for you. With your hectic schedule, I am constantly amazed at how you manage to find time to keep me so well informed about your activities. But then, you’re an amazing person.

Keep the faith,

Art

October 31, 1969

Dear Art:

Bravo, and bravo encore. Since the capitalists have taken away the celebration of the birth of Christ and turned it over to Santa Claus, why shouldn’t Fidel and company expose this capitalistic plot and restore Jesus Christ and get rid of Santa Claus?

I am in a fine mood this morning. Inasmuch as the Board of Rabbis has voted to stop us from meddling in Vietnam I think I shall write the World Buddhist Federation asking them to protest against the fighting in Palestine. You know, Art, everybody has a better peace plan for everybody else.

Besides this I am thinking of turning my home into an Inn. The Pied Piper fiasco has resulted in troupes of young persons coming here and also to my Novato residence. They are also coming in greater numbers to my meetings. And if the legislature should lower the voting age to 16, boy, I shall (alas) become a Fuehrer, automatically.

After all the Bible does say that “a little child shall lead them” and that scoundrel, Fidello, might do just that! Gosh, what would happen if a government took the Bible seriously? The only ones who do that are the young poets and the young poets have honored me by unanimously deciding I was the maddest of all of them.

Anyhow I expect to start reading poetry, my own and the poetry of Asian-Asians, right in Haight Ashbury! I don’t know which will cause the most confusion. Both events, the reading on Haight St. and at the University of California will take place Tuesday next and I know no “experts” will be around. They are too busy writing editorials such as “Vas is Laos!”

The remarkable thing about “experts” is that in these days of vision, television and supervision (especially the latter) they don’t have to come within 10,000 miles of the people they are writing about, or advising. What would happen if I asked a Kashmiri or Bhutanese how to vote this coming election? Sorry, all our stress are one-way streets now so this is not done.

Now I have to go to Hayakawa State College as an “expert” (you see how low our educations system has fallen). I shall carry with me latest copies of The Oracle that underground paper which tells only about “heaven” or how to bring about a heaven-on-earth, or something. After all a young person of 18 today knows more than a 50 year old did in his time, or any time.

Let’s hear more about the great Christmas conspiracy.

Love,

November 3. 1969

Dear Art:

Congratulations! (I don’t know for whom.)

Well, President Nixon was joined Stalin, Hitler and the Mafia in coming out for “Peace With Justice!”

Swonderful, n’est-ce pas?

Samuel L. Lewis

Copy of letter to Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

November 5, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

I had forgotten to ask Fidel about Christmas trees. But I will the next time I see him.

Keep the faith,

Art

November 9, 1969

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicles,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

Jesus Christ Versus Santa Claus

You might know I was up to something. We aren’t going to spend any money on Christmas trees here. Oh, we are going to spend money. I have the girls enthusiastic about making a colored cross with suitable decorations and my fellow-tenant has had some background in stage lighting. What! A Cross for Christmas?

The trouble is the backlash from efforts to be a Pied Piper. I had to divide my dancing class and the Saturday night attendance was overwhelming with a lot of absentees who are coming here. The “Dances of Universal Peace” are being accepted by everybody but the advocates of “Universal Religion”—me leader.

I remember years ago challenging a Baha’i. I asked him what was the differences between the world being divided into 700 particular sects and 700 universal sects. We did not have 700 universal sects but we are rapidly approaching them. At the universities (and colleges) where the young people really believe in free speech and the right of all to be heard, we can see how many new movements are coming forth, usually quite mutually exclusive. They are not exclusive in claiming to be universal—that is a “must” today. But they all have different leadership.

I wrote a letter to Ceylon where somebody had declared he had found a universal religion and instead of getting an ego-claim he sent me literature of three different groups all claiming world leadership (and modesty and humility). We have some here—you can chose your own “world” group, and pays as you enter. They all agree on the “pays” part, and there the unity stops.

In the meanwhile, darn it, my editor says he wants the article on “Jesus Christ Versus Santa Claus” pronto. And it will be interesting to see how the multi-various “universal” groups around here will react! Of course Vietnam will keep on going (like “Old Man River’) and the Messiahs, Sadgurus, Avatars and World Leaders will be polishing up the handles on their own front doors and ignoring each other.

I can’t join that World Union which has come out irretrievably for Santa Claus. I remember once Mary Pickford wrote a book, Why not try God. I said, “Why doesn’t she, poor lady.” I was living in Hollywood than. I got kicked out of “society.”

Now with all the misled young coming to me I don’t care whether we lower the voting age or not. I haven’t even properly organized but I can’t join the “World Universal Union” and the “Universal Religion” and the “Universal Universal”—they will accept my money but never my prowess. Besides I don’t see Negroes and Orientals rushing to them. This new age “exclusively integrating universal” is something. But I gotta get back to the article on Santa Claus.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

November 14, 1969

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

San Francisco, Chronicle,

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

While the peace protesters are planning their marches, I am doing the “impossible.” Rather mockingly I have written that with the Reformed Synagogue Rabbis protesting against the war in Vietnam, I might be planning to get the World Buddhist Federation to protest against the battling in the Near East. This is not a gesture; it is a protest against the unfortunate blind hypocrisy which dominates our culture. And Hawk and Dove would probably combine against Arnold Toynbee for daring to interfere with “us” while we are interfering with exotic peoples. We will do anything, anything at all but sit and listen to the Vietnamese and other real Buddhists.

The story of what I learned firsthand from one side from Vietnam and what Admiral Evenson learned from another side in Washington agree in all details. They are not part of our history, and certainly have no place in the editorials of commentators who are experts in everything.

My “impossible” meeting with Rabbi Schlomo from Jerusalem will be followed no doubt by a joint meeting of Jewish and Islamic mystics, in love and joy which seems to be what all the various protagonists do not want and will gladly crush. But it is going to get out sooner or later, for to my surprise my editor friend was there and already has interviewed the Rabbi. I tell you Art, when man bites dog is it not news and not only is not news, it must not be news. And any real efforts to bring peace through love and humanity is verboten, not only by the Vice-President but by all sociologists and dialecticians of any and all camps. Even the most “peace-loving” people prefer war than to any activity which interferes with their private subjective predilections.

But Art, I am not talking nonsense. We are doing. We are going to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and no Santa Claus. A real demonstration of “Christ-love, not war” is more awkward to establishments than “Freudian-love, not war.” We mean something quite different than the Freudians who become harmless and perhaps will illustrate, “I came not to bring Peace, but a sword.” Only now, thank God, all doors are not being shut in our face and my “Reality not realism” is gaining and gaining and gaining as it must in the end.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

November 17, 1969

Dear Sam,

I wasn’t able to manage the “Jesus Christ vs. Santa Claus”—somehow it came out “Mediocre man vs. Santa Claus.”

Hope that’s okay.

Keep the faith,

Art

November 18, 1969

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

Sam Lewis Ki Jai! What have I done? Saved the Nation? Faced the Nation? Won a Nobel or an Ignoble prize? Nothing like that. Just turn to page 7 of this morning’s Chronicle and read the editorial on beards. I walk in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and Santa Claus although I am not sure of the historicity of the latter.

Besides, those misled young who are coming to this Pied Piper in greater numbers every week agree that we won’t need Santa Claus. This is something. While the Vicissimo is saying we don’t need commentators and the commentators who are a modest one dimension above the Encyclopedia Britannica adamantly refuse to accept suggestions of information from anybody else (this is a “gentleman’s” game), the young, satisfied with the moratorium, are looking for more crusades.

Well the World Union of Pondicherry, veddy modest, has come out for Santa Claus, and of course, for your money and support. Santa Claus may or may not support them. I have seen all sorts of World Unions and don’t know what happened to their treasuries. The next, of course, is to have at least one on Alcatraz.

Well those d… Asian Asians! First a Jewish Chassid from Jerusalem, then a Vietnamese Buddhist and next a beautiful Hindu dancer came, and being all and alike excluded from all the World This and World That groups, have accepted my dances. I think Ruth St. Denis is smiling from her various pictures. My audiences are increasing and I have been offered two halls for free, and may have to accept them. For there is now no room for them at this Inn.

What we excluded persons have agreed on is to re-arouse interest in Fatehpur Sikri in India. There was once an Emperor about whom you will learn nothing at the US-School of Asian Studies or the Them-There School of Asian Studies or the Exiled Europeans School of Asian Studies. Akbar brought all the religions and all the cultures to his capital and tried to make India into a One World which displeased all the proper orthodox of whomsoever who wish to control collections and fight each other.

He also revived all the arts and culture of India, but being the “wrong” man until recently you could never mention his name in this land, controlled by “experts” on Asian studies. But now it is different. And I think the way is clear, that we can get out of “realism” and into reality and accept; occasionally hard facts.

But don’t be misled, Art, it is not knowledge or wisdom or facts that are important—they just love my beard!

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

November 20, 1969

I think maybe I should grow a beard.

Love,

Art

November 22, 1969

Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif. 94110

Dear Art:

I have sent you a copy of a letter to Congressman Phil. Burton and now I am sending him a copy of this. I am sorry, because of events I am unable at the moment to give any more data about our intervention in Alcatraz to protest the natives from invaders, for I am now being deluged.

It seems that some people who call themselves Vietnamese are appealing to me for help. I have been arguing that there are such people and somebody finding this out is quite willing to share my assets but I am softy enough to indicate will do. So sometime in January we shall have a Vietnamese Aid Day, for the Vietnamese.

It is quite evident that they are not satisfied with the conduct of the war. They are not satisfied with our conduct, they are not with the war and they do have a Vice President resembling our own: freedom and free speech for conformists! But they are not conformists.

I may circulate the “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity and Peasants Shut Up” crowd to see if they will admit there are Vietnamese and these people have some ideas of their own.

As I have been listening to Tibetans, Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Thais, and of course Indians of all suasions, I have at least a growing member of young who want to meet the realities from whom the Vice-President and the commentators alike draw their mutually inimically conclusions, without ever having met the parties of the first part.

The Vietnamese want peace and we won’t let then have it. The only answer: more moratoriums.

Sam

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

December 1, 1969

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art: Pinkville, “Liberty,” “Democracy” and “Free Speech.”

I do not know how many years, or aeons it has been when I started to send you my two “master-pieces” on Vietnam:

We must under no circumstances change the script: “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court.”

“Kill them all, the Lord will know his own.”

There may be more of this stuff. I have been meeting and hearing more “Ugly Americans.” They haven’t a chance: It is either the Vice-President of the Expert-Commentator. Period.

I had planned to put on a Vietnam night here in January. One or more of my real Vietnamese friends may be here before then. But now I am getting more and more material from Vietnam written and published by Vietnamese, and will follow through.

Have written on TV station and am sending copy of this to another. This is largely to prove that eye-witnesses do not count unless they are prejudiced to support the policy of the radio-TV station.

It is going to take a lot of Pinkvilles, no doubt, but the young accept facts and eye-witnesses, believe me. I don’t want the Americans to kill Vietnamese peasants; I don’t want communists to kill Vietnamese peasants. I don’t want to see killing. I lost “face” here when I won an international contest on Mahatma Gandhi. But next year I come out of hiding.

There are more and more convocations broad, of course, were I shall be heard, and now some even in New England.

Tonight we are hosting Turks in this house.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc- KPFA

Dec. 21, 1969

Art. Hoppe

S.F. Chronicle

Dear Art:

At last the truth is out. The headlines today are “Read this and Cry, ‘There is no more clean air in the United States….’” Well Art, I have been crying for a long time: to watch the American government trying to impose its form of dirty air on poor Vietnamese Buddhist peasants while the Communists are also trying to impose their own form of dirty air on the poor Vietnamese Buddhist peasants. Each has its own form of dirty air, and each is quite willing to slaughter the poor Vietnamese peasants to save them from the impure air being imposed by the opposite camp. But as the Americans and the Communists alike want the impure air, and want to get rid of the superstitions of the poor Vietnamese Buddhist peasants who do not believe in impure air at all, we are stuck.

We are stuck because when a small group of native Americans stood out for pure air and began to practice The House That Roared right here in San Francisco Bay instead of Manhattan as the script calls for, we got stuck, because the script is the script is the script, as I have been saying for years.

Now let us go on to better or worse.

Crime. Since Crime is caused by Drugs, why don t we abolish the Drug Stores? Why hasn’t anybody thought of this before? (Of course it just might be that I have a vested interest in herb shops.) Besides, the word apothecary is too hard to spell and pronounce.

My latest audacity, or is it atrocity. Having been embraced, which was impossible, in turn by a Vietnamese Buddhist and an Israeli Chassid, I understand an Israeli Arab is coming here to meet me. It seems that all kinds of weird people come to meet me and nobody else. As this is impossible it is never news. But when this Arab comes here I am just likely to make rounds of all the so-called peace organizations and groups interested in world affairs, and get thrown out again as I have always been before. But this time it will be fun!

You see my closest friend, who has been an adventurer in some 63 countries, has written a book, and has had the audacity and effrontery to compare me with Dag Hammarskjöld. It seems that Dag and this unknown have been his closest friends. Only Playboy has even accepted my existence. But while the self-praising Rabbis and Imams refuse to meet each other, and both alike snub the suggestions of His Holiness Pope Paul, we are just devils enough to try and do something about it. Not editorials; not Reston editorials; not Agnew s anti-editorial, but actions. And me thinks some of our young people might just want to meet an Arab citizen of Israel. It just might lead to some action for peace. It just might lead toward peace, good-will toward man just a tiny winy bit, even if it comes from one silenced majority whose name is,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc Phil Burton

December 28, 1969

Dear S.A.M.:

You’re my Santa all year round. I can’t thank you enough for the meaningful and delightful correspondence we have had.

May you have the merriest of Christmases and happiest of New Years.

Art

Dec. 28, 1969

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

I was amazed and delighted with your article in today’s paper. It came at a time when—being the incarnation not of God (the world is full of “Avatars”)—but of Emerson’s mousetrap inventor, and the world is beating a footpath to these doors. Very improper no doubt for a number of the silenced majority, but very true. Christmas cards have been received from Vietnamese, Koreans, Indians, Ceylonese, etc., etc., etc. With regard to Ceylon, correspondence will be based on the new epic poem on which I am engaged with a theme somewhat similar to that of your article.

In the meanwhile I am preparing for a number of impossible events. Thus having recently hosted a Jewish mystic from Palestine, I am expecting an Arab mystic. As these people can’t be they are never in the news. Whoever heard of man biting dog being news? But I intend, unless there is an abrupt change in programming, to take this Arab around to the press, to the so- called “peace” organizations, and keep and exact record of rejections, which will certainly become in time a mark of the subjectivities of the passing age, making peace and understanding unattainable. (I am not going here into my past, and it is being written up, as I think I told you, by one of my very best friends.)

A number of years ago, in collaboration with the late Luther Whiteman, a book called Glory Roads was written on the reform movements of the State of California. It was not a bestseller. It was not even a good seller. But it was honest, objective, and factual. And, as your friend Herb Caen says the best graffito is the one that “pragmatism doesn’t work.” To many honest objectivity is the worst kind of demon, or rather to the non-scientific cultures.

A peace plan, written in 1928, was declared at that time to be one of the best ever seen. It was not then reported, but I expect to present it myself in a varied form, next year, at a conference held outside the domains of the United States, where the “silenced majority” is not so silenced. In the meanwhile….

A group meta-hippies found this place. While writing the epic poem alluded to, these words popped in:

The sons of God go forth to war

The heathen Buddhists bring up peace,

Old arguments are well done for,

The meta-hippies will increase.

I never dreamed that the meta-hippies would be arriving the someday. They are not in the least like the editorial nonsense appearing in another section of today’s paper. But it is not necessary, nor functional for some commentators to be objectively honest it all. They don’t have to be. Our present culture has tried to abolish both Oswald Spengler, which is understandable, and H.G. Wells, which to me is not. Their predictions are coming true, although you will not read about them.

Likewise, while working with Mr. Whiteman, one predicted anent the Kellogg-Briand Pact—”Now the word ‘war’ has been abolished; the earth will soon be bathed in blood.”

A variant of that occurred sometime later here in San Francisco at the last meeting of the U.N. here. Honorable U Thant said, “What the world needs is a moral and spiritual revolution.” Most everybody applauded and loudly. The cardinals, the metropolitans, the chief Rabbis, the top representatives of all the worlds’ faiths and unfaiths shook their heads in approval. I was horrified, and still am. I told my companion of the evening, we are going to see now so many bloodbaths that it will be impossible to take account of them. That ended my friendship with my companion of the evening—brother can you spare a dime for Biafra, or is it for the orphans of Vietnam, or is it for the Palestinian refugees, or is it?

I think you can understand that there is rising a new type of man, right out of H.G. Wells and Sri Aurobindo (although the Aurobindo people will not recognize Wells) and he is here and now.

This is an awful verbose commentary on your today’s splendid remarks. But as a representative of the silenced majority, and with growing good will outside the ranks of the press, radio, TV, and all camps of sociologists, I cannot keep quiet*.

With all love and best wishes,

*This of course is not true. I understand from a colleague, that my “Dances of Universal Peace,” the inheritance from Ruth St.-Denis, are now being considered by one of the big broadcasting companies, etc., etc.

January 1, 1970

Dear Art:

At the cost of being accused of something or other, I am starting the New Year by wishing you all that is wonderful.

But you have put me in a quandary, coming out for lowering the voting age. What is going to happen to this self-declared Pied Piper? My house was invaded by 80 young people on Christmas Eve. It shouldn’t, oughtn’t to have happened, but it did. Last night it was better or worse depending almost entirely on your age. About 100, and only 2 around 40. Are you prepared to take the risk when the voting age is lowered and the young occasionally show preference for the little man that was there, rather than to follow the opinions of the big man who was not? Anyhow, I had a really wonderful time, and it begins to look as if the New Year will bring in just some elements of the New Age.

I shall have to work on several efforts to end hostilities in the world—not “peace-programs.” A “peace-program” depends entirely on one factor: who wrote it. The items don’t matter. We have been overwhelmed with peace-programs. I wouldn’t say they don’t work; they do work—in reverse.

We made Israel; We made Biafra; We this and We that. I think I have told you I learned “The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking” from one Professor Cassius Keyser of Columbia. This has been forbidden, verboten, banned, shunned, and shunted, but like a Galileo one can “It still moves.” It is remarkable how the so-called devotees of Galileo, who do not read him of course, are the most adamant champions of refusals to listen (of course the scientists who have read Galileo are very different).

I think I have told you of my intention in case a certain Palestinian reaches San Francisco of taking him around to all the newspapers radio stations, “peace” organizations, etc., and making copious notes of their refusals of interviews. It is going to be a jim-dandy.

I have just received another letter—I get them all the time—from one of the many organizations collecting money to bring peace in the Near East. They frankly told me they haven’t a program. I say they have—collecting the money.

Now let’s turn to worse things—the pollution problem for example. Are you trying to solve it by action? by editorials? or just collecting the money? If so, be sure you have a tax-exempt organization.

Love and Blessings,

San Francisco Chronicle

January 12, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

It seems as thought you had a wonderful time over the holidays. And I’m glad—I can’t think of anyone more prepared to meet the 70’s with love and good will.

Love,

Art

410 Precita Ave.

 San Francisco, Calif.

 January 12, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, 94119

Weep for the Biafrans!

Dear Art:

This will be a somewhat formal letter and copies of it are going both to my own Congressman (Mr. Burton) and to Representative McCloskey whose views and mannerisms I so much admire. There is no exact immediate reason for writing but last week on the same day I received letters from the two ugliest of my Ugly American friends, people who had the effrontery to be eye-witnesses to world events and this is just one degree beyond being an arch-criminal and I am not fooling!

Miss Julie Medlock, widow of a Hearst editor was sent out by the press and what she saw was so shocking to our majority and minority views—both of which are based on anything you can do we can do better that she was either forced or volunteered to live in Asian countries where at least they do not throw the book at you for being an eye-witness. (As I have told you I lived in Los Angeles under the Shaw regime where witnesses were killed too often and this lead to the Mayor’s recall.)

The other from my friend and associate, Mr. Bryn (Shamcher Beorse) who is having a book published in which not only is there an essay on this Ugly American but I dare not name the persons to whom he has compared (or contrasted) me. But now in this New Age I am faced by the hard fact that a number of professors of Asian and other studies are welcoming me and even urging me to come out. For years I have said that the real world war would be between the professor and the commentator and have not changed my views much. Mr. Agnew has been no more successful than Mr. Nixon, or Mr. Humphrey or Mr. Johnson in getting in where I had the audacity both to be invited and get in, and it would appear now that an American who can break all the diplomatic super rules and succeed is now not only being called upon to express his views and experiences but actually invited! What will happen, Art, when diplomacy, like jurisprudence, admits the validity of eye-witness!

But while the professors are inviting me and the commentators and experts shunning, the very slow but even more steady increase of my audience goes on and no ivory-towered super-expert can overlook the fact that my work as a chela of the late Ruth St. Denis is succeeding and the program of Dances of Universal Peace is progressing. Indeed one reason for writing—one simply could not warn of Biafra or Cairo or anything or any place—is that one of the big broadcasting companies is actually considering investigation these dances! And if this does happen, you are so informed ahead of time. But Thank God this is no negative warning about any Biafra which would be shunned, but something positive.

One of my colleagues, suddenly appearing here said, “You have not only started the year right, you have started the decade right.”

The work on the dance is a sub-theme of Peace through the Arts. I was connected with the last Roerich Museum which tried that, and named all the “generals” etc. and fiasco’d. In 1956 I had Secretary Dulles’ blessing (You!) in a plan to bring world peace through horticultural exchange. Oh, I succeeded all right everywhere—also. But ran into Lord Snow’s The Two Cultures and with 100% of the horticulturists and scientists for this work, I had 100% of the editors, commentators and sociologists against it—not a single break in either rank!

Only when I reached Karachi (Weep for the Biafrans!) I saw six hundred thousand (600,000) homeless in one place! I nearly went mad and called on a VIP and said, “What can we do to put these homeless people on this empty land?” Of course being one of the silenced majority I got nowhere when I returned here as above. But I collected data and keep on trying and finally last week I read that the FAO said the world s food supply is increasing.

Only my data came from visiting farms and hamlets and agricultural experimental stations and some universities and was not spent rechecking statisticians figures; also doctors of various kinds, etc., etc. But if the older people do not want any in situ reports, the young love them and so one became a hero, deserved or not, when one reports his own actual experiences in foreign lands and then tells who turned down the reports!

So, I am preparing to attend a world conference—held outside the United States—where my closest colleagues have acceded to my attending and also to my programs based on the actual studies of the actual religions and actual histories of the actual peoples of this world, whether this world be actual or the best of all possible worlds or maya!

Of course the young are in hysterics. I say “Why fight?” We and the other side are 100% for pollution, Levi’s, the wholesale slaughter of Buddhists infants and the displacement of national culture. Or maybe each side thinks it has a better form of pollution or genocide. Anyhow the real professors of the real colleges and universities are now inviting me and there is mutual cooperation on my grand theme: Reality vs. realism. So I write with hope. And even if I do not see any congressmen until I get to Washington (years ago I knew practically the entire delegation when the number was small), I think a trip abroad and some recognition from them may even make it possible for some editor or commentator or diplomat to look at the real world of humanity.

Love and blessings,

PS I am still awaiting the Palestinian Arab; will keep you informed. 

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Ca. 94110

January 18, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art: Weep for the Biafrans (continued and to be continued)

This day I start the experiment of my life. Only this time before I am refused interviews, etc. I shall have a secretary taking notes. My old prediction that the real world war was between the professor and the commentator is coming true and you can believe me, Art, that the young are always 100% for the professor and against commentators and fly-by-night (literally) Vice-Presidents. Yet it has been these people we listen to and have our Biafras and other episodes of genocide, with or without publicity.

This morning I meet with an Arab who is a citizen of Israel. There are such people, Art, just as there are Vietnamese (I mean honest to God, actually). He has some plans for peace in the Near East. Of course he and his friends have no votes and prestige, and a little genocide now and then does keep them quiet. Only by know I know enough people in the world of reality who may join together against the “realists” and accomplish something.

One of my poems reads: “Every ten years a noble peace prize, every five years another war” and then the “humble” recipients of “peace awards” run into hiding. You never hear of them anymore but another crop will show up.

There are several groups working for understanding in the Near East. That means they appeal for funds. They may have ideas but these ideas have not brought the Arabs and Israelis closer together. I myself worked out some rather comprehensive programs which the important people snubbed, they always do. In fact there is such a gap between the “humble” and those that listen it is impossible to fathom.

In 1928, in this city of San Francisco, I met the late Dr. Henry Atkinson, most of his life secretary of the World Church Peace Union. He looked over my plan for Palestine and said:

“Mr. Lewis, I have been around the world three times. I have met every king and prime minister on earth and you are the first man to have brought me what I want.” Well he commissioned me and I fulfilled the commission and excepting for the man who is now minister at the chief Unitarian-Universalist Church in New York and a few Quakers, the “Christian-Jewish” ethic has resulted in utter rejection, mostly a priori rejection—that is the ethic. And you can understand how it has been so difficult emotionally to face the first words of Handel’s “Messiah.” Valleys are not exalted, hills are not laid low, and the crooked places are not made straight.

This week I shall probably be present at the India Independence Day anniversary. Every time Indians have it I am welcome and every time “experts” control it I am either patronizingly tolerated or excluded. Part of the “Judeo-Christian Ethic.”

Only there are now same changes, Art. My friend Bryn Beorse is publishing a book in which he gives a good section of a whole chapter to this person and the world is going to be annoyed in taking a mere nobody and comparing him to the greatest figures of the day. But at least I can protest I am and not a figure of the imagination. I certainly know the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic religions and the history of practically every country in Asia, to say the least.

Yesterday I sat before a professor, the one who accepted my paper on “Vietnamese Buddhism” (absolutely excluded by the Judeo-Christian ethic). He is no expert. He has lived in Asia with Asians, or as I call him, one of my fellow “Ugly Americans.” Mere attrition leads to our being accepted, “not a cough in a carload.” Scientists always agree on facts and there is no reason why “social scientists” cannot do otherwise but don’t expect “experts,” clergymen, and dialecticians of any and all camps, to agree. They have too many explanations to be concerned with mere facts—or the existence of annoying human beings.

Well we are going around to the press, the radio-TV, the “peace groups” and keep records of our interviews. I alone have piles of data of all kinds here and enough contacts to be able to growl at least. But perhaps because the trend of youth is growing somebody may get enough curiosity to permit “unthinkable” points of view. When that is done, we shall be on the way to lasting peace.

My last meeting was overwhelming, the youth crowding the meeting and accepting versions of “Dances of Universal Peace” to date. I have to close my classes—too many now. I must train them and send them abroad. The work and life of Ruth St. Denis shall not have been in vain.

Maybe, just maybe, there are enough curious people in the world to interview an Arab from Israel. I am not worried about the press, the commentators, the “experts,” the “peace” organizations—you see there are halls of ivy and they permit even the least of the least to speak.

Too much drama in my life to look for excitement. This is just one phase of it.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc Herb Caen

cc Dr. Luckmann

cc Bryn Beorse

Jan. 20, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

Dear Art:

The events of the day may be not-news, but I doubt whether this sort of thing will continue much longer.

The meeting with the Arab from Israel was entirely successful and cordial in every aspect. There was more than complete understanding. There was complete agreement on plans of action, etc.

My friend will complete his semester at a Texas University and then settle in San Francisco. It is time something more is done for real peace among real people than listening to harangues of important persons who are not directly concerned, but who are often eulogized for literary efforts, which have nothing to do with events or the lives of humanity.

I have already made valuable contacts. It is even possible that the many churches and “peace” organizations which have refused peremptorily interviews will now open their doors. I am now preparing to attend an international convocation, where my programs will be presented. In the end it will be found that many human beings want to associate with each other on peaceful terms regardless of the emotions of the various “masterminds” of the various dialectical schools, from extreme to extreme. I think we can and shall do some real things to bring about real peace between the real persons of the real world.

Cordially,

San Francisco Chronicle

January 22, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

Antarctica? I’d completely forgotten about the place.

Your “Weep For The Biafrans” pieces have been excellent.

Love,

Jan. 27, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

S.F. Chronicle

Dear Art:

I am somewhat concerned with the difficulties the Protestant Episcopalian Church has had in raising money for their Cathedral. I do not know if it is possible for a power structure to accept suggestions, but I am concerned from at least three standpoints:

a. San Franciscans

b. aesthetic architecture;

c. religion.

Lacking that well known virtue humility I worked as a flunky for 11 years at the Buddha Universal Church on Washington Street. I was a nobody, but I wanted to learn about Chinese psychology. Someone had said, “If you want to learn Confucianism, live with the Chinese.” At that time you could receive grades and credentials in Chinese philosophy by studying under various Germans whose merit was they had been kicked out by Hitler, that was sufficient. I dissented, and got the boot. I don t know if I learned any Chinese philosophy from the Chinese; I certainly did not learn anything that any German has ever preached, but when Princess Poon Diskul visited the city all the high and mighty had to gawk—I wrote you the details.

Now there are certain phrases in the Bible, in which I believe. Some concern Bethlehem-Ephrata. Others, like the opening passages of Handel’s “Messiah”: “Every valley should be exalted….” “A little child shall lead them….” There is no use harping on these phrases, or their rejections almost universally. I am still placing my bets on them.

I am still placing my bets on them. A few years ago I met a down and out cleric. He wanted to start a church for the hippies, or more especially for those who thought that psychedelics, homophilia, and waywardness were the ways of life. He had two things, internal faith and social enemies. I said, “here is where you will begin. The Bible starts In the beginning God; it does not start ‘In the beginning me.’” (In fact you won t find the first personal pronoun in the Hebraic Bible except as referring to God Himself.) So he started a church “In the beginning God.” You should see it now. Young men and women, in ever-increasing numbers, in ever-increasing vitality, in ever-increasing everything (even in ever-increasing money and property!).

I may not know what this means, but I have been giving Biblical lessons there, using the unknown Kabbalistic method of interpretation, which is to say: literal, parallel, symbolic, and actual (that is to say, you have the experience). This art is the Hebrew Kabbalah, not a lot of clap-trap and mystery-mongering which attracts old ladies. We find ever-increasing wisdom and values in the old scripture, and the numbers of young people increase who claim to have direct experiences of Christ and Light, and you can see it in their faces and in their morals and in everything about them.

I brought my own kids to these kids for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. My family has more or less universal outlook, and this family has more or less Christian outlook, but we love each other. These young people love each other. Their faces are full of light, their countenances beam, and magazines like Time and Life and Look have ignored us all right.

I have written you on plans to have first a small gathering when my Arab friend from Israel returns. With God’s help, we are going to have peace in Palestine. The great powers have stopped wars when they found it convenient, but the powers that now are take no suggestions from any Bethlehem-Ephratan. And yesterday, when I was giving a lesson from the Epistle of James, I was so moved that I am having the chapter copied and also sent to the Cathedral, in the hopes that they might just take one step out of realism into Reality. The scripture may teach, that is the scripture, “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” The Hell it is. But some of us have enough faith in God, I mean the living God, that we believe we can have real peace on the real earth.

We also believe that if any church of any faith would present the teachings of the founder of that faith, it would draw crowds of young people, and even replenish its coffers.

I am still waiting for word from The Temple of Understanding. When they meet I shall be allowed, I believe, to play my cards. For over 40 years I have been concerned, among other things, with peace through religion, not peace through some power structure religious or anti-religious, social or anti-social, revolutionary or conservative. It may be a sad or a happy day should certain dramatic events occur and I find myself a comparatively wealthy man. Then I would no longer care about interviews, and the almost absolute rejection on the part of all clerics for my years of research for The World Church Peace Union.

I have had to close some of my classes, because they are filled to capacity. Youth is hungry, youth yearns, but youth is no longer satisfied with slogans, shibboleths, empty phrases, and emotionalisms. I have never lost faith. There is a sentence in the Bible, “The stone which is rejected is become the cornerstone.” As I wrote before, the efforts to be a Pied Piper have failed miserably, only the young show up, but by God and before God they are showing up. And they are sending for me, elsewhere of course.

Tonight I am going to hear former Professor Richard Alpert, now campaigning as Baba Ram Dass. I don’t know what it means. The church where he is speaking has refused everything I ever proposed to them. I may know the Drs. Radhakrishnan, the Princesses Poon Diskul, the Rabbis Schlomo, the top Franciscan fathers, and hidden and known Saints of all faiths. Already one friend of mine has written me up as I have told you; soon my own life may be sent for publication, either as The stone which is rejected, or I more than accuse.

To be continued….

Love,

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

February 4, 1970

Dear Art:

I hope you will agree we need more scientific research toward the solution of problems.

It can be very easily authenticated and backed by statics properly gathered that many men and some women after being addicted to marijuana for 30 or more years suffer from falling hair, arthritis and headaches, not always cured by excedrine, and inability to run 100 yard dash in 11 seconds.

Not knowing whether you are a metapsychiatrist or not I am not asking for advice. In fact if you gave it, it might be illegal.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

Feb. 5, 1970

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

Reality vs. “Realism”; The Generation Gawk (con’t.)

I think everything I write here has happened. It is not-news. The first psychedelic conference ended in a meeting when Allen Ginsberg addressed five hundred people nearly all young. When Hallinan and Hallinan and Hallinan tried to take over the meeting, six or seven applauded. When Allen led Indian mantrams, Hari Krishna and others, hundreds joined in. This was the beginning. It is a kind of real spiritual, real revolution, which the patricians of left center right, Hegel Marx Birch, and all who are trying to limit mentation to a flat surface cannot fathom.

Richard Alpert, who has been a colleague of Allen Ginsberg, is here. He is a typical “middle-class” personality, but he belongs to the “middle-class” who are hardly middle and very much class. He comes from a wealthy family as so many of the “middle-class” displaced persons do. He has been a professor at Harvard University, a highly regarded intellectual whom the paranoiac believers in a 2-dimentional world can hardly comprehend. Therefore, what he does isn’t news at all.

He spoke to thousands of young people, young people with potential votes but with actual actual actual money greenbacks, dollars! Well, so many tear jerking appeals are being made to collect money for the starving Biafrans (but not for starving Californians) and to complete this project and that, thousands of dollars are being offered him by the young, offered to a man who could obtain them easily “Papa please.” But not belonging to the various Hegelian-Marxian-left-center-right and “realistic” groups, and under the influence of the not yet so dead American Emerson, his self-reliance is demonstrating itself. That is my first report.

The second has to do with the use he will make of his money. At the present time we are over-rating the Biafrans whom we do not know and insulting the Yorubas and other Nigerians whom we have in our midst and who produce such excellent music. This my friend is good institutional practice. It helps us. It helps us get kicked out of Malawi and other lands whose people are tired of being treated as second rate guinea pigs especially by the press.

Richard Alpert or Baba Ram Dass as he is now called is in one sense a veritable Pied Piper. We seem to be in total harmony, and in fact, I benefit personally and impersonally by his lectures, campaign fund raising etc. Now what is he doing to do with the money?

He is directing one of the two national efforts (and they are in harmony with each other) to publish books taking into consideration the real religions and the real esoteric practices of the real people of real Asia. Horrors! You can go into a library or even into certain classrooms and find the students pouring over a book on, I think it is called, Spiritual Practices of India. The author is a German born man of very high repute. I never found any of these spiritual practices in Rand McNally’s India, and I never met any Indian who ever did then or anything of the kind. But remember Art, “an expert is an expert?” and any paysant protesting has to be disciplined.

Or, you can find Dictionary of Zen Terms. It was written by an Englishman (of course) who lived sometime in India and who was a PhD. I don’t know of what, but a PhD is privileged to attack the caste system and generally does. You must not interrupt him. He is also a staunch defendant of “democracy” and, therefore, you ought to listen to him. This book was written by this Englishman when he was director of “The American Academy of Asian Studies.” Since his departure this institution has been split, some of its privileged PhD’s forming a rival California Academy of Asian Studies, but still using the source materials on India and Zen.

I could go on. This is a very serious situation, and we are paying millions of dollars uselessly to misinform young crusaders called the Peace Corps who go out badly trained and excellently brain-washed to Mawlawi, Burma, Indonesia etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Now the young people are raising their own funds via Richard Alpert-Baba Ram Dass to have published actual works on the actual spiritual practices done by actual men in this actual world.

I don’t know which is most amazing—the success of Richard Alpert Ram Dass in raising money or in leading the young in singing mantrams. Thousands showed up at the Unitarian Church Tuesday night and, of course, this meant more thousands of dollars. Anything so revolutionary as this cawn’t be news. I could go on like this.

But one of the outcomes is a concerted effort now to get some of these things nationally televised. The greatest step toward peace will come I believe when human beings are permitted to mingle with other human beings without a number of older “generals” miscontroling and misdirecting than how to believe. I believe human beings are naturally friendly and gregarious and do not want to fight and hate.

It would seem now that one of the dreams of my life is coming true: real cultural exchange between America and the real peoples of real Asia.

Love,

Feb. 8, 1970

Dear Art,

Unreluctant as I am to expose faults and shortcomings, I therefore must call your attention to a misprint in today’s Chronicle where it is said, “Fore! The Veep Is Golfing.” The pronunciation is pretty close, but where did they get the letter L in there? But I do not dissent. This is just exactly what vice-presidents are for.

I see that a VIP is going down to Morocco and Africa, where he will discover that the nationals do not love us for spending millions of dollars to support the state of Israel on one hand and the Christian missionaries in Biafra on the other. No necessary objection on my parts but I am not an African.

Art, I don’t want to put you on the spot, but suppose an American black panther who is two-legged met an African black panther two-legged or four-legged. I don’t think they would approve of our VIPs. I do know that the American delegation will carry a big supply of rosewater and why not.

I am now getting ready to go to an international conference in Geneva where I shall again be meeting my friend Princess Poon Diskul Pismai. This time there maybe cameras and reporters.

In the meanwhile we are planning a big Spring festival for my friend Gavin Arthur (it also being his birthday). We are planning to have cameras and sound equipment.

The trouble with my life at the present moment Art, is that everything is coming out most satisfactory.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

February 9, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

I’m so happy to hear that everything is going so well for you. Your conference in Geneva sounds exciting. As does everything else that you do.

Love,

Art

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

February 15, 1970

Art Hoppe,

c/o S.F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

I have never considered it my mission to rise and defend the great corporations. Neither to accuse them, I am not a “sociologist.” But for the second time in my life circumstances are different and again I am faced with the hard fact, “The fact I save may be my one.”

The first occasion was when I went to India. Before me we sent three newspaper “experts.” The communist hecklers stopped them. They wrote books which sold. They also got mobbed. I haven’t written any books that have sold, so far lots of rejections which do not bother me at all. But there I was on the platform, defending Carnegie and Rockefeller and the Duponts especially. And when I was through, the audience sent out to mob the communist hecklers. It was all against the rules. I had to save their lives. I did not gain anything by it. And, of course this was not mentioned. Wrong man. The wrong man can never solve anything, it ain’t in the books. So we keep problems.

When I returned to Asia I had both the communists (who have memories) and the US foreign office (“the Bourbons learn nothing, forget nothing”) against me. But I had the nationals with me.

Now we are trying to have another “Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” war in the Near East. Grant is out and Mark Twain is in. I did a lot of research and have piles of stuff in this house on desert reclamation and the proper development of water recourses; of salinity and aridity and crops and all the things which I have always thought would benefit mankind—even the politicians. I live on in hopes. Winning debates does not good if you are the “Wrong person.” But I am gaining friends in “reality vs. ‘realism’”.

Us Ugly Americans have our own class on Southeast Asia. Students and teachers have all lived there, not in the same countries but among the between us we cover all the land inferred by SEATO and also Malaya, Cambodia, etc., etc. So far it has not been of any use. We “Free Speech” Americans let a British communist speak, but never, so far, any “Ugly American.” I hope to have at least one Vietnamese speaker in this house next week. It is a try-out.

Then I must prepare to go to Geneva to an international conference where I am going to be permitted to say what in “free speech” American has been barred. As a friend says, never let facts disturb the issues.” Sociologists and dialecticians went to get at each other’s throats.

I am all for oil and water development in the Near East. Even more for desert reclamation. Being the “Wrong person” I have been either rejected or ejected but keep on. The young keep on coming every week more and more and this year I have been offered a summer school by the young, God bless them.

After my return from Geneva and Washington and sundries, we are going to have a meeting where some of the “silenced majority” may speak: Arabs who are citizens of Israel, Arabs who are not anti-Israel; Jewish people who have been to Israel and left but do not like pogroms; Muslims who love Mohammed but not the Mosques. Of course the rabbis and imams will shun such a meeting.

The day of pretense, Art, is going to be over. The young want facts and they want to end wars, and their elders have bones to pick.

We can have peace, Art, by encouraging the young to mingle. We can have desert reclamation and the developments of natural resources. Now the sociologists and dialecticians have taken ever the words, the words, the words, pollutions, ecology, etc.

I haven’t always been wrong. It has been found that Russian DDT also kills. It is a remarkable (?) discovery. But I don’t accept all the nonsense about DDT. I am still against the mosquitoes and tropical fevers, etc. I believe they can be abated but not by emotions.

There is nothing in our constitution or that of the UN which says that Russians must not visit other lands. I don’t care; what I want is to promote American interests. We have better telephones, we have better air travel, we have on the whole better education. But we still have not empathy and human consideration. And empathy and human consideration are what the communists have not. Neither have they progressed in the peaceful sciences. This is our opportunity and sooner or later I think we can make the most of it.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis.

Feb. 16, 1970

Dear Art:

Emotions cure all problems. In fact this is so self-evident, I am not even going to say much further.

Chaos. Are you interested in my new organization? That is to say The Council Harassing All Old Standards. Don’t you think this is a splendid idea? The only other splendid idea I know is that Pat Paulsen is putting Smothers brothers back on the air.

I have received a very favorable answer from Senator John Sherman Cooper who can never become an “expert” by our standards: he only lived in Asia with the Asians, and knows quite a few of them.

Phil Burton also approves of what I am doing. With such emotional support, what shall I do next? I am getting nervous.

Love,

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

February 19, 1970

Dear Art:

The first money was deposited yesterday for tickets to go to Geneva where I shall be permitted to attend and even say something about Peace. I notice in the paper today the anti-war people want equal time at some conference. These are very interesting people. Of course if a “peasant” asks for time, this angers them. You see, Art, I am not only against war, I am against hatred, and although I am against Karl Marx on many things, I agree with him that if a revolution were to be started he should not be the first man to be liquidated.

I even agree with Mohammed: don’t kill your fallen enemies, tax them. Of course everybody who never studied about Mohammed said he offered people the choice of the Qur’an and the sword. It is a terrible thing and one is in severe trouble for it when he tells that there were no Qur’ans in Mohammed’s time. There weren’t, but this doesn’t matter.

Hegel says that the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. As the world is largely divided into two camps, the pro-Marxist Hegelians and the anti-Marxist Hegelians, anyone who does not accept dialectics has no place at a peace conference. Maybe.

In the meanwhile the Pied Piper thing is spreading all over. I have been offered a summer school: teaching, directing, leading etc., etc.; an ersatz student body and unconditional surrender from those who have been hippies, some of whom are past 30. It is easy to become a hero. Just tell the young you had an idea, and all the free speech, democracy, humanity, and Peasants Shut Up groups turned you down. You are automatically a hero.

This Sunday or more likely the following Sunday I am expecting at least one Vietnamese to speak about the culture of his country. We do that in school where all us “ugly Americans” are having a wonderful time studying the Southeast Asia of Rand-McNally.

And of course I am spilling over into the idea of having Arab and Israeli peasants meet each other without anybody from the State Department, New York Times, expert Rabbi or Imam present. Just us chickens. Just us peasants. Just us Pied Pipers and their every-growing, misled following of young people. Don’t let facts disturb the issues.

Feb. 22, 1970

Dear Art,

I have an absolute, positive cure for all problems, and only wonder why neither of us thought of it very simple, Just Pass a Resolution. This solves everything I can assure you.

The only trouble is, after going home and peacefully sleeping because of our prowess, we are liable to wake up in the morning with a new resolution which nobody had thought of on the day before. I could long since have been a very famous man only I have a nasty habit of voting no on resolutions. I vote no; I get kicked out showing the spirit of democracy and humanity. Soon the organization founders, the problems remain, there is a new organization. New orators, new resolutions. New soporifics, and on and on and on.

Gee Art, this is wonderful. I know a lot of problems that have disappeared: generally by resolutions; the rest of the time by definition so the problem disappears.

I am getting ready to go to another peace conference. The only thing on my program at the moment is a resolution against resolutions. I am expecting resolutions and orations—from the high and mighty of course—but this time I am going to be nasty. It is not only the Plain of Jars that jars. We have Biafra; we have Palestine; and we have the script of A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court, which is of course our protocol. One can’t get along without protocol, so we don’t. Now I have a few other things to do. I hope you don’t ask me to stop resoluting; it would not only put you out of business, it might even put me out of business.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

San Francisco Chronicle

February 24, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

I was delighted to come across your remark about not letting the facts disturb the issues. I’ve been saying for years that facts ruin a good story and it’s good to know that you’re not in favor of facts, either.

Love,

Art

March 1, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

Preface to the prelude to the introduction of the prolegomena on “Explanations of Explanations of Explanations.”

This is a very simple subject. You can find the cause for anything and everything:

environment

middle class

drugs

ecology

sex

In fact it is so simple that Papa and Mama are never called to account.

One thing you mustn’t do under any circumstances is to consult the youth involved.  Although they don’t speak usually Swahili or Eskimo they must be treated that way, and punished or rewarded, but never never questioned.

Sometimes I think there is a new religion: “There is no God but Marijuana.” This is a stimulant; a laxative; a pacifier; a narcotic; an aphrodisiac; a soporific; an agitative; a mental awaker; all in one for every and all members of the middle class. Although I am very positive in this conclusion, I am not yet aware whether this middle class extends to apes and simians. You see I am out of touch with the sociologists who know everything better. Excepting the top TV commentators who know even better.

You see Art, one of the main troubles in the world is that laboratory technicians have taken over control of science. This has to be corrected.

But this means I also have to be corrected.

Love,

PS; Having accidentally happened upon Colata just after the trouble there, I asked lots of questions of lots of students. Shall I confess to the police or the FBI? I am now too busy asking other questions of young people everywhere. Sometimes they actually give answers to questions. But beware: Proxy Nixy is giving them the vote, watch out.

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

March 3, 1970

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

Yesterday I received a most cordial letter confirming booking for my secretary Mr. Mansur Otis Johnson and myself for rooms in Geneva, Switzerland, where we shall not only be attending a peace conference, but even be permitted to participate. We are hoping that this conference will accomplish something. The Semanticists have acclaimed Stuart Chase’s “The Tyranny of Words” but it may be said with equal affirmation that there is a “tyranny of names”—if you are not important, you aren’t. And this strange dichotomy between verbal-democracy and prestige-democracy, if such a thing is possible, is by far the greatest obstacle before us. In other words, we are not going to battle against war, we are going to battle against pseudo-peace, verbalisms.

We are not expecting perfection from anybody, but we are not going to keep quiet if the same errors persist over and over and over. Big names. Big names, that’s the thing: Kellogg-Briand Pacts. Kellogg-Briand Pacts accompanied by mass-bacteria and holocausts, we have had them right here in San Francisco: super-generalissimo U Thant calling for a moral and spiritual revolution. Super-applause led by the highest ecclesiasts, the highest diplomats, the highest of highest. And then more complications in Vietnam and the Holy Land and Biafra and the Indian-Pakistan border and Chad and Central America and and and and.

But now there is a real, a very real moral and spiritual revolution going on. It is misnamed (or it may be properly named): “the generation gap.” Imagine Art, a peace conference wherein Every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low and crooked places straightened and the lambs and the lions alike (or doves and hawks) permitting youth to say something, really participate.

I do not know what part we shall be playing. The tyranny of words proclaims knowledge is power. Au contraire, knowledge is chiefly a nuisance. When the insignificant have facts, the tyranny of names have not, the nuisance has been rejected, the conference ends in tumultuous applause, and that is the end of the matter. But this time, Art, this time….

You know Art, the great nuisance to the young people is that they really want to accept Jesus Christ’s “Love ye one another,” or the Biblical “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” No, I don’t expect to end border disputes. The tyranny of names will not permit that, but the young are going to intermingle with the other young, and this nuisance person may have something to do with it.

As I have told you, we are planning a spring festival in honor of the equinox and Sir Gavin Arthur, the astrologer. The program will be based on the preliminary public exhibition of “Dances of Universal Peace.” These have only begun. These have only begun, but there are strong rumors that they will be filmed. This is the second step in my own outcry: Dance Together Instead of March Together.

To me the great enemy of peace is excitement. Everybody wants excitement, that is, until it happens. People very close to me influenced by the universal call for excitement were the principal in the pie throwing episode on Nob Hill sometime back. But this has not abated the universal call for excitement. Now excitement has invaded a multitude of university campuses. While the establishment has accepted a number of Marxist and dialectical terms and uses them, the communists on their part have also accepted from the establishment the word excitement. Why not? The establishment solves? all problems by misappropriating Marxist terminology, and the revolutionaries express their gratitude by fulfilling the call for excitement. So we have Gandhi-ism coupled with destructive demonstrations.

It is fortunate that we do not belong to any elite of any camp. The response is not to the phrase “Love ye one another;” —the response is to the demonstrations, the manifestations of love and joy and peace. Youth wants these and youth accepts them when they are demonstrable. So even I am more “excited” by invitations received from the youth in rather distant places to further the campaign for the manifestation, for the exhibition, for the pragmatic exemplification of love and joy and peace. These, without the tyranny of words, without the tyranny of names.

So we are going forth with a certain degree of hope. Perhaps enough young people will accept love and joy and peace, not as symbols, not as pseudo-semantic noises, but as realities. You may hear more from me before departure. You should certainly here more from Mr. Johnson and/or myself from Geneva and elsewhere. I have lived through plenty of “excitement.” In the universities my direct eye-witness reports are accepted. I sit among a multitude of ugly Americans who have been there, and whose direct in situ reports are being evaluated by those who are writing real history. The future can do without the tyranny of words, without the tyranny of names, but it cannot do without the acceptance of the actual facts of existence.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

March 4, 1970

Dear Art:

I wrote a letter to Jeremy Ets Hokem copy enclosed before reading your editorial for the day. If I now succeed in convincing you of anything it will be awkward for both of us. Besides it would take away our fun.

Do you know anything about the Subud Movement? Do you know anything about the Meher Baba Movement? Do you know anything about the Gurdjieff Movement? Do you know how the Vedanta Movement started in this country? Do you know the name of the greatest Zen Buddhist in this country? Do you know the nationality God assumed when he came to the world as a man?

Jews Jews all Jews.

I don’t know if this has anything to do with the state of Israel. It did have something to do with Nazism. But beware or rejoice, if you got a convention of all the leaders of the real or putative spiritual movements of the world, the scions of the synagogue would outnumber all the rest of the others put together. How come?

Isn’t this ducky? C’est marveilleux, or something.

Love,

March 5, 1970

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

I guess this morning I have what might have been called “humility” in an earlier age when words had some significance. Last night one of the legal TV stations took at least pilot films of my present endeavors. Perhaps it comes at a very good time, too.

I understand some such program is being established and may be continued to show what might be done to bring the youth of the region together, and perhaps more than the youth of this region, but the youths of many regions and even of all regions, together. I do not mean some bombastic organization of their elders to corral youth, but the actual efforts of the youths and maidens themselves to express what is deepest in their psyches, and thus bring to manifestation so much latent in the minds and hearts of what I call the silenced majority.

This comes at the time when we are preparing to go to a peace conference at Geneva. I have already my resolution against resolutions. If it hadn’t been for that, I should have been famous or infamous long age. I have lost out with many great and important, so-called, persons, because I refused to go along with unimplemented resolutions. Why we have in San Francisco alone a number of renowned persons who have received “peace awards” from well-known groups. And not a single one of them has uttered a word about Vietnam, or Palestine or Biafra.

Fortunately, my colleagues are neither dialecticians nor existentialists. Like myself they are Americans who have been influenced by the Transcendentalist and pragmatic philosophies that arose out of our own midst and are not importees from Europe or anywhere. If we can have a peace convention without resolutions, with social intermingling, and real intellectual exchange without the pompous silencing of the unknown, I think something will be gained by that policy alone.

I understand that youth will actually be given full sway and certainly I shall encourage my young secretary to speak, to speak as he has already thought out so well in his literary efforts. After all, Wm. Pitt the younger was one of the greatest prime ministers who ever lived, but the Wellingtons and others have sees to it that it did not happen again—praise youth yes; but give them the reins! Well, I was one of the greatest devotees of Wm. the 2nd and believe it can happen again, especially in these times when so many brilliant young people wish to speak and act constructively.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

March 6, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

Thanks so much for the interesting bit of information on Jews. And everything else, too. And I was not aware of any of the movements that you mentioned.

And I couldn’t agree with you more about convincing me of anything. It would take away the fun.

Love,

Art

March 8, 1970

Dear Art:

Benign Yes! Neglect, Jamais!

I dislike to differ from you. I can benign you any time, but neglect! Look at Chad! It has a vote in the UN. It has a legal parliament elected. The white Northern Muslims have 99 votes; the black Southerners, heathens, and Christians, have 99 votes. The French have 2 votes. As go the French, so goes the nation. It is all democracy you know. Only the blacks outvote the whites, but being actual or potential Christians, that is different. So we have Biafra, Nigeria, in reverse.

Then there is Bhutan. It is not in the UN. But it is in Rand and McNally. The natives are Buddhists. They have a heathen religion and superstitions. They have no pollution, they have no smog, they don’t even have newspapers; what are we to do?

Well Art, I have to benignly neglect the Bhutanese and the Chadians for I just received a letter from India explaining the rise of the Communists and also of Hitlerian Fascists. The Communists are 100 percent for dividing land until they get into office; they then find all the land belongs to their fathers or grand-uncles. Can they dis-inherit themselves? Besides most communists are Brahmins to boot, and they are all ready to boot another faction of communists, also Brahmins of course. So they benignly neglect their problems, and why not?

I am nor benignly neglecting my own. I have a final coming up next week so stop at this point wishing you love.

Sam

P.S. I may benignly neglect you, I may or may not benignly neglect me, but what do you think? An educational television station is now benigning me and is not neglecting me. I was mugged Wednesday night. I was pilotly, not politely, but pilotly recorded Wednesday, surrounded of course by oodles of young people. The station has decided to invade my home this week. There is nothing more than confusing than simple facts, and actual human beings to confuse issues. We are all benigning each other and we are not neglecting each other. Indeed we are planning dinners for the television invaders.

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

March 9, 1970

Art Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

Once upon a time there was a monarch in the ancient Southeast Asia of Rand-McNally. He was a very lonely man. Everything he said or did was accepted, no questions. He was an absolute monarch and tired of it. He had had millions of faithful subjects, a few extra wives and a court of professional Brahmans, astrologers, augurs, soothsayers and numerologists. Also it is aid, some wizards, seers and interpreters of sand-paintings.

His name was No-road-om and he championed the right to have a country without any roads. He used to consult his court just as the Bible says and in order to obviate monotony and ennui and boredom, he followed the seasons: one season he was Crown Prince and another Prime Minister and another King and another Dictator. He dared not change; yet he was an absolute Monarch but he accepted the Dharma which we do not teach about here and sometimes the Dharma (or Dhamma) is more suspect than Marxism or dialectics or Mao Tse Tung.

Now progressive America has an institution to abolish boredom. It is called Aid (or foreign aid). They learned about this monarch and decided to defend him from Marx and boredom. So we send in a huge aeroplane, with gifts, of course. They had learned from the rather forgotten Townsend Harris how to genuflect without kowtowing (sign of Chinese influence). So they genuflected quite correctly according to the book. They wanted to save the ruler but they did not know he was a profound Buddhist-Buddhist and that he had his own ways, including benignity—i.e. being benign.

So he overlooked the shortcomings of the visitors and took them around to Buddhist’s temples which were his pride, but it bored them to death. They were looking for communist spies and all they saw was temples. When they were through, the king, tired of his own absolutism asked them why they had come. “To pay you tribute, of course.” No-road-on was tired of tribute but then noblesse oblige benignity.

And what have you brought? They smiled and out came a van of eight Cadillacs. “What are these?” “Those are for you so we can bring in more Aid to take your country out of barbarism.” “What for?” “Don’t you want them?” “Where are the roads? I am not called No-road-om for nothing. Can’t you bring me a minicrat?” “What for?” “To take me from one Buddhist temple to another.”

This was horrible. The diplomats and their newspaper attendants from New York never heard of such a thing. They were summarily invited out.

Meanwhile rumors of the Aid (Add increased dollars) visit to No-road-om had reached three impoverished princes to the North. “Why can’t we get dollars; we would like them.” “We have to have a country.” “But we have gotten along for centuries without any country, without any government.” “Yes, and without any dollars. We need those dollars.” “Well, then let’s form a government. Rand-McNally has us as a country, and the unlamented Japanese said we are a country, so let’s become a country and share those dollars.”

Now these were very poor princess. They could not afford Brahmans and soothsayers and wizards and seers and numerologists and astrologers. So they planned a “do-it-yourself” scheme. They had a family meeting. “Prince Hex, aren’t you left-handed?” “Of course.” “Prince Sex, aren’t you right-handed?” “You know that.” “Well, I Prince Vex am ambidextrous. Why not share?”

“Sex, you will lead the right-wing and Hex you will lead the leftwing and I’ll stand in the middle. Sex, you will be pro-the West; Hex, you will be pro-communist and I’ll be a neutralist.” “What does that mean, being a neutralist?” “It means America will give me more money.”

“But I should think,” said Sex, “the Americans will give me the most and none to Hex.” “You don’t know the Americans very well. They will give some to Hex, they may give even more to Hex than to me. It won’t hurt.”

Well, they plotted and planned and brought in Aid and soon Hex was rolling in luxury and Vex the ambidextrine had plenty. It was only poor Sex who had invited the Americans who remained in poverty. Only it seems that his brothers were Buddhists. They believed in benign non-neglect.

The above, of course, is true and I can name the sources, the informants, but as they were not connected with CIA or the New York Times or Herald Tribune it will take some generations to ferret this out.

Any AID person found guilty of being smirred with communist is reprimanded, then promoted. Any AID person found tarnished with Asian Buddhism—he is ousted and outed. This is the way to “win” the hearts of??????

Mehta,

March 11, 1970

Dear Art:

If I were a heckler, I should demand: “Is neglect benign?” Unfortunately, this hits back at me, for it is quite evident that you have neglected your domicile and are wandering elsewhere. So you have caught me even before first hand. God Bless you.

I have become the most un-neglected hermit you have ever heard of: cameras, sound equipment, interviews, gumshoeing, and the only way to fulfill these obligations is to increase my bussing program. I do not know how efficient I am here, but I certainly enjoy being caught.

On March the 21st I shall be emceeing a spring festival for Gavin Arthur and others. On March 26th I shall be giving a benefit farewell party but the benefits are for the Rudolph Shaffer School of Design. On Saturday March 28th I shall be giving my last dancing class for my own benefit and immediately take off for Geneva.

No doubt I shall be meeting many important people. It is quite a different thing to attend a presumable peace conference than to send in scare headlines from parts unknown. I have to protest against the cruelty of our hospital in Laos for its failure to look after the wounded in the fighting that is going on. It is quite evident that this is a beautiful cinema war (“O what a beautiful war”); or it may well be that just as the culverts, bridges and highways in North Vietnam resuscitate immediately after their destruction, so the same occurs to the battle seared in Laos.

In view of the foregoing I am unable to decide whether I shall be giving you benign neglect, un-benign neglect or benign un-neglect. Please don’t answer.

Love,

March 15, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

I did something which used to be absolutely unforgivable. I studied mathematical philosophy when I was a young man. Then I did something almost equally unforgivable: I read H.G. Wells instead of editorializing on him; this keeps me in the peasant class, unfit to get into gentleman’s arguments, for which I thank God. As the first stage to understanding H.G. Wells—understand, not editorialize—you have to know about flatland. In flatland, everything has two sides, just two sides, no more than two sides, and anything else is inconceivable.

Despite certain rumors about our superintendent of public instruction, there seems to be some evidence in favor of Darwin and evolution. Anyhow some items in the universe are subject to change. For instance, yesterday we completed the course on Southeast Asia. Nearly everybody in the class had lived in Southeast Asia. Nobody in the class has ever said or done anything, or experienced anything which could affect the psyches of the respectable, either those close to the White House or in any way connected with the press. Certain things Art, just ain’t done. I remember one time I was enrolled at what was called the American Academy of Asian Studies. There were two factions: one which believed English educated people knew most about Asia, the other that German people knew most about Asia. The gooks of course weren’t consulted; they still are not. In the class just closed, everybody had met gooks and therefore were ugly Americans, and therefore were not fit to get into any discussions of gentlemen. Well I went to real Asia and almost got thrown out.

The Asians didn’t like it that I had studied under Englishmen and Germans. I never found out whether they despised the Englishmen and Germans or merely wanted their jobs and salaries. Anyhow, when they found out that the Englishmen and Germans had no respect for me, I was welcomed all over the continent, everywhere.

Now we have evolved to the stage where Americans who studied under Asians have those jobs which used to be monopolized by Englishmen and Germans, and also a few Asians are in. We have moved ahead into H.G. Well’s three dimensional world. The trouble with us three-dimensional people is that we are sometimes intolerant about two-dimensional people, whether they are editors, commentators, or vice-presidents. Besides, I have personally been the guest of imperial families, holy places, and universities which do not invite American vice-presidents or European professors of Asian Studies.  I have also found that several other Americans have been to such places, where they cannot tolerate editors, commentators, and vice-presidents. No doubt this shows the intolerance of “democracy.” A real democracy might tolerate editors, and commentators, and vice-presidents.

But some students have suggested we might go further. We might go into Well’s fourth dimension. This would mean that we would not only open the doors to those whom we do not tolerate, and who do not tolerate us, we might open the doors to everybody.

Anyhow I got balled out. The man I am representing at the forthcoming peace conference is not the vice president of India, he is the president of India. The manuscript said vice-president, but now he is president. Some of my best friends have been presidents of India, and some presidents of India have been my best friends. I realize that editors, commentators, vice-presidents, experts, etc., etc., could never stand for this. The young people are quite willing to accept that their elders have b.o.  They are even willing to permit them to come to conferences where they might learn something from somebody, but this looks too much like a miracle. One thing that the two-dimensional people, like the vice-president and the commentators and the editors and the experts don’t seem to understand is not only that there may be a Wellsian three-dimensional or even a fourth-dimensional, but that youth matures, if it has not already matured, and that even the queen of hearts cannot prevent younger people from growing and beyond growth attain power, wisdom, and authority. I realize that this is written under stress, with a dying brother, and every facet of my life under klieg lights. Some darn fools are convinced that the little people who have been there should be permitted to express themselves despite all vice-presidents, despite all commentators, and despite despite.

It’s a brave new world, Art, and I am sure you appreciate that.

We are now all ready for the Spring Festival in which Gavin Arthur will be honored. We are all ready for a lot of things, and remember Art, though gooks may not be our equals, there may be a lot of hidden gourmets among them, and we can’t overlook that.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

San Francisco Chronicle

March 23, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

Thanks so much for your latest delightful and thoughtful letters.

I’m so pleased that all seems to be going so well for you. Happy Spring, and Happy Spring Festival.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

 March 25, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

You’ve made an excellent choice. You couldn’t be leaving the problems of California with a better person. I’ll be sure and save every last one of them for you until your return.

Love,

Art

Intercontinental Hotel Room 405

Geneva, Switzerland

March 31, 1970

Dear Art:

I meet another Sam. He comes from Lebanon. I was going to write you all about it.

Here we are in Geneva. My secretary Otis Johnson, known as Mansur, trying to put in operation another one of Mark Twain’s books “Innocents Abroad” and shelving “A Connecticut Yankee.” Besides, my father came from Boston, not from Connecticut. Anyhow we are meeting some of the great and near great, including of course, Her very Serene Highness, Princess Poon, and her travelling assistant Aiem Sangavasi. In the meanwhile the top ananas hailed little me as a Walt Whitman. They say I look and act like him, so I have to share Mark Twain with Walt Whitman which makes me so American that no establishment people would even recognize me, Being neither enemy nor friend.

But innocence is over. As we sat down in the lobby a very distinguished gentleman strided over, introduced himself and began an interview. Horrors! He is not an American of course. He is not event European; he is an Arab!!!!! At least if he were a communist the newspapers would favor me with an excoriating editorial, but an Arab. And only last night I was accosted by the Rabbi from Jerusalem. What am I to do now?

This is the conference of The Temple of Understanding. We are supposed to be working for understanding and peace. Confounded it, there is not a single English or German “expert” on Asian or Arabic culture to stop me. They stayed home to get syndicated contracts for mullah and bread to support their families and of course “everybody” will read them. But I like to mingle with “exotics.” God and Allah and Brahm created a lot of “exotics,” and I am sure all God’s chillins got stomachs as well as wings.

Anyhow the heat is on. I am to be interviewed tomorrow morning which is much worse than going to Cuba or Hanoi. In the meanwhile a lot is going to happen even pretty soon this morning, so I shall leave the letter open at this point and secret some more dynamite nicely wrapped in Swiss chocolate. To be continued.

Afternoon. I don’t know what your idea of a conference is where all the delegates are introduced to each other as essentially equal; where we can sit down and talk to each other, where we can commune and communicate. Of course the Arabs would be happy if the Israelis would make some concessions. Of course the Israelis would be happy if the Arabs would make some concessions. Indeed, everybody seems to be united for some concessions—from others. Being small and insignificant looking and far away from home, and looking and behaving as little like a diplomat as one can imagine, this is considered as a virtue here and so far no one has told anybody else to shut up and sit down. I think this is a wonderful step forward in itself.

Now while I am seeking others out, others are seeking me out. This wouldn’t have happened in San Francisco. It wouldn’t even happen in Washington. It is happening here grace a dieu and alhamdu lillah.

Also love from

Sam

Boston,

April 19, 1970

Dear Art,

As attention is given to our homeward trip one is reminded more and more of the last part of the life of Samuel Morse. He struggled and struggled with everybody against him with the most awkward excuses. When he got on top he brought suits and wore every one of them. Well I have no intention to bring suits for something else is happening. But I shall certainly see my lawyer on private matters before I go ahead, and the increase in income will bring more respectability than all the knowledge, wisdom, and virtue one can accumulate.

Our last exploit in London was a “trial-balloon” Pied Piper effort with such total success we plan to visit that land again. The generation gap is to begin with one of the pet phrases of Lord Snow’s non-scientific culture. Non-scientists do not like his division between scientists and literati. In one sense it is nothing but the extension of the Greek division between knower and believers. The “Judeo-Christian” ethic (whatever that means) is a natural part of “believe and ye shall be saved.” Emerson warned against the thinker and in most circles there is a strong undercurrent against the scientific method or anything objective and impersonal. The result is that war is a way of life. It has been the way of what are called “the establishment.” It is also a way of life by disgruntled frustrated people with no philosophies at all. But they know how to get the headlines and that is important.

Last night here also was “trial balloon” totally successful. There may have been some people over 30 in age but none over 35, and the girls were all in their twenties. Since we have discovered or uncovered the science of communication nobody knows how to mingle with strangers. Not being an adept in the science of communication I have had no trouble with the scientists, the young, or the top literati of many lands whose cultures we simply have refused to examine. Whatever they believe is “superstition” and what we believe is “science” and that is the end of it.

What I have been fearing is happening. The young accept whatever I present because their elders wisely have refused to let me speak; over and over this had happened. But now being with a group that wishes understanding at all costs, it is different. We will sooner or later have to face understanding or destruction and even the most adamant of the “liberty, democracy, humanity, and peasants, shut up” may give way.

But personally I am most confident that sooner or later we may be dancing together instead of marching apart. You cannot convince older people and you do not have to convince the young. And if I have not been an eye-witness, I was one day late for  [?] Square just as I was one day late for Santa Barbara, and have no intention of trying to reach the mature and respectable people who are filled with opinions, philosophies and mutual antipathies.

Without efforts I have been invited to Harvard and Brandeis, but I am leaving off until our chief friend returns.  With the whole of our culture, both establishment people and oppositions uniting in their zeal for “excitement” we may expect it. I was one of the few opposed to the Kellogg-Brand pact, claiming that the very words had suggestions for war. Anybody not a semanticist might understand that. Modern semantics has immersed us in masses of personalities and even more verbalisms so contrary to the ideas and principles of the people who have used the terms “semantics” and “general semantics.”

Peace by penetration, infiltration and mutual intercourse is not necessarily revolutionary. But the words used sooner or later will fall into the hands of propagandists and then the usual will follow — emotionalisms and verbalisms and nothing accomplished. But no longer. We have youth and understanding and ability. Our education and culture or maybe simple biological evolution has brought this about.

Educated people here cannot understand our Governor, Senior Senator and Superintendent of public instruction. Education is the thriving business here and those enterprises based on artificial “normalcy” are learning—the hard way.

The new businesses are thriving. The small stores, owned and operated by the young are overcrowded, over prosperous, and gradually displacing the “respectables.”

I hope to have a May Day gathering. It may be small or otherwise but sooner or later the Dances of Universal Peace will take on. The press, the religions of the past, the humanists and the “peace” societies will hold off as long as they can until one of them will join to use my work as props against the others and the first that does this will be most welcome.

I am always reminded of the efforts of the late Robert Clifton who, then living in Viet Nam, was trying to prevent a conflagration. Not only did he fail entirely but I was with him during refusals. Only now there is a new type of university professor, men keen on facts, and there is the hope.

Of course I do not know what kind of mail will be waiting for me when “we sneak’ home. But it is beginning to look more and more that I will become “Pied Piper” on a large scale and you happen to be my ‘witness.”

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis 

San Francisco Chronicle

April 27, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

Thank you so very much for your beautiful letters from abroad. I’m delighted that the tour was such a success and that you are now returning to San Francisco. Welcome home.

Love,

Art

April 27, 1970

Dear Art,

Ghettodammerung.

This word is so good, I wanted to give you the copyright on it. It is probably mediocre. To begin with the two have in common their difficulty in being spelled and the still greater difficultly of determining their meaning. I think this is enough to recommend it. In the words of the playwright, “you ask for anything more?”

I have been living in Boston, the home of my paternal ancestors. We lived in a tremendous structure which probably would have been called a mansion in the days when there were no sociologists. Or maybe the world is becoming mediocre in the sense that nobody knows what anybody else is talking about. This has become especially true since the science and art of communication came into being. Or, to repeat Lewis Carroll, “a word means just what I mean it to mean, just that and nothing else.”

Undoubtedly the New Left will take umbrage because I intend to celebrate May Day as when I was a child among the birds and the bees and the flowers. As I mean by this the birds and the bees and the flowers, I must be establishment, but being mediocre I do not know what establishment means. What I do know unfortunately is that I am too busy to watch the new and rapidly becoming famous TV star named Art Hoppe.

Love,

April 30, 1970

Dear Art:

For a more picaresque speech.

Pollutician. I am requesting you to do research on this word; to appropriate it, to mis-appropriate it, to plagiarize it, to annex it, to adopt it, to explain it, as the late Gurdjieff Said: All and Everything.

Borotory. Whenever one has nothing to say and wishes to take a long time to say it. Generally, one talks about “love and compassion” or prates, or swallows a tape recorder and lets it go at that.

This is really spring now, and it has gone to my head, my heart and my feet. We are putting on a May Festival on the 7th, because some people actually work on Friday.

Years ago it was the custom to invite high school students to various college campuses and explain everything. Now the high school kids are dispensing with invitations and applying their own version of rocks and rolls. I do not see this on the agenda, but what is an agenda?

I have had such wonderful greetings since I returned, when my schedule now is concerned with the invitation to conduct a summer school in New Mexico, far far away from all maddening throngs. We do not even have a telephone or television, but are in a position to supply caves for any would-be occupant.

It is too lovely to write more. The sunshine is calling.

Faithfully,

San Francisco Chronicle

May 6, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

It is good to have you back in San Francisco.

Your letters are always so cheerful and stimulating.

The very best,

Art

May 7, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calf.

Dear Art: Smoke Kents

It is too bad that the time has not come yet to enforce against cigarette advertising. And it is said that smoke means “fire” with which the Highway Patrol and National Guard seem to agree.

It was on Monday I took the next phase of “Mission Impossible.” I have a plan for the Near East. I think I can convince anybody not connected with foreign policy of its value. On this Friday evening I shall give a talk in public of what took place at Geneva when the real leaders of be real religions of the real world met. And I went around calling myself “Nathan the Wise” which is very unfair to all those with “peace plans” and honorariums.

Since then the efforts of one Lebanese to invite a communist to the next gathering are gaining momentum. Without a communist no devotee of the great god UP-AP will be there. But if we get a communist and pop him all the representatives of the UP-APians will be there even down to the Toonerville Times. But then the UP-APians are off on a tour of Cambodia and soon we may destroy Angkor Wat before the commies do.

My “Mission Impossible” became nearly impossible. Almost everybody was concerned now for the Cambodians—whomsoever they are. I have been going around for years asking the “peace” groups and those who proclaim human brotherhood to invite a Cambodian some time. Lots of thanks and consideration but no Cambodian.

Then I took a copy of the Daily Cal. What has happened! They are so far to the left of the left and yet they are only in the middle of the muddle. It seems that “Target You” has become a reality, and the earlier proponents of “ballots, not bullets” justify their use of gases (but not my laughing gas, which I still propose.)

Well the young all over want this person and after making the first gestures to get Arab Israelis and Palestinians and a few Jews plus some Christians together will be off and try later. Unfortunately the Cambodians haven’t votes. Maybe there is some point of view other than that of Vice-Presidents and New York Times supersupermen.

Love,

May 14, 1970

Arthur Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

This letter is written in triumphal sadness. Many of the tragedies of the fact that neither the press nor the State Department interview private citizens, and they have made a humbug and hypocrisy of the statement of the late President Kennedy: “It is not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Not even four letter words are adequate here. A mixture of humbug, hypocrisy and tragedy.

Compelled to act and act quickly to throw my eggs into a single basket for the cause of peace—which has no resemblance to the current use of this word non whatever—I had chosen to work for peace in Palestine rather than in the section of Southeast Asia.

Do not mistake me here. The Professors in the Southeast Asian study courses in the University of California at Berkeley and some other campuses are very good friends of mine. The actual histories written by these men; the actual researches are as much ignored by our State Department, press, and TV stations as they are in communist lands. We prefer to be embroiled in subjects and problems about which we know nothing or next to nothing.

The recent real summit conferences of the real representatives of the real religions of the world, held in Geneva, has been as much ignored by the press as a large number of very successful engineering projects by Americans—both individuals and corporations. If the Russians even take a slight step in any of these directions it is news; it is history, but it is news.

It was shameful but necessary to receive the most profound apologies from some of the leading clergymen of the whole world, in particular Protestants and Jews. Without offending anybody I have been successful in gaining the good will of both prominent personalities and organizations elsewhere of course.

I have made a last effort to see if it were possible to get any rabbi even to grant an interview—never mind acquiescing in my plans. I have no right to impose my plans on anybody. But I am reserving the privilege once and for all to validate or expose the so-called Judeo-Christian ethic— whatever that means. But before we atomic bomb this out of sight, let me tell you that the individual behavior of Buddhists, the individual behavior, has been supremely superb to me as an individual and to audiences in general. They showed open heart compassion and consideration but they absolutely refused to recognize each other and cut each other dead; both in the classrooms here and at the very top levels abroad.

The worst part of the present situation is that the mass of young people would accept even outrageous lies concerning the moral behavior or misbehavior of clerics and others. There is a counter reaction going on to the obtuse use of words in our literary culture as Lord Snow has pointed out.

The one exception I see here—and to me it is a most important exception—comes in the articles written by Asian students for The Asian Student, published by Asian Foundation. But in general the State Department and all the channels of communication ignore these fine young people almost as much as they ignore the students trapped in the current melodramas on the university campuses.

I must agree with the effort to eliminate the comic melodramatic tragedies going on on the campuses. They are often like a theatrical production where attention is paid to the audience and not to the actors or producers. And it is almost impossible for the representatives of the fourth estate to refrain from asides and comments. I am not challenging their right, only as I constantly tell audiences, “When man bites dog it is not only not news but under no circumstances is it permitted to be news.”

There are only a few more days left before my next set of operations as a superannuated Pied Piper will be in operation. I am trying to use these few days either to semanticize or squelch the pious claims of Israelis and Arabs, even of rabbis and imams, about their willingness to sit down at a table if … which in the end becomes 99 and 44/100% if and not even “Paris peace talks tables.”

In addition to growing recognition in far off places, there seems to be every sign of increased income to me personally and during this same period, very large increases in increments of my associates and followers during a time we are supposed to be facing and maybe we are facing recession and retrogression. Being neither sociologists nor an expert I have no intention any longer of trying to inform those who should be open. I am devoting myself almost entirely to efforts and accomplishments. It is an easy matter to get some Israelis and some Palestinians and some Arabs who are citizens of Israel together, but Art “When man bites dog, it is still not news.”

I said before this is written in triumphal sadness.

Love,

May 19

Dear Art: Peace by Oratory

Man bites dog. Had a meeting with a Rabbi yesterday. I gave him a lot of not-news information, very solid, hard facts, which mustn’t. He squirmed and I stopped even that. He actually listened. Then he smiled. Then he really became interested. He wants to learn more of what is going on in the world among the real human beings. Smustn’t, but did and do.

Fortunately before I could see him some more man bites dog, not-news. The Arab citizen of Israel whom I had been depending on is coming here next week. There will be a green light to getting people down to a table, nothing more at first. No news men, of course. They could not understand it even if it were plain English. They ought to be compelled to read the last interviews my beautiful American, Mark Twain gave them. It is not different.

Rabbis who have won peace awards, of course, could not be reached. They sit at home—with their peace awards.

I did not tell the Rabbi another man bites dog not-news. I was invited by a Muslim divine. (Islam has no clergy so they have a lot of divines.) I insulted him in his home and ordered him to have me kicked out or arrested. In the end he profoundly, almost abjectly apologized. Of course this did no good. I had been on a peace-feeler mission from Pakistan to India. Our foreign office turned me down—which is dog bites man stuff, always. They called in Kosygin.

Now the young don’t listen to my plans. They just wait until I tell them who turned them down and then they give me ovations. This is both most unfortunately true and most dangerous. But it is part of our “peace by oratory” started with the Kellogg-Briand Pact which abolished “wars” and substituted what we have now. Hitler in Norway and U.S. in Cambodia, almost exactly the same.

I am getting more and more mail from distant places and more and more consideration—elsewhere. From the “silenced majority,” of course.

Poems to Ferlinghetti: (not yet sent)

When Rastus comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah!

We’ll give him a proper welcome then, hurrah, hurrah!

The boys will jeer and the men will hoot,

The police will have nothing to do but shoot,

And we’ll all feel safe

When Rastus comes marching home.

Well my damned nuisance efforts to masquerade as a Pied Piper are getting terrible. Why we had a young man from Nigeria here last night, not-news, of course. He was a Yoruba. I have met Yorubas before. I found them extremely beautiful intelligent, this one also. The anthropologists may agree but the “experts,” commentators, sociologists and writers all differ, saying that the Ibos, with whom they have not lived (why spoil the show) are the superior people of that part of Africa. I hope to meet the Yoruban again.

I have to leave off all the other not-news items of yesterday to answer mail and to prepare for another visit to Washington some time. After all no newsmen and no foreign office personnel ever interviewed my friend, Robert Clifton and we had Vietnam and then Laos and Cambodia and it may be, even as I advised, Bhutan, but you say Nepal. Maybe “You are right and I am right and everything is quite correct,” most unfortunately.

Love,

cc Herb Caen

cc Merle Zellerbach

May 22, 1970

Dear Art:

“L’Etat, c’est moi,” said Roi Soleil Louis XIV.

“The State College, it is obvious” says Dr. Donantics.

“I am a great proponent of democracy. Whenever I am not permitted to have the floor I immediately champion democracy and humanity and do not stop until I am permitted to speak” (Dr. Donantics).

Well the profs. beguiled by words, petitioned and the Doctor said: “How can I grant what you want? You have asked me about the operation of democracy in Alberta? Where is Alberta and who cares? And what has this to do with my regimen.

“Why last year when I spoke on the art of Tanzania hardly a one of you ever heard of Tanzania. What kind of campus is this? That is why I am so needed here. And this gives me the right to direct the Africa studies. I was there once.

“Now you are asking to participate in study programs. How can we do this end have education? We need education not programs. I’ll answer any intelligent question but not these, dribble, dribble, drough and druff. Something sensible, anything sensible.”

Well, Art, have you ever had a confrontation? There is nothing like a good confrontation—whatever that is.

Sunday my farewell party again although I shall not be leaving immediately. The stupid (see Lucy in “Peanuts” for definition) young people want me for Pied Piper even if I have to use a bass recorder. I understand there will be another Holy Men’s jamboree in my absence. If 10,000 show up it won’t be news, of course, unless there is violence, then there will be news all over.

Now that I have a Rabbi who will sit down at table to meet Arabs and have some Arabs who will sit down at table to meet Rabbis or Zionists—then Herb Caen tells about a Kosher Restaurant in Berkeley run by an Iranian. What a place for a confrontation.

Blessed are the peacemakers, no doubt, but they never get in the news yet. L’état, c’est pas moi.

Samuel L. Lewis

To a teacher it’s a school; to a carpenter, a tool;

To Hayakawa, establishment; to a General , it’s a Kent; Bang! Bang!

May 24, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Ca.

Dear Art,

I send you enclosures both serious and not-so-serious perhaps, but I cannot help writing a type of warning.

There is a vast difference between self-pity and a priori rejections by persons in power or authority. I am not going into that here, but there is a rising danger that the young, seeking for a casus belli will seize every opportunity from my own past to use them as excuses for forms of activity that should not be readily condoned. Unfortunately, we have a pseudo-culture which permits only persons of importance to have any say toward the solution of problems, and this very state of affairs is producing so many contradictions that nothing constructive may arise. As I have advised before, I am about to go to the state of New Mexico where there are movements and outlooks not always in accord with our traditions. I have been there before, and among those who have sat at my feet have been not a few professors and ex-professors of Harvard University, which is not altogether an elementary school. Since that time also I have visited the Harvard. Campus—the quad—and the welcome has been entirely different from one received in previous years.

I do not know if it is possible to look dispassionately at current issues and prominent personalities. But once the principle is introduced that some people are so much more equal than others, and only they are to be heeded, then there is the counter-offering that these people are the very ones not to be heeded. There are names in public limelight, often appearing there, prominent personalities who themselves are more adept in discussing the weaknesses of others than of promoting constructive measures from any standpoint. They are not concerned with measures; they are concerned with their own ego, or the weaknesses of others. Now there is a great reaction against this. Whether there should be is not the point. The fact is, there is. And it is very difficult to present to newsmakers and policy-determiners that we are moving into a New Age which may be taking the word democracy seriously, and not confine it to open doors for the elite only. I have to be very careful now lest I become a rabble-rouser in opposition to many leaders or mis-leaders of the day, who are themselves often rabble-rousers. They cannot have it both ways, and they want it both ways. I am not naming any personality here, but it is easy to supply the names, and you may be knowing them.

Once we get away from objectivity and facts, once we substitute a verbal, subjective “realism” for reality, once we go on a horrible path of name calling as a substitute for thinking, there may be no exact stopping point, and, of course, warnings are useless. People involved simply will not accept warnings, and they do not stand them when they come.

As I am leaving there will be a very big farewell party for me today, and I expect an even greater one when I return. I am not asking that these things be accepted as newsworthy, but I have had two communiqués in the last few days indicating that one of the large broadcasting companies is now interested in what I am doing. Sooner or later this will upset those persons and groups who have given me their a priori rejections. I am not concerned with that. I am concerned that the New Age people resent a priori rejections and are going to express their resentment vocally. So I am making a last effort, a real and serious one, to reach those personalities and organizations now known as “the establishment,” not for personal justice, but with some warning advice that even in our culture dishonesty will not forever pay off. The young simply won’t have it. And expressing my appreciation here, and with best wishes for your continued efforts to promote some understanding in the world not too concerned with understanding, I remain seriously and faithfully,

Lama Foundation,

Box 444, San Cristobal,

New Mexico, 87564

June 5, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

Dear Art:

Years ago a man who was both a friend and a teacher, one Paul Brunton, went into the Himalayas and wrote his reflections. Now Allah made the Heavens and the earth, but a certain class of “experts” has so sanctified the Himalayas (in parts of which I have lived) that anything coming from there was super-super until the Chinese army blasted some obtuse legends.

Mohammed said that the Light of Allah was neither of the East nor the West, and someday I hope to convince some “champion of integration” that all the mountains were divinely made. In fact I have the audacity to believe that great souls have manifested in this part of the world in ancient times and there may even be some now although with the wrong pedigrees. It seems that to become “God’s elect” you have to have a pedigree.

Now the young people of the region have the audacity to agree with St. Paul (but not with Billy Grama) that love casts out a multitude of sins. Good establishment people will accept Mary Pickford’s “Why not try God?” but when you ask, “Why not try love?” they think of Freud and not Jesus Christ. Anyhow the young people of the area here have no racial or religious prejudices whatsoever and they are successfully establishing that horrible institution, the commune, but with spiritual underpinning, by which I do not mean having some “expert” as gauleiter.

The “experts” went around collecting funds—from others—to build private Shangri-Las which were to be universal within very narrow limits. And not one of them gave any thought to the Amerindians. We like to weep over their discomforts but to learn from them? impossible (French pronunciation) especially if your are “humble” or “modern” (meaning frozen ears).

Well my legend is out in this part of the world. I am getting it from two sides: love, and dance of universal peace. That last which of course the “good” and “humble” people would not even examine has caught on. I saw a photo last night from a part of the country I have never visited with 200 young people in one of my dance theme. And already schemes are on foot from other parts of this State both to visit here and have me come to them. Love is wonderful—as a theme!

I have never wished to work alone. But organization after organization—the “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity and peasants shut up” people have so almost unanimous refused even interviews, and now the young some, and the work of myself and colleagues is spreading and spreading and spreading.

In the meanwhile I understand there will be another Holy Men’s jamboree in the Bay Area. A lot of real or fanciful holy men will address the, young. The self-styled gurus—who certainly do not love one another, for the most part will not be there. But others will, and they don’t care whether they have platforms or not. They each think they have messages for the young. And what the “humble” people can’t learn is that children grow up, it is that simple.

I am finding youth responds to love and consideration. And Christianity is far superior to Hinduism on this point—love and consideration. These are not among the leading morals of India, although the very top real Swamis practice them.

In the meanwhile I have been notified of my new monthly allotment and have the odd problem of what to do with it. All my near kin are well cared for. So I hope to establish a Peace Scholarship at Berkeley, beginning with the Palestinian complex. I know what to do. I have piles of data (not wanted of course, but I have it) and hope to begin with the University of California, and shall start in upon my return or sooner.

You name the peace organization I shall point out a group that has either refused an interview or turned me down cold! Selah! But we hope to do, when I return, Art, to do. No more hokum orations and empty speeches and emotionalisms. Hon. U Thant said (and defamed all nobility): “What we need is a moral and spiritual revolution.” Why doesn’t he lead it? Who is better placed? No, he loves the acclaim and applause.

Now the President joins Billy Graham: “We need a spiritual revolution.” What a Friend we have in the White House! No real Christ (Love ye one another) and no Fox, but perhaps a fox.

We are introducing here an abode for Peace and the proper spiritual practices—which you don’t get from the “experts.” Their day is done. The young want love and brotherhood and in the end these will win.

The same to you,

June 8, 1970

My dear Art:

Well yesterday was a day in which “history was made.” I understand there was a holy man’s jamboree in San Francisco but here I had it all to myself. This awful mess of trying to be a Pied Piper and having a gang come all the way from Santa Fe and reports that another gang is waiting for me in Albuquerque shows one thing, only the young show up excepting that there was one mama with them. All day long the young were coming to meet the Pied Piper and I understand bigger and better crowds are on their way.

Why one young person had the temerity to propose that instead of marching to Washington for or against some institution we march to Washington for God-and-Peace. It almost sounds like Gandhi with his ahimsa (which “everybody” favors) and satyagraha (which nobody in American seems to have given any thought to).

My sermon was simple. I am like everybody else excepting while everybody else has a “hot line” to God, I have one from God. And more and more young people are actually believing it.

Someday I am going to resurrect, if I can find it, my picture on the top of the Holy Mountain of Japan. No other American had been there and I have never heard of anyone going there since. We all have our nice Madison-Avenue holy mountains, neatly advertised and pilgrimaged with the proper inns at so much per. Why hardly any people know of Mount Konocti in Lake County which is a holy mountain of the Pomos and neighbors but “we” know better.

I am restoring this as a holy mountain. Just as nobody comes to the Pied Piper but the young so until recently nobody came to this holy mountain but the Amerindians of Taos and vicinity.

What is marvelous is not only the love and brotherhood of these young but their inspirations! Some of these will no doubt become public at the next sit-in and sing-in Canada.

I don’t know what I shall do when returning for the “secret” is out—more and more older people (at the top) are accepting my efforts. And I understand there will be at least one jamboree for this person before returning.

Love

P.S. Can’t possibly keep up with everybody. Beautiful letter from The Temple of Understanding and beautiful response here. They want me more but until some sign is given, May should be spent as much as possible at Novato, subject to the private careers of Moineddin, Hassan and Michael, also perhaps Drew.

San Francisco Chronicle

 June 16, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

I can think of no one more deserving of a celebration in their honor than you. And I can’t tell you how happy and pleased I am that everything is going so well for you.

Peace and love,

Art

Box 444,

San Cristobal

New Mexico, 87564

June 17, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

Dear Art: Introducing: Timon of San Francisco.

For years I have been going around as “Puddinghead Puck,” a character derived jointly from William Shakespeare and Mark Twain. Very gradually the “Puddinghead” career is drawing to a successful close. A typical example was the seminar on Silent Spring. The panel consisted of Rich man, poor man, beggerman, thief, Doctor, lawyer, and of course, Police Chief.

They were very serious. Very indeed. The world was caput. Finis. It is not the left-wingers (whatever that means) that say the world is caput, it is always establishment people.

This person arose: “As a retired sprayer operator I would like to ask….” All the panel excepting one immediately turned their back, demonstrating “democracy.” One man did not, one long man. He was an entomologist. We became friends. I always gain friend from laboratory-scientists but have no chance with parlor-scientists and newspaper scientists. These superior people do not need laboratory disciplines. They now have some other predictions that the world is caput. That is in. My dirty secretary had the audacity to buy another book of Lord Snow on “The Two Cultures” but that can’t be because it can’t be because … this is logic.

Well now I am known from the Colorado border down to and including Albuquerque. The folly of trying to be a Pied Piper is evident: more and more and more audiences—all young people. One colleague said I should give up others and concentrate on university campuses. My mere presence—what’s the use.

Timon of Athens started out as a rich man and everybody accepted. Then he lost his fortune or pretended and found the truth. Now I was kept in poverty and calumny and more and every time I leave S.F. more contacts—all over the earth of Rand-McNally and “God, but hardly the earth of “realists” and existentionalists and dialecticians. My “world” consists of human beings not of subjective “thoughts.” In fact there will be a big farewell party for me in Albuquerque toward the end of the month and the Santa Fe paper has given me a grand notice. And ye income grows, which is a mighty virtue. What to do with it?

Well you name it and I have been rebuffed. If it is the “society for friendship with the Bhutanese” and I offer to give them a contribution because I have lived in Bhutan, you can guess what will happen. It always does. Call it “World Union,” “World Federation,” “Federated Worlds,” “Cosmic Brotherhood,” what not they cannot afford to accept any idea or article, just money, and membership but especially money.

Now when I go to a campus (and generally am more than welcome) or a group of young people and they ask for my opinion on a moot question I give them an answer and my opinion and a lot of facts drawn from the objective world of reality (not “realism’) and then tell them the organizations that have refused to let me speak or accept a paper, or even have the floor. Do they eat it up! That is what they want, not only knowledge but evidence that older people are not interested in objective truth.

So I tell them that “problems” are those things which can be “solved” only by property people, or by plebiscites or by chairmen who in the name of democracy (always) call the speaker an infallible superman and the audience sorry ignorant people who have the opportunity to learn.

But although the list of persons and organization of “importance” is great, with more and more problems I am given the opportunity to present information and something more than information. And it is beginning to look now that some things of mine will be published and that there is no need to try to reach any San Francisco groups, because they want answers from heroes, people of distant parts, or “experts.”

More and more serious meetings, also with more mature people here. I shall return and work on two themes. I do not believe I have “answers” because I do not believe “answers” belong to any more person necessarily but I am now reveling in the a priori rejections and insults from so many “respectables” and the same problems persisting and more and more.

So I turn to Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Ruddigore” in which one of the characters says she has answers to many problems but

‘I’ll keep them to myself

For my opinion does not matter.”

The last night I came out—won the argument easily—I lost the good-will of the chair and the whole organization because this was contrary to…. The fact that history both earlier and more recent has borne me out makes it worse.

Timon of San Francisco will simply gibe and mock and let the warning mongers—atomic fall out, pollution, pests and bugs, starvation, etc. keep on and will live in the world of facts. From facts you can have optimism. But as I have said, Art, American DDT is poison, Russian DDT is all right—the germs and worms can read the labels.

Love,

P.S. Of course the above does not go on the college campuses. They actually welcome facts which can be substantiated.

Lama, New Mexico

June 24, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

You must remember I am Timon in reverse. Nobody would ever let me talk, or if so, pay no attention. Tra-la-la. If problems can’t be solved by the “right persons” then they should not be solved at all. They must be beyond (?) men’s ability. I remember once when I went to an AAAS conference (American Society for the Advancement of Science). I kept my mouth shut and the scientists went at each other. When it was all over I talked to the chairman and he stood aghast. “Why you have the solution! You have the solution, why didn’t you speak?” This could only happen among lab-scientists, who haven’t the decor of the parlor-scientists who are respectable.

I have been reading Mark Twain and it is simply remarkable. The more I read the greater he stands out and you can understand why I took the nickname of “Puddinhead” from “Puddinhead Wilson.” And everything is coming as in the script exactly as it is coming in the script of his “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” for Southeast Asia. The script can never be wrong.

Well Timon of San Francisco has returned from going over a big stretch of New Mexico and meeting a lot of young people and listening to them. This is the “worst” way to find out what is going on in the minds of college students but the simple and horrible fact is that one has been welcomed everywhere and more and more and more. And next week the finale and then home. And when I talk of Asia and things Asian the numbskulls all believe me. This could not happen in “Asia” (of the respectables) but it did happen all over the Asia of God (whom many do not believe in) and Rand—McNally whom they ought to.

A very Important was here, one of that ever growing tribe of “world saviors” and he went to S.F. where he probably got a big reception, but not by and from the young. He is so great he does not have to visit a place to be an “expert” on it. At that time there was another “Holy Man’s Jamboree” going on, well Madison Avenues, and the huge crowd diminished from 10,000 (in the press) to 300 stomachs, and most of them were not attracted at all. But after all an “expert” is an “expert.” Only now I have an alliance with the University of California to work on a real peace problem of real human beings and have the best of cooperation—which can’t reach the press. But every now and then some respectable rabbi or minister apologizes.

I just have returned from another of those horrible adventures with a successful commune. We discussed soil, water and reclamation problems. I remember once trying to get into a summit soil conference in another part of the world. When I finally reach the sanctum, I was greeted, “Where have you been? We have been waiting for you.” This shows the difference between the lab-scientists who research and the “parlor-scientists” who don’t have to and listen to the TV commentators who have replaced God.

I am waiting to be televised myself. But it is not only locally in New Mexico and by the young; the mail gets thicker and more favorable. The coffers are doing nicely, and we are going to have a big picnic in Precita Park on July 5^th. It probably isn’t worth coming to, Just Pied Piper and he young. But the young grow and grow and grow in numbers.

Now I have just read: 10 top leaders discuss: “how can we avoid another Vietnam.” Well I once went to a very respectable meeting in S.F. The state department official spoke half an hour, the chairman spoke another half hour, introducing the translator who had just 5 minutes. Then it broke up and I talked to the Vietnamese. I was never invited to that group (very respectable top hat, again.)

Any American who is steeped in Jefferson, Emerson and Mark Twin can’t ace the dialecticians (of all caps) and existentialists and commentators who control our culture. I have eaten, danced and prayed with all peoples. I do so here—in fact just did at the commune visited, only we didn’t pray. I am sending a copy of this to Congressman Phil Burton.

Anyhow I discovered a great dramatic company in the State (they have their own commune), and they told me their plans. If they are given any cognizance we shall win the hearts of hundreds of millions of Asians. Our USIS is great for Tenseness Williams, that is it. That is “American” culture. They may want Jefferson, Emerson and Mark Twin but “we” know better, etc. We give them Tennessee Williams! Fortunately I have enough entries on the campus at Berkeley and this will be followed by Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and then others. My world war has always been between “the professor and the commentator. After oodles of years I have seen no reason to change. Maybe same day S.F., will at least listen to their Timon in reverse. I got top apologies (meaning Nob Hill) recently.

Love

Samuel L. Lewis

San Cristobal,

New Mexico, 87564

June 29, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

California, here we come. Tomorrow. Yesterday was a Ralph Waldo Emerson day. Living in the midst of the woods, crowds of young people came to hear me and participate in dance and song. We shall have a reception at Santa Fe and a big farewell in Albuquerque and the invitations for next year already fill up my program. Everything is exactly as in the script, everywhere. Emerson for the woods, Mark Twain for Vietnam, etc.

I am sending a copy of this to Congressman McClosky. One magazine has articles in it from some fair-minded congressmen on how to prevent a Vietnam. This is a tragedy. Everybody is consulted but us “Ugly Americans.” I keep harping on Robert Clifton who lived so long in Vietnam. And this country and culture accepted Lowell Thomas and not Nicol Smith, although N.S. was author of Burma Road. And we are going to continue to accept our Lowells Thomas and reject our Nicols Smith until we get out of “realism” and into “reality.”

Only now the cards are being reshuffled. Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) is now occasionally being invited to meet the supporters of the “Judeo-Christian ethic (whatever that is). But it looks as if one will reach high places in Washington. The mail could not be better. I was almost the only one to make a mark at the summit peace conference in Genera. (Not in the American press, of course, no communists there. Next time we invite the communists and the American press will come.)

The only other unknown disproved my theory that we Americans would permit the lion and lamb to lie down together, but never, never let a “little child” lead them. On this the New Left and the Birch barkers and the “silent majority” are agreed. But not the “silenced majority.” So a young girl is going around the world and I believe she will be more successful than all our newsmen and diplomats combined (who are the only ones we permit to speak anyhow).

So many ask for something new and then forbid it. But we still have to face Clemenceau’s “War and peace are two things too serious to entrust to diplomats and generals.” USA dissents and so we have “The Connecticut Yankee’s” war but now the young are listening. With one important exception I shall make no effort to see the press, the writer and advocates of the “Judeo-Christian”-ethic. The Pied Piper marches on and hundreds follow him everywhere. “The Truth shall make you free.”

Love,

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

July 4, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art: The Return of Timon of San Francisco.

Like most things it is entirely as in the script, only in reverse. Just as Vietnam is “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” (and other examples could be cited) so the life is exactly as in William Shakespeare and apparently it is not to be changed. True this writing is about dawn and I just came in last night but it seems that everywhere else in the world “Timon” is accepted and even honored, but in his home town it has been most difficult to find hungry groups who would accept one’s prowess at the price of receiving emoluments. Oh, one’s money is welcome, no doubt, that is so, but not it the price of recognizing any accomplishments of the donee.

I am particularly concerned with so-called “Asian Cultures.” I am the first man in the world, I believe, who has passed the test to be a valid Zen Buddhist teacher and also Islamic Sufi teacher. It certainly came out when cards played at Geneva, and certainly the Royal Asiatic Society and World Congress of Faiths have totally different attitudes from the various groups begging funds to bring Oriental and Occidental cultures together. I did meet one of these “world saviors” in the Rockies, a very nice man with as much backgrounds as a Lancelot has spine but one must not contradict Madison Ave, even if “God” has a million allies, which he has. And so I must by-pass the various “East-West” centers which are good at soliciting funds and sometimes at collecting them. I went all through that with the Roerich Museum years ago but we do have some very honest East-West group in San Francisco like the society for Asian Arts and they are willing to accept one’s prowess. It is ridiculous, it is weird, it is farce-comedy.

My last days in New Mexico were also strictly according to script again, this time Pied Piper. A large crowd in Albuquerque and my “Dances of Universal Peace” are being received by the young, and how! Fortunately I have a very good disciple there, and I have not even started with the University. They are “queer”; they prefer tan American who has studied Oriental Philosophies with Asians to grand Ph. Ds. who have not!

You should see my mail! And I guess it means traipsing off to Washington again but this time the proper invitation. You can understand my high regard for Senator Cooper, the one man in the Upper House who has lived in Asia with Asians (and therefore is 40 grades below any TV expert or ivory towered commentator).

The next step is toward real cultural exchanges and real peace efforts with real human beings. The fact that “Timon” has contracted them does not mean they never lived. Why I even have to tackle New York Times—historians today don’t have to know history, just how to comment on it!

I began my open meetings in Albuquerque with a prayer:

“Our Father Who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth

As it is in heaven,

Excepting in Vietnam and the Near East. Amen!”

That did it. As I am one of those silly assess who asks university students what they believe and want my answers at the moment are not very acceptable. They come out of the horse’s mouth, not out of some ersatz “Microscophone.” But they are going to back me on real peace programs for real people in the real world. I understand my main contract for peace in the Near East is now in San Francisco. The very idea of having Israelis and Muslims and Palestinians sitting down together is so “preposterous” I wonder if any of your colleagues can understand it.

Fortunately I am able to allot $100 a month just for that and maybe more the way things are moving. Hungry pretas cannot accept that even for….

But it is not only that plans for real rapprochements among and between real human beings is going ahead, there are even programs for real cultural exchanges with and from real Asians. We already have a technical team ready to bring back musics and ceremonies not yet recorded and these are going to upset a whole lot of East-West (?) organizations who could well be on the band-wagon but never at the cost of recognizing other’s prowess.

Fortunately, too, we have the valid universities on our side and they are going to benefit.

But it is not only the “East-West” groups that have be “self-honor” of never accepting other’s money if they have to admit their prowess, it is the “peace award” recipients even more. Grand clamor when the awards are given and much “humility” in accepting them. But never a word on Vietnam or the Near East—now from them. They sit at home with their trophies! And the young are finding this out.

Well, Art, there is enough chattering. I was glad to get home and read your column and “Peanuts.” Anyhow inasmuch as we must have “script” I can refer to the last line of “The Idylls of the King” and there is no reason not to accept Tennyson along with Shakespeare and Mark Twain (and Emerson and Jefferson). So I, too; am bound by script.

Love

P.S. July 5 we expect a grand dance party on the lawn in front of my house, and I have a new type of ceremonial dance following Ruth St. Denis and the Dervishes.

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

July 6, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

Hare Krishna! The substitution of tequila for vodka may or may not be beneficial to the human psyche. Anything emotional and dramatic is news but sound, solid achievements belong to history.

I have been studying Oriental wisdom (of Asians, not of “experts”) for many, many years and this was accepted when I was at Geneva by the real leaders of the real humanity—press not there. Whenever I put on my own Krishna dances those Bhaktivedantins disappear. But to me the private “God” of one group is no better than the private “God” of anybody else and one set of emotions is not more freeing than another. Besides all the religions of the day assure that if you are of their ilk you are automatically superior morally, spiritually and in every other way, something not found in any scripture whatsoever. Even to be a devotee self-absolves you from even have to study your own sacred books.

Whenever I put on Krishna Dances in New Mexico these Bhaktivedantins disappeared, but the young otherwise clustered.

There is an ancient saying, “When the gods arrive, the half-gods go.” There have been all kinds of movements and personalities appearing claiming to be the private, monopolistic “Suez Canal” between East and West. But now there are home cultural efforts (like A.S.E. in San Francisco). From them we can learn the deeper values of the non-communist cultures of Asia. (Officially we recognize only the Russian and Israeli cultures which are in a certain sense, “communistic.”)

My own dances are being filmed and televised and what started out as “Dances of Universal Peace” are expanding. Colleagues are planning to go to Ajmir in India, to record the Sufi ceremonies and chants. Although there are far more members of Sufi Orders than all other “mystical” groups combined this country is in utter ignorance of them and the former types of “experts”—some still in high positions—are seeing to that!

Then I happened into a dramatic group in New Mexico which is planning to put on “passion plays” derived from the Indian “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata” and they will send a representative or team to San Francisco next Spring. It will be an easy matter to get them in close touch with the real cultural peoples, with or without fanfare.

Art, we are going to have honest, objective East-West cultural and other exchanges, and this City which has been in many respects a gateway to the Orient will also become a gateway for the Orient.

I have to prepare for many things now at many levels, preparatory to going East, I hope, in the Fall. The efforts to become a Pied Piper have been ridiculously successful and many who previously deride are now best friends and colleagues.

Love,

cc Indian Students          

cc Dept of South Asia Studies U.C.

cc Indian Consulate

San Francisco Chronicle

July 10, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

So very much seems to be happening to you, or you’re making things happen. And all of it is good. I couldn’t be happier for you.

Love,

Art

July 13, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

I assure you that yesterday I made history. History in the life of “Mr. Timon of San Francisco.” And the time is coming when the simple citizen who has access to facts will be listened to, whether it is by some sub-agent of the foreign office, or some newspaper, or some ombudsman. I am all the more “excited” because my quondam friend Chet Huntley is retiring, and when he gets off his lofty perch and quits the “untouchables” for the human race, I think I shall be able to reach him.

On the surface the evening was given over to Korean Buddhism. Hester Seo Kyung-Bo, a real Master of the real Far East, addressed us. The difference between Korean Buddhism and Vietnamese Buddhism is this: we listen to the Koreans and we tell the Vietnamese.

Master Seo and I sat in the two chairs occupied years ago by the late Robert Clifton and myself. At that time he poured out his final words to me having been shunned by the press and foreign office alike. So we are spending billions of dollars, to which I see now Viscount Montgomery objects, but we must fulfill the final chapters of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Ten Congressmen may write for Coronet on how to prevent another Vietnam, whatever that means. But 10 simple Americans will have access to actual events and continue to be snubbed, until we quit this damn nonsense about “democracy” and listen to human beings, just for an occasion.

My small basement room was packed. I do not advertise anymore. Slowly but surely the young people are finding me out, and now in several parts of the United States, and a little bit abroad. In the audience was Bob Kaufman. He represented the male portion of American youth at the conference of the world’s religions, the real religions of the real world in Geneva, which was not news—no communists there, so it wasn’t news. But while this was going on believe me, Art, this person is getting better and better letters from the real VIP’s in the real religions of the real world, working for something which resembles peace, whatever that means, before the days of semantics, whatever that means.

The audience of young people learned something about facets of Buddhism unheard of by those nice people who look to Alan Watts, etc, for their information about what is known as “Buddhism” but not in Asia, Art, not in Asia.

Actually, the meeting was also a scheme to get some of us together who are thoroughly opposed to genocide, whether it is by the Jews or on the Jews; whether it is by the non-Jews or on the non-Jews, e.g. in Vietnam.

Today we are taking the first steps toward ending the horrors in the Near East. I have worked in this field for years and years. I have the backgrounds, the history, the facts, but come from the wrong side of the street. Fortunately, as one does meet humanity, one sometimes has some success in getting human beings to come together, and the chances are we may succeed in this. Although the majority of clergy of all faiths are “too humble” to have anything to do with this kind of undertaking, I do have the ears of one local VIP clergyman, and we hope to start there.

However.

My financial affairs are in very much better condition today, and the chances are very great that all the lying peace-mongers will ignore me; the University of California will not.

But.

But.

There was a wealthy publisher in the audience, and he is going to take all my substantial facts and the substantial facts of others. It is easy enough today to write even a book which would make Zola’s J‘Accuse look like small potatoes. But that would be of no benefit to humanity. I am working for peace, not fame—or infamy. Or to put it in other terms, Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) has returned. It no longer makes any difference whether he is snubbed by the “Good” people or not. We are fighting useless, interminable wars, with honorable citizens receiving peace awards and then disappearing. How long this will continue I don’t know and don’t care. But we are facing this danger—that youth, hearing I am turned down and turned away, is making a hero of me, and that is not the way. We are going to have peace when little people are permitted to mingle with little people, and when big people (who are no bigger before God) listen occasionally to the little people.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

July 15, 1970.

Arthur Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle

Dear Art:

Just a little not-news.

The meetings of the House of Love and Prayer on Arguello have been most wonderful and stimulating. The very idea that unknown people who are Arabs or Jews or even both meeting together without a lot of professors of “communication” and diplomats, etc. introducing them to each other is too bizarre(?) even for a democracy. But it is being done, Art, it is being done.

And “Timon of San Francisco” will soon have his typewriters and secretaries communicating to people who are very important (even in democracies) to see if we can’t do what is incomprehensible and “unthinkable” to editors, commentators and diplomats will be done.

A lot of as yet unregistered ordinary people have agreed that they neither want to hate nor fight, and that they will prayer together and eat together and have mutual respect, by which they man mutual respect, is on the way.

I am so tired, but not a dull moment. Newsmen, presidents and diplomats cannot comprehend that it may be true that “God is Love.”

Love,

July 18, 1970

Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

While a well known publication may print: “Ten Ways to Stop Another Vietnam” by some very well-meaning congressmen and senators who no more know how to communicate with Asian and African peasants then I know their language, there is a vast sort of “underground” going on. It is not so much an “underground” excepting that the foreign office and the press simply will not accept anything from the hoi polloi.

While I am saving this for my own “J’accuse,” more and more people are finding out this mouse-trap inventor. Yes, I was living in the midst of the woods in New Mexico and hundreds of flesh-and-blood young people came there, but now that I have returned, there is hardly a moment.

The silliest tripe ever pushed on the American public ways, “It is not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” There are only two results: being ignored, or even being hounded.

Now I am not being hounded, but getting long distance calls from New York, Boulder and Taos all on the same subject did not surprised me. The young of this country have something very real—I mean the young and not the fictions of writers about the young. So long as this as restricted to the “heathen” Chinese Buddhists and to Hindus of various persuasions and to many various of real young America who object to Billy Graham it was comprehensible.

But last night I went to a Sabbath meeting, called by a pious Rabbi. Every bit of floor space taken up and I can tell you a large sector of the crowd were not Jewish. But to my amazement they put the same things to me as have the Chinese Buddhists and the Hindus and the Hari-Krishna Americans, and also a man describing himself as an “underground” editor rather mysteriously approached me. This at a time when I have taken the first (horrible, of course) steps to get Arabs and Palestinians and Israelis to sit down together with no good grace of the Mosques, Synagogues, press or foreign office. But I am convinced something is going to be done.

And “tiger cages” are not restricted.

Well my classes grow and the audiences and contacts grown and I am awaiting the return of my new publisher. And maybe we can get out of “realism” into reality. The young, you can be assured, want Peace and no more Kellogg-Briand crap or asinine laws against “genocide” very carefully restricted. As I have said: Youth of the world unite, you have nothing to lose. I think God and Allah and Brahm favor this too, even if Billy the Un-kid does not.

Love,

July 19, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94110

Episodes in the life of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse).

I am not the original Timon of San Francisco. His name was Hugo Selig, and we were close friends until his death a few years ago. After having been a successful piano salesman, he left this region and became famous in various parts of the central and southern coast counties, and even in Las Vegas.

His closest friend was the late Luther Whiteman who was my senior partner for years. Together we wrote a book called Glory Roads on politics in California. It was a very bad sales effort, but 90% of our predictions came true, perhaps all of them. In certain halls of ivy I have gained a reputation, a reputation for honesty and objectivity. But I am no Jean Dixon, and honest objective methods are still shunned if they do not come from the “right parties.”

But I am not necessarily a pessimist. The other night I went to the Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park and we saw a picture “The death of Lake Erie.” The conclusion of most of us was that we are going to lose Lake Erie and Lake Cayuga and San Francisco Bay so long as the literati, the editors, the supreme generalissimos of the commentators, and essayists in general keep on bombarding the public on every subject. Their general theme is that “Everybody is to blame” whereas it was quite evident to us laboratory scientists that factory gases, sewage, and factory discharges are the culprits, and the culprits want it to be spread abroad that “everybody is to blame.” That is their oyster and we shall probably lose San Francisco Bay, until and unless the scientists are permitted to speak on subjects on which they have been serious scholars.

(I know enough to keep quiet. I have lived in London and Pittsburgh which have cleaned up marvelously. I have even lived in Cleveland at sundry times, and so had rather firsthand knowledge. But after “Silent Spring” a poor dumb professional spray operator and organic gardener like myself has enough sense to keep his mouth shut among the elites.)

For many years I called myself Puddinhead Puck, being a blend of heroes from Shakespeare and Mark Twain, but now!

Within a space of four days I received five different communications from sundry parts of the United States urging me to go to Boulder, Colorado. I tell you, Art, something is doing, amid and from the young. But I cannot spread myself any more.

Perhaps the only person on earth who is recognized by Asian-Asians as a scholar in their various philosophies (some of the top people in the Royal Asiatic Society accept this, and a few others; it doesn’t matter), I found myself within a few hours at over-crowded meetings first of young people under Jewish auspices and young people under Christian auspices. I tell you, Art, the young want objectivity and truth, and no more of this crap nonsense such as appears in an article on India in today’s paper. They want it and they are going to win it by attrition.

The young are going to win, not because they are right, but because they are going to live. They don’t want war. More and more of them firmly believe in objective honesty.

They are very dangerous; far more dangerous than a “New Left.” The so-called New Left has a simple solution: kill all the villains who are often their blood relatives. The New Age people want objectivity and honesty. I am very optimistic because I believe the young will live longer than the old. That is all. The young have an ability to think through the problems of pollution, soil preservation and reclamation, and even slum clearance, because they have simple capacities, totally outside the “realisms” current in America and the Communist countries.

The main thing the youth are going to insist on is the ending of horrible wars. I would rather let them speak. I become popular simply by an ability to listen to them. Nothing more and nothing magical.

But a surprise air mail letter from the wealthy publisher who says he will print everything I give him makes me feel the time is coming when all I have to do is print copies of letters to the famous people who make all the noises and do nothing more. It is easy to write editorials condemning millions of people such as the Hindus in today’s press or the Arabs, or the Cambodians, or the Hausas. None of these operations set forth efforts at peace and good will.

I tell you, Art, my message “Youth of the world unite, you have nothing to lose” is coming into being. The generation gap is simple: the young have open ears, the aged have not. That is all.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

July 21, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

Dear Art:

I had better give you some not-news. A number of years ago I appeared in Washington with a plan for Palestine saying that I had hope the Israelis and Arabs could get together so as to prevent the communists from getting a foot-hold. Every person I met accepted it. The plan was entrusted to a “good friend.” Then I did something to antagonize this “good friend” who had all the contacts and made it her business to see that everything I did was stymied. She was successful in every direction.

Years later I went to the near East and got a plan accepted by the U.N. (especially), and the Israelis and Egyptians and the Saudi Arabians and not by the “good,” “peaceful” Americans. You name them and that is the group that turned the plan down. Only the Friends of all religious groups accepted it. (Of course now I am getting apologies) but the only people who can propose are newspaper men and those connected with Foreign Service. Period!

Then I worked out afresh and was just getting the University of California and some people (of import) connected with the Temple of Understanding of Washington interested, when I received tow surprise letters from friends of the late Thomas Merton, wondering what I was doing about the Near East.

Well I am doing and no longer care if all the press and State Department turn me down. They did this of my friend, the late Robert Clifton, in the case of Vietnam and we are paying the price. But now I am using some “ins.” Besides, at the moment the communists are the only ones trying to bring Arabs and Israelis together. We will have none of it; we will have none of anything but war a la “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court.”

But I also received an airmail letter from the publisher who wants my stuff. I hope it will not be a “J’Accuse.” Why do older people insist that young people must murder each other? Kellogg-Briand Pac, and anti-genocide and murder, without any declarations of war! And don’t think I am not getting responses today. I am, and from all quarters excepting of course the press, the State Department and some clerics. Even the most hard-boiled business men realize that if we don’t establish peace, the communists will. I have already told about my pre-Tashkent experiences. Or, as Dr Malalasekera said, “How can you trust a government which will not trust its own people.” This is true. But the young are finding this out. It is called a “generation gap.” Nonsense. The young simply do not wish to murder or to be murdered.

… to be continued.

Love,

July 23, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

After I had the impertinence to write to Rabbi Spicehandler of Jerusalem things really did begin to happen. Some of my confounded followers are making arrangements to take pictures first of a beautiful Israeli, girl and a beautiful Arab girl together but they have planned a whole series of these “impossibilities.” That is just one item.

Then we got a private film from Boston. Years ago I wrote some poems, “The Black Christ.” Of course they were rejected. Everything “Timon of San Francisco” tried was rejected; it became a habit. Well I met just a man, a Negro in Cambridge and does he fill the bill! But now things are humming.

The pictures which began with my dance efforts have over-whelmed. We get long distance calls—and the $v$i$r$t$u$e$s$ are accumulating. Some people have the audacity to believe that on rare occasions it just might be possible for an eye-witness to know more than the great god UP-AP whom all dialectician of all camps worship, even though they are divided and hate each other. But in the service and worship of the great god they are united.

Than the young. Those blasted nincompoops actually endorse my stupid efforts to be a Pied Piper. All the meetings I have attended, or conducted, are over-run. There is a private meeting today to arrange my finances and try to get help, so I can have paid secretaries and a travel fund. I am already booked for Washington, Boston and Tucson, and maybe Portland, Oregon—just refused Denver and Boulder but have deputes. My god-daughter’s husband has just left.

The young of this country—and of the world, are sick of these interminable wars and hatred. There is no law on our books barring Russia from sending arms, or medicines to Libya. But that is supposed to start a changing of hatreds.

Then look at that great Hitlerian “Jew” DDT which has to be blamed for everything. All evil is either Mao or DDT. Period. And that sort of thing is going to destroy San Francisco Bay because scientists are called “inventors of the atomic bomb” and therefore incapable of speaking on other subjects. This is Logic.

The only group in San Francisco that ever really let me speak was a certain section of the Commonwealth Club. There I met a man who was always talking on water problems and pollution. He was regarded as a harmless old fool fanatic. I felt he was 100% right. But this only made it worse for him. We prefer destruction than medicine from the “wrong” people.

No doubt if I advertised the press just might let me have some attention. But I am afraid. The audiences are too large now for communications. But with the probability of all my things being published and a determination to work for what used to be called “peace,” it may be necessary to speak or write harshly. The number of rejections in San Francisco has been overwhelming and then suddenly, without notice, I get articles or even headlines in Boston or Santa Fe.

When I speak to the young of a real peace crusade, by which I mean “peace” and not the slaughter of the guilty (or innocent) by noisy emotionalists with “wings.”

I notice in the paper Herb Caen’s remarks about Dr. Hayakawa. This man is the semanticist. Period. And I have now to spend some money retracing the rise of this movement. As I have told you I committed, among others, the unpardonable sin of having studied under Korzybski’s friend and mentor, Dr. Cassius Keyser of Columbia. I have never been forgiven. I did give my library to San Francisco State but once he got it the General never forgave me for that either. We have no logics today, just conflicting sophistries but fortunately one does meet real thinkers, and doers, on college campuses. It takes two years for a small report from them to be accepted and two minutes for a dramatic outbreak to be accepted. This is our culture.

So I am turning to the young but now they are turning to me. And although I am no longer in the midst of the words, the whole time is taken up. This is a diary report. I only hope I can get enough done before going to Washington. Not-news, of course, not newsily “exciting” but wait and see, Art. Man bites dog is still not and must be news????

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc Herb Caen

cc  Lloyd Morain

July 24, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Ca. 94119

Dear Art:

This is a page from the diary of “Timon of San Francisco” (in reverse of course).

My name is mentioned in today’s paper in connection with one Shiranjiva of Calcutta. He is an “expert”; I am not. Until recently, as a whole, this nation has not been interested in what foreigners believe, especially gooks and coolies. As Timon in reverse, I have no intention of trying to reach any respectable people, although there is very little difference between the respectable and the dis-respectable. Both have hard ears, and both mealy-mouth liberty, democracy, and humanity, etc.

There is a headline about Nasser. We have cultural exchange with the Russians but not with the Arabs. This is one example of our “liberty, democracy and humanity.” I am one of the worst qualified on this subject, having lived among both Jews and Arabs. And I have the shocking audacity to be cooperating in a series of plans to have Arabs girls and Israeli girls photographed together.

Another subject on which I have the audacity to have an opinion is regarding protein formation in grains. I have discussed this with those nincompoops, the laboratory scientists, and the Lama Foundation where I have been has also been interested in applying the law of the maximization of proteins in grains. I can discuss this at the University of California in Riverside or Davis, but elsewhere?

Nevertheless I have been quite successful in my initial efforts to establish organic gardens, and the latest is that a wealthy backer wishes me to extend this program. But it is most difficult to get solid real news anywhere excepting in the actual scientific press, and I have long given this up as futile. News is that which is exciting, not that which is true.

My efforts to become a Pied Piper for the young have reached a tremendous stage—elsewhere. The good liberty, democracy, humanity peoples locally…. But I do not care anymore. It is easier to get the young to laugh, than to get their elders to acknowledge anything at all.

In regard to Shiranjiva, the world is now so filled of saviours, very restricted in their backgrounds, but none of them able to do anything about Vietnam or Palestine. As soon as my present complexes are cleared (and I can get into other ones) I expect to have my memoirs etc., published. There are fortunately enough people in the world who are more interested in facts than in opinions, and this year I have been meeting people literally by the hundreds if not by the thousands. Not a newspaper in California has given me any courtesies and I am tired of being turned away. But, as you know, Mark Twain is one of my saints, and this includes today even his methods in newspaper interviews. All you need is a proper press agent, or an emotional chairman, and you are in, and now I am in with the young because I am lambasting and will continue to lambast this totally uncalled for methodology in the discussions of private or public questions and problems.

Despite the tenor of this letter, I have not forgotten “If you can’t lick em, laugh at em,” or “If you can’t lick em laugh at yourself.” This is happening and very seriously happening today.

Thank you for your interest and your willingness to learn from not-news, from Timon of San Francisco (in reverse), known as

Samuel L. Lewis

July 24, 1970

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear S.A.M.:

You continue to amaze and astonish me. When I think of how difficult it is for me to write 600 words a day and then see how much work you do, I am even more amazed and astonished.

Admiringly,

Art

July 28, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Ca. 94119

My dear Art:

Thank you for your letter of July 24th. I have to repeat here what I may have told you before. Every day I sit in a chair once occupied by my late friend Robert Clifton, also known as Phra Sumangalo. I said to him, “Grand Phra, you and I are more nobodies; our total audiences here do not include 30 individuals. But I don’t think there is a King or Prime Minister or Holy Man, or Professor, or a Peasant, from one and of Asia to another whom you or I could not mettt if we have not met them already.” He answered, “How true Samuel, how true.”

The thirty-three rejections of my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism followed. The State Department, the press, and the giant channels of communication (so-called) are so imbued with “realism” there is no room for reality. I am not challenging them or anybody any more; I am doing. Nor am I disturbed by the fact that important persons and institutions do not answer my letters and do not give me interviews. The doors are now open for me to have everything published soon.

Anybody can write on foreign affairs excepting American citizens who have lived a long time in a particular nation. We have learned nothing from “The Ugly American.” Indeed we are challenging it. There is a bundle of lies in today’s paper in an article written by a man called an expert, concerning Nasser.

Last night I went to a concert exhibiting a part of Arabic culture. It was given under the auspices of the American Society for Eastern Arts. I sat next to a man who was half-Jew, half-Arab. I could talk and he could talk. This is something not permitted, and I mean not permitted by any of the important organizations excepting the Universities. But not only could we talk, we are planning to do and I mean to do, and no nonsense. The young of the world are going to learn that we can have peace an earth if they meet each other without any advice from experts and commentators. So a good deal of my time is used in planning actions, and I believe in the end that not all the devils in authority in Russia, the United States, Israel, and the Arab lands can stop this.

I am interested in Los Siete Trial. Eye-witnesses are wanted, and eyewitnesses are respected. In foreign affairs—not a chance.

As I have had to either eye-witness or ear-witness all the genocidal activities promoted by this country, even sleep and pleasure play minor roles.

Saturday I am giving an important talk on the psychic body which is mentioned in the second chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. It is mistranslated “natural body.” The result is that Christians are unaware of the teachings of Christ and Paul, and a growing multitude of our people become excited when they see the same teachings offered by Hindus. And they are right. I am going to show that the same basic teachings are found in the Bible, but it is a matter of total indifference whether we follow Hinduism, Christianity, another religion, or no religion at all.

Jesus said, “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” That is my motto 100%. Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

July 28, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

The only bad thing about going on vacation will be missing your marvelous letters. But I’ll be looking forward to some sort of resumé of your activities upon my return the first of September. I hope all goes well with you while I’m away.

Love,

Art

August 20, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe,

c/o S. F. Chronicle

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

This is to welcome your home from your vacation and to inform you of my not-news which just the same may make history. So we have taken it up with certain departments of the University of California at Berkeley which believe, despite pressures from all sides, in reality as above “realism.” I can assure you on this point the Regents, the “new left” and the press are united. They all believe in “realism”—to each its own.

First we have had the audacity end effrontery to arrange a Jewish dinner for Muslim and Christians. This mustn’t cawn’t be but the cooks are busy. Then there is scheduled an Arab dinner for Palestinians of all kinds, Israelis, and synagogue Jews and Christians. Those bastard, desert peoples are doing everything contrary to the “book” and are enjoying it. After that we hope, just hope that some members of the Fourth Estate will get just a little curious. It is, of course, positively against all ivory-tourism.

While this is going on some of my friends are going to Asian-Asia. We have cultural exchange with Russia, notch, and then spend billions of dollars to keep the Russians from offering their culture to others. We are wondering, if we establish cultural exchange with the Iranians or Hindus or other Asians whether we shall then not spend billions of dollars to prevent them from spreading their cultures which are much older than the Russians.

If this succeeds we shall try the Arabs. This, of course, smust’nut be. We do not even have an Arabian restaurant though we do have some groceries and delicatessens. But you know, Art, there is a limit to “tolerance.” I don’t know of a single institution that has a good Arab presenting Arabian culture. This is kind of awkward to me because I have dared a follow Richard, I mean Sir Richard Burton, into lands where one mustn’t go.

My “Dances of Universal Peace” are drawing more and more—young people. No pornography, no acid, no marijuana, no violence, so not-news! But soon we are going to be in prints elsewhere. We are even going to send copies of these letters one by one to various radio-TV stations. It is possible that by 1975 someone will get to us. So I’ll cheat. I am telling you I am offering a thousand dollars to the University of California for a Peace Scholarship. As we don’t know and don’t care what the professors are doing, have done, there is little I can say.

After all, do not we all know about Assouan, built by Russians and nothing about Mangla Dam built by a local corporation! This is protocol. What Americans do abroad! Never, never, never in what all Nagore (or Bombay or Phnom Pen or Djakarta or Medina) is talking about. “They” never discuss American accomplishments. Clearly not-news. But it is going to be news, and before long we are going to have articles on what Californian alumni are accomplishing, have accomplished “far out.” Wait and see.

This is enough to disturb you on your return.

Love and blessings,

Several ccs.         

Sept. 1, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

I have still no takers on my offer to pay anyone who could tell me the difference between “peace with justice” and “peace with genocide.” I have been helped no end by the long article in yesterday’s Chronicle about Lindbergh. The line between “peace with justice” and “peace with genocide” seems to have worn very thin indeed.

Now I have received a letter from a second Rabbi in Jerusalem favoring our efforts. Of course the local clergy, under the “Judeo-Christian ethic”….

Well after having been closeted with Gunnar Jarring and gotten a peace plan which the Israelis, the Egyptians, and the Saudians approved….

At Geneva it was wonderful. When the “very great” Sir Zafrullah Khan was asked what he had to offer besides oratory and emotion, he sat down. But that is what the older people like. I think we are in a new world. Our program to being Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Christians, and Palestinians together is making great headway—elsewhere.

But Art, it can happen here, and is, praise to God-Allah-Brahm and Hare Krishna.

Faithfully,

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

September 6, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

I am on the verge. It seems that some “not-news” may become news. It is history all right. I cannot fill or fulfill the requests from university professors. And our achievements, not efforts, but achievements fulfill what the “great” like to say and think they are solving problems by saying.

The aftermath of the conference at Geneva where I was permitted to speak—did not have to say much among the really great men and women of the world, has been marvelous. Yes, I am Timon-in reverse-of San Francisco.

About three weeks to prepare to go east. My religious lectures nearly at an end may be given at a cathedral in Washington. Here I hope to get a few clerics to rise about the accepted “Judeo-Christian” ethic to follow, if only rarely, a few biblical teachings.

In the meanwhile all the Avatars, Sadgurus, Maharshis from India, at war with each other (of course) are seeking alliances with this person. It was so easy to have conversations and meditations and agreements with Dr. Radhakrishnan. It was impossible with local “experts” on Asia until recently. Now both the holy men and university professors are against the “experts” and for facts and history and this is a welcome change.

Busy every moment. Even my Vine and Fig-tree are so overloaded that we have been amazed with the crops, ten times greater than last year!

I have a hunch, after another visit to the East Coast, some “good” people will at least grant interview before throwing me out as an imposter. But my editor returns this week and much may depend upon what he wants and what we must do.

I’ll let you know what the Indian Masters accomplish but they may give me publicity beforehand. Oh, I have lived in India and remember a meeting of a World Affairs Council. “I suppose the next speaker will say he has lived in India.” Yes, I have lived in India.” “Next you will be claiming to know President Radhakrishnan.” “I thought so.” Then the great man sat down. He is always on the pay-rolls. Nobody knows what this meant but I think that day is coming to an end.

Love and blessings,

September 7, 1970

Dear Art:

I don’t ask your forgiveness but today I am mixing some potential news with the “not-news.” And it is a little surprising when everything is favorable elsewhere that San Francisco has not entirely accepted, “stop the world, I’m jumping off.”

I think I sent you copy of letter to the grouper which is associated with the United Nations. This is the first time here excepting the University of San Francisco which once let me speak on water problems of the Near East. No “experts” and sociologists present and entire agreement from engineers. Indeed I named several engineers from this region who have accomplished wonders, strictly not-news. Only efforts of communists are “news.” Achievements by Americans?!!!

Well we looked for Arab restaurants and found there is one near West Portal which we have not visited. But we did go to Marrakech. It is slightly high for hoi polloi—nine dollars, but far, far beyond anything Trader Vic can offer—at least on my mind and my stomach, And the owners fell in with the idea of Jews and Muslims joining at the table. And I had at long last the dream of my life kouskous—I only had it once before, but this kous-kous (or couse-cous!)—it is far out because it actually comes from a far away land.

(With all respects to you I like “Sam’s” at Tiburon, both on account of the name and location.)

Now we are getting ready to go east and I may even try to contact Gunnar Jarring again so I’ll write Phil Ubronn. Copy of this to Herb Caen.

Love,

410 Precita Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

September 9, 1970

Arthur Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

I have come to the point where “not news” is boiling over and many copies of this letter will be sent out, possibly in protest, and, also to my presumable publisher. We are living in a world of utter fantasy and all the repetitions of the word “realism” only make it worse. I am sending copy of this to a Marin paper but with no hope that any attention will be paid.

My colleagues in San Francisco have successfully put on joint Jewish-Arab-Christian dinners and dancing with prayer. My close friends from this county, all travelling abroad report “impossibilities” which simply cawn’t be so they ain’t. And as one friend said: “Never let facts disturb the issues.” They don’t.

As I told you before I think I was the only outsider at the Papa Tara Singh-Nehru reconciliation in India. No American publication accepted my on-the-spot report. It could not be news. I saw Muslims and Sikhs and Hindus embracing. When they fight that is the headline; when they embrace….

Now my friends are gradually getting some of the radio stations and minor groups to accept some solid sound facts. Any effort toward real peace unless it comes from some “prominent” citizen or “important” organization is smothered. That is “realism.”

The “important” magazines say all kinds of things coming from the Palestine commandos. There is no proof one way or the other that they represent any large segment of people. But like the “New Left” they are news. Buslines is always news, bussing never! Never! And I think we shall have enough documentary material plus films to show to the contrary, and I think there are enough people, the “silenced majority” who are sick and tired of only crimes and tragedies being news.

I also just received a book on the Indus River. The author compiled hard, facts, facts, facts, facts, none of them news! It records what teams from the University of Calif. did, accomplished, actualities, but never, never news. If the Russians attempted, it would be news, even headlines. But American accomplishments???????

The book on the Indus (I once wrote, “There ain’t no Industries on the Indus”) has section after section on the Mangla Dam, a most successful accomplishment of a hottest local corporation. Period.

Once the University of California at San Francisco put on a gigantic food conference and a whole morning was put over to the problems of India. I have only lived there and wrote a paper covering a very simple problem which had been presented, and the ways by which these problems could be solved. Most of the solutions can be found in their research accomplishments—not efforts, but accomplishments of the University of California. But “everybody” knows the University of California is an accidental institution near Sather Gate where “real” events take place, especially those started by invaders. We have no time and interest in the classrooms and laboratories, the studios and lounges.

But we want peace more than anything else and the reactions of those persons who were present at the unreported conference at Geneva this year have been marvelous. This is going to give me complete leeway to write an unfortunate book.

I am sending a copy of this to a Marin paper, not with any hopes. All of the active persons in these projects live in one part of Marin or another, save one of my latest secretaries. They are being greeted where politicians and newsmen can’t get in—so naturally that is that.

I am also going to make another effort to reach the Christian Science Monitor. They gave me two hours in conference which is much more than any other paper has ever granted, but did not take a single eye-witness account. I am hoping they well change. In theory they believe “God is good.” I have not seen a single evidence to the contrary but news? It is only things to the contrary that are news.

We will continue to have joint Jewish-Muslim-Christian affairs and some other joint affairs which surely cannot be “news” if these accomplishments are not news.

My third home has now broken out—the Lama Foundation at San Cristobal, New Mexico. It has two pages in the National geographical Magazine and last night was given so many shots on the Tuesday night TV program we could not count it. So many people from Marin County have been there, and are going there. But this is not news. Accomplishments are not news; murder, crime, race-riots, “excitement” only such things are news. Carry on.

Still with love and blessing,

San Francisco Chronicle

September 11, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

Thanks so much for your many thoughtful and thought-provoking letters.

I’m off to Israel for a couple of weeks to get a closer look at the Middle Eastern situation. I’ll be looking forward to reading your letters upon may return. If I return.

Love,

Art

San Francisco Chronicle

September 15, 1970

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Though Mr. Hoppe is away on a newspapermen’s tour of Israel until the end of September, I am sure that he would want me to convey his thanks to you for your kindness in writing. I shall keep your letters for him to read upon his return.

Sincerely,

Patria H.S Basaya

Secretary to A.W. Hoppe

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

September 20, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

I had given you some not-news. The apology in the paper yesterday concerning various projects on the San Francisco Waterfront shows about news, and not-news. It does not depend on what happened; it depends on who wrote it. Well, I once wrote for the Los Angeles Herald and they accepted everything but my apologies for making occasional mistakes. These were never printed.

All over the Orient I was accepted and someday it will astonish the succeeding generations. After all, my best friend, Robert Clifton, lived twenty years in Vietnam and was turned down and turned down until he died from a broken heart. The changes for an eye-witness getting any kind of article printed are about 1 to 100, and I don’t care. “If you can’t lick “em, laugh at yourself.” So I am all ready—my publisher has returned—on my return from the East Coast to blast at everything.

Realism is an anagram on “Ram Lies” and I think our brethren of the “left,” “center” and “right” are united on this point.

I am a spiritual teacher—in the Orient. Goodness knows, not here; not in this city whose papers tell all the wonders of Assouan Dam (I am no authority, I only have lived in Egypt) and never, never about the successful Mangla Dam in Pakistan built by a San Francisco corporation. I ain’t no “experts” here either, I only lived in Pakistan. And I can tell you of my raids of wonders by U.C. graduates abroad, but they interfere with what all Tashkent and Zanzibar and Moldavia is discussing.

So the hard fact that we have been successful in putting on joint Arab-Christian-Israeli parties right here in San Francisco isn’t news. If they tried it in Samarkand it would be front page—here.

And the successes of our team in filming dances and holy places and holy men abroad isn’t news. If the Chinese try it, it will be front page. We have done it, and fortunately the American Society of Eastern Arts has promised to look at it. And we finally got one small radio station to heed it.

But I leave soon. Another peace group visited me. They have seen President Nixon. They are local and so not-news.

There is a paper called “San Francisco” and they want my money. I now have money, but will they accept facts? If they accept facts I might share some money, but the young are with me and for me and gradually the university professors.

Love and blessings,

cc- Herb Caen

Garden of Inayat

910 Railroad Avenue

Novato, California 94947

September 24, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o  S. F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

This letter on the point of departure for a visit to the East Coast where some personalities of social importance are waiting for me.  In the current society this is what matters, but in the scientific world it is facts that matter. Therefore I am a devotee of Lord Snow with his doctrine of two cultures. So far not only has every scientist I have written to on the subject of pollution answered, but not a single non-scientist. And the scientists, that is the men who have had laboratory experience and done research (moi aussi), are very much afraid of the destruction of our culture, not by the evil industrialists, but by the literary men and especially the editors and commentators and ivory towered encyclopedists.

When I was a boy I committed a “sin” for which I have not been exonerated until lately: studied under Cassius Keyser of General Semantics. I had a boss, now famous, i.e. Louise Lurie, who encouraged such studies although he has long since forgotten me and that is my fault, not his. But I learned the rigorous thinking and when I was able to return to college and take up scientific courses the teachers all accepted my prowess, but the important people rejected everything. Amen.

My main gripe is the strange refusal to accept local talent.  Nicol Smith wrote a book on Tibet and took pictures and data. He wanted and was not believed. Then laddy-daddy Lowell Thomas went with whitewash and soon the communists entered Tibet. Any American, and I can name quite a few, who happens to be eye-witness of important events is put on the witness stand as if he were a criminal. I am not going to add to this for it will go into my autobiography for which I shall be paid. I know a lot of us dog-housed Americans, a lot of them, Art.

I have mentioned 33 rejections of my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism, and the most successful interview with Gunnar Jarring. The pessimistic reports on Assouan and the optimistic reports on Mangla Dam, built by San Francisco industrialists, but not-news and I know a lot of not-news. What chance has a mere “peasant” when industrialists are by-passed.

Anyhow we are doing things. Of course I am resented. I have been kissed by oodles of Jewish girls and warmly embraced by oodles of Arabs and at last the Oakland Trib is waking up to hard, substantial facts anathema to the hopelessly divided power-hungry, lonely people, which the world is full.

I am a representative of a very large and historical spiritual brotherhood whose very existence has been denied by a lot of English and European “experts” on Oriental Culture. I have been assured by a number of them I could never understand the Chinese and the Chinese, the impudent saps, say I understand them better than some of them understand themselves. I was a guest of honor at the Imperial Palace in Japan. If a Russian and Chinese had even been invited that would have been world news, and how!

There are no problems, Art, save that the quest for excitement is greater than the quest for facts. nd the refusal of the passing dominant peoples to accept that there is a reality which might be called “Love” but not the “Love” of the common literati, not at all.

The past few days have been spent in “impossibilities” and let it be, such a wonderful joint Israeli and Christian dinner; and a joint Dervish-Yoga dance festival in Golden Gate Park. The passing generation has only two outlooks: (a) that these are impossible; (b) that the people involved are of low caliber.

But that day is over, Art, that day is over. The power-hungry lonely people will give way to a new type of humanity, predicted by H. G. Wells, Bulwer Lytton, Sri Aurobindo, and even a little by Jean Dixon. It is here. And while this is going on we, we have been mostly successful in a number of business and industrial constructive enterprises.

All the dialecticians and literati have not been able to stop us from putting on some of the most successful vegetable gardens, and more is to come. Plants are not poisoned by dialectics and subjectivisms.

Hope you have achieved in Israel. We are doing and succeeding despite all the ignorant, super sophisticated cynics who are so lonely in their hearts.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

September 30, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

Here I am in New York City doing only impossible things, but interrupted by news of the death of Prime Minister Gamil Nasser. I am, of course, quite “incapable” of writing on this subject because I have lived in Egypt, the positively worst position to have been in to be permitted to express full opinions. So the generation gap. The young listen and are listening more and more and more and more, to the little man who has been there and are differing more and more and more and more from the expert who has not. I am awakening on the day when I have potential appointments with an Israeli and an Egyptian. Both are well-known and both have been very cordial toward this person.

The trouble with my eyesight is that when I came to Egypt I saw Alexandria Harbor filed with Spanish ships. This was so utterly fantastic my diary notes are reserved for future generations when they can as well serve for the bases of a future fictional Arabian Nights. The original stories, though stated to have occurred in Baghdad may well have taken place in Cairo, where I have lived and so never been permitted to speak, excepting once, because it did not please the Chairman of the meeting. In a democracy it is most important to have the chairman on your side. But there is a new generation, and they are overwhelmingly enthusiastic for anybody that has not been permitted to express in situ experiences.

Of course I was not interested in Mr. Nasser. I was interested in the efforts and accomplishments of my fellow alumni from the University of California. Oh boy! I live in a land where no matter how great the great accomplish, if they don’t satisfy the Vice-President and the editors who are in conflict with each other, it isn’t news except among the scientists, and who reads their works! Anyhow, with forthcoming appointments with an Israeli and an Egyptian, I had better keep quiet. Besides I have an editor who will pay me.

I have had two “impossible” experiences—grand welcomes from the young and from my disgruntled godson, who is also a sort of anti-Timon from San Francisco. Since news of the great achievements of University of California graduates is now newsworthy, and efforts of the Russians are always news worthy, not being in contact with Communists, I cannot send you news. But I can send you gossip.

To my surprise a government official from Washington came to interview me. I don’t know how he found out about me, but when I asked him, “Why is it that the achievements of certain Americans are never newsworthy and the programs of Communists are always newsworthy, it is impossible to be either loyal or disloyal.” I told him if I had turned traitor, I should now be on the payroll of some big publisher. I had failed. I had never turned traitor and so, both “sides” have always rejected all in situ reports. But I have my diaries, and they are full of excitement and interest and will be published sometime because I now have an editor. Besides, conflicts are so exciting they should be considered, and friendships are often dull as the basis for news.

I am already scheduled to speak at Columbia, so will try to contact also Professor Badeau, who was once our ambassador to the UAR. We have had interviews in the past, and I don’t think he will kick me out. Besides, he knows what graduates of the University of California have done in the Near East, although I do not know whether he is an authority on Russian accomplishments.

Jesus may have said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” but today famous are those who write articles on peace that please important personalities.

Of more importance. My bussing program has progressed and crossed all racial lines. While the country is divided on bussing, I am definitely not divided on bussing. And so far into the night….

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

Wali Ali: I failed to take the name of that group to whom I wrote, whose offices are UN Plaza. I am not visiting that district yet, because Peter has plans for me and also we have to set aside certain times for appointments, etc. Yesterday I was successful in all my Pakistani enterprises, but the other matters did not go ahead due to absences. I knew I would fail to take all my notes, being too tired, but that part of life is gone. Saadia Khawar has been in New York and just missed her “brother” Norman, with whom I spent some time. If you ever run into Mrs. Leonard, please tell her I have seen Norman and he is very well.

October 2, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

In a sense this is the diary of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse). Apparently people here are not all convinced in “liberty, democracy, humanity, and peasants—shut up.” Somehow or other my performance at Geneva has leaked out and apparently God-Allah-Brahm is not against any of his creatures because they have not made social distinctions. So!

I have just returned from an interview With Dean Hovde of Columbia University. We actually accept the great philosophers of Columbia and do not accept Nietzsche, Marx, Heidegger, Existentialists, Dialecticians, and all the European unsettled sexual aberrationalists who are regarded in certain quarters as the great thinkers of the century. In fact, the Dean not only was glad to listen to a “peasant” who admired some of the philosophers who have taught at Columbia, he was even a step ahead in expressing his admiration for some totally passé New England transcendentalists. Not only did we get along handsomely and perfectly, but I found that Professor Joseph Blau, who formally was head of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia, is now a head of the Department of Religious Studies.

It was Blau who proposed a program for me, which was totally successful among Asian Asians, period—end of success. But it is a different age, and my earlier prediction that the real world war was between the professor and the commentator is not only come about, but there are signs of victory. You see, professors are interested in facts, while vice-presidents and commentators are interested in interpretations. The facts don’t have to be substantiated; the interpretations do. And thus the generation gap between those who like facts occasionally as they like food, and those who want to live on idiosyncrasies, idioms, and ideas.

I have already had a few programs and expect to be leading a dance in Central Park Sunday and speak at Columbia University Tuesday. In fact, when I complete this letter, I shall be taking up seriously programs based on facts and knowledge, which may be used by certain institutions toward promoting world peace. I don’t know whether it is New York or more than New York, but the young Arabs and the young Israelis and the young Jews I’ve met here are more interested in eating together than killing each other for the sake of some idiom, ideology, idiosyncrasy, idea, or idiocy. Of course, this is not news, but I have a sneaking idea some publisher may accept some facts before I can see my own publisher. And even President Nixon sometimes assents that truth belongs to the majority, silent or otherwise. And believe me, if he believes in anything, it is in getting the good will of that majority, and so keeping himself at the head of the state, or at the head anyhow. He has the merit of not wanting to die for some ideal called realism, especially when it is fantastic.

I might even dare to approach one of the peace organizations again. I shall not try to see Gunnar Jarring if he is around until I have cleared with some pretty big people whom all San Franciscans reject I could possibly know. Amen.

I am sending a copy of this to Herb Caen, not because I want to try to convince him that pogroms ought to be abolished, but rather that he should become interested in my “What a Diner’s Club Card Can Do To Promote World Peace.” I left San Francisco having paid all such debts and with an open-ended credit which has only been availed of slightly to this point. And even Rosh Hashanah was celebrated in a Caenian fashion. I’ve still Rabbis and Arabs to call on, but some other things to do in the meanwhile. I have been amazed what my colleagues have accomplished here, but am not going to name them.

Next week, some exceedingly powerful interviews coming up, and I certainly cannot get off any worse than in the past. Why, I’m even getting long-distance calls here, and I think the University of California in Berkeley will now be opening its doors more. My appointments Tuesday on the Columbia campus chiefly center around Professor Blau and former ambassador Badeau. Never a dull moment, newsworthy or not. But even the chronicle has published about the joint dinners— Arabs, Israelis and Christians. I must confess, and I hope Herb will agree, that whatever the faults of the Jewish religion may be, Jewish dietetics, nutrition, and gastronomy are so superior to establishment American dietsﾀ??these are never investigated in cancer research—that we may have a new method for peace and understanding—through the stomach instead of through poison gasses outside yourself.

Love and Blessings,

October 3, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

Well, it is coming true, “Timon of San Francisco—in reverse.” There is here a young man named Bob Kaufmann who met me at the international gathering in Geneva and was so impressed he came all the way to San Francisco. Now he is enrolled at Columbia and he has a big meeting in tow for next Tuesday night.

In 1960 much time was spent with one professor, Dr. Joseph Blau, on “How the Philosophies taught at Columbia can help the world.” It was this attitude which was the base of “my” Peace Program which so impressed Gunnar Jarring. (All others gave the boot, in the name of “democracy.”) But it seems that Bob is an in-law of Dean Hovde and we had a double-delightful time. For we have both exactly the same background—no dialectics, no European philosophies or existentialisms and plenty of American-American teachings which are almost totally unknown by the press. I mentioned Blau to him, “My best friend.” Not only that but Blau is back here and I hope to see him Tuesday.

Tuesday I am also to see former Ambassadors Badaeu who used to be in UAR and whom I have met previously. And in the meanwhile the secretary of Gunnar Jarring has written me another “impossible” but true letter saying he does not meet private individuals and then in her hand-writing (not typed) she has put down his room number! Well, Art, despite all the press, “good” people, “peace” organizations, and “experts” I know a few people and will first see Badeau and then go ahead.

I have also contacted Father Haughey, editor of the Jesuit “America” and he is so anxious to see me, and of course, the usual, “impossible” long-distance calls which go can and on. The news is definite. “Timon of San Francisco” has been so unwelcome in his home town and the impressions upon people who listened to me is so friendly it is impossible to reconcile, so that is that. I am to see him Tuesday afternoon.

In the meanwhile I have begun the “peace” groups over again. As soon as the first one found I was not seeking money they reserved. I am working for peace, not funds, but I am not going to share any funds with all the rival “world brotherhoods” and “universal societies” which make mushrooms look like imbeciles. This is no question but that the young want to get rid of war and hate and the press does not seem to understand anything else, only they are divided upon whom to hate.

Late last night I tried to crash into a big mass meeting and was seen surrounded by friends from all over the country. It was miraculous. I have no idea how it came to be, but just missed Alan Ginsberg who says he wants to see me. Someday I hope he will listen to some of my poetry. My rejected poetry is going to be published by friends in the business and I haven’t the slightest doubt about it. It will live.

Sunday I may put on “Dances of Universal Peace” in central Park. Led about a thousand young and young people in G.G. Park before I left. News is that these dances are wanted all over and preparations already on in Boston. Very full program.

Personally I believe there are other choices than before Johnson vs. Reston, or now Agnew vs. the commentators. I believe even in a “democracy” it may be possible (on occasion) to have occasionally some news based on sound facts and not just on the opinions of the elite.

Have a letter from my putative editor who wants my stuff hard facts, from a disciple of the American-American-American author of “Innocents Abroad.” I have my diaries and some day they will be consulted by persons who want some solidity. Now the parade of visitors is coming.

Love,

San Francisco Chronicle

October 6, 1970

Dear S.A.M.:

I can’t tell you how delighted I am by your continued success. Just don’t get so involved in New York that you forget about us back here in San Francisco.

Love,

Art

October 8, 1970

Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California 94119

Dear Art:

The position of Timon of San Francisco in reverse is getting stronger and stronger. The youth everywhere welcome my talks on “Reality vs. Realism.” Every person I have contacted in every department of Columbia University Seems to be in accord.

In the meanwhile, my associates in San Francisco have been successful in getting Israelis and Arabs to dine together, and perhaps more. This is no longer not-news. I understand the Oakland Tribune is now publishing all the details of events, not opinions but events. I hope you realize today, Art, that the generation gap is not between age groups, but between opinion groups and event groups. And we are not going to have peace, and we’re not going to have justice until some such program is enforced.

When I am on the campuses there is nothing but exchange. Elsewhere one has to break down personality reactions, the cause of most of our trouble.

I have been very successful here as elsewhere in promoting “Dances of Universal Peace.” Now even some churches are interested. I am not asking anything from anybody, but I know that future generations will look askance at our strange behaviors, especially with our verbal attachment to the word democracy without any substance.

The newspapers here are filled with pages and columns of political activity, and the ennui is terrific. I have been in New York before during campaigns, and the contrast is so great between the dullness of the day and the interest in the past that one can hardly believe it is the same city.

Love and Blessings,

October 9, 1970

Dear Art:

Just had a long session with an Indian student also working for peace in the Near East. We are interested in Indian students, Indian meals; Pakistani students, Pakistani meals; Spanish meals; Jewish students, Jewish Meals; Arab students, Arab Meals; Grecian meals. Also on Borsht.

The bussing situation is excellent but complicated. Women are asking for equality. What is a more male to do? But instead of giving tit for tat one is giving smack for smack; in other words, lip service?

Any comments? Must go to Boston, then back here and then “on to Washington.”

Love,

October 13, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art,

This is further report on the career of Mr. Timon of San Francisco (in reverse). God help the American who tries to do what the late President Kennedy said—do for his country instead of expecting his country to do for him. But now, at long last, we have a series of interviews coming up, and some publications are actually willing to look at the article which appeared in the Oakland Trib about the efforts of my entourage.

I have just completed a recent biography of King Samuel I, i.e. Mark Twain. Once he was going to write a book that would make Zola’s J’Accuse seem amateurish. Believe me, can do, but whether will do is another matter. If an American citizen happens to be in a place where history (not news, but history) is made, he is put on the third degree. How many times have Communists told me their plans, and how many times have they succeeded because the press and “intelligence” officials simply won’t accept anything from a “peasant.” The whole Vietnam complex began that way, and how many times have I been trapped; but fortunately, I have also lived. And now the young, god bless them, prefer the actual evidence of eyewitnesses to being divided into camps led by Vice-Presidents and ivory-towered newspaper commentators who know everything without going anywhere near the event.

I must repeat here what happened at the University of California at Los Angeles. A book was written on the history of Thailand. I wrote the author that it was an excellent history, but his chapter on problems was entirely wrong—that every one of those problems had been solved, and not only solved, but solved by professor and teams from the various branches of the Multiversity of California. Solid stuff like this can never be news. I had interview after interview with the Hollywood Citizen News; they never accepted one fact, but at least they were willing to interview me, which is something, and something rare (I have only lived in Thailand, which, of course proves my incapacity).

In fact, Art, my name is in the hero’s book, which used to be kept at Fort Mason. The Army, god bless ‘em, would not release me until I signed the hero’s book. They told me they would accept no modesty—that they had the whole history of my life and they could prove it. Actually, Art, I discovered a Japanese settlement along the coast of Mexico, which was unmapped. I was also the bait and the trap which caught the Fascists in San Francisco, etc., etc. Years ago, I was the coauthor of Glory Roads, a book on the reform movements of California. Financially it flopped, but the predications would make any Jean Dixon or Edgar Cayce look like less than amateurs!

Now we are going ahead full tilt with our peace program, and by peace I mean peace and not some oratorical bombast by some very important person. We went all through that at Geneva where the self-important could not present a single sound program, only emotions; and most of the rest of us got along fine with each other and are doing what may bring about a better world, if we mean a world without war and hatred.

I am going to a conference tomorrow, and I notice that even in California, I am sometimes invited. We have danced in Central Park and been filmed again. The pictures will be shown in Rome. Some people have some ideas that human beings can get along with other human beings without some ivory-towered super-important infallible directing them. It is happening all the time, and now we have not only Israelis and Arabs, but some Jews, and there are some Jews who are not Zionists and wish to be friends with both parties. I can assure you, Art, they far outnumber the Vice-presidents and their opponents, the encyclopedic infallible super commentators who know everything about everything whether it happened or not.

I am sending a copy of this to Herb Caen, your colleague, and add that we are having a very good time when we have time, visiting restaurants in New York for which there are few or no parallels in San Francisco. The rest of the time we dine with young who really want a world without war, perhaps without opinion too. Why, I even have the good will of the oil companies, God bless them.

Now the telephone is ringing again and again and again, so we’ve got to sign off.

Love and Blessings,

October 19, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art,

This is a beautiful day and especially appreciated because yesterday was my birthday, and a whole crowd of young people gave me a glorious celebration, flanked by the arrival in this city of a number of my friends from diverse western points.

Saturday one of the radio stations gave me one-hour interview, and I understand that tape will be presented next Sunday. But I understand there is another interview coming up tonight.

In the meanwhile we have called on the Christian Science Monitor, and they are quite willing to at least review our actual accomplishments. There is a tremendous underground feeling for peace, and especially for peace in the Near East. In fact, my pseudo-motto, “Shish kebab for the Israelis and Gefilte Fish for the Arabs” has evoked nothing but laughter and approval. I know how the young feel, but the headlines are that everybody has power excepting God Himself.

Anyhow, tomorrow I have to see Professor Houston Smith of the mighty MIT and then will return to Harvard for a review of a review, and then proceed by stages back to New York City. In the meanwhile, I have met lots of young people here, and I presume being a Californian has the same magical effect on them that being a Hindu has on Californians. I have been compromised: I have missed you and Peanuts, and yesterday found Peanuts in the Sunday paper—thus the compromise.

Although my mail is not forwarded here, enough news gets to me that we shall have a mighty welcome home. In the meanwhile we hope to contact a great many editors, and even the Saturday Review of Literature. The Saturday Review of Literature is yelling and yelping more than anybody else that we cannot get any true news. Guess how many in situ reports of mine they have accepted; or even acknowledged. For a man of wrong profession to be where history is made itself is an element of “ancient history.” And how the young love to hear reports about people who have been where things have happened and their eye-witness reports garbage.

But, Art, I am now a gentleman. I was received by the Bank Americard office here with all esteem not given by the literati. Amen.

Love and Blessings,

October 21, 1970

Cambridge, Mass.

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

We are looking now to complete the visit here which has been full of pleasant surprises. The youth here do not accept the current policies of Excitement, War and Murder which the Vice-President in particular seems to uphold. Nor are they attracted to the opposition to him lead by the superencylopedists who can comment endlessly on rumors and occasionally on facts.

There is, of course, the educational TV station here which is educational, factual, informative, non-political and deals with realities, nor with “realism.” So it has been very easy to approach and attract all sorts of persons and to arise interest in what we are endeavoring.

Yesterday I saw my friend Dr. Huston Smith of MIT. He has been to what I call the Asia of God and Rand McNally. Any resemblance to “News” is often coincidental and to commentaries!!! As there is a growing possibility of an autobiography of “Timon of San Francisco—in reserve,” one is never sure whether one will waste times attacking dishonesty and egotisms or emphasize ways to more knowledge and with it more universal harmonizes.

We arm soldiers and demand. We permit them to commit and then hurl epithets and pass laws against the weak performing same sorts of acts. When murdering strangers is justifiable and smoking innocuous vegetable products is “criminal” we should not be surprised that the young are acting the ways most non-Americans are reacting. The present campaigns against “crime” are like the earlier ones against “sin.” But here one finds persons in the audience far more informed about American- American history than any of the top Ivory-towered superencyclopedists have. It is most comforting.

There is a revolution going on in food habits. And the more the self-righteous urge against psychedelics and “Drugs” and the more the young will turn from meats, alcohol and those poisons which really contribute to “cancer” and other diseases. The young are having less and less “cancer” but the establishments cannot and will not account for it.

Much of the rest of my short stay here may be concerned with horticulture and organic farming. Now the literati are not smothering me out any more. We are being permitted to at least send real news to the C.S. Monitor and city editors are no longer a-priori-ing me, thank God.

Love and blessings,

October 22, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California 94109

Dear Art:

Well, Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) is about ready to leave his paternal ancestral home for points west and south. He is even minded to start an organization: sons and Daughters of Jude the Obscure. This will be in opposition to all those “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity, and Peasants, Shut up!” groups. I have been over whelmed here, especially around Harvard Tessaract. A tesseract is to a cube as a cube is to a Square. In other words, Harvard Square is only one face and facet of the 1970 situation. Why, between the professors and the students and the young who are not students at the great universities, my problem here has not been to get an audience but to escape, and this we hope to do this morning.

The news from San Francisco and elsewhere is amazing, especially to find that one is the director a magnet, which despite Gilbert and Sullivan, is attracting silver churns. I knew it was coming and had the good sense to inform my secretaries and colleagues that if the sum exceeded a certain amount it was to be all for them and not for me. As written before, I am now in possession of the grand American virtue $$$$. And we have so many introductions now that by the time I get to Washington, we may even touch some of the top characters or actors who forefront the dramatis personae of the events of the day.

Why, even tricky Nicky has enough sense not to antagonize new movements which will permit him to occupy his abode without any further landlord interference from anybody, as he likes it that way; he does not always follow the vice-president.

This is a very dull election. There are three parties a) the Agnewites; b) the super-encyclopedists (ivory-towered commentators) c) Mayor Lindsay. In this democracy nobody else counts, thank God. Anyhow, my next report should be from New York City, and I have it on good faith that both the Lowell’s and the Cabot’s now speak to each other and leave it to the others to speak to God, especially the young, God bless them. And the young do.

Faithfully,

27 West 71st St.,

New York, N.Y. c/o L. Less

October 26, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

Sic transit glories “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity and peasant, shut up.” At least two very important persons who under no circumstances would grant interviews nor permit me to speak as a human being have endorsed the efforts of my disciple colleagues in their real peace endeavors. Indeed privately and publicly “my”: Shish-kebab for Israelis and Gefülte Fish for Arabs has won almost universal approval. And my young people report they have discovered a Vietnamese restaurant. This at a time when one receives letters from several parts of the world and especially from Asian-Asians who without exception approve of achievements.

Indeed these achievements have grown so much in stature and success that I may have to return to San Francisco earlier than originally planned. But there is also the hard fact that really big people are certainly open-minded and openhearted. And we may even reach the stage where newsmen, clergymen and humanists may actually listen. All other types do, even top “capitalists.”

It is very early in the morning and after the offices open we shall continue both with contacts and efforts. The universities and the young especially have been responding without “a cough in a carload.” And now a wealthy publisher is after me and it is difficult both to provide him with the materials and reports he wants, and to continue present missions. The future will look askance at the predominant but disappearing habit of deriding eye-witnesses of world events; and acclaiming the opinions of important (usually meaning “self- important’) persons world stirring.

With the financial success of my entourages and the call for my autobiography and writings by a wealthy publishes the time of harvest has arrived.

I was trained in logic and logistics by the friend and mentor of Alfred Korzybski, who stirred up semantic movements. Prof. Cassius Keyser especially drilled me in “The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking” and I have never been forgiven—by non-scientists. But my next scientific venture will not be in the field of “pollution” which itself is polluted by non scientific verbalists whose opinions need not be based on facts at all. And many scientists are truly terrified because of this.

My next scientific venture may be in the field of plant psychology. When I was in the Orient did some searching for “Soma.” I have the advantage-disadvantage over the “experts” in having been a laboratory-flunky and therefore a person of no account. The great Faraday started out exactly the same way but parlor-scientists do not like to be reminded of it. It is too disturbing.

Anyone who is not a clergyman, commentator, humanist, or “expert” can be taught that the Gertrude Stein, “a drug is a drug is a drug” may have no meaning at all. But peasants have not been permitted to criticize the great Gertrude whose noisy followers are not so legion, as that they control the editorials and legislation.

I am looking for a more favorable response from MIT which is not exactly a kindergarten. And I have been helped in prestige no end by Baba Ram Dass—Richard Alpert in presenting Asian-Asian philosophies. Sooner or later my actual contacts, experiences and perhaps “wisdom” will not be brushed aside by the high-and-mighty (self-constituted).

The election is safe for me. Either the V.P. will be put in place or his super-meta-encyclopedic critics, who know everything about everything without the need to study anything, will be rebuked.

The young don’t care and there is little interest in the election—though at the last moment somebody may encourage marching to the polls.

Despite the brush-offs by the “liberty, humanity, democracy and peasants, shut up” people, my own work is already being presented—and with credits, at the University of California and there is every sign it will be appreciated on other campuses, with a lot of red faces among the “peasant, shut up” people who at long last may even go so far as to permit me to present what I really know.

Itinerary uncertain because one cannot foretell the results of appointments on scheduled.

The latest Nobel award went to a man doing research on a subject with which I am well acquainted and which has been discussed in detail at U. C. Riverside; and in principle at U.C., Davis and Ohio State, etc. But who can convince a parlor-scientist! Now one does not have to.

Cheerio,

c/o L. Less

27 W. 71st

New York, N.Y. 10023

October 27, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

Mr. Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) is now scheduled to re-arrive in the city of his birth on Monday, November 9, TWA at 1:38 pm.

One of the reasons for arriving at this decision is to satisfy one of the great TV networks who may now also take pictures of his activities. Yes, it has been most annoying to a lot of groups to have his “Dances of Universal Peace” reach so many young people. It is annoying to so many of the peace organizations to have the joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners and activities attract so many of the young…. If we were honest, it would be only the morticians who would resent this. But it seems we must accept the world as it is, which is not always what we want it to be.

For example, those people who had the non-student invasion—called a campus revolt—at San Francisco State would be surprised to know that the teachings and philosophy of this person are now being offered on the Berkeley campus and elsewhere for credit And I understand those persons on the San Francisco State campus who wish reforms suggested by themselves and not by outside invaders are not backing up all endeavors and activities. Former Ambassador Badeau has no time to see me; he has confirmed that the persons I already know and the plans we already have are worth something. And, if the good people of this country don’t wish to listen, it is not wrong to call on non-Americans provided they are not anti-American. (If I had only once played a little treason, I should have long ago earned the good will of the State Department and a lot of top publishers. But I have remained loyal and am not even ashamed of telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.)

Don’t get any false ideas. I am for Godell in New York.

The thundering, mutterings, and grapevine indicate I shall soon be teaching art forms and techniques drawn from the Asians of Asia and also from the Americans of America and integrating them. The very successes are bad news for all those groups verbalizing integration. As I studied the calculus, I don’t understand the modern uses of the term integration. But I’m always willing to have integrative dinners where the host, guest, companion, or scrounge.

Love and Blessings,

c/o Lonnie Less

27 West 71t St.,

New York, N. Y.

My dear Art:

There is hardly a dull moment here in New York where Mr. Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) is being received. The meeting with Dean Hovde at Columbia University was easy, partly because my local hosts is an in-law and then I found that his best friend was Dr. Joseph Blau who has been transferred from the Department of Philosophy to that of Religious Study.

We started off with a good bawling-out, the usual. It seems that while looking for Dr. Beadae, who used to be an Ambassador, he spotted us first and invited us to his office. Just as we were leaving his secretary came in. She was late but that did not excuse us. Fortunately it was in good spirit and we had completed the interview in the few minutes allotted us. As a man who has lived in UAR is the “worst” person to consult about Nasser, I shall keep mumb.

But we did find that there is an underground to bring Israelis and Arabs together and we may contact that if possible.

Then we went to Dr. Blau who unfortunately has been ill. He reversed all the stands of the various S.F. groups who have considered me as a nuisance. Yes, I am a nuisance but sometimes also an eyes-witness and an “I-witness.” We are now in a position to sow what people of prestige have refused absolutely even to consider. But this is a new day and age and the awkward fact that one has a stream of a priori, and I mean a priori rejections—not just rejections—is making me a hero whether one should be or not. Indeed one spoke at the University last night vindicating the program laid down from Dr. Blau years ago.

It is pretty certain that the philosophy departments of some universities in California are now going to accept that, awkward as it be to conflicting establishments who are too busy lambasting each other to consider objective facts.

I also had a most important engagement in the p.m. with an editor who is entirely in favor of my efforts but cannot stick his neck out and I can. When I return to S.F. shall get out my research notes, rather voluminous, to support programs for peace based on something more than emotions, prestige and telling others what they should do.

I do not see your column which I believe appears in a paper I do not read. In fact too much is going on all the time and this must be for at least a month.

Love and Blessings,

c/o L. Less

27 W. 71 St

N.Y. ,N.Y.

October 28, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

Another exciting chapter in the life of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse). At least one hour was spent this morning with a top representative of the Columbia Broadcasting Company. This man had the astonishing effrontery to accept that sometimes an eyewitness of historical events might be telling the truth, or at least should not be grossly insulted because he did not agree with the “revelations” of the great god UP-AP. He actually took with him some documents which covered historical events which just can’t be news, they just can’t be news. For example, (f’rinstance) a leading city editor of a leading Eastern newspaper said the public was not a bit interested in any effort to bring hostile groups together, either the Arab and Israelis or any hostile groups. She insisted that the minds of Americans ware so intent on the “exciting” election that is about to take place, that they had no time for anything else. (I am stupid enough to believe more Americans are interested in football than in the elections.)

In fact, yesterday we spent a lot of time with an editor who is devoting all his efforts to try to stop Israelis and Arabs from hating each other. He is, of course, totally unqualified, being an Iraqi by birth and having lived much in America and Israel (no qualifications).

Anyhow, I am taking full advantage of the generation gap—no, the generation gap is taking full advantage of me. The silenced majority now accepts everything I say without trying to confirm the facts. The TV representative was appalled and astounded that every statement I made on every subject was backed by some fact and some personality and some other evidence (you know general semantics: peasants must have references). Anyhow he walked off with some of our material and said it would be worth some time and effort to look them up, not to confirm Timon but to get other real news of the real world where they are barred by realists.

In any event, it would appear that cameras, sound equipment, etcetera, are being given instruction to welcome Timon of San Francisco (in reverse). The chief obstacle is that a rival TV network may also be doing the same thing. Awful, isn’t it?

Of course, when they look up my diaries and see a multitude of letters to one San Francisco Chronicle, the existence of which might be aware to you, that none of them were ever published, this objective evidence…. I doubt if I will even have it published in my autobiography, but I won’t be able to stop the coming generations from looking up my notes and confirming it. I guess it was the wrong person. But I don’t mind it. Look at the other wrong persons; I can name them, including some ex-ambassadors. No wonder at least one ex-ambassador is firmly ensconced on my bandwagon. Of course, man bites dog isn’t news; of course dog bites man isn’t news; of course dog kissing cat can’t be news even if it happens. This is against the truths of biology, which has the same relation to scientific biology as popular “pollution” has to actual pollution.

I think I’ll start a new religion in defiance of the great god UP-AP. It will worship witnesses Jehovah.

As long as I am giving you some impossibilities, let me tell you my next venture is to encourage and confirm a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who tried to get 15 students to sign up for a course studying what I am doing and giving the world. He did not invite 15 off-campus celebrities to stage a riot and get world coverage. He just wanted 15 students. He has a mob. I had to tell them that some of the top people at the University of California have been among my best friends. They even give me interviews. They even accept some of my facts. Wrong number, maybe.

To tell you the truth, Art, I am in a fix. I have always been a lover of Shakespeare. I have wished to be Puck or Prospero or King Lear, but Timon? Well, there you have it in reverse, it’s coming true. There will be huge welcoming parties, unattended, of course, by all those proud advocates of “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity, and Peasants, Shut Up:

Love and Blessings,

c/o Lonnie Less

27 West 71 Street

New York, N.Y. 10023

October 30, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

The people accused of heresy have declared the district attorney guilty. Or something like that. Look at the next episode in the horrendous life of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse):

Tomorrow we are scheduled to meet a top AP editor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why, he may even listen to the report of my long session once upon a time with Gunnar Jarring. Well, Art, my materiel has been given to one of the Ambassadors whom I have met previously (of course); not news, always not news? And the situation is getting so….

I understand my associates put on a successful joint Israeli-Christian-Arab affair at the First Unitarian Church. I guess we are on our way. Why, I have even had editors and reporters listen to my “exploits” in actual Asia. This may deflate the importance of my forthcoming biography or auto-biography. I might even suggest that crime might be lessened if witnesses were allowed to testify. This jest ain’t done in international affairs. I am further going to corroborate this when I get to Washington.

Maybe someday in San Francisco I can get a “peace” organization or a church or some humanists or some groups interested in international affairs to at least give me an interview. I have been 0% successful in this. Now, of all people, the press and fourth estates are accepting the fact, the very hard substantial fact, that I was a guest of honor at the Imperial Palace in Japan where they have never invited our Vice-President—you can name the Vice-Presidents.

Why, in the grandiose war between the V.P. and the super-encyclopedists, perhaps someday, inshallah, a common man may be allowed to say something. Even Franco permits that.

Guess I am too high to add very much more. But did get into a tiff with a Rabbi last night who never heard of Governor Saltonstall (later Senator) who threatened to put himself in jail if there were anymore anti-Jewish riots. Hard facts like these smustn’t in public debates. I guess I am the smustn’ter of the smust’ntest.

Alas! Hollywood ending. The Rabbi apologized to me. His friends apologized to me. Everybody apologized to me. That is in New York. Maybe this can happen in San Francisco; let us hope.

Love and Blessings,

27 West 71st St.,

New York, N.Y.

November 1, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle,

San Francisco CA 94109

Dear Art:

The utterly impossible has occurred. It probably had to sooner or later. Three hours with an A.P. representative. This was much harder to obtain than meeting with Prime Ministers and Presidents of foreign lands which all “good people” know could not have happened, but did, not often but quiet actually.

He accepted at once my three greatest claims to fames:

a. Free dinner from Armentians

b 33 (thirty three) rejections of my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism

c. First simple citizen to have had invitation as guest of honor to the Imperial Gardens in                              Tokyo.

He then said, “I bet that happened in other lands.” Of course, it did—not news, smustn’t be news, wrong person!

Once I was a pal of Hon. Sam Yorty. I lived in Los Angeles and the way they stopped “crime” was to throttle and finally murder eye-witnesses. The relatives of the eye-witnesses objected. The crimes were forgotten while everybody was aroused by the disturbances to the eye-witnesses.

That is the American foreign policy. We both agreed on that. We have even been in the same lands and our observations and conclusions were identical. After all I have been a laboratory flunky, the worst background to be heard on Silent Spring, “pollution,” etc. But the disciplines caused one to observe scientifical1y after I had been, and professionally, a political reporter. To combine these two outlooks was “impossible” and on this the religionists, humanists, literati and “experts” have agreed. But now the young are for me, not because of any knowledge or experience, but simply because of the rejections by all the elites who measure everybody by where they think one would have to sit in the French parliament of 1790.

It was delightful to sit with somebody who was concerned with objectivity, with facts, with events. We are all concerned with “interpretations.” The “interpretations” are so important that the facts are outshadowed, just as in Los Angeles the fate of the witnesses overshadowed the crimes which were supposed to have been committed.

The hard but most pleasant thing was to have an A.P. representative accept one’s backgrounds, one’s facts and never, never go into tirades over one’s character or lack of it or one’s unfitness to have been a reliable witness by being where one should not have bee. And he accepted all my real reports on real experiences with real flesh-and-blood communists in foreign places not visited by Vice-Presidents or their metasuperenclopedic butts. In fact his own experiences and those of his colleagues, he said, were very much like my own and the only differences has been that I have been “a priori rejected” by the good people, while he has been paid to collect data and pay no attention to how it is used (or misused) afterward.

What was more awkward-delightful was that we had the same outlooks in politics and our acceptance of American-American philosophers and philosophies untrammeled by the overtouted existentialists, dialecticians and subjective European outlooks euphemistically called “realisms.” We both see an underground hope in the resurrection of objective outlooks as possibility saving the world, although there may be very little opportunity regardless of the election results until we can accept the outlooks of a Burns or Whitman with regard to humanity.

It was so wonderful to have complete confirmations, although this has been true on university campuses.

It has made it an open matter that one can now write and criticize all those super-subjective groups who call themselves “realists.” They all, differing violently, accept “all the news that is fit to print” but differ on what the word fit means, connotes or implies.

Wednesday I go to Washington for a short visit and may call on a Senator or twos—it depends on the election results. Also on Howard University and may also cover Penn and Princeton “Ivy” universities, which of course is “impossible” to the good people. But Timon-of-San Francisco (in reverse) is quite willing to forgive. Why the other night I deliberately insulted a Rabbi and then he apologized. I have had a lot of that this year from clerics. Their continued adherence to subjective falsehoods make peace and understanding most difficult. But “some of my best friends are clergymen.”

There is every possibility—nay probability, that there will be some follow-up here. My Present secretary will remain in New York and the East Coast) for a while and follow up.

In the meanwhile my own philosophies and dances are being presented at the University of California, Berkeley, for credit, and the classes overfilled despite no effort at a dramatic scene or invasion by outsiders. If one can get 15 paid persons it is easy. We did and how! And the rest of the things on the U.C. campus, beautiful, factual, objective and some may just become news. Who can tell?

Love,

P.S. Smuttish literature must be abolished. It is competing with the theatres. You can buy the books cheap but it costs to see for yourself. Ah! Unwilderness!

November 4, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

You will get some of my views and news in the carbon of letter sent to Phil Burton.

Actually, there are a lot of things going on in the life of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse). Tonight we visit a leading research scientist at his own request. He is now specializing in the field of plant psychology without abandoning his profession as a polygraph operator. And he is far more advanced in the philosophies and psychologies of Asian Asians than almost any European or “expert” I have met.

Sometimes I think I may also be Socrates in reverse, but the question is whether I have been successful in “misleading” the youth or they been successful in misleading me. I consider it absolutely horrible to declare it criminal for partaking of some of the substances of nature while the newspaper pages are crammed with huge advertisements of pornographic and sexual aberrational dramas which display their unnatural outlooks in the theaters. (It is, of course, illegal to print this stuff in cheap magazines.) It is quite legal and proper only if it involves large sums of money. Believe me, the youth have nothing to do with all this.

I am going to take up seriously with the scientist I shall be meeting the psychic effects of indulging in certain mutual activities with the plant world. Criminal, no doubt, but very “exciting,” and being exciting this automatically makes it legal and proper.

Cordially,

November 5, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, California

Dear Art:

“The tumult and the shouting dies.”

“The captains and the kings depart” and also Sam Lewis prepared to return. Overlooked was the election of God, easily won by Mr. Reston who had no hand in counting the votes over dispirited Agnew. Mr. Agnew forgot that educated people are allowed to vote, and I’m happy to learn that the people in California have also elected an educated man to be in charge of their schools. What will happen I don’t know, but Mr. Reston has been very modest.

The trouble is that most commentators have never studied real mathematics. In real mathematics negatives are as important as positives, but the pollsters and machines don’t think so. So in this democracy only the positives are counted. This is not true, of course, in “democracies” like China and Russia and Spain. Any vote is a plus.

I see Mr. Nixon agrees with me on the mathematics, but with all his being right, he has no control over the tallies in the House or Senate or State Legislatures. Maybe he will atone by coming out for recognition of China.

I see the UN does not like a nation which subsists on headaches, headache remedies (which mustn’t be called drugs in this country), and plants that have special psychic values. I am guilty of super-treason (Jane Fonda, please take notice) because last night I spent some with a polygraph operator who is applying his knowledge to plant physiology and is learning some illegal things from the plants themselves. It just happens to be because of the profession as polygraph operator he has the F.B.I. on his side. In fact, he has worked for them. I haven’t consulted either God-Agnew or God-Reston on this point.

It is a little ticklish to go into it, but we found according to his machines that the plants themselves are ticklish, and they let you know although their howls are silent (I have no doubt this is all against “science,” but scientists don’t think so.

Apparently also the majority in the UN don’t accept the American definition— if you want to call it that—of “crime.” The backward nations seem to believe that crime consists of muggings, murdering. maiming, and attacks on persons. They don’t even like our theaters filled with pornography and perversion.

The young are not concerned, but I believe some of them are going to take over the country. They have already notified the barbers, the costumiers, and next the morticians. Don’t invest in these, you will lose out.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

November 10, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Calif. 94119

Dear Art:

Well Timon of San Francisco has returned, in reserve of course and the house was packed. Nobody was invited and the parapsychological grape-vine was overworked. In fact we have to look for a hall or auditorium. Think of it, a time is coming when an every growing member of people, especially the young, have the confounded impertinence and audacity to accept the little man who has been there over the big man who has not. Why in New York I even insulted a “gentleman of the cloth” publicity and his claque were furious. They attacked me one by one but they were themselves guests and forgot that. I had the hosts with me (in both senses) and the “gentleman of the cloth” apologized to Timon-in-reverse. “That can’t happen here” but we may expect more and more of it.

There were also a scattering of laboratory flunkies who believe humanity is aided by careful research work and come out for “rigor” and not for “logic.” You see in “rigor” it is what you know and have done and are doing; in “logic” it is who you are. True, an upstart friend of house-traders and pig-breeders upset “science” and the good people in the days of Queen Vickie. Then a French charwoman and janitress discovered radio-activity. This is very upsetting and “we” are trying to so it doesn’t happen again and it is always happening.

I won’t have to write on “pollution.” The present issue of Fortune magazine has an article in which the writer takes each specific case of poisoning, shows what causes it and how it can be corrected. He did not refer to a single “expert” or literature man who obtains his livelihood by writing on these subjects, such as pollution, ecology, environment, etc. There’s good money in it and once you reasons of the elite and “an expert” you get lots of lecture appointments. Don’t you realize, Art, when serious people face serious problems these will be solved. So I won’t have to go through any more being rejected by the “experts” and editors and “elite” on this subject.

What is more, the young believe me and so do the laboratory scientists. But apparently a lot of laboratory scientists are going to flock here. I had quite some experiences in New York too where technicians with proper apperati were discovering all kinds of things which will dissatisfy the “experts” and parlor-scientists. It is quite a career and I have at least two appointments this p.m.—lab-flunkies not parlor-scientists.

Well my dance work is expanding. My writings are in demand. Some wealthy editor wants everything from me especially what the good” people and especially the “good” people have a priori rejected, ho hum!

And this morning we go off on the Near East complex. I fact had to leave New York. There they reversed “Timon.” He was so welcome, he was greeted with consideration and when he had sound, solid facts, friendships were established. “It can’t happen here” applies only to one’s home town. Especially when one is not of the “good” and “elite” and “experts.’

More and more and more of the same from “Timon of San Francisco-in reverse.”

Love and blessings,

November 18, 1970

Dear Art,

I am seriously thinking of opposing lowering the voting, age. The Chronicle has interviewed a number of young children and asked if they were satisfied the way their parents were raising them and they unanimously replied they were satisfied and even more than satisfied. As their answers are so exceedingly opposite to the Gallup Polls amongst sociologist and psychologists you can see how dangerous it would be to give them the vote.

While I am in this negative mood I am wondering where you got the prerogative to criticize the President. Isn’t that for the President’s wife? Look at Dolly Madison! Look at Eleanor Roosevelt (I don’t mind this in the least). Their pictures at least in the art galleries. Thomas Jefferson believed that a President who wasn’t worth being criticized wasn’t worth being a President. I am glad you agree that the man who did more to establish the United States of America than anybody else.

I am having such a hard time getting young folks away from LSD by method’s which are so supremely unorthodox that they can’t be published. The very fact that they are always rejected has caused an editor who has the great American virtues ($$$$$$) to send for me and I think I will accept his bribe. We have more fun without psychedelics while the rest of the world is divided between fun, cum-psychedelics, and no fun and no psychedelics.

There is going to be a big bazaar held for me in Sausalito on December 20 and then I’m going to put on my own Christmas show there on the 23rd. We are having New Age dances and at the same time using the Bible via Handel to supreme edification. (You might look up edification in the dictionary, of course.)

I have so many dancing classes and the rest of the time interviewing young people and finding life cheerful and prosperous by legal methods which are verboten … if they were illegal I should be famous. If they didn’t work I would be exposed and thus infamous. You can see why I no longer watch any humor shows on TV. I won’t reveal my secrets because so homespun and ordinary that “everybody” knows them but nobody else does them. Why I’m even converting some of my old enemies by out-laughing them.

Love and Blessings,

Nov. 22, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, Ca.

Dear Art,

I am very up-set this morning. I am not upset at all; I am up-set.

When a magazine dares to intrude, to publish articles which may actually solve problems, treason, mayhem, murder become small potatoes. What the heck are we gonna do when only scientific persons, which nobody reads, may theologically and loyally solve problems and thus destroy the two monuments of present day culture: headaches and excitement. Why you can even be exempted from pledging allegiance to the flag, let alone the Bible, but to solve problems!!!!!!!!!

In Fortune for November there is an article “New Ways to More Power with Less Politician” by Lawrence Leasing. The writer had dared in the face of civilization, culture, and excitement to list problems and show how they can be solved. I give up. Every paper I have written on pollution and sent to a scientist has been acknowledged; every one sent to a non-scientist has been wastebasketed, and presumably burned, adding to smoke and smog.

Some time ago I saw a picture on Lake Erie and “everybody was blamed.” A simple peasant like myself who unfortunately studied logic under several professors at Columbia University did not have a chance. He could only shut-up. “Everybody was to blame.” Of course the next day when be opened his mail he found a copy of Science which told all about mercury pollution.

I remember the time when at a discussion on Silent Spring I had the effrontery, the damnable audacity to rise and say, “As a retired professional spray-operator with a background in organic chemistry….” The panel of “experts” in sociology, medicine, law, nursing, and politics turned their chairs around in public and refused to answer my question. What right had I to interfere in the discussions of the cultured?

I may have been a professional spray-operator with a knowledge of organic chemistry, and if in this land of liberty, democracy, humanity, and peasant shut-up I could not even ask a question, what right have I to say I have lived in cities where smog has been cleared up? No doubt this is true, and I may have been a professional spray-operator with a knowledge of organic chemistry, but this of itself shows I was not a factory worker or industrial producer, or anything of the kind.

Every time a bunch of drunkards get into motor car accidents, Nader and company descend on Detroit and we are now remaining bumper to bumper in bumps, where you gotta pass laws. I upset people at Christian Science Monitor by telling them I did not know of a single problem which has not been solved. And maybe someday some people who are attacking our Universities may be willing to read Fortune and accept some sound facts and splendid logic. That is why I am up-set. Think, Art, there may even be a civilization without smog, smoke, and smut, and with slightly less excitement permitting the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.

Cordially,

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

November 27, 1970

Dear Art:

Written at Novato where we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner to welcome home Timon of San Francisco (in reverse).

The Vietnamese Buddhists, proud of the 33 rejections of my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism, have asked me to join them. And my putative editor-publisher gave a long-distance telephonic conversation accepting everything I have done, especially when rejected by the “good” people who know next to everything on next to everything.

Then my closest relatives have prepared a home coming party, the first time in my life anything like that has ever happened.

And on December 20 there is to be a bazaar in Sausalito for the benefit of myself and colleagues. In the meanwhile my god-son reports entire success in fund-raising for real cultural exchange with real Asians and for the promotion of “Dances of Universal Peace.” A close friend of Ruth St. Denis was here to dinner last night and her outlook is so different from that of the “important” people who know next to everything on next to nothing.

The University of California has now scheduled two big meetings for me and other things are going on and on.

The editor-publisher also wants some sort of autobiography. And it has been reported that my leading a thousand young people in dances in G.G. Park has been televised. And now some of the leaders of “Liberty, Democracy, Humanity” and peasants, shut up seeing the size of my audiences and income are willing to accept that may be, just maybe I may know something about something.

I am too full of joy—and food—to write more.

Enjoying your reports but eogcentrifically enjoy my own more.

Love,

December

My dear Art:

I ain’t no Jean Dixon and my prediction of having a “Timon of San Francisco—in reverse” return had to run into some hard, solid faces. It was raining terrifically. The students were cramming for the finals, i.e. all those not busy on Nob Hill, and so what did you expect?

Well, Art, for all this and all that, the hall was packed to the gills. I don’t know how and don’t care why. These misled students have the curious idea that the little man who has been there may just know a few things that the “experts” who have not do not know. And when I got down to very, very real personal experiences which just cawn’t be, I am either a very clever Baron Munchausen or have showed up at a time and in an age where some people want some real honest facts, just occasionally, to see what it is like.

Anyhow I have to go back next week. And the professor who introduced me is so optimistic. Just think a man who really knows what he is talking about is more admired by students that the great superencylopedists who worship the great god UPAP whose very high priests denounce, but the “dear public”—it just cawn’t be otherwise.

There was almost unanimous agreement that problems can’t be solved by murdering the “guilty.” And I came away rather well off without trying to pull authority. True the heads of the U.C. Alumni Association are among my best friends. They know I know what U.C. graduates are doing, have done, but this is not news and mustn’t interfere with Seaborg anyhow.

In the meanwhile the efforts to get the pictures which began with my Dances of Universal Peace are mounting and mounting. A lot of silly people are beginning to announce that their mission in life is to support me financially because, because, because and their “becauses” sometimes have more rationale than the “liberty, democracy, humanity and peasants, shut up.” The kids are all for “peasants, shut up.” If only I had been permitted to speak before being bawled out. But this is a new age. The young don’t think differently, They Think, which is worse.

Every now and then I meet a friend of the publisher who wants all my anecdotes. After all my three claims to fame are having been a guest of honor at the Imperial Garden in Tokyo; having had a free dinner from a Armenians; and having had my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism rejected 33 times!

I am optimistic enough to believe that in the end reality will triumph over “realism.” I confessed my faults: I did not believe in dialectics and haven’t studied sociology. To my amazement they liked that.

Love,

Dec. 4, 1970

Dear Art Hoppe,

In re me-moires.

This is to attest I am still reading your column with enjoyment plus. I really have no comment and therefore will make a long report.

When I was over at the University of California Tuesday night and the rain was terrific and the finals were approaching and all the reporters were up on Nob Hill watching the hall where I spoke was packed. Some of them were interested in what I had to say but all of them were interested in my me-moires. After all, don’t I have three claims to fame: a free dinner from the Armenians; having been a guest of honor at the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo; and 33 rejections of my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism?

There is a new generation which actually believes the Baron and would accept a positive answer to “Was you dere Cholly?” But the devotees of the great god UPAP do not have to have been there; it is unimportant; what is important is not what happened but the meaning of what happened. This was called “realism.”

Anyhow I told a lot of tales, actual experiences with names, data, places, and all the requirements of scientific reporting, but of course not part of “realism.” If anything happened, and it has not concrete meaning, it must be treated as if it didn’t happen. And if anything didn’t happen and the report has meaning and “realism” then it must be told.

But somewhere or other along the line wires got crossed. Mors and more people are beginning to accept that the little man who was there actually there and knows all about the people involved even though he is not able to interpret the meanings thereof should be taken into account. And he must be especially taken into account if his reports are interesting or thrilling. So that is what we did, and the students invited me back next week though I told them I didn’t know anything about sociology or dialectics. But they liked my me-moires, especially these based on facts.

Although I am not a great bridge player, plans to produce some peace in the worlds of God and Rand-McNally are making some headway. A very close friend of Golda Meir is new in California and she wants to meet either me or my representatives who are now busy with the program derived from my own research efforts, to bring peace in the near East. This is not “realistic” of course, but it is reality-ism, and therefore not-news.

So I am sending a copy of this to Herb Caen, and when, as and if we most the lady who is not only a friend of Golda Meir but of Ben Gurion we shall let him know.

In the meanwhile, shish kabobs for the Israelis and gefülte fish for the Arabs, and good will for everybody.

Love and Blessings,

Sam

December 5, 1970

Mr. Arthur Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco 94119

Dear Art:

The return of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) will be officially celebrated at the Art & Garden Center in Sausalito on December 20^th. I do not know the details. I am being kept (and rightly) in the dark. I shall have to make a speech and show the “Dances of Universal Peace” which nearly all the “good” people disdain but to which the young are coming more and more and more. Indeed we are sending a delegate to the chief friend of the late Ruth St. Denis to tell what we are doing—realities, not “realism.”

Why even the local press welcomed my representatives, Sometimes “excitement” gets boring and they welcome a change. And then again, it is most interesting after all the “good” and “nice” people a priori refused to let me speak on the Near East, Gunnar Jarring and his associates listened so attentively and admired it, and me. This is so contrary to the “good” and “liberal” and “tolerant’. They know all about me and that is enough.

Last week my family welcomed me back after I had been kicked out so many times. The younger generations found their elders entirely wrong. And then I learned my cousin had been a high-priestess of the great god UP-AP and she knows what I know and what the UP-APians know but there is no use telling the public because the public just wants “excitement,” not truth.

(I am quite unfit to speak on East Pakistan because I have lived there, but that applies to a lot of other places and subjects and I do not stand alone. The revolution is coming for the young prefer to listen to those who have been there than to the oratory of the important people why have not. This covers many things. And when we get out of “realism” into reality, a lot of problems are going to be solved.

A friend told me he has been asked to address the A.M.A and expects to be kicked out. He comes from a land ware cancer is almost entirely absent but the methods are more obnoxious than the disease. Let’s have the disease and a billion or so “research” and everybody will be happy excepting the diseased.

Anyhow I am kept busy all the time by the young, more and more and I hope you can come to Sausalito on the 20^th. The press will be admitted free.

Love,

Dec. 6, 1970

Dear Art,

Reading your editorial this morning, let me advise I have no cause for alarm. I get up so early in the morning that an alarm would be superfluous. Beside we have nothing but electrical clocks in this house. People who have cause for alarm must be reactionaries.

Progress for the reception of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse) continues unabated. We know we are going to get a lot of folks, but the purpose is to raise the virtuous standing (dollars, of course).

I have it on good evidence that Mr. Nixon sleeps in a room full of mirrors. Every morning he gets up and holds a council, and is amazed at the unanimity of opinion. Therefore he was indeed shocked when a schoolgirl attempted a minority report. There are no minorities in this palace of mirrors where every view is possible. He himself does not understand why there is so much agreement, but the evidence is that there is.

It is only a rumor, but it may be true: As long as we are passing laws against the misuse of words, such as smut and pornography, why not go all the way and stop “inflation’. I am sure without “inflation” everybody will be happy except the grumblers and editors, but after all, don’t grumblers and editors make up the real majority? Here, even I am on their side.

Don’t get any wrong ideas that I am always on the opposition side. Hail the memory of Huey Long! Hail the victory of Louisiana State! I feel very good about that.

Love,

December 8, 1970

Art Hoppe

c/o S. F. Chronicle

Dear Art:

I am amazed that you have not learned yet that a problem is a complexity which can only be solved by the “right people.” If you can’t find the “right people” you have to abolish the problem.

I am a great authority on “flation.” I don’t know what it means so I am an authority. We have had several kinds of “flation” such as “de,” “in,” “re,” etc. They keep on bothering us. Sometimes they are forbidden words.

Ever since the late Irving Fisher got kicked out of Senate hearings I have stayed away. He was the “wrong” man. We preferred a depression, even a holocaust. Now when I mention his name he becomes a hero. After all, liberty, democracy and humanity are only for the chosen few, aren’t they? Or maybe it is different now.

No we have “pollution.” I was re-invited last Sunday to my old family home. I was kicked out of it steen times. Every time my brother broke the law I was expelled. That was “justice.” Now I am back. My cousins are anti-establishment. And I went there and found everybody thought everybody else “establishment” and nobody was!

So I said that the waste products of one industry were the needed resources of another and before it was finished I was a hero. Nobody attacked my character—the usual in the past. They all accepted the idea. So I am “in” and maybe may do something about. After all I am ready to go into the compost business but am too busy for the nonce. Nothing but programs.

The misled young have the strange idea that a men who has lived with Asians and studied with them may sometimes, occasionally, know as much as the “great” expert who didn’t have to. And I do tell people I am disqualified to write on Zen. If I had been a lecher or a drunkard or immoral I could write such a book. I am not against lechers and drunkards and immoral men but none of the “good” people want to hear me speak on the Asian philosophies of Asians who do not think a la Hegel or Aristotle. When one does not think a la Hegel or Aristotle he is told, by the good people of course, that he does not how to think. The Asian-Asians, who of course are not “experts” on Asia, differ and we are having a delightful time.

In fact I have so many delightful times, including two conferences today at the University of California (how did I get in there?) that I cannot detail my program. I cannot even finish the letter. And of course, I am totally disqualified to offer any solution for “pollution.”

Love,

9 December 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o S.F. Chronicle

San Francisco, 94119

Dear Art:

I am the most unqualified person to comment on the Pakistani election. I only lived in both wings—which is the worst starting point. I only spoke to the multitudes—which was worse. The communists, the real ones, followed me around. I was dangerous. Once an American came to some of my lectures, a paid schoolteacher. When I told the Embassy that the commies were following me they laughed. That is the way the foreign office treats citizens.

I was a guest of the “Guided Democracy.” Went to Santa Barbara to the institute for Democracy—and “peasants shut up” for which they garner thousands of $hekel$, ye goode American way. Nobody wants information from the “wrong” person. Why I have even visited the village of Khaki in East Pakistan from which we get an American word.

Now I am becoming famous. Three grand meetings on the Berkeley campus yesterday. Those strange professors actually believe that a citizen who has been there can sometimes know a little about strange places abroad. But the State Department and press will have nothing of it, or him. Anyhow I am on my way, next month, to a publisher who wants my stuff. And don’t think I am the only one in this boat. We would rather have wars and population control (via the military) of strange people. Once I arose in a public meeting on Pakistan and said, “I have lived in the place discussed and would like ….“ “Sit down. Nobody asked you to speak.” I can tell you where and how and when. But the young and the universities will have no more of that.

Well, bye-bye black bird and SEATO and CENTO. I have been on the inside, actually, really, but this ain’t part of “realism.” Too busy now working for peace in the Near East and rather successfully. But “we” don’t want peace. We’ll probably lose Jordan but never, never, the democratic system of never listening to little people who have been there. This mustn’t. And the Chinese are willing to let Muslims lecture on Islam in their land and we are not!! After all, Art, there are only three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Fanaticism.

I am feeling fine and know there are millions of young Americans, having studied the sciences more than dialectics, who respond to facts and information and not to dialectic ideas from ivory towers. But we are too concerned with the poor victims of the holocausts to bother with opining. We leave that to the experts.

Love,

Samuel L. Lewis

Cc Cranston

Cc Burton

December 18, 1970

Dear Art,

I take an oath that I am in no sense an undercover agent, or anything like that, and I am not having you investigated.

Au contraire I am having as investigated. My birth records were lost, which is of course, unforgivable. My bills are being paid, which is also unforgivable. I have been a lot of places and done a lot of things which were actually far out in the awkward sense that the term “far out” used to mean in the English language before contemporary Americanese was discovered or uncovered.

Most of my life has been spent in Marin County or San Francisco. I am now under contract with a publisher who wants to print my biography because whatever my achievements—and believe me I have had them, the local press is too busy telling what the people are doing in super-Kanhangad or Okley Jokley Fokley, wherever that is, to record the unusual, especially when it comes from one of your neighbors (the two greatest tragedies resulting from the absolute refusal of the press and foreign office to accept eyewitness reports from persons I knew very well right in this vicinity).

It is wonderful. It is delightful. It is very truly? American. Anyhow, some of my young enterprising associates got a picture and article in the Chronicle and one of the Marin County newspapers has actually put my picture in it, not because I have written them, not because I have lived in Marin, but just because they found they were being left out.

Anyhow, I am going to stand or fall Sunday, and thus learn whether I have something solid in me or have been assuming and over-evaluating. I feel just like a football manager before a big game in which others are doing the playing.

Jack Anderson quotes from former President Kennedy, “It is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Oh boy—!

Well, I am absolutely anti-administration and establishment. I believe in extending good-will to men, and not expecting it from them.

Love and Blessings,

Dec. 21, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

c/o San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco, Ca. 94119

My dear Art,

I wish to thank you for your wonderful Christmas greeting. Ordinarily there would either be no answer or a reply out of courtesy—ordinarily. But there is one thing you will not find in my life and that is the ordinary—maybe the ornery but not the ordinary.

My friends and disciples put on a Dervish Bazaar in Sausalito. Despite the seemingly inclement weather the place was packed. Socially and financially it was such a success we have been asked to put on Bazaars seasonally, and we may well do this. I can say that I really believe the world is coming out of realism into reality, and I have no more fear about this country (it is not so long since God refused to destroy California when a lot of so-called seers said it was coming). Seers are not always correct, although they may often be famous—no connection.

We originally planned the Bazaar to help promote a peace program which I think I have sent you. Many serious people are also looking at it seriously, as I have long said vide Clemenceau, “War and peace are two things too serious to entrust to diplomats and generals.” Anyhow, my colleague, who has been in New York, will be leaving shortly for Israel, and while without expressing undue optimism, we do not believe that the majority of mankind wants wars merely to preserve some questionable status quo. For one thing, youth will not accept the hogwashes of their seniors who seem to assume that delightful phrases can solve real problems which endanger human welfare.

We are putting on a number of Dances and Pageants in commemoration of an upstart Yid, who refused to conform, and paid the penalty. We are even going to use his words, his words, not theological commentaries which have been substituted there for. We have seen no particular good in these substitutions, and now find the great majority of young people and a lot of, perhaps the majority of, the actual students and professors of the actual educational institutions of this land agree with this.

My first speech was to the point and follows what I used to write to you: “Kill them all, the Lord will know his own.” I do not believe any American has the right to protest against the misbehaviors of others concerning Vietnam until he himself has expressed his actual interest in the actual humanity that inhabits that most unfortunate land. I publicly attacked my protests on the part of anybody who has never listened to any Vietnamese himself. I hope you get the point.

Peace on earth with good will to man, not from them.

Love and Blessings,

Dec. 25, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Saw Francisco, Calif.

Dear Art:

The Unsad Story of the Return of Timon of San Francisco (In Reverse)

Now we can release the whole thing, excepting of course for the psychics and sears who never accept real predictions which come out exactly, when they are from the wrong persons.

The preview came last week. While my chief secretary was pushing my program he was approached by Generalissimo of Semantics. Semantics is supposed to be an art and science which carries logic to its logical conclusions. According to the late Alfred Korzybski it should be super-logic, always demonstrable, and always having facts behind it. But the Generalissimo has improved even that.

The Generalissimo has a remarkable record of deflating and exposing all “pretenders,” and of course I am in the top rank of those. When my chief secretary told him he was studying Oriental philosophy, the Generalissimo declared: “My grandfather was an Oriental and a skeptic; therefore all Oriental philosophies are wrong.” (That is, according to the Generalissimo, who is the champion of champs, especially on keeping his own records.)

When he learned that Sam Lewis was teaching Oriental philosophy it was a little awkward because the previous occasions he has accepted articles on the “only in America” Oriental philosophies written by drunk and lechers who have great prestige—that is their books sell—but this was only the preview. Last Sunday, despite the inclement weather, we had such a wonderful Bazaar in Sausalito, attended by many hundreds of people and dollars—not only by people, but also by dollars. There are a lot of young people who have curious ideas that there are some real values in Oriental philosophies undiscovered by Generals and Generalissimos of Semantics. Indeed the affair was so successful we have been asked to repeat in May.

This was followed by a very successful Christmas party in Sausalito Wednesday night, and another in Corte Madera on Christmas Eve, and another in Novato tonight. It is quite evident that the young do not have particularly high regards for Generalissimos.

In the meanwhile we received a large advance payment for my auto-biography and stories, especially stories of the leaders of the various “liberty, democracy, humanity, and peasant-shut-up movements.” In addition to this, we have been approached by so many “peasants” who believe neither in Generals or Generalissimos, military, semantic, or otherwise. In fact, the young people don’t seem to wish to confirm and conform to religionists, humanists, ethical culture people, and all their “nice” elders who delight is being divided. The young seem to believe that in union there is not only strength, but wisdom and harmony. They see examples of it in science and technology, and they want to apply it to other aspects of life.

I think I received everything I wanted this year without even asking. It was truly marvelous.

It has been so evident to me for a long time—and I have written to you on it—that I night have a career something like that of that other Samuel, i.e. Samuel Morse. Well, everybody turned him down (just like me), and then he proved his worth, although he had to do this in the law courts. I did not wish to do this. Besides, I am getting paid to write stories about the high and mighty, who are so devoted to words that they can earn their livings exposing the worthlessness of words—which they do verbally.

At the same time we are working for actual peace, not verbal peace, not emotional peace. My representative has left for the Near East with my proposal. Now a lot of people want this. But it is nothing for me just to give them out. I have done this many times in the past and gotten exactly nowhere.

At the same time, it is evident that many groups of young people are seeking world peace, and unlike their elders are inviting this person to participate. They do not seem to accept the prerogative of a priori rejections which has so long been the standard procedure of the now-disappearing dominant groups. In fact, I have so many invitations now I do not know what to say at all, but at least the young people, unlike their rapidly disappearing elders, wish to hear what I have been trying to do, which is something more than the now-disappearing dominant liberty-democracy-humanity and peasant-shut-up groups—the divisors and the dividers.

So I am facing a new year with joy and hope, and can readily forgive the sins of persons who might have become my friends but at least didn’t have to become my enemies. Of course I am going to write up about them, unless…. I am being paid to do so. I think we can have a world without any more suppressions of what one might call the Judes-the obscure (vide Hardy). Those silly games are over, but if we are working for peace no can also overlook the short-comings of the now-disappearing dominants. And if we can’t have peace—at least we can have more good will to men and with men, and stop demanding it from them.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

Dec. 26, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

Apparently Allah and Santa Clause have been in favor of Timon of San Francisco (in reverse). I am deliberately making copies of this. There are a lot of good people, and I mean really good people, who do not seem to be moved when a small person is offended. They think the small person should forgive and forget, not seeing that forgiveness and forgetting require greatness.

I know at this writing some of the people who will get copies aren’t taking me seriously, but I am exactly in the same position I was in many many years ago when a very important diplomat held out his hand and said “Mr. Lewis, I have been around the world three times; I have met every king and prime minister, and you are the first man to bring me what I want.” But we don’t work that way. We accept little people, ignorant or learned, to conform to others, and we do not obtain what we verbally pretend we want—that is peace in this world. It is a great game, and champions in this game are the very verbalists who think that they have found the secret of communication in not using words—that is, others shouldn’t use words. This is called communication. Frankly, I do not understand it at all.

The news from New York is marvelous. There are a number of peace groups who believe that my program, so admired by Gunnar Jarring, and so unadmired until recently, has the essence towards a stable peace in the Near East. A lot of young groups are now seeking me out.

My own conclusion is simple: all those who think they have a peace plan and deride other people are either fools or scoundrels, though they do not know it. You cannot have peace by overriding; you may be entirely in the right, but you cannot have peace by overriding, and this is something that so many important persons like the Generalissimo of Semantics cannot understand, and do not want to understand.

One of my great presents—I don’t know whether it is from Allah or Santa Claus—was to have a Vietnamese at my Christmas party. There are such persons you know, and some of them think they know what they want.

I have had the most marvelous gifts and considerations, and I mean to do something about them and with them.

My representative is now on the way to the Near East. I hope to hear more from him later.

I think there is nothing more diabolical and hypocritical then to verbalize peace on earth, good-will to men, and then act personally diametrically opposite. But I have no Ill-will concerning those who do that for they are helping me upstairs as even my best friends can’t.

Love and Blessings,

Dec. 27, 1970

Mr. Art Hoppe

San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Art:

Youths and Parties.

I don’t want to dig you; I want you to be very much alive. I think we should join not the old style admiration society but the new style mutual plagiarizing societies. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday—all parties. Rather unpatriotic, for with the finances up, I have been treated to some of the best dinners of my whole life and so there was no need to patronize the restaurant. Indeed, I see the possibilities of establishing our own—boy what dishes, and no recipes out of leading magazines.

My main difficulty came last Sunday. I wanted to speak on Jesus Christ. I looked into an audience and there were at least 100 young men with long hair, beards, and brilliant eyes. I almost couldn’t talk at all. And I am beginning to see more and more of them. I have no hope of convincing Billy Graham that Jesus may return in 10 million people, but it is possible that Saint Nicholas who occupies the White House may be won over.

On Wednesday night at Sausalito again I appeared as a wise man of the East. But how are you going to tell which of the 100 young man was most like Jesus. Personally, I believe Whitman’s America is coming into its own. (There is one point on which the Marxists and the meta-establishmentarians seem to agree and that is they don’t want any Whitman. But I think Allah and God are both for Whitman and that the future America is going to be as grand and glorious as orators proclaim, but not necessarily in the ways they proclaim.)

Isn’t this a grand introduction for a really happy new year?

Sam

San Francisco Chronicle

January 5, 1971

Dear S.A.M.:

Thank you so much for your letters. They have given me such continuing encouragement—knowing that, at least with you, there is some peace and good will in this world.

Love,

Art

Jan. 19, 1971

Dear Art,

This letter is not from S.A.M. Friday at 1pm he passed over to the other side. He had fallen down some stairs accidentally a couple of weeks before and his consciousness fluctuated after that time.

One Buddhist group has already conferred on him their highest title, roughly equivalent to “Saint.” But before everybody fits him into their concepts, no matter how high and holy they are, we can remember an irrepressible human being with a laughing heart.

His body will be buried on the mountain at Lama Foundation, God willing. Pir Vilayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order, will lead a Universal Worship Service at the Sausalito Art Center Wednesday evening 8pm.

As for his many young disciples, we will dance on his grave.

Love,

Wali Ali

San Francisco Chronicle

January 20, 1971

Dear Wali:

Thank you ever so much for your note about S.A.M. What gladdened my heart were your final words: “We will dance on his grave.” That’s so very lovely and so very much what I’m sure he would have wanted.

I hope, when the time comes, that someone will come to dance on mine.

Love and admiration,

Art

April 1, 1972

Dear Art,

Since our spicy friend Sam danced off the clackety clack of his typewriter no longer adorns my breakfast nor later year desk each day. This book is a first fruit of some of his writings with others to be offered someday soon, even perhaps many excerpts from his letters—unique no doubt, certainly prolific and irrepressible.

Not a cocktail party “holy man,” he was also holey and even wholly man.

Well Art, do you knew his Dances are spreading all over the Western world including Texas and Georgia and Holland? And some of his students are in Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah investigating the use and abuse of holy places.

People are dancing on his grave in the mountains of New Mexico, and what more could one want?

Love,

Wali Ali

April 13, 1972

Dear Wali Ali:

I can’t thank you enough for sending me Sam’s immortal words. The photos alone stirred the embers of joy that he left in us all.

I am deeply indebted.

Love,

Art

July 1, 1972

Dear Art,

When the democratic national committee offices were bugged and the bunglers caught, Pres. Nixon’s press secretary scoffed at any connection with the president. He said, “It would be foolish to associate the president with a third-rate botched up burglary,” or words to this effect. The implication is delightful if not pleasant and set me to thinking—a troublesome situation—until his annual news conference the other night which was enough to stop all mental processes.

The enclosed work is more material associated with the character you knew as Sam. There are plans in the mediate future to publish some of his mystical poetry; Omen press in Tucson is readying a book on his lectures on first Corinthians, and we have even been considering publishing excerpts from some of his letters. What do you think of that? Is it possible that a scamp who broke all the rules and didn’t blow when to shut up can find fame and fortune in the afterlife? There is a movie tool with all sorts of holy amen in it, and S.A.M. making an omelet and playing solitaire, etc.

More later.

love,

Wali Ali

July 5, 1972

Dear Wali Ali:

Thanks ever so much for sharing your delightful observations with me and for sending the fascinating booklet on spiritual dance and walk. I am studying it avidly.

Most gratefully,

Art

Feb. 20, 1973

Dear Art,

Greetings from beyond the grave.

You remember Sam wrote you a lot of letters about a movie being made of the holy man and spiritual revolution in the U.S., and somebody turned the camera in the wrong direction and shot a lot of stuff of our wise-cracking friend. Well here it is! And guess who turns out to be the star of the film? Well you see all the other holy men tend to sit on platforms and make profound remarks, but our friend Sam is filmed playing solitaire and watering the garden and making breakfast (and puns, which he tells the film-makers his friend Art Hoppe will love), and then he has the good dramatic sense to kick the basket right in the middle of the film!

So anyway now it’s being premiered here and I thought you might like to meet your old correspondent laughing and dancing from beyond the pale.

Will write letter. All love to you Art and keep laughing.

Wali Ali

February 23, 1973

Dear Wali Ali:

Thanks much for your note. I heard about the movie earlier in the week from Ralph Silver. I will try my very best to be there, as Sam always brings warm memories to mind.

Grateful1y,

Art

July 31, 1973

Dear Wali Ali:

Thank you for your subversive letter, which I have passed along to the SPCA. They will be sniffing at your trail shortly.

Gratefully,

Art

August 14, 1973

Dear Wali Ali:

Thanks so much for your letter. Obviously, we’ve been thinking alike.

Thank you also for the Sam Lewis book. I’m looking forward to getting into it.

Gratefully,

Art

October 1975

Dear Art,

This country is going to the dogs.

I don’t know anyone else to write, Art. Of course King Timahoe continues to keep his nose clean. But tell me honestly, would you buy a used car from him?

And now the priorities of the beef/meat shortage are coming out. While Americans, including all us members of the vegetarian party are having to struggle along on one steak, chicken or pig a day, the same is not true for our canine friends. Have you seen those ads by the leading pet food, Alpo? Really Art, it’s a crime if we don’t feed dogs 100% meat. Cereal! Agh. You could be punished by having your arm caught in an elevator door.

Am enclosing a copy of the latest book by Sam. These lectures retain a great deal of his own inimitable style, verve and nerve.

Love, ain’t it great,

Wali Ali

P.S. Please do not turn this letter over to the S.P.C.A. You think Auschwitz was bad, have you ever seen their gas chambers?

October 7, 1975

Dear Wali Ali:

Many thanks for the Samuel Lewis book. I shall treasure it, as I treasure the memory of his friendship.

Gratefully,

Art Hoppe

“Lotus”

Broadlands South,

Reporoa, Rotorua, New Zealand.

13th October, 1965

Samuel L. Lewis,

772 Clementina Street,

San Francisco, Calif., 94103

U.S.A.

Very Dear Mr. Lewis,

Perhaps you will be able to imagine how delighted my husband and myself were to read your letter and that we both have found a kindred soul. Your experiences are the usual kind which beset those who have dedicated themselves to service for humanity at large and having found the Christ within. Your realistic approach to life, fully recognizing the needs of peoples without wanting them to be or think in a manner in which you would expect or think desirable is the true mark of a humble man and shows that the necessary balance is reached to allow much to be accomplished. My husband is extremely interested in your work and would like to have the time to answer your letter at length. He has left it to me because he is fully occupied on the farm at Taranaki raising calves and helping to meet the needs of the people!!

The occupation is certainly not what we think is the best but having to make a living comes first and experimentation takes second place when there are children to be provided for.

Information on the kinds of trees Clive has planted here will be sent to you when Clive returns home. I said that he must write to you and supply the information himself which he will do later.

At this moment we are putting our thought and efforts into starting a cultural research center on this farm of 460 acres. We are in the throes of arranging for a Professor of Architecture from Auckland University to come and assist with a plan of development. There is also the constitution to be created and one that will be acceptable to all individuals and Groups who may wish to become members. The center is for the Arts, Sciences and Religion. These are the Aims,

1. The Aims and Objects of the “Lotus” Cultural Research Center, are to foster, through Education, a New Age Unity in balanced proportion of Science, Art and Religion.

2. To provide the necessary facilities for individuals and Groups working for peace and Goodwill to study and practice these three aspects and to extend the benefits derived to Mankind through charitable action.

There are a large number of people both here and overseas watching our efforts and many will help when we get the foundations established. It is expected that any society may have the use of what is provided and may have their own private meetings or public if that is desired. There will be land set aside for agricultural research and owing to the type of soil lends itself to this, being pumice. Individuals may come and enjoy the amenities, either the camping facilities or Motels. Later on there may be a rest home. It is my private wish that the best of all cultures may be preserved here, all Arts, Sciences and Philosophies of all countries both past and present be studied and preserved. That there will be no static point but for the work at this center to evolve with the times.

There will not be either one of the three fields of Science, Art, or Religion dominating or any particular group lauding it over the rest.

All groups whether orthodox (according to today’s thinking) or unorthodox will be welcome, the only stipulation being that they do not intend to push their ideas down the ‘necks” of others.

The Great and Good Architect of the Universe has order in seeming chaos and balance in seeming imbalance and the whole of Mankind with the varying thought and way of life of all the differing peoples and countries of the world, reigns supreme in majesty and truth, which makes a place for unity in diversity.

“When God ordained that Man should learn by woe,

He too ordained the path that he should go,

‘Til through the mists that clothe the hills of pain,

He shall emerge and find the Sun again.”

That little piece of wisdom was written by a very wise man.

I most whole heartedly agree that your work is of exactly the same nature as Richard St. Barbe Baker’s, and I am sure that an excellent partnership could be established either mentally, spiritually, or materially or embracing all three. It seems to me that because of the need of most of us to “belong” to a certain school of thought that we create our own separation from those who are essentially the same as ourselves in heart and mind. Even from those whose work is of the same kind. It is all the “Isms” and their so called exalted and superior thought over the rest of the “unenlightened” that causes the slowness of the advancement in man’s progress. If we could all find it needful to sit at the feet of all the differing thought prevailing at the time to learn the essence which is always for the good most of our troubled would be ended. My husband and I speak to many and listen to many and are interested in all things as you are and it makes our lives far less complicated.

Speaking of covering the Earth makes me think of George Washington Carver, and Luther Burbank who both agreed that the quickest way to clothe the desert places and retain moisture in the soil as well as providing food for animals and men is through growing cacti that both perfected. Luther Burbank had perfected one highly nutritious and fast growing that does not have thorns. Because of its height it gave shelter and moisture to other plant life grown near it. I would think that young trees and shrubs grown for their fruit would thrive if started under its shelter. I am thinking of your reclamation of the desert. There is a way of fixing sand dunes by spraying with a petroleum product that St. Barbe Baker has seen working extremely well in the Sahara. He is delighted with the results.

I intend speaking with St. Barbe as we affectionately call him and will pass your letter on to him with my blessings for you both to become acquainted in the real sense.

There are some truly great men living in the flesh today and this is one of the main reasons that we want a meeting place for these wonderful humanitarians to meet. You and others working in all spheres of Science, Art, and Religion deserve such a place in its physical state and it is my husband’s and my intention to be instrumental in providing this. We know that we can only accomplish this with the help of the multitude of folk who are sincerely working in small ways and great for the good of humanity in general.

My letter is rambling on and on without any order whatever and it is hoped you can jump from one thing to another as I seem to have it.

The Eucalyptus and Acacia are, as you say, wonderful trees so adaptable and they are those that Clive has planted here. There is one that will grow in dry places as well as wet which I am afraid I do not know the name of and is why I need Clive to write to you. The Ethiopian people have an idea that eucalyptus rob the soil of its moisture and although many were planted a decade or so ago they were cut down as it was believed they were instrumental in causing the local wells to dry up. How true it is that the wells dried up because of the trees I do not know. It doesn’t seem correct to me and the cause I should think would be because of extending the burning out of forest land somewhere in the area. There is no doubt whatever of the man-made forest (the largest in the world) that our farm is alongside has altered the climate on this plateau in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. Where there was very little rain and the area being regarded as a desert plateau we now have sufficient rainfall to establish farmland which is increasing in productivity. It needs large areas of forest to bring a change in the rainfall and warmth and Mr. St. Barbe Baker’s cry for concentrated afforestation to reclaim the desert is exactly in accordance with natures laws. The water level is raised as well. Grass and forage crops follow.

I am not a scientist but am intensely interested in the Earth and its peoples which perhaps makes me into a critic and also a student of nature. The tall grasses grown in Africa need a certain rainfall where the cacti mentioned can get established with none and is the reason for my thinking that Nature is not so silly and that nature can be enhanced by the intelligence and creativeness of man.

Anyway, you will read my letter with a benign tolerance realizing my limitations ever applauding the work of those Doing something.

My husband and I send our love and sincere wishes for you to carry out the work so close to your heart.

Kind thoughts,

Jill Hull

772 Clementina St,

San Francisco, Calif. 94103

USA

17th October, 1965

Jill Hull,

Broadlands South,

Reporoa, Rotorua, New Zealand

My Dear Mrs. Hull:

Thank you for your letter of the 17th. In the same mail a letter was received from the head office of the American Friends of the Middle East in Washington. Much had to do with the life and efforts of the late James Terry Duce, who had been Vice-President of the American-Arabian Oil Co. (ARAMCO). His life ambition was to hope for the harnessing of deserts for agricultural purposes.

This letter calls attention to some research now being started is Kuwait. This same period shows the United States Government planning a joint experimental station with Mexico; and meanwhile another one has been started at the University of California Riverside, in this State.

I have several books on the threes of North America, and there have been other works dealing with special areas. But even among specialists, the field is so wide that no one seems to have the complete capacity to work out discrete progress. Even in class last week we received information about Eucalyptus in Italy and Spain.

(Incidentally our instructor, a Prof. Nelson from San Francisco State College expects to go to Australia early next year so I shall give him your address, leaving it to him to stop in New Zealand.)

We have some volcanic (pumice) soils in this State. The best wine grapes grow there but there are few specialists who understand the relation between soils, structure, acidity and flavors. Personally I think Sulfur is a factor not yet thoroughly studied.

There is another type of research now opened which, when I get to India (Bose Foundation, Calcutta) I wish to discuss. It has to do with what the ancients called Soma and Amrita. I believe these are connected with the Phloem and Xylem in plants and the cambiums. But one would have to know something both about Plant Physiology and Vedic and Vedanta teachings. This would be in line with your efforts to bring Sciences, Art and Religion together.

I am doing this now, developing art forms (dance) from courses on both “primeval” and “primitive” and “advanced” religions.

Indeed there is one great difficulty encountered, and that is it is almost impossible to convince people that one is busy all the time without exceptions. Even all the efforts into the programs for the dryer areas of the world have been laid aside for peace-efforts.

There are two very dramatic events which have caused one to behave not quite in accord with proper social mannerisms. Ones was the death of my dear friend, Robert Clifton. He lived in S. E. Asia—every country—worked for every government and failed 100% to convey what was going on. He died from a broken heart and we are losing lives and money simply because our stiff-necked would not listen.

Then I saw 600,000 (six hundred thousand) refugees in one place, Karachi, Pakistan. I guess I have seen two million refugees and that is why I have become fanatic on the programs that St. Barbe is advocating.

Anyhow I am the spiritual brother of President Arab and the spiritual friend of President Radhakrishnan and it has taken years to reach anybody to believe it. We have, as Lord Snow says, two cultures. In the one facts and events are dominant and in the other one’s private predilections. So people will believe an “expert” or an editor who has not mingled with the people of S. E. Asia, or seen the tremendous number of dire refugees, the result of the blind editorials which still go on in this comfortable country condemning huge masses to martyrdom. We sit in comfort at our television sets and can’t be bothered by the actual suffering of actual peoples.

Fortunately more and more people, especially in our universities, are coming to the point where they accept the experiences of others over their own ideas, especially ideas of peoples whom they have never met. And in quick succession I have received an introduction to the American delegation to the U.N. and the active cooperation of a number of professors—some of whom are known to Prof. Nelson above, and it only requires slight encouragement to go ahead. After all four or five of us who have been there, sooner or later will dominate over the multitudes who have not. I shall not relate the ridiculous situations that have arisen. Most ridiculous of these was the meeting with Princess Poon Diskul of the Royal Family of Thailand and President of the World Buddhist Federation. Even those who were present cannot and will not accept that in the eternity, we are like brother and sister.

The same is going to happen this week when a full General will speak on South Asia. We lived in the same town, but my testimony has been rejected socially and he is not on such good terms with the Presidents as above. The point here is that when we really live the spiritual life and “live and move and have our being” in God, there are no friends and no strangers. The universe of love has no bounds and no boundaries, but most of all, it is not affected by the verbal dictums about it. As soon as Hon. U Thant came out for a “moral and spiritual revolution”—in others, of course, I knew he would be tried. Words mean nothing, they can be the creative of the devil.

Of course the earth is alive. Here I come to a most curious Combination of real Zen Buddhism and Christ (not Christianity). My ko-an, and this is the first time I have mentioned it, is Feed My Lambs. And as I write I can hear Christ say: I Thirst. I have never accepted the “divinity of Christ” that limits him to a particular corporeal body, but if we want to make him Him (and no nonsense), then He (but not he) is the body of the cosmos itself and I Thirst refers to the whole and not to a narrow, particularized human body in a single place at a single time.

Technically. The important thing you have written is St. Barbe’s  petroleum produce for sand dunes. Is there any way I can get that information? It might lead also to financial assistance.

Incidentally, if all else fails one can appeal to the Ghana Assembly who also know of his work.

I am sending a copy of this to Daniel Hoffman of Burlingame who handed me St. Barbe’s manuscript. He has written a prophetic work, The Coming Culture. One chapter is “The Reunion of Religion and Science.” This is almost funny for the religionist and metaphysical people are almost 100% against anything of this kind—excepting sermons about it—while the scientists are for it in operation and many a tale hangs therein.

Any information you can send either directly or by references will be appreciated. I am learning more and more about Cacti too, in the strangest ways—for example in Anthropological studies, etc.

This week I am to have my first interview with the new Consul-General from India and our general format is in accord with what you have written. I also wish to have Daniel, as above, meet him. Mr. Hoffman is known to the staff here in San Francisco.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

27th October, 1965

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Your welcome letter arrived, was well read and without your permission sent to Richard St. Barbe Baker in today’s post so I expect you will home from him shortly.

You refer to the Vedic teachings to learn more of the innermost functioning of the plants. Yes, you are right they do have teachings, that are only given out to truly dedicated souls and it is called in the West Alchemy. Alchemy is the separation of the body, soul and spirit of a mineral, metal or plant, purification of the body and soul and the reunification in proper proportion of these aspects which creates a perfect metal, mineral or plant. My husband been studying this science, the true art, for a number of years while I can only claim about three years. We have proved that in the herbal kingdom plants can be enhanced and strengthened beyond all imagination and will withstand the soil and climatic conditions prevailing where perhaps they wouldn’t even grow in the ordinary course of events. This means that man, following the laws of nature can hasten the evolution of plants. If man has access to alchemical preparations through his right to receive them, all illness flies and life can be prolonged. He also is fully awake to his divine origin and not sleeping as is the case with almost all of us. Perhaps when you visit India you will meet those who are able to assist you in your quest. We do know of one in America who instructs sincere seekers, who has ways and means of knowing whether a soul has reached the stage when he or she is ready for the science. It is not wise to mention the art to many because of the vulgar superstition surrounding it. Orthodox science still does not work in accord with nature’s laws and so we have error.

There is a very great truth just beyond the veil for those who through faith, love and charity or good works deserve it.

My husband is keenly interest in your work and is looking forward to the day when he shall meet you.

We shall be glad to welcome your Professor Nelson when he comes to New Zealand.

I would like to send you the address of Knut H. Scharnhorst, Ph. D., 1541 S. Escondido Blvd., Escondido, California. He is Secretary General of Sahara Reclamation Program, which was founded by Richard St. Barbe Baker. He is a man who has, and will, achieve much because of his energy and common sense. Mr. Baker says he doesn’t speak English as well as he writes it, but I’m sure that little criticism would not hinder you. He quoted in one of his letters from some writing of Hugh J. Schonfield, “None of us should be saying to himself ‘How can I become a more developed soul?’ but ‘How can I improve conditions among men?’” Mr. Scharnhorst would also know of the petroleum preparation to fix the sands if you do not hear soon enough from Mr. Baker.

My husband has some valuable work to accomplish before he has a rest from this plane and that is why we are starting this center which fits in with his work. We need the help of others devoted brothers as they need ours. We really are not apart from each other as thoughts fly.

You may have gathered by now that I am not a pessimist, neither am I feeling a helpless tool, and neither do I feel that mankind is taking retrograde step. My husband shares these views.

Have you heard of Lao an Walter Russell, of University of Science and Philosophy, Swannanoa, Waynesboro, Virginia?

Walter Russell is now passed on but was a genius. His wife Lao is still at their University which my husband visited. They are creative people and well worth visiting.

This letter is in haste. Will write further soon. God bless you.

Jill & Clive Hull

Broadlands South,

Reporoa, Rotorua, New Zealand.

3rd January 1966

Dear Mr. Lewis,

It is indeed a pleasure to have made your contact and hear of your interests and activities of such admirable distinction.

My wife has endeavored to have me write before this but mundane requirements have prohibited this up to now. We are of humble disposition and are in a position of donating property for a cultural research society and with the attendant broken time and reduced income it is difficult to keep everything going at once.

We live in times when we cannot any longer afford to work alone and our life work is devoted to the unity of higher thought and science to produce the manifestation of mankind’s enhancement.

Wonderful news it is to hear that you are attracted to cacti qualities, which we feel are largely overlooked. The work of Burbank should be continued and further developed. Here in N.Z. it is said that grasses have been developed that produce more dry matter per acre than any other pasture, yet from figures roughly worked out it appears that certain cacti can produce at an equivalent rate on soils almost devoid of rainfall and have high nutritional value. When one considers that Burbank bred out the spines of some of the better varieties and add the fact that milk is being produced out of plants, and this can be done at more than competitive prices when put on a factory basis, then the “land of milk and honey” in the desert is something in the foreseeable future.

The advantages of such an undertaking have overwhelming features in comparison with the animal methods which are not only limited in development but limit those whose duty it is to tend the animals. If you have not already done so I would suggest that review of Burbank’s “unscientific” writings and approach be investigated and then with that thought stream convert attention to the esoteric Tree of Life and its 32 aspects, each of which has influence over various species of plant life. Here it is that the esoteric scientist can open the door to a vast new world of creative inventiveness that conventional approaches prohibit. Even if only the preliminary work of tabulation of the various species is scientifically established from work already done, a great advance will have been made. From there the work becomes even more interesting. It is such research that the intending Lotus movement desires to foster. As far as we know it is the only such movement of its kind and cannot exist without threefold participation in the management and membership.

This movement would naturally co-operate with the Sahara Reclamation project, act as an information bureau and report on worldwide unity of purpose activities. We will send you reports of progress.

There is a eucalyptus Ovata that may fill a need in your work. In N.Z it grows on very wide soil types, from very wet conditions on low country to dry on higher ground. The timber lasts reasonably well unpreserved in the ground but seems more suited to heavy construction work with its interlocked grain.

Mr. F. B. McWhannell of Ngahineapouri R. D., Ohaupo, New Zealand is an expert on eucalyptus trees and should be able to furnish advice on this class of trees. It seems the Ovata he brought to N.Z. is a much superior strain to what is generally known in its native country. N.Z. native birds are attracted to eucalyptus trees within a few years of planting. First to the different grubs for food and later the flowers. Our native bird life is not much attached to exotic pines and the great forests of them planted in this small country are very silent of song and activity in comparison with the native and broad leaved imported trees. As a whole foresters have thought of tree profit from milling too much in comparison to beautification and conservation.

Mr. Nelson may find it beneficial to contact Mr. McWhannell who does nursery work and appears to have done much more in the past in the eucalyptus field than the N.Z. Forest Service.

What you say about fund raising Universities and Indian blindness is all too evident to us and is one of the many reasons why this cultural research center is being formed. A people who have lost their culture have little indeed of worth left and such a state is rampant when science and higher thought to not properly unite for raising the status of all mankind.

According to many who have traveled, N. Z. is the most compact and beautiful country in the world and is a most fitting spot to usher into being a movement of this nature. Those deeply versed in esoteric law have known for centuries the nature of this oncoming event and seeds were laid at the beginning of this century in N.Z. in preparation for future events. The world is a body and various points have differing functions at different times. Some ancient centers are now gone, others rising, some at their peak. Once the southern hemisphere led the world, for a lengthy period the northern has held full power. Now it is losing its hold and a new dawn is rising in the south again. Even in this small country it is most evident that there are different locations in close proximity with differing impulses and attractions.

Addresses of possible interest.

University of Science and Philosophy,

Swannanoa, Waynesboro, Virginia.

We understand that Mrs. Russell will be lecturing in your state this year and information as to times could be obtained. Strange to say they seem hardly known in their own country.

Dr. Knut Scharnhorst, Escondido Blvd.,

Escondido, California.

(Secretary General, Sahara Reclamation Program)

Anne Davies, B.O.T.A., 5105 No. Figueroa St., Los Angeles 42, California

(A Qabalistic Esoteric movement)

Roland Hunt, Amica Temple of Radiance,

P.O. Box 126, Hollywood 28, California. (A lot of color interests)

Manly Palmer Hall, Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles 27, California.

There is a movement working towards a World Cultural Center and also a World Constitution headed by Christopher Hills, 101 Harbour Street, Kingston, Jamaica W.I.

A considerable amount of detail has been gone into over a period of years and a serious attempt is being made to base the movement on Qabalistic principals of management and conduct. This is the closest movement to Lotus we know of but differs in various aspects. The beauty of the nature of the Lotus movement is that it recognizes the perfect plan already exists and merely provides the media of expression which should be forthcoming and grow with the needs of the times rather than attempting to draw up too elaborate a procedure at the outset, which can tend to enforce rather than foster unity of purpose and co-operation it is essential to protect individuality rather than create conformity.

In other words if such a broad and friendly co-operation policy did not exist it would be easy to be running counter with other groups who may form similar movements. Any such movement that was not of a friendly and co­operative nature would prove at cross purposes with the real intent of New Age unity. The failure to apply the correct principals has been largely responsible for the lack of understanding between religious and scientific groups in the past. There is bound to be some faults in any approach which can be ironed out by co-operation rather than aloof sectarianism. In the condensed version of the Aims and Objects on the blue card enclosed it is to be noted that this is a Research society, so different to a fixed religious approach where the adherents have to conform to stipulated tenets, often of a nature that cannot be proved or demonstrated. The education part can only come from the active drawing in of balanced activities from the 3 fold nature of the movement.

You may know of the S.U.N. movement which is a movement principally for the unity of spiritual minded people and groups. The application of the ideal into practical working through the sciences and arts is not fostered at the inception. We have been in contact with Mr. Busby who is principally responsible for this movement and there is no clash between this movement and the S.U.N. Each recognizes the necessity of the other and Lotus is only too willing to assist the oncoming tour of publicity and goodwill of the Busby’s in 1967. After all this is the law of purification before bringing the 3 parts together on a common meeting ground.

We understand the S.U.N. is now established in California and the Chairman is Theron Winston, 1700 Kinglet-road, San Marcos, California, 92069, U.S.A.

Bertha Sale,

823 No. Wilton Place,

Los Angeles, 38, California, is one who could give information about the Christopher Hills Center.

In closing we wish you the very best with all your interesting work and hope to hear further from you and we will do what we can to be of assistance to the good causes you are connected with.

Very best wishes,

S.C. Hull

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

8th January, 1966

S. C. Hull,

Broadlands South,

Roporoa, Rotorua, New Zealand

My dear Friend:

Your letter of the 3rd arrived just as somebody put into these hands, Long Pilgrimage by J. G. Bennett, concerning the life and teaching of one Shivapuri Baba. It is another one of the books which acclaim some Indian mystic. This man lived a long long time but what struck the writer was his patience, his willingness to answer all questions and his evasion of evasion. This stands in contrast to so many, including quite a few persons you have named who are compelled to make mysteries because they have not found the Divine Light whatever else they have found.

Indeed last week this person had to face one interrogator after another and noticed in their questions the total rejection of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the substitution of his personality elevation instead. He may have said to shout the Truth from the housetops (or the higher consciousness) but this is rejected by the cultists and metaphysicians who claim to have some special secrets (they may have for all I know) and who hold on to those secrets and become exclusive rather than inclusive.

It is many years now since one studied Zen with Master Sokei-An Sasaki and he neither held one to secrecy or anything else. After studying with him one came away knowing all the scriptures of the world, the ability to interpret and interpret them at many levels; with the addition that one became a sort of rejectee and outcast until one went to Asia, to be received at the highest level anywhere and everywhere.

Once this person was living at an Ashram and a Sadhu approached: “Why are you here?” “Because I had a pain.” “Is the pain gone?” “Yes.” “What was the pain?” “The pain of 50,000 starving Hindus.” “You are crazy; how could you have the pain of 50,000 starving Hindu?” Then the Master entered and said: “No you are crazy because this man knows what he is talking about and you do not.” Of course the Western world agrees with the Sadhu but enough people in the Orient agree with the writer so he does not have to look to the heavens for empathy or sympathy.

Later when this one came to Karachi and saw 600,000 (six hundred thousand) utterly destitute in one place, he gave up his researches in ornamental Horticulture and changed to food research and soil research in which he has been engaged ever since. It was in traveling from Karachi to London that one read a book on “Grass” and at Kew one first heard about St. Barbe Baker.

One has also been on the Bodhisattvic Oath for over forty years and one knows enough of Indian teachings to be able to explain the divine forces in Nature, and even now is on the search for “amrita” and “soma.”

Grasses: While quantitatively the most information may be obtained from Kew or from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there has been succinct research all over the world. I would thank you if you could advise as to the genus of the best Grass in your region (or genera if there are several). In Pakistan the University of Washington State (Pullman, Wash.) had done some excellent work with specimens for warm, dry climates, this knowledge has not been broadcast.

When the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) met here recently there were several sessions devoted to the relation between cover crops and weather. I have not had time to follow these up largely due to the many Opportunities which came my way at that time. And as soon as I am free I hope to visit the UC campuses in the southern part of the State and also to contact Dr. Scharnhorst, although this will be first done by letter.

Trees. Thanks for the information about E. Ovata. My best horticultural friend, who is also a Nelson will be interested in this.

Tree of Life. Lotus Movement. It is funny. I used to watch Burbank at work but was too shy to talk to him. Only visited his grounds once or twice. The subject of the tree-of-life was taken up at Dehra Dun in India but I found the scientists had lost contact with Indian esotericism. Some notes from Bose are in my files but these were not followed up. Personally I believe there is much to learn concerning Cambiums and meristems.

My first autobiographical sketch is labeled, “The Lotus and the Universe” intended as an answer to The Lotus and the Robot of one Arthur Koestler. Speaking in the a name of “science” (he is not a scientists at all) he has no conception of what a Lotus is, botanically, horticulturally, symbolically of otherwise.

Today a magazine was received from Japan from the Lotus sects in that country. But the Lotus has three or four different meanings also, having in common only the Enlightenment Experience.

I may try to contact Theron Winston, and certainly shall Bertha Sale (because I am often near her place in Los Angeles). Now I come to a most delicate matter:

This person has been studying Oriental philosophy for years and has also gone through both Jewish and Christian education. The Jewish education reached its height when I was a secretary to a lady who translated all of the Sepher Ha Zohar, the main kabbalistic work. I have found that most kabbalists are neither scientists nor mystics but speculative philosophers. The general principles of the Mother Letters Aleph, Mom and Shin are found in Nature in many forms, and all of nature can be studied therefrom and therein. But I have found nobody that did this. The easiest form would be in basic Plant Physiology, but perhaps also in human physiology which I do not know too well. There need be nothing mysterious about it; mysticism is not mysterious. True the same principles are found in the ubiquitous Occultism which has found its way into Japanese Flower Arrangement, Microbiotics, etc.

My own life has been entangled in both Zen Buddhism and Sufism. There is much difference between my own career Zen and the writings of most people. And if one reads the totally different interpretations between Dr. Hu Shih and Prof. Daisetz Suzuki one will understand why mysticism without the corresponding inner experience is useless and very confusing. Rejected by the cultural world of the West, one has been honored by great Masters first or the Far East—I mean actual persons whom I can name and place. Fortunately more and more real people are contacting real masters and writing intelligible books, though their names are not so well known nor are they so respected as those whom the chief American Buddhism calls “fiction writers,” a very apt term.

Sufism fortunately has not been presented in any confusing manner. It has hardly been presented at all. The great minds of Oxford, Cambridge and European universities have given excellent books and fine translations but these are not Sufism. Al-Ghazzali says that “Sufism consists of experiences and not premises,” a point ignored by most writers.

In 1923 I introduced my first respective teachers Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan and Nyogen Senzaki and they immediately entered into Samadhi together. It was years before I had the privilege of the corresponding experience. This type of cosmic consciousness is beyond the scope of Christopher Hills who seems now to have established a “universal school” which is basically “Christian” but I choose to doubt whether it is Christ at all. Substituting attributes for the Supreme Experience is worse than useless. We are in a new age.

On the intellectual and social level all these people by-pass Dr. Radhakrishnan today as they by-passed Emperor Akbar before. The hard facts of human existence and human transcendences refute claims. Manly Hall, for instance, is an intellectual giant who proved to be an idiot in the Zen classes; he could write long books but could not meditate at all. His descriptions are marvelous but there is not a single sign of attainment.

The scientists have now moved into the field of religions studies. They want proof and evidence, not claims. And as this person has covered so much of the Orient and met saints of the four great religions whom he can place in time and place if not by name, he is not taken in by hyperboles without heart. Universal bliss is non-existent without universal pain and perhaps universal responsibility which most people shirk. The awakened heart is all inclusive though it may not and need not involve any doctrines whatsoever.

The Christ I have seen (which experience may or may not be real) is identical in every respect with the reports and pictures of the late Khalil Gibran. Actually friendships have been built up without always joining. Having been initiated into Zen, Yoga and many Schools of Sufism, it was not necessary to join Vedanta (there is also one Vedanta initiation in a Shankara school) one cannot say one loves more those of these schools than of other schools. Love does not work that way; it is all-inclusive, not in claim but in attitude and action.

I am entirely of and for the unity of Divine Wisdom in every form and yet peculiarly and personally we seem also to be together in finding God in the Vegetable world, and in the inner world. To follow Christ to the end involves: Feed My Sheep, Feed My Lambs.

Yet I have to end on a note of warning. Today three different letters all with the same purport, all with the same motives, especially the Peace Motive, from three different parts of the world. And no time to try to reconcile them when one’s whole effort at the moment is to find a meeting-ground for India and Pakistan. If Russia does this, well and good but my own feeling is and has been that this meeting place will be in God first and then in manifestation.

Love and blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

“Lotus”

Broadlands South,

Reporoa, Rotorua.

24th January, 1966

Dear Mr. Lewis,

You are not Mr. Lewis but a discerning disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ and the first one I have met in my life whose heart is opened.

On the 28th December you met Dr. Chandrasekhar, you describe as “the World famous Indian demographer and sociologist.” Please may I write to him? The 28th December is my birthday.

My husband and I are very ordinary people without a University education and area, as you may describe us, self taught and “humdrum.” There is a great desire to help while in this dress and it seems we are carrying out the assignment, according to the way things are progressing. We have both been reduced to shreds during our life this time and have been prepared for more and more effort in future. The love for all that suffers is strong in us both and is the cause of our offering every material possession to Mankind.

Mr. Nelson and his wife will, I am sure, enjoy their visit to this beautiful country. I am looking forward to meeting them both very much.

Would you be offended if your letter dated January 2nd was read out to the assembled gathering on the 5th of February? It can cause a few nervous wrigglings on the chairs and set a few minds athinking.

My husband has much to contribute and will do it. His contribution will be not only in the enhancement of plants but also to alleviate suffering and there will be no secret about it.

It is those who come into the sphere of thought concerned in the above paragraph who will help him and he them. The Kabalistic Laws have been applied in our laboratory and the product has been analyzed and found to be a true extraction and called the oil of Mars and also another called the oil of Antimony. Other herbal oils extracted Alchemically have been produced too and these though not the end product are very beneficial to plants and men. Much can be and will be done with this knowledge and it is intended to give out that which men will accept when the time comes. Alchemists (true ones and not charlatans) are still treated with scorn and have to be careful for their lives. Times have changed little since the time of Paracelsus.

In all countries, among all races, there are still about one in 10,000,000 who know the sacred Art and practice it and prove that there is a pure science that can elevate all things to their highest state of being. Man can be cured of all ills, so the soil, and plants and animals. The only reason that they, those who are Masters of the Art, do not shout out their knowledge is that Mankind slaughters them off as they did the Christ, and Mankind does not want to be helped. They prefer to learn by woe. Yet in every age there are those whose hearts ache to help as Christs. Mankind moves slowly and surely to his Divine Heritage and a little “cream” is given him as too much would upset his unprepared digestion.

Bless you. Love from

Jill Hull

Lotus,

Broadlands South,

Reporoa, Rotorua, New Zealand.

25th December 1966

Dear Mr. Lewis,

We thank you very much for your interest and letter of the 4th November. We are having a very busy and interesting time with this work and it is most helpful to receive interesting contacts from other countries and benefit from differing outlooks.

The exotericists and esotericists problems of co-operations you mention is an interesting one. The exoteric people are undoubtedly doing more practical humanitarian work in this country than the esoteric ones. So many of the so called esoteric ones live in a cloud of aloof divinity that robs them of creative abilities and induces a false sense of superiority. “We like to do our work the clean way” is a favorite expression.

The function of “Lotus” and its world placement is a matter that you should give long and careful attention to as we do not think you appreciate factors relating to the natural setting, of geographical setting, time factor, population factor, political movements, the unbelievable variety of natural and exotic beauty in such a small area, the unique close proximity of a wide diversity of plant life and many other factors.

The east and west approaches are liable to distort the picture of existing presentations, particularly as they are expounded and controlled almost exclusively in the northern hemisphere which has an unmistakably tinted function to the rising sign of the southern hemisphere which now resolutely returns to her past role of ages past. New Zealand is of the south and neither east or west but her maphrodite. Those who have gone through the practical creative chemistry of life will know the vast difference that can be accomplished in throwing up and releasing the latent virtues of plant, animal and mineral life by using products created by mind, magnetism and matter and formed into a living water of life that exalts and rejuvenates to an extent that baffles the conventional esotericist and exotericist alike.

Another factor for consideration is the unanimous agreement from remote times till now by the true sons and daughters of the most cherished art that the proportions of the elusive three be exactly equal for proper manifestation. Converted to mankind’s overall function of an evolving creator, it will be found that his religion or philosophy is but a part of the operation, the science or demonstrative aspect another and the resultant child of the marriage the other part that can be described as the art. Since the creator is a part of all life and the Aquarian age now begins, the emphasis of the past religious presentations now recedes and no longer can directive be predominately monopolized by the religious element. The balanced directive is now to be found coming through all walks of life.

It is understandable how some of these philosophical unity groups can go to pieces with their theoretical approaches when they leave out the practical doing aspect. This practical doing aspect has in fact been greatly suppressed by mystical and occultist movements for various reasons including ignorance of the issues involved. This accounts for why revolutionary products that will have a tremendous impact on the whole pattern of human activity have had to be handed to universities to experiment with and properly substantiate the principles involved. It seems that in so many instances humble people who have been rejected by the east and west approaches and have quietly gone about creative work have been able to unravel nature’s mysteries and prove things that are mere speculations to so many teachers.

With Lotus there is the responsibility of collecting and disseminating ideas and creative inventions from all sources for the betterment of people as a whole. Too often the real creators can find no place with the integrity and sympathy of mankind at heart to place their ideas and inventions with. They are forced from the door of government and private business monopolies and only want to be of service to their brothers throughout the world for peaceful purposes. The attempt to organize research by school training methods is only going so far. Often it is that the so called dunce is the one to cater for. Unbiased people are required to help with this aspect. We have a number of revolutionary inventions in custody awaiting the proper time and place to present them. If some of these were to catch on it would completely overturn the economy of this and other countries and necessitate the alteration of the trading and financial systems or the world.

This is the power that has ever been in the hands of creative people and only let out as and when the times were right. The poverty stricken rich can have no idea of what is about them until they look anew at life and adopt fresh values.

It will be seen that we are not students of ex- and esoteric cultisms. Serious enquiry can only come by honest enquiry into the overall question which requires a somewhat different outlook. The path between Geburah and Chesed has a function of bringing together diverse interests and forces of the universe. The primary colors involved on the king scale brings about the secondary color violet in the secondary trinity which has quite a bearing on the riddle of Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled. This aspect of lawful demonstration of the Kabala to prove the existence of the unseen into the mundane world has been frequently challenged by science and religion alike. Since number is a symbol related to all forms of activity it is possible to prove different functions of human activity including religion from a sound basis of which the system of the various western approaches is only one, but all can be united to agree with one another.

It will be noted that the numbers of the 2 primary colors add to 9, their product violet is also 9 and the digit of the 3 is also 9. 9 is also 3 times 3, the trinity 3 times. The homeopathic principle of repeated sequences of 1 in 9 should have some meaning as has been proved on plant tests up to the 60th potency when seeds were soaked in the various potencies which had a profound effect on the ultimate growth and maturity with rhythmic peaks and ebbs which were in accord with the substances potentised and their placement on the tree of life.

There is general agreement that before one can accurately establish one’s function in life it becomes necessary to have a lawful understanding of why we are who we are. Extrasensory perception is open to illusions without the lawful means of checking. The scientific methods associated with esoteric understanding are capable of meticulous and detailed presentation.

Example. The clairvoyant who described an unusual violet aura of an individual, as well as other details of health. The clairvoyant was then taken to task and it was found that despite the scope of their abilities in this field there were serious errors made. Why? The clairvoyant had no proper understanding of her own place in life and had understood her faculty was presenting what was actually before her. In fact it was an illusion partly through her not being aware that her placement of race and function in life which caused her to look through a colored screen with her faculty which distorted the aura color to that of a different shade. Further the aura color of the individual is subject to change according to the progressed position of the individual. These changes were not registered by the lady concerned and further investigation revealed other faults which included the deception of her radiesthesia friend who obtained the same findings as she did. This was a heavy blow to the sensitives whose minds had not been able to previously conceive that a wonderful faculty could be subject to such gross errors. This was a typical case of so called spiritual approaches attempting to judge life from a personal view point. With all thy getting, get understanding was a lesson here. The religious approach in this age has to become more a part of the people and their functions.

Some interesting things happen with the Lotus trinity in that, as expected, some people look on a scientific aspect as their religion because of the great beauty in it, others the artistic and others the religious for the same reasons and it is quite impossible for any general agreement to be reached about a particular thing because each person is looking at it from their own particular position on the tree of life at that time. Although there is disagreement there is a lawful means of explaining it to the participants who can then come to an understanding the situation and assist each other with their view points on a better footing. This has been achieved at a Lotus meeting and it did bring out something in people present that they had never experienced before.

The ancient saying about bringing the 3 poisons together to make virtue is perfectly true. No matter how well the three parts are cleansed and purified they cannot function and give life until they are properly united.

Returning to the function of this country, we feel that it is worthy of detailed attention for the extraordinary number of people it has bred who have rendered distinguished service. In sport there is always a host of world class runners, swimmers, speedway riders, footballers, Scientists, artists, international advisers, in numerous fields. Heads of leading institutions and inventors. Many of the achievements have never been recognized because other countries pride in their own efforts. An example of this was the flight of a New Zealander in his aeroplane before the Wright Brothers. In esoteric matters some prominent leaders of organizations have been astounded at the percentage of people interested in these matters. They have ranked the interest on a population basis as the highest in the world. With only 2 ½ million people a New Zealanders odds of success against the rest of the world in any field is from thousands to millions to 1 of recognition. Yet consistently they can maintain a high place in a wide variety of works. There is nowhere near the sponsorship and training available here that exists overseas and further, practically all control is from remote places in the Northern Hemisphere. The N.Z. Band won the world championships yet could not go overseas this year to defend their title as the players themselves had to foot the bill and had not repaid mortgages on their housed and other debts from the previous time and were turned down by the government as well when they asked for help.

It is interesting to see how foreigners are suddenly influenced into making public statements of N.Z’s unique position and how such a small country could be a world leader in a variety of capacities. The Maori native’s greatest prophet has prophesied events of this nature.

It is obvious that N.Z. has been blessed by a long line of thinking people in high office with the past Governor General as no exception and who has seen fit to go out of his way to wish Lotus well. In 1891 the then Governor, Sir George Grey said to the people of this country. “You are amongst the Heralds you introduce and the Rulers who must guide and direct a New Age, and who must establish as yet an unknown nation, that upon you will have to look a New Race and millions of people. The duty devolving on you is a great one: With humility, yet with fortitude, pursue your task; falter not, walk resolutely on, with love of Mankind your guiding Star; your duty to your Maker the staff on which you lean. Then will God bless you and render you a Blessing to the Ages yet to come.”

Things are now happening that are unquestionably out on their own in this country which is so far removed from the east west hierarchy of power and domination in the northern hemisphere.

It sounds like an interesting professor working on the leaves. The food problem could be solved without any further inventions if even the distribution and monetary aspects of civilization were improved. However, creativeness must go on in all departments of life and we are trying to collect more information on those who have produced milk and other such produces from plants. An English firm we contacted is now producing milk from vegetation and is selling milk fudge, yoghurt, and chocolate from this source. The price is a bit high owing to a small plant and organization. Dr. Carver, the Negro, also produced milk in a similar way, possibly from soya been seed as well. As you say it requires impersonal groups to collect the facts which is a thing we are working towards establishing. As expected interest is increasing round the world now.

Very Best of everything,

S. C. Hull

[first page missing—Ed]

Around 1954 I wrote “ The integration of the Ancient and Modern in the Solution of India’s Problems,” while studying with one Satya Agrawal who was then teaching at the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco, and the University of California in Berkeley. Through him I met Prof. R.S. Parks whom I believe is doing excellent work at the latter institution.

Among Americans I consider Prof. Kingsley Davis as one of the best. But our hampered philosophic and psychological outlooks seem to prevent us, as a nations to grasp over-all views.

I met Vallabhai Patel years ago and one thing impressed me: his assertion that the problems of India should and could be “solved” because in that many of the world’s problems could be “solved.” I believe your “Our Economic Problem” goes a long way toward fulfilling Patel’s cream and perhaps the wishes of many of us.

Sincerely, Samuel L. Lewis

President, Divine Knowledge Society

Block No. 7, 137, Netaji Subhas Road

Bombay 1, India

Dear Friend:

You may be interested to know that some technicians will seen be leaving this area to visit shrines and holy places, and then come together at New Delhi, whence they will tour India.

There is some difference of opinion as to policy. I am favoring that group which feels that more is to be gained by filming and recording the efforts of what may be called the New Age types, and this would automatically include your good self. I am therefore giving your name and address to m disciple Phillip Davenport and my godson Ralph Silver, who may be leaving this area shortly. They have been very much involved in taking pictures and tape recordings of the efforts of your people in this land, and else of presumable holy men from your country, although this word is not exactly defined.

They were originally involved in filming my own spiritual dances, but felt this was not enough, so they have done much more. They have been quite successful in getting financial aid for their enterprises. Indeed, the outlook is now very good for spiritual movements, particularly of Indian origin. For what I know, you would be interested no doubt in having your work filmed and then presented to the world. I am not sure of details.

In any case I am giving your address to my young associated and you should be hearing from them way ahead of time should they visit Bombay.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Raja Mahendra Pratap

Founder of World Federation, Master of Religion of Love.

27th August, 1956

Dear Mr. Samuel Lewis,

I received your card, the name card, from my friend at Rajpur. You called at my Himalayan residence. I thank you.

I shall be at Delhi on the 30th evening and visiting some towns on the way. I hope to be at Rajpur on the 3rd September. I shall try to contact you by phone; if we can meet it will be a pleasure.

I enclose our August Eorld Federation, maybe you did not get it at Rajpur. If you got it please pass it on to some other friend.

Yours sincerely,

M. Pratap

Vincent Isaacs,

Consulting Architect, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh

9 November 1956

My dear Mr. Lewis,

It was real swell of you to think of dropping me a line and giving me all the news in which I am indeed interested. I too hope I will be able to do all I can for the great cause you are working for. Yes, being a Catholic myself and an architect with a knowledge of also church art, music and dancing I am confident we can do something with our combined efforts if you make it possible for me to do my best.

After we met at Ajenta I had travelled a good deal more over the central parts and the South of India, seeing some of the finest temples and real specimens of Indian art. Several photos have been taken by me, some of them are a success some not, because as you saw I have only a box camera to work with—my Rollei having been destroyed and I just can’t get another these days.

Here are some of the ones at Ajenta I took when we were there—I know you like them. I hope it gets you safe. I was also at Hyderabad the other day and by chance met Mrs. Morris. I gave her your best wishes and she was glad to hear that I asked to be remembered also.

I hope to be in Hyderabad again at the last week of this month as we are having a lot of work there these days. Owing to so much of duty I could not write earlier. I’m now writing to your Karachi address: I hope it gets you in time.

Drop me a line when you have some more news for me as I told you. Both my wife and myself were pleased to hear from you and wish you every success in all your doings.

Sincerely,

Vincent Isaacs

April 25, 1957

Dear Friend,

I do not know the address of Janab Almamoon. I [?] here. You believe, you do [?] that, go on doing as you believe. Thoughts make us move. Our blood determines our course. I believe God gave me birth, He keeps me alive; my wisdom was also created in this body. We are tiny wheels in the great Universal machine, with only one difference that we agree to choose between good and evil. This develops unpleasant situations at times. Our evil is washed and we again become true. Religion teaches us the right path, all religions according to time and place gave man instructions. Now Religion of Love has appeared to unite religions, to fight evil, top help goodness. World Federation establishes perfect peace on earth. I am elected to the Parliament, defeating Congress candidate, I shall have my office at Delhi.

Yours sincerely,

M. Pratap

106 Ethel Ave.,

Mill Valley, Calif.

November 30, 1957

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad,

Deputy Prime Minister of India,

New Delhi, India

Your Excellency:

You will pardon me if I start this letter with an apology. It may be an unusual beginning and an unusual apology. For though there is a saying, “Do not bring coals to Newscastle,” it had been the way of life, and to misquote from page 19 or your biography by Mahadev Desai, let me, plunge into the water and say:

Long and wary was Khizar’s way

To the spring of Live:

Despite my being born in the West,

I have slaked my thirst form that spring.

When I arrived at Lahore I went to the Chief of Police and showed him my passport. He looked at me and said: “I do not believe your age.” I said: “Did you ever hear of Khizar?” “Come to lunch.”

For my Sixtieth birthday was celebrated in a manner very strange for one born in the West. I arrived at Ajmir and the station was crowded with people— waiting for me. I knew nobody there, had written to nobody and my schedule had been suddenly changed. But there they were waiting for me. I asked, “What do you want.” “You.” Why?” “Come to Dirgah Shereef.”

So this letter, dear Maulana, is written in love and tears.

I was born in San Francisco and need only tell you two things: I was initiated into tasawwuf many, many years ago. I was the first American permitted to speak officially on Mahatma Gandhi at a public meeting organized by natives of India.

The streams seem different. The connections do not appear causal. I began reading at an early age and already was acquainted with the personality of Gandhi while he was in Africa. Outwardly I did not and do not know why. The connection with Sufism is different. Seeking for a “true religion” I began to accept synthesis.

Let me tell you two more incidents In India. I was out with Khwaja Hussein Nizami, my very good friend. He took me to the Tomb of Humayun. He showed me the grave of Dara Shikoh. I walked around it seven times calling out “Ya Allah!” as I stepped. Then I said, “Let us go” and I did not visit the tomb. He understood. And I went where Dara Shikoh went, Agra and Ajmir and Lahore.

When I went to Fatehpur Sikri I told my guide I was a mad man, and begged him off from taking a crazy person around. I walked solemnly to the tomb of Selim Chisti (how many Americans know about Selim Chisti). Meditated until I received the guidance (which always comes). Then four times in turn I asked my guide where certain places were and four times he said: “You are standing on the sport.” The last place was the house of Tansen. There, although I am a disciple of tasawwuf in a certain sense, I became the Flute of Rumi and the Flute of Krishna which flutes are one, which music pours from my being whenever Allah wishes it.

But this should not be about me. This is an introduction. Yet when your Ambassador Mehta was in San Francisco years ago, Mrs. Henry Grady, the wife (now widow) of the ambassador selected me from a large audience and introduced only me to his Excellency.

I did call on Syed Mahmud the disciple of the late Khwaja Hasan Nizami who was the very close friend of my own Murshid, Hazrat Inayat Khan whose remains are in the compound of the Dirgah Nizam-ud-din Auliya. I did call on Vice-President S. Radhakrishnan whom I regard as one of the world’s great philosophers. Today I am buying all his writings, as well as those of Ambassador Bowles prior to my own writing.

I have read your short biography, not with regret that I did not call upon you, but with a little knowledge of you background.

Recently we had a grand session of UNESCO with the hopes of bringing Americans and Asians closer together. Some things accomplished were wonderful. Unfortunately the speaker on Islam was a non-American, non-Muslim. And some of the leading “authorities” on Islam in this country are non-American, non-Muslims. They teach in common that there are no great Sufis today, and the decline of Islam had been largely due to the reluctance of Sufis to indulge in politics. And then I spoke to the leading “authority” on “Indian Religion” in this country: “This is just like Fatehpur Sikri.” He looked at men with dismay and said: “What are you talking about?”

Yes, dear Maulana, what am I talking about? In the ultimate no doubt there is a dream or fantasy, “In that day will the sun rise in the West and all men seeing believe.” Or an obsession of Abdul Fazl and Dara Shikoh from which I do not wish to be released. And a love for my Murshid and for the Mahatma and for my present Murshid and present Guru, and the Eternal (Ya Hayy! Ya Hakk!), written by a slowly Feringhi.

Dear Sir, may we come to understand each other, with the blessings of Allah.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Ahmed Murad Chisti

106 Ethel Ave.,

Mill Valley, Calif.

2nd September, 1958

P.A Wadia,

K.T. Merchant,

c/o Elphinstone College, Bombay, India

In re: “Our Economic Problem”

Dear Professors Wadia and Merchant:

A number of weeks back the writer suggested an interview with either the local Consul-General of India or one of his staff in order to submit what he considered fundamental answers to the problems besetting your country. This interview is now not necessary for your book includes about everything that I might have thought of. The material is arranged in an excellent manner, the book was very readable (to me) and there is little that could be added.

Unless I have misinterpreted, you have offered an “open” rather than a “closed” systems and dynamic, rather than static approaches. Many economists no doubt use the terms “open” and “dynamic” but an examination of their points of view proves otherwise.

You may wonder why an American should be concerned with such matters. I suppose I am one of the few persons who has devoted himself to many facets of Oriental, and especially Indian culture and history. This covers many fields: history, archaeology, art, philosophy, religion, economics, agriculture, etc., but not languages. In these respects I am not a tyro.

I did stay in your country about three months in 1956 and was welcomed by all kinds of people from Cabinet ministers to peasants, from professors to harijans, from the highest ranking holy men and Sufis to business men and felt quite at home. The one thing received universally was hospitality. I neither know not care whether this was unique but it did happen.

The name of Professor Wadia has been known to me a long, longtime. I was more interested in economics and politics early in life. But always having a world rather than a local outlook, I read the books written by him in collaboration with Professor Joshi. My objection to the narrow study of economics, as well as anything else, is that it tends to narrow out appreciation of nature, man and the universe.

Long years of study and discipline in both Oriental methods and almost contemporary scientific and mathematic teachings lead me to conclude:

All bodies, forms and beings in the universe tend toward a state of stable equilibrium.

This sentence seems to harmonize alike with the teachings of Buddha and Newton and with the general outline of social history. It finally brought me to the acceptance of the “New Economics” which flared for a moment like a brilliant Nova and then disappeared—or did it? Anyhow I must go along entirely with the last chapters of young book which contain prescriptions which I believe will cure the world of its dangerous and/or adherence to communism or Keynesianism which seem threatening to engulf us all.

Around 1954 I wrote “The Integration of the Ancient and Modern in the Solution of India’s Problems” while studying with one Satya Agrawal who was then teaching at the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco, and the University of California in Berkeley. Through him I met Prof. R.L. Parks whom I believe is doing excellent work at the latter institution.

Among Americans I consider Prof. Kingsley Davis as one of the best. But our hampered philosophic and psychological outlooks seem to prevent us, as a nation, to grasp over-all views.

I met Vallabhai Patel years ago and one thing impressed me: his assertion that the problems of India should and could be “solved.” I believe your “Our Economic Problem” goes a long way toward fulfilling Patel’s dream and perhaps the wishes of many of us.

Sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

Thakur Nivas,

173, J. Tata Road, Bombay, 1.

22nd September, 1958

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Your letter is a pleasant surprise to both of us. We are glad to find that our Book is being appreciated abroad. It is an indication that our universe is shrinking in dimensions.

As for Kingsley Davis, we, too, consider him one of the outstanding students of Indian conditions in your country.

Thanking you again for this compliment that you have paid to us,

We remain,

Yours sincerely,

Prof. P.A. Wadia

Prof. K.T. Merchant

40 Atlantic St.

Gloucester, Hass.

July 16, 1960

My dear Mrs. Coomaraswamy:

Twice in social conversations with Mr. & Mrs. (Sam and Esther) Goldberg, they have mentioned your name and suggested I get in touch with you. I understand that at the present time you are engaged in research and writing and there would have to be some important reasons for such a meeting.

I have long been a student of Oriental Art, read all the later Professor’s works, met him once in Boston, and pursued studies and disciplines that were not far from his pet projects and career.

For example I began studying Buddhism in 1920 with one M. T. Kirby who, in later life, became the teacher of the well-known Dr. Malalasekera. Kirby introduced me to Beatrice Lane and Kenneth Saunders. I studied directly under the latter when he gave a course on Oriental Art at the Pacific School of Religions years ago, and his impetus, more than any other one person, has kept me going.

In a purely personal way, two of my early art teachers, Katherine Ball and Perham Nall, became involved in the Orient and gave me further encouragement and for many years I have been studying with my good friend Chingwah Lee, of San Francisco.

At the present moment I am preparing for my second trip to the Orient. I am scheduled to leave New York for Alexandria on August 12th. I have direct introductions to the Art Department at the University of Cairo and also may do some studying there.

For many years there have been two related projects foremost in my efforts: one has been called “World Peace through the Arts” and the other is the building up of the East-West Art Gallery connected with the Rudolph Schaeffer school of Design in San Francisco. The moneys that have been contributed to this Gallery have been devoted almost entirely to the care, maintenance, exhibition and class work on actual objects art and not on buildings, overhead, etc, which characterize some institutions.

In 1956 I visited Japan, Thailand, India, and both wings of Pakistan. Fortunately the Buddha Jayanti Exhibits were on and I guess I have personally seen as much Buddhist Art as anybody on earth. My present trip has in prospectus the visiting of the Gandhara country (e.g. Swat) and perhaps to Bamian in Afghanistan. I also hope to go Ceylon, Malaya, and Indonesia, not visited before.

I suppose I was interested in Dr. Coomaraswamy also from the spiritual and philosophical viewpoints. I have had long training in actual Yoga and studies in Vedanta. Indeed I am already booked to speak at several universities on “The Relationship between Oriental Philosophy and Modern Science.”

I am particularly interested in seeing that any copies of the late Prof. Ananda Coomaraswamy’s works, or any book about him, be in the library of the Rudolph Scheaffer School. There are continual courses covering the arts of the Far East and South Asia. It is probably that both Mr. Schaeffer and several members of the staff knew your late husband personally. They certain refer to him works in their classes and public lectures.

I am therefore wondering if I may call on you at your convenience within the next two weeks.

Sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

Note: There have been several factors delaying my sailing. I am now scheduled to depart on August 12th, going direct to Beirut and Alexandria. I am picking up my Lebanon Visa in New York.

If there are any forthcoming works I am sure you will be interested in them and if I buy them for “me,” they shall nonetheless be put on your shelves.

P.P.S. Within a few moments after writing I met a young man from Ceylon who has offered to become my host when I reach that country.

Please do not answer, as I am constantly traveling. SLL           

Poona, January 29, 1962

Swami Akhilananda,

Ramakrishna Mission

8 Edgefield Road,

Brookline, Mass

Swami-ji:

“Taxi Taxi!” I told the driver to stop the car. “Pardon me, will you do me a favor?” “What?” “Take me to the Ramakrishna Mission.” “Yes, if you will do me a favor?” “What?” Take me to the Ramakrishna Mission.” This happened yesterday on Vivekananda’s birthday. Let me go back.

My trip and visits to the Near East and Pakistan were totally and thoroughly successful but I had trouble with the Indian authorities in getting a visa. During that period they held my passport for a whole month and only through the intervention of the American Embassy did I get it returned—stuck in a foreign land without mail, money or passport. This was a trying period. But outside of that everybody was fine and everything succeeded in so many ways.

I came to India with added spiritual missions and began visiting holy places. Perhaps it was dramatic, but more perhaps it was real that going to the tomb of the martyred Surmad I whispered into the attendant’s ear: “Dara Shikoh.” He almost fainted and then warmly embraced me and gave me the covering over the tomb. For it is certain that in this life I continue the work of the Moghul Prince, and right it and there is no nonsense about it.

Meanwhile my immediate host, one Mithal, also took me to Rehana, a Muslim born lady who seems to favor the Indians. They say that the top people, the President, Vice-President and Prime Minister all favor here. One a re-visit I also met a great Pundit. Unlike the Europeans and Americans who “teach” Indian Philosophy he asked me for my discourse on Gita. I became naught. All I remember was saying:

The Gita Is the Flute of Krishna Turned Into Poetry.

Who took over, I do not know, but the wisdom poured out from the lips. Much of the Sanatana Dharma is to be restored, but by what means I do not always know.

I was fortunate, despite Independence Day, to have half an hour with Dr. Radhakrishnan, terminated by me, not him. Steps have been taken to bring the philosophers of integral outlook of East and West together—and not the apologists for integration or praise of Vijnana, Prajna and Ananda who cannot and do not function.

Sunday evening my host and I parted, he to go to Krishnamurti and I to the Vedanta Temple.

I was In Lyallpur. The erstwhile host was too busy to care for me and almost locked me in a room which happened to contact his Indian Library. There were the works of all the recent “liberators” and there was a chance to compare them. There was no comparison. One had empty words. One had empty claims. One was so full of intellectualisms that even the gods would get tired of readying him. Another was full of self and nothing else. Another was empty of self and nothing else.

Then I picked up a book of swami Vivekananda. The words became living flames and danced all around me. They were flames of pink-love. I could not read, only meditate and adore. Half a page proved to be too much but the experience did not prove to be too much.

Of course claims like these mean nothing to many people but this is exactly what happened. I type it here also because your Brother, Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda receives a copy and I did not relate this to him.

On Sunday night last visited the Ramakrishna Mission. The buildings, not started when I was there before, are completed. The lecture hall was filled by a large audience of high caliber. The talk was to the point—words and symbols can confuse and mislead; spiritual experience does not. The whole stress was on experience. It was the proof-of-proofs.

My own discourses always include: “I am a scientist. What I know of nature comes from study, investigation, research and hard work—all experience. There are no speculations and no emotional adoration of great scientists; only the knowledge that comes as knowledge comes, out of life itself. Spiritual knowledge is not different in this excepting that the knowledge is of a different order.”

This Sunday night the meeting was in open air and all talks but one in English with a loudspeaker. There was also a very large audience. In the morning I had gone to the Dilip Kumar Roy Ashram, an audience of about 200, clean-clothes, intellectual appearances, etc. But this was a much larger audience and I should say 2,000. But the same about clothes and appearances. There is no question that Vedanta is growing. Someone said to me, “It has been predicted that someday the whole world will be following Sri Ramakrishna.” “Who is going to stop it?”

These are strange words form a “Dara Shikoh” or maybe they are normal words from a “Dara Shikoh.”

I gave one poem direct to Swamiji in New Delhi and left another in his absence. I expect to edit a third and give it to him on my return there. My external researches into Vedanta are restricted now but I expect to return here in 1965. The “internals” go on.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

4th November, 1968

Miss Rehana Tyabji,

“Sanidhi,”

Raj Gat,

New Delhi I, India

My dear Sister:

It is with great joy that new one can send you copy of “The Rejected Avatar,” a short epic drawn from the universe to this person. While in a sense no one person is involved in the inspiration, it was greatly stimulated by your spiritual reports to our mutual friend, Mrs. Gale Darling.

I hope this finds you well and in good spirits. At any time now you may be visited by disciples Sheyla McKendrick and Dara Rowell. They have gone to India on several missions, including attendance at the conference of The Temple of Understanding, the Aurobindo Ashram and new communes in your land.

They hope also to visit Ajmir and Anandashram in South India and also to visit various holy places and saints.

“The Rejected Avatar” is but one of an innumerable number of epics coming to this person and rejected by the age now passed. It is a new age here with multitudes of “reincarnated Indians” living in California, and looking to the Orient for inspiration.

Here one teaches both “Dharma” and “Din” and although basically trained in tasawwuf, it is absolutely all-inclusive following the pathways of Emperor Akbar and Prince Dara Shikoh. We are helping the young to realize “God” through poetry and dance and the repetition of sacred phrases. In many respects this is outside of conventional religions. It is as easy to convince the young of the existence of a Supreme Being as it is difficult to draw them to “religion.” They want brotherhood and co-mingling on every level.

All love and blessings.

Samuel L. Lewis

cc-Indian Consulate

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Ca.

April 13, 1969

Dr. Z. Hussein, President,

The Republic of India,

Rashtrapati Bhavan

New Delhi 4, India

Honored Sir:

I greet you both in the name of Allah the merciful and compassionate and also for the profound ideals which represent the whole purport of your life and in a sense mine too. I am known here even among your colleagues as a sort of tanasukh of Prince Dara Shikoh. Indeed in this respect I have had some very strange experiences with regard to one Punjabi sahib who has been in your foreign service and may still be. In any event it seems that my life is to continue the missions of this great Mogul prince; acceptance or rejection on the part of society in no way impels or impedes this mission.

Apart from this or perhaps not apart from this something very strange had me become interested in the late Mahatma Gandhi. I followed his African career very closely and knew much about him when be returned to India.

At a later time when Mr. Vincent Shean asked for comments on his reports of the great Mahatma’s interpretation of the Gita he was very much surprised to find I had been given exactly the same instructions. Not only was there no difference in interpretation but I am pleased to say that this interpretation is now being presented in our local universities. This became clear yesterday in a seminar on Mystical Experience wherein mystical experience was discussed more than the opinions of great men about it.

I had long considered the possibilities of going to India for the Gandhi centennial but there are events in life which impose upon one the need of surrender to the Living Allah more than going on missions in and by one’s ego self. One of my disciples has been urged to come to India and pursue the career of spiritual and Indian dancing, and if God wills this will follow. For it is not lack of funds that stands in the way but other problems.

The name of this disciple is Miss Deborah Churney. She is a beautiful young girl, a fine disciple, and especially adept in devotional dances. She is now studying with a somewhat famous teacher here named Janaki.

Two years ago this person was flat on his back in a hospital suffering from a sudden attack of ptomaine poisoning. At that moment a “revelation” from Allah so to speak—“I make you spiritual leader of the hippies.” One had then 6 followers. Suddenly things began to happen. One saw it all in vision and everything has happened exactly as in vision.

One began teaching Dervish dances. One had already presented to the American public the theme of “Joy Without Drugs.” The message was rejected but there must have been a divine impetus for more and more young people are constantly being attracted and week by week one gains adherents. The rather successful presentation of Dervish dances was followed almost immediately by mantric dances and yoga dances. Whatever others may think the theme of “Joy Without Drugs” has been successfully established.

I am no sloppy sentimentalist about the great Gandhiji. I am actively engaged in teaching the four great Scriptures which he venerated. This is being called more and more to public attention. Beginning working alone there has been a slow but steady increment of money and followers, enough so it can be arranged to send at least one person to India (inshallah) whether it be the aforesaid Miss Churney or more. I have been very active in promoting the Temple of Understanding of Mrs. Judith Hollister with the theme of uniting peoples of all religions in prayer in a single edifice. I have been engaged in this sort of thing all my life with constant failure due to the imposition of important persons, so called, thwarting successful accomplishments constantly. It is only now that the possibility of there being a Living God, a God who can be experienced, which is making any impression on any segment of the public. But even now there are strange refusals to accept the existence of the great Mogul Emperor Akbar or his exact work and accomplishments. I find myself today too old to be thwarted any longer by such ego-interpositions but because there is a Loving God (Allah to whom be all praise) and there is growing acceptation of the divine experience that a new world is beginning to manifest.

My meetings here with my very dear friend the renowned Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj broke through the hard and fast egotism of manas ahankara which has been so dominant in cultural circles. The people of the new age accept the divine experience and that it really can happen to real people with or without artificial or social “credentials.” I shall have sent to you a copy of “The Rejected Avatar.” This is a direct evidence of a purported tanasukh of Prince Dara Shikoh. I can assure you honored sir, I have a large number of epics, all based on the cosmic experience and in time as God wills they will become public.

I intend to give Miss Churney an introduction to my spiritual brother and colleague Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami in your city. A lifelong student of the great epics and the great spiritual heritage of India I feel it is most necessary to draw on these wisdoms to help make this a better world in actuality and not merely in oratory or verbalization. The cultural representatives (or mis-representatives) of India seem to bypass the teachings of rupa nama arupa and much else. Spirituality is much more than intellectuality; there is no change in the teachings concerning manas and ahankara. As American people have begun already to appreciate the Gita and Upanishads so also many are beginning to appreciate the message of Mohammad and the Holy Koran and the actual teachings of the actual Lord Buddha.

Again appreciating my great respect for your person and your philosophy, I remain most faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

410 Precita

September 7, 1969

Darshana International

Moradabad, India

Dear Ram:

I have before me copy of your issue of April 1968 (Volume VIII, No. 2), and am enclosing ten dollars for two years subscription, beginning 1968 and through this year (with the exception of the April issue), and would like also if you can send any condensed table to contents of earlier issues.

I have seen copies of earlier issues which were not always to my liking but either because of changes in the articles and contributors or changes in my own outlook I am more than delighted. And especially with the article on “Attainment of Moksha” by Abhedanand.

I am also delighted that you have listed among the American members Archie Bahm, Oliver Reiser and Gardner Murphy, three men whom I hold in highest esteem and with whom I have been and may cooperate, more or less.

It may be unethical to say that I happen to be perhaps the first American, the first Westerner and even the first human being (I do not know) that has passed all has examinations in Sufism before Sufi Murshids; and all his examinations in Zen before real living Roshis—not before “experts” and “credentialed”-professors or otherwise.

It has been awkward to find a number of groups assuming the term “integrational” but remained as narrow and compartmented as their predecessors. I shall be sending under the same or separate cover “Purna Vedanta Yoga Gita” which I am ashamed to report was first dedicated and inspired by one of the so-called leaders of the “New Age” but which was nastily and summarily rejected by the representatives of this so-called “New Age Prophet” now samadhied. It requited a slight revision but no change in outlook of Samma Drishthi, a term which has been dualistically interpreted by those not having comic experience.

There are now two independent movements going on in this country; (a) Americans, generally deep versed in American-American Philosophy; (b) Indians, who find no place in “cultural integration” centers which place this one above that one, and another below, and so on. Perhaps part of my work will be to bring these Indians and other Asians and Americans closer together, without any of this ego- personality “pseudo-leadership” which is impossible in real integrational movements.

On the one hand there are more and more groups and certainly vastly increasing numbers of Americans who want exactly what you have been advocating. I personally believe many of them are “reincarnated Indians.” I certainly remember some of my lives in your land—which is regarded by the “experts” as the worst form of claim and evidence. And they, ruling out cosmic memory, have commingled Asian wisdom with all sorts of dialectics, personality prowess, “Jungianism”, etc.

Sooner or later Prof. Oliver Reiser’s “Cosmic Humanism” and “Project: Krishna” will prevail.

December 20, 1969

Perfect Peace Lodge

P.O. Box 11

Veyangoda, Ceylon

Dr. K.M.P. Mohamed Cassim

Dear Friend,

We acknowledge with grateful thanks the receipt of your interesting letter dated 9th November, 1969.

We feel that spiritual freedom is the common aim of all people and hence, we spread the message of philosophy to all who are sincerely interested because we are of opinion that mutual exchange of philosophical ideas and aspirations will create spiritual understanding and co-operation. We feel nothing in the world can give us happiness except our Self-Knowledge through which we liberate ourselves. The urgent necessity and the spiritual importance of realizing our true “Self” should be stressed and explained beautifully so that we can manifest the Light of Unity. We must always remember that liberation is a state of ultimate perfection when the ego becomes merged into the oversoul.

We feel that to unfold our divine nature rightly, we must have the capacity to meditate correctly and this meditation will purify our hearts. Then we will be able to uplift our hearts to that realm of divinity which provides bliss and liberation. By concentrating our whole attention in self-contemplation, we spontaneously train our minds to have a glimpse of the Infinite. We must fully realize the fact that we are not the physical bodies or minds, but in essence we are divine and this divinity can be experienced directly when the mind is still. To live always in a state of stillness is the right method of meditation and then life will be full of joy with inner freedom.

We feel that an aspirant must develop his physical body and mind side by side along with his spiritual progress. The body and the nervous system should be kept strong and healthy. The mind can be trained efficiently by regular meditation. Life without meditation is dull and to enjoy life fully one must purify the body and the mind. We all seek happiness, but we can have real happiness only in meditation because through meditation alone we are able to contact higher spiritual vibrations which purify and vitalize the whole body, nervous system and mind. Life is so sweet and sacred that we must purify ourselves from moment to moment by constant meditation. There is great pleasure in leading a pure life. Perfect peace can be experienced in profound meditation. The best way to be happy is to purify our minds. Our physical bodies and minds are instruments to be developed and used carefully for self-realization.

We are now reaching a stage when there is the possibility of a new life as unseen divine forces are working at a tremendous speed for the spiritual benefit of all. We can feel now the inside power inspiring us and guiding us to realize Supreme Consciousness. We need not suppose that this age is ill-fitted for the discovery of to a higher spiritual development. May the divine light shine upon us at every step and illumine our meditative path.

With best wishes and fraternal greetings,

Yours in Universal Service,

Dr. K.M.P. Mohamed Cassim

December 29, 1969

Prof. K. T. Merchant

11, Dariya Mahal

80, Nepean Sea Road

Bombay 6, India

My Dear Friend:

I must thank you for your Christmas greeting. We celebrated Christmas here without a tree, but with a cross; without presents excepting lighted candles and also scented candles which were blessed and offered to a growing number of young people who now regard this person as a “Guru.”

All the outlooks are changing. One is in considerably better financial condition with a growing entourage of young people who seek spiritual development in ways more adoptable to the age. Verbally one might call this “Fatehpur Sikri” outlook. It is certain that young America wished to adopt a more universal outlook in all things. It is almost amusing to find some rather important persons in this country signing their letters “Hare Krishna.” It is a sign of the times.

I am watching affairs in India in a manner not easily verbalized. I was taught at an early age that politics would become useless without set economic programs. I therefore have adopted a rather dis-enchanted view and will continue so until your own works are better studied, if not understood. I am therefore again asking, earlier letters having been filed or misplaced, for a list of all your works outside the field of sports, which I now intend to order, and not only order, but place in the hands of persons and institutions.

A very close colleague of mine, Mr. Bryn Shamcher Beorse, is now busy with his own literary efforts. Mr. Beorse has a world outlook, based on travel, adventures, careers, professions, and outlooks. He is far ahead in his study and adaptations of economics. I believe your two outlooks are rather similar and also both profound, and also both contain seeds of solutions of present-day problems.

I cannot of course impel your people to accept you, but the present trends in this land indicate that many will be accepting or following Mr. Beorse as above. I am of course placing a copy of this letter in the hands of the local Consul General. I do not of course, of hand, expect the government of India to accept you and your work anymore then I can expect the government of the United States to accept the careers and findings of Mr. Beorse and myself.

I am now preparing to attend a convocation under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding to be held this coming here, now scheduled for Geneva, Switzerland. The mere fact that spiritual and ecclesiastical leaders of all faiths will be meeting together is of itself important.

I can also call your attention to the reports of the leading scientists of this country who are now having their own convention and also reaching rather universal conclusions. Other than the plans to go to Geneva, one can only say we are working on “Dances of Universal Peace” originally offered to some leaders in your country, but then snubbed by them for personal reasons, but at least snubs have been followed by apologies leaving a degree of uncertainty. But there is no uncertitude in my mind about your economic and social outlooks, and I am hoping that these along with the findings of Mr. Beorse, as above, and others of this, land, will receive a favorable response in the future.

Wishing you a most happy new year, and with all cordiality,

Samuel L. Lewis

December 30, 1969

Mr. Adi K. Irani

King’s Road

Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India

Beloved One of God:

There is a Chinese custom that at the end of a year all debts should be paid. One is not asking for debts to be paid. One is not asking for the full acceptance of the Lord’s Prayer of Jesus. One does not know if one may even request that devotees of actual faiths put this into practice. There is a Sufi tradition of the Sufis who are actual Sufis and not verbalized Sufis that what one cannot obtain from man in the way of justice and honesty one should record to the account of Allah and accept His judgment as final. This is a real surrender to a real living God, beyond verbalized devotion.

I have before a copy of “Divya Vani” 25 January 1968, in which there are some prayers. I have asked three presumable followers of Meher Baba about the use of them and gotten three answers. This was a test. It was a test to demonstrate to the world that those who claim to be the closest followers of the late Meher Baba are concerned with their egos and not with any supreme being.

Of course I want to use “The Prayer of Repentance.” Of course I want to use “My Work” by Meher Baba. I wanted to use these without any comment whatsoever, unless it be a comment that there are certain very much-favored persons, and when there are certain very much-favored persons the claim to Divinity flops, and I mean flops.

I was once a Baba devotee. I performed all the disciplines, etc., required by him, and found myself in compulsory servitude under those who did not, did not even have to practice these disciplines. What is more I became victimized, and I mean before God victimized, by persons still presumable representatives of Meher Baba, who acted contrariwise of every item on page 5 of the January 1968 issue. What is more, I was told emphatically that every enterprise in which I was engaged was contrary to the wishes of Meher Baba, and so contrary to God. This included enterprises revealed in mystical experiences from and by Divine Messengers of the past. I have had to continue on these enterprises despite a myriad of obstacles placed in my path by the presumably chosen devotees of Meher Baba.

What do you think my feeling has been when I have read that Baba himself condemned such actions, and condemned them seriatim. And what do you think my feeling has been when I found that Baba himself was in favor of the major enterprises which I have been engaged, and am engaged. And before God I shall continue to be so engaged.

Therefore I am not asking position to utilize any prayers. There is, there can be, no copyright Fateha, or the Sermon on the Mount. Inasmuch as there seems to be a copyright on the prayers of Meher Baba etc., this itself is the best negative evidence, and it can only become positive evidence when justice and rectitude are practiced toward human beings.

When personality interference prevented each and every enterprise deep in the personal consciousness, the real universal God showered his Grace through the personalities of earlier and historical Divine Messengers. One of my Sufi teachers said, “I will accept no rejection from the heavens,” but that it is all I previously received from certain apparently favored personalities.

We are here now faced with the advent of not a few real or fanciful “Messiahs” and “Avatars.” The social world is already accepting some of them. None of them have put out to me prayers comparable to those voiced by Meher Baba, but they just might have followers who are taught and who practice love and consideration for and with humanity.

As the present situation stands it should appear that I will be called on practically to fulfill those endeavors inspired from and by the Living God. I am asking nothing.

Religious people sin against men and go to God for repentance; in the South Sea Islands devotees sin against God and go to man for repentance. I think that is the superior way, so I ask for nothing. It has taken a long time to reach the plateau of inner peacefulness, of inner joy, of inner potentialities, and of cosmic wonder, but it has been reached.

We sang in the recent Advent “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” We find there is a way of reaching, experiencing, and sharing this Divine Joy.

With love and blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

March 1, 1970

His Excellency V. V. Giri

Vice President of India

c/o The Indian Institute of World Culture

6, B.P. Wadia Road,

Basavangudi, Bangalore 4

India

Dear Ram:

Copy of Civilization at the Cross-Roads of Destiny has been placed in my hands by my good friend Mr. Russell Joyner who is associated with International Society for General Semantics and other institutions.

I am not going to review this book; I am going to put it into action. The trouble with India, if one assumes the right to criticize any nation which no same man can logically do, is that India has been so afraid of rajas it falls into tamas constantly. But we have a new breed of American here, a type of young American who take as readily to the Dharma as many Asians Indians, and non-Indians, begin to disdain it. While I am going to review your booklet because this is asked for, I intend rather to apply it, and am therefore carrying it with me to Geneva, where followers of many religions will be meeting soon. They will be meeting soon, great persons, great intellectuals, great ecclesiasts, and perhaps a man of wisdom or a woman of wisdom also. If they are going to repeat the same old programs of oratory, motion, and harangue, we night as well close shop. I have seen in America, including Europe, these grand gatherings over a period of years, peace conferences followed by wars. I have had to listen to the terrible bombast of the highest and powerful politicians receiving tumultuous applause, followed by mass murder under the very type of politics they, the leader, could have controlled and have not. Why, I have even been sent on a subtle peace feeler mission between Pakistan and India, and been berated by the foreign office of this land where-upon the Tashkent Convention followed.

I suppose, despite all logic, or perhaps because of the application of a super-logic, one can easily enter into harmony with you both on the personal level and on the cosmic level. I do not know whether I am appealing to your prejudice or to your wisdom, finding myself in almost total agreement with you on all major points.

The great problem today is not between hypothetical good and evil, but between oratory and achievement. At one point you mentioned the humanists and the scientists; one could equally say the asuras and the devas. Jesus Christ assailed the Scribes and Pharisees, that is to say the dualists. But it is these very persons who have gained control and can hold control over the media of exchange, and as long as they sit in the driver’s seat, we will have trouble; we shall be divided; we will even do as the Christians do, say “Galilean thou hast conquered” and keep up the same patterns; we shall even do as the contemporary Indian people do, utilize words like “advaita,” “Vijnanavada,” “world outlook,” etc., etc., and exclude.

Here I must interject data which give one the right to make remarks. I am one of the few Americans who long ago, and I mean long ago, read all Max Muller’s Sacred Books of the East. It is almost 50 years since the first studies in the Gita. In 1931 I read the entire Tipitaka—and I have never been forgiven by those now disappearing. The Greeks used to say, “When the Gods arrive, the half-Gods go.” Indian literature often refers to the wars between the devas and asuras.

I have had in my life private interviews with the late Villabhai Patel, your magnificent retired President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, your congressional leader Sri Surendra Mohan Ghose, and most of all, with your noted demographer Dr. Chandra Sekhar whom I have met many times in many separate parts of this world. I am at odds with those so-called “world movements” which ignore the historicity of Emperor Akbar. I am devoting my time to Dances of Universal Peace, which I hope to bring to your land in the not distant future.

First I must commend you for quoting the Dhammapada. We have a lot of drivel in this world today called “Buddhism.” Perhaps it is fortunate self-centered misleaders do not use the word “Dharma.” There is no question that not only can anger be overcome, it can be transmuted.

Gandhiji did accomplish, and this is more important than any rhetoric about him. The above criticism that India has been afraid of rajas, so afraid of rajas that it has fallen into tamas, partly applies to him. I am only hoping that some devotee will arise to proclaim Satyagraha, even if on more occasions. Personally I hold that the Satyagraha of Gandhiji and the prajna of Dr. Radhakrishnan are ultimately one. The question is how are we going to put it into practice.

I should be equally enthusiastic about Swami Vivekananda. He was assisted in this land on his first visit by my own distant relatives. Personally, I consider Sri Ramakrishna as close to being a true Avatar as anybody. I hope you will agree that if India continues to be overrun by “Avatars” and not by humanism and humanitarianism, the same dis-enchantment will continue.

At this point I am so much in agreement with your concluding words, “Let the words from Ishopanishad ring in our ears: “He who sees all creatures in himself and himself in all creatures—such a one does not dislike or hate anybody,” that it is difficult to write. I must tell you that nothing is more difficult then to convince this is true to the leaders of the so-called “World Union” and rival organizations with headquarters in America, Europe and Australia. They all proclaim, and all ignore each other. And nothing is so easy than to present this to young America today.

Recently a young American, originally Dr. Richard Alpert of Harvard University, touring as Baba Ram Dass, presented this idea to thousands of young Americans. He spoke to many thousands throughout this land, to many many thousands, and collected untold sums of money. Not a word in the press. When the rakshasas or asuras start even a small incident it receives world coverage. When the devas go out and chant mantrams, and appeal to Divinity, in which they are very successful in this land today, not a word in the press, nothing on television, little on the radio.

It is therefore not a question of anything but pitting into practice. Alas, many of your leaders, many persons proclaiming themselves to be important Hindus adhere to manas-shankara. They want to lead. They take nothing but their own leadership. You find them everywhere. But again, asuras do not cooperate with other asuras, and devas do cooperate with other devas, and this is a marvel; in the end truth will win, call it Sat, call it Vrat, call it by a Western word.

Let me tell you, your Excellency, that the youth of America are arising spiritually. At the very first meeting which took place in this city, a protest meeting, exactly 7 persons accepted a social revolution; at that time 100s and soon thousands accepted a spiritual revolution, and joined Allan Ginsberg in reciting mantrams. The only difference between my work and that of the persons mentioned herein is that I also chant the Sufi sacred phrases. I lost the “good will” of the so-called World Union when I told them I was not a graduate of any great university, but of Ajmir, New Delhi, and Kanhangad. For years and years I was disclaimed by everybody. Then our good friend Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda came to the University of California. When the professors (and students) witnessed the greeting they began opening their doors and they have been open ever since. We have a splendid department of South Asian studies at the University of California in Berkeley. The same trend is appearing elsewhere. When I wrote a letter to the well known Dr. Milton Singer of Chicago University about his book on Sri Krishna, he immediately made arrangements to send me free copies. And no doubt it is egotism, but this person who is by training a Sufi Murshid, is putting on various forms of ras-lila and has the fall cooperation of at least one Indian dancing teacher here.

Besides that, contrary to all logic and logistics, I am also representative of the Grand-Master of Korean Buddhism, who encouraged study in meditation in Avatamsaka School, which is nothing but a Buddhist variant of the Ishopanishad. Or as the American Walt Whitman said, “In all men I see myself.” Therefore there is nothing to say, just to do, and I am proud enough of the American pragmatic tradition to wish to do what you are saying; to wish to apply, and that is exactly what the present program holds for me. I hope that the next few I will present these very principles, these very ideas and ideals to young men and women in and around London and in and around Boston. With a period of no program to follow. And then in the month of June to direct a summer school where these very teachings have already been applied, and may be applied further to the rising new America, an America of Vijnanavadins and Anandavadins and not the old manas-ahankara crowd controlling institutions and vocabularies.

With all feelings of good will, this Sufi greets you as the Jumna and Ganges greet each other at Allahabad.

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

II, Dariya Mahal,

80 Nepean Sea Road,

Bombay 6, India

2nd March, 1970

Many thanks for your kind letter of Dec. 29.

It was very good of you to speak to Mr. Bryn Beorse who wrote me asking if he could send a copy of his report to me for my remarks. I have received it—President’s Vision and the That Ancient Bugle-directly from the Merit Press a few days back. I will go through it carefully and send my comments on the Economics section as per his desire as early as I can. For I very much regret to say that Prof. Wadia expired on Friday 6th February at 6:30 p.m. I had met him a few days before and he was not so bad. Lately, he was confined to bed and about a month or so back, he had told me that the call from above was now coming and that he had his day. He was 91 and we had tea together with two other friends on his last birthday on 16th December,’69. He was a great soul and my guide, friend and philosopher—almost my father. One great thing about him was that he never bore ill-will to any one—even to those who harmed him. He was a true Christian believing in Love. We are holding a meeting to mourn his death on the 12th inst. I feel a big void in my life which can never be filled up.

I shall send you the list of our works soon. I am making a list of all the writings of Prof. Wadia. His first work—Philosophers and the French Revolution—was published in 1904 in London under Social Science Series. I could get a copy of the second edition published in Bombay by the Times Press in 1905 or so from the Library but the first edition could not be traced.

I have noted with great interest what you say in your letter. The clash between personalities—not on principles but for Poweris going on India. I do not know how it will end. Violence is growing, linguistic chauvinism rules the day and the Shiva Sena—a definitely Fascist body whose leader Bal Thakre swears by Hitler and Mein Kampf is his Bible. The Govt. seems to be in sympathy with it. Last year in February, it reigned terror for three days and today it has paralyzed the City by a call for bandh—strike. In Bengal and Kerala the United Front Govts with the Communists dominating are misruling because of the factions-fighting among the communists. There is the rising strength of the Naxalites-extremist communists following the Mao line and philosophy. And the Congress divided into “Indicate” and “Syndicate” is busy with faction fight, not caring as to what is happening to the community at large and the Economy. All are out for personal power and aggrandizement.

I am glad to learn that you are to attend the Temple of Understanding Convocation at Geneva to be held in March and Munishri Chitrabhanu, a Jain Saint, with whom I am in much contact is also going to attend it. He has been invited to attend along with three others from India. I have told him about you and you will be able to meet him. I do not know if you have seen some of his books which have been translated in English and have had a good reception abroad—Fountain of Inspiration, Lotus Bloom, The Beacon, Inspiring Anecdotes, etc. I had contributed a foreword to his biography—Half an Hour with a Saint written by Bakza some years back. I am sure will find in him a great soul whose teachings and preachings are very effective in Bombay, during the last 9 years. He has a very fine and charming personality and his command over Indian languages is wonderful. His command over English is not so good though he can converse in it. He has a number of foreign followers also. After you meet him at Geneva, please let me know your reactions of him. He is very well versed in Sanskrit and Indian Philosophy.

Looking at what is happening all around I have come to the conclusion that affluence and poverty have the same social consequences and that the main social problems cannot be solved by mere material prosperity. In the last analysis, Man does not live by bread alone and so unless Humanist and Humane values are accepted and practiced, there can be no progress is the real sense of the word. The whole Economics Science will have to undergo a transformation. It is a healthy sign that Economists like Mishan and others are now concerned with the Costs of Economic Growth about which we have been talking all along to our students. But I am rather pessimistic about the future.

I do wish I have a chance to go to U.S.A. on a lecture tour or a sort of visiting Professorship, now that I have retired. It also would be a good thing for me to have a firsthand experience of a work of yours and the like people. The USA mission here told me that I was over age for a visiting Professorship. So, this would remain now a pious desire.

My son Deepak is at the Cornell University in Ithaca in the Operations Research Dept since Sept, 1969. He completed his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the I.I.T. Bombay last June winning the Presidents Gold Medal for standing first. The Cornell University has awarded him a Fellowship.

More next time.

With warmest regards,

Cordially yours,

K.T. Merchant

P. S. I am sorry I could not write to you earlier.

March 7, 1970

Prof. K. T. Merchant

11, Dariya Mahal,

80 Nepean Sea Road, Bombay 6,

India

My dear friend:

I am answering your letter of March 2 because there may be little time later on this month. My secretary and I are now preparing to go to Geneva, me representing an effort to bring about an integrational standpoint rather than any of the various sectarianisms which, one can be sure, will be presented; he representing youth. At least he was one of the best scholars who studied under Prof. Huston Smith of M.I.T., who is regarded as one of this country’s leading authorities on Asian cultures, a point on which I heartily agree. I must thank you for your introduction to the Jain Saint, and may keep your letter with me when I go abroad. I am also carrying with me an address by your esteemed vice-president V.V. Giri, although there is a question in my mind as to how far he may actually believe in what he said, and how far he intends to implement this. Words are so easy. And this country is full of dualists who call themselves Advaitins, and few of them even recognize the existence of each other.

I can understand your grief from the passing of the late Prof. Wadia, but I also realize you know very well that all of us are marked for transition, sooner or later. What I am concerned with is the preservation of his philosophies, both his philosophy itself and his applications thereof to problems of this world. There is now so much emotional pratter about poverty etc. which when one comes down to it remains as words, never as thoughts, or practical applications. I will therefore welcome either any books or booklets you send me. I hope to be able to places these in the department of South Asian studies at the University of California in Berkeley, and perhaps elsewhere. But I am also copying your letter for them, as it contains many items of interest to them, as well as to myself.

I am totally at war with our present methods of news reporting. It is a long and terrible story. It is equally a long and terrible history. If an American citizen happens upon those whom he considers the enemies of his country he immediately becomes suspect. It is horrible. I have been through this many times. But this is nothing compared to the history of Miss Julie Medlock, who is now residing at Auroville, Pondicherry, believing that the late Sri Aurobindo had the answers to many of the problems of the day. For example, this morning we were discussing in class some of the events of Laos; she once lived in Laos and uncovered a horrible conspiracy. Instead of her reports being considered she was blacklisted. That is only the beginning, and I do not wish to go into it further, but if she ever writes her memoirs it can shake this land and many other lands to their roots. For facts to be accepted they usually have to come from a person who also is accepted.

So many of the things you write seem to be repeating the history of Germany before the rise of Hitler. On the one hand, I have never fully accepted nonviolence without Satyagraha. On the other hand, there is the ever-present tyranny of words coupled with the almost equal tyranny of being everything on personalisms and personality. The wrong application of Gandhian philosophy has led to strife and assassinations in this land.

    My own observations in Travancore Cochin brought me to the conclusion that there is horrible land wasted and a complete, almost a deliberate, misunderstanding of scientific agriculture. This is all the more the pity because the students I met at Bangalore seemed equally well-versed in the application of the modern sciences to food problems as any I have met anywhere. Although I am going to a conference purportedly trying to bring about world peace by the application of religion—whatever that means—in practice Christianity is God the Father; Islam is God the Grandfather; Hinduism is God the Grand-uncle. And my point of view is that not only the lamb and the lion must lie down together, but also a child, that is youth, must lead, and on this point all elders suddenly seem to close ranks. So in the stead of calm or not so calm application of scientific knowledge and human skills, each part of the world strives to preserve some ideology, beautiful on paper, but valueless for solutions (we have this right here in this region in the discussions on pollution and ecology).

    My goddaughter, who is a Pakistani, is also at Cornell University. I have been invited there, but my financial situation is complicated, so complicated I cannot call it precarious or prosperous or anything, awaiting for future events including several legal matters which have to be thrashed out. On my return from Geneva and London, I must first go to Boston, Massachusetts, and then return here. But the ides are excellent. The young people are now turning toward me, as their elders turned against me. A period of almost a priori rejections has now been followed by a counter-period of a priori acceptings. It is still personality rather than objective honesty, and there is a vast difference between the verbalisms about democracy and not a few aspects of human behavior. I should like to be accepted because of achievement, not of personality, just as previous rejections came via personality and not because of knowledge or achievement.

    Your vice-president has declared for humanism. On paper this is wonderful; on paper. But most humanists in this region confine themselves to Aryan outlooks, generally the Aryans of Europe somewhat expanded to include Jewish and Biblical outlooks and traditions, but very little toward actual world outlooks.

    However, I am not going to complain. On the contrary, this means my opportunity to bring about better understanding where better understanding is needed.

    In the current issue of “California Monthly” published by the University of California, the chief article is entitled “The Convergence of Science and Religion.” I find the writer, Dr. Charles H. Towne who has been a Nobel winner in Physics, has expressed in most excellent language the universal, integral outlook which is also connoted by the Sanskrit term Vijnanavada. Coming so near to home, so to speak, I am very delighted. But I am also delighted by the turn of events on the campuses of the great University of California. I can assure you that this huge university, this huge institution is full of marvelous wonders which are never brought to public attention. Therefore the possibility of placing your good self and of your guru the late Dr. Wadia, may ultimately bring a turn in events and outlooks which can only be pleasing.

I have been working for years on the thesis, “Dance of Universal Peace.” It is my inheritance from my late fairy god-mother Miss Ruth St.-Denis. I have now a large number of dances based on the theme of the Dervishes and sometimes Dervish Dancing; on Indian mantrams; and on ceremonies of both ancient and not so ancient cultures (my work on traditional but forgotten Christian religious dances will be resumed this coming autumn). I also have the full co-operation of a local Indian teacher of dance. Last week an educational television station took the first pictures of a presumable series of these dancing efforts. I am by nature a pragmatist. And perhaps at times become impatient with philosophies like dialectics and existentialism which seem to me totally egocentric and even superficial although this may be disputed. Nevertheless, I am attracting more and more young people in this region at a time when interest in the cultures of your country is mounting at a tremendous rate. Therefore my long-standing pessimism is being modified by the events of the day, and if I am able to hold my own as I expect before the world’s leaders, this may be followed by a much more optimistic report. For the above and other reasons, I will try to keep in touch with you as events go on.

Sincerely and cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

March 24, 1970

Surendra Mohan Ghose

21, Janpath

New Delhi, 2, India

A most belated new year’s greeting has reached here at a most auspicious time. We have also been receiving literature from the Anandashram of Kanhangad in which the late Swami Ramdas predicted that India had a spiritual message for all the world, but I do not see it necessarily coming to the world through the agency of your countrymen. It is with considerable sorrow that I face an awkward fact that many of your countrymen and their friends simply do not accept Indian history. But I do not believe their failure to accept Indian history necessarily prevents the achievement of a most important goal. I am about to leave here to attend a conference of all the religions of the world to convene shortly at Geneva, Switzerland. Their putative goal is peace. And while I am not representing India, but rather claiming to have an actual worldview, my immediate program is a compilation of ideas and efforts of Emperor Akbar, Prince Dara Shikoh, and Presidents Radhakrishnan and Giri. I have been unable to convince some of your colleagues that the integration of these several efforts might lead to a better world, nor have I any intention any longer to try and convince them that the actual, not just the verbal, integration of their historical efforts and accomplishments might do much to bring about a really better world—not just verbally but in actuality.

At the same time I have already been given suitable introductions to the delegations from India, which may make it possible to coordinate my own efforts, personal and impersonal, with those of the representatives of various facets of both contemporary and traditional Indian cultures. Success on my part is going to make it awkward for persons and groups who have turned their backs on historical realities. I certainly do not understand why. I cannot see where anything or anybody is harmed by recognizing the actual contributions of the Sufi Moguls in the efforts to promote better understanding and perhaps peace.

There are of course very human elements involved. That is to say, whatever I, Samuel Lewis, comparative unknown, present, it might be rejected because I am unknown, but if the same program were presented by the well known Presidents Giri or Radhakrishnan, it would be accepted. This, my friend is the very attitude which prevents the achievements of peace and understanding. According to the cosmic teachings of the religions of the world, it is not the personality that counts, but the attainment. While according to the practices of human kind, it is the personality that matters not the achievement, and if this attitude continues we are not going to have any world peace, with all the emotional hypocrisy which keeps man blinded as to the truth. However, as I see it, we are now in a New Age; in an age in which the young at least are not concerned with the traditional hypocrisies and duplicities, an age in which truth is no longer bound to and by the personalities presenting it. Furthermore, I think for the first time in the world’s history youth will be given an ample opportunity to express itself. The youth that is manifesting today, manifest exactly as Sri Aurobindo predicted. But it is also almost exactly as Bulwer Lytton, H.G. Wells and others predicted, and the failure to recognize these predictions from other sources is a great stumbling block preventing any achievement of any world union.

It also becomes a little awkward, when in the same mail one is notified of the efforts of a so-called “World Union” operating locally, and another “World Union” so to speak with headquarters in New Zealand. Each ignoring the efforts of the other group, and not only ignoring the efforts of the other groups—there are several more—but reacting against all efforts advising that there are other and for the moment rival groups, where there could be common integrational efforts.

I am in no position to try to offer advice to those who will not accept not advice, but simple human information. This compels me to operate as if alone, feeling that there is a Universal God who will favor those actually engaged in universal efforts, however organized or unorganized these efforts be.

But I am not going to Geneva alone. I have been summoned to several distant places by the young. They would gladly join in a World Union or world union, but they can hardly be attracted to any organized movement of their elders in which they are compelled and I mean compelled, to play inferior roles.

The Dances of Universal Peace have just been prescribed publicly. They have been recorded by television equipment. Although quite unadvertised, over 200 young people responded and joined. This is hard facts. It still remains unsettled to whom these dances will be dedicated, but God willing, they are going to be dedicated. They are presenting cosmic outlooks, not verbal but actual. Not only that, the young who participate in them feel the rise of ananda-consciousness. One cannot compel anybody to accept such efforts or achievements, but their exclusion by your colleagues places them not me in an awkward position. I would not have it this way; they will not have it any other way.

We do not only teach we try to manifest Tam Tvat Asi. We see the Divine in all people—actually. And the young, not only the young of America, are responding to these efforts.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

May 5, 1970

H. H. Muni Shri Chitrabhanu

President, Divine Knowledge Society

Block No. 7, 137, Netaji Subhas Road

Bombay 1, India

My dear friend:

Perhaps I owe you an apology. We did not get together at the conference. There is an aspect of my life which is not necessarily noble. You must understand that I may be a great many years older than most of the persons at the conference. My religion, if you want to call it that, does not uphold the principle that age necessarily betokens wisdom, and I do not necessarily demand respect therefore. But age has certainly tired certain aspects of the personality, producing habits which are not always easily changed. For instance, I have lost all respect for people who plead for humility. Counter-balancing this, I have considerable respect for those who evince curiosity. There have been so many movements in this world proclaiming the nobility of humility, followed by a marked disrespect for each other. I am still curious. I am still among the curious, but did not evince this for curiosity should have been demonstrated by asking you more about your work, about your divine society, etc.

There is no question that the present circumstances on the surface of the earth have made me concerned or over-concerned with certain particular dramas which are now arousing men’s emotions and producing something quite different from the often proclaimed “nonviolence.”

I first became aware of Mahatma Gandhi not later than 1911, maybe before. He was already what we call “old hat” to me when he returned to India. My interpretation of Gandhi is somewhat different from that usually discussed. And to make it worse, I was one of the few people whom Vincent Sheehan answered during his international discussions on the philosophy of the late Mahatma.

I do not know how you feel about this. To me Gandhiji was complete with his satyagraha, and the nonviolent movement is incomplete without this. If I had been one of the principle speakers I would, however, have proclaimed my good friend Dr. Radhakrishnan, with his Prajna. I find that even among the great there are persons who will accept an affirmation if it comes from an important person, and not accept the same when it comes from an unimportant. My disciples here sang from Handel’s “Messiah” last Christmas. This begins with the proclamation, “Every valley shall be exalted and every hill laid low.” This is very nice—on paper. It is not always operative. I am ready to proclaim it next year no doubt, when as a sort of veteran, I may be more readily accepted. But this does not tell me anything about your point of view.

I have assumed that there is the existence of divine knowledge. It may be called by various names.

No doubt you were right in your appeal for more love and tolerance, but to me an appeal is not enough. Perhaps because I am an American I am constantly demanding action rather than emotions and also I am finding here in America that the young readily respond to action, and very little to emotion.

I would be glad to receive any literature from you. I might even work it into my programs in this country. My programs are now being accepted more and more in this land, accepted by all persons and groups including the University, but not accepted by a strange sort of ego proclaims whom I shall not name, but me until recently dominated the public presentation of what passed for Oriental Philosophy. This is no more. The young are seeking spirituality, and the majority also believe in non-violence. But the violent who control affairs are constantly compelling them to exhibit any latent violence, whether they like it or not. And the press proclaims every sort of violence, and disdains any sort of success by non-violence, especially since the assassination of the late Martin Luther King.

If you see his please give my respects to my friend Dr. Merchant. I am hoping the world can use more of his ideas. I believe the acceptance of his ideas and principles would terminate the depressions and poverty that now so confuse us.

Sincerely and Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

May 19, 1970

Institute of Marketing & Management

New Delhi-3, India

Mr. Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Avenue

San Francisco, California 94110.

Dear Mr. Lewis:

I was very happy to note from the address list sent by The Temple of Understanding, Washington, D.C. that you were able to attend the Second Spiritual Summit Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. I was unfortunately unable to go to the Second Conference although I attended the first one in Calcutta in 1968.

I am going to be in your City arriving there on August 2, 1970. I hope it will be possible for us to have a chat so as to bring myself up-to-date on the overall progress made with regard to ideas, plans and programmes initiated, both in Calcutta in 1968 and in Geneva this year.

My address:

From June 2 to 11:

c/o Mr. Roman L. Hruska, Jr.

133 Springside Road, Walnut Creek California 94596 (U.S.A.)

From June 14 to August 2:

Visiting Professor

College of Business Administration

Marquette University, 606 North Thirteenth Street

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233. (U.S.A.)

With best wishes and looking forward to meet you.

Very sincerely yours,

Dr. Jagjit Singh

Secretary General & Editor, Management Digest

6th June 1970

Chitrabhanu (His Holiness Muni Shri Chandraprabh Sagar)

Bombay

Dear Mr. Lewis

I too had noticed you at the conference and had a desire to exchange views and ideas with you but I somehow did not find the time and the opportunity to do so. To me, you seemed to represent youth and your letter confirms my impression. You are refreshingly youthful in your curiosity. I was happy to learn of your interest in the activities of the Divine Knowledge Society. The Society tries to promote understanding among people and to create an awareness of the present situation through talks and literature. We publish a magazine. We have been assisting students in various ways and have tried to help several needy causes.

I was glad to learn that you were presenting Oriental philosophy to people there in the light of your own understanding. I was sorry to learn that certain groups have been presenting Eastern ideas in a distorted fashion.

I do share your concern over the growth of violence all over the world. I feel that we must approach our problems without sentimentality and with understanding and love. You write that appeals for love and tolerance are not enough; I agree and I understand your impatience in this regard. I may add that there is a danger that we may become prisoners of platitudes.

But it has also been my experience to see ideas concretely realized through action and we often reap results if we earnestly believe in them. Even good intuitions are not enough; we need a positive will to act.

I would be glad to learn about your programmes and activities.
Love and blessings,

Chitrabhanu

Written at Lama Foundation;

return address: 410 Precita

San Francisco 911110 USA

[To: Chitrabhanu]

Beloved One of God:

I have before me your most interesting letter of 6 June. In this life a person is often placed in a quandary. If he knows and speaks he is accused of bombast and conceit. If he does not speak it often happens that darkness enters where there should be light.

In 1915 there was an international exhibition in my city of San Francisco; I decided that inasmuch as God, so to speak, had created many people, with many points of view and cultures, that my own might not be the favorite. After a few inquiries I came to a conclusion that all religions were correct, that mankind is subject to karma and reincarnation, and that there were states of consciousness beyond the here/now within the possibility of direct experience.

My first ventures beyond the Bible were into the Upanishads. At that time I was a student of mathematics, philosophy, and above all, mathematical philosophy. There seemed to be an unseen harmony between the assumedly Western teachings here and the Indian traditional culture. But within a few years I met both a Sufi and Buddhist spiritual teacher and became involved in not only intellectual but disciplinary training.

From 1920 to 1956 I should say my life was one of extreme hard-ship, problems, hazards and also great internal adventures which were seldom accepted seriously excepting by A. Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi teacher; B. Nyogen Senzaki and C. Sokei-an Sasaki, Buddhist monks; and D. the itinerant Paul Brunton. In 1956 I left San Francisco under many clouds and my welcome to Asia was so astonishing, and so much in contrast to my life in America it did not reach any equilibrium until a few years ago. At that time our good friend Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj addressed a very special audience at the University of California in Berkeley and the professors and scholars seeing a warm mutual welcome did what we call in popular idiom “a double take,” and I became as welcome first on that campus and then on other campuses as I had not been theretofore.

In the meanwhile I had visited parts of Asia, India and Pakistan twice, and Bombay many times. There never was any difficulty from Dr. Radhakrishnan down to peasantry, excepting of and from certain groups that claimed to be world organizations. Today there are many of them, each ignoring the others, and all for the most part ignoring history and the spiritual awakening of actual persons, especially of persons they cannot control.

Among my worst enemies were my own family. I had been a Gandhian and finally decided to take what on the surface was an un-Gandhian move; I sued my brother. The case never came to court. My brother was so shocked at my attitude, he began to respect me and then joined me with the result that today I am in quite comfortable circumstances. But we did have strange difficulties—we could not find heirs. There were a lot of people who were quite willing to take money, but none of them, I repeat none of them—despite their legal constitutions and bylaws would assent to one’s proclaimed intellectual or mystical prowess. That was a price they would not pay even to get money!

In 1967 after a perhaps unwise binge as we call it, I was flat on my back in a Chinese hospital. Then the divine voice so to speak said to me, “I make you spiritual teacher of the hippies.” I then had six disciples, three very questionable, who left me. There was a whole string of visions, many accompanied by voices and every one of them came into manifestation before I left for Geneva some months back.

Since that time I have been winning more and more young people and a very funny problem again—just as I could not get many groups to accept my intellectual prowess, so I have been finding myself a sort of leader of a sort of spiritual brotherhood unable to affiliate with the various groups, calling themselves “World Union,” “World Brotherhood,” “World Federation,” etc., etc., etc.—all ignoring each other and all totally by-passing to historicity of Emperor Akbar and the existence of Fatehpur Sikri.

In the meanwhile my own mystical experiences so to speak have been written up in poetical form and all rejected by all groups claiming to stand for spiritual research etc. Despite this—and it may be incidental or coincidental—this personality is perhaps one of the first to have had a multitude of experiences in and-toward awakening and is officially perhaps the first person in history to be a valid Sufi teacher and Buddhist teacher. But with a world view one does not look at things that way. World brotherhood is not achieved by personal acclaim.

In practice we not only proclaim we, endeavor to make actualities of Love, Joy, and Peace; not lectures, not dialectics, not oratory, not evangelism, but actual experiences.

When a number of years ago an Indian diplomat declared in public that I was the reincarnation of the Moghul prince Dara Shikoh, instead of that being accepted the last of the few doors open to me were closed. It is remarkable that all the organizations and groups who have shut the doors in my face agree in verbalizing—just verbalizing nothing more, “that what the world needs is a moral and spiritual regeneration.”

A century or so back there was a character with the same first name, Samuel Morse, who invented the electrical telegraph; when he finally succeeded, he sued every one of his detractors and won every single case. I have no such intention. In the first place my sense of humor is far too great even to consider the subject; in the next place, though at times I tend to despise those who verbalize themselves as Advaitians but remain even greater dualistically inclined than others, the time is to emphasize the positive. You do not remove sanskaras by creating them. Besides there are enough young people who want a love that is something more than mere physical activity or parental affection. They feel consciously or unconsciously that this universe is based on love and out of the love, wisdom. It has been so easy to commune and communicate with the aged Dr. Radhakrishnan; it has been so easy to meet many quite unadvertised sages from your country; it has been so easy to make pilgrimages to various shines of various religions. It has been so easy.

There seem to be very few who understand the nature of akasha. One of the greatest influences of my life was that of the late Miss Ruth St. Dennis who could draw spiritual dances out of the akasha, in a sense I have received her dharma transmission. During her lifetime and with her blessing I began teaching spiritual walks, but when she died (although her spirit remained with me), I suddenly began to teach spiritual dancing under the working title Dances of Universal Peace. But I could not find anybody to dedicate them to; I was almost successful with Sri Surendra Mohan Ghose of the Congress Party and Sri Aurobindo Movement. But his colleagues, of course in the name of God, love, humanity and brotherhood, absolutely speared my work. (I have just received a beautiful letter from him, but I do not think the trend can be reversed.)

So I have dedicated them instead to The Temple of Understanding. The dances are going ahead; the participants are going ahead; the joy is going ahead. There is a Greek maxim, when the gods arrive, the half gods go. The Upanishads have very definite structures for measurements of joy and spiritual awakening. This is what we are doing, this is what we are accomplishing. We are making a God of joy, love, truth, and peace in the conscious awakening, in actuality.

I think I am now free from the half gods, from the manas-ahankara verbalists, and above all from the powers of the asuras however they manifest. Maybe I have said too much, maybe I have not said enough.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita, San Francisco 94110,

June 18, 1970

Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami

Durgah Nizam-ed-din Auliya

New Delhi, India

Beloved One of Allah: Asalaam Aleikhum:

It is now eight years since we were last together in the flesh and at this writing there is no sign yet of traveling in your direction. However there are many signs of the fulfillment of Allah’s wishes in this world. I did tell you that the robe which was bestowed upon me in the unseen by Amir Khusrau has long been an actuality in the material world and it has been functioning in some very strange ways.

For five years one lived a Cave existence with few friends and followers, excepting around the Universities where one has been taken seriously. In 1967 there was a strange illness and -while this person was flat on his back in the hospital his whole future was revealed to him by kashf and shahud. One came out of the hospital with a few followers and then everything happened as in the vision: a stage from 6 to 30 disciples; from 30 to 60; from 60 to 100 and this is a month of transition with many doors opening, Alhamdu Lillah: Sometimes I think we may see, “in those days will the sun rise in the West and all men seeing will believe.”

I seem to be working very closely with Pir Vilayat Khan on one hand and with what might be called the “Voice of Allah” on the other. It was the voice that said, “I make you spiritual leader of the hippies.” While on one hand this may seem fantastic and on the other hand audacious it is coming true, Inshallah!

One now has a very good following of young Americans of both sexes, strong, sturdy, noble, honest, advanced in kashf and many having received the divine blessings (Baraka). Secretary Mansur accompanied me to a meeting of the leaders of all the world’s faiths which was held at Geneva, Switzerland earlier in the year; the two outstanding characters were Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj and Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Tehran, Iran, who presented the Sufi attitude toward prayer, worship and peace. Pir Vilayat was only there a short time, Secretary Mansur and I were the only ones able and perhaps capable of communing and communicating with all the representatives of sundry outlooks from many lands and many faiths.

One is now conducting a sort of seminar summer school high in the Rocky Mountains—actually higher than either Simla or Murree; the group here consists entirely of young Americans of spiritual looks.

One reason for writing at this time is that there is with me one, Joseph Daniel Bonner, who may be going to India soon, Inshallah. He is now studying some form of Indian yoga, a spiritual not a gymnastic type; he may stop in India and especially New Delhi, or may not. I should like if it were possible for him to visit some of the sacred tombs and especially that of Hazrat Inayat Khan.

It is rather curious that a new type of inquirer has been coming to my doors lately: those who have been to see Rehana Taiobji. Although I understand Rehana has become entirely or nearly entirely a Krishna devotee, it may interest you to find than these various young people find a better outlook in Sufism, which is so all-embracing. This person has nothing to do with trying to make them take such an outlook but that is one of the trends of the days Alhamdu Lillah!

Another extremely interesting trend is the interest in Jelal-ud-din Rumi and the Masnavi. This seems to be spontaneous and is not the outcome of any sort of propaganda or pressure. But this very trend also involves the possibility of dervish dancing.

It is a long story, but now this person is teaching dervish and spiritual dancing to more and more young people; the idea is catching on in many places. There has been at least one television recording and the possibility of others, but the dates of showing are uncertain. Although I am high up in the mountains and far from any town or even village, I have three groups now in the Rio Grande Valley of the State of New Mexico and then Sundays hundreds of young people are pilgrimaging to meet this person and join in with him.

We have danced based on Zikr, Kalama, Wazifas, etc.; there are proper movements in them based on psychic laws so little known in the West.

There are also signs of much interest in Indian forma of spirituality, yoga and otherwise. This person does not compete with them; but he does emphasize Ishk Allah Mahbood Lillah.

Out of this in turn has come a new form of Qawwal combining traditional sacred phrases with contemporary musical modes and also what we call “rounds” and “counter-puntal themes” in which English is also used alongside the Arabic sacred phrases.

One meets quite a few young Americans who seem to think that their spiritual future is benefited by their going to India. Some time ago I bad a conference with one Swami Swahananda, a disciple of Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj; I told him I welcomed all spiritual movements, because my danger seemed to be not competition, not opposition, not frustration, but more and more people coming which is already taxing me to capacity. Otherwise, for a man in his seventies the physical health has been good, the mental health even better.

With all love and blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

July 15, 1970

Sri Surendra Mohan Ghose

21, Janpath

New Delhi-I, India

Dear Ram:

I have been meditating over the wisdom of replying to your very fine letter of July 8. I will not permit myself to fall into the trap of verbal advaita. This word, advaita, is used by many dualists who have thereby deceived themselves and other. Of course I have no right to insist on the Shankara interpretation of Holy Scriptures. It is unfortunate that your so-called colleagues here have never left any scope for this person, but that does not mean one must answer in kind.

I broke my meditation by reading in ISA Upanishad in the book The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj of the Vedanta Order. I think it is unfortunate there should be a hiatus in practice between different Indian spiritual movements. In any case, I quote from Swamiji’s translations: “The wise man, who realizes all beings as not distinct from his own Self, and his own Self as the Self of all beings, does not, by virtue of that perception, hate anyone. What delusion, what sorrow can there be for that wise man who realizes the unity of all existence by perceiving all beings as his own Self?”

While we were at Geneva, Swamiji broke out in an encomium concerning this person, placing him in the very highest ranks of the spiritually developed persons who occupy Western bodies and live in the Western world. But in the last week, one received three more evaluations of the same kind from persons of totally different outlooks than that of Swamiji, all highly developed in quite different schools of spiritual advancement. One need not be attached to lavish praise; one need not be depressed by lavish criticism; but when a person’s only recognition comes when he sends a piece of paper with a monetary value, this is a very sorry condition.

This becomes even more sorry because in the future when I write letters as I have in the past which are ignored by your colleagues, they may be published, and I mean just that. It has seemed to please God-Ram-Brahm-Allah to have brought me not only considerably more money and followers in a personal sense, but at this writing two publishing houses are at my disposal, and they are in alliance with each other. They are devoted to promoting East-West cultural relations and not a facade using titles. I mean actualities.

In the first place, practically all the Sufi spiritual traditions and transmissions are in my hands. The very fact that so many East-West movements so-called ignore Sufism only increases my potentialities. And the simple but solid fact that your colleagues rejected the background and foreground of the life of the late Dr. Zukair Hussein emphasizes this only more.

I am today in the strange position because a whole host of money-grabbing rival organizations proclaiming world outlooks and ignoring each other have refused to accept either my cultural or spiritual back grounds and we may have to organize legally separately, because we have been ejected or rejected by all but one of the many rival groups proclaiming “world outlooks.” I don’t know what they mean.

Your own colleagues are calling for a world “scientific Yoga” convention. We believe that to describe God is to dethrone God. We do not believe that their there can be any controlled experiments in real Yoga.

We believe there is nothing but vanity to refer to the Supreme Being as “Sat-Chit-Ananda” unless the person verbalizing shows evidence of prowess in Sat-Chit-Ananda. Our work in the field of spiritual dancing is going on apace. The Temple of Understanding in Washington has accepted these dances. Your colleagues have adamantly refused to even look at them. Sooner or later it means, most unfortunately, that not only your World Union will fail, but all its competitors will fail. And believe me you have lots of competitors today. It seems that every time 5 people get together they start another “world movement,” and this is not sarcasm, this is a most unfortunate to situation. And yet there is only one single world movement that even recognizes my existence! What am I to do?

Here I am, a man recognized as a spiritual teacher, as a Sufi, excepting in the world movements. This week I have been meeting with a Korean Buddhist Master in love, and I mean love. This week I have been meeting with a Hassid Hebrew Rabbi in love, and I mean in love. We are bringing the young people of the world together in love, and I mean in love.

By Divine Grace I have been successful as a spiritual teacher in a successful Commune in the State of New Mexico. Indirectly this has brought me into close contact with a number of other successful communes in that State. They are all looking for a Guru. I think they are right, but I am compelled to accept this honorific because others do not recognize the manifestation of just that type of humanity that Sri Aurobindo properly predicted. They are here and here now. And these communes are succeeding where your colleagues in alliances with one Dr. Zitko, failed. What do you think Sri Aurobindo would say? His so-called followers do not accept Prajna and fail, others accept Prajna and succeed.

Even at this writing I am being called upon to establish another spiritual commune in the very State of Arizona, where people claiming to be your associates, failed. We have the land, we have the money, we have the personal, we have the aptitudes. But the so-called “world union” people and their many competitors all refuse to recognize our very existence. What are we to do?

I tell you my friend the New Age is here, love is here, Prajna is here. And with Divine help and Divine Grace we are moving toward and with world peace, brotherhood, and understanding.

Love and Blessing,

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif. 94110

August 14, 1970

Mrs. B.K. Birla

Chairman, International Committee

The Temple of Understanding

18 Gurusaday Road

Calcutta 19, India.

My dear Mrs. Birla:

You may remember me as the little old American with the beard who attended the conference of The Temple of Understanding at Geneva, and who wrote “The Rejected Avatar.”

That affair marked a change in my life, not necessarily causal, but quite possibly super-karmic. In the first place death in the family increased my basic income and since my return to this country the attendances at my “Dances of Universal Peace” have increased considerably. I used to consider myself a sort of Dara Shikoh, having undergone the disciplines of both Sufism and the Dharma and having reached a majority in them according to the spiritual leaders, although this was rejected by most popular organizers (despite their preaching about morality and causality). But besides this everything also has been bursting like a flower coming into bloom, and I will not waste time telling you about wonderful things.

Within a few days disciples are leaving here on the same mission, but with different geographical routes. The purpose is to film holy places and also record spiritual music, especially in India. They will join in an Urs pilgrimage to Ajmer, and then split—one traveling in the North and the other in the South. I am giving a copy of this letter to my disciple Phillip Davenport who may be reached c/o American Express at Delhi, but I am going to ask him to write more particulars later. On this trip also will be Mr. Ralph Silver, who is my god-son but not yet an initiated spiritual devotee.

They intend to cover as much of India as possible, splitting into groups therefore. I am wondering if you will have any suggestions. You may be interested to know that the very first place where I worshipped on my first coming to your country was the Birla dharmashala in Delhi.

You may also be interested to know that my “Dances of Universal Peace” are expending. Last week my woman disciples invited me to attend their dance class, and I presented my second “Ras Lila” and my first “Introduction of Bukmini to the Gopis.”

I have every reason to believe we are going to be successful in promoting real cultural exchange between the East and the West, between the spiritual and material worlds.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Aug. 19, 1970

P.M. Kabali

15 Bastion Rd. Fort Bombay, India

Dear Ram:

This letter is in a way apologetic but perhaps also karmic. There is no doubt a time for all things and in the last few years my affairs have changed rapidly and from the world standpoint, better.

A number of years ago I was suddenly stricken and then Divine Visitation said I would become a spiritual teacher and many Visions came, all of which have come true. Along with that, a change of interpretation of the Gita’s “Therefore Fight O Arjuna.” I had to sue my brother, and not only won the case, but obtained his friendship after 50 years enmity. Then earlier in the year he passed away, leaving me in excellent external circumstances.

I went to a gathering of the world’s religions at Geneva, Switzerland. As soon as I arrived I met the Papal Delegate, and then after that a number of Indians, mostly from your city. They had introductions to me and I to them through a Dr. Merchant, a friend of years good will and a high customs official. These Indians were all being supported by the Birla family. I gave the senior Birla a copy of my epic poem “The Rejected Avatar” and he sent me his blessing and approval. Everything went well, and from there on very well.

I now teach both Sufism and Mantra Yoga, a especially the RamNam of the late Swami Ramdas. I teach spiritual dancing. It is spreading like wildfire throughout the United States.

Now we are engaged in a number of great projects, a complete reversal from the days when intellectual and Europeans what passed for “Asian philosophy” in the U.S. At Geneva I was given a tremendous commendation by Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, etc.

I have just received a telephone call from my godson Ralph Silver that he had obtained a Visa for India. He is going with a number of disciples and spiritual colleagues, and they hope to take pictures of spiritual gatherings in your country. I have already written a number of letters to important spiritual leaders in Bombay. Today there is a complete reversal from these earlier days, and the disappearance from the scene of the European and intellectual experts with their Manas-Ahankara outlooks. We are demonstrating the Santana Dharma by the increased conscious awareness of Ananda. No nonsense; reality. It is interacting to observe that while there are many so-called Indian spiritual leaders in this land, they have often even contempt for one another. But I think all of them are on good terms with me, excepting the representatives of Meher Baba and Aurobindo. We practice Mantric chanting and dancing. And it gives delight.

Evidently God-Allah-Brahm approves of it, for my disciples are now prospering in what are called the New Age Food Industries and in organic gardening.

I hope you are well and prospering, and I hope it is possible for you to meet my young friends. This is a new day, a new age; One of infinite possibilities.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

Aug. 24, 1970

Fayazzudin Nizami and sons (Town Planners)

Jubilee Hills

Hyderabad Andhra, India

Beloved Ones of Allah: As-Salaam-Aleikhum:

You may be surprised to hear from this person after many years. I hope this finds you well, and at least be assured that what is written here is encouraging. After many years of trial and rejection, and a sudden illness, one arose from the sickbed to become a spiritual leader among the discredited “Hippies” of this region. There is very little difference in my inner life from the tales of Efleki’s Lives of the Adepts concerning the spiritual leaders of the Mevlevi School, founded by Jelal-ud-din Rumi. I personally have long since had Bayat in many schools, and became a full Murshid under Sufi Barkat Ali of Salarwala, Lyallpur District, West Pakistan, and a Khalif in many other schools, it is not necessary to go into that now.

Although from the usual, one would be considered well on in years, from the standpoint of Din, one is still full of vigor, physical, mental and spiritual. One’s central Bayats and one’s inner and outer life are closely attuned to those of Chistis in particular. At the moment we are sending a team to URS at Ajmer. This team is under the direction Pir Vilayat Khan, son of the late Hazrat Inayat Khan, and operating as his successor.

I personally began teaching Dervish Dances, and attracted some filmmakers, they went on to make a survey of the spiritual conditions in America, and later at the request of Pir Vilayat, they are extending their operations to some part of Asia, in particular where there are Sufi organizations. You may here from one or others of those persons according to their arrangements, and also following what permits are given to them by the Indian government.

It seems during the course of years and especially during the last three years, this person has risen from an unknown, or better yet a rejected one, to becoming a more or less recognized spiritual teacher with a rapidly growing following. During this same period family reconciliations and other events resulted in considerable increases in his monthly allotments. We are in the midst of expansions following, in finance, and in university and public recognition. As evidence of this I am enclosing a sheet of a new stamp issued, and am now in a position to co-operate further in this line as you may wish. It would seem as if Allah, to Whom be all praise! is expressing the approval outwardly in the great growth of our spiritual endeavors, in the rapidly growing respect one has from young Americans, in a much better financial position, in marvelous health considering age, and all aspects of life. First and foremast of which are Love, human and divine.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis.

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

August 25, 1970

Dear Mr. Samuel Lewis,

Rev. Gurudev (Munishi Chitrabhanu) is in receipt of your letter dated 14th August 1970.

Munishi is in Thana giving discourses every morning. On Sundays and holidays the audience is that over 3,000.

As Munishi is in Thana I would be very much pleased if you could drop in a line at the following address letting us know the approximate date of their arrival in Bombay.

I am also giving you two or three telephone numbers from where the party arriving in Bombay will be able to reach Munishi.

Our address is as follows:

Munishi Chitrabhanu

c/o Divine Knowledge Society

Queen’s View 5th floor

28/30 Walkeshwar,

Bombay-6

Tel. nos:  360887 (Office no)

                452277 (Miss Amin)

                58263 (Miss Parikh)

Indeed it would also below pleasure to meet technician coming to India.

Munishi sends his love and blessing to you.

(Miss) Vatsala Amin

Secretary, Divine Knowledge Society

Bombay

5th September 1970

The Temple of Understanding

Dear Friend Samuel Lewis,

I am in receipt of your letter dated 15th August 1970, and I am overjoyed to read the contents of the letter.

I really appreciate your great work that you are doing and wish you all the best in your venture.

A few days back I have received a letter from your friend Phillip R. Davenport, but I can’t reply to them as I feel they have already left on their tour. I had changed my residence from A/63 595 Gandhi Nagar, Sandra (East), Bombay-51., to The Navjivan Co-operative Housing Society Ltd., Lamington Road, Building No. 12. 1st Floor, Block No. 4; Bombay-8. These friends have got the old address. If possible please inform them about my new address, so that they may contact me when they are in Bombay.

I shall be writing to you in detail in my next letter, and in the meantime, I once again pray to God for your great success.

I shall appreciate if you will send me your autographed photo as a taken of your kind remembrance.

With love and Understanding,

Yours sincerely,

Asha Mirchandani

Member International Committee, Temple of Understanding

September 20, 1970

Mr. Asha Mirchandani

Member International Committee Temple of Understanding

The Navjivan Co-operator Housing Society Ltd.

Limington Road, Building No. 12, First floor,

Block No. 4, Bombay 8, India

Dear Ram:

We must thank you for your letter of the 5th of September. Will you please excuse any shortcomings. This person not only works seven days a week, but is fortunate enough to get two nights sleep. I hope you understand something about samskaras. When we hear unusual news we react, which is stupidity and nonsense. At night, nothing but Divine Visions and spiritual dances, constantly.

There has been an increment in both public and private income; we have been totally successful in promoting joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners. Not news of course. Our teams report nothing but excellent welcomes in every land. We are getting top cooperation from those most active in The Temple of Understanding.

My lectures on “The Three Body Constitution of Man According to St. Paul” have been completed and will be presented to Dr. Lowell Ditzen in Washington, and also to my friend and publisher Mr. Walter Bowart of Tucson, Arizona. There is not a dull moment. Larger audiences, better attendance at dancing classes, higher inspirations, and dances from all the great religions of the world and also from the mysteries beyond those religions.

Acceptance by youth, and more and more by Universities.

Leaving soon for the East Coast of the United States for almost two months’ absence. Almost a holocaust of blessings praise to God-Allah-Brahm.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

October 21, 1970

C. N. Sreekantan Nair.

World Parliament of Religions

Dear Mr. Lewis

I am happy to invite you to the World Parliament of Religions for Unitive Understanding proposed to be held at Sasthankottah, Kerala State, India between December 7 and December 15, 1970. A brochure is sent separately in which the objectives of the Parliament and its programmes are given.

It is our desire that the discussions in the Parliament will pave way for unitive understanding which may bring out greater things in the future history of mankind. Many have agreed to participate in the Parliament and some have sent papers on the various objects adumbrated in the programme.

We regret to note the fact that we were not able to get into touch with you. Your address reached us only now. Could we now aspire to have you in our midst for this World Meet and could you present a paper on any one of the subjects you choose from the programme?

We know that we are late in submitting this request and it would cause some inconvenience to you. But in view of the great significance of the conference and our ardent desire that the Parliament should have your presence to its credit, we request you to kindly bear with us and accede to our request.

We remain in the name of unitive understanding.

Yours Sincerely,

C. N. Sreekantan Nair

November 3, 1970

Swami Ranganathananda

Member, Governing Body The Ramakrishna Mission   

Belur Math, West Bengal, India

Swamiji:

This world is full of wonders. While Americans seem to be craving for “excitement” more than anything else we are finding ourselves in a universe of wonders, real wonders. It can best be put in a sort of myth which is now becoming very powerful—that the dharma will be established in the United States and will flourish among Americans. It seems that there are many groups of Americans who understand cosmic psychology and evolution, and there are many self-styled Indian leaders who, while they may verbalize it, otherwise avoid it.

The first thing that happened before Mansur and I left Geneva was to learn that my brother had died. This means now a quite comfortable income. I did not know what to do with the income. There are multitudes of so-called peace and spiritual organizations that simply will not accept anything from this person except his money; we went to London and were welcomed by the Royal Asiatic Society, Dr. Marco Pallis, and others of worth. Then we came to Boston, and I found there are multitudes of young Americans seeking spiritual instruction. We were then not prepared, but I visited Boston and Cambridge recently.

The return to San Francisco was marked by such a busy season that one seldom has a day off, sometimes hardly time to eat. Unlike the theoreticians, who will have nothing to do with this person, one functions up and down the four basic states of consciousness. Both the dream life and the deep sleep life are now more or less open. The immediate result has been a multitude of dances belonging to Dances of Universal Peace. My principal, the late Ruth St.-Denis showed me how to draw these dances from the akasha. But too many so-called “peace” and “spiritual” organizations refuse to accept another’s prowess, so we have had to operate independently and successfully. It is very awkward to have to do this when one is dedicated not to those empty words “Brotherhood of Man”—nothing but empty words—but the actual operations thereof. Therefore we are working as closely as possible with The Temple of Understanding, and there is every possibility of our having a large attendance to the next gathering.

Recently I completed a series of lectures on “The Three-Body Constitution of Man According to Saint Paul.” It is so nice to say that all religions are based in the same truth or truths; it is so inconvenient to the lecturers and verbalists to have it demonstrated by somebody else. In fact, I have been put in an awkward position. This country is being invaded by a large number of so-called gurus, swamis, and whatnot. They generally are on bad terms with each other, but many respect me. I wish I could get this respect from your colleagues, with few exceptions they are either “too busy” or “sick” or “away.” Sometimes this is true, sometimes.

Now thousands and thousands of Americans are being drawn to the true teachings, and even though they get only a smattering of them it is a true smattering and it is coming from many sources. On the day before leaving San Francisco I joined one Yogi Bhajan and gave Sufi and Ramnam dances to a thousand young Americans. We do not lecture on ananda; we bring this to outer consciousness. The subject of joy without drugs was laughed at when presented at the Psychedelic Conference in San Francisco in 1965. The statement that there was not a single experience of a single person for which there was not a word in Sanskrit was laughed at—in 1965. But not in 1970, you may be sure. So here I am, deeply devoted to Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda and compelled—or maybe it is God’s will—to work with representatives of nearly all other schools, ignored by the followers of Sri Ramakrishna and actively opposed, as we all are, by the followers of the late Sri Aurobindo.

In the tête-à-tête with your disciple, Swami Swahananda, I told him I was fearful of the time coming when I should have over one-hundred disciples; I would then welcome teachers, true or false, because the burden would be too great. This stage has now been reached and over-reached. My work is being presented for credit at the University of California in Berkeley, and I have established my own peace scholarship at that University because the “good” people simply would not accept either external or internal knowledge. But the young do, and how! The young recognize or crowd after any true or false presenter of the dharma.

I am not going to try to convince your colleagues that if they try to reach the young, they will be attracting not only more persons but more money. A great many of your countrymen have been successful. A great many of your countrymen are giving teachings to non-Indians, which in other ages would have been kept for the twice-born or holy men. True, these men do not go into the depths that your predecessors have. And there is little being done in this land along many lines along those activities so emphasized by your grand predecessor, Swami Vivekananda. His birthday is being celebrated, but his methods—?

Nevertheless, it means to be part of cosmic evolution that the dharma is presented here; that exercises and disciplines are given to the multitudes, especially to the young. They are awakening. They seem to be a lot of gandharvas functioning today. Indeed, the so-called generation gap almost repeats the wars between the asuras and devas. And you can be assured that it is the asuras who set themselves up as being self-righteous; partaking of psychedelics is a crime while bodily harm, extortion, and felonies are almost overlooked. No wonder this person is being called upon more and more and more.

But the basic reason for writing is something different. Our good friend, Dr. Huston Smith, told me about a Dr. Backster in this city. He is a professional technician operating the polygraph, which is called “lie-detector.” He is moving over into those fields wherein the prowess of the late Jagadis Bose was established. From my point of view, he has already reached Vijnanavada. He showed a complete comprehension, from a supernal, integrative point of view, of all the sciences. He is aware of more states of consciousness than I have yet heard from anybody else in this country other than yourself and two Mahayana Buddhists. It was impossible to state whether his lecture was further in the field of science or of the new age or of the cosmic psychology referred to above. But I think it is here. I think the dharma is being established in America and by Americans, just as we Americans have The Temple of Understanding, which mythologically might have been in the Near East.

As I see it, it is quite possible that a large number of young people will attend the next sessions of The Temple of Understanding. They have been very successful in putting on joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners. They have been very successful in putting on both Dervish and mantric dances (rejected by the Aurobindo people). They have new outlooks. They are succeeding. They are bringing people together, and they feel that they can financially help both themselves and our good friend, Mrs. Judith Hollister and “Peter” Dunne.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Nov. 10, 1970

The General Convener

World Parliament of Religions Parliament Secretariat

Sangham House, Quilon-12

Kerala State, India

Beloved Ones of God:

We wish to thank you for the material you have sent us. You have used the title “World Parliament of Religions.” We don’t understand it, at all. We don’t know what a “world parliament” means and are not even sure what “parliament” means. We have been further confused because we have received so many invitations to join in organizations or movements with world claims, although we do not know what the word “world” means. For example, San Francisco and Rishikesh, and in particular, India and the United States, are today filled with “world saviours.” We don’t understand what these words mean. In fact we confess to begin with, we lack both “understanding” and “humility” and without these stirring qualities we have no idea where we could fit into your organization.

But we do know that if we establish good relationship with you we are immediately on very bad terms with others of God’s creatures—I believe they are God’s creatures—who are already convening or have convened what appears to be similar efforts. It becomes a matter of some confusion therefore to find that in efforts to establish verbal world brotherhoods one is automatically excluded from other movements and efforts with, on the whole, similar claims. So in addition to lacking “humility” and “understanding,” we are trapped in confusion.

Yes, there was once a world parliament of religions. It was a parliament of religions. The religions met together. What they accomplished may be subject to controversy. But I do know my own relatives helped establish a Vedanta Temple in the area of Boston, Massachusetts, and I myself became involved in a San Francisco institution which is still functioning. It was called Mentorgarten. It still functions. It purports to bring people of the Orient and the Occident closer together. It presumes that understanding is within human ken. This of course is just a working hypothesis, but somehow or other, it is operative.

Thus, early this spring, I attended a convention of “The Temple of Understanding.” This is based on the supposition that understanding is possible. It also drew leaders of the actual religions of the actual world to its doors, and I was privileged to be among those who were welcomed. This is not usually the case. For example, there is another group verbally making efforts in the same general direction which seems to be based that by becoming an official of the United Nations you are in some way a superman. This may be so, but I must confess, I don’t understand it.

I notice that both the conference of the world’s religions in Chicago and the conference of The Temple of Understanding, gave considerable consideration to those faiths which have been historically effective. They may have failed in other lines, but they were historically effective.

At another time, my good friend Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj called a conference of what I consider the real religions of the real world. I do not know if this was actually so, or not, but I do know that much time was turned over to those groups which have been historically and culturally effective.

I am unable to understand how in the short time allotted the programmed subjects could be given proper consideration. I do know that at Chicago they were allotted considerably more time. Every effort was there made to bring subjects out into the open not to rush anything through until there was proper consideration and understanding. This was even more true of the conference which was called by my good friend Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda (I do not know whether this is true or not with the parallel convocations with more or less the same claims, convocations which met in India).

Now, here in San Francisco, we have all kinds of “world” groups. All kinds of them. They legally proclaim “world,” and the races, religions, cultures, and outlooks that they exclude from a far longer list than those that they do include. I am under the curious outlook that God and Rand-McNally, however much they agree or differ, do no excluding whatever. I cannot assent it is proper to give so much time to Guru Nanak, who certainly has not affected the world outside of India, and to omit all reference to all sorts of personalities, e.g. Gandhi, who have affected so much of the world outside of India. I don’t understand it at all.

The Temple of Understanding permitted Jews and Buddhists to attend. But they were severely criticized for omitting all aspects of spiritual culture arising from the continent of Africa and perhaps also from the continents of the Americas. There was no claim to humility. There was not even claim to consideration, but the consideration was evident.

I do not know what you mean by “man is a thinking animal.” I do not know on what basis it is presented and do not know what relation it has to any “world parliament of religions.” I find that I have deluded myself apparently in assuming that religions most of all have been concerned with devotion. I have always assumed that conferences of religions spend some time in considerations of devotion. I cannot of course openly proclaim this. I have no right to insist on it. But this does not relieve me from my failure to understand why conferences, called in the name of religion, called in the name of world outlook, should overemphasize in their proceedings certain outlooks and omit others entirely. In this respect I am thoroughly confused. I do not know what you have to suggest. I do not know what you may reply. I do not know whether you can rescue me from my confusion at this hour.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

Feb. 27, 1972

J.P. Atreya

Moradabad-19

Mr. Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Avenue, San Francisco

Calif. 94110 (U.S.A.)

Dear Sir,

I am enclosing herewith a cheque so kindly sent by you as subscription of Darshana International No. 1524 Dated September 9, 1969. For $10.00 Unfortunately this cheque could not be presented to Bankers in time. Please issue another cheque to replace it.

The annual subscription of Darshana International has been enhanced since January 1970 to $7.50. If you wish to continue its subscription you may send $10.00 + $22.50 (Subscription up to 1972).

On account of certain reasons the publication of Darshana had to be stopped during 1971. After a year we have been able to restart it and you will be glad to know that we have been able to publish Vol. XI Nos. 42 so far. To make it up to date we have to bring out 3 numbers which we are confident we shall be able to do by the end of April 1972. No. 43 has already been printed; No. 44 (the last No. of XI) is under print. Jan. 1972 will also be ready by the 15th April 22.

Please let me know the numbers which you have not received so that they may be sent to you.

We shall also appreciate receiving articles for publication from your pen. Hoping to be excused for the trouble and closing with compliments.

Yours sincerely,

J.P. Atreya

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

September 5, 1969

To the Cultural Attaché,

Consul-General of India

215 Market St.

San Francisco, Calif. 94105

Dear Mr. Bahr and Colleagues:

Toward Real Cultural Integration of Real Nations

It may surprise you to receive another letter so soon on this subject, but the piling of events urge it. I do not know when and how my biography will be written but some day, God willing, this will come about. The interview with Vallabhai Patel years ago and the examination given by the first cultural attaché at the very beginning of the first Indian Embassy to this country will stand and not all the European “experts” on ?Asian Philosophy? and not all Asians educated in Europe who refuse to accept hard but simple facts can stand up again any more.

The other day within a few hours a publication was received from India in which the group over-praises itself and pays no attention whatever to the activities of other groups. The removal of “God” however this be defined or verbalized from so-called “spiritual movements,” the rejection of Prajna and the appeals to the less worthy to give them funds shows the total absence of high spirituality no matter what the external and superficial picture may be. And this has led, as I have told you, to the rise of young Americans who are now determined to establish their own “Shangri-Las” and import “gurus” who will teach them what were known as “Yoga” systems until the taking over of communications by modernists.

A little later copies were received of Darshana International from a place called Moradabad in your country and also another brief from Prof. Archie Bahm of the University of New Mexico. Both of them call for an inclusive integration  which stands in marked contrast to “popular” pseudo-integration which not only ignores referents to large segments of the real cultures of real Asia, and of your land, but which have been adept in vocabulary stealing. And the sad part is that many such movements themselves could become part of real integrative endeavor, the latter being all-inclusive.

My present battles for American-American and Asian-Asian philosophies are succeeding. The young are all for them. The young do not accept the strange theses that only Europeans have been contributing to contemporary philosophy; or that Europeans and Asians educated in Europe are better equipped to teach Americans about the wisdoms of Asia. And the older policies of sending to Europe for such “experts” are now been replaced both by wide-awake American professors and wide- awake students both in and out of academic halls.

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco 94110

Jan. 30,1970

Mr. S.B. Kapre

2117 Haste #114

Berkeley, ca. 94704

Dear Ram:

I seem to be answering your letter very promptly as if I were some great moralist who really believed in practicing morality (moralists and ethical philosophers must preach; practice is quite unimportant). But I am facing some very practical situations and some of my apparent dilemmas would amuse, far more than shock you. For example, my brother seems to be dying, and we have been unable to find heirs to our estate. We have been unable to find heirs because those who logically might benefit, simply will not unbend. They seem to be utterly incapable of admitting the prowess of others, and like the Old Guard of Napoleon, they would die but never surrender.

I have watched one celebration of India’s Independence after another. Most of them have been in the hands of self-esteemed “experts.” This class of “expert” may not be an unusual one, but they are self-selected rather than chosen by the press, the literati, the universities, etc. And it was to me most comforting to find that the Indian students themselves have taken over the celebration of their national Independence Day rather than leave it in the hands of the ego-centric.

I don’t know if you have read Fisher’s Richer by Asia. It was written by a man renowned for his knowledge of Russia, in particular, and European politics in general. It was hailed in delight in this country, and by the author himself, as indicating the way to better international understanding. There is a very strange side of America which invites anybody to speak on Laos but the Laotians, on Cambodia excepting the Mon-Khmers, on Vietnam excepting its own nationals, etc. One time the top Orientalists of this country met in San Francisco and I attended sessions purporting to be discussing abstruse items in Indian literature and metaphysics. They came to a dead end. The floor was thrown open to the audience. This person was invited to speak, and seemed to have solved the dilemma. You can be sure he was never invited to such a gathering again.

However, he was permitted to speak in another city and before he took the floor a self-important “expert” asked and said, “I suppose the next speaker wants the floor because he has lived in India.” I replied, “Yes, I have lived in India.” He added, “I suppose, next you will claim to have known Dr. Radhakrishnan.” I replied, “Certainly I know Dr. Radhakrishnan.” He sat down saying, “I thought as much.” Most of the audience was bewildered. What did he mean. But it has generally been that the “expert” didn’t have to prove anything, he was an expert. It was for others to find out.

You can understand why year after year we have had all sorts of celebrations of India’s Independence Day and very little has been accomplished until students themselves took over. It is not a question as to whether you are right or wrong; it may be a question as to whether you represent India as well or better than some person who has studied “Asian Philosophy” at Oxford or Heidelberg or Uppsala, or for that matter, some beer-garden. We have had such people before, and the result is Americans have been left in a dilemma, in a mixture of ignorance and confusion. I therefore welcome your remarks considering it a part of real, as against verbalized democracy.

The period of very questionable “experts” was followed by efforts to establish private schools such as the American Academy of Asian Studies, and the California Academy of Asian Studies which are partly in competition, but equally concerned with their own prowess rather than to have Americans informed. It is only since the establishment of the Center for South Asian Studies on the campus at Berkeley that real progress has been made in getting real information, real knowledge, real history, etc. before the public, whether this information is in the hands only of the students and enrollees of the Extension Division or not. But I can assure you that the Extension Division, though as yet the classes are limited in size, is getting real knowledge before the community, and this may make it possible to further both American-Asian and American-Indian relations.

I have had in my life private interviews with such persons as the late Vallabhai Patel and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, as well as all kinds of saints, and Pundits. It has been a long struggle because our so-called experts instead of being willing to grant interviews, have branded this person as a pretender, and until very recently their uncorroborated statements were accepted by the elite, though this is no longer so. It is very necessary to get facts and history first before the public.

Another thing equally offensive to these “experts” was my pilgrimage to Nasik, a single American among a vast array of Indians who treated the visitor as if he were a God. Although this was out of place no doubt, it is much better than the absolute refusal to accept this possibility.

I do not believe we are going to have peace in the world until we become at least partially objective in our social and historical studies. We have to be in science. No doubt because of this Dr. Lal has become anti-religious. But this does not make him objective in his views. Nor is being honored by a government itself a proof of having great achievement.

I am very much pleased at your tolerance and consideration. You have such a fair view of Mohammed, whose actual life has seldom been the subject of study in this land. Mostly people either over-idealize him, or over-criticize him. But perhaps the same is true also of Sri Krishna and others. In other words, only too often toleration doesn’t tolerate at all. I began my study of the Upanishads in 1916. I think I was already under Emerson’s influence. I began my study of the Gita in 1922 under of all things a Sufi teacher. I have since both studied under and sat by the side of a multitude of sages.

I am convinced that my dharma is to carry on the mission of Prince Dara Shikoh, the martyred Moghul. At this writing I am no longer concerned with the rejections of subjectivists and dialecticians and what not who live in their private dream-hazes which they think are real because they call them reality. But they are still private dream-hazes.

I have met more cultured Indians than most Americans, and am quite satisfied with their outlooks, whether we are in agreement or not. I do not have very much time; work every day. I am teaching Sufi philosophy and Yogic attainment—not theory but attainment. I am teaching attainment through music and dance, and many American young people are willing to accept the huge potentialities in these fields. Therefore around me is no longer the old pessimism. The young Americans of the day demand cultural honesty. I think the world is going to demand cultural honesty. I think you stand for cultural honesty. I invite you to come here some Sunday evening or afternoon or both. You may be surprised.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

July 15, 1970

Mr. Badruddin Daud

c/o The Bridge

Indian Students Assoc.

U.C. Berkeley

Beloved One of Allah;

As-Salaam-Aleikhum! I have been following with keen interest your work on The Bridge, and would like to meet you sometime. I am a four generation California, and because I do not carry a doctorate, have in the past been ignored by many of the so-called cultural groups. Yet I am following in the traditions of Emperor Akbar and his great grandson Dara Shikoh. And with Divine help I am continuing their programs, which is very possible when you have Divine help. And now the Divine help is also manifesting on the material plane with more money, followers, and material opportunities of the most practical kind.

While so many of the so-called East-West cultural groups in this region have ignored me, I have now to prepare one small entourage to visit Ajmer and another to visit New Delhi. The group going to Ajmer plans to picture and tape record the music and ceremonies there. Apart from this, I think I have advised that a person or troupe may be coming to San Francisco next year to plan for the presentation of dramas drawn from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

I have been to Fatehpur Sikri and there presented the first stage of what may be called Dances of Universal Peace. Most of our work at the present time has been centered on modernized versions of Dervish Dances, but we are also gradually adding mantric dances. In fact I wish you could come here sometime as a guest. At the moment my advanced dancing class meets on Saturday nights and a much larger group on Sunday afternoons. This group will be divided I hope, for it is very large. We also present Dervish dances on Monday night which is devoted to Sufi teachings.

I am perhaps the only man in the world who has been validated as a Sufi Murshid, Indian Guru, and Zen Master. You can be sure that establishment groups have spurned this, but now not only the young, but the Universities are beginning to accept. And because Allah, to whom be all praise, has seen to it that I have an ample income, I hope to endow soon, inshallah, the Dept. of Near East Languages on the Berkeley, campus. I should have preferred to endow others but the establishment groups have refused to recognize my spiritual position, so I cannot help them, but that is their doing.

While I am working for peace and understanding through the arts, in the course of life I have met with the late Vallabhai Patel, Dr. Radhakrishnan’s, and more recently the Birla Family. In other words, I have friends all over India, with all kinds of people of importance and non-importance. And yet still adhere basically to the teachings of Tasawwuf.

In appreciation of what you are doing and hoping to meet you sometimes, I am sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

September 20, 1970

The Editor-in-Chief of Bridge,

C/o Indian Students Association,

300 Eshleman Hall,

U.C. Berkeley, Calif. 94720

Sahib:

I am writing news, hard factual news, but am not asking you to publish anything.  Years ago when visiting the tomb of Emperor Humayun with Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami, when he showed me the grave of the Moghul Prince Dara Shikoh, I circumambulated it seven times and said, “Let us ago.”  He understood and quite a few of your cultural attaches have understood, but it has been a hard, long but exceedingly successful pull.  And as George Bernard Shaw once said, he thought he could convert a banker to socialism, but never a banker’s clerk. I have during the years succeeded with every cultural attaché and very, very slowly with university professors, but not a chance with “experts” and I do not intend to try.  When I entered India last, I was immediately greeted by the Chief of Protocol, the President, the top Sufi and the top Vedantist, but not a single newspaper in this country has ever accepted any eye-witness accounts.

To make matters worse, or better, I did not have a chance until the floor was thrown open at a meeting of university professors and I answered questions not even the top specialists could answer when offered by professor Singer of Chicago who has since become my friend.  The real world war is between prestige-mongers and fact-gatherers and slowly the former are being displaced.

I discussed with the late Ruth St. Denis “Dances of Universal Peace” and had her blessing.  They were rejected pronto by all the various groups labeled, yes, labeled, “integral,” “universal,” and “world” but not by others.  At Geneva this spring the writer was given such a glowing ovation by Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, that it could hardly be repeated.  But my secretary, Mansur Otis Johnson, friend of Dr. Huston Smith of M.I.T., was there.  Mansur and another secretary have now advanced into good paying jobs derived from the “Dances of Universal Peace” that were absolutely turned down by the “integral,” “universal,” and “world” movements but accepted in principle by the American Society for Eastern Arts.

A group of technicians, beginning with my work, has toured first the United States and then visited certain real Sufi centers (nothing to do with the intellectual, dialectical literary books by intellectuals), and now has gone to India.  They were given such cooperation and welcome by the Indian authorities that they themselves have been amazed.

One of them, my god-son, Mr. Ralph Silver, of Sausalito, may be back soon and the others within a month or so.  But I shall be gone, for the demand for “Dances of Universal Peace” are very great and I am in the odd position of having more money than I have ever had and am trying to arrange at least one scholarship to begin with for the Department of Near East Languages on the Berkeley campus.

It has been a “smart” thing by “experts” and intellectuals to turn down “peasants.”  I have been an eye-witness of much history, real history, and know a number of other such personalities and hard facts, ignored by the press and literati,  will appear in my autobiography, which may soon be written.  A meeting with Dr. Radhakrishnan was easy; with his offspring difficult and with the “students” of these offspring utterly impossible!

While the “great” Western professors “Dr. Meerscheidt-Guggenheim” and Von Plotz” will have nothing to do with our work, their very spiritual authorities, various Pirs and Sheikhs have recognized us and are working with and for us.

“Dances of Universal Peace” began with Dervish dances and Dervish practices not alluded to by “writers” on Sufism, etc.  They were followed almost immediately by mantric and spiritual dances using sacred phrases and now growing, expanding to include themes from all religions.  This work is being recognized more and more—elsewhere, but also slowly on the UC campus.

We are following what Sufis have always done:

a. Joint Israeli- Christian-Arab dinners—not news, of course, such things “must” not be.

b. Joining with Yogi Bhajan in a public festival this week.

We are busy every day, being undermanned and overworked but everything is coming along gloriously.  Murders, hatred, etc. are news.  Love and brotherhood, not news.  I was the only outsider present when Papa Tara Singh met Pundit Nehru.  Someday I hope to convert an historian; a newsman or literatus?  Not a chance, but that day is over.  I have visited Fatehpur Sikri and met the Sheikhs there also.  Watch to the day when truth will dominate over opinions of “experts.”  Then we shall have peace and understanding.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc- Consulate of India

cc- Depart. Of South Asia Studies