October 4, 1964

My Dear Corinne:

I wish to thank you for the clipping which you have sent me. On account of the location when I next visit Hollywood, it will be very easy to call on them. But the great disappointment of my life has been the failure to get any exact news from and about Major Sadiq. We were together a great deal and both he alone, and I alone, and both together, went through phenomena which we consider to be on a higher plane than most of the corresponding things in this country. But though higher, there is the problem of reliability.

I have, of course, a great many first person experiences and some continuing even now, and I gave up trying to reach the psychics with one tremendous exception, because of the same element of reliability or because of private personal reactions, mostly a refusal to accept anything from the Orient. But even there, the one exception involves some leading scientists and is connected with one of the several new and growing movements with which I was involved. So in any event, I shall both copy of name for Pakistan and also for my colleagues at home and abroad.

Briefly here, there are two or three movements for the integration of all human knowledge, and, with the exception of the Aurobindo movement of India, they are trying to coalesce, because rival world movements would be farces. And these integrative accumulative movements involve all the projects with which I have been connected.

I shall, therefore, try once more and for the final time to find out about Major Sadiq coming, for it is hard enough when one has no time and works every day and night without exception; but it is utterly foolish where there are growing successful breakthroughs and complete reversal of the social behavior patterns of other years.

Since the meeting with my fairy god-mother, Ruth St. Denis last May, everything in every direction has succeeded, and excepting for their road­-blocking each other, they would be prospering. Or, if I may be successful in getting funds to have a secretary, they could all prosper. I have still left unexposed no time the possibility of getting money from Pakistan.

The Man from Nepal. Everybody has vague ideas of the Dalai Lama. There is a man here who hierarchically is connected with Mr. Alexander David-Neel, the ancient lady who was once the world expert in this field and has been forgotten. Despite all our metaphysical and theosophical people, he was rejected, and rejected for exactly the same reasons I have been rejected: not having accumulations of social graces or failing to observe social niceties of which he had no knowledge whatsoever. We began forming an alliance, and due to a great change, as above, this is already bearing fruit. The succession of my bête-noire, the European professor of Ascetics, by Americans, was followed immediately by such a rush of acceptances and alliances that I have neither caught my break nor am I able to function clearly.

But he gave me a scolding for not asserting myself and when I tried to see if I had “third-eye” vision, the results surprised me and are now causing me to move in a new direction. For having studied all the accumulations of the Orient, but not using them, I found it simple and easy to ascertain the spiritual status of anybody. And I am just now beginning to use it.

Although I am basically, absolutely and relatively a teacher, the top echelons of the whole Buddhist world are in my hands; and like Whitman’s “Song of the Answerer,” I am regarded by them as one of their leaders. This appears from a totally different [?] and in my poetry and when the West listens, even a little, to a mystic, instead of a metaphysician, on mysticism, it will become clear. In any event I must revise my memories.

The Universities. Partly because of the change, Americans, instead of Europeans, and partly as the result of successful battling, and partly because Prof. Von Grünebaum of UCLA came out for Sufism, today I have both a growing number of universities on most cordial terms, and a growing number of top professors wishing to see me. Before, I could not get appointments, now I cannot fill them.

Oriental Studies. I shall confine myself, for the moment, to yesterday when I had a curry dinner and present were the professors of Urdu and Hindi of the university at Berkeley. Both are highly spiritual men with connections, one with the great Maharshi of Arunachala, teacher of Paul Brunton; the other with the Dargah Nizam-ud-din Auliya in New Delhi, subjects too long to complete. Anyhow, for the first time socially, I have been able to open up and open up fully, and we met on the social, intellectual and spiritual levels all at once.

From there I went to my god son’s home which was not far away and into the room walked a young girl who has the requirements I have been seeking; an American majoring in Urdu (and related languages). We are to meet next week for spiritual as well as other reasons. She is also connected with some of the top allies I have on other campuses.

Agriculturalists. This series of adventures has been totally successful in every direction. The smallest venture, going into poison-less sprays, has just started. I am now studying agricultural mechanics so that when I venture forth I can meet the requirements of farmers at any level. Or, if the promises in Pakistan turn out, I may have to teach the Nursery Science. But I am now working it so that if the Pakistan ventures fail, I can go into two parts of India and proceed.

Writing. I am completing a paper on the aftermath of the floods in India. Dr. William Vogt wants it and if he does not I think he does, it would go to the Christian Science Monitor. I have, today, been meeting an ever growing number of teachers in agriculture who have lived in Asia and like myself been snubbed by press, radio, and the State Department; as well as by their colleagues in the so-called social sciences. But my battle with these professors has been successful on both the Los Angeles and Berkeley campuses, and I have been assured by the heads of the universities that if social scientists refuse interviews and make mistakes in their writings they will be called to account. I had to do this first at the Trisection Graduate School, and they revised their book on Pakistan before publication. The refusal to accept the existence even of Sufis is a bit of utterly foolish nonsense. But one must remember that the top “expert” in this field or even the several top experts are neither Americans nor Asians. The whole picture is not clear yet.

There is still another picture. There is now a cosmic alliance between all the valid schools which have proven the experience of union with God, and these people have made some very derogatory remarks about the leaders whom I call, at home, “Pseudo Spiritualis Californicum.” The names are well known, the process is great, and there is not a single evidence of the God experience. The derogation is further directed at men like Gurdjieff who, having met a few mystics, have thrown the whole scene into disarray in order to build followers for themselves. So there is a big backing today all over the world.

This has brought with it, first, some young men, disgusted with Gurdjieffian promises who are now looking into Sufism and so far been satisfied; and also, some young people on the campuses of universities, who are very serious in their studies and wish to learn further. It means, therefore, that I can and should work either for these people, or for “myself,” with assurance of success if I keep the reins in hand.

Outside the ever-diminishing number of universities where Asian studies are still directed by Europeans, I have an ever growing number of allies. There are now two new groups studying the world religions, both serious. One is composed of scientists, but I have not yet their material. The other is composed of historians. In 1963 my check was returned; I was not eligible to attend a conference on Asia in Asilomar. Neither were Asians, apparently. Of 50 persons on panels, one single Asian! On the first three panels, British diplomats! But as of 1965, my credentials have already been accepted in total. This is slated to be held at Claremont next September and gives every promise of being a real conference, on real religious and not a smoked filled room of newspaper men, diplomats and European metaphysicians who have only too long controlled the field.

You will bear in mind, as the British philosopher Snow says, we have two cultures, the scientific and the literary humanist. I have still to get a rejection in from the former, no matter what science, nor how far I stray. And I can assure you that all the complex conditions in all parts of Asia, no exception, are due to our accepting the reports of representatives of the “other culture,” as so many scientists have had the exact same negative opportunities. You knew me when things were all wrong; now, it is exactly the opposite. Every principle I stood for has been vindicated; leading troops who have run into the same opposition.

But if the work of the young men is successful, I may have something very important to communicate. The West does not know the science of breath, or with it, the esoteric science of walking, and related matters of posture and stance. When I saw Miss Ruth I said, “I am going to save the world.” “How?” “By teaching little children how to walk.” “You have it.” But you must remember, Miss Ruth St. Denis has had a whole long life of esoteric training and experience. Anyhow, if successful, you will get full details. I will give one instance; a young man, Matachine, was having sinus trouble. “What is the obstacle in your right nostril? “How did you know I have a growth there?” (If you want details, I’ll give them. What we don’t know. This was intuitive deduction and it proved true. If it were not true the whole body of Sufic learning would have fallen. It does not fail.)

Love and blessing,

October 22, 1968

Dear Fred and Corinne:

This is a new age for Samuel and he hopes you are well. All the predictions of Hugo concerning his presence are coming true and while a copy is being sent to one person who has consistent]y rejected—at least he was consistent. There are too many in America and “only in America” who call “free speech” their demands to be heard by others or even compel others to listen to them but who themselves do not and often will not listen. These peoples pride themselves on the words “democracy,” “liberty,” “humanity,” etc. and some of them are known as semanticists who verbalize that words are not things, which their lives belie. It is pitiable.

Sam’s efforts to became a Pied Piper failed miserably: only the young showed up! There were 30 people at his birthday party at a Greek Restaurant here and about a hundred at his open house party at Novato, a town I think 30 miles to the north. All of these hundred were young excepting Gavin Arthur and his escort. And we did some real Dervish dancing choreographed by a man who has lived with “non­existent” dervishes who do not fit in with the “world of realism.” To this was added the revolutions of the planets and it made Gavin very pleased because several of his ideas were used. Of course the hard, hard fact of a large number of really real young people do dervish dances does not belong to “realism.” What ain’t important to US ain’t. This is “realism.”

The whole change in circumstances reminds one of Samuel Morse but although revenge is sweet humor is sweeter. And although Morse went to the law courts and won every case (which anybody not a “realist” can accept) one’s career is to concentrate on the positive side and this is winning, all over Rand-McNally’s world—and again any resemblance to “realism” is either coincidental or ‘aint at all.

The main project going on with real leaders of the real worlds ignored by the “realists” and candidate Nixon will not the mentioned here. These people accepted Sam at once after testing his factual knowledge and finding all acts to be true. And one has no doubt that the historians of the future will accept history and not essays.

The next project is more dramatic. Now that Oliver Reiser has trotted out the teachings of Integration, all the analysts and dialectician and narrow-narrow “realists” have seized the word and are misusing it in ways no mathematician could ever dream of. The most pronounced has been the case of Julie Medlock, the biographer of Reiser. Julie has been involved in a lot of Asian pacts between real Asian countries not recognized by Nixon and “realists” and has been turned down even more consistently than Sam has been turned down—of course by the “democracy,” “liberty,” “humanity” groups, all over the American scene, pretty consistently.

Now she has come up with a dream derived from the Integrational teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Oliver Reiser. Every mathematician knows that a derivative of an integral is not an integral but the liberty-democracy-humanity ­dialecticians do not and they are seizing and misusing words all over and doing—nothing. The dream of Julie Medlock (hurray for dreams as long as we don’t have to work) is striking exactly the same snags as did the Roerich Museum years ago—victory by getting prominent people on the band wagon and letting the “peasants” contribute. It does not work that way and the commisar-minded advisers are slowly finding that cut.

Facts of history, processes of mathematical logic and operations of the human heart were being sacrificed in schemes—hurrah for the schemes!—so Sam has taken the first steps to action. Interest in Glory Roads has suddenly come to life and intensified but anybody not a semanticist will recognize that the author did not become a corpse after the book was written.

After intensive efforts to have two way communication Sam received a very cordial letter from Julie Medlock. His friends have visited Auroville and been able to put over the hard truth that a blue-print is not a building.

The Law of Compensation is also effective for the absolute refusal of “liberty­-democracy-humanity” elders even to permit remarks or papers from Sam is making him intensely popular. He is becoming more and more welcome and professors are following their students in being willing to listen to factual accounts over editorial or dialectical opinions of the quondam “more equal” people. This is coming out in lectures and particularly in dances which manifest Sam’s inheritance from Ruth St. Denis. There is so much here too.

Unable to get help and on the verge of exhaustion Sam received a long-distance call from a scientist who is in love with one of Sam’s disciples. He wants Sam to hold everything, to organize him and to help with our common researches to help humankind solve problems without dialectics, editorials and opinions of the “more equal.” This may be soon.

It is certain Sam has around him some of the most beautiful young men and women as if they had stopped out of H. G. Wells. A few who have dared to inquire, (like Gavin) have been astonished. But the “more equal” and “realists” will continue their “liberty,” “humanity,” “democracy” stuff which has disgusted the young. That day is gone. Sam is not going to try to convince semanticists that words are not things; they have the empty formula which obviously they do not and cannot accept. But some day Sam will get out loads of materials to show this is an “ancient” teaching, not discovered by us, “anything you can do we can do better” culture.

I don’t know when I can get away from here. Nothing wrong, but too much “right” as before too much “a priori rejection.” It is a new world. The predictions of Hugo are coming true. The young are going to laugh off the map the follies of their elders. Don’t be surprised if there is a large write-in vote for P. Paulsen.

Love,

Sam

March 28, 1970

Dear Fred and Corinne:

In my last rather hurried visit to the Los Angeles region we found your telephone had been disconnected and made no further effort to contact. In fact the pace of life has become so rapid, one is fortunate to keep balance, at least a dynamic balance which enables one to function, and perhaps accomplish a few things. At this writing my secretary Mansur and myself are all packed ready to go to Geneva, Switzerland, to a conference not of the birds, but of the great religions of the world. At this moment we have had to become indifferent both putting our whole hearts and endeavors into the undertaking and yet realizing that if something is impossible we should not demand it, at least not from others. Anyhow one manages to keep one’s health and equilibrium.

After we leave Geneva, where we shall be meeting the important people, we expect to go to London to meet what we consider the humanity of the future. We have been in contact with young people in London, who seem to act and think far more like the young in your own vicinity than in accord with the traditional British elite; perhaps it is so. And I think it would shock the late Aldous Huxley to find that in so short a time after his demise Great Britain should be producing more Aldous Huxley’s than Beatles. Yes, there may be a God in evolution, and he has his own methods of demonstrating it.

We did see Vocha at that time and she has been here since. Now chiefly to see it she can dispose of her rather commodious art collection.

It is noteworthy at this time one has received a direct letter of apology from Paul Reps and an indirect apology by Lloyd Morain, visiting my Novato home, but in my absence. I have long warred against these two men who should have been friends on the subject of reality not “realism.” One can take abuse and criticism, but one cannot accept the denials of existence of a huge portion of the human race in order to prove, if one wants to call it that, a subjective thesis. As I am going to meet a number of people of all creeds, nationalities, and races, I cannot in any honesty deny the existence of any one of them because they do not fulfill my subjective promises. I do not know what will be accomplished, but there will be no harm in it.

The next theme after that of “peace through religion” and meeting the New Age types, will be connected with organic gardening. Many of the problems of the day are enshrouded in the miasma of subjectivisms, especially as freedom of speech gives sociologists and newsman, subjectivists in general, full accord to express themselves fully on many subjects whether they have any knowledge or not.

Johnny Weismuller’s health food store on Hollywood Boulevard is prospering, limited only to the degree that they are able to get organically grown crops. The movements toward organic foods and especially away from all those diabolical advertising devices which so concerned Corinne, is tremendous. The young simply are not taken in. The huge department stores which spend sums in trying to perpetuate Brooks Brother’s clothing etc., are now compelled to amalgamate with each other or go out of business.

Last week, after a program dedicated to the dangers from alcoholism, the station owner immediately editorialized the dangers of drugs. I am not defending drugs. I am concerned with the terrible harm done by subjectivisms of all sorts parading as knowledge, and parading as science.

The next day after a program showing how London had cleaned up its smog, the head of the station gave another scare editorial on the dangers of pollution. I have felt, and many scientists, indeed most scientists, agreed that there is one danger greater than that of the use of chemical poisons on plants and that is the widespread interjection of comparatively ignorant people into what should be dispassionate discussion. Here again one finds oneself in entire accord with the editorials and articles in Science, the organ of the top scientists of the country. Although I am scheduled to be in the state of New Mexico during the month of June, if I am in this vicinity I should be attending a conference of the top scientists, knowing that the discussions will be intelligent and intelligible, and also a person of my background will not be a priori pooh-poohed from the floor which will be occupied by every editor, TV manager, newspaperman, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, who will be discussing subjects far beyond their ken with no one permitted to stop them. In other words while I am optimistic enough to believe we can solve great problems, I am pessimistic enough to believe the Philistines, so to speak, will not permit it. On the other hand, if I am successful in discussing religion I shall be permitted to speak on smog; and if I am successful in introducing a peace plan, I shall be permitted to speak on pollution.

If there is anything more ridiculous than this I would like to be informed. Anyhow, the heart is young and gay.

We put on our joint Spring Festival cum Gavin Arthur’s birthday on March 21. About 200 people participated in my dances. This number does not include the people who watched nor the technicians who have made a television recording of it. Gavin was enchanted.

My work hers is growing apace. So much so that my relatives men have become quite dispassionate concerning my ability to attend properly to present family problems. And any solution of these problems may mean a greatly enhanced income. That is not necessarily the most direct way to achievement, but it counterbalances deprivations of the earlier part of my life.

Love and blessings,

Samuel

[date unknown]

To Sam

A long time ago in Atlantis, and this was during the Sun Religion, the Winter Solstice which fell on December 21st was celebrated as the birth of the New Sun or Nu Yoel. In that day Yoel, the Sun was regarded as the outward and visible sign of the Eternal Gode and accorded reverence. But it was Gode, the Good Power, Father of all, along that was worshipped.

Yoel logs burned. Round plum puddings that simulated the Lord Sun filled with fruitful blessings were set ablaze to emulate his rays. Gifts were given even as the Lord gave with lavishment.

Old King Cold, the merry Old Soul from the North, appeared at the lighted community Yoel tree set in the village green. His parchment crown, sheepskin beard and flowing robe did not entirely conceal his workaday identity as the blacksmith perhaps, but no matter, there he paraded attended by his musicians playing the flute pipe and bowl or kettledrum. With due invocation he called for his Fidele Tri or Faithful Gift of the Spirit and offered prophecies for the coming year to individuals in the crowd.

Oh! Those singled out for the honor received the best Yoel gift ever, and then the carols!

It all lifted the heart it did and much of joy went into that greeting of “Nu Yoel!” as it sparkled through the crowd. In time it contracted to but one word and again it is offered at this Yoeli Season.

NOEL

O. L. Reiser

[date unknown]

For your puzzlement—from O.L.R.

The Concept of “Spherical Music”

By Oliver L. Reiser

The emerging doctrine of “spherical music” is a rich and creative concept, filled with many applications, some of which are as follows:

1. In the electronic (computer) study of musical forms, the computer system plots various types of tonal configurations (melody and harmony), including the Mercator musical spiral. Here the binary aspect of the octave intervals of the tonal spiral points to a Boolean algebra. That is to say, on the mathematical side, as it is studied by Dr. Andrew G. Pikler, the computer analysis is concerned with the generation of tone-systems by binary logarithms—something never before attempted.

2. On the socio-humanistic side, the concept of “spherical music” relates to the historical evolution of musical scales—from Pythagoras, Huygens, Euler, Mercator, and Helmholtz to contemporary students. This legendary tonal spiral takes us back eventually to ancient China and India, from which Oriental matrix Western culture derived some of its inspiration and structural architectonics.

3. From the study of the historical evolution of musical forms we are led to the possibility of interpreting different human cultures in terms of the basic scale systems they employed, e.g., we may confirm that ancient Chinese peoples utilized the system of 12 Lyus or cycles of fifths, whereas the Hindus employed the Natural Intonations and 22 Sruti scales—and so on down through the centuries.

4. A “spherical music” could be the formative theme for the concept of a planetary music as a kind of world symphony—a “harmonic-union-creation,” as Thomas A. Watson put it—that is, a blend or harmonic synthesis of Oriental and Occidental types of musical systems. Thus a “spherical music” might express a universal music based on a world-level acceptance of a common tonal system, perhaps a scale with 53 tones to the octave, and would accordingly have a unifying impact in a world civilization, once it is established.

5. Such a spherical-planetary music could be broadcast via the newly established global communications satellite systems as something to be created by and shared in by all the peoples of the round earth—a truly global programming, helping to create a world ethos. Carillons from the skies-literally a heavenly chorus—is this the music of the future?

[first page missing]

The British philosopher, C.P. Snow, holds we have two cultures, and for my part, I should call the “truth-oriented” and “ego-oriented” and there does not seem to be any compromise. For years now I have watched one so-called “Buddhist” leader after another go down into disgrace rather than to accept in his personal life karmic principles. One does not have to change human nature and one does not have any joy in watching the constant observation of cosmic laws.

In rapid succession I have met Hon. Roger Hilsman, Dr. Carroll Parrish and Admiral Felt. There has been most satisfactory communion and communication and the Admiral has validated my effort to write a paper on “The Buddhism of Vietnam.” It has been perpetually rejected by everybody heretofore. It is a subject many times discussed with the late Phra Sumangalo. But it is the American propensity to honor individuals and adhere to slogans rather than realities.

Dr. String, University of California, Berkeley. In the middle of the struggle over Free Speech, this man is now in danger of losing his office. In 1963, in full charge of a conference on “Asia” he did not have a single Chinese, and exactly one Asian, in panels which totaled about fifty spokesmen, quite a few from Europe.

I have since had other rebuffs from him on Asian matters. And to show you how ridiculous it is, a story is related:

I rushed back from Southern California to attend a reception for the Hon. Sri Surendra Ghose, deputy leader of the Congress Party in the Indian Parliament. The meeting was called by Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri and the “professors” who give out degrees (?) in the so-called Academy of Asian Studies with which Princess Poon Diskul had been connected while in San Francisco. Imagine the dismay of the audience when the speaker pointed the finger at the writer: “Why, you are the man I came to San Francisco to meet. I travelled five thousand miles just to meet you.” Which was true, and which has further thrown me out of the society of “experts.” But now, those who so have been treated, are increasing in number. I have just met a man who loved in Vietnam among the Buddhists and his conclusions corroborate my own experiences.

The totality of these events has been that at least one “Sangha” has agreed to participate in a Wesak celebration in Golden Gate Park of this city where there is a gigantic statue of Lord
Buddha—long discarded by the many non-communicating “Sanghas.” Pressure is now being
exerted to restore a festival which was held when I was young.

Any reports or suggestions will be graciously received. And one hopes that the turmoil of the day will lead to better understanding.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

University of Pittsburgh

April 22, 1955

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Thank you for your friendly letter. I am happy to see that there is the large area of agreements in our views. I think Lloyd Morain mentioned your interests in an earlier letter. Your thought that there is a basis for an “East-West” unity in the Promise is interesting, because I don’t recall that this was in my consciousness at the time the book was written, though later on I have been concerned, consciously and deliberately with this problem (see card mentioning the 2 later books, and the Preface, where these matters come up for review). Incidentally, a New York publisher is considering re-publishing the Promise in a cheap paperback edition, so it will no longer be “out-of-print.” I hope this can be nailed down soon.

Your own thoughts along these lines are interesting to me. I should be happy to receive a copy of your paper for the American Academy of Asian Studies when it is ready. Your reactions to
Mortimer Adler strengthen my own response to his work.

Yours cordially,

O.L Reiser.

International Committee on Scientific Humanism

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

December 24, 1958

Mr. Samuel L. Lewis

772 Clementina St.,        

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Thank you most cordially for your stimulating letter. I have received a number of comments on the new book, but yours are surely among the most helpful. The problem of integration—cultural as well as intellectual—is indeed varied and complex and your suggestions will prove valuable to me in this most difficult task. Your knowledge of Oriental cultures balances my own Western-oriented training, and I hope someday to do more along the lines you have sketched out.

At the moment, I am in the middle of the Christmas rush, and so I cannot write at length on matters of mutual interest; but I do want to get this word off to you so that you will know that I shall keep your letter before me as a prospectus of future work to be done by us “integrators.”

I am especially happy to have word of our mutual friend, Vocha Fiske. Do give her our Season’s Greetings and very best wishes. She may remember our daughter, and be interested in learning that Karen hopes, next year, to study at the University of Paris. (This year, she is a sophomore at the University of Chicago.)

If any of your friends, who may happen to read the Integration book, should want to write me about anything in it, I should be interested in having their reactions.

Cordially yours,

Oliver Reiser

International Committee on Scientific Humanism

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

October 28, 1960

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Thank you very much for your letter. You certainly do get around—and you are doing a grand service. For some reason I am having more and more contact with Indian people, some of it, perhaps, due to my article in the Hindu Weekly magazine (see enclosed). I wonder if you ever met Julie Medlock who is putting this series with articles together (B. Russel, Stuart Chase, Brock Drisholm, et at have contributed).

Of course, I know of Dr. Radhakrishnan and his work. I think very highly of his book on “East and West.” I should be happy to see the Orient pay more attention to American Philosophy—Peirce, Jones, Denny, etc.

For the Orientals, Peirce is especially important, as you may recognize.

Keep up your good work, and write me whenever you find time.

Cordially yours,

O.L. Reiser

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

April 27, 1961

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Thank you indeed for your interesting letters, keeping me informed of your journeys and experiences. You are doing a splendid job of breaking down walls between “East and West.” Also let me thank you for your efforts in helping to make known my own pantheistic humanism. In time, we should see some benefits from your pioneering efforts. I am asking my publisher to send you a copy of the book to replace one you gave away. Perhaps he (Parker Sargent) can add to the gift.

Cordially yours,

O.L. Reiser

Bombay, March 9, 1962

World Affairs Council of Northern California,

421 Powell St., San Francisco, Calif.

My dear Friends:

I am writing a letter partly in retrospect, sending a carbon to some people very close to me who simply cannot believe my reports. For many years I was a sort of social authority on Asia. Then Mrs. Leila Havens of Piedmont and the famous John D. Barry died. Without sponsors no one paid any attention—that is, with a single exception. That was Guy Talbot, a man now perhaps forgotten who was one of the most indefatigable workers for world peace I have ever met. He had been on associate of Dr. Henry Atkinson as I had also been. But Dr. Atkinson also assigned me to some Asian research. In 1957 I was able to report to his satisfaction, but hardly any non-scientists paid any attention.

I skip the troublesome years and the rejected years. The welcome to India by Chief of Protocol Pannerjee and Vice-President Radhakrishnan was both symptomatic and ominous. Everything has followed according to a pattern or plan, yet in another sense there has been no pattern or plan.

I think no less than five times now I have run into American experts, technicians or advisers in some branch of Food or Agricultural work—outside their presumable posts. This is in addition to those visited in their offices or labs. There is extreme good will between us and now I am welcomed by (Americans) almost as if I were a top official and I am on no payroll at all.

I was most fortunate in meeting in Hyderabad with the top Indian soil scientists. The conference concerned with the fertilizer programs for South India. It is very curious that while a large section of our press is always prating about Russia leading in “science” my own researches—and they are rather careful researches—puts them, at best, in 10th place. If they have not many experts and not much knowledge, why don’t them have representatives present at these meetings?

While we are doing “wonderful things” in space-science and super atomic research we are doing more human wonderful things in facing actual problems of actual people in the actual world. Not exiting, no publicity. What has been true on the Berkeley campus, is reflected, unfortunately, in the press as a whole. I told one editor, if the Russians had sent a single observer, they would have sent a reporter. But when a scientific conference has only Americans and Asians sitting down together, it is not news. I know of at least five agencies doing wonderful things in India, but only the “Peace Corps” gets publicity. When we devaluate our own achievements, how can we expect citizens of foreign states, especially those not too close to us politically, to esteem them.

As I prefer to go back to Delhi and eventually leave India, it is with some satisfaction that at least off the record a growing number of American representatives regard me as a sort of expert and I am so received. For my work has been in fields, not carefully studied yet and there are many of these. There is not a single branch of Agricultural Research or Food Technology where I have either not gotten first hand information from the Asian nationals, or had my proposals accepted.

Today there is such specialization that those even in closely allied sciences, such as Soil Chemistry, Plant Physiology and Plant Nutrition, do not always know what they colleagues are doing, or know. India and Pakistan have nothing like the unifying integration of Egypt. Degrees are conferred on specialists, and the research scholars in some universities are so far ahead of governmental officials, that there will have to be periods of readjustment and recognition before much progress can be achieved. In addition to that, it is evident that the communist countries are progressing so slowly in these fields that they will need help far more than being exposed.

Reports on Soviet Agriculture will no doubt be respected be many of our editors. For they all succumb to the same subjective, constant change of base propaganda emotionalism, which is substituted for hard reasoning or scientific statistics.

1088 Fulton St.

San Francisco, Calif.

December 7, 1962

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

Pittsburgh University

Pittsburgh, PA

Dear Professor Reiser,

There are a number of events in my life which may purport to the promotion of “Project: Prometheus.” The continued excellent rapport between all the scientists I have been meeting points to the need of some common integrating purpose. Earlier events in my life indicated that the Dalton atom, the Mendelian gene and the commonly accepted “soul” were part of the same psychological heritage which is commonly attributed to Aristotle. My own revolt against authoritarianism has not received much encouragement—indeed even many non-A personalities do not join in revolts against vested interests.

My refusal to accepts either the Mendelian nor the Lysenko outlook did not make me popular but I have seen detailed verification of my integrational proposals. More recently a new gene doctrine has been developed which accords with this integrational outlook and I am taking further steps to get such materials in your hands, though the pathway is not too open. It requires increased correspondence.

The integrational outlook absorbs former teachings which fit into niches. I am now facing this in my daily life. In collecting materials for “How California Can Help Asia” and visiting chemical producers of spray materials, they are all hampered by the recent Silent Spring of Rachel Carson. Miss Carson is undoubtedly a scientist but she is not a pope. I delayed making some fixed appointments with one of the larger corporations here until I could make at least a cursory examination of her work.

I am both helped and hampered by the professors in the universities. I am helped by their personal greetings and their antipathy to this work (Silent Spring). I am hampered because so few of them have an integrational outlook. Those who are most advanced in certain sciences have only elementary knowledge of what the public might consider kindred sciences.

I long ago discovered that the logistics of organic chemistry were not the same as those of basic chemistry. I deduced (?) a law: All things in the Universe tend toward a state of maximum stable equilibrium, in which Newton’s Laws and many other laws may be facets. It leaves room alike for absolute and relative reactions, etc.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

July 6, 1963

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Thank you for your letter of June 30 with your many interesting observations. Of course, I like your holistic approach. Your reference to Korzybski causes me to wonder whether you are going to the “International Conference on G.S.” at NYU this August?

I would like to revise your triad of contrasts, as follows:

Scientists versus Humanists

Analysts versus Integrationists

Provincialists versus Globalists

Specialists versus Generalists

How to convert the first into the second! As you realize, “Prometheus” and “Krishna” could help greatly—if we could get them in orbit.

With best wishes to you in your work and efforts,

Sincerely yours,

O.L. Reiser

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

August 7, 1963

Dear Mr. Lewis,

I am trying to digest your meaty letter. I have the feeling that I don’t know much about Oriental logics to pose judgments on your evaluations, but like to learn!

Your reference to the work of C.L. Kevron reminds me that I have a letter from Paul Reps inquiring whether I could help locate a publisher for a translation. My reply is that while I am much interested in the “Transmutation” evidence and theory, I have no good connections with publishers and could not find tome to get involved anyway. I am trying to find a publisher for my own next (and final) opus—two publishers have already turned it down as involving too much financial outlay (550 pages with 60 diagrams!). Perhaps Reps could interest his own publisher in the Kevron translation.

I did not go to the G.S. meetings in New York. I have had only skimpy reports from two people who did not attend. Perhaps I’ll have more later.

The enclosed article may have some interest. I sent your address to J.M. She seems very busy.

Sincerely yours,

O.L. Reiser.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

April 5, 1964

Dear Mr. Lewis,

I am sorry to learn from your letter of March 27 the difficulties you have in getting a decent hearing for your ideas. Certainly the problems you are working on are pressing enough, and as you note, your solutions are directed toward the practical, I can only express the hope that your coming projects and interviews will gain a fair consideration. Certainly the “integrational” approach is the right one in all areas.

Your letter to Mr. Vogt is interesting. Of course O think I shall send him one or two reprints and see what happens.

There is one note of encouragement here (in connection with my own work). I learned from the editors of Fortune that there will be an article in the May issue on the topic of “Society and the Radical Revolution” which will have some reference to my own work (the relevant paragraphs were read to me over the phone, for my approval) and the recommendations to the readers that they become acquainted with my work is pretty strong (favorable). So will see what results this will have. (I don’t have reprints or extra copies of this—costs too much!)

Yours with best wishes,

Reiser

June 23, 1964

My dear Professor Reiser:

Thank you for your letter of the 17th. Yes, things are looking brighter and brighter and at the same time, confirming to a certain extent Snow’s The Two Cultures.

As matters stand I shall be coming to Pittsburgh from either Cleveland or Wooster, Ohio. Dates have been established, but no fixed appointments in either place. I have to be in Cleveland next Sunday; I have quite a from friends and acquaintances there.

I shall no doubt be coming in by Greyhound bus and will advise (from Cleveland) the time of arrival.

Agriculture & Science. The reception of the letter to the Ohio State Agricultural Research Station was very warm. It was based on the need of a “Project: Prometheus” approach to both foreign aid and the actual facing the actual problems of actual countries.

Ohio State is one of about ten universities I know personally which is doing excellent work abroad and the people of the Nation are kept in ignorance thereof. What is awkward is that there is so much duplication and so may hiatuses, and no over-all integration station.

On another matter Ford Foundation is taking the first steps toward integrating research and effort abroad, and certainly in agriculture they have already accomplished what our foreign aid people have not even dreamed of, indeed have ignored. So I shall take up seriously there your “Project: Prometheus” either before or after my visit to Pittsburgh.

Philosophy and Education in Pakistan. This has been thrown into my hands on three different levels. In the ease of the University of Islamabad, there was preliminary fortune in that I presented copy of your writings to one Dr. A. A. Siddiqui who is one of the top savants and he will be in charge of both religion and philosophy at the Islamabad University. The only drawback is that he has been ill at times.

Now my god-daughter, Miss K. Khan, has been put in charge of research for Psychology and Education and I have been consulted far more than has been accepted here. Three universities which have Americans in charge of Asian Studies have accepted information; but some of the major ones where Asian Studies are under the direction of Englishmen and Europeans have refused point blank to answer inquiries.

I am not so concerned with that as with an actual project before me. I left in these parts “Muqadimmah” of One Ibn Khaldun who lived in the fourteenth century.

While Muslims have been proclaiming this one and that one as great savants, and while British Arabists have been declaring the person whose works they are translating at the moment as the “greatest’, Arnold Toynbee said that Ibn Khaldun is really the father of scientific sociology. A good deal of his work sounds like drab theology and a good deal of his work also sounds like a forgotten Charles Darwin!

In any event here we have a work by a Muslim recognized and translated in the West and by-passed by all the non-Arabic Islamic world. Yet it contains more elements for what is called or many be called “Islamic Research” than any work I know.

It is not one’s place here to determine the definitions, bounds and boundaries of “Islamic Research,” but it is important to introduce on a larger scale the Integrational Philosophy of “Project: Prometheus” and utilize it to bring at some kind of understanding between the three cultural Islamic worlds—the Arabs, the South Asians and the Malaya-Indonesians, and this thesis will be presented, and is being presented abroad.

Another reason for detailing the above is that Ibn Khaldun is an uncompromising anti-Aristotelian. He arguments against Philosophy and Logic are associated with his intransigent attacks on the Greek savant. A- movements have been restricted not taking into account the great cultures which have appeared from time to time on the Asian continent.

In Ibn Khaldun (it would require further examination) I find the support of a dynamic, energy-universe, as against a “thing”-universe. He would opposed Dalton whole-heartedly and would probably accept contemporary Physics. This is not the only Asian school, which is so oriented, the same being true of most Buddhist teachings.

The report being made to Pakistan will also be sent to the University of California in a Berkeley and should enhance efforts, on my return to the West Coast, of having your Projects being given more serious consideration.

To be followed by letter or wire.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

September 1, 1964

My dear Oliver:

Thank you for your letter air-mailed yesterday and the enclosure. It is needless to say I am in entire accord.

I am not worried, but appalled over the two cultures. At the Humanist meeting I was called down for not agreeing with a Psychologist’s reaction to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. I think I wrote I was a “Sudra,” having been a mere working man using spray, equipment, all levels, to be permitted to have any opinion on my own profession.

The other day I called on the chief Entomologist of the California Academy of Sciences and he asked me a question to which I answered: “Where do you think I got my idea?” It is nothing but the reaction of establishments to little known men and little known ideas. The “two cultures” stand out at every moment.

Someday I hope to meet a GS member who can stick to the same level of abstractions in a thesis. Why doesn’t one of them show the weaknesses in “Silent Spring?” Of course I am growing popular both because I hope to do something and because I hold that the negative emotions aroused by uncertainties become more poisonous than the uncertainties themselves.

Than in another direction a “wise-crack” came home. I had been asking: “It becomes tiresome to teach Oriental philosophy to Orientals who teach others who teach teachers who will not permit me to attend classes or seminars.” One of these men has just received a high position at the American University of Beirut and by a complicated grape-vine my own ideas will probably be presented in class­room work there!

But now the University of California, all branches, has become cooperative. I have carried a torch for a lot of little people who have been overlooked. Three times I have “stuck out my chin” so to speak, and each time been successful, benefiting others.

I have heard of Bennett but that is all. Tonight I go to a meeting of people who delude themselves into believing they accept Integration when all they do is to idealize speakers on the subject, But perhaps we have to begin that way. I have at least four projects, or solutions, all based on the theses you advocate.

I have used such approaches in the laboratories before; the scientists liked them, but certain persons rejected them so what I gained from “Science and Sanity” has gone into the “linen closet” but it is still there.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

Sept. 17, 1964

Dear Mr. Lewis,

I have checked with our Personnel Office and learned that Dr. Richard L. Park is out new Dean of the Social Sciences. Accordingly I am sending him your letter with a brief note. From this point on it is up to him and you to establish contact.

The enclosed letter from Harry Custard is from a person with whom you may wish to establish contact. You may write him, if you wish.

Yours hurriedly,

O.L. Reiser.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

July 31, 1965

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Your letter of July 25, with copy of your letters to “The Temple of Understanding” and Lloyd Morain at hand. Do you have any circular giving information about the “Temple?” Then yesterday the copy of your letter to the “International Council for the Developing Countries…” (long title!) came to my desk. This, too, is a new organization to me. In your last paragraph of the “Council” letter you promote me and Princeton University … was (is) this “pre-cognition” or just a slip? Actually, I am finished here this year … retire at age 70. I would be glad to move on. Anyway, as you may know, our university is bankrupt (financially), our chancellor has resigned, and we are drifting.

It seems to me you ought to have a good case in the courts to win your law suit, but then the details are not clear to me.

And how about the World University at New Delhi? I know nothing about it. Please inform me.

Yours,

Reiser.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

August 25, 1965

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Thank you for your letter of August 23. I hasten to reply and assure you that my position here, for this next year, is not in jeopardy., And, of course, since this is my last year here, I am not affected, but the people who were brought here, bright “balls of fire,” will be affected and unless we find money before the year is out (Ford Foundation is one possibility), these people will start leaving. Our Philosophy Department is one of the best in the world right now, but it could disintegrate in 2 years. My concern now is what to do after this academic year is over. I have two offers from Arizona—one from University of Arizona and another from the New World University Round Table at New Tucson. This latter seems a bit amateurish. Do you know Dr. Zitko, who heads this latter “World University?” And do you think these several organizations which call themselves World Universities should get together?

On this point: You mention the “New World Universities” at Islamabad. Are there two such in India? You state that may name appears on the brochures, but I have never seen any such brochures. Would you be willing to airmail me your copy, to be returned to you? This could be important to me.

I really have not got acquainted with Dr. Park. I met him by accident (somehow he recognized me), and we agreed to have lunch sometime. This has not materialized, yet. Now he is away the remainder of the summer, until the fall term.

Let me thank you once more for your concern and efforts on my behalf. I wrote a letter to Vocha, hoping that it reaches her before leaving.

All the best to you and mutual friends,

Sincerely yours,

Reiser

[Date unknown, 1965]

My dear Oliver,

You will find enclosed a rather rapidly written copy of “Prolegomena for a Peace Proposal for South Asia.” It is based essentially what I consider your philosophy although this is covered. However it will be followed by conferences in which your name will be mentioned.

The first of these will be with the local congressman. One is interested in me personally because I live in his district and the other because he is on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House. He has written a rather complete report on the split between Russia and China. I wrote him—and it is true—that I was in with the original conspiracy which brought this about. It was only after two very dramatic events that this was given any consideration whatsoever.

Every step of the way illustrates Lord Snow’s “The Two Cultures.” Despite the fact that I have been an eye-witness or ear-witness to many of the dramas of the day, my presence at most meetings is only a nuisance. Contrast that with an effort to speak to some engineers and salesmen at an agricultural machinery exhibition and one could hardly believe one was in the same world. It is very hard to live in a society to be considered as either an upstart or a superman.

Taking two courses each in Horticulture and Anthropology, it is hard to reconcile the atmospheres with so much of “society.” Anyhow, we are getting ready for the AAAS meetings in Berkeley and if you cannot come I shall keep you informed.

A very encouraging note came in an invitation to join the GS movement by Lloyd and Don. With my next dividend check I shall do this. It seems that I have full cooperation of the professors of the Botany, Anthropology, History and Economics Departments of San Francisco State where Don functions and it is important to have him “in” on my final proposals for Ambassador Goldberg which are based on a blending of GS and Prometheus programs.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

P.S. Please let me know what you are doing. If you get down to Arizona may visit that State.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

Nov. 17, 1965

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Thanks for your letter and for the “Prolegomena.” I do hope your “Peace Proposal” will help achieve some tangible results. I wish I could attend the AAAS meetings in Berkeley, but I may be in N.Y. at that time. I do not expect to be in Arizona in the near future. The probability is that the head of the World University, Dr. Zitko, will come to Pittsburgh, and I shall see him here.

I am now considering approaching some foundations for a grant to finish a project dear to my heart after I retire here. This project (research and writing) is outlined in an article (Chapter 1) which appears in the Sept. 1965 issue of Systematics. As soon as reprints have arrived, I’ll send you one.

Cosmic Humanism is now supposed to be published in December—a Christmas present for mankind?

Yours cordially,

O.L. Reiser

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

Nov. 29, 1965

Dear Sam,

Thanks for your letter and outline of activities. It is interesting that you should run into a friend of Julie Medlock’s. I have just had a letter from J.M. in which she states that the A.A. will take place in Accra next June or thereabouts, with the hope for a preparatory session in Mexico or S. America this winter.

Your peace plan for India and Pakistan is interesting. I hope it satisfies Hayakawa’s severe standards (he rejected the only article I ever sent for ETC.) Please send me any spare copy, when it is finished.

It is not clear what kind of cloak-and-dagger Federal case is involved in your lawsuit, but doubtless it would involve too much complications to exfoliate.

The World University as planned by Dr. Zitko does not seem to me to de under the rights auspices. Anyway, there are many such proposals. Zitko and his disciples (one or two) will stop off in Pittsburgh next week to see me. If you wish, you may write W.U. in Tucson.

Cordially,

Reiser

772 Clementina St.

San Francisco 3, Calif.

December 2, 1965

Prof. Oliver Reiser,

University of Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh, Penn. 15213

My dear Oliver,

The Psychology of the Volvox

This, of course, is not the exact subject in answering your letters, but there is such a gap between the wisdom of Nature and that subjective “Wisdom of Nature” used by so many metaphysical people that one does not know how to bridge them. The lesson of brotherhood, and if you will, spiritual brotherhood, is found in Nature, at least the Nature of Botany, Zoology and Geology. And I have just written some strong letters calling attention to the fact that assayers and spectro-analysts consider “the least to these my creatures” far more than any of the people of Snow’s “The other Culture.”

And my impressions of the so-called “World University” of Dr. Zitko is not Volvox, but is another of those selective, almost Aristotelian institutions which are selective and eclectic and not integrative. When living cells, or bodies, or person, unite in a larger unit, while they seem to give up their individuality, the creative process, almost Bergsonian, begins to operate. We can see this in the study of several sciences some of which I have studied, some not. But I have everywhere found this the same and when we pass from Objective Reality to Subjective “Reality” we find the G of integrative processes marvelously in accord with this “tertiam quid” or quintessence of living things.

As India and Pakistan must in some way adjust to the world, or to the UN or to life, one keeps this in mind. I do not wish to quote here either scriptures or sages; everybody does that and problems remain.

The cloak-and-dagger intrigue cannot be aired, and one reason is that the facts of the case fall outside the premises of what we accept as logical or real. That is why one has constantly to go back to Keyser, and I am sure AK would agree. Indeed I keep on getting letters from various Asian countries and the writers have such different premises and such different logistics. How are we going to bring them together? A real World University or Project: Prometheus would accomplish that.

Change fits in so well with my present outlook I shall have to go over it carefully. All of it seems strictly Volvox as above.

I am very much amused to that Robert Scheer is accepted. Every analyst is accepted and they oppose each other. I had a running report on everything that went on in Annam-Tonking from 1947 and have corroborating witnesses right in the city. Our informant and friend has lately been memorialized in Penang, Malaysia. He also has a large article in the new “Encyclopedia of Buddhism.” In a few years I believe there will be statues to him all over SE Asia. But you never heard his name. An eye-witness, a key-figure, he will become famous through Prof. Robinson of Wisconsin. This supports the ETC. book review of The Image of Daniel Boorstin.

Everything today goes strictly according to Lord Snow. We have the two cultures, one based on facts and the other based on personality impressions. In the Botany class I am accepted as an authority on Asia. When the professor alludes to a plant, I often describe it; it is accepted as fact and I have become an “expert.” But for the first time I have been called on by a university to tell my personal experience in meeting real people who do not fit into our premises of “Why we behave like Human Beings.” If one thought one was off base for not fitting into social predilections today I find a whole group of Social Anthropologists who do not accept our “Why we behave like Human Beings” who are too busy studying real behavior patterns of real people to have time to propose theories, universal or otherwise. And the fact that I have even proposed a theory based on world-outlook is considered a very good sign and is strictly in accord with Volvox and Project: Prometheus.

The other day one Lottie Von Stahl, a very close friend of my own late friend, Dr. Blanche Baker of this city, gave a talk. She claimed to be clairvoyant and her clairvoyance has been used by many criminologists. She is now working with two departments at the University of California, UCLA and will introduce me. It is amusing because one of the top men at UCLA and I had instant recognition from meeting real people in real Asia. We are neither of us on a list of “experts” fro SE Asia and we know all the top powers there.

There were two sides to our conversation. One is our rejection of all those persons and groups pretending to re[present the psychic sciences. They are all egocentric and seek research money for themselves alone. They are now by-passes by UCLA.

The second is the validity of phenomena. These I accept as real without proposing too much theory. The existence of an Aura is one thing—its explanation as being physical, psychic, neither, both, etc. is another matter. But I mention this because in going to UCLA next I shall bring some of your material. Once I wished to go there to study with the late Prof. Von Reichenbach. His death was a determinant factor in my choosing to go to Asia instead of to his university, In any event I should be able to present Project: Prometheus there.

Besides, my peace proposal are definitely in accord. The acceptance of Prime Minister Sastri and Ayub to go to Moscow stands right across plans of a life-time. Our adherence to Aristotelian analysis even when verbally discountenancing it, is very definitive. Now with two Asian nations asking for my memoirs and the great difficulty of getting interviews here shows how much we belong to Snow’s “he other culture.”

My break with Don Hayakawa came over his acceptance of high orders of abstraction as being Zen Buddhism and there was nothing you can do about it. yesterday I received a letter from Vocha Fiske, returned from Japan; and while writing I was interrupted by a close friend with reports of the whole world of Buddhism and this confusion between high order of abstractions, low order of abstractions and prime facie evidence is one which has prevented the universal recognition of the GS movement.

Still today, having the full cooperation and perhaps confidence of professors in five departments at San Francisco State, where Don is also on the staff, it would be unkind not to recognize him. Beside, the analytical part of my plans are in accord with him and the constructive parts with you. I had to rush a letter from here to resident Johnson and gave him a key of my connection with Ayub. It is smarty business that rejects his and there is an awful amount or smartiness and smugness going around, and this is also true in the letters from abroad. We are all individualists, and we do not readily accept the Volvox position.

At this point I shall write Zitko and enclose carbon and then may or may not resume.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

January 7, 1966

My dear Oliver:

Thank you for you material from Julie. It is a long time since my first involvement in world peace. In 1930 my paper was selected with fifteen others to be read in Paris at a giant peace conference. Long before the dead-line the enthusiastic promoters published the paper of Dr. Alexandra David-Neel insisting that Buddhism alone could bring world peace. I remarked, “The next world war will be between the Buddhists.” Then the Marco Polo Bridge incident.

Even religions follows the Theology-Metaphysics-Science phases of the French Philosopher, Comte. The theologians having failed, the metaphysicians took over. We had the Roerich “Banner of Peace.” All the politicians in the world joined in, including the very scoundrelous characters who were in the forefront of intrigue. They wanted to neutralize churches and art galleries. I wrote that the next war would see the anti-aircraft guns mounted before churches and art-galleries. In a few weeks the Spanish Civil War and the government mounted its anti-aircraft guns before the churches and art galleries. Finis, Roerich’s “The Banner of Peace.”

It is negative reports like these which have pushed one out of a lot of world spectacles, and we are now running into the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. At the moment one finds oneself in entire accord and concord with it—which does not make one right—and very uncertain of the effectiveness of metaphysical movements. One is even in greater accord with the contemporary work of Anthropologists. Again this does not make one right, only in this age one finds oneself moving not alone any more.

As matters stand, as soon as a family law-suit is settled I should be leaving for Asia and can give more specific reports of the work of Sri Surendra Ghose. His “Would University” had as its financial director the same Mr. Brohi who has been Julie’s “angel” and who is the treasurer of the University of Islamabad. The fighting between Indian and Pakistan has held up both undertakings, that of New Delhi and that of Islamabad. I am therefore extending all efforts to finding methods of bringing about peace. Only my matrices are based on the history, psychology, religions and needs of the people involved and not on some subjective scheme. The history of Eli Culbertson, the bridge expert, also shows what happens when schemes are devised, backed by limited logic and supported by social éclat rather than by any knowledge of the peoples involved.

As you have marked one Dr. Raga Elim in Houston I may write to him, but the very idea of programs, reparative and non-integrating organizations, etc. causes one to be quite chary. If one looks further there are so many “peace” movements and 90% of them are subjective.

I have received in the mail today a long letter from New Zealand. It starts out fine with some important contributions to grass culture and the naming of specific trees for specific purposes. Then it goes into the subject of “consciousness,” especially “cosmic consciousness” and ends up by naming (to me) rather wild leaders of various metaphysical cults which are scattered through the Nation but especially here in California. All of them that I know of are very vague, extremely anti-logical (one does not want A-logic) and lean far, far more on personalisms and personalities than any specific programs.

My own “Project-Garden of Allah” is based on a blending of actual Oriental Philosophies, corresponding principles of Botany (carbon- and nitrogen-cycles), the excellent work of the Ford Foundation in India, and the integration of all the desert reclamation programs contacts—which pretty well cover the earth. No doubt an all-inclusive type of mind is needed but this brings one back squarely to your “Project-Prometheus” with a minor assists, no doubt to “Project: Krishna.”

As soon as the metaphysical people get control of the word “interrogational” they almost deify it. The Tibetans have actually deified the more involved psychological processes and they are worshipped as gods and goddesses in that country—they do not change the Sanskrit words at all, they personalize them. And that is what I see in some movements.

In this city, until the scientists met recently, every effort on my part to introduce schemes to reconcile India and Pakistan were rudely brushed aside and during this period, when now one has been fortunate to make a large number of contacts among the scientists, no less than four Indian leaders have asked for a candid criticism of their country and its present politics and policies. As one has been all over that land, and its neighbors, one can meet the issue. And when the scientists met, this person was able to speak discretely on Indian Village life, presenting orally the same papers which were rejected—a priori—by the “social scientists” on the Berkeley campus.

The whole question of “peace” may be abortive. Scientists are working for peace by mingling with the multitudes, questioning them of their wants, doing research work and cooperating with each other regarding of nationality. This functional peace also corroborates Snow’s “Two Cultures,” the one tending toward internationalism, the other toward extreme analysis, dualism and differentiation.

On the whole there may be sympathy for Julie’s circular but the general criticisms are not necessarily well founded. A personal report of visits to the Berkeley Campus find one so far out of line with the various news reports, and in ever growing sympathy with the new administration. Rigged conferences have been held, given plenty of publicity, but attended by such small crowds as to be pitiable and a portion of those small crowds being outsiders sent by two quite opposed contending factions, neither of which seems to have much of a following on the campus.

Hills is in England, has been financially successful, and his “World University” presents Christianity as the “universal religion.” He has sloughed his Hindu tendencies. This sets him in opposition to his Holiness, the Pope, who has quite a different Christianity as “universal religion,” and already to start with—and God knows how many we may end with—two “Christianities” claiming to be universal and all inclusive. And if there are two such “Christianities” one may be pretty sure there are twenty-two such “Hinduisms” (quite a few in California) all claiming to be the universal religion, all claiming to be working for peace, and all not only ignoring each other but being quite antipathetic.

The “fun” will begin shortly if I were to present this material to the World Federalists, another “universal” group working for “peace.”

If one excepts Elim, whose name suggests an Indian background, all the others are either Aryans or Christians, which is hardly the way to start a universal movement. At least the two referred to above, the one through religions and the Roerich movement were universal ethnographically and otherwise.

Perhaps in one sense the two “gods” of my life—and Julie has written both their biographies, Bertrand Russell and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, have long advocated meditation and until we study the mind-at-rest we can never find what peace is. The Sufis make much more of the mind-at-rest than any particular or particularizing program. In theory the very divided Buddhists do also. The exclusion of the whole Orient from a “peace movement” is a sign of uselessness from the very beginning.

I may also take this paper to the Research Survey Group at the University in Berkeley. But I hope to go South around the end of the month and visit both the Riverside and Los Angeles campuses. The material itself would come under the University of California, Santa Barbara, which I have not visited.

So long as peace is centered on non-action and war on action, I do not see where or how we can have peace, for man lives by action and the institutionalism of “peace” which excludes anybody is doomed to failure. The integration of “white” and “black” in this land has not included of Mongolians. There is to be another conference on “Asia” here. The last two conferences had no Mongolians of any type, description or character on their agenda and one does not wish to go through another round of martyrdom trying to correct that. But I can easily put this in the hands of my Chinese friends and get their reactions.

One does not know whether it would do any good to write Julie. If enthusiasm gets high, neither insight nor logic are of any accord. The word “wisdom” too often has no connotation. That is why all my “peace” efforts concentrate on the augmentation of good supplies. And for that reason also I have been sympathetic to, but not a participant in family planning.

Faithfully,

Sam

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

July 26, 1966

Dear Sam,

It has long been on my mind to write you the letter I owe you. Actually, I don’t have much to report. We returned from our grand trip to the West Coast quite fatigued. I have been reading and regurgitating. My wife and I want to thank you for your part in what was a wonderful series of experiences—not the least of which was our trip to Chinatown.

Your letter arrived in the same mail with a letter from Gordon Speedie. He is concerned about the same things all of us are. I wish his “complementalism” were explained fully somewhere. As you will also note, he quotes Schenkman (publisher) as saying that Cosmic Humanism will be out soon—it’s about time! Speedie has a somewhat higher opinion of Dr. Zitko than you have. He made a tape-recording (talk) for the WU meetings in Washington which convened yesterday. This is what he refers to in his letter. My own opinion of Zitko is closer to your evaluation than to Speedie’s.

I had two letters from Julie Medlock in Europe (after the folding of the Accra Assembly) but not a word since she went to stay (temporarily) with the Bertrand Russels in Wales. Christopher Hills wrote me that he met J.M. in London recently. The latest activity of Hills is at the London Centre (see enclosed).

Regards to you & Vocha, when you see her.

Cordially,

Reiser

P.S. Our friend Dr. Parks is giving up his administrative work as Dean here and is going to U. of Michigan as Professor of Political Sciences. We never had that talk he indicated we should have.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

September 13, 1966

Dear Sam,

This is a hasty note to call your attention to the fact that Julie Medlock is not now living at the home of Earl Bertrand Russell in London, as you state in your letter of September 10 to the Center at Santa Barbara—she merely uses this as a permanent forwarding address. In her last letter to me she indicated that she would soon be on the continent, visiting friends near Dusseldorf (West Germany), but that my mail sent c/o the Russels would be forwarded from their place in London.

About her helping Russell assemble material for the trial in Paris—if it comes off—what do you think of this? I have my own views of this, but you haven’t asked me for them. Do you “happen” to know what Hutchins and the people at the Center think of the proposed trial?

Cordially,

O.L. Reiser

Sam—since writing the letter I have just had a letter from J.M. Among other things she says that she is not involved in the Russell (Paris) trial. She is still hoping to visit the Accra Assembly somewhere in Asia—hastily, Oliver

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

Dec. 28, 1966

Dear Sam,

Strange world—I see that Mrs. frost, who wrote me the nice letter (see enclosed copy) and Howard Parsons (whom you “jump” on in a gentle way) both have connections with Challenge, the house organ for Leland Stewart’s “Conference on Science and Religion.”

We, Mrs. R & I, hope the New Year is a good one for you and that you get the travel and make the contacts you have in mind. Say “hello!” to Vocha for us when you see her; we just received a card from her today.

Cordially,

Reiser

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

Jan. 4, 1967

Dear Sam,

This is a hasty note to congratulate you on the “Endowment of the greatest American virtues” (the inheritance) and to express my belief that it could not be put to better use than you will provide. I suppose I told you that Dick park has left Pittsburgh for Michigan. Your proposed trip should be rewarding to all concerned—you and they.

About my own books: only two are still in print: 1. The Integration of Human Knowledge and Cosmic Humanism. The others are all out of print and not obtainable. I am enclosing leaflets covering such of the two still in print.

Let us know how your plans develop.

Cordially,

Reiser

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

March 8, 1967

Dear Sam,

Your several letters (including the belated letter of Feb. 9 on “Making a Will”) arrived this morning. I do wish you would send me a copy of your letter to Lord Russell. I suspect that he will not see it (did you see the article in the NY Times several Sundays back on B. Russell?), and that his American Secretary may (or may not) reply. Let me know.

The other thing of some urgency is your item concerning Vocha Fiske. I didn’t know she was (is) ill and it comes as a bit of a shock. Please tell her we think of her frequently and the good experiences we have shared with her. Hyla joins me in this.

Enclosed is a review of Cosmic Humanism . This chap Henry Pierce and I were on TV together. There are also excellent reviews of C H in the current Humanist and Main Currents in Modern Thought, but I don’t have extra copies.

Let me know how things develop.

Cordially,

Reiser

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

July 17, 1967

Dear Sam,

Thank you for your recent letters keeping me informed of your thinkings and doings. We are glad to learn of your good wealth improvement and how well you like your new location. For my part, I am busy preparing several papers—one a talk this fall in NY City at “Town Hall”—biggest assignment so far.

We had a letter from Vocha Fiske this last week. She too, is recovering, and this we are happy about. Also a letter from Julie Medlock. She may return to Pondicherry (Aurobindo Ashram) this fall, to the “Mother.” With the collapse of the Accra Assembly, she is out of a job.

There has been some discussion in the Humanist as to whether I am “Humanist.” I was irritated with the smugness of Corliss Savant’s letter and was inclined to dash off a sarcastic letter, but decided not to. I wonder if Corliss Savant’s views are agreeable to Lloyd Morain.

Well, don’t give up the ship.

Yours,

Reiser

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

October 5, 1967

My dear Oliver:

Objectivity Versus “Realism”

I did not send you “The Other.” If I were to claim knowledge of Psychedelics I should be attacked from all sides, so I play coy.

Idries Shah claimed to be the first Sufi teacher to give out that philosophy in London. He was attacked at once by all the “experts,” scholars from Cambridge, Oxford and Glasgow whom we in America adulate and who are feared not only all over the Islamic world but all over Asia. The scholars boycotted Idries Shah but Poet Graves came to his rescue.

By that time the real scholars of Sufism began to come out and although they are not accepted in the world of “Realism,” they carry on their fight against both Idries Shah and the “experts.” So far as America is concerned the “experts” are way, way ahead.

The Cloud-Nine people of the past and the Flower people of the present would love Idries Shah, and so long as we accept only the “realism” of the Scholars and avoid hard facts, Idries Shah will prosper.

There are some forty million disciples of Sufism in the objective world—which has nothing to do with “realism.” You can count noses but we dare not. I don’t mean to say that Sufis are better than other people but that they are, and of course this immediately marks one as a fanatic despite the presidents of India and Pakistan and the whole government of Sudan.

I am busy writing that there are more Vietnamese Buddhists than Jews of all complexions. Do you think “realists” will accept that? Anyhow I sent a friend to Idries Shah. I had received five tearful appeals to help the Jordanian and Palestinian refugees. One came from Idries Shah. My friend went and found a post office box! Good for collecting funds, a thing done so much here. Incidentally when I called on the Jordanian Consul-General, something “realists” would not think of, he pull no tear-jerks at all. So far as he was concerned the situation was well in hand.

I am now contacting several types of scientists and the communication is facile and cordial. They all accept that a man who has been in the field and visited farms, agricultural research stations, universities, should be listened to along with commentaries and news reporters!

Recently a book on India as written by a newswoman, a Mrs. Hobbs, and received considerable attention. Accidentally I came upon a work, A Psychiatrist visits India, a dignified, objective work which did not receive reviews here. This is not wanted by “realists.” “India, India” will be advertised and discussed, A Psychiatrist visits India will be placed in several persons hands by me, but it does not belong to “realisms.”

I am staying home today because the School Department of San Francisco has taken up a project on feeding India. My colleagues have suggested me; besides I am going to the University of agricultural College at Davis, Friday. I already have my contacts and may gain more. As written before, the program for feeding backward Nations comes well within Project: Prometheus. Only India could have the largest harvest in history and a famine at the same time in the same place; this is “realistic” reporting and this is what is discussed in groups interested in “international affairs.”

Some people are now curious that I shall not contribute to the cause when contributing means putting funds available for an “expert” to travel many miles to come here to speak on a subject when I have all the data at my finger-tips. Naturally this will be available for the school department.

I am now compelled to work on real Zen manuscripts and must have them out of the way before submitting my program on the Near East. But now a proposal for a salt-water conversion plant is before the Senate. There will be a salt-water conversion plant when we become interested in Arabic culture. I do not wish to say Arabic culture is above or below, merely that it is. The magazines I get from Asia have all long since concluded that the United States is out to destroy their culture and religion, and oratory on our part only infuriates them more. Only Anthropologists seem aware that there are many cultures and some should be preserved even if only for museum reasons. As above, there are more Vietnamese Buddhists than there are “Jews” of all descriptions but this must not disturb realists. Emerson said, “In a botanist’s garden there are no weeds” and assayers and soil scientists examine for even parts per billion.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Dr. Oliver Reiser,

Department of Philosophy,

Pittsburgh, University,

Pittsburgh 013, Pa.

June 19, 1968

My dear Oliver:

I am enclosing copy of a letter just written to Julie Medlock. If you wish copy of hers I shall be glad to send it to you. I am also sending carbons to Lloyd, Don and Russ Joyner, for there is not a turning in the road.

It is notable that Julie should seek assistance from Sam when there are so many recognized “Karma Yogins” and “Purna Yogins” here. They always dominate the podiums. They are the “experts.” Sam has had enough of that and how far he can help Julie depends not on him, but on facing reviews by “experts.” Indeed, so far the Aurobindo people have been almost as adept in their rejections as the G.S. people and almost as solicitous to obtain funds from this person. I don’t want to go into these ridiculous situations.

I have been through the Roerich Museum fiasco and seen the same repeated by Zitko and others. Now there is a call for “global consciousness.” It is of two kinds, from the cults who seize the word and the young who have some ideal and idea.

There is such a far cry from “Integration” as used by you and in accord with Calculus and the same word used by analysts and dialecticians as an unconscious gimmick. Sam has a slight surplus now. There are three conventions coming in August, two of which solicit money but not ideas; the other ideas and so one is going to the third. One has had enough of this by-passing and emotionalism and the one outstanding event of the life was being called down at the AAAS for not speaking and being told one had the solutions. This could never happen at the G.S. or “Sri Aurobindo” seminars here unless there is a real change.

One is therefore going to write two articles, but this time keep carbons which will be immediately sent to leading universities where they will be considered—and if considered perhaps even a contribution. One will be on “The General Semantics of G.S” which is on the Denver agenda. And as one rereads AK, there is such agreement but a number of shocks because the same language, down to words and phrases used by Sam were given the coup de grace. One can quote ad nauseum but will not. Peace will never come that way. Nor is peace coming “our” way of conferences of just those types of men abhorred by AK in Science and Sanity. But a “big man” is a big man and a “little man” is a little man, but apparently mostly in a “democracy.”

There is no question that my paper on “The Hippie Problem” is becoming self- evident because of hard facts. As ETC.-psychology is based on the experiments, successful or not of a few select persons, it will have to face pragmatic realities. “We” are pulling more people out of “drugs “by methods which must not be investigated lest….

The conclusions of the ETC. semanticists on “drugs” is diametrically the opposite of those of a number of scientists whose articles appear in “Science.” Even Russ can check on that. Where does it leave us? One who has been trained in Keyser’s “rigorous thinking” has had to observe through the years articles lacking rigor at all. And yet one will try to introduce GS or your work in places where it has not reached: Parts of the Orient (nothing to do with ETC.’s “Asia”); and to the young who are flocking here.

Then there is an anomaly, that the School as devised is by very wealthy men who use “drugs” (whatever that means—never mind Russell, never mind Keyser, a “drug is a drug”), and they are happy over the stand of the scientists and very much opposed to ETC. semantics. In fact as I return to Mill Valley (where Don Hayakawa lives) I go “between two clouds,” that he has never accepted anything from me; and the others look with dismay that I accept Science and Sanity.

The next step is not a threat, it is coming reality; to have someone lecture on non-A Logics. This has been proposed ad nauseum by Sam Lewis and spurned. It may be that Don will see the light, not my person, not my articles, but that there is a need for something more than empty negative non-A verbalizations supposed by nothing, not even by vacuum. The conclusions is Sophistry and that is exactly what we have had.

Here one can be very unfair, and will be. I was living with Gavin; it did not matter what Gavin said. Then Gavin went away and the man, who was a sailor, did the same with me. Finally, exasperated, I turned and said: “When did your wife leave you?” “That was hitting below the bale.” “No, that was the only fair question I have ever asked you. You pounce on a stranger for the troubles close to you.” After that we became friends and there is no doubt that if I hit Don below the belt he might become far more compassionate about the short-comings of others. But I will not do that, only when he reads this he may come to realize that the whole world is full of sufferings and problems and only those whose own houses are in order are capable of “solving” other problems.

For there are not only “unknown” sciences in Asia but some of them can be very effective. The one time when you were here and I mentioned Jagadis Bose in Lloyd’s house, it was not too comfortable for the “Humanists “(who exclude most of humanity). Besides, Bose was a well known accepted scientist and this is not always true of contributors to “ETC.” Only if we are to have Project: Prometheus, it must include not only the efforts of non-Aryans, if must leave the doors open to what may become include in the Science or the future. Merely to accept what Science has already accepted and only what science has already accepted may be “Science” but it is not Science.

I should rather work objectively and impersonally. There is the rise of a totally different kind of consciousness in the young. This seems explicable well within your frameworks. It is sometimes ahead of “science.” So long as Physicists cooperate and psychologists have their separative schools this situation will persist; but in Project: Prometheus it would necessarily disappear.

There is no questions that my work is expanding; that the young either come to my lectures or wish to meet me; that they accept one who has been rejected by editors, this being regarded as a “merit.” The unnecessary wide gap between Asian and Occidental cultures is coming to an end. I may subscribe for a magazine published by my colleagues. They are educated Europeans, who, having had to go through this same spurious rejection, have joined together and, having lived in Asia and studied with Asians, are giving their conclusions to the world. And yet these men are all products also of Western universities and sometimes teachers, too.

After this next phase I may invite some Vietnamese to speak on Vietnam and in addition to give phases of Asian cultures which our English “experts “have never heard of.

Some of the young want to have a class on “Science and Sanity.” Indeed enough are interested. But they will spot at once the departure from such principles in so many of the published articles. They are not fooled nor beguiled by names. The place of Prof. A. Kaplan last year caused resentment, but the cowardly audience choose to pick on Sam Lewis instead of on “Professor” Kaplan and this was permitted. Value-judgments, not logic. And yet Kaplan did not and does not represent “science.”

I should like to see some open, impersonal debates on your own writings. I believe the world will accept them.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc- Hayakawa

cc- Morain

cc- Joyner

P.S. I am going to see that GS gets a wider hearing both in real Asia and among the young, regardless.

The University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania

Department of Philosophy

June 26, 1968

Dear Sam,

We have been away—in British Columbia and Washington State—didn’t get to California—and when we returned, found three letters from you. I wonder what the “semantics of semantics” will be and whether your paper will be accepted.

Like yourself, I am in touch with Julie Medlock. I gather that most of the physical construction of “Auroville” is still to be done.

Life here goes on as usual. I teach a course on the “Philosophy of Religion” this fall in the School of General Studies. I like to keep in touch with students. I gather that you, too, are a “teacher”—more power to you!

Yours for the moment,

Reiser

July 30, 1968

Dr. Oliver Reiser,

Department of Philosophy,

University of Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh 13, Pa.

My dear Oliver:

“Silent Spring”; Lysenko vs. Mendel; “What is Vietnam?” “The Water Problem of the Day”; World Food Problems”; “Is Tobacco a Major Cause of Cancer?”

These and many such questions I have long felt could be solved by the applications of the matrices of “Science and Sanity” flanked by Cassius Keyser’s “Rigorous Thinking” and your own efforts. These and similar problems are being by-passed and emotional pressures substituted which leave the situations high in the air. “The Population Problems” are being faced more rigorously and those who dare not criticize Dr. Chandrasekhar show in this one direction a rigor which they do not in other directions.

Jurisprudence and Dialectics think they solve by the piling up of examples. There is no room for dissent, there are no exceptions. And so the Semanticists must reject Lord Snow, because they do not like to be classed with the non­scientists. Yet “ETC.” has had as anti-scientific articles as any publication I have seen in recent years, and you cannot touch the “generals.” It is a pity, a great pity. With all the solutions in sight, these problems continue and will continue until faced by other groups of savants who may even use the same Logistics as AK did.

Julie Medlock. I am here faced with crowds of band-wagon people. I was surprised when Julie asked me not to cooperate with these band-wagon people who recently pell-melled into Zitko and now are very silent and trying to pell-mell into her and will leach her if they have the chance. I have had to write her practically for while I now have the cooperation of the great America virtue, $$$$$, there are a number of red-tape measure which cannot be by-passed.

With the discovery that “Glory Roads” is now being studied in universities and colleagues (it as written before the rise of the “generals” who have taken over Semantics) it will be placed in the hands of wealthy social reformers and perhaps also to retiring Senator Kushel who is really interested in the above problems and their solutions.

Zen: Asian Versus Semantic. The Grand Master of Korea is in the vicinity and I am hoping he will come to this house Sunday. The Asian Zen is about as far from ETC.-Zen as you can imagine. There is already an International School of Meditation which has been approved by Sufis, Hindus and Japanese, but this is not “American-International” which is generally a legal-fictitious term utilized by promoters, and accepted by society. American-International has been and generally is, very exclusive. And yet this is the stuff ETC. is compelled to accept as existing even though in opposition. As to Realities, that is different. Realists don’t have to accept realities.

Sheila is a disciple who is planning to go to India as soon as possible. When she comes here next she will have access to Julie’s files. She and her wealthy colleagues have already the Auroville material. They are collecting objective data on the new types of cooperatives and an exchange is needed and thank God it will be without the intervention of nuisance “experts.” She is trying to get one of her wealthy friends either to go or become more interested.

Indian Philosophy. Sheila was with me Saturday night—I am sorry Daniel Hoffman could not come. We met with Indian savants and were able to discuss a number of problems with real non-Aristotelians whose very existence is a barrier to promotional-semantics, or ETC.-ism. They told our common friend that it was the first time they had met an American who could discuss deep or passing problems on their levels, We talk about “levels”; it is a nice semantic word until it has to be operational. The exclusion of Non-Aristotelians, persons and views from the ETC-society will be a laughing stock to the future, and even now to the young.

Tomorrow I am meeting a publisher and editor who are interested in an American who has lived in Asian, met many Asians and been accepted by Asians as knowledgeable in their cultures. Of course I am not the only “Sarkhanian” but we all get the same treatment, and most of them are working for their sustenance and cannot be as free as Sam.

American Philosophical Movement. All copies of all letters to you and to others are now being fed to the Philosophical Department of the University of California. And I shall be able to discuss this also with Dr. Huston Smith of MIT when he visits Berkeley shortly. We are going to place cards on the table and try to utilize American brain-power to solve the problems as above, and I think it can be done, even easily done.

One of my efforts will be to bring the philosophers and scientists closer together, especially in consideration of the problems listed-above.

Social Acceptance. Sunday I may put on a “thing.” Every week more and more young to my classes Asia philosophies as presented and accepted by Asians. Sunday night for the first time three women of mature age came, and another from another source and all of them were convinced that this person knows more about Asian philosophies than most “experts.”

There are already rumors that I shall be joined in the first efforts to put on a Thing in Golden Gate Park by others, and I am pretty sure this will happen ultimately. Oriental Philosophy is something more than brilliant essays by living and dead Englishman. And I noticed that Sri Aurobindo has attacked Karl Jung without mentioning his name and yet the Aurobindo movement in this country is almost entirely controlled by Jungians! No wonder Julie does not concur.

It is also quoted evident that the Hippies—who are human beings and not guinea-pigs, dissent from ETC. on the subject of their existence and their outlooks.

Well, you have the problems above. This was written early in the morning owing to my having run out of other types of typing paper.

I shall upheld a freedom in which dissenters are permitted to present their views before being given the boot. And now with the first interview with an editor and publisher coming up I am quite willing to stand or fall. Sooner or later the experiences of the little man who was there will be considered alongside of the dialectics of the big man who was not. And some day we shall have a Cosmic Humanism which includes the people of the world rather than the thoughts of the important and self-important.

Actually I am in excellent fettle and not mad at anybody.

Faithfully

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

September 7, 1968

Dr. Oliver Reiser,

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pa.

My dear Oliver:

I have been so busy that I wrote Julie at 11 o’clock last night and was back at it at 6 this morning. All these things came together but I have no feeling that “realists” will accept them:

a. Notice of the coming winter session of the AAAS to meet at Dallas and this will include a session on “The Cosmic Sciences.” I do not know what some of our “sanity” colleagues are going to say about that!

As things stand I feel I may be coming East and if so would cross Texas one way or another. Besides, there will be a great deal of attention to Desert Reclamation Research. Things are happening here; the young accept where their elders do not and the young are coming to my aid. And there will be two men going over the “Project: Prometheus” stuff here and the way things are going I shall have to choose between “Project: Prometheus” and “How California Can Help Asia” and no nonsense—facts, referents, references, all solid stuff.

b. I have been trying for months to get the Auroville people to get the proper import permits. The chief trade adviser of the Indian Consulate here is a friend of mine; the chief collector of customs in Bombay is a friend of mine, but I can’t get the import permit or number and they have been warning and warning and the warnings go unheeded.

c. A group of my disciples—young, of course, will soon be en route to India and it would appear that more and more may be going. But hard facts do not influence hard hearts. Older people mealy-mouth, “Do unto others” and they use that as substitute for human kindness and consideration.

d. A few of us had a preemptory meeting for a campaign to raise funds. We have already had twice the amount pledged and on its way and we have not even had a business meeting. This sudden influx of money and the possibility of its being in large amounts changes the whole outward picture. It would appear that volunteer workers may soon be paid. The reaction was totally unexpected. People who will simply not accept my backgrounds either in the sciences or in the Asian culture but just want money for their own efforts have now to face some real outward realities. I can only contribute to those who will accept my own researches in “Project: Krishna” and “Project: Prometheus.” There is more and more attendant successes on university campuses and with the young. I do not intend to try to reach the “experts,” i.e. Snow’s non-scientific culture. I do know this will be my last semester at the University of California here.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

P.S. One of my epic poems, ejected, rejected and snubbed by older people is now being published by the young (of course) and may be out soon.

September 8, 1968

Dr. Oliver Reiser

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 13, Pa.

The Objective Realization of Projects

My dear Oliver:

This letter is being written on a Sunday morning, very early, anticipating a week of financial and legal transactions which may pull one out of a fairly comfortable position to one where one can work with others as a team and also as a leader. The position is almost ridiculous: older people insist that Sam has nothing to gives to the young—they do not belong to the young themselves; and the young are clustering around him in rolls of Pied Piper and Sage. And for the anti-Aristotelians one has only Irish-logic that is shillelaghs and money, which they understand.

It is very peculiar that two persons who could have very helpful and with whom there should be, and I believe there will be, mutual cooperation are also close to you, i.e. Lloyd and Julie. A Freudian would seize the situations at once. Lloyd should have adopted children—it would have given him outlets and vistas which he has not had.

The situation is “complicated” because a whole craft of a new type of associates is in the offering. They have already declared, “These people do not belong to Sri Aurobindo. We are Sri Aurobindo’s people.” At the same time their leaders especially are those given the “humanist” (?) treatment by the “generals” of Semantics.

I am not going into that situation directly any more. This letter is more concerned with Project: Krishna and Julie. In the financial opportunities before me I am going to seek some money for real round-table discussion of real Indian Cosmic Psychology, and no more intellectual nonsense of Mr. Super big and the compulsion of pygmies and peasants to listen. As the people of Pondicherry wail, it is time for somebody to present Indian Cosmic Metaphysics. I have. It works. It is accepted now by Prof. Huston Smith of MIT but hardly yet by “humanists” who slam down on peasants and pygmies and that day is over, forever.

Indian Cosmic Metaphysics—and I have to use some very poor English equivalent: has the “super-worlds” of “mind,” “intelligence” and “love.” Mind is above the manifest. Intelligence is above and beyond analytical mind. Love is above and beyond intelligence (but not always separate) and Cosmic Unity is above and beyond and yet absolutely penetrating the others. This is the simplest way to put it.

Our dualistic, Aristotelian culture does not understand interpenetration. Love operates in the physical as gravitation, adhesion, cohesion and keeps the cells of the body together.

An exceedingly particularized, analytical selectivity has made a certain derivative aspect of this Love appear as the whole. There is nothing wrong in it, but the traditional dualistic habit means that analysts are adding to confusion by adopting the words—just the words—of Integration, which is Intelligence (Vijnanavada) and Love and spreading endless confusion nut only, thank goodness, to their own kind.

A New Race is manifesting to whom Intelligence and Integration are as natural as analysis, separation and dialectics were to the old. But older people, seizing the words, and lacking the Intelligence, are endeavoring, as did Dr. Zitko, to adopt the symbols without any serious understanding of the realities beyond the symbols. And it has never occurred to the analysts, that in making emotional appeals they have failed to touch the hearts of really more advanced persons who have in addition to Intelligence and Love, that great virtue, money.

Auroville. I am now compelled to manifest my own Auroville which may (or may not) be called The Garden of Inayat. We are seeking no further outside help. We have the money, the Intelligence, and such mutual Love as I have not yet seen in a group. This person is the Guru-Murshid and the others are disciples. But we shall never be near one large new type of commune and in touch with others and our efforts can lead to adaptation of principles.

Lloyd knows and knows very well that Sam did a lot or research in this field years ago. But he has so far, other than by a nod, given any opportunity for expanded expression due to travels and life’s experience. I believe, however, he will get on the band-wagon. The evidence is so great and the appearance of semantic articles in other publications will impel him to be honest, subjective and impersonal.

Now the grand dreams of Sri Aurobindo have met with no opposition or criticism. But the seizure by analysts and dialecticians of the verbal terms of Integration and Cosmic Love are hardly impelling or compelling. Jesus Christ has said, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another.” This Love is not subject to any discourse intelligently by analysts, dialecticians and dualists. But they are the one class of people who seem totally incapable of grasping these principles and the one class who cannot let go.

We have to send Julie Love, Compassion, Sympathy, Gentleness, Tenderness and all those beautiful principles of “eternal” life which she has missed. It is only after that, and then that we shall be able to help. All Sam has asked for are the proper import license numbers and he has gotten—never mind, any Freudian would understand. If we can get that license number and go through channels we can bring Julie everything on the physical plane that she wants and more.

The career of being a Pied Piper is accompanied by one of being father, mother, grandfather, and spiritual teacher. I am no longer concerned with the asinine, egocentric rejections of older people. The facts do not interest them; they are passing away.

This society and especially the religious portion, has give everything but love, tenderness, sympathy, compassion. These are the realities of the universe when one goes deep. These are the general characteristics of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed. When we read about them it is mostly in analytical works. In Project: Krishna was have to become them, whether as if acting in a drama, or by methods which our traditions have ignored.

It has been said, “The eyes are the windows of the soul.” They are. Like Paul Brunton who was once my “guru,” Sam presents the method of Eye, Breath, and Heart, actually. You can call it subjective or objective, but people who will not examine pooh-pooh. The “anti-inquisitionists” (?) will not look through new types of telescopes, so to speak.

From actual experience, every level presented in Indian (and perhaps other) scriptures and traditions has been realized in this life by this person. The last month, beginning with Dr. Huston Smith and again climaxing in Sant Keshavadas, it was demonstrated. In the same mail with a dualistic letter from poor Julie a beautiful non-dualistic letter was received from Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. This week I have to again function to try either to bring the Buddhists together or to re-substitute the teachings from (and of) Lord Buddha instead of a flock of sectarian, egocentric, non-demonstrable theological and metaphysical hodge-podge. Lord Buddha himself said nothing should be accepted blindly but must be based on experience. Even “religion” in a sense must go through the theological, metaphysical and scientific phases of A. Comte.

One heals by love, tenderness, by compassion. The nature of mankind is not changed fundamentally by any prevailing ignorance or egocentric outlook. The New Race is here—Bulwer Lytton, H.G. Wells, Sri Aurobindo and others predicted. Evolution does not stop with the physical; it includes the psychic. But the psychic is not a word, it is content. The word has been seized, the content ignored. And beyond the psychic there is another tremendous sphere., the super-universe of Heart. Perhaps Sri Aurobindo has grasped it but the analytical, dualistic, dialectical people who use his name and quote him while maintaining differences and distinctions, only add to confusion. Tongues and egos divide, hearts unite.

We have to bring Reiser and Aurobindo together but also Whitman and Krishna. Working every day all the time, now the external result seems to be the attraction of funds. Oh, how the promoters love … the funds! But one cannot compassionate even to promoters. Only now we are going to illustrate. Having the money, the advanced disciples, the skills, the land, everything, we may have to illustrate our own Auroville. This is not what Sam wanted; he wanted to push Whitman’s “Passage to India.”

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

910 Railroad Ave

Novato, Calif. 94947

December 5, 1968

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

My dear Oliver:

The Center letter arrived at a most appropriate time. The situation is this: There are a number of people who propose and a number who do. There is also now a world movement which may or may not fit into schemes called “world movement,” which exclude 80% or more of biological humanity. We are putting into practice—and I mean putting into practice—Project: Prometheus and Krishna. I am not going to discuss these here. They have been taken up many times in the past. But I am sending a copy of this letter to Edward Cornish in Washington.

Julie Medlock. I expect to have back one of my disciples who has been to Auroville, to get some side of a report. There are so many literary people who praise this and other schemes no end but whose efforts stop there. I am concerned with getting Julie small machines, fertilizers, and other materials and equipment she may need. I find both Indians on the whole and well meaning starry-eyed Americans often inept at getting and doing. But this is the world as it is., and there are the human beings as they are.

California Communes. These are growing in importance and activity. It has taken some time to get persons involved accept that Whiteman & Lewis investigated this field very thoroughly years ago and later. Hard facts, material facts, etc. are often the last things accepted by dreamer-schemers. yet the time is different and there are some valid establishments at the moment and more plans, often as not properly financially supported.

Cloud 9. Dialectic idealism, sexual promiscuity, scrounging and parasitism. All of these seem increasing as communal efforts go forward. It is not necessary to comment.

The Garden of Inayat. We are showing by example. We are doing. We are not theorizing. I don’t think a single serious mistake has been made. We are all so honest, hardworking, mutual cooperative and combine lofty idealism with hard work. And enjoyment.

Youth. One has written mocking letters, saying, Sam’s efforts to become a Pied Piper have failed miserably—only the young respond. They do. This is in marked contrast with the news items which may follow.

The minor is that pseudo leaders and pseudo idealists caught in a mélange of psychedelics, promiscuous sex and financially irresponsibility are causing harm to themselves. But they also attract newspaper and radio-TV publicity and give “establishments” apparently valid arguments against and World Future Society. This of course is fallacious, but Logic is based on personalities and not premises.

This can be seen in the fracas on the campus of San Francisco State College. The only principal involved is “US First.” Students are not interviewed. Outsiders found on the campus and presenting themselves as leaders of movements are given plenty of time by radio-TV and the press. All of these demands have been met elsewhere within California State, tax-supported educational institutions.

The San Francisco State College was originally for teachers and still is basically a pedagogical institution. Sciences are taught largely to prepare teachers in the respective fields. There is one of the best musical establishments in the whole world—you don’t hear about that. There are also excellent facilities for dance and art instructions.

Gradually the business administration courses expanded and also the Humanities. These included the so-called Social Sciences, and one doubts whether any of the revolt leaders are enrolled other than in the Humanities and Social Sciences. There is an excellent anthropology-psychology department, illustrating the application of your own principles of Integration. I have been told that not a single student in this sector absented himself during the trouble. This sort of thing never becomes public.

In fact, I am busy now writing more on the constructive approach to publishing the real work of our very grand educational institutions. If I am given any opportunity I shall hammer this home, supported by facts, data, public, and private information. This is in strict accord with Cassius Keyser’s “rigorous thinking.”

Now, the semanticist humanist, Dr. S.I. Hayakawa is heading the San Francisco State College. He is breaking all the principles and teachings of Alfred Korzybski which I knew he would once coming into power. This is so evident both to the professors and regents who are not in accord with each other.

I must say at this point that so far he has acted very admirably against some well-planned conspiracies. I must add that a non-student revolutionary organizer told me in person what he was planning to do on the campus. You cannot warn through the press, nor through any of those persons belonging to Lord Snow’s “humanist literary culture.” They are all too egocentric. Within 2 days, this revolutionary, not student, was on television and interviewed by press and radio. Nobody asked him about the courses he was enrolled in or how long he had been on campus.

It is this sort of thing which gets to the very heart of what is called Humanism. How inclusive is it? In the last month I have had most successful interviews with Vietnamese and Hindus respectively, but try and tell most of the public the elements of conversation. As a nation completely dominated by the literary humanist’s approach, we are only concerned in personalities and excitements and we are getting them.

While all this melodrama was going on the San Francisco Chronicle gave half a page to “great scientific discovery.” The subject was the Olmec pyramids near Vera Cruz in Mexico. The discoverers of these pyramids had already presented this in full in classrooms in a (two) previous semesters. These were adjoint sessions of the archeological and anthropological departments of the University of California at Berkeley and the San Francisco State College above referred to. This confirms Sam’s constantly repeated statement, “It takes two years for scientific work to become public; it takes two minutes for a small campus brawl to become a “world event.” In other words as television becomes more decadent they picture live dramas even if they have to concoct them themselves, and they do.

From all this you can see I am very busy, but in excellent health. The brochure will be passed along to my colleagues. It fits in perfectly to what we (Sam and a flock of young people) are either doing of endeavoring to do here.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita

San Francisco 94110

February 21, 1969

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

My dear Oliver; In re; The A Priory Rejection.

Have you seen the article on page 625 of Science 14 February? The title is “Beings from outer Space—Corporeal and spiritual.” This type of writing is easy, because with the rise of so-called anti-Aristotelianism, for all practical purposes, logic and logistics have been suspended and questions are decided by the importance of persons involved. This seems to be the norm of all dialectical systems whosoever, whatsoever, wheresoever. I have the greatest admiration for Hudson Hoagland and would accept almost without question any paper from him on Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring. This was Hoagland’s world, not Carson’s But the dialectical portion of society has taken her most seriously and left him in limbo. Now, he has invaded your territory. I think you are well able to take care of yourself, but in any event I have written Science and have made copies for Russell Joyner and Vocha Fiske.

Self-important people do not seem to realize that the a priory rejection is worse than the two-edged sword, cutting not only both ways but every way. Now that Dr. Hayakawa is on the carpet, my protest against his incessant a priori rejections are beginnings to take root and sprout.

I have just had multigraphed a small portion of “The Awakening of Faith,” a most important Mahayana scripture. This is one of the many, many papers snubbed by Don. A man who berates the inheritance of his own ancestry and who is faced by relatively insoluble family problems is hardly fit. In the opinions of some of us, to be a great educator; may be an educator at all.

ETC has presented articles on Zen only from the non-oriental Alan Watts and the late Aldous Hurley. They were important, ergo…. They both took psychedelics, so they lost their importance….

In the last week Sam has been asked either to write articles or make speeches on what Asians call Zen. (totally different from ETC Zen) and now several institutions in this vicinity have asked Sam to speak before them on what he calls Asian-Asian philosophy. My work is expanding in every direction, audiences are increasing in quantity and quality and your projects Prometheus and Krishna are going ahead full steam so far as I am concerned.

Now you are caught? In the a priori rejection matrix of a VIP or are you?

With kindest regards.

Samuel L. Lewis

Novato, Calif.

February 28, 1969

Dr. Oliver L. Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15213

My dear Oliver:

On the Future of Project: Krishna (and Prometheus)

Today I shall be roving all over the map in this general vicinity, appearing in San Francisco in the afternoon—to address the young in the Haight-Ashbury District—and back to Marin to the College to attend a meeting where Senator Church will address the audience. I have a question for Senator Church.

We have intervened in the affairs of Asian peoples, rightly or wrongly. But we have made no efforts to understand their points of view. Going over the reports of the Royal Asiatic Society I find a (to me) splendid article on Buddhist Logic. It not only goes into some details but shows how this Logic might be applied to various problems. It is exactly the kind of thing I have tried in vain to get before the G.S. people and others. All are great in one thing: A Priori Rejections.

Having studied first non-Euclidean geometry under Keyser direct and Russell indirect, I came to the former’s “Doctrine of doctrines.” He applied it first to Mathematics, then among others to economic doctrines and religion. All my outlooks have been determined by that, including what I am vain enough to call a “world view,” a view which has been invariably accepted by Asians, and almost as invariably rejected by Americans.

We cannot see because we will not see that there are other ways to look at life, and approach, if not solve, problems. I find the same sort of rejections from the U.S. people and the presumably religious people, in both cases a narrowing outlook and, while using certain words, adamantly leaving no room for alternative approaches even to the consideration of problems. So I am saving a small amount of money by withdrawing dues and contributions to certain organizations.

From the beginning I have seen in Vietnam only “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” in operation. Until Prof. Nottingham came here, the strange absolute, adamant refusal to examine Vietnamese points of view, along with the rejection of all possibilities of entity in the Chinese, Indian and thus Indo-Chinese points of view puts us back exactly in the Euclidean world, complicated by the appropriation of the phrase “non-Euclidean” by persons and groups who are so obviously Euclidean that the situation is most confused. And as the dominant figures have not stilled Mathematical Philosophy even on low Algebraic levels, we have only confusion compounded with mountains of egocentricities and the universal acceptance by quite inimical (to each other) groups: I Do Not Like You Dr. Fell.

This seems to be held in common by the GS people and the so-called dabblers in “scientific” religion, etc.

I have not seen a single change from “The enemies of our foreign policy are these: Jesus Christ, Dale Carnegie and Oswald Spengler, but the greatest of these is Spengler.” The possibility of huge civilizations having non-Euclidean psychologies is ruled out, a priori (this being part of the metaphysicians who proclaim their very, very private “scientific method”). And in this Buddhist logical approach, the very question of the existence and persistence of ego-substance is approached in manners remarkably similar to those of the late Cassius Keyser.

I cannot make a finality here until I again confer with my Vietnamese friends, but I am putting one copy of this into the hands of a young editor. I am now in touch with several young editors and presenting to two of them “Project: Krishna” materials, ruled out a priori by our G.S. associates and by their opposite numbers, in so-called societies for the “scientific” study of religion (?).

Krishna, First phase. Until recently I had to face that hard fact (of course rejected) that in this country I have never been permitted to lecture on this subject and in India I was compelled, sometimes for permission to enter certain meetings. Oh, I can give all the facts and data but that does not impress important people.

I am now giving instructions in a number of dances which fulfill the premise of Project: Krishna however you may look at it. Not only that, it is winning the friendship and even adherence of an ever growing number of the young. I began with the theme, Dance of Universal Peace, and it was recognized as fully and absolutely by the late Ruth St., Denis as it has been rejected absolutely and fully by “important” people.

I think I told you, in my last visit to the Berkeley campus, the whole question of the recognition of “experts” in Indian if not Oriental philosophies was put in my hands. Being an integrationist from the mathematical and Reiserian points of view I have no intention of knocking down idols and demi-gods, but merely using them in their proper places.

The second phase after the dance has been the psychological use of Krishna-methods to help the young with problems. That this has been successful can be seen both from the response of the young and the number of speaking and writing requests at this hour. Besides, one element in growing popularity has been the mountain of rejections, mostly a priori, by important and self-important people, all neatly compartmented in very small cults, many of which call themselves “Integrational” and “Universal,” but still small and narrow.

I shall use the D.D.T. complex as one example of how the Korzybskian and then the Reiserian points of view are restricted, not coming from the “right person.” I have been a professional spray operator. I was compelled in my profession to conduct experiments which even some of the large research corporations have not. It is curious that Dow Chemical and Dupont accepted the reports of such experimentation and Calspray would not. But what is to the point is that all the platform speakers on this subject, including persons in all walks of life, could get up and be heard, and by piling facts (only on their side) and a priori rejecting even the possibility of facts on other sides, this problem—really an easy one—has remained unsolved.

There is no Rigor and disputants do not want Rigor. They want to be heard. This is called “Free Speech.”

The latest articles deal with the functions and limitations of mind and how this affects scientific research. The non-scientists, the editors who control the channels of communication have blocked the possibility of a Krishna approach, but not the young and new ones.

This morning I go over autobiographical notes for one editor to begin with an then with others. It is an age of honest objectivity and that is the cause of the “generation gap.” It is as simple as that.

That Project: Krishna is demonstrable is accepted by the young and a priori rejected by others. They dare not look. But even the cynical writer of the article in Playboy has described Sam as having a Buddha-like appearance—something I could not possibly know—shows there is something here. And this afternoon the next step.

But in general I find a great welcome now on the various campuses, a totally different reception, but have not gone to San Francisco State. And following the agenda for the Spring Session of the University of California, I shall be permitted to present my points of view and experiences in certain fields. So one is optimistic. One has never been able to tell if one is right or not because previously one has been denied the floor and the platform. But this is the general attitude. As written before I have too many colleagues today in the same situation and combining we are gradually making ourselves felt—among the young, of course.

At this writing everything—far more than the contents of this letter, appears very bright as if Spring were here.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

March 17, 1969

My dear Oliver:

I am in an utter state of bewilderment. The week began with a surprise telephone call from Russell Joyner asking me to call off my barbs on Don Hayakawa. It is an extreme anomaly that this man who racially is a blend of East and West has adamantly and absolutely turned his back on the cultural achievements of perhaps even a majority of mankind who come from Asia. And the latest materiel on Buddhist Logic is too important to be forever excluded from our culture.

This exclusion of all real non-A cultures from our own is stupid. I have had to go on an errand to see if we can introduce Korean culture here. It may take some months but I think there are Koreans and I think they have made some small contributions to art, etc. But when it comes to “important” people they are excluded. Vietnam is a parallel which I shall not repeat.

In as much as the G.S. movement is in the hands of those who have never delved into mathematical philosophies they do not know the relations of (f)A, to (f)non-A and they cannot be reached. The fact that they do not know is not important; the fact that they cannot be reached is important. Most of the “Science and Sanity” is not so much dead as smothered.

The week was also complicated by three material situations all of which offer increased emoluments and more and which compel one to act on a crowded program. As the only real “virtues” of the moment are having more moneys and more followers, I can say there is every promise of each. The invasion of Hippie land has been entirely successful but not in the news. Perhaps if there is a riot or arrest there will be.

The determination to write a paper on Pakistan was followed almost immediately by drama. The hard, hard fact that I have lived in Pakistan and may have met some of the dramatic personae of the moment is of no import to dominant cultural pattern. The opinions of the mighty are to be discussed and the facts of others ignored. Thus Lord Snow’s “The Two Cultures.” It is notable that the leading local commentators are well aware of this. They see everything in the hands of Snow’s “literary humanist” people and there is no way out. These control all avenues of communication and they see to it that problems are kept unsolved. Scientists have yet no chance, least of all from these masquerading as “champions of science.”

Into this the materiel from Prof. Bahm. This sent me so high I can never thank you enough. The real integration of real American traditions and real Asian cultures! The very theme, thesis and approach is so wonderful and the fact that another American has gone to Asia and learned from Asians and really learned! And that he has high regard for James, Emerson, Dewey, etc.!

Now suddenly, among a whole lot of other things—and I am now talking figuratively either—a surprise invitation to visit Harvard and Cornell as guest speaker! I have not at this moment any ability to get on my feet. I have just written to Penn about a delayed visit. It will become very awkward if I continue to get invitations while here there has been nothing but sneers, barbs and rebuffs from “establishment” people and one no longer cares.

Now my own people have control of a local publication and more. I cannot see what has been gained by refusals to accept the hard realities either of my having studied with Cassius Keyser or mingled with all sorts of people in Asia but this is Julie Medlock’s story too. There is something radically wrong here and it is pictured in “Science and Sanity” and in Lord Snow’s “The Two Cultures” and our blind rejection of Spengler.

And it is not pleasant now to get applause from the young by saying that no matter what the facts are, no matter what the knowledge is, the seniors will not listen—they reject because they will not listen. But this is no longer true on some of the campuses here. We have to have fact gathering occasionally in the non-sciences as well as in the sciences.

It is not surprising what lies behind the invitation to Harvard. Just before I left India I was on the podium at great gatherings; here I am not always permitted even to sit in the back row. But this day is over. We are going to have Integrational-Integration and not some analytical term, “Integration” which sees the same gang on the podia with the same worn-out clichés.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc-Morain           

P.S. We have now had on the TV the complaints of students who are never interviewed by the press, etc. who are the “silent majority” because the press and investigators ignore them. Last week we crossed the Berkeley campus. We saw a lot of police. The campus was very quiet, very usual. In the early afternoon there was an outside invasion—it becomes “world news.” Nobody writes on the achievements and one is tired, tired, so many meetings with so many professors and they don’t count. And we have, I believe, a marvelous educational set-up.

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco 94110

March 26, 1969

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

Pittsburgh 13, Pa. 15213

My dear Oliver:

A glorious spring is manifesting. The weather is beautiful. All the early planting is done. An ever-growing number of young people visit each of my homes and various projects. The financial outlook is the best of my life; I am depending on no one, although it would be much better to operate communally or cooperatively. The doors are open for this.

Cosmic Humanism (con’t.)

I believe I have already written you on Buddhist logic and the strange refusal of our putative colleagues to consider it at all. In going over Journal of Royal Asiatic Society I have come upon the name of “Nicholas Rescher” who bas evidently been connected with your university. Do you know him?

The problem of making philosophy a science was impressed upon me early in life. I do not wish to repeat old matters. The strange refusal of a number of schools to accept the universal outlook—universal in any sense—is leading straightway to a new outlook, an outlook which is found to dominate. The day of cultists, separatists, self-centered dialecticians is over. Already in Art studies a few years back, the universal outlook was stressed. It has to be stressed in the true sciences. Cosmic humanism could and should do this for philosophy.

By “Cosmic humanism” I do not mean some cult dominated by the names of important people. We have been invited to an Indian picnic next month. My paper on “The Religion of the President of India” has been rejected by all the different, self-important separative cults. I do not see what has been gained by refusing to accept the most obvious facts.

In a few weeks The Oracle will appear. I am hoping by that time to have a man to man talk with Russ Joyner. Although I have been invited to visit Harvard and Cornell for a short visit, I should much prefer to take a leisurely trip, to pick up the pieces and integrate American-American philosophies. This is what my friends of The Oracle are also planning to do.

Our Sunday party here was a glorious success. Cooked a curry dinner for about 100 people. Two delegations from Sonoma State College to the north came separately. One students, the other teachers. They each separately stressed the need for cosmic humanism. This is an exceedingly well-integrated institution, no outbreaks, and many of the demands presented on other campuses have already been instituted and operating successfully. No police, no newsman, no TV, and no riots.

The next morning a young man presented me his personal problems, asked him his ambition he told me he wished to become a college professor—he already has senior standing—when I asked him the subject, he said, “General Semantics.” But he has no empathy for those who have taken over this movement and operated it as a private cult. I am now willing and perhaps quite capable of helping any scholar who will study and follow up that work of the late Cassius Keyser, and also what you are doing.

Have you any suggestions here? I did not think of Pittsburgh at the moment. We discussed several campuses, especially in western states. Indeed, we may be sending one or more persons to Albuquerque soon.

Sunday was actually the celebration of 5 birthday parties jointly. Our old friend Gavin Arthur was the “king” of the occasion. He placed in my hands The Other Side, by James A. Pike. Cultism, separatism, egocentricity has made this and other books outstanding pieces of literature, and to me, junk. Perhaps I am over-emotional here, because the learned Bishop Pike has by-passed almost entirely the work done in France and in the Orient. I can only see in The Other Side a weak repetition of Sir Oliver Lodge’s earlier efforts. The situation is exactly as I presented it in the university recently, “Are you using your terms analytically, ecstatically or synthetically?” The professor apologized. Important people will continue to sensationalize their private experiences, experiences which even millions may have had.

I am called here to accept in toto your own efforts, to apply thus to actual or pseudo phenomena. When we can do that, we shall have a Science.

There’s lots more. I am working on the thesis that Cosmic Humanism is integrative and integrational and not based on making the facts and fantasies of certain individuals square important and more glaring experiences of lesser known persons considered as unworthy of human consideration. I think that day is over. I think we’re going to have real Cosmic humanism.

Sincerely,

Samuel L. Lewis

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

March 30, 1969

Dear Sam,

Thank you for your letter and report. I get the impression that a “Cosmic Humanism” has better prospects on the West Coast than here in the East (Pittsburgh anyway). Yes, I know Dr. Rescher. He is an expert in modern mathematical logic and his stuff is very technical. There is no interest in G.S. in philosophy in our universities, the interest in Semantics is related to Cornop’s and Tarski’s contributions. The G. Semanticists have little or nothing about the fine work being done in language analysis by people in logic, though I see that Harry Maynard does quote Wittgenstein.

I think students who have your kind of interest and ask for advice on what universities to attend should be advised to stick to the West Coast universities. I don’t know of any Eastern universities that have a cosmopolitan interest and “out West” you do have the interest in Oriental philosophy and religions.

Well, you certainly have an interesting life where you are!

Give my regards to Vocha, whenever you see her, or write her.

Ever yours,

Oliver

April 9, 1969

My dear Oliver:

Sometimes life is full of wars and battles and sometimes life seems comparatively free from them, but the overall picture of the moment is so favorable that one is liable to create—and one has created—wrong impressions if there is pessimism hinted.

You are entirely right and I am finding today better and better relations in and around the universities. It was rather a shock to find hat practically none of the “experts” on Asian culture is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is also with regret one may have to make a decision which will place Asian-American relations on the same footing as European-American relations so far as cultures are concerned.

At the Hindu students picnic not only did not “experts” appear but the diplomatic representatives of India again spoke in most favorable terms. My next step has been to place in their hands they the only one of my epic poems which has been published and I am enclosed one to you now but perhaps also for a different reason.

You have affirmed the Psi-layer and I think we must accept this objectively. Many do not accept it. And when a fameuse like Bishop Pike writes on his communication with his son this is intellectually dishonest because Oliver Lodge did the same thing years ago and no acknowledgement has been made. There are too many “fameuses” in the way; “experts” and they have had too much weight to make honest objective studies effective.

I may also send you copy of The Oracle, the publication of which has been delayed. Some of my auguric poetry is in it. This should not be called “prophetic.” The term “prophet” had a certain meaning with the Greeks, and the presumably parallel Hebraic “Nabi” was not exactly parallel. The Arabs confused these terms and the confusion has increased. William English Welling in his The Meaning of God in Human Experience said: “The prophet is the mystic in control of the forces of history,” a definition I accept.

Much harm has been done to psychic research in the blind acceptance of predictions of earthquakes. The persons so announcing have in no case taken a universal attitude but attribute almost miraculous powers to limited cliques. There are now a few young people who seem possessed of powers or faculties but they have been unable to break through walls:

a. Of those who reject psychic potentialities.

b. Of those who accept but limit it to their kind.

If anything occurs along the line of your writings reports will be sent.

There is now some concern over Auroville. There is full agreement over the principle that more advanced personalities with “higher” faculties will manifest. We have plenty here and now. But to confine their activities to any project dominated by an existing political group does not provide proper outlets for the “soul.” One has seen so many projects starting with enthusiasm and smashing on the rocks of contending personalities.

We are both researching into “communes” and trying to establish one ourselves. But much of the trouble in this world comes from the hard fact that both individuals and organizations would rather “die” than benefit from the examples of those who succeed, My understanding of Sri Aurobindo is based on the early manifestation of types he calls “over mind” and “super mind.” There is no difference here; but the “over mental” and “super mental” types are not those who confine themselves to areas and arenas marked out for them by seniors in age but inferiors in “spiritual” evolution.

Saturday we begin a seminar on the mystical experience. The question is whether we are going to be confined to books or to actualities. The hard actuality of the Moghul Emperor Akbar is a rock upon which many founder, rather than accept real events and real personalities. It was the little known elements which determined radioactivity and the whole course of modern inorganic science. The same could happen to the psychological and social sciences if the persons involved became objective. We are still in Lord Snow’s two groups and I would like to see us all in “Science and Sanity.”

Another hard fact which I am no longer going to try to impress is the constant increment both of my audiences and income. It has not solved my personal problems but it does bring up new outlooks. My secretary will be visiting New Mexico in May and much may come of it. I shall be buying more of your books soon and also semantic literature. I am now going ahead regardless of any and all personalities. The universities are open to me, as you suggested, and more and more and more.

I am proposing, have already proposed, that just as in politics equal time is given to contending groups; that when campus outbreaks occur equal time be given to both professors and students as to commentators, regents and agitators. I think this will help clarify if not solve a lot of confusion.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

April 17, 1969

My dear Oliver,

Thank you for your chart. One is having a fine time in real open discussion seminars at the University and among those scheduled for Saturday is one concerning Ouspendky. Rationally it is most difficult to discuss sanely anything that pertains to a higher dimension and the real obstacle is that people who may actually be sub-Euclideans are posing as “anti-­Euclideans.”

There has been another delay in the publishing of “The Oracle.” If this is successful there is not the slightest doubt that they will accept something from you. We are also beginning to touch the minor radio stations, at least.

All the events of the last month point to a change, from the strange “only in America” acceptance of “experts” on subjects with which the public is not acquainted, “experts” who themselves have no valid background. Holding firm I am now gaining friends in the what should be a simple field: the teaching of Asiatica by Asians and by Americans who have studied under Asians. But the Americans who have studied under Asians have uncovered the same roadblocks of “experts.” So we are stuck all over the continent.

It is still a small phenomenon but the total of my audiences has increased very slowly and almost imperceptibly but now perceptibly every week this year. I have been offered both in San Francisco and Marin County larger halls at no costs. One thing is evident, one is attracting audiences and one follows the principle to which I think all semanticists should hold, of offering referents always. This has gotten me in severe personality clashes for I always give names and events to support every contention.

My income from all sources is also increasing and I am going to see Russ Joyner as soon as possible both to refurbish my libraries and to encourage certain studies. Why, even at San Francisco State under the temporary (or more permanent) tutelage of Don Hayakawa, I am “in” with professors of philosophy. This is a new departure and a welcome one. But next week to the Berkeley campus.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

April 29, 1969

Dr. Oliver Reiser

University of Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh, 13, Pa.

My dear Oliver:

This is written under such circumstances that it is evidence there may be something in the universe like Emerson’s “Law of Compensation” and a legend is already arising because one has too long been a scapegoat and from that very background one is becoming more and more acceptable to the young.

Both following and general audiences are increasing, slowly it is true, but most definitely. And also with that but for quite different reasons, the income. It is easily the highest in my life and it is chiefly a question of what is to be done with it.

New Mexico. Both my chief secretary, Mansur Otis Johnson and myself have to visit this State in May and June respectively. Our original plans did include a visit to the University but now I have been sent for to assist or associate with a new type of “commune” which is really integrative and spiritual however we define these terms. The impetus seems to have come from the followers of Lama Govinda Anagarika who was recently here but the policy is to be all-inclusive and not carefully selected operating under the verbiage of “universal,” “integrative,” etc. I have seen their brochure but not until after they sent for me, promising air-fare to begin with.

I am not too happy over it. I liked the Sri Aurobindo approach with its hypothetical assumption that there was coming to this world a “generation” with higher faculties. I find multitudes of the young so exactly as Sri Aurobindo predicted. But his so-called “disciples” in this country got into the Zitko fiasco instead of working with Julie, while pretending.

It is the young themselves who are doing the organizing, the “Coming Race” of Bulwer Lytton and H. G. Wells, and I believe, of Sri Aurobindo. They do not want politicians even if they are connected with the U. N. and they do want meditation and similar devices and disciplines in line with the general “spiritual” schools of both Asia and non-Asia. It is very startling and at a time when I am thoroughly swamped.

But to make it most “involved,” no sooner had one agreed to this when a similar summons came from Seattle, Wash. although in this case the persons involved may visit this city.

This has come at a time when your very suggestions are coming to manifestation on an already overcrowded calendar. My visit to the Berkeley campus was overwhelming. I found “cubby-hole” professors in the non-sciences doing exactly what the “cubby-hole” professors in the laboratory sciences are doing on the same or other campuses. My visit to the Alumni Association was short and beautiful but when I reached home it was like when I went to Reno—the Jack-Pot hit me!

Project: Prometheus. There is a book review in the latest issue of Science where this word has been used or appropriated by a physicist turned writer. He has been criticized on all fronts and one agrees. Dialectics and egocentricity have no part in real Science, no matter how the world is misappropriated.

Besides this there is every evidence, going over the last issues that Meta-linguistics is becoming a Science and the dream of Alfred Korzybski is coming true but not because of those who were his immediate but non-laboratory followers.

When I came back from Berkeley there was a report on Plant Protection using all the devices and Prometheus approaches on which I worked for years. With all the “only in America” experts against me I had from the beginning the Entomology and Plant Protection Departments on the Berkeley campus with me or I with them and it is wonderful that the reports in Science come from the very departments I have been in contact with and are using the very basis I had outlined to them on the “solution” of the World Food problems.

There have been many ambitious programs for Desert Reclamation and all ignoring the worlds of bugs and microorganisms. I have both literature and brochures and have sat with the top Entomologists of the Rand-McNally world (the term “real” means anything). I have presented the Project: Prometheus Approach both under its name and otherwise and 90% of the scientists (lab workers) I have met accept it while 90% of the non-laboratory “experts” reject it.

I am therefore having one of my colleagues go over all the recent issues of Science to note or copy all items in according Project: Prometheus on all fronts including Meta-linguistics.

Vocha Fiske is in this house now and we are also taking her to Novato where our “commune” is now rather successfully operating. We are going to have a big affair Sunday and I am inclined to believe as many as 200 people will own. All my meetings are being better attended, the doors are opening, and one has to be very much alive.

San Francisco State. It is remarkable that one is now on excellent terms with professors of Philosophy there and is involved in two separate projects with two of them. I don’t want to write more here. The day of acceptance or rejection by personality rather than knowledge is done for. People want knowledge, information, facts and when they have it even war may be stopped.

Cordially,

Sam

Garden of Inayat

910 Railroad Ave.,

Novato, Calif. 94947

May 5, 1969

Mr. Oliver L. Reiser

c/o Dept. of Philosophy,

Pittsburgh Univ. Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

This is a special report due to the fact the Vocha is here. She has been intermittently in my two homes, and I am about to leave now for San Francisco and she for Oakland. She has seen Lloyd and as soon as it can be arranged will call on Russ. She has looked at and seen what one’s presumable “friends” have for years a priori rejected. One has to be “compassionate” in that one still upholds philosophies in agreement with them but has never stood either for any system of so-called “logic” based on personalities and a priori rejections (although this has been common in the passing culture).

Vocha saw Sam put on a combined May Day and Wesak ceremonial with a number of dances and rituals, all choreographed by him, and the chief other element was to have a Puja by Buddhists. Vocha said she counted over 70 in one dance but there was probably a total of 150 persons as at least 30 came with the Buddhist group and others came later or left early.

There was not a hitch in the program but the type of “psychologizing” was not different from what I had previously offered as “solutions” for “Salinity in the Indus Valley,” for “Silent Spring” and for “How America Can Help Asia.” I think I told you the last is now on its merry way for Professors are discovering something very simple, very elementary and not-news: What each other is doing!

As promulgator of Project: Prometheus and Project: Krishna you might find this very simple and presumably authentic but I have had to fight my way to get each professor recognize the others and in some fields, like Algaeology, there are such gaps the whole world is suffering. Algaeologists have hardly been recognized.

Re “Silent Spring” science had a refuse on the conclusions of professors on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California, almost exactly in principle what I have been adverting, but having been a professional spray operator (and therefore a peasant) I have only on one occasion but permitted even to express my views before “experts,” many of whom haven’t the slightest ideas of what they are talking about.

Now DDT is getting all the blame. I am not defending it but the search for the “devil” is still the essential of our culture. I have seen the merits of DDT at home and abroad but so long as the chemical companies hire salesmen instead of scientists, the wrong emphasis that they begin with naturally turns against them.

Of course we do not need DDT and I have piles of stuff for alternatives. The absolute and adamant refusal of ETC. ever to consider anything I have proposed is now going to turn against them unless the “Generals” of Semantics become human beings and I know Vocha is going to do all she can to bring this about.

The days before this May party The Oracle appeared with a large space given to this person, another to an article by this person; two articles by life-long friends, two more by my chief secretary, Mansur Johnson (friend of Prof. Huston Smith of M.I.T.) and the main art work which I esteem as excellent, by my housekeeper, Fatima Jablonsky. The distribution of this paper will make one better known, or notorious. But I have been also approached by two young editors and am preparing

Mansur for a visit by to New Mexico and the next on my agenda is to prepare him for visits to our colleague there, for something more is coming out and we are going to end this “only in America” English-and-European expertism in “Oriental Philosophies.” I defend no religion but I do defend the right of its advocates to speak for it and shall protest against this “only in America” careful selection of spokesman for exotic faiths.

Dr. Zukair Hussein of India died and I have had to run into a whole lot of “only is America” experts on “Asian Culture” who absolutely rejected any paper or reference to his very existence! I think this day is over.

(More people were turned away at the recent Indian film festival than naturally took part in the “world news” of Berkeley campus protests (generally led by outsiders)).

Now Vocha understands that one has applied parts of “Science and Sanity” never referred to in ETC. or if so in derision, and when it comes to integrative outlooks and solutions, she saw one operate at the celebration utilizing integration, with a firm hand and with almost perfect response. (I did not find even a small detail to complain about.)

The next “devil” is Environment. Environment has misplaced the devil and no nonsense. It is here also one has failed with the “generals” of Semantics and I hope they will reconsider before too late. For in taking note of my present following they are heirs to huge sums of money. Like the Pirates of Penzance, they are nearly all children of wealthy parents who have “gone wrong.” I can hardly find a poor person among them, one from the slums, etc. excepting the “Jude the Obscure” type. It is not “environment” and in going over “Science and Sanity,” especially the parts that are neither taught nor read, I have found the exact words I have used and these apply to many of the problems of the day. Only here one has the whole culture, no more “devil,” just environment.

When last in college I broke this word down into heat, light, meteorological and similar facets and also the wrong use of terminology, for “space” might mean one of several things and there were differentials in other factors which were ignored. The work of Steinmetz in one field and Einstein in another arose out of differentials which Korzybski clearly saw if he did not detail them. So we are stuck because those in charge of avenues of communication are unable to understand.

In the Orient only engineers are used as salesman for motor equipment of all sorts and I have had long conversations with such persons, learning about their backgrounds and their eclectic and integrative psychologies Sooner or later I shall be permitted to express myself, certainly now with the young.

But I shall be forced to write to Julie at Auroville, for now between Mansur and myself we are learning more and more about similar plans in this country—the young, not the respectable “Zitkos,” are going ahead and sometimes they have capital and do not need to go a begging to “save the world.” We shall know more about this later.

The President of India has died and the ceremonials will consume the few minutes I have today. Written in rush but with greatest hopes.

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

May 24, 1969

My dear Oliver:

I hope this finds you well. My own health is in excellent condition partly due to the change in the attitudes one meets and partly due to the hard physical work at the “commune” we have in Novato. The change in attitude is due in part to the “new age” type of young who are honest, objective and fact-gathering. But also due to the ever growing number of excellent letters and personal contacts with professors and instructors. I now have quite a few proper contacts both at U.C Berkeley and San Francisco State. Both of these institutions have been the site of dramas but the real work going on, at Berkeley in particular, is never made public.

I have still to write to the Alumni Association but the hard fact is that one cannot write an article without finding some new and important discovery. And these discoveries take so much time to get to the public attention. The froth is determining the beer and the waves the ocean.

Do you know The Art of Awareness by J. Samuel Bois? This book suggests I might get in contact with Dr. Baxter Geeting at Sacramento. Some of us visited Davis and Sacramento recently but so many little occurrences took place that it will require further visits.

My chief secretary, Mansur Johnson, is off to New Mexico to study communes and also to try to meet Professor Bahm. But everything is moving in one’s private life. And the total of my audiences every week this year has increased so I am now addressing over 200 persons although there must be a let-down for the summer.

Vocha Fiske has been here and her response was remarkable. She discovered that all one’s words and thoughts are actually exemplified in actions and also in the response of human beings to those actions. Neither the actions nor the responses please those who would be leaders of humanity. But there are now several new editors.

The word “environment” is the devil. All the new editors but one come from very well-to-do families. They have no proper outlet for their élan vital. Their “souls,” so to speak, want expression. One has had one interview after another and today rejections are fortunes, not misfortunes for one cannot fulfill obligations or requests.

One of my young disciple is planning to go to Denver to try to get a degree on G.S. there and I shall see that he becomes acquainted with your work. The same also applies to my God-daughter who has been successful in obtaining one scholarship after another. Her career is remarkable and at the moment it would appear she may move from Cornell, to U.C., Santa Barbara.

I have been fairly successful right in the middle of the Haight-Ashbury district and there are rumors of expansion.

Now one has to oppose the traditional attitude toward words and especially the term “integration.” I have lost faith in the Sri Aurobindo movement which has fallen into the hands of traditional politicians. This has happened so many times. There is no room for the young “at the inn.” So they are coming out on their own. More and more and especially in the west. I believe America and not India will usher in the New Age. The young are not moved by noblesse oblige and in that there is hope.

Faithfully.

Sam

San Francisco, Calif.

June 25, 1969

Dr. Oliver L. Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213

My dear Oliver:

Project “Prometheus” and the DDT Complex

Early hopes that General Semantics or something like it might be used to settle certain really important problems have long been dashed, but that does not mean that we cannot find some means to face dispassionately and “logically” a number of problems of the day, especially those involving scientific disputes. Present situations reveal that a number of analysts and Aristotelians have been very successful in adopting the terms of integrational philosophies, both of the East and West. And there is hopeless confusion by these persons, some of them very important or self-important, stealing vocabularies and spreading chaos.

I had been a professional spray operator and had some knowledge of Organic Chemistry and wrote at least one paper on the difference between the logical methodology in organic and inorganic chemistry and from field work offered at least one very objective report to Dupont Chemical which they had to accept, although previously other reports were also accepted. The difference between the receptivities of scientists and industrialists on the one hand and dialecticians who proudly proclaim themselves as being “pro-science” is not only stupendous but is keeping the public in the dark.

While my researches had been toward the use of biological controls when I went into another field, “Desert Reclamation,” I learned that most of these projects failed because sentimentalist were using Aristotelian Logistics and did not have the full integrational outlook common to many geologists. And I do not see any full solutions of food, desert reclamation and parallel problems without the complete Project: Prometheus approach.

Before stopping my desert reclamation researches I gave a full report to Prof. Allen of the University of California in Berkeley who was as open as the dialecticians (of all schools) were closed. But since then I have visited the Desert and Dry Lands Reclamation projects at Riverside and have at least a glimmering of what is going on at Davis. But in order to write “exciting” articles—which is the order of the day, it is so easy to inflame the public and so difficult to inform them. And so I, although a quondam professional spray operator have had to watch all kinds of people with all kinds of “credentials” getting into frays, there is little evidence of Keyser’s rigorous thinking excepting by Entomologists and Ecologists. Plenty of noise.

The refusal of the dialecticians of all camps (by whatever name they are known) to consider Indian systems of logistics helps leave unsolved problems which are just as much problems of obscuration minds as of objective validity. For so long as we uphold that “a thing is a thing is a thing,” we cannot think through. And when we enter into the field of radioactive phenomena we are failing reactions which are both vibra­tional and atomic at the same time. The atomic and molecular changes may or may not be dependent or independent on the radionic changes and certainly there have been fall-out measurements which I must temporarily accept as valid.

But today the logistics of the fall-out phenomena is being applied willy-nilly to after-effects of DDT, and without any clear logic, to an ETC series of verbal conclusions not based on anything in particular.

Roughly speaking—and it is very rough—the spray poisons may be depending on contact or stomach narcosis. The chemistry involved in each case is different. But the newspaper logistics are all denials that “to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” and carbon-chlorine, carbon-sulphur and other changes are discussed assuming at the sometime, there are and there are not radical chemical changes.

While one reads a good deal about saturated and unsaturated fats, often written by people who do not know these terms, the possibility of closed and open chains, of the types of compounds used, is left up in the air. And it is now assumed that out of DDT comes a violent compound which continues on ad nauseam affecting bodies and things without itself being changed at all. The logistics—if such they can be called—miscued by dialecticians of all campus—presumes absolutism and we are in an age, which as Toynbee has declared, you have to find the Devil to solve the problem and if you don’t you must create one.

So “tobacco” causes Cancer, without any how or why and no one seems to have gone seriously into the possibilities of other “foods” or “drugs” being etiologically connected with this violent disease. (I was once a clinical clerk in a medical laboratory investigating this disease, which as above with regard to sprays, prevents any testimony because I was an underling.)

Before I personally would come to any conclusion I should like to see the complete formula, the chains involved, and the changes to these change—or some evidence for the persistence of certain complex molecules before coming to any conclusion. And some day, I believe, we are going to apply Keyser’s rigor (as I have already on a small scale) to problems and be very careful in reaching conclusions, warranted or unwarranted.

I have in my diaries a multitude of data for it was my “fate” to have associated socially with many Entomologists wherever I went and with them there were discussions verboten in “the best circles.”

The continuance of our adherence to “thing-logics” in a time when there is increasing use of radioactive products, produces hyperboles and impossibilities when “we” do not know, in the use of complex organic compounds, whether a thing is a thing is a thing, or any and just what the resulting compounds or products are afterwards. The bland and blind assumption that active molecules do not lose their fervor or poison no matter what happens has to be proved and the deaths of crabs, birds, etc. a la “Silent Spring” has to be studied more dispassionately.

It is funny that I who worked a lot with DDT was ill only from one compound, a lead product, and never from any complex hydrocarbons…. Nor can I remember a single case of illness. Of course we used gloves, masks, etc. when necessary.

I am neither defending nor objecting to DDT but I do object to getting into arenas where the fame and weight of an “important person” is more to the fore than the eye-witness testimonies of whomsoever. I am hoping that before long we can have the proper Logistics from and of the Integrational outlooks transferred from Mathematics and Engineering to all walks of life.

I do not know how clear this is but very gradually one is meeting more and more people. Fortunately or unfortunately, my brother appears to be dying … he may still live long … and this would mean having more than a comfortable income and the ability to get articles out regardless of all the a priori rejections by the literary-humanist portion of our culture.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc- Entomology Dept. U.C.

cc- Morain

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

June 28, 1969

Dr. Oliver Reiser,

Department of Philosophy,

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15213

My dear Oliver:

With the same first name as the inventor of the electrical telegraph, one finds a tremendous number of parallels in our personalities and histories although already I have lived much longer, and there is no sign of flagging, a hard fact disturbing to many critics. My program has to be rearranged which may mean I shall call on Archie Bahm sooner than planned but will write to him first. For there is no question that we are faced with a multitude of problems which we cannot solve because of our refusal to face the egocentric predicament, as presented either by Lord Buddha or the New York Neo-realities. We are trying to solve problems and keep egos and the mere verbiage of anti-Aristotelianism while adhering to the assumed (unwarranted) of the existence of things and personalities, is placing our whole culture on trial. And as there is a growing multitude of egos with the platform, put me in charge and letting it go at that, one is tired of finding De Gaulles facing De Gaulles the world ever, and the younger generations (despite “scientist” Margaret Mead) are disgusted and looking for other ways out.

My affairs have become exceedingly complicated. My brother may be dying with the hard, hard fact (very important in our culture) that it will leave Sam Lewis in a position of some affluence and that he can then do things not on any other basis than that he will have the money to do them. There is nothing noble in it. And I am indeed enclosing copy of a letter which illustrates our present Aristotelian cultures based on the narrow acclamation of carefully selected personalities as the way to and in research. And there are few Curies to test all elements, or Einsteins to apply rigor to the problems faced.

Integration as yet does not have much change but the term has been appropriated, or misappropriated by a number of people, properly called “cultists” for various purposes, all mutually exclusive. And I am harassed in the time-processes not only with family matters but the sudden appearance here of friends from far-off places, including my illustrious (not here) God-daughter. And while she is here I am hoping to present to her materials to take back with her so that there can be some better East-West cultural exchange but so that we might face some real problems of real people on terms other than our own.

Pakistan and India were saved from famine by DDT. The fact that I have been an eye-witness means nothing to self-important peoples who have arguments to cover all situations. The hard fact that there are important Pakistanis (and other Asians) who wish cultural exchange in the psi-field moves neither the proponents of psi-research (who want to do all the leading) nor opponents, who simply do not believe in it. (Facts do not move certain types of mind.) But still more important has been the request that we need a revelation in the use of terms and words, and a number of inquiries which would, if we were really scientific and impersonal, mean a world semantic movement, have been ignored by some of our closest associates—and they want to be leaders!

One of my disciple is now studying Boolean Algebra. One of the big influences in my life came thus: I was moved by Cassius Keyser, partly in person and partly by studying his works, to move into collateral fields and that time I was deeply in love with Algebra. (There may be something Freudian hero for some of my relatives also seemed more in love with this sort of abstraction than with sex.) Independently I was studying Bertrand Russell and was moved by a number of his early works and thoughts which have long since disappeared from public attention. And the constant running into parallels prepared me for “Science And Sanity” for I had read at least 50% of the literature quoted and also have had the lie passed to me publicly and privately that this could be so. Nevertheless I am now retracing through others, as previously written and the day is over when egocentric personalities can control public discussions qua re their personal or social importance.

Soon I shall get into a serious public discussion due to The Art of Awareness by J. Samuel Bois on the one hand and the replies by Amatol Rapoport in the current issue of ETC. on the other. Rapoport is a marked example of a “General of Semantics” highly moved by his ego and not moved by the logic or researches of persons with whom he is not in agreement.

And as the present logistics are failing to solve problems it is time to examine at least superficially the Nyaya and Dignaga non-Aristotelian Logics. The Nyaya Logic has for its virtue the compulsory need of referents demanded also by A.K. but not by many of his disciples; and in this seems more in line with a presumably “scientific” logic. Dignaga goes further in assuming or proving that facts are independent of the personality of the observer—and it was just this by which Einstein was able to resolve the dilemma of the Michelson-Morley experiments. (I read these reports many times before I studied Einstein and hate to have to make this public, but the young are looking for honesty and leadership and they are going to get it.)

I shall continue to harp on the hard fact that the hopes of Luther Whiteman and I have been dashed—problems like that of the Mendel-Lysenko doctrines; the use of “Sprays” for plant protection, including an examination of specifies; the resolution of Vietnam based on the persons and people involved rather than on ideas of foreigners; the so-called “generation gap” the use or non-use of psychedelics (etc.); all these and similar problems are ignored by the presumable disciples of Korzybski and personality cults have displaced potential universal research.

Now my position is getting better and better on the various campuses, and especially—at the moment, Harvard. And in and with Harvard the immense possibility of making better known real non-Aristotelian systems of logic and thought. I shall keep you informed.

Faithfully,

Sam

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco

Sept. 9, 1969

Prof. Oliver L. Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

Univ. of Pittsburgh

My dear Oliver:

There have been such changes in outlook and opportunities that it is very often necessary to pinch myself so to speak. The old day of personalisms masquerading as knowledge is over. Not only was my Colorado trip quite successful, but since my return representatives of several institutions of learning have come to this house. There are also very serious movements on foot to have real integrational movements accepting the actual knowledges of Asia and America. Besides, the efforts to have American-American philosophies considered seriously are winning plaudits on all sides.

It is no longer a time for regret or to be concerned with dialectic movements of limited outlooks calling themselves churches, or cults, or humanist organizations, still bound by limitations operating on bases similar to those welcomed in previous generations wherein personalisms and personalities dominated. It is tragically laughable that all through the West there is now fear of dramatic social outbreaks where putative leaders of the semantic movement have roused almost inconceivable criticism and opposition. And along with that fears, justifiable or not.

Recent events lead me to plan a trip to Europe and perhaps the Near East next year. But in the meanwhile I am off on a vacation; I hope with more now doors opening and more opportunities before one. Efforts to become a leader of the so-called hippie communities have now broken out in a mass demand for my personality, the demands consisting exclusively of young people. What will come of this I do not know, but we had a sort of preview this week in this district where one was received very well indeed and there are reasons to believe this sort of acceptance will continue and that the young people will be attracted by anyone offering them actualities, impersonal and objective fashions.

After my vacation I shall again be enrolling at the U. California extension and perhaps elsewhere. I believe in time any campaign toward objective honesty and impersonality will be successful. This week my god-daughter returns to Cornell. So if I do go to Europe, it will be to stop on my return to this country and visit universities etc. feeling that we are today entering an age of integrational, outlooks and objective psychologies and moralities. I have already been approached by several Indian savants seeking real cultural integration and not the private subjective corporationalisms under grand names. There can be no more Zitkos placing ego-personality above objective knowledge, science, and humanitarianism.

I am now involved in several movements, all well within the scopes and Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus—with excellent response in all directions.

Faithfully and cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

December 3, 1969

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

Univ. of Pittsburgh

My dear Oliver:

You have heard of the proverbial “last straw that broke the camel’s back,” but last night the opposite happened, that there was something so encouraging one feels the end of the year is indeed propitious.

One received two apologies from persons who had taken varying views on the use of DDT, in an audience that was almost unanimous against its use but on the two general grounds that is the basis of the :establishment” pseudo-logic:

a. The importance to one of the source of information or mis-information,

b. One’s own emotions.

I have long seen—and see no break in it—between the two cultures of Lord Snow and now the literary-humanists are showing themselves on one question or problem after another to be quite at variance with the laboratory scientists. I do not think that the laboratory scientists are always right and many of them would agree. But the literary-humanists, verbally on the side of “science” against any and all “ghosts” or actualities, are constantly confusing issues. And the worst, of course, is the Vice-President’s attack on the Fourth Estate.

As soon I shall be writing on General Semantics vs “General’s Semantics,” one can only deplore the by-passing of the splendid contributions of Lord Russell (and others to the formulation of the sounder “scientific” logistics. And the current confusion of types, especially where the word drug is used, has made it most difficult both to think through and get your article accepted, or your person accepted, excepting in such publications as Science itself which I find a monument of sanity—sanity both in its dictionary sense and in the way SK (but not the majority of his followers) use the term.

The quasi-identification of the universal “drug” with poison has made it almost impossible to get any clear picture or basis from which to operate. And as General Semantics has always turned down every paper from this person on this subject, one has had to appeal elsewhere, and one is successfully appealing elsewhere, to clean up endless confusions from “respectable” sources, the sources being more important than any “peasant” protesting them.

It is this same nonsense which is going to give us more and more jolts. I have been writing a local columnist for years, anent Vietnam: “Kill them all, the Lord will know His own!” About four years ago my fellow ugly American, Eugene Wagner and I went to a relief dinner for the Tibetans and the proceedings were upset because every Asian diplomat, the hostess and the few Buddhist clerics there all came up and acknowledge us! And nobody else!

Then a woman I have known for years said, “How terrible this napalm bombing!” We both said, with one voice: “It is your fault!” She was taken aback. “How!” “Because we have been lecturing for years on this subject and you have never appeared once in our audience an if we lecture again we can count on your absence.” We did lecture once again and gave up. It was only a matter of time before the public would find out. Now it has. But the basic habit of listening only to important persons rather than to sound sources, or appealing to emotions, remains.

Actually I am now in one of the most ridiculous positions a person could be in—to be able to get the Rabbis to protest Vietnam and the World Buddhist Federation to protest Palestine at the same time! The chances are very heavily loaded that this may be done, just as heavily loaded for it, as the “respectables” are heavily loaded against listening. We do not and cannot listen.

I have spoken twice recently on Vietnamese Buddhism, to small audiences, of course. I am not defending it; I am explaining it. But neither Hawk nor Dove cares. They just want to get at each other. I think I told you that on Moratorium Day I was hosting a Vietnamese in my home and I am planning two more days for Vietnamese—persons, not thoughts about their country by either visitors or commentators! I shall continue to advocate listening to Vietnamese.

The worst part of this is not complaint—it is the reaction, the astounding reaction taking place among the young so that if I have told them I have been refused the floor, etc. they will, and they do and they are accepting almost everything presented by me. This is not a wholesome sign either, but there is apparently no other way out, at the moment.

As a drug is a drug is a drug, we are also seeing the ridiculous volte face anent Marijuana, etc. No deep thinking, no positive logic but power contentions and emotions. Or as I say: “Tomatoes!” You cannot tell older people that around 1800 the Tomato was held in almost the same contempt as certain psychedelics are now!

One of my students is transferring to New Mexico but I do not know whether this will be this winter or in a following semester. However I should be seeing him around Christmas and he will be liaison between Sam and Archie Bahm. I shall soon have other news from New Mexico where a brave new world is arising not very much like Aldous Huxley’s but not entirely different either.

There have been several letters to and from Vocha with the uncertainty of her moving to this region. We shall certainly welcome here.

An interruption. There is something like karma, for now, including the interruption, all the elements of one’s life seem to becoming favorable. This includes the publication of The Oracle which will print, no doubt, “General Semantics vs. General’s Semantics.” We are going to point the way to the use of a universal logistic to the solution of many problems and quasi-problems of the day.

The last arguments I have been in concern the word Ecology. The change in meaning and application of this form follow almost exactly the change in meaning and application of the word “Integration.” This of itself is characteristic and symptomatic.

I have just made some purchases from G.S. including two more volumes of your book on the integrational approach. I shall have good use for much G.S. literature. All trends in both public and private life at this moment show optimism on all fronts.

Faithfully,

Samuel. L. Lewis

cc- Lloyd Morain

cc- Vocha Fiske

December 14, 1969

Dr. Oliver Reiser

University of Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh, Pa.

My Dear Oliver:

Your brochure with the greetings has so amazed me I can hardly write. The art work stands out in such contrast to the sub-juvenility coming out of Pondicherry that it is almost impossible to realize it. But then, haven’t I met many young Americans who have been to India, and have they not said, “We have the money, we have the land, we have the know-how; we will build our own Shangri-la without any assistance from Hindu superman (self-styled superman of course)”.

I am enclosing a copy of a letter to Vocha, which gives some of the news. But one is involved; one’s destiny is to be involved and ignored, or rather so far. But I have just received a copy of a book manuscript. The author is (Shamcher) Bryn Beorse. While I was physically introduced to him over 30 years ago by my quondam colleague Luther Whiteman, our paths have crossed and re-crossed before, and since, and now, and it looks like it will always be that way. When this book is published, it will take my name and person not only out of ignominy, but into the very opposite direction. After all, my career has consisted in being rejected and having the rejecters gawk every time a great personality came here and we encountered in public. It is ridiculous and risible. Now it is making me a hero among the young even more than my own abilities.

This book by Bryn Beorse definitely opens up the way to my own autobiographical notes which, from direct experience, experience and not dialectics or speculations, or ego-conclusions, brings one into a world of operationalism and not speculations.

To comment on your brochure would for my purposes as well as yours be self-defeating. I am going to show the art-work to my Novato housekeeper who works in the same general genre. Also to my young ward here who has selected a career in the field of the arts. And to others.

I am so busy, busy now with opportunities and cooperating with the young that there is no time to waste ever “old fossils.” The whole relation with the students and teachers at the universities here is now operative and optimistic in all directions. This is a new world, if not the new world.

Most cordially, Hare Krishna,

Sam

Novato,

January 16, 1970

My dear Oliver:

A friend, visiting these parts last week said: “You have not only started the New Year right, you started the New Decade right.” It is certain that slowly but surely more and more young people are being drawn and one now becomes quite indifferent whether those over thirty can get out of realism into Reality.

Tomorrow I attend a group studying Southeast Asia. The professor is a friend of mine and he will look at documents and also listen whereas all the many groups who being to Snow’s “The other Culture” have refused to accept even the existence thereof. It is a sorry tragedy. Now we have Biafra. We are going to have more of this and on and one because only newsmen and “important” people have the right to platforms. Eyewitnesses don’t count. Eyewitnesses don’t count and as I have sadly said, “Genocide is a terrible crime if the Jewish people are the victims.” Actually in the Rand-McNally world there has been plenty of genocide.

Julie Medlock no doubt remains as one of the most sorry of the egocentric’s victims. She did ask me not to show her letter to anybody. But who would have believed anyhow. As Russ Joyner says: “Face should not be allowed to confuse the issues.” So we have issues and multitudes are in danger of near starvation but hardly, I believe, nearly as many as suffered in South Asia. The south Asians, many or not so many were not “Christians,” the Biafrans have either become “Christians” or are nice potentials for “Rice Christianity.”

My friend Bryn Beorse has asked for your address. He intends, I believe, to send you either a copy of his manuscript or a published work. When this gets out, no doubt the many free speech groups will permit an Eyewitness to testify. It is all sad and ridiculous. Snow’s other culture cannot even accept the dictums of Jurisprudence that eyewitnesses are expected to testify. But in news, the importance of the report depends on the importance of the persons making the report. Haven’t the editors won the Vietnam war so many times and so easily? Haven’t they given us rosy reports on the still to be completed Assouan Dam? Haven’t they lead Chinese armies across the Himalayas to conquer India?

I am almost through Marshall Walker’s “The Nature of Scientific Thought.” There is such a gap between the methodologies of it and those common to the press, the literati, the religionists, the anti-religionists and all schools of metaphysics and dialectics. The editors of “Science” are all expressing a rather similar point of view, one you can read, or hear in their presence but hardly to be found in the press, among the literati, the religionists, the anti-religionists and all schools of dialecticians.

Unlike the leaders I was long impressed by Russell’s essays on the misuse of the word “in”; Korzybski’s of the word “is” and Spaulding’s of the word “I.” Egocentrics will have nothing to do with a paper on these subjects but as you suggested, term by term progress is being made within the halls of ivy. There are now a lot of “Archie Bahms” around and I must say not an easy new semester, but a new one where I shall be permitted to speak on all subjects and experiences wherein I have been a participant. The religionists, the anti-religionists, the peace groups won’t like that a bit, but the press will!

The potentialities in “The Dances of Universal Peace” seem tremendous and some persons are trying to open doors. I did not realize that Vocha Fiske was so close to Ruth St. Dennis. I knew them both in roughly the same regions but they were in different social groups. But it has not been surprising. Vocha’s work has been in the speech arts but the general philosophy is not so different from what I am doing and new doing successfully.

The result is that I am being invited to visit several universities. At the moment I don’t know how to arrange it. The purported trip to Istanbul has been changed to Geneva but no data. The visits to the campuses chiefly in New York and Pennsylvania will have to depend on the semester arrangements. We have three different systems in California that I know of and I have been a champion veteran of making visits during intercessions. I probably shall not be alone but except to be traveling with my secretary, Otis Johnson, the friend and pupil of Huston Smith of M.I.T.

Well, this is a morning interlude before hard work. I hope this finds you well and will keep you informed. Regards to Mrs. Reiser.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.

Jan. 30, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

Dear Oliver:

This is written in a state of considerable bewilderment. My brother is hovering between life and death. His recovery would benefit me a little, his departure would benefit me a lot, in an unfortunate but practical situation. This comes at a time when the world is literally beating a pathway to my doors. There are today so many Christopher Hills, each ignoring the others of course, but many coming for advice or help.

I think I wrote you sometime back that my friend Bryn Beorse has determined to call attention of my work to the world and especially to those who have been profuse with a priori rejections. But since that time at least two other persons are determined to make my personality and work better known, and they are in positions to do something about it.

I do not know about Prof. Gerald, and at the moment have no time to make inquiry. The letters received today look like a combination of plagiarism and “the order of the day.” After all, did not Wallace and Darwin both reach similar conclusions in their parallel research mark, I guess this cannot be stopped.

But I am very much concerned with the very loose use of terms today, and have a fear of the vocabulary stealing by what Lord Snow called “the other culture.” Terms like pollution, ecology, etc. which strictly belong to laboratory science have now fallen into the hands of the literati, and God knows what will happen. It will probably be the same as with Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” that everybody except the professionals will be called in to state their piece, to the further detriment of the objective world.

It is only lack of time which prevents me from going ahead with “How California Can Help Asia.” Last week I heard how one of the professors helped prevent starvation is India. Not news of course. This sort of thing never gets into the papers. But it has brought as a valuable contact, and I think it is possible sooner or later that human experience rather than the pompous editorials of important persons will be used to help solve problems.

At least health good and no particular financial problems at the moment. Uncertain as to schedule which will bring as to the Eastern states.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

February 2, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of philosophy,

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15213

My dear Oliver:

This month has opened with far more optimism that one has ever had. The young are finding their way to this mousetrap inventor’s hut in the woods, and more and more every week. The total number is not large but it is up to capacity. One criticism has been that I do not want to share with others and the hard fact is that reaching this capacity I welcomes any kind of “spiritual” leader. And it is very easy to distinguish the real spiritual people from those who have assumed authority and leadership—the latter do not recognize others.

I have found that recognition of others is a sure sign of spirituality and universality. There are too many instance and one below may be enough for now. But last night there were two types of mouse-trap inventor seekers: Rhoda, for whom I am especially writing this letter and the carboned diary entry, is going to Auroville, she has been only to one other of my meetings. She has seen for herself and made her own conclusions, but the method of observation seems to be entirely out of line with the “new integrationalists (!) who disdain to examine anybody (else). Anyhow she has been encouraged to go to India and especially Auroville.

And last week when India’s Independence Day was celebrated—by the Indians themselves for a change—there was no representative nor mention of Sri Aurobindo. I don’t think that that is his fault. But the “leaders” have assumed that God is dead and the UN very much alive and while criticisms of God are permitted, it seems by the “New Age tolerant” criticisms of the UN are not.

So it was with considerable negative satisfaction that one reads in the paper today of the increased military activities in the Near East. And this “rejected” person is calling for a conference on the Near East wherein the Arabs who are citizens of Israel will take the land and then the Jewish people friendly to the Arabs and the Arab peoples friendly to the Jews. This “unheard” for method will, of course, upset the establishments but it just might work. Why not give humanity a chance? Why not give youth a chance? We are going to.

For the first time there is a surplus in the treasury here. We can’t very well share it with all the various “New Age?” Integrative? Movements. Why, two more approached this person last week! But there are two who want to [?] on “Toward Spiritual Democracy” and the story of my small but very successful commune is out—via the young people’s underground, of course.

Another type of visitor last night was the delegation sent by a professor from the University California, I think the first professor in Zen out here who has had Zen training. We have had lots of dialecticians and over­educated foreigners, chiefly Britain; we have had “oodles” of dialecticians writing on something they call “Zen” with no referent—but it is only the little people who need “referents,” and all we have is confusion. But there are new real Zen movements; I don’t mean institutions, we have plenty of those, but Movements which require the deeper experiences of life which pass through the satori and end in samadhi, actualities, not words. This is something the literati cannot understand.

You have definitely predicted it and now both my homes are too small. But it is not only that the homes are two small but real integrative movements in Southern California, Massachusetts, and New Mexico have all sent for me while I am waiting for two other projects: the conferences of The Temples of Understanding and the recovery (or death) of my brother.

We now have the full cooperation of a teacher of Indian dancing and she, unlike the Aurobindo people, accepts the work of the Moghul Empire, and the real integration of real Indian and real Islamic culture through the dance. This is so in line with my work. This morning we go forward to establishing the dance secretariat here. And there are so many dances inside one—like poetry before, only here you do not sit around for the audience, the audience comes.

There are now three movements to expand and popularize these dances. Two are in the professional field. The other comes from Baba Ram Dass, the former Richard Alpert of Harvard. I think I told you in his condemnation alike of the establishments and “revolutionaries” I went beyond into the real Indian Cosmic philosophy which is certainly unknown to the UN officials and diplomats in general. He not only presented it to a large overflow audience of young people, he presented this person in no uncertain terms. And if he gets his book published, or continues to draw the large audiences of the young, something is bound to break.

He did quote Meher Baba but not Auroville. Meher Baba was a master of aphorisms, including the most excellent I have ever heard. Of course his followers think that faith in him is enough just as all low level devotees of every faith do. But sooner or later we shall have to accept Buddha’s “Work out thy salvation with diligence.” I gave some of Buddha’s teachings last night; they are all in books and pretty much ignored in this culture, yet.

Next week I shall present Taittiriya Upanishad. The young will listen, the young will absorb, the young will respond. I shall let the manifold “New Ego” oldster each have its separation “integrative, cosmic order.” The world is full of them. But it is a good sign, the old order must perish.

Faithfully,

Sam

Feb. 21, 1970

Dr. Oliver L. Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

Dear Oliver: in re “Religious Humanism”
Despite some apparently sober notes this is a most encouraging letter. I recently told my colleagues, it might be worth $3 to subscribe to this publication, and the first copy alone has so many serious articles that I think it is an investment well worth its price.

On the back page one reads under “A Resolution”: “To launch a program of action comprising practical measures for the elimination of all forms of discrimination and for the promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment in education, and to integrate it in their educational development plans.”

Verbally I think this is marvelous. verbally, I should like to join in such efforts. Verbally. Verbally.

Next week we hope to have a Vietnamese speak here on his country. The doors are open. There will be a lot of young people here; there always are. The young people are mingling with each other regardless of age or background. They mingle; their elders pass resolutions. They are of course “middle class”; everybody is middle class; that explains, but I don’t know what.

The first steps have also been taken to have a meeting wherein a few Jews including some who have lived in Israel, and a few Arabs, and perhaps a Christian, and others., will convene here. We aren’t going to pass any resolutions. We leave that to others. We are going to mingle. We are going to do what everybody says everybody else should do. We ought to be doing this at Humanist House, but of course….

In the meanwhile, I am preparing to attend a peace conference in Geneva and will carry with me a program which is essentially the same as that which Lloyd and Don turned down, as they always do, or have done. I am not in the least troubled. I will have my own humanism which consists of humanity, and intend to put this into operation. The doors are all open for me—elsewhere, everywhere else. My own summer school is all ready for me. I don’t feel a bit happy about this. There are an ever-growing number of young people following me who would be quite willing to join any extant group if these groups could find a way out of resolution passing into operative endeavors. One after another of the programs worked out in accord with Project: Prometheus (especially) and Project: Krishna to some extent, are coming to manifestation. Sooner or later we are going to have a “scientific” culture based on objective, pragmatic operations and not on dialectic subjectivisms of any kind.

My original plan to go to England a few years ago was to work on the pollution problems. I had all the introductions, but sudden illness changed all plans. Now pollution is in the headlines. Yesterday I received a telephone call anent Thomas Edison, the City, and Pollution. This has been the type of problem I should have wished our friends to consider, and maybe someday they will. I have notes, oodles of them, all kinds of subjects. The only tragedy, if you can call it that, has been the folding up of the paper here which was to have published my article. I am not worrying about that either.

I have now so many invitations to visit campuses and organizations in the northeast of this country, but with my brother’s precarious health may have to return to these parts and make a separate trip later. I am going to that peace conference with a paper substantially the same as that a priori rejected by les fameux. They may of course change their minds. Then I could openly work with the Humanists. But at the moment my dance projects are expanding so rapidly I have little time for anything else.

Faithfully,

Sam

910 Railroad Ave.

Novato, Calif. 94947

March 12, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

Dear Oliver: in re Portal, volume VII

This is written at a most propitious time. Last night my work was televised. We are not going to count too much on it, but before it was done the technicians cross-questioned me considerably both on my private life and philosophy; and also on those adventures, especially in Asia, which our culture has adamantly refused to accept. But the last is not a sore point any longer, because one has met so many “ugly Americans” who have no place on platforms, forums, etc. and are our continued demand for “truth” and facts in scientific research and law courts, coupled with an almost absolute dominance of opinions in other lines of endeavor, has produced the problem of the day.

You should not be surprised therefore, that although the total number of persons in my audiences is still small there has been an increase every single week since the beginning of the year, a real increase in numerical attendance and also in the number that now accept me as “guru.” Secretary Mansur Johnson and I are now ready for our departure to attend the conference of the world’s faiths in Geneva at the end of the month with emphasis on peace. And I certainly will not flinch an inch from the stand that a single dissenter can prevent the successful accomplishment of this goal.

Until the day of departure there can be no private life. I have to host technicians from a television station and not only that, answer questions for which they demand facts, facts and not opinions. Anyhow last night they made a complete recording of my meeting demonstrating that although a purported Pied Piper may wish to attract and lead the young, the rejection of this by all and sundry older people does not hinder such efforts. or am I the only person so engaged or involved.

But I am writing this because in the performance and in the pursuit of goals there is an actual “psychic transformation” and sooner or later persons and organizations who verbalize in this field will have to come to a realization that what they believe can actually happen.

I have already sent you, I believe, copies of an article by a top astrophysicist at the University of California. One is so encouraged by the contemporary writings of the true scientist that one realizes sooner or later philosophers of all types will be facing that scientists have opinions and outlooks arising from their own experiences and endeavors.

At the present moment Vocha Fiske is with me. She was present at the performance, if you want to call it that, last night. She has placed in my hands a small brochure of Cassius Keyser on “Korzybski’s Concept of Man.” This reminded me both of how well acquainted I had been with the original and how much it has conditioned my present presumable thinking. The integration of the philosophies of contemporary science, of A.K. and Reiser, and the points of view in Portal, make me feel we are coming towards a universal outlook. The general honesty and sincerity of these various writers and contributors will become perfected when the people of the western world take a similar attitude toward the endeavors of, the accomplishments and outlooks of copies of other races. This means roughly a greater appreciation is needed for the actual Asiatica of Asians, and what to me Geoffrey Goerer has written in his “African Dances.”

My private affairs at the moment make it imperative to return to this region as soon as possible after my journey abroad, leaving it open when I can visit the eastern states; but fixating for a visit to New Mexico for as long a period as possible at the conclusion of present efforts.

Sincerely,

Sam

March 27, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

My dear Oliver:

One of the best greetings possible at this time has been the fact that Lloyd Morain called at my home in Novato, California, which is a commune.

It is just happened that my secretary Mansur was already driving Vocha Fiske and myself to this city. This was necessary to give Vocha an introduction to a friend who has been president of the Japan Society, and also trained in Japanese Zen, which is often so different from the varieties of exotics presented as “Zen” in this region. Vocha has a big collection of Japanese art which she wishes to sell.

It also happens that we went to a lecture on the art which is called Zen in Japan, but which has very little relation to much of what passes for Zen in this land. And I had the satisfaction of being permitted to present some of my quite objective experiences in the Far East instituting objectively a program which should never have been barred from the beginning—but now that is over. Everything else is going fine.

Vocha had dinner with my joint family here and she has been very much impressed by the way we conduct ourselves in all things.

At this writing it does not appear that I shall be visiting Eastern states. There are legal and financial complications, largely due to the fact that my three closest relatives are all in the hospital hovering between life and death.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

Geneva Switzerland

April 4, 1970

My dear Oliver:

The peace conference which I attended here is officially over. There remain some private interviews and the first presentation of suggestions. The first days here were marked by my meeting emissaries from the Vatican with whom incidentally I got along very well, and series of profound apologies from some very important world leaders whom I shall not name.

There have been situations almost like paranoia. Certain persons attached to fame or self-glory simply will not condescend. There are others who actually fear new ideas, and this situation applies to many persons in Lord Snow’s so-called literary humanist groups. These persons are invariably subjectivists and excellent at value judgments, or poor at both value judgments and perceptions.

In the procedures that followed I became known as the man who writes the longest letters and makes the shortest speeches. I spoke as if every word mattered. I always spoke with facts and referents and never called my subjective ideas facts, like so many dialecticians and humanists do. As a result I was called upon to speak even on the subject of birth control. My point of view was somewhat different that either that of those pro and con. But I was allowed to make it, something that has never been permitted in my own San Francisco. I not only make it but it won the good will of the leaders of the conference and a large part of the audience.

Of course on other subjects I was given greater latitude because I wished it. I have taken one of the world’s sorest problems under my wing so to speak. I find that most people, both religious and irreligious, think problems are solved by wishing. The religious people add prayer to it and think it is wonderful and they are wonderful. The non-religious people replace God by the UN or some actual or fanciful group with whom they endow super-human faculties. You can take your choice. The wars continue. The problems continue. And wishes unite in blocking the doors to men of action.

In general the scientists here are quite objective, quite imbued with facts and quite intelligent. Others used oratory and obtuse approaches, wasting time unwittingly.

I was very much amused to overhear a discussion and then was brought into it concerning Korzybski and Hayakawa. To both my amazement and amusement AK was regarded almost as a demigod, a man who could have infused our culture with depth, rationality and understanding. Don is looked at with amazement, how such a man could and would dare to place himself or be placed at the forefront of efforts to wring thoughtfulness and rationality into the world. Many people have been astonished how such a man with much empty backgrounds could attain such prominence in our culture. The Europeans were quite in agreement that this shows certain lack in American culture.

I do not know whether humanists are capable of any ability to apologize like some of the religionists here and one doesn’t care anyhow. Not only was I given the opportunity to speak on every one of pieces but every one has been accepted. This gives self-assurance, and I’m indifferent now to all those movements and organizations that have a priori rejected me in the past. And as I am going forth from here with invitations, there are signs that accomplishments and efforts are not only acceptable but will be accepted.

One of the great cries was the absence of youth. I brought my young secretary with me. There were 3 other young people here also—only that number—among a very large number. Slop sentimentalism was open to youth; hearts and minds were closed. People who cannot or do not listen to each other can hardly be expected to listen to the young. The young were well aware of it, and I became their father confessor. This opens the door for further activity in the future.

Perhaps the saddest note was the news from Julie Medlock. Not a few of her friends occupied the platform. One woman rather recently and one woman just this week left Auroville feeling that Julie is wasting her life and will not confess her disenchantment. Youth simply will not accept outside autocratic dominance. It is a new age with new outlooks and high standards of culture and intelligence. People of highway intelligence and culture are invited to Auroville and made to serve under elder people of lesser intelligence culture, and ability. There was an unfortunate unanimous agreement that at the present time Julie is not amenable to suggestions and has practically closed herself up. I am afraid too many older people expect the rest of the world to listen to them and to accept them, but just them while they don’t have to accept anything from anybody else.

It is exactly here that the young are in revolt. Older people want their own one way streets and also expect traffic on them. Younger people want two way streets (at least) and are indifferent about the traffic—whether it goes one way, two ways, or many ways.

While off-hand I do not know how much this will promote your Projects, at least I am in a for better position with green lights so to speak.

We go to London Monday and feel home is optimistic about the possibilities there. At this writing our return home is bound to the solution of the airport strike. Still on account of legal and family matters, I should be home before the and of the month, perhaps making necessary a separate trip to the eastern parts of the United States.

You will be glad to know that the fame of Archie Bahm is increasing. I have met people of all lands, many great professors of various subjects and also numbers of India’s richest family—in fact they sought me out. I have a lot of contacts in Washington city too. Fortunately, the problems we face are the grace for one to be carried off in elation.

Cordially,

Sam

May 2, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

Dear Oliver:

This has been a very eventful and dramatic period of my life. You will find copy of a very strong letter to Julie Medlock. There is no need for me to hassle with people and groups adamantly dedicated to one-may trains. Besides that there are now come “world movements.” It is like a big racket. It may be unfortunate.

Now we are invading Cambodia. We don’t know anything about Cambodia. We don’t even want to know. It is very hard to say who is the most obscurant in this. Sooner or later the young are going to dump all the old subjectivists keen on leadership, bombast, and ignorance.

My whole trip could add vastly to Project: Krishna. I do not know exactly what you want, but I think I am ready to supply it. The day is over when wisdom consisted of personality leadership, “right parties.” The young will have no more of this stupidity and nonsense.

Of course it was not only Project: Krishna but also Project: Prometheus that was involved in this journey. My talk with one of the directors at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston was totally out of line with the subject matter in articles by the literati and commentators. There is no question in my mind that we have two kinds of pollution, one physical and one mental, and we are not going to solve the physical pollution until we get rid of the mental pollution. While personalisms dominate, you can be sure problems will increase, and personalisms are going to dominate among the seniors. That, and little else, is the cause of the generation gap: the old must have some personality. It is that simple and that easy.

I expect to go to New Mexico as soon as notification is received and also will contest Archie Bahm. He is also concerned with the subject of campus riots and generation gaps. I think he is one of the best qualified men for such undertakings.

Of course I have financial and legal matters to consider. They are not problems; they are necessities of the moment opening up unlimited doors for future endeavors.

Our present plans are to come to East in the Autumn, perhaps going to Washington and renting a car, then moving to many cities in the whole area between Boston Washington and Cleveland.

Faithfully,

Sam

May 4, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

My dear Oliver;

I am enclosing herewith a Xeroxed copy of an article which appeared in yesterday’s paper. While the news appears to be exceedingly unfavorable to Julie and her Auroville project, one must remember the source—a newspaperman whom I am sure is prejudiced. On the only occasion when I was welcomed at Humanist House the subject was communes, and one of the most outspoken persons stated he was writing a book on communes to prove that they failed. When he was challenged? How about those that succeed? He shut up.

Unfortunately some of the statements by Peter Divine are true. There is political favoritism. Instead of spiritually superior person being allowed to participate in the directing, the more fact that someone has become an underling of the United Nations, i.e., a UN official, gives him superior status. So instead of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo being utilized, a false opportunism has taken ever. I call it false because there is no opportunity for the marvelous young people to participate.

I am preparing now to go to New Mexico. I have met in New Mexico so many people who have been to Auroville and left. They told no they had the land, the money, the aptitudes, and were not going to buckle to any political supervision either from Indians or from the United Nations. Unfortunately also, there is absolutely no way to convince those persons who believe they are the disciples of Sri Aurobindo, of anything at all. They seem almost universally bent on failure rather than on human consideration to consideration to others.

We have already seen that in the fiasco of Dr. Zitko in Arizona, which fortunately, you avoided.

I would rather have seen Auroville succeed as a human undertaking, or even as a spiritual enterprise, but the blind and adamant refusal to accept even historicity, became coupled with intolerance and such attitudes make it impossible. It is totally contrary to the finest teachings in Indian spiritual philosophies.

I think I had just written Julie before reading this, and I think I had sent you a copy.

The very failure of Auroville, will of course redound to the benefit of true Cosmic Humanism.

Faithfully,

Sam

May 8, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Dept. of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

My Dear Oliver,

I was glad to receive your chart: Gradual Fusion in Terms of DNA Chains. And also the World Union Focus. I am seizing this opportunity to save time by sending a carbon to Archie Balm, whom I hope to see soon. I am waiting now for a letter from Lama Foundation in New Mexico, setting a date for departure. There is already a summer school there and operations entirely in accord with Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus, but there is a very very dim view of Pondicherry. All northern New Mexico, and some of the rest of that state is filled with camps, retreats, projects, and experiments in communal outlook. The youth have felt offended by the mother at Pondicherry. It is a long and not very happy story. Briefly, the young feel they are the true representatives of the new Age and the late Sri Aurobindo’s cosmic outlook. They have been ignored or overlooked by the mother at Pondicherry and show so much prowess in an evolved development psychically and spiritually.

My position is no better. One could add to your list great characters like Emperor Akbar, Suleiman the Magnificent, Avicenna, not to say Chinese Sages, but even to dare to propose such things to Pondicherry is to bring down strong dualistic reactions. The young especially have tried this. They have been told where to get off. Now they are telling their elders where to get off. And they mean it. I do not see what is gained by refusing to accept actual reports from other people. And now I feel even worse about it because my financial outlooks are very bright, but I will not contribute one cent to groups that proclaim universality and then refuse to accept anything whatsoever, except money.

Tonight I am giving perhaps my only report on what took place at Geneva. But the story is out, and just as at Geneva the high and mighty were profuse in apologizing for never answering letters or granting interviews; the same thing is starting here in San Francisco, the outlook being dimmed only by the simple fact that one cannot do more than one can do.

I am also interested in that Archie was interested in doing research on campus disorders. I don’t think there have been any campus disorders. I think that what are called establishments have been thoroughly self-confused by their mis-usage of terms, a prime example being Stewart Chase’s self-involvement in his own “the tyranny of words.”

As I am sending a carbon of this to Archie, I hope to arrange some sort of meeting with him at his convenience.

There is no question, and it comes out of my very objective experience in Switzerland and England and my getting a very good preview from right within and behind the campuses, as to what is happening today. But this should be of some concern to these who have unfortunately flattered themselves into believing they are leaders in world movements, whereas in fact they may be showing me aptitude for any sort of leadership whatsoever.

I am about to write some serious letters involving teachings of the deeper aspects of Indian Philosophies. Excepting Pondicherry, I do not think I have been refused anything by anybody or from anybody. The policy of refusals in which they have indulged has resulted in turn in their being refused by others. Thus is nothing noble or objective in hauteur and hypocrisy. I have already sent you a copy of the negative report on the mother.

I am of course most anxious to see Archie’s work. It is easy enough to cooperate, but I can no longer accept the one-way traffic being foisted by other on a growing world, which is seeking solutions of problems by methods other then selecting some personalities and over-acclaiming them.

The present outlook it that we are considering a trip East later in the year, flying to Washington and then presenting by car to wheresoever it is feasible to visit. Up to this point one has had nothing but grand welcomes back. The very problems of the moment show that sooner or later we are going to get out of so-called realism into reality.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

Box 444,

San Cristobal, New Mexico 87564

May 31, 1970

My dear Oliver:

This afternoon I arrived at this “commune” high in the Rookies where I shall become “guru.” There are several projects on, such as making adobe bricks, having an organic garden, completing a manuscript for publication (at least), building a large residence.

There is no question that the young want some real Oriental philosophies with techniques. They won’t stand for the old egocentric “expertisms” of personalisms which have passed for “Zen” and “Yoga” and what not. Not that the East is better than the West or otherwise. But the day of “Professors Me-Suez Canal” is over. There are still debris but I am no longer worrying. The contrast of my reception at the Royal Asiatic Society with California “experts” on Asia is so marked it will go down in history. Tomfoolery and ego-personalities no longer fool the young.

I am very happy over Archie’s latest and we had a most delightful visit with him. One of my disciples is enrolled at New Mexico U. and already a meeting is planned for me there. There is more than one revolution going on. It leave it to the Euclideans (including a lot of verbal-verbal-verbal “non-Euclidean”) to stick to this left-right-center complex right out of Hegel plus Euclid and some Marx and about as “scientific” as Eskimo logistics. One simply transcends the verbalists and egocentrists and goes on to multi-dimensionalism in the sense that mathematicians and A.K. did, and I am no longer concerned with acceptance by the verbalists. But I shall certainly not close any door in their faces.

Vocha Fiske has been watching me closely and discovered that operationalists and pragmatists must be judged by what they do. And I am openly challenging—myself—now to see whether it cannot be delivered.

We keep on running into New Age young. They are planning an international musical sit-in shortly to be held near Toronto. The peace protests grow and the young listen to me not only for what may be wisdom, but simply because verbalists have so constantly shut the door in my face. This is wrong, too. But pseudo-logic works both ways, most unfortunately.

We have to have operational integrationalism. Those who over evaluate some hero or some schmuck born in India and those who set up verbal heroes have to face that the New Age is not like that. Masses of young people are operating, psychologically in a meta-Euclidean fashion.

On the side my first two efforts in the field of meta-psychology, or integrational-psychiatry, have been so successful I myself have been bowled over. I am no Carl Rogers much less a Fritz Perls but the methods tried so far work and no need of medical or mental diagnosis. I apply aspects of Oriental psychologies which have been barred by verbalists, and of course, the “experts.” This has given confidence.

I shall be writing some “atrocious” articles soon, but so long as “verbalists” block the doors, it is time to go all out. Here I must be tried pragmatically. Good; on accepts.

But I have a whole picture in my mind for an integrational-holistic Project: Prometheus which will also be in harmony with Project: Krishna. I even have the right contacts for it nationally and internationally. Nevertheless I am sending a copy of this to Russ Joyner. Integration and holism are all-inclusive by which I mean just that and not some fanciful words which “important” people use, or misuse.

The biggest farces, of course, have been sub species Philosophical Californicus pseudo-Orientali. But no more capering. We now turn to constructive measures.

Faithfully,

Sam

Box 444

Sam Cristobal, NM 87564

June 8, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

Some time ago I found myself in the awkward position of having to write to Julie that I have been drawn into competition, so to speak, with Auroville. There is no question but that the young in this region are examples of new age outlooks and that either they are in general the type predicted variously by Bulwer Lytton, H.G. Wells, Sri Aurobindo and perhaps many others. But certainly not by self-professional seers. (Or charlatans like Edgar Casey, Alice Bailey, Jean Dixon, etc. etc.) Either these young people are showing superiorities or I am way off the beam. In any event I cannot express my appreciation enough for the introduction to Archie Bahm and as things progress it would appear that we must cooperate more and more and more.

Yesterday, I found myself the object of a pilgrimage of young people, mostly from Santa Fe. As things stand there will be larger pilgrimages each succeeding week. Tuesday afternoon I shall address young people in Santa Fe and Tuesday night in Albuquerque. On my way here I found a certain legend concerning myself already proceeding me, a little more than in the Boston-Cambridge area. I have friends who say the trouble with this age is that there are no legendary figures. I haven’t the slightest doubt whether there is success or not, fame or ignominy, there will be legend.

I have just received another issue of Auroville from which we quote:

the aim

transform reason

into ordered intuition;

let all thyself be light. this is thy goal.

transform effort

into an even and sovereign

overflowing of the soul-strength;

let all thyself be conscious force.

this is thy goal.

transform enjoying

into an even and objectless ecstasy;

let all thyself be bliss.

this is thy goal.

transform the divided individual

into the world-personality;

let all thyself be the divine.

this is thy goal.

                            —Sri Aurobindo

Stanza 1. I believe more or less in accord with Korzybski and Snow, there are two classes of people: those who believe in operational existence and those who believe in egos. It is so easy to say something. I don’t think there are any people in the world further away from this inspiration of Sri Aurobindo than his so-called followers. In laboratory scientific research and its evaluation, there is a marvelous blending of reason and intuition. I am not going to argue where each comes. But the intuition may introduce broad views.

As to becoming light. At least I see greater and greater light not only in the eyes and from the eyes of my followers, but of so many young people I meet. I do not see such light in and from propagandists or personality worshippers of any group. I understand that light also radiates from my personality but that is a testimony of others.

Stanza 2. At Geneva nearly all the Indian representatives attested that Sam Lewis is an example of integrative yoga which also should be integrity yoga, this from others, from quite prominent personalities.

Stanza 3. The purpose of my work especially in music and dancing manifests—and I say manifests and I repeat manifests—in my young followers who are increasing in number and also in radiance of personality. I don’t think anything I could say or write whacks the followers of Sri Aurobindo more than this. Most of them retain their egocentricities and dualisms and have shadowed faces but they want to lead the world.

Paragraph 4. The followers of Sri Aurobindo at Auroville and elsewhere have refused to admit the historicity of Emperor Akbar, the achievements of the Moghuls or even the careers of living Sufis, including the late President of India. It is this pretense that has lead several young Americans and some not so young who have returned from Auroville saying they would build their Aurovilles here, that they already had all the aptitudes Sri Auroville has announced and pronounced, and having Sri Krishna on their side they properly defied the efforts in Pondicherry who want everybody but Sri Krishna on their side.

Within a few weeks we hope to have visited a number of communes and spiritual centers in this area—young people who believe that the kingdom of God is within and so rely on their own prowess, their own aptitudes, their own zeal, and even their own money. They believe in practice that the kingdom of God is within, and they are not ashamed to use the word “God” or its equivalents—words which do not appear or hardly at all in the literature emanating from Auroville.

There are several notable qualities emanating from these young people, especially love, brotherhood and mutual respect. This is very prominent and more and more prominent; they believe and practice that the kingdom of God is from within and not from the contributions from other people’s pockets. There are notable successes and so far they have been by-passed, but I don’t think this will continue.

One reason is the multitudes of the young people of today are demanding honesty in food and diet. They are not only demanding it but this has become a most successful business enterprise, growing at a marvelously rapid rate.

In addition these young people have either solved or obviated ecological problems that have so aroused the emotionalists who are constantly writing and meeting and yelling and yelping but not doing much. I have already had a sort of cosmic vision which I parody: In the beginning God made the world of silicon and oxygen and iron and aluminum and a lot of little people, who provide the spices for the rather monotonous careers of the majority elements. Indeed, I wrote a paper on this subject which Lloyd and Don ego-centrically rejected. This is the General Semantics of the past. When the time comes I shall enlarge this scheme, based on a better picture and a little more knowledge of chemistry and petrology to say the least. But here we have the ecology well in hand without involving prominent personalities or articles from prominent personalities.

My danger comes in not being able to keep my cool, so to speak, in view of a new and rapidly rising acceptance. I should like to have thrown my efforts and resources whatever they be (Auroville’s) into “University” but their absolute rejection of my external knowledge and perhaps successes in Project: Krishna make this impossible; they have made it impossible.

In this issue the Mother says “Auroville will be the site of a material and spiritual research.” I have just written recently to one of the most prominent Asian philosophers, opening the door to a reconciliation of Asian wisdom and Modern sciences on the theme that they are both derived from the one Nature. This Nature is not a projection such as is misused by existentialists and dialecticians, but is based on the world around us, the rocks, the trees, the grass, the animals, and the human kind. I think this is enough for one communication.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Lama Foundation

Box 444, San Cristobal,

New Mexico, 87564

June 12, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

Dear Oliver:

Recently I wrote Julie Medlock that unwittingly I had been pulled into competition with Auroville. But in the name of universality this game of selecting and rejecting is over. Auroville will, unless it is proven I am mistaken, go the way of the much heralded “Zitko” fiasco and the Roerich Museum and others. In the name of universality they overstress the prowess of a few persons, often carefully selected, and damn the rest of humanity, even those who have created much.

The beautiful selection from Sri Aurobindo in the last issue of “University” only shows the emptiness of presence. I am sorry, I am very sorry for Julie who has had such a wonderful career, such wonderful ideas. Such abilities, to permit herself to be drawn into a very private undertaking, unless the assumption that Superman (very carefully brain­washed like J. Krishnamurti before) is going to obtain world-leadership.

Last year some enterprising Americans came this way and said: “We are going to build our own Auroville. We have the money the aptitudes and the land.” Evidently they have gone ahead. The countries is spotted with rather successful communes, generally with some quasi-spiritual background; with young man and women devoted to each other and to their respective causes while showing respect to outsiders and considering that God, if there be such a being, is Creator, Father and Lover of all, something it is quite evident is of no particular import to Auroville.

Even here we have some Auroville rejecters. Men who are devotees real Yoga systems and who can work with their hands, hearts and minds. They have rejected to be dominated by politicians and promoters. They agree with Sri Aurobindo with regard to ordered intuition’s something absolutely verboten not only at Auroville but in and by all the promotional schemes of all the “Nietzschean” figures of the age, Machiavellian “Avatars,” “Sadgurus,” “Maharshi,s “etc. who abolish the moral laws and substitute their egos in place thereof; expecting “base” humanity to grovel and sacrifice for them. There are a lot of “them.’

Now there has been Holy Men’s Jamboree in San Francisco, very successful, even financially. This means a lot more young people will come to this person who knows something of the Asian philosophies of the Asians. Not only that, my spiritual dances are taking over, in many places. All of these were offered both to Auroville and others. But one is an outsider. A third degree clerk of the UN stands much higher in their estimation. So I shall waste no more time. Sic transit Gloria Zitkos.

Hard work, integrity, open-heart, spiritual devotion and mutual trust is building successful communes in this area. The persons involved are not idiots. Generally there is good educational background, plus aptitudes, and a willingness to learn. Nobody is supreme leader; all are excellent followers; no pretense, and the innate faculties which man has are given every opportunity to come to the surface.

Sarcastically, perhaps, I say Allah has been favoring us. I see my own income going up. I see the incomes of my colleagues going up. I see the growth of the health food businesses in all their aspects, and perhaps a rise in Naderism.

I have two tremendous things inside of me: one for Project: Krishna which will be tape recorded first; the other for Project: Prometheus of which I give you some idea in the carbon just enclosed. I have no more time for egocentric rejections by whomsoever.

Sunday a group of young people pilgrimaged here to see me. My welcomes at Santa Fe and Albuquerque and further programs have been laid out for me in those places. The so-called Holy Man’s Jamboree in San Francisco was most successful. The young will take from me what their elders have refused even to look at. But all of this will re downed to the benefit of Archie Bahm, no doubt.

I am afraid, sorely afraid, of the interferences of the literati humanists as Snow calls them into problems that should be the providence of scientists. As I have said, no one, not a doctor of medicine is supposed to prescribe for the ills of the human body, and mind; but any prominent essayist, editor, TV commentator, etc. may prescribe anything for the ills of the bodies of rocks, trees, water resources, conservation, etc. etc. etc. A person like myself who has been an adept. in land clearing etc. has had no chance before the important people, whoever they be, but it is not that; everywhere I find myself back in Lord Snow’s premises and in those portions of Science and Sanity which a good “general” of semantics does not even have to read.

Now I am getting the young with me. I am financially quite stable; I am making more and more contacts at the top, too. My secretary and I are planning a trip to all the northeastern states later, in the year, unless something even greater interposes. There is a chance for that too. Much of our work is being televised; the doors are opening everywhere. I believe honesty, integrity, impersonality and knowledge will prevail. Perhaps I am writing forcefully; I think it is necessary.

Most cordially and respectfully,

Sam

June 20, 1970

My dear Oliver:

We are still high up in the Rocky Mountains. There is tremendous activity going on here. A troupe of young actors is now on these grounds and they are putting on a spiritual drama tonight. I do not know the contents and this letter will be posted before we see the play. But there is tremendous activity all through the upper reaches of the Rio Grande Valley.

It would seem that the pioneer spirit has not entirely disappeared. There are a few differences, however. One is the growing world outlook among the young people; although it superficially may resemble certain established organizations, these people would not accept a fixed leadership or organization over them. There is no use trying to convince people like Christopher Hills or Dr. Zitko or others that there might be a world outlook in the hearts of many young people, and this outlook objects to any restrictions put on it by intellectuals or emotionalists who are older in age and sometimes in book learning but hardly otherwise.

While I have not yet the full report of what happened at the Holy Men’s Jamboree in San Francisco, certain of the Indian representatives are in this region and they are attracting considerable numbers of the young people. The chief character in these operations is quite in opposition to the work of Sri Aurobindo. His weakness or strength lies in the fact that he demands devotion and yoga disciplines, and these devotions and yoga disciplines are certainly semantically sound. Whether they achieve what they claim is another matter.

It is certainly true in this region as in California that what the young people are seeking in yoga or its alternatives, actual practices with minima of explanations and philosophies.

My own work is expanding at a rate more than consonant with my abilities. I now have at least four groups in this valley and undoubtedly will plan to return here next year.

Most favorable letters have been received from the Boston and Washington areas; it is still in the plans to fly to Washington and then probably rent a car. We would then be able to cover the triangle between Washington Cleveland and Boston—all places included.

But there is quite a different reason for writing. In England we called on one Mr. F. Clive-Ross. Mr. Clive-Ross has been very active in two different fields: A. the furtherance of interest in the whole psi-world. This is such a tremendous domain one cannot write about it in detail now. But it is certain I shall also be writing in this same general area, that being one of the reasons for going to Washington.

We called on Mr. Clive-Ross just after the death of my brother; it seemed plausible with an increased allotment to return to England say in 1972 with a small dance group. And while my allotment is not great enough to pay for more than one other person, the response to my work shows increased interest and respect and also an actual income from external sources (even Lloyd Morain is now aware of my activities. I am not going to ask anything from him but at least I am sure he will not stand in my way any longer.)

But the core of the discussion with Mr. Clive-Ross was a pilgrimage to those very places mentioned in your table of contents, covering exactly the same geography and motifs. I thought you would be glad to know and that is the reason for this very hurried answer at this busy time.

Faithfully,

Sam

June 22, 1970

My dear Oliver:

This is a surprise letter, never intended. But Christopher Hills showed up here at Lama rather unexpected yesterday. And also he gave a copy of his latest book on “Christ-Yoga.” I do not know what he means at all.

He is a nice affable, tallish man but wishing to lead humanity does not endow men with the qualities of leadership. And then on top of that to pump for democracy and voting democracy at that!

We have here a successful commune. This whole countryside is spotted with communes and social experiments. They are real but that does not make them necessarily valid or superior. Only they are and they are made up of human beings. The country is also being visited by “spiritual gurus” which may mean anything and the fact that the term is used may or may not imply.

It seems today there are multitudes of organizations using the term “Christ” which have in common that they desire to abrogate or abolish the Sermon on the Mount. I am not necessarily pumping for the Sermon on the Mount but if I were to use the term “Christ” I certainly would. The whole thing reminds me of French politics of another day—and this does not extend only to the French, where the term “socialists” was used by a lot of groups having all kinds of meanings. And, of course, we had the “National Socialists.”

I notice that in his “Christ-Yoga” Hills quotes A.K. and a lot of people of all kinds of levels, who have in common that they manifested more or less as historical personages. Then he pumps for the word “science” without is methods or context.

I said briefly we had Dr. Zitko and we are going to have more Drs. Zitko who are going to try to be social Napoleons and will pass by after a splurge and leave nothing—like the Roerich Museum. But why do they bring the word “Christ” and add “yoga,” a word used entirely out of context—which is not surprising.

Well we have another “Worlds”-group by a few select, generally self- selected personalities with drums and trumpets and no depth. He is a “nice” man but hardly a deep one with all his seeming erudition. The world has so many “Sadgurus,” “Messiahs,” “Avatars,” etc. today, and they will go on and on and splash and in the end the world will pass them by and get back to humanity.

Faithfully,

Sam

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif

July 12, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

Dear Oliver:

It is all right for an Emerson to say that if a man made a better mousetrap, though he lived in the midst of the woods, the world would beat a footpath to his doors—that is beautiful. But if it actually happens!!

And it did happen and I had no time to see Archie at Albuquerque and I had to return here. It is fortunate that the physical and other (real) excursions in the Rockies has restored my vigor again and I am able to work incessantly.

Dale Woelfl has been the chief editor of Science. I do not recall a single instance when he did not answer my mail. He did publish two communications but as there is a general agreement among many scientists (I mean human beings, not the symbols of the literati), this was not necessary. I finally turned to him again over the problem of pollution, half or more of which are semantic and not objective and received a beautiful reply. One does not get such replies from the literati who are (mis) informing the public so much.

I am therefor changing my schedule a little to participate in scientific discussions by scientists who permit questions and even speeches. Although this is a theme in “Science and Sanity” and comes out further in Lord Snow, we are going downgrade rapidly because the literati and especially the editors and commentators are worming their way into all discussions whether they know anything or not and a mere “peasant” hasn’t a chance. Woelfl has moved to Seattle and I have asked my friend Bryn Beorse to call on him. Bryn is one of the most remarkable persons I have ever met.

In the meanwhile I notice that the common view of the scientists who are scientists regarding spray-”poisons” is the same outlook I have always had. But having been a mere professional spray operator my views were never permitted inn “public.” It is tragic and laughable.

Last night was spent with a newly found friend. He is a professional publisher. He had dedicated his fortune to certain aspects of Oriental-Oriental philosophies—i.e. those that Asian people hold, but he had never found and exponents in this land. Then he happened upon a colleague. They have had a successful summer school in Asian-Oriental Philosophy—no more “brand” names. But in the meanwhile things have been happening on a large scale, too large for me to detail. I can only assure you that we are going to have real America-Asian culture relations and we are sooner or later going to recognize the Chinese, Arab, and Indian cultures of the Chinese, Arabs, and Hindus as do the Israelis and Russians—at least.

I happened upon a dramatic troupe not far from Santa Fe, on the Albuquerque side and sooner or later I shall have them meet Archie if they have not already. We are going to have real cultural exchanges with real humanity and I think soon. This troupe expects to present dramas from the Indian Epic poems comparable to the Passion Play. This is a new age of objectivity and no longer “brand names” as experts.

My new colleagues wish to establish a “commune” and organic garden in Arizona. The venture into New Mexico has been entirely successful. If it had failed, we would have struck headlines. Even locally my two small organic gardens are prospering though I have not been on hand. Lloyd has visited Novato. I do not know if he were impressed or not. I gave myself three years, this is the second. We use organic fertilizers only. There is a small past problem into which I have had no time to look but neither in New Mexico nor in San Francisco have I encountered this.

Then my colleagues are going more and more into Organic Foods and prospering, really prospering. And we are having a joint meeting here tonight between them and the Korean Zen Master who has no degrees from European universities, you can be sure. But I now have a growing number of successful colleagues in Europe and England who learned their Asian philosophies from Asians in Asia and I believe there will be more of this.

The attendance at my meetings slowly increases and this is particular true of the dances. The heritage from Ruth St. Denis goes on and I am quite unconcerned with the non-response of older people. I have to obtain a dance secretary. Prosperity as well as adversity has struck my secretariat. But everything is moving.

The there is the subject of peace. Inasmuch as peasants are of no avail, even if eye-witnesses, it is going to be awkward when I make some remarks about Vietnam. there is an article by ten congressman in “Coronet” as to how to stop future Vietnams. They, the congressman in Washington are going to ??? Vietnam started because the State Department and press refused to interview my later friend, Robert Clifton. His entire story was substantiated by the late Secretary Dulles’ appointment secretary. The two presumably opposite reports agreed to the smallest detail!

Now I am facing the same for the Near East and may be able this week to bring together a Jewish rabbi from Palestine, an American rabbi, at least one President minister and the impossible-dissent Israeli Jews and actual Arab citizens of Israel, and others together, at least to get them to meet each other—no Nixon, newsmen, commentator, or politician otherwise. And, of course, all the “humble” people who have had “peace awards” will stay away. But I don’t want to write further because writing itself is not accomplishment.

My publisher friend is going to Europe and is accepting the actual introductions from us to those who know, etc. Then he may accept my autobiography. And then we prepare to come east again—not a dull moment and all the young accepting everything from me, whether justified or not. I see nothing standing in the way of Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

July 16, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

Dear Oliver:

Project: Prometheus and Present Day Problems

Last night I want to a meeting at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on “The Death of Lake Erie.” One of my disciples, who is a marine biologist, was with me who was born in Detroit. I have lived a little in Detroit and more in Cleveland and my first hand experiences, though few, enables one to understand what is going on.

I found the audience both sympathetic and intelligent. The film itself was MC’d by an emotional top ranking “commentator” with the emphasis that “we are all to blame.” We are not all to blame, at least in the philosophy I hold derived from Cassius Keyser and his “Human Worth of Vigorous Thinking.” The loose use of words is to me as dangerous as the actual destruction of our ecology.

A few years ago I had planned to go to England to study modern methods of sewage disposal. We have something like that going on in Oakland, California, and we have a different system in San Jose, California which has adapted the Milwaukee (Milorganite) process. But I have long since learned that a “peasant” must not interfere with the “debates” of the prominent. Besides, the very cordial letter from Dale well, now in Seattle, has made me optimistic, that a person with some background may be heard if he has something to offer.

The complete lack of any sound system of logistics today is even more dangerous to me than the destruction of environments. In studying Dewey years ago I found that while he was verbally logical he used the words “I” “we” “they” loosely from the standpoint of the fixed, variable, multi-ordinal, etc. as taught by Alfred Kiribati and ignored by the most prominent of his followers and successors. And this disregard of terms and of Lord Russell’s “confusion of types” has made it most difficult to resolve and so to solve problems.

I have been enough time in land reclamation and now my gardens are doing well, considering I gave three years to the San Francisco and Novato projects (now in their second year); the Lama Foundation an New Mexico with which I am cooperating is doing excellently; and I may be sent for to go to the Tucson area in Arizona.

In traveling around the earth of Rand-McNally, I found that where graduates of California Universities were operating they had excellent overall pictures and were sometimes doing much. This does not belittle other universities; there were more Californians and communication was easier. But I must say that Ohio state, Kansas State, Colorado State, Tennessee, and Wisconsin were also doing top-level jobs, not advertised, of course. Only what Russians attempt (not do, but attempt) is given publicity.

I have found roughly speaking most pollutions is due to sewage and factories but we have to break the latter down. Sewage can be converted. I learned this first while studying Marine Engineering while working in the shipyards during the war; there large ocean limes have systems of conversions which in the end proved to be economically profitable.

During my lifetime I found three in dependent sewage systems for one part of San Francisco. This was a dangerous discovery or un-covery. The person, not the sewage disposal outlets, was dangerous!

There is a remarkable parallel between the recovery of industrial wastes and certain aspects of Indian philosophy and logistics (excluded from our culture.)

Blames are verbal, not objective and one knows better than to combat the press, the radio-TV and the emotional dictators, but now I am hoping to get out of the emotional-egocentric controls by the very personalities so deplored by A.K. but so ignored by the many types of “semanticists” who have nothing in common but the use of this word. I believe there can be a breakdown into Pollution A, Pollution B, Pollution … N, but I have enough sense to keep them apart now until my friend, who wants my materials, will accept them.

I shall have to rebuild my Keyser and scientific libraries. New I am in position to do this. And the constantly growing number of followers, adherents, friends, and allies, makes every moment of my life most interesting.

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc-Joyner

cc-Bahm

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco, Calif.

July 16, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

I have your pictures in re Projects: Prometheus and Krishna.

Now I have reached the first stage of American sainthood. By my own efforts both directly and indirectly my sources of income have increased and there are many signs of increasing further. Then I met a man who was on the outlook for the Asian philosophies of Asians and by a strange series of experiences he met one of my colleagues. When I met him he told me he was a professional publisher but I find also he is a sort of “Lloyd Morain” when it comes to investments but unlike Lloyd he gave me an open interview and wants … everything.

I have before me the May copy of “History of Religions” and I am sending them a copy of this because I have found that there is no use for an unknown American to submit anything … but checks—that is different. There is an article on “A Comparison of Theravada and Zen Buddhist Meditational Methods and Goals.” Now down at Lama I presented … not lectures but practices of a resume of all Buddhist meditative methods from the first Jhana to the “highest” Mahamudra. No subjectivities, practices.

Last Sunday we greeted my Korean Zen Master—not a graduate of any prominent Western University. I passed tests for him wherein I became a “Zen-shi.” I have also been accepted as a “Thien” by Vietnamese. We did nothing to advertise and the place was jammed so much so I softened on the collection. We also had a group of Asian-Esoteric Buddhists with us, no nonsense. And also in the audience the professional publisher above who is interested in realties, not subjectivities and views of “important” personalities.

I did allude to my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism being rejected thirty three times. I gave it up when I met Vietnamese, but it will now be published as soon as I wish. Fortunately there are professionals on the Berkeley campus who now realize quiet differently.

In the same History of Religions is a review: “Semantics of the Qur’an,” a consideration of a Japanese scholar’s ideas. Well, we have let every Englishman, German, Swede, Bulgarian, and Italian write, why not Japanese? I have seen endless tomes of actual untrammeled Arabic manuscripts but since the fighting in the Near East Muslims, especially Arabs are quite unwanted in our “East-West” colloquia. Democracy and Science!

My own small amount of paginations into Arabic archaeology bring up quite different answers from a “fameuse” Japanese but I know enough to keep out of the way of les fameuses—noblesse oblige. But either I or colleagues expect to go on an Islamic archaeological trip next year—money is now not a factor, but time. I am hoping, of course, that Project: Prometheus will not exclude Arabic views on Arabian culture.

Because of changes in my private affairs I thought I would raise my ante to the University of California from the expected fifty ($50) dollars a year, but a thousand, but the way things are looming it may be larger.

We had our first preliminary meeting of bringing “peasants” together, one Rabbi, favorable Israelis, dissident Israelis, Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of Israel and a few Christians—we may be able to interest one Protestant leader—to work out peace programs for the “Holy land.” One thing is absolutely evident: if one keeps away from “experts”—I am already an Alim (maybe more) in Islam. I had to type the whole of Sepher Ha Zohar one time and look up parallel passages in the Talmud which unfitted me from company with “les respectable,” etc. Now it is coming out.

Had to act rapidly whether to put all money and resources in a peace program for S.E. Asia or the Near East and have jumped into the latter. The very fact that important people have turned me down at every point (excepting a few at the University of Chicago) is making me a hero among the young. I don’t like it this way. But so many cards in my hand and the needs for action so pressing I stop at this point.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

Copy: “The History of Religions”

cc: Archie Bahm

July 20, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

This is a sort of evaluation letter. One has already crossed the obstacles that stood in one’s path which have been mostly, if not entirely, the refusals of egos in powerful places to grant interviews, to let one speak freely on subjects of which one may have inkling, and of efforts of over-advertised persons and organizations to try and make the public believe that they alone had answers. It is not only step by step that I have been able to carry on, but now have to face the potentially awful consequences of becoming a hero to the young just because I have been blocked and blockaded.

Project: Prometheus. The other night I went to meeting at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park where “The death of Lake Eric” was the subject. The totally different series of opinions and reactions of persons in the audience from those generally advertised gives one hope. I remarked that it is almost impossible for a person of my caliber and background to relate of changes in Pittsburgh and London due to some objective honest efforts to deal with pollution complexes.

There is in San Francisco a group known as the Commonwealth Club. There I met a man who had very similar backgrounds and was receiving very similar treatments. He had a certain advantage of age, and there was a resemblance also in his being short and cute. His knowledge of what I felt were the real water and pollution problems was to me stupendous. Unlike me he was given the opportunity to speak whenever he wished. Everybody applauded and smiled, but no one would ever dream of doing anything. It was just like the story of Mark Twain’s “Puddinghead Wilson.”

I am no longer concerned with this bizarre and other uncalled for situations:

Change in status. My income has slowly but steadily gone up. Now there is an effort among my followers to raise additional funds. But there is on the horizon a very wealthy editor who is apparently going to give me backings at least in the form of permitting my views to be presented, which is all I have ever wanted, but which I have not yet obtained.

In addition to that, as you yourself suggested or surmised, there is a slowly, constant increment in the friendship from, in, and with University professors, especially from in and with those of the Berkeley campus. In fact what is written above and below is now favorable with that “uniformly accelerated velocity.”

Holy Man’s Jamboree. I don’t know whether you have ever heard about such events. A number of years ago I used to irk those verbally in charge by asking who was preventing me from attending. I can assure you, this is not nonsense. At Geneva, people could not understand why I was not permitted, not even permitted to attend sessions at the University of Hawaii and Claremont (California). It is old hat to refuse to accept my presence. Now I received five separate communications from persons totally dis­connected with each other about a presumable Holy Men’s Jamboree at Boulder, Colorado. Something has happened.

Zitko—Auroville. The same persons were involved in these two endeavors, and now we seem to be having the same thing from our good friend Christopher Hills. It is as if God selected only certain persons for certain enterprises and rejected everybody else. I notice everywhere the same process of a very carefully chosen Boards of Directors, the self-selected Platonic Guardians of The New Age. But I also notice the same laws of Truth, Justice, and Karma which struck the Roerich Museum in New York, and the now hush-hushed attempts of Dr. Zitko in Arizona.

I also notice the same verbal emphasis on Prajna and the same active emphasis as if the United Nations were the supreme work of God in this day and age, making it unnecessary for man to rely on Prajna. But the awkward situation of a complete reversal that Lewis should be sought out more and more, despite his rejections from the elite (or because of them), leaving the solution of problems still in the hands of personality rather than accepting the universal approach which alone can make anything either democratic or divine.

At this writing the outlooks are so propitious that I am in the reverse awkward situation from and of the past. Unlike the proponents of the United Nations, I am very busy trying to get Israelis and Palestinians and others to sit together with all promise and no rancor, and certainly reject any program from anybody that would restrict any forum to certain personalities only. And would not permit all of humanity to have its say where humanity itself is concerned.

In any event we are rather successfully getting some Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, and others together. And when you add to this the simple fact that doors in Washington and elsewhere are now open to me, I hope to see something more than paper Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus.

In fact it is my intention now to publish every letter sent to prominent persons so that if they fail to acknowledge them they are going to be put on the spot. What is more, this very threat is setting me up as a hero, where objectivity is needed, where impersonality alone can lead to discoveries from either the world within or the world without.

I am hoping to see Russ Joyner after this letter, and Vocha will get a copy. But I am pin-pointing at nobody. It is of course a regret that the word Semantics is so misused, and that problems which could easily be solved if they were impersonally resolved, remain.

Faithfully,

Sam

August 14, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

Things are happening so rapidly that I am actually dizzy at this point. We feel that Project: Krishna is absolutely valid. In fact, we cannot accept the ignoring of human beings and especially successful efforts of human beings by those who claim universality and yet wish to reject or ignore what others are doing. Indeed at this writing I am being approached by so many groups or persons, each claiming to be spreading spirituality, universality, and world outlooks. Claiming.

Much more is going on than what I have written to you, much more. I am now surrounded by an ever growing number of young people who come, first accepting the dances, and then the philosophies, and then the outlooks.

The sermon for the week was from Science. They have uncovered many things about which I have been complaining. To me it is a sad story that the problems of the day are not, in fact perhaps cannot, be faced by those known as “semanticists.” The publisher who will accept my articles, is expected to arrive early in September. I am no longer concerned by rejections. In fact, the young love it when I tell them who has rejected my former efforts. The number of meetings I give each week is increasing, and the attendance of each one of them also is increasing.

Also my finances seem to be improving, so that we expect to fly to New York sometime in September, pick up a car, then go to Cornell, and then after that to Pittsburgh. We will keep you advised on this matter.

Cordially,

Sam

August 22, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

This may be one of the last letters written before a radical change in my life. Indeed, at present there is a high probability of my coming east, presumably late in September, with a new secretary. In fact, almost every aspect of life is changing, and from what the world would say, for the better.

Although financially I have security, a number of young people have come to realize that I have been taking on tremendous burdens, and along with that the being ejected or re-jected, chiefly a priori, by “establishments.” This latter thing alone is now making me a here among the young at a time when both my dances and prowess of Oriental Philosophy of the Orientals, is growing. Indeed, every time I meet a Hindu, a new friendship is established, and sooner or later the totally inexcusable policy of not examining Indian logistics, will turn into a farce. When I tell young people that a “problem” is a confused situation which must be “solved” by the proper people, they laugh.

My present day relations with scientists only support Snow’s theses. I am totally satisfied with what scientific scientists say of my work. But I am giving up all side-interests to work for Peace—not the nonsensical “peace with justices” but the ending of the use of arms and force to settle disputes. I had to decide whether to throw my resources into the Vietnams situation or that of Palestine. Inasmuch as friendship has been restored with one of the top retired Generals—a 3 star general that—I decided to support his attitude. According to the logistics of the day, knowing the “right” people is more important that knowing facts, or being an eye-witness. Fortunately, too, eye-witnesses of the Vietnamese complex, have moved into this district.

I think I told you, recently friendship has been established with a very wealthy publisher who wants everything I can given him. He will be back to his home perhaps early in September. He has already employed one of my secretaries at a very good salary, and the secretary has been succeeding in all endeavors. Another secretary has now a very good job with a group of young man who started to film my “Dances of Universal Peace.” This has become a world undertaking. There has been success in raising funds although it may be some time before the materials are ready for exhibition. I am giving these people introductions to real Asians whom the various representatives of what are called “establishments” have refused, and often adamantly refused to accepted that I know these people. It is becoming utterly farcical.

As you suggested, a totally different career is occurring on University campuses. Now it is the departments of Philosophy that are sending for me! There is such a difference between the science of laboratory research technicians and of the press and literati, they cannot be reconciled. It is only a question as to which group will dominate in the battle against actual pollution.

I have been very much stimulated in re-reading Manhood of Humanity by Alfred Korzybski. As I told you before, I read the first edition at the request of Cassius Keyser. Re-reading, I consider this a great book, both from the literary and philosophical points of view. Vocha Fiske toll me that the AK of that time was a very active, stimulated and stimulating, writer. I feel it may be necessary to revive Korzybski and get his actual teachings before the public. I think it can be done; I believe it will be done. I am leaving it up to the present controlling monopolists whether “they” will accept this or not.

The first efforts to a Peace scholarship for the University of California have met with some success. There are possibilities also that we may reach some rather wealth people. I now have contacts in high and low places all over the world; as I call it the world of God and Rand-McNally—not the “world” of Dialecticians, “realists,” religionists, humanists, and subjectivists in general. But my efforts toward peace mean that. They do not mean self-proclamation. In fact it is the young people around me who are doing everything, and they are getting along beautifully with each other, regardless of all the high and mighty, all the dialecticians, all the establishments.

I do not know whether poor Julie will answer me. Their refusal to examine my “Dance of University Peace”; their censoring of actual history, even more than a “Marxist-Leninist” does, and their non-recognition of rival-Indian movements, is taking its natural course. There are now two types of Shangri-las arising. I do not mean two Shangri-las, but two whole types. One is by rival groups of Indian origin who have monies and young people and who are doing things themselves, into asking other to do for them. They even have “ins” at some of our universities. And then there are the non-religious group that believe more or less in communes of collective endeavors. They also have lands and monies, though I am not convinced of the practical sides of their natures.

Of course, communes are only news when they foil or have marijuana or sex, otherwise you do not hear of them. This is tremendously big subject into which I do not wish to go now, caught between the two great projects of real Asia- American cultural exchanges and real peace in the Near East.

Very few people ever took the trouble to look at my plans. There are three Californians who could not express themselves publically because of their connections. The other person was Gunnar Jarring, the man who is in charge of the peace negotiations. There is the pattern there which has dominated my life, and I think it is coming to an end. Lovers of power and self-confusion are gradually being removed from the scene by the young. There has been no great change in circumstance to alter my original plan which Jarring so admired and which “important people” would not even look at. But now we are doing and succeeding in doing, and I will keep you informed.

Thus Project: Krishna and Project promotions are coming into life and I think they will advance and advance and advance.

Cordially,

Sam

Novato, Calif.

August 27th, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser,

Pittsburgh University

Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213

Dear Oliver:

Things are happening so rapidly in my life. One does not know what is in a name but Samuel Morse was hounded by everybody and then when he reached the top he sued and won every single case. I am saving nobody, partly from a sense of humor, but it is tragic humor.

I am enclosing copy of letter to Julie. I see nothing but destruction at Auroville. This country and particularly this State is now being filled with Shangrilas and Shambalas and some of them quite well healed. And often so successful that they cannot possibly be “news.” But mostly in dire competition with each other—i.e. those who depend on “gurus “and “mahatmas, although the most successful also have a real spiritual-cosmic outlook.

The idea that you can have a private, exclusive university is prevalent only in this country but it is prevalent and the young want none of it. The most successful church I know, very rapidly growing and absolutely not-news is composed of young people.

No “peace” organization ever lets me speak but now with Gunnar Jarring in the news, the man who said that my proposals were by far the best he had ever encountered I am letting a few have it. Besides it is only weeks until the editor who wants my things will have returned and everything looks lovely.

Then the invitations to the East Coast, better and better. My dance classes, better and better. My relations with the universities, better and better. The Universality of California knows something of my program for several of its alumni who have done things, real accomplishments, have had the same coup de grace from Lord Snow’s, “the other culture.”

The joint Arab-Israel-Palestinian American dinners! Way out and overflowed and oversubscribed. ETC. by which I mean ETC. and not ETC. ETC. would have nothing to do with realities. Or maybe someday it will. Anyhow copy to Lloyd.

Faithfully,

Sam

Sept. 22, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

This is a day of transitions. My next letter will be to Gunnar Jarring, who gave me hours in consideration of a plan for Palestine. The only group which has ever let me speak on this subject in this region has been the Jesuit University of San Francisco. Otherwise not a single so-called peace organization, or free-speech so-called, or non-verbal verbal group, has ever granted me the floor. And on that occasion the chair declared the meeting over after I spoke—saying all the problems; had been solved; of course they were.

We have been living in a culture in which problems are complexities to be solved only by the right persons. This is un-sane; the French thought in the same way and they put up DeGaulle to which we objected. So we go around trying to find the right persons and real problems remain unsolved. I have not had a single difficulty with a single scientist for a long long time, but it is impossible to reach the non-scientists, and I have no more time for anymore egocentricity parading as human knowledge.

Last night when I received a very emotional telephone call concerning the complexities in Jordan, I immediately had some of my young followers get on the telephone and report the joint Israeli-Arab-Christian dinners to the media, next of which will be tonight. The churches and so-called humanists are quite in accord in refusing me their platform. And I am totally indifferent about it. Later in the day I shall be going to the University of California and deposit my first contribution for a peace scholarship in the Department of Near East Languages. There Jew, Christian, Muslim, and so-called unbeliever sit side by side in the classroom. Solid facts which can convince anybody but religionists, humanists, and peace mongers, all after their own gains, while human beings murder each other.

Immediately after the dinner tonight I prepare to pack to come East. I do not know my own schedule. I am first visiting Cornell and Columbia Universities, and then go to Boston. Everything is piling up, and perhaps properly piling up. After my return my in situ reports will be published by an editor who wants them. But we have at last aroused some of the local radio and television stations, and one newspaper to solid-hard facts unanimously spurned by the religionists, humanists, and Peace groups so verbalized and only verbalized.

I think I told you that Lama Foundation in New Mexico, with which I am connected, has been recognized by The National Geographical Society and Columbia Broadcasting Company. I am going today to give my first check to the University of California, not only because of the Near East Department but because of great accomplishments by scholars and research teams, either ignored or derided by the religionists, humanists, and so-called peace groups. I have piles of such data. These added to in situ reports will make a dandy book for the future generations, and also contribute to your Projects Krishna and Prometheus.

I have to stop at this point because one of my young followers has arrived who has absolutely succeeded in getting Arabs and Israelis together, considered impossible by the nice people, the so-called religionists, humanists, and peace societies. Written in a hurry.

Faithfully,

Sam

October 1st, 1970

c/o Lonnie Less

27 West 71^st St.,

New York, N. Y.

My dear Oliver,

This is written under circumstances so different from those of the past it is almost as if a different person were writing. One received an open welcome in New York City and outward circumstances, such as the death of Gamel Nasser, are also working in my favor. The old day of a priori rejections by (self) important persons is over. But they have also done the favor of adding zest to the editor who wants my materiel. The youth all welcome the reality of an eyewitness over the “realism” of various conflicting camps. And I am unable to foretell my program beyond the immediacy.

Tuesday night I am to speak at Columbia but tomorrow have a meeting with one of the top deans. To commemorate Cassius Keyser will be accompanied by the original peace plan I had for the Near East which so thrilled Gunnery, Jarring and was so smashed by so many (self) important persons and organizations that it will become part of history. We have been so successful in promoting joint Arab-Israel-­Christian dinners, so smothered by the orthodox and “humanists” alike.

My host at Cornell just happened to be a professor of philosophy. He has a term leave to marry my Pakistani Goddaughter. His reaction against “semantics” was positively disturbing but as the G.S. “generals” have never accepted anything from me the field is open to revive Keyser and then go on to boost your programs. Have to long distance Boston to fix dates for Harvard and M.I.T. where one shall certainly be more welcome than with the “realists.” Already have had excellent talks with both an Israel and Arab leader and made a most reassuring reports to the Department of Near East Studies at Columbia.

Met some of the Indian cultural leaders too. The day of self-selection of Europeans and Englishmen as spokesmen for the Orient is over. The news of my colleagues is most welcome. We have been able to film and record what no others have ever been permitted to do in certain lands—but when wasn’t I guest of honor at the imperial palaces of Japan and Thailand and had tea in the mansions of the presidents of India and Pakistan—most unwelcome to “realists” and “Peace” and “religious” (and anti-religious) groups. That’s over, over forever.

Expect to see Dr. Bedeau, a former Ambassador, who is at Columbia but will go ahead with or without him, as there are other doors for meeting Gunnar Jarring again. Will let you know more of the successes of colleagues when I return to California.

I think this is enough news for the moment.

Regards,

Sam

October 13, 1970

c/o Lonnie Less

27 West 71^st St.,

New York, N. Y.

Dr. Oliver Reiser

c/o Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver,

Just had a short visit to the American Society for Psychical research, Inc. On my return from Boston I shall purchase and subscribe. As to membership, this may be decided upon my return to California.

The change in the faculties in human beings and perhaps the psychic revolution that is going on, to become scientific one must become impersonal. Mme. Curie and the physicists which followed her measure the “unusual” in all the chemical elements. I am equally sure that if we measured either the “normal” or the “abnormal” faculties and sensitivities in human-kind we should uncover a lot of latent knowledge which our sense of “racial superiority” has blinded us to.

But there is now a “new humanity” which is evolving in whom not only the sensorium but the latent faculties are coming to the fore. I would join this Society (or any other) which might become impersonal and universal as societies of geologists and horticulture are.

Before leaving San Francisco, completed the lectures on “The Three Body Constitution of Man” according to St. Paul. The Greek works psychikos psyche, etc. are so variously translated—or better, mis-translated, that there is neither sense nor logic.

Several years ago I questioned Dr. Huston Smith of MIT on the parallels between the three-body doctrines of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. At that time he was not aware of them. We are leaving shortly for Boston, and if he has returned, will take this up further with him.

I notice that dr. Gardner Murphy is one of the leading lights of this American Society for Psychical Research. He remains among those few people who do not follow the Judeo-Christian ethic, but he has always answered all letters and taken one seriously. True, I followed in his geographical footsteps, but in India and Pakistan, seem to have happened upon far more personalities with what we call “unusual” faculties than most Americans are aware of. But most Americans have to lead, they simply have to lead, and this has made me very skeptical of certain forts.

But then, Professors Ian Stevenson is also a leading light in this movement, and he accepted a number of reports from me which all the “good” psychical and metaphysical organizations refused to consider. The situation was worsened because I officially represented Asians with unusual faculties, far deeper and effective than anything coming from our Rhines, Pikes, Garretts, Caseys, etc., etc.

There has been a very awkward situation because the University of Islamabad had a large endowment for psychical and metaphysical research and no effort of mine so far has been taken seriously. Not even money has moved many of those who want to collect funds but still demand personality ego-leadership as if they were chosen ones of a supreme entity. It is laughable and deplorable. I hope this can be changed.

My lectures on “The Three-Body Constitution of Man According to Saint Paul” were completed before leaving Son Francisco and were sent to Washington. There is a possibility of being called to lecture thereon when I reach there; or else they will be published in Arizona.

In the meanwhile contact has been made with some scientists here who have been successful “in the laboratory” both in investigating and changing stages of consciousness. This is far more serious, profound and effective than all the emotionalisms of all “psychedelics” or blindnesses, still worse of such people as religionists and humanists (so-called) who seem utterly unable to investigate.

There is a certain amount of optimisms because of the effectiveness today in getting persons and channels of communication to accept real events which are not in accord with tradition or “establishments.” This is a huge subject and writing about it, which prevent further activities. A large portion of the world outside “scientists” is now willingly to accept facts and events qua re facts end evens without the entanglements of personalities and personalizes.

I recently wrote to one Justine Glass, author of They Foresaw the Future. When I am gone, if not before, these go-called “seers” will not even be considered as amateurs. True, I lost all my original diaries in a fire in 1949 but my poetry which well attests to a foresight which is foresight is evidence enough. And there is memory too. When I look at the famous Nostradamus or the poet Blake, one can see the far more effective direct method, and I have no doubt that the world has been full of “Jude, the Obscure” and we shall-be learning to take them seriously.

The acceptance of the American Society for Psychic Research, Inc. by the AAAS is one of the greatest victories for enlightenment of this age.

(Cannot give you any program. In the midst of all kinds of activities, mostly quite successful.)

Cordially,

Samuel L. Lewis

October 25, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

My Dear Oliver:

It is very hard to convince some people that a world project can never succeed if it is exclusive. The other day I had a long conversation with a very successful Indian yogi. While he has limited his operations to the city of Philadelphia, he has already a thousand followers. Among the things we discussed were reincarnation, and he supported to the hilt my presumption or assumption that a very large number of our younger Americans were Hindus in former lives.

(I remember the occasion when Lloyd Morain spoke on reincarnation and got into a bitter debate with another speaker; both of them belong to groups which would never allow me to speak. But when they came to an impasse, they asked my opinion, and I told them I was totally unfit to speak because I remember my former lives. They immediately adjourned the meeting.) This could not happen today. And, there is a peculiar situation where reincarnation is accepted by all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds which would be hard to explain even in a long communication.

Our visit to Massachusetts was totally acceptable. Both Harvard and M.I.T. are interested in our joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners and in projects arising therefrom. My young followers and colleagues have been totally successful in the dinners, in arousing public interest, and in establishing funds. These funds will go along with my own peace scholarship for the University of California. Julie has sent me a lot of material which I accept, and I have sent her material which she rejects. You should not be surprised, therefore, that I have been invited to every conference of Hindu spiritual teachers in this country, and the Aurobindo people have not been invited because they are trying to build up their fame by rejecting others.

The rise of ashrams in this country is a tremendous development. The worst Hindu teachers are pointing out our blind spots and our deafness; and so I am not opposed to those with whom I may not otherwise agree, because this blindness and this deafness are the chief facts and factors in the hatreds, mass murders (known as wars) and emotional disturbances that are going on everywhere. The worst Hindu I have met has done something I have met. There is a lot of stuff known as integral yoga, which isn’t yoga at all—just words.

One of the great Sufi saints said, “Consideration consists of showing consideration to others and never in expecting consideration from others.” One has been working starting from scratch and finds that now thousands of young Americans are either coming to me personally or to those Indian teachers who wish to consider themselves as my colleagues and wish me to be considered as their colleague. This is not only a hard fact, but if you read the American papers, or even glance at them, you will find that gurus and ashrams are spreading everywhere.

I have made world surveys, and they have been world surveys. They are not examining into corners and declaring one has made a world discovery.

Project: Krishna, to be correct, should recognize the teachings that there are many stages of consciousness. This is taught more or less in and by the founders of all religions. It is often found in scriptures, and even more so in tradition. The analysis of a mystical experience is as valid as a derivative of infinity expressed in finite terms!

At a meeting of so-called spiritual teachers on the subject of peace, I presented only accomplishments. These accomplishments did not contradict their various programs, but when a group calls itself “World This” or “Universal That” and refuses to recognize accomplishments, it can hardly achieve its end. I certainly will not partake in anything like the old Roerich Museum here in New York proclaiming in the end personalities and not universalities or human brotherhood.

The young people here in America are working for brotherhood, for all-inclusiveness. Personally, I believe the greatest Indian teacher was Sri Ramakrishna. There have been other lights following him. I do not choose to name them, but they all belong to a real, honest Project: Krishna.

I am sorry, but Julie is the only one in the world, plus her colleagues, of course, who have rejected my Dances of Universal Peace. I am all for Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus, but do not believe these can be accomplished by editorials. If I were not working so hard today for peace in the Middle East I would probably be doing research on and writing on pollution and related problems. I cannot consent that any program verbalizing “integration” can justify its overlooking hard facts, history, or the accomplishments of others.

Faithfully,

Sam

c/o L. Less

27 W. 71 Street

New York, N.Y.

October 26, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My Dear Oliver:

This is a very serious letter. I wrote yesterday concerning Auroville. This was before completing my mail. I have also received a most welcome letter from a disciple of the so-called “Maharishi Mahesh,” who has made grandiose pretensions and claims, but who has followed these pretensions and claims by achievements.

Unless my informant is downright dishonest, this man has already established a large and successful working “ashram” with far more adherents than the Auroville project has collected in India and both he and his followers have shown this person every courtesy despite my harsh criticisms. There are some people who do accept the wisdoms of India without making emotional claims based on neither study nor discipline.

The Aurobindo people were working with Hills and his grandiose scheme to have “scientists” and “yogis” organized—under himself, of course, as followed by splits and outright opposition in India itself. Madison Ave. devotees never inform the public on such matters. But what happened here was a defensive entente between a large number of Indian “gurus.” Mostly under the impetus of Richard Alpert (Baba Ram Dass), they have called in this person and we have been attracting larger and larger sums of money and growing followers.

It is not a question of merit. People are facts and money or financial stability is, in a sense, factual. My own “Dances of Universal Peace,” derided or rejected by the Aurobindo people to whom they were first offered, are growing in demand, and following that, this alone puts me at my wit’s end. I have not the time nor energy to extend this program. Besides, a wealthy editor wants my autobiography in short form; my articles, especially the rejected ones; and my poetry. This is a monumental opening and could keep one busy for years with financial stability to boot. And our real efforts to bring real peace in the real Near East are making much headway. We are doing while the over-praised United Nations is being looked upon as God-given revelatory, super-church by the Aurobindo people.

These same people were behind the Zitko project. They do not take the young, the New Age young, into account. My own affairs are prospering in every direction. In the field of Organic Gardening alone I have enough to keep me occupied, to keep others occupied, with a growing market and tremendous demand. And no parlor-scientists seem able to prevent plant life.

Our next item is to contact a plant physiologist who is investigating also the psychedelic properties of plants. I received this information from our good friend, Dr. Huston Smith at M.I.T. But Huston does not know about Jagadish Bose. I used to have, and may still have, notes of Bose’s work and think I might find some also at the Indian library here. It should be of importance to a real Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus.

My work on the “psychic body” is now being reviewed and, if rejected, my own publisher will take it. He has that much faith in Sam Lewis, which is a karmic reaction against some of the narrow-mindedness of the past.

Reviewing the past week’s efforts, there is no doubt that there are Hindus who have been far more successful than Julie in getting funds and followers. Even Jean Dixon predicted that! And there is a possibility of our having a real Indian-American cultural exchange league without benefit of “experts.” (Most of the “experts” deride my being a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, fellowship gained after a stiff examination.)

(Did not ask Huston Smith about Dr. Radhakrishnan with whom and from whom mutual respect, but he went to Madras and not to Pondicherry.) My own field representative has sent in reports which show the folly of pretending to know Indian wisdom and practicing the opposite of what Sankara and other great men have taught.

Already have plans for Lama Foundation, which has been a recognized by the National Geographic Magazine. Then my own people have already taken films and recordings of music, dances, and ceremonies, the very existence of which has been by-passed or downgraded by the followers of Sri Aurobindo. Thus “integration.” There is no real Integral Yoga based on cosmic experience now organized. The word is stolen just as a lot of other words have been stolen. Honesty is not demanded by Madison Ave. One is very sorry.

The followers of Sri Aurobindo deny the prowess of Bulwer Lytton, H.G. Wells and others who had similar outlooks. And these men were not adept at making false predictions which has been the want of the over-advertised “supermen” and super-women. It is awkward to have people who do not mingle with humanity preach “cosmic humanism” to this one who mingles with all. I am too busy to detail the materials of recently received mail.

I think there will be cosmic-humanism achievements, without omitting, overlooking, or deriding anybody. Every scientist and inventor knows that be cannot by-pass discoveries made previously to his own endeavors. The false “New Age” people are doing just that. And the young are discovering it. The country is being tilled with “ashrams” and “yoga systems.” We may not like them, but there they are.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

December 3, 1970

My dear Oliver:

You may have thought I was a great complainer and history is going to recognize this. It seems “destiny” to follow Samuel Morse, something I have long known. Thwarted in one direction I went in another and now have five careers going on simultaneously, all showing signs of success. And none of them built on personality speculation or exclusions of anybody or analytical methods verbalized as “integration” or by some other name.

Last night I spoke at the University of California. It was a very story night, the students were supposed to be cramming and as I walked to the podium there were hardly a dozen there but before I completed a single sentence the hall was packed.

All efforts to promote real cultural exchange show not only progress but funds on the horizon. People who belittled me in the past are new in fund raising campaigns and making offers. This is in real cultural exchange; in inclusive, not exclusive “integrational” endeavors; in the peace programs which originally came largely from this person; in scientific organic gardening cum marketing of vegetables; and in creative writing.

I am to go to Tucson late in January after clearing the slates. I see nothing but Project: Krishna and Project: Prometheus but I do not see them as personality understandings under any Hills or Zitko or other self-imposing messiah. The latest connects with research scientists are so amazing and I find they are working in and with depths of consciousness not yet officially recognized, but the more research (as against parlor and newspaper) scientists I meet the more agreement on a “cosmic” working psychology I find.

Sunday for the first time in my life there was a big party at my ancestral home. Not only my younger relatives but nearly all their friends recognize that there are points of view, strange but true. I have offered a very Project: Prometheus proposal for the clearing of pollution and ecological factors and find socially, that I am among both professional men and concerned researchers who have been afraid to speak and a little stimulation opens them up. The day is over when important or self-important people can insult and think they are accomplishing anything.

The evening at Berkeley objectified some things Russ wants and as one has the advantage of getting around one believes in the end his outlooks will be substantiated. I am again rereading The Manhood of Humanity—first read at its very first publication or before and find it, to me, a most wonderful and readable manuscript. This will now make “Science and Sanity” easy.

Not a cloud on the horizon and busy every day all day but in different projects.

Faithfully,

Sam

December 14, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

I have not heard from you for some time and hope you are well. When “Science and Sanity” came out my collaborator, Luther Whiteman and I wrote a most favorable report. We were “in.” Then “The Tyranny of Words” came out and we wrote a most critical report. We were “out.” No kind of sound logic had anything to do with it. It is why we behave as “human beings.”

The semantic movement might have become scientific if it had accepted the philosophical approach of New York University with its purported, or real solution of the egocentric predicament As a culture we definitely prefer the predicament and so do must “cultures.” Egocentricism is so pleasing.

There is a campaign on now for a billion dollars for “cancer research.” Years ago Nicholas Roerich found cancer did not exist in some parts of India. So he collected millions for “cancer” research and a clinic was established in another part of India and nothing ever came of it. They did not examine the people who never had cancer not sought why. And I was told recently that there is no cancer in several parts of Asia.

But then there is the “egocentric predicament.” One must not trammel over certain personalities even less than over certain institutions. They are super-sacred. Honesty, objective research is wonderful but the researchers do not always have control, especially of the funds. Therefore any Project: Prometheus must suffer until a more objective outlook is attained.

I am now being treated on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley almost like a hero. They accept all objective reports and now on many subjects. My old friend, Bryan Beorse of Keyport, Washington (near Seattle) is even getting some of my earlier poems published. They were given exactly the same treatment by the “famous” as reports on different parts of Asia were given by the elite. But this day is over and instead I fear reactions more than rejections. Next month I have to visit Arizona to a rather well-heeled editor publisher who has already started to print my manuscripts, date of release uncertain. This is a far cry from the past when my name meant a rejection.

The terrible obstacle to Project: Prometheus is that this term, like “ecology” and others have been stolen by the salesmen and those classes of humanity deplored by Alfred Korzybski. The ego is important—not what is said but who said it. The worst situations are around ecology and pollution. The very liquids which are needed for certain purpose are treated by editorial writers as “poisonous.”

Well, I seem about to go into the “ecology” and perhaps mushroom businesses, I find there are many very well oriented people who even see profits in some fields of cleaning up the environment. But there is no place when one can have (yet) impersonal, objective discussions. And objective quantitative chemical analysis is shunned. And the men who could help most are out of work while the editors and “experts” fill the pages. And of course, those “ecology” stickers, adding to the very problems.

Project: Krishna. The situation is even worse, or better. I know of at least five competing “world” organizations in India. Christopher Hills is following in the path of Dr. Zitko, but the approach-scheme is so delightful a lot of people are following. When I say “in India” you can guess how many in California. All either “world” or “galaxy” groups, and going after income-tax exemptions because, because.

My chief colleague came back from India. You may not like the objective report on Pondicherry so I shall not send it. He confirmed even more my optimistic reports on certain places. I hope to present these to the University of California in March—there one can without personality attacks or recrimination report facts.

These “world groups” are even more adept in a priori rejections than the older religious organizations. They accept absolute surrender and will not compromise and they talk about “freedom.” There are going to be more failures just as there have been in the past. And nobody must ever criticize the “important” excepting hard-boiled business men who at least have one form of sanity.

I now have five concurrent careers and making headway in each. But I notice others who have been given the “Jude the Obscure” treatment and are getting together. Real scientists are out of work and their social functions are taken over by promoters and fund-raisers to no end. But now even the press is noticing what we are trying to do.

On the surface my affairs may rise or fall by the bazaar we have next Sunday at Sausalito, Calif. just north of here. But in the meanwhile my former secretary and god-son have gone ahead and been very successful in their promotional plans and so are others. When we have even a phase of objective reporting in the “social” field as in the objective sciences the world will improve.

There is lots more going on, very optimistic but I am overworked, But with the young and universities accepting it does not matter.

Faithfully,

Sam

Dec. 21, 1970

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

My dear Oliver:

This morning I made a sort of report to go to my colleagues in India and made an extra copy (enclosed). I am no longer concerned whether people accept what may seem to be bizarre reports. Yesterday a palmist took up my hand and read it, or read into it, statements and opinions which may well be true.

I am writing you this for another reason. I had very little to do with the arrangement of the Bazaar, and when I asked why the particular day of December 20 was selected, the answer was immediately forthcoming, because it was proximate to the winter solstice. I can prove nothing except the obvious fact that it was totally successful. Far more successful than our dreams.

This morning we put on a men’s dancing class which was well within “Project: Krishna.” I am no longer concerned about the rejection of efforts by peoples and organizations which are consciously or unconsciously egocentric. The hard fact is that we are showing every sign of success, the press and radio are recognizing us, the leaders and followers of a great many groups purporting to follow various Asian paths and disciplines have recognized us, including many who do not recognize each other.

We not only sang carols, we sang Dervish chants, and although plans are afoot to have these recorded bath for tape and phonograph, without an effort on our part radio and television people have also become interested. I am no longer concerned with the rejections of our efforts by sundry egocentric groups which have common claims that they expect to organize and lead the world. The rejection of our efforts by groups which we would have gladly joined under any circumstance or condition only proves that the majority of would be world saviours follow no moral law. We are not out to change them, but we are now out to promote our own efforts, and they seem to be succeeding in every direction.

With best wishes for Christmas and New Years,

Faithfully,

Sam

Novato,

December 24, 1970

My dear Oliver:

It may seem strange on a day when people are verbalizing, “Peace, good-will to man”—whatever that means or does not mean, one is getting ready now to come out because there has not been good-will to men. Worst of the offenders are those very persons who have pretended to be champions in the worlds of communication, and this involves in the end all “realists” of all camps who stay as far from reality as they can and their substitutes have failed.

For years I have been campaigning that we could never win the cold war unless we stopped all other wars. That “we” just can’t do. We all seem to do exactly what Toynbee declares, that American must have some enemy (or enemies) and they have “god” to defend to champion against those enemies. But instead of concentrating against the enemy called “communism” we have been opposing every kind of “exotic” culture.

It is awkward to find the General of Semantics, whose ancestors were Asians declare against all Asian philosophies! The only articles he has over accepted anywhere “close” to this have been by Western men who are lecherers and drunkards. I have kept quiet about this but if we are going to have good in the world we should be permitting others than lecherers and drunkards to be considered in connection with real or fanciful Asian cultures.

This is extremely typical of the passing dominating groups, unconsciously narrow-minded and substituting slogans for depths. An ally of the General of Semantics was a man of Jewish ancestry—nothing wrong in that at all—who kept Muslims from participating in an “Asian-American” conference at Hawaii. All other religions were invited; not Muslims.

We must therefore not be surprised that the people of Pakistan, one of the most “rightish” nations in the world, have voted against SEATO and CENTO by huge majorities. Why should they? We have all kinds of cultural- exchanges, even with enemy communists. But with Muslims? And Pakistan has declared itself an Islamic republic—whatever that means. And I was no more successful in getting any article accepted on the Basic Democracy of Pakistan than with Vietnamese Buddhism. It just is not done.

Now the people have expressed themselves and we are going to have to get out of our smoke-haloed “realism” and accept the humanity of the world, something most dialecticians cannot do (including so-called “humanists.”)

The same is true of those dreamy “world federation” groups who, if anything, are more selective and exclusive than the religionists or humanists. There are, of course, so many “world federations” today, and new ones forming all the time. And getting nowhere.

The success of our bazaar, called in part to promote real peace in the Near East because real peoples; and also to raise funds to help the people of East Pakistan is winning attention. This is face of all the dominant groups in this region who have kept this person from ever speaking to that. It is a huge, ironic situation. And some day some “ethical” people may accept the moral law. But the “ethical” people are even worse than those making no such pretensions.

But we’re are going ahead. The young people are honest and objective without otherwise necessarily being “perfect.” They do not go in for value judgments and they accept facts, especially hard facts. And in this one sees some hope.

The disrupting of SEATO and CENTO may give this person a greater chance. Soon a letter will be addressed to Senator Cooper, the only one who ever lived in Asia and who consorted with Asian-Asians.

With my personal representative going to the Near East with copies of the program which Dr. Gunnar Jarring so admired and which the “good” people almost unanimously a priori rejected, I see a real New Year dawning. We are not playing games with Project: Prometheus and Project: Krishna. You have given as much inspiration and are doing, not talking.

Happy 1971,

Sam

March 31, 1972

Dr. Oliver Reiser

Prof. Emeritus

Department of Philosophy

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15213

Beloved One of God,

We felt you would be interested in the enclosed work by Samuel L. Lewis. You are mentioned in it in several places.

Murshid’s disciples are going ahead with plans to publish others of his writings. Within the next few months his lectures inspired by First Corinthians will be published by Omen Press in Tucson, and before the end of the year his three poem trilogy on mystical Judaism, Christianity, and Islam will also be published, Inshallah.

There is much living work continuing here and in other Sufi centers around the U.S., England and Europe. We would be happy to keep you informed of happenings if that is your wish.

At the present time we some of Murshid’s disciples are in Israel and occupied territory doing a survey on the use and abuse of the holy places, and many other activities in the vision of world peace.

As-salaam-aleikhum, Shalom Aleikhum, Peace be with you

love,

Wali Ali

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh 15213

April 20, 1972

Mr. Wali Ali

Mentorgarten,

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Mr. Wali Ali,

Thank you and your group so much for the copy of Samuel Lewis’s “Toward Spiritual Brotherhood.” I shall read it with interest and pleasure. I am always glad to recall that “Sam” and I met some years back and kept up a correspondence over the years. A am also pleased to see that his trilogy of poems will be published. More fascinating, I think, than his prose.

With the beat wishes to you all,

Cordially,

Oliver Reiser

Elliott M. Lewis

567 9th Avenue

San Francisco 18, California

September 89, 1648

Dear Sam:

Got your letter. Have a good trip. As for trying to see Raymond in Canton, I think this is not good. He has no use for us. Also, he is a hypocrite. He and his family hate Jews. When his daughter was 21 she found out she had Jewish blood in her from Uncle Harry and she fainted. Raymond and his wife were in San Francisco a few years back and Marylou told me Raymond did not want to meet any of the Lewis family. So he did not. I have never met him since 1908 when they were here, but Marylou told me Raymond said nasty things about you and also Mildred who is fine told me of Raymond’s peculiarities.

I have some very dear dear friends in Dubuque Iowa. I visited them in 1950. Vernon and Elsie Bottge. They are very fine people. Vernon is one of the superintendents in the John Deere plant where they make tractors etc. You cannot beat that Iowa corn.

Next week I am going to fly south and spend a couple of weeks with some dear friends. Gus Carlson is one of the heads of finance with Lockheed. Nearly every year I cook Christmas dinner for them at Palm Springs. They have a four bedroom home in Sepulveda and also a place in Palm Springs. Alice always drives me over to see Dorothy and Harold Schueler and also to see uncle Harry. Dorothy lost her mother two months ago.

I suppose I will take my friends to Hollywood Park to a few races. I have never been to Hollywood Park and am not too interested but my friends like it.

The only thing I hate about going away is, I have to board Midnight at the vets. She is the only one left. The black cat. She is human and we love each other very much. She gives me hell when I go out at night. She is not my pet. I am her pet. She is the BOSS. She is almost 15 years old and in fine condition.

I finally took Henrietta and Don Palmer for a chioppino and they are crazy over it. No other news.

Elliott

Elliott M. Lewis

567 9th Avenue

San Francisco 18, California

October 97, 1648

Dear Sam:

Received copy of your letter to uncle Harry. Have you his correct address? It is 13500 Wentworth Lane, Apt. 121H, Seal Beach Calif.

Have not been feeling too well. Doctor says I have fluid on chest again. I take pills to make me urinate and no matter what time I take the pills, it is 2, 4, and 6am when I have to urinate.

Ma does not know anyone any more. She is all skin and bones and must weigh less than 70 pounds. She sleeps 20 hours a day or more. She is just a vegetable. However, her heart is strong and she may go on and on.

Midnight, our darling cat is also beginning to fail. She is the greatest of them all. She is not my pet. I am her pet. Remember, I am all that she has.

Frank Denke, is the pianist of this area, Frank is guest of the symphony each year, also plays at Stern Grove, and is head pianist of C.B.S. We are good friends, Then, Ralph Sutton, who is nationally recognized as the greatest jazz pianist of today is also a good friend of mine and also I am well acquainted with most of the local piano players including Hermie King and more, Also, I have pictures of Sophie Tucker and myself and others. Ted Lewis and Joe E. Lewis are real close friends. NOW, don’t laugh, four years ago I was on a party with Jimmy Durante and I began shouting “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home” with him. You know I can’t sing. BUT NOW, wherever I go, it is “Here’s Bill Bailey” and I have to sing, I really have become a good shouter. Also I tell stories. Ted Lewis and Sophie Tucker have made me come up on stage with them. Next Tuesday I am the performer at the annual Old Timers Baseball players association meeting and they are paying me one hundred dollars for fifteen minutes.

Here is one of my pet stories—Two colored men went to Rome. One, being catholic got an audience with the Pope. After they left the Vatican, the non-catholic man said to the other, “Man, dats what I calls a swell job. Wotsa feller gotta do to git a job like dat?” “Why,” said the catholic boy, “he was selected by the Cardinals.” ”Well den,” said the other fellow, “why don’t the Giants select Willie Mays for a job like dat?”

You know I am a life member of the Press & Union League Club. Once or twice a week I go and take the whirlpool baths there, They are great and do me a lot of good. Once a week I bring Lefty O’Doul and Joe DiMaggio and they take the steam baths and swim. Joe is a very humble man. Someday he will be a fine golf player, He is new at it but is coming ahead fast.

Last October at the Holiday Hotel tournament in Reno, I went up a day ahead of time and Dizzy Dean was there too. Diz asked me about O’Doul’s game, I said “lousy” so, when O’Doul got there I said, “Frank, I have half of your bets against Dizzy Dean,” Result, O’Doul handed me $412.00 after the tournament.

I own every book written on General MacArthur. He was the greatest, Did you know that Sandy Goodman was a Captain on MacArthur’s staff when Eisenhower was a Colonel on same staff? Sandy is retired and great. He has an adorable wife. Dorothy’s mother died and she and Harold now live in home which they built for Dorothy’s mother.

It is nice that Sandy and his wife live three minutes away from Dorothy and Harold.

Regards,

Elliott

1139 Geary St.,

August 17, 1952

Dear Margaret:

I may move soon. Besides a hundred things happening, favorable or malefic, my writing is more prolific than at any time. I enclose, besides the composition last recited to you, snapshots at random from my latest epic, Prt II, of “What Christ? What Peace?” brought up to date.

I believe I am finding myself in poetry. I have no less than five types of composition going on. May sign up for Hart’s classes, but if he is not fair will not remain. Have to look for markets, and want to try to finish some of these things this year.

Faithfully,

Samuel

60 Harriet St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

January 24, 1955

Dear Margaret:

Thank you for your letter of the 22nd which I am answering for obvious reasons. I am glad to learn that your book is being well received. I have also enjoyed “Zapotec” and had some strong discussions on it. The pro’s and con’s are partly due to the fact that the author is a woman. If it had been a man he would have added more to our culture and he also would have overlooked the obvious and over expressed himself.

I was very much struck by an article on Mrs. Luce who says women make the best diplomats. As I hope to write a book on this subject I am liable to drop her a line. My greatest diplomat was a Gertrude Bell who, to me, makes Bunche and Graham look small, but I did not meet a person in the State Department who knew anything about her. I am waiting until Loy Henderson is appointed because I believe he will be an exception.

Now. I have dropped the Carols. I am finishing my epic poem for India and will take a vacation shortly. As I go over this poem I feel it has a power unsuspected by me in previous drafts. It goes to the Central Government in New Delhi, carbon to the Consulate here which will later go to Krishnamenon, their delegate at the U.N.

My closest friend is one Paul Reps who has the sobriquet of “Saladin.” He does some writing and is an authority on Japanese poetry. He is independently wealthy and travels a good deal. Well, I am ready to start “Saladin,” which will be an epic poem for Egypt and I feel it in my bones that it will become an immortal work. The other night I chanted a little to two friends who challenged my concepts, and suddenly when I started a certain line, they both jumped up and said, “That is it?”

Theme: “The sword is mightier than the pen.”

Jesus Christ: “I came not to bring peace but a sword.”

Example: “Moses with the pen died; Joshua with the sword conquered Palestine.”

First section: “The five swords from China: sword of metal, sword of wood, sword of flame, sword of water, sword of wind.”

Quotation: “The sword of metal is a needle.”

Quotation: “The sword of water is a dancer.”

Second section begins with speech of Saladin to the captured Christians in the Holy Land:

“Monks, is it true what I am quoting from Sacred Writ?

People, have you ever heard these words of the Messiah:

‘Ye are the light of the world.’”

The enemy is the Fourth Estate, the people of the pen. Jesus condemned the Scribes. Quotation:

“All pens are propaganda.” References:

“The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.”

I shall try to turn out the drafts this week, but I leave on the 2nd. My Indian poem should be completed by Friday and I have a clear weekend, apparently. But I am writing because I really feel optimistic and inspired. Hope to write to you before I leave.

Cordially,

60 Harriet St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

January 29, 1955

My dear Margaret:

I now have found a resting point in my typing.

a. India. The other day I completed the fifth redaction of “Shiva! Shiva!” This will be sent to India, to Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Vice-President, and the carbon to Consul General Bannerji here. It was a “coincident” that this should have been the eighth anniversary of India’s independence. I have an appointment with the Consul-General on my return.

Our first interview ended by Mr. Bannerji sending for Mr. Srinavan, their publicity man:

“Mr. Srinavan, I believe Mr. Lewis knows more about India than I do.”

“I don’t believe he knows more of India than I do; I know it.”

This encouraging note has been followed by my thesis for the American Academy of Asian Studies which is, “The Integration of the Ancient and Modern in the Solution of India’s Problems.” The thesis has been accepted by the instructor, Satya Agrawal, as not only a good paper but one which could be used by the government at their future policy. And I believe it will be published.

b. “Saladin,” was started within an hour after the completion of “Shiva! Shiva!” The Indian poem had to be copied several times to get the rhythm and the full inspiration. It started as if it were in Sanskrit and had to be translated. You will find the first thirteen pages of “Saladin” enclosed. It starts as if it were in Arabic so the rhythm in English has not yet been found. But I am compelled to write as the imagery is all there and I have definitely “found myself.”

The first book has the sections of a. “The Sword,” b. “The Addresses to the Crusaders,” and c. “The Addresses to the Captives, etc.” I have been stopped at this point and it is curious that I am listening to “Tannhauser” as I write. This personality is already mentioned in the writing. The second book consists in Saladin’s elevation to the heavens:

1. His appearance before Sohrawardi Maktul whom he martyred and by whom he is initiated into the mysteries of the sword, and of mercy. The former includes the sword of Hercules and the complete explanation of the esotericism of the sword in all the Wagnerian operas and their related subjects such as the Grail legends.

2. His elevation into the six heavens which are described as the heavens of Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah and Adam and the teachings received there from.

3. His final elevation before the Arsh-Throne of God and his instruction from or concerning (I do not know yet) the great Indian teachers, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, who appears as the Seal of the Prophets.

4. His seven addresses to the Christian captives who either become Muslims or not, using seven themes from the actual words of Christ and elucidating them from the various standpoints from the most literal to the most profound.

5. His address to modern Egypt. This theme is introduced in the heaven of Joseph, and bears a rough relation to the last as Dante’s Limbo has to Paradise.

I am both greatly inspired at the moment and must be profoundly humble as I am daring to follow in the footsteps of Homer and Dante on the one hand, and the great Sufis Jami and Rumi on the other, with some strong literary influences from “The Thousand and One Nights.” I do not know what form it will take. It comes as a “gangue” of rhapsodic prose which may be crystallized into poetry, prose and “Gathas” or remain as it is.

c. Sufi school at Fairfax. Now all of the above is intimately related to the history of the Sufi School at Fairfax which your friends have purchased. The history of that place, the visits of Sufi Inayat Khan thereto, and most of all my particular rebirth in March, 1925, when the gift of poetry, so to speak, was offered to me quite in accordance with “legendary traditions,” and the whole cycle of the events of that time and what has occurred since form a clear pattern. The manner in which I was literally exiled from the place, etc. also forms part of the self-same picture.

I must say here, in closing, that when I saw Sufi Inayat Khan in 1926 he gave me what proved to be his last will and testimony. Now, as this will and testimony act have been rejected excepting by less than a handful of persons, the blessings that he gave and should have gone to others have now, after a generation redounded to me.

d. Prose writing. I had to stop the poetry because I have also found myself in prose. Not only in the Indian project above referred to but in a number of other items. I have before me “Essays in East-West Philosophy” by Charles A. Moore which I am both to review and to answer as a whole, this before I go away. It may mean either a recognition or consideration both of me personally and of those things which I stand for (not alone, thank God).

Therefore my visit to you, and/or Fairfax after I return from this short vacation may both be interesting and important. We can turn it into a series of stories and legends. Actually the “legends” are as factual or more so than the “stories.” I think some of the new types of magazines would accept them as they can be substantiated.

Best regards to Joe and Gay. And, if you really like “Saladin,” you might telephone my attorney, John Rockwell and tell him so. I understand that he is making every effort to get me my money. If this proves to be so, there will be some things printed soon. My hostess in Ojai has been a publisher and I am going to call on Rowney who was Malcolm Schloss’ publisher within the week.

Cordially,

Samuel

251 Elizabeth Street

New York 12, N. Y.

28 July 1959

Dear Sam:

The weather has been so hot that I could not write letters—I had two weeks vacation but I took a job through an agency at CBS and then my office found out I was in town and wanted me back here for extra salary—so since I am going crazy trying to pay my phone bills and the dentist, etc. and had no money to go to Atlanta or anywhere or even buy a canvas I was just as happy working. My cousin, Jack Ferris, works at CBS and we had lunch together. The offices there are attractive and the people mostly young and friendly. I had to use an Remington Electric which does not make as good copies as the IBM. I am still not accustomed to the IBM having used manuals for so many years. They offered me a job at CBS and although the work is more interesting that particular job does not pay as much and haven’t heard that they could meet my salary. I would much rather be uptown on Madison Avenue as it is more exciting there. It is very dull downtown.

Tanner had what the doctor thought was a cardiac but turned out to be his gall bladder. He has to take medicine and cannot eat fried foods. On top of that he has lost his job—he couldn’t stand it anyway because they made him wait so long for his checks all the time. So I have been to church twice praying for him as he does have the worst time—he has been so sweet to me buying me a lovely dress and three hats and a darling little plant. He is such a darling but he has a terrible temper. My doctor says he does not need tranquilizers, however—but something should be done about his temper!

I called your friends Gertrude Zueker and Bill Hathaway and she said the only time he has been sick was when he had the Flu—they are lots of fun but they live way uptown and we live way downtown. She thought it was funny he should write you clear across the continent about being sick. I think she takes good care of him—I know she presses his shirts.

I envy you all your traveling—about all we do is go out eating We did see Alex Guiness in The Horse’s Mouth and Sunday we put on shorts and went over and sat in a very pleasant Italian garden, Emilio’s on 6th Avenue. We go to Tony’s too where there is a garden and air-conditioning. We had drinks at a darling little French place The Bijou in the Village but should have bought the dinner which is not too high but more than we usually pay for a dinner. I do a lot of cooking, as you know, but lately have just made large salads. Tanner does not like fruit ones, however, so I am limited.

Hope you will be seeing Edna soon— =when are you going over there? Edna is certainly an inspiring person. The Manager will be back in 10 days and his secretary is away and I will have a terrible time as he is very speedy and I am not too good on this machine yet. Have to go slow to keep from hitting the wrong key.

I have an editor friend, Bill Raney, with Rinehart’s—he is giving me Doris Humphrey’s biography or autobiography as I had some lessons with her and knew her and kept her cat, Mr. Monaghan, when she went to Mexico with Jose Limon. He also is giving me a cat book. My cat, Yeep, gets more beautiful every day and sweeter. We are worried about Tanner’s cat as she won’t eat and looks old and tired—will only eat special things and drink milk. She has big green eyes. My cat is upstairs as they are fixing my screens and I am afraid she will escape. The children stuck sticks through three of the screens trying to get my cat. About six small boys rushed in the studio which is on first floor wanting to play with the cat and at first we were too friendly—but when we got tough that’s when they threw rocks in and watermelon and bottle tops—they are very noisy in our Italian neighborhood—bands play and firecrackers go up on the Sundays they celebrate three different saints.

I have two—no three ideas for paintings and hope I will get around to getting some canvas.

Best of going to you with your writing

Your admiring friend

Gwyn

San Fernando,

June 8, 1960

Dear Sam,

Just got your letter and am answering at once. I do not know for sure if you will get it. The return on your envelope was very indefinite (no street number) but I suppose you will get your mail from New York before you sail. Aunt Elizabeth was very sick but is better now. Her oldest daughter is in the hospital for an ear operation and she is visiting her. The Yellow Cab has offered a settlement but we have not accepted it.

Surprised that you are going to Iraq before going to Egypt. These two countries are a outs and anything can happen.

About your mother’s estate. I gather that something has happened financially. You are equally interested in it with Elliott and should protect your interests. No telling what may happen in your absence especially if you are hard to reach.

We expect to go to Frisco for a few days about first week in August. Give me the names of neighbors you mention and if you want me to I can call on them and may be of some help.

Hope you have a good trip and that it helps you.

You may not always be able to roam around and taking care of your interests at present may help your future.

Please send us some foreign post cards and souvenirs,

Regards to the Imams,

Uncle Harry

San Francisco

July 8, 1960

Dear Sam,

Got your letter and glad to know that you are getting pleasure out of what you’re doing. I am a little surprised that you have not sailed yet but suppose that you will in due time.

Aunt Elizabeth has been sick but is better now. Today is her birthday. Mine is on the 24th. this Monday we are leaving for San Lorenzo to be gone for two weeks.

Last week we got a settlement from the Yellow Cab for our injuries. Right now everyone is interested in the coming Democratic Convention.

Our car was in bad shape but I have fixed it up. Hope it will stay good.

Keep us posted about yourself and don’t forget to send us a souvenir card if you cross the ocean.

Can’t write much of a letter now as I am in a hurry. Will write more later.

Uncle Harry

San Fernando

Feb. 8, 1961

Dear Sam:

Received your interesting letter of Jan. 29th. Right now we are busy getting ready to move to San Clemente and are busy packing.

The weather is still summery and no rain. Aunt Elizabeth is a lot better this week although she is working hard.

I hope you enjoy your stay in Pakistan. It is two month now since you sent that perfume and we haven’t received it yet.

There really is no news here to write about. We have had several visitors here from Canada.

I am surprised to think that you fall for what fortune tellers tell you. Fortune telling of all types is a lot of bunk. If they can really predict things why don’t they play the winners at the horse races?

Besides that if you want my opinion I think you would be foolish to get married, especially when you cannot provide a good home for your wife. but of course that is all up to you.

I am glad Kennedy got elected and think he made a good start.

Hope you have a nice trip to Pakistan. Let us hear from you when you get settled.

Uncle Harry

Abbottabad, Hazara

August 11, 1961

Dear Elliott, Shirley, Henry and to whomsoever it does concern or does not:

Once upon a time a famous man lived in these parts and he wrote a poem, “Lest we Forget” or “The Recessional.” He left these parts and fame decreased until he died; then the royalties on his books became so high he was famous again. However all we concerned with here is “Lest we forget.”

About a month ago I received an airmail letter from Brookline marked “Miller.” It was a surprise answer from Reverend Samuel Miller writing in one of the magazines expressing a quandary. I answered it. I am a sort of answer man but am very deficient in questions. That did remind me. Anyhow when I went over my files I found a lady’s footprint—what is it doing there?

I long decided that the best place to buy Pakistani shoes was Peshawar. I had never been to Peshawar. Then the Bank of America began messing up my accounts—they sent me on top of that a questionable report on the state of my finances: one bank said one thing and another bank said another thing and I am 10,000 miles away.

Well, while wondering to do or not to do about cash—five bank accounts and empty pockets—I got a free ride to Peshawar and called on the American Consulate and found somebody who would cash $100. You can always do this best on a frontier or border city where there is a black-black, gray-black and white-black market. Anyhow I had rupees.

Between lunch and tea, having nothing to do, I went to find a riksha-wallah. They don’t have taxis on account petrol is expensive and rare. So I got me the rickshaw. The cost is the same per hour as per 1 mile and don’t ask why. We went to the native bazaar and before I could say hello a man came out and asked me in English if I wanted shoes. So selfish Sam bought himself two pairs—an Urdu and a Pushtu type and now he is also getting two pairs made in Abbottabad which closes the shoe book—for himself.

It happened I did not have the outlines with me and I am shajeweled to be in Peshawar about August 7 and intend to go back and buy some ladies’ shoes; this time for Boston and San Francisco, the problem not being the price but the shipping. Last time things came out all right and I think this bazaar merchant will help. Anyhow I have now less rupees and may send for more just in case. However I must warn you I am not going to send a single pair—I shall either send a bundle, shoes etc. or else several pairs of shoes, to ye value of $10 which is what customs allows in for free.

I then proceeded to the Peshawar University where I got mixed up with all kinds of people—of the right sort and got me an invitation to speak at Mardan Collage on September 4 and will thence to Peshawar again. I expect to leave Abbottabad for good about August 26 and go toward Mardan where a rich hombre is waiting for me and then will have services of his car and driver—we paying for the gas—to see the country round.

As for my stay in Pakistan, it is strictly anti-protocol. If I have succeeded it is generally for doing exactly what one is not supposed to do and if I have failed it is by toeing the mark. But Americans here are not allowed to toe the mark. When you come you lose your citizen’s rights as witness the visit of Vice-President Johnson who proceeded to ignore delegations of American-Americans. And being protocolly briefed by a non-American, non-Pakistani, he did everything so diplomatically sound it was necessary to send Ayub over which was a good thing. My belief is now that abroad Vice-Presidents can do not right.

Being on bad terms with the Embassy—all Americans here are on bad terms with the Embassy, this being protocol—I wrote Ayub a suggestion for his trip. It is one of those suggestions that no Americans could possibly make and if it were possible it was just one of those things which are not done. So Ayub being an anti-protocolian himself, did, and I got a nice letter of thanks.

Meanwhile I have made myself an honorable correspondent for the American Gripers Association abroad and this time some Senators and Congressmen are interested. For example it is the solemn protocolian duty of each Ambassador to ignore his predecessors. This is all right, but it should never include ignoring the Ambassador’s wife. Besides we have in California one Mrs. Lucretia Del Valle Grady Her late husband had been Ambassador to Greece, Iran, Pakistan and India. He decided to come home. That was his mistake. Out of office he died. But his widow lingers.

You see her ancestors 200 or 300 years hence and thence came to California and they were not only there before the Golf Rush but were part of the El Camino Real rush. So from childhood Lucretia stood out and kept on standing out more until she became a sort of perpetual Democratic National Women’s representative to the top echelon. Most of my enemies—and I have several—are not only non-Californians, but non-Americans and some misogynists to boot—never paid much attention to her. But they were the “experts.” One may become an expert because he was a boon-companion with the Sultan of Morocco in eating couscous—this made him an authority on Asia. (I am not talking poetry, this could happen in California and does.) Another because he graduated from Heidelberg. This proved he knew all about West Baluchistan and Borneo—I don’t know how, but this is what happened. The result was that we Americans have been briefed and then drubbed and we are as popular as anybody can be who ignores native cultures and native degrees (of which there are plenty).

I have met so many famous people in this country that if I collected their autographs I would have to pay an income tax thereon. I was not long here before I was with secretary Shahab who is a sort of combination of Sherman Adams and Robert Frost (only honest). I met the richest industrialists, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the retired Chief of Staff and so many big business men and professors—and all off the protocolian beat. Then I brought some answers to some of the basic problems in this country—just what was asked for. This made me popular with the Pakistanis. The Embassy has not yet caught up but I have hinted that Burdick and Lederer might want to write another book, this time not so fictional. In these days of democracy, humanity, freedom and good-will, to say “ugly American” is more powerful than to say Khrushchev. Of course the Russians are here, strictly anti-protocol. They come in as “experts” and as “Muslim pilgrims” and they have a field day and tell everybody how wonderful well off the Muslims are in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and a few other places.

Then there is counter-intelligence here. I ran into it in UAR and if there is anything Americans avoid more than the plague it is honest counter-intelligence. My experiences with the FBI are: “I know about the commies.” “Fine, tell us.” But Dullespionage: “Who are you? What are you doing here? Bring some collaborating evidence. How do we know you are telling the truth—we have no use for sensation mongers.” So we lose Vietminh and Laos and Cuba and more are on their way unless somebody really denounces Dullespionage and comes out for the American jury system—let the witness be sworn in and speak—but of course, this is against protocol.

In UAR I stole two delegations of neutralists away from the Russians. In the first place it was and Ambassadorial reception—I had no business being there but was. Then I admired the ladies’ dresses—this is an awful thing to do at a State function. Then somebody blurted out my real credentials and the neutralist men gave me a wonderful time—strictly off the record.

San Clemente

Nov. 25, 1961

Dear Sam,

Got your letter of Nov. 15 where you give your address as Lahore, W. Pakistan. I had written to the address you gave in India. Seems that you are having considerable trouble about several things. Personally I don’t have faith in healers. I think they are fakes. And so far as magnetized water is concerned there just is no such thing. The only thing that can be magnetized is iron or steel. I don’t have any confidence in that Major.

In case you figure on giving lectures here, they just don’t take without colored pictures. I am glad you are getting ahead in your projects. But as world conditions stand today I think you would be more secure back in the USA and let the world do its own worrying.

We are both about the same. I wish Aunt Elizabeth was in better health.

Two of our close friends died in the last 30 days. We had a rain a few days ago, the first in months.

I hope you are well. I would like to find out about Elliott’s activities and tell me by return mail who I can talk to about him in San Francisco. We will be there for Christmas.

Hope you have a nice Christmas and happy new Year,

Uncle Harry

Hollywood,

August 23, 1962

My dear Marion:

How are you? Well your errant if not erring cousin left Karachi on August 4 and arrived in San Francisco—on August 4. My hunches, whether you accept them or not, must have been working. I bought an air ticket to San Diego—which cost me only $10 more, which was fortunate as I had two urgent letters, one from my foster sister who never wrote me before in all our years of acquaintance—which is a pretty long time, fifty five years. Her mother is dying but Aunt Lil (Elizabeth), Uncle Harry’s wife, has recovered. I spent three days with Uncle Harry at San Clemente, which is on the, Pacific Ocean and where it never gets hot or cold. Anyhow after living in Lahore with 110° every day, I seem to be able to take anything. And if there is one thing what seems to stand still with me, it is vitality; health is much better than early in life. This may be due to “yoga”—I mean something else, but this will do. If you say “yoga” people will accept it.

I won’t relate my episodes, escapades, adventures and madventures (“A Comedy of Terrors”) because since the first of July everything has been coming in my favor, and there is not a cough in a carload. For instances I have been made American representative of the projected University of Islamabad. They have already collected funds for four American professors and two graduate-scholars. I had to visit the American Friends of the Middle East and Asian Foundation. My first two welcomes in San Francisco came from my colleague, Harry Nelson and from Admiral Everson of the AFME and believe it or not, I never had warmer welcomes in my whole life.

Then I went to Marin County to consult my attorneys and telephoned Mrs. Russell Smith. Her husband was former Chief V.P. Bank of America and has served on the International Monetary Committee and World Bank. My folks never knew but he is one of the two VIPs who stood behind me all these years when outside pressures worked against me. I never mentioned their names.

Now the requests from the Islamabad University made it necessary for me to visit Asia Foundation and Mrs. Smith told me that her husband is now President of Asia Foundation. Boy I did four hours conversion work in half an hour and totally successful.

Then I came South to visit relatives and friends and have gone to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Scripps Institute at La Jolla and US Riverside; also the USDA Salinity Laboratory. Not only have all sessions with scientists been most rewarding I have visited three newspapers: one kept me one hour and gave me a big write-up and the other two agreed to receive, if not publish articles. I have the stuff. I got two writing contracts just before leaving Pakistan and there is a “story behind the story in each.” Well I addressed 75,000 people in Pakistan not counting kids and I certainly met enough people in Egypt and India.

Another thing my family would not understand is that I came into India at a time interviews were not granted, yet I saw President Radhakrishnan and Chief of Protocol Bannerji—never mind how. The President and I are very close friends. My second book will be dedicated to him but my first book is “How California Can Help Asia.”

Gallivanting around California is not all scientists and technicians. I have friends and acquaintances hither, thither and whither (in Urdu they say “ither, uther and sither”). Either I left good tastes in peoples” mouths or they have accepted reports. But the fact is that the more wild and “madventurous” they are, the truer they are. Fortunately at all the institutions so far visited I ran into somebody who had been to at least one of Egypt, Pakistan and India and they understand that the same and normal accomplishes nothing.

Besides we are unified in being against the Peace Corps:

a. Seventeen farm boys went to Pakistan and did things—not a paper reported.

b. I have met experts and technicians who have accomplished wonders—if they had been Russians, the public would have been informed.

c. I met a couple of Peace Corps kids. They had not even started out but the press was already telling of the wonders they expected to accomplish. It is not “only in America” but in Russia too, plans are regarded as accomplishments if the “right” persons are involved.

Well, American A went to Tibet and warned the communists were coming; American B to Laos; American C to Vietnam; American D to Burma, etc. But Cecile Brown and Lowell Thomas went and assured us that the people were 99.75% anticommunist (possibly true), but they did not inform they were also against Elizabeth Taylor and “True Immorality.” These people simply will [?] our Hollywood-Las Vegas anti-family social status. I am not preaching here but reporting. (If Big Brother has anything to say tell him there is a vast difference between “free love” and marriage-busting.) Now every time Lowell Thomas writes a book the Americans all over Asia weep: “There goes another country.” This is a long and sorbid story.

The truth is that we are not fighting Marxism abroad, we are fighting Dale Carnegie, Jesus Christ and Osward Spengler, but the last most of all. We do not make friends and influence people and it is so easy to make friends and influence people. But not by sermons and even less by sermons compounded with family-busting. Not that Pakistanis are any better but their mores is different.

Actually in Thailand people live as Tom thinks and their whole moral structure is different. The women are relatively and even absolutely quite free. Morality consists of kindness, honesty, fair-dealing and has nothing to do with the acts of the body there. But they have one standard and the Islamic world has one standard (exceedingly different), and we have multiple standards. And my closest friends are psychiatrists dealing with the movie colony!

My mother is in a mental hospital still hovering between life and death. I am a Plant Doctor who does not delve too closely in problems outside my field.

I am not disturbed about the Russians in space. We lead Russia in about [?] sciences—I did the spade work myself; in fact I generally do and I am not [?] upset emotionally—I hope. Actually there is lots more but I have a pretty full program all the time. Hope to locate an apartment when I return to S. F. Remember me to your family.

Love,

Samuel

December 27, 1962

My dear Marion:

I must thank you for your card and tell you first one bit of negative news. It is over two weeks since I placed an order for a reprint of one of my pictures, to be out on a Christmas greeting card. The order was pigeon-holed and then misplaced and I am going away shortly and will have to send them out in a strange manner at a wrong time.

Then I am about to leave first to go to Hollywood where there is a lady who has been very friendly to me for almost forty years. She does not believe she will remain long on earth and this may be the last time I can take her out. So between her and friends I shall spend the New Year there. I may run over to Pasadena too and see the parade as I have friends there. And then go to Uncle Harry Rosenthal for Aunt Elizabeth has long been in bed. I won’t stay there if it be inconvenient.

I returned from Pakistan in August but for one month went touring the State to see friends, Uncle Harry and to begin work on one of the two books I am writing. The chief one is called “How California Can Help Asia” and has mostly to do with food problems, but covers a lot of other things. This has kept me in touch with top scientists and in general their researches are neglected. We have a lop-sided approach here which now takes the physicist, who used to be the most neglected of scientists and makes him an object of public curiosity. While there are other scientists, Algaeologists for example, that are totally ignored.

I have visited the campuses of the University of California, also Stanford U. (Food Technology), and Stanford Research, as well as called on lot of other people.

I am also writing a book, part memories, with regard to certain types of strange persons I have met, mostly abroad, including the real Zen Buddhists. This is also keeping me busy.

Then I had my future foretold by six men, only one of whom used astrology at all. One was a strange Sikh who followed me around in New Delhi and was always right. I have no idea how he could tell what he did—he got my name, birth date, mother’s name, birth date, favorite fruit, favorite flowers, etc. Then there was one man who could “see” into the future, just a little bit mostly, but he was always right. Then there was the Khalandar which is a story in itself. And two seers who used a form of insight akin to intuition which does not tell much.

The main thing they said was that during the month of October a women who had been holding the torch for me would some back. Well, on October 30 I mailed Professor Rhine a lot of stuff—he hasn’t answered. Half an hour later the doorbell rang: “Sam, there is a strange lady at the door asking for you.” Well, I was expecting the wife of a friend and came and there “she” was.

I met Vera when she was 19 and I was about 36. Besides difference in ages she was there married. She has since been married another time and also had a complex crisscross with a man who was very close to me; and with another one to whom I had introduced her. But thirty years make differences and none of those other things mean anything to us.

She lives in Sacramento but her relatives are in S.F. and I was with them on Christmas day. I am hoping I can make good in my writings, or otherwise and then we would either marry of live together or travel together—there is no use foretelling. She has taken on a lot of responsibilities but has grown under them.

Elliott became angry because I did not call on him. Well, he defrauded me so many times in life it is a horrible story; but no matter what he did one or both parents supported him, excepting twice, when he stole my father compelled restitution; i.e. twice out of innumerable times. It was no use my protesting. He has continued to steal since my father’s death.

He had a horrible plan which he told others, of using my mother against me and then after he got control of the major portion of the property put her away. He succeeded. He has her money and she is in an asylum. How he connived this is a filthy story. But unfortunately every time he did anything wrong my folks talked as if I were equally guilty and I have had to face the whole life with no possibility of getting jobs or into society here in San Francisco excepting by the hard, hard way.

But this hard, hard way has worked out pretty well. I have as close friends some of the most influential persons in the Bay Area especially in international affairs. I have with me a picture of when I got my Washington citation. Neither parent would look at it. I then had my name inscribed in the heroes’ book at Fort Mason, right under Carlson Raisers (including one Roosevelt). When I told them they wanted a copy of it but as neither would look at the Washington citation picture I refused…. I got Elliott a commission in the army and he “got even” by making himself a hero. He was in the end frozen out. That’s the way it went. More money was spent on his gambling debts than on my education; also on subsidizing marriages which never took place. Which is nothing to what he was able to get away with. Now he is almost friendly excepting on the verge of the gangster people who are plentiful out here.

I dropped all this but as he insisted I come back, it is my turn now. An awful story, but it is part of most dramatic life.

I think I spoke to 80,000 people in Pakistan excluding children and those I met socially. I did not meet the President but I did meet his secretary.

On the other hand I did meet the President of Indian but did not say goodbye-to him because on the last day in India there was a big celebration going on with Prime Minister Nehru and President Radhakrishnan the guest of honor in one pavilion, and ???? in the other. It is slowly that people coming to believe this. So out with memories.

A few times a few persons have checked on this. The funniest one was that one of my critiques here wanted to show me up. So he sent two of his students to Japan. It had taken me five minutes to get into a Zen Monastery, the norm is three days. Well, at the and of six weeks Claude and Breck succeeded, but their timing was not so good. Months later I ran into Claude —actually, physically, while crossing the main square in Cairo. “Sam, how are you getting along.” “Come and see.”

So I took him to all kinds of bazaars, some not frequented much by tourists, and to the folk artists and others and everyday was greeting me all over. He came back and began raving. So it goes.

In India I spent nearly all my time with scientists or with holy man of types we do not hear about. One of the nicest dramatic events was at Hyderabad, Deccan. I went to the Park to see the Superintendent whom I had met before and saw a sign, “Soil Conference.” I asked some Americans if I could go in and did and no sooner was I at the table when one of the Indians said, “Where have you been, we’ve been waiting for you.”

That is how I met Roy Donahue of Ford Foundation. I now have his latest book which I have been praising no end. And since my return have been associating with the top Soil Scientists, among other things.

Or another time I went to the Dept. of Agriculture at Sacramento, and called on one Merle
Hussorg, Chief of Public Relations. “Are you bringing me another headache?” “If you are not smiling when I leave, you may kick me in the head.” “All right, answer this.” It was an inquiry from the Wali of Swat for Olives. I said: “That’s no problem, I have just come from there.” In a few minutes he contacted all his colleagues and what a day. All technical material, different sciences. So some very nice things happen even thought I have no relatives out here to tell them too and many people I know think I am a talkative braggart, but the fact is, things happen.

Oh, there’s a lot more. Sometimes I think of Guy because I have learned new ways to use canned soups. But I don’t know what company he is with and as I am writing, “How California Can Help Asia” and Heinz has factories out there, I may call on them. Asians do not know anything about food processing or handling wastes.

Christmas was cool here but rather nice. I have become adjusted to weather. Had to take it at 110° in Lahore, every day and the only time I was ill was when I had to drink Coca Cola; stopped it and seldom even touch any soft drink. Well, I’ll stop here and if the picture arrives will enclose, otherwise bag some more.

Nov. 20 [?]

Dear Sam,

It has rained in Ojai at last and we all feel better for the dampness.

We had a seminar over last weekend to discuss the difficulties of living and working in the present situation without losing this integrity. Most of the group members were young middle-aged and the discussions were very interesting. The pressures of the temporary situation are becoming more and more assertive and difficult to cope with. These are not the hippies or the very young but there is an awareness of the need to find suitable answers.

Teachers seem to be having especially difficult relations with old fashioned boards and the new style children. Many parents just wash their hands of the whole mess and the poor teachers and children have to do the best they can.

All is well here. Have not seen Donny but was told he and Mary Beth are living in a small shack in the river bottom.

The cats seem to have it made—plenty a [?] and the electric blanket to sleep on these cool nights. At least someone is happy and protected.

Love,

Marion

December 23, 1963

My dear Marion:

This is the season to be jolly, or something. A few months ago I had so many rejections from woman I walked out of the groups with whom I had been associating and for six days was a near misogynist. Then I began to be helped by one woman after another in a different series of quandaries.

Then I had so much trouble with men I decided to make one final public battle. On that day so many other men had had trouble with the same persons we joined forces and had a complete victory.

So when I purchased 50 photographs as Christmas cards I thought that would be plenty but the Lord must have figured otherwise, and instead of 50 being far too many—as calculated—it has been far too short, and I just managed to retrieve one. Therefore instead of crying on your doorstep and asking for pity or sympathy it looks more like asking others to join in a good laugh.

Tomorrow night will be the most beautiful Christmas Eve of my life. There are two people who have stood by me through thick and thin but they were not sure when God was on their side because they were never blessed by a son. What is worse, they are public characters each known for having beautiful and strong bodies. “But in the hour ye think least the son of man cometh” and a few days ago a son was born. So there will be a real crib with a real infant boy with two wonderful parents, both very close to me, and an assembly of people, all of whom have grown close to each other at a spiritual gathering. Could anybody ask for more?

The epitome of my scientific planning is now being reviewed in Washington by one group; and the over-all of all my efforts is to be reviewed here shortly by another. I don’t mind rebuffs and rejections, I just want the chance. Now I have the chances.

I hope this finds you well and happy. If not, what can one do? The other night at a Christmas party—where I went for no reason—I ran into a bunch of friends, including several women whom I haven’t met for years (vide first paragraph) and strangers told me I seemed to be happier than others. All right, one can’t argue that. The person in the picture does not illustrate happiness but wisdom, and there are too many stories behind it to tell anybody.

My old pal, Bill Hathaway, never seems to be far away and there is a strange complex friendship here. Please remember me to Richard especially. Expect will cross the continent next year—but that covers too many stories and opportunities.

Love and blessings,

Sam

January 24, 1963

My dear Adolph [Metz], Eva and Bobby:

I have Adolph’s letter of the 21st and am very glad to have the news. I am working on food problems and run into a very strange situation; it is exactly in accord with C. P. Snow’s “The Two Cultures.” For example last week I went to the Agricultural Department of the University of California and was given a royal welcome—I mean just that, for the men accepted at once that I carry a message from top flight officials abroad. I have not had a single favorable reply from any newspaper man, State Department official or social scientist. But this is not a complaint, this is standard practice.

In November a group of us who had lived in Asia staged a public revolt and it was not even a push-over, it was a holocaust and we did not want that. We just want human communication. Instead of that we are seeing Chou En Lai, very successful in human communication. It has nothing to do with communism.

Just before Christmas I said a few words about Nehru’s spiritual teacher who has been my host. The crowd applauded wildly and I sat down immediately. I even said where anybody could go to meet him—it is not a secret. It has been made a secret because nobody from the State Department or press will call at the place.

Now I am waiting for my Pakistani colleague to come here and we may tour the State in detail in connection with food problems.

My closest friend (Zen Flesh, Zen Bones) Paul Reps has been here campaigning for the Osawa diet. He found that I had already accepted it, purely by trial and error. It is based on brown rice. They claim it cures many diseases. I don’t know and anyhow I have not had many diseases. But I think the problems of Nutrition deserve top priority. Actually the University of California is leading in agricultural research today, but this applies to growing and marketing not to intake.

I am glad to hear from Vincent but am going to have some difficulty doing anything about it. I have copied Part II of my own last epic for some private distribution. Everybody says I shall make the grade. But my esthetic efforts have changed, giving up folk dancing for interpretative (at my age); and going to art school. I go twice at night and once in the day. The School (operated by a life-long friend) is very progressive. My first theme this term is on Frank Lloyd Wright and my second theme is on contemporary composers. You would find many kindred spirits here.

Last summer I was in Mendocino which is almost a western correspondent to your Camp Site. It has modern art and Israeli dancing, as well as fishing but very limited swimming (undertow.)

In addition to four projects for Pakistan (and I can’t drop any of them yet), my god-daughter is coming here this year according to all plans.

According to the form of Islamic (it may be just folk-)law in Pakistan, although a stranger may not meet women, an exemption is made concerning orphans and in particular orphan women who have no brothers. If the girl is married she can be adopted as sister and if she is unmarried as daughter.

My god-daughter is Miss Khawar Khan and she is opulent enough to have become owner of Gandhi’s old home in Lahore. While I was there she won an international Philosophical award and last year a Pan Asian Psychological Award. She wishes to come here for her Ph.D. I wanted her to go to Washington but she wanted to be near me, and also the weather is favorable all the year around (it still is). Well I have just run into a professor who taught at the University of Beirut where she matriculated and it seems all plans for her coming are proceeding OK. Yes, she is beautiful, but she is very religious and that is one reason, in addition to her having brains, which has stood in the way of marriage. Only Bobby must know I have unwittingly two god-sons here—what am I to do? I also have one in Pakistan.

Am glad to find Eva hooking rugs. I hope your house is suitable for meeting the winter.

I may appear in public in that picture soon. Also gradually showing pictures from Japan. The Buddhist world situation is very complex. The people who write the books never meet the religious leaders. The communists have taken over many temples and there may be a world conference in Hawaii in 1966. The Zen temple here is growing and prospering. And this week a friend of mine is showing pictures from Thebe which he visited just before the Chinese took over. Lowell Thomas is also trying to raise funds but he gave such a false picture of that country (acid other countries) that we do not realize the harm in it. The way to write about people is to meet them first.

I like Vincent’s poetry, which is full of the repose so badly needed, but for the moment I have given up literature for art, and … if I know why. There is a Turner exhibit on and also will be attending more art lectures this week.

Cordially,

Sam

May 29, 1964

My dear Mrs. Martini [Marion]:

How I love that name. It not only stands out in a famous drink but the best red wines of California are produced by people of that name, too. My heart says yes but my stomach says it louder.

I am so glad you have married and now I can worry over my god-daughter in Pakistan. First I adopted her because she was an orphan. Islam has some strange institutions but any man can adopt an orphan girl as god-daughter and orphaned married woman as sister. This seems to have brought us both good luck. She became a full professor at 26, the youngest woman full professor on the whole continent of Asia. Then she won first prize at an international philosophical conference—with my help. And as soon as my help was removed she began winning more and more prizes. I did not know when I Left Pakistan she was also wealthy. That is a long story.

Well whatever fortune I had abroad, it stopped here until this month and “then the fun began.” It is so long and complex and beautiful I’ll skip all but the main things which might concern my coming to New York.

Two weeks ago I was attending a conference on “Food & Civilization” and a VIP was talking on “Salt, Water and Civilization” when the director of conference came down, tapped me on the shoulder and said, “There is your problem.” “No, there’s your problem, and maybe here (pointing to myself) is your answer.” Anyhow I promised a complete report on a matter of great importance in which my closest associate and myself are inextricably entangled.

Then the Asst. Secretary of Agriculture spoke and the same thing happened. I came home wanting to celebrate. There is a woman here named Connie who is the chum of the lady I keep company with and whose boy friend is busy every night. My lady friend is away—no two-timing. But Connie always excused myself.

You may remember my pal, Bill Hathaway whom you met at least once in New York, a big stout blond. Well Bill and I have a habit of living in each other’s places all the time for aeons and suddenly he showed up that night—with Connie (we all belonged to the same group years and years ago) so we went out and really celebrated.

Bill pleaded with me not to come to N.Y. until he gets there—and after all that means free room and board and no hotel fees which equals the cost of the trip anyhow. I finally agreed on or off the dotted line.

I am leaving anyhow this week for western Pennsylvania but not expect to go east of Pittsburgh without financial assistance.

Well the next day the celebrated Wm. Vogt, the Conservationist spoke at the conference on “Food and Civilization” and not only was it all down my alley but before the thing was over he read my name into the record! And the next day he asked I come to New York and bring all my diaries and manuscripts. However I had already agreed with Bill as above and

a. My colleague in Pakistan has been uniformly successful in all his undertakings and may be here before the end of the year and a trip across the Nation may be in order.

b. Another friend in Pakistan has my pal and myself tied up with some very big adventures.

c. A VIP in East Pakistan wants me to act as agent and intermediary.

d. A big publisher in Pakistan has recognized me.

e. A big publisher in USA ditto.

This after my fairy god-mother (the celebrated dancer, Miss Ruth St. Denis) had given me a blessing on all my works; and the Oriental sections of the University of California in both Berkeley and Los Angeles have recognized me.

All this and more in this merry month of May. Tomorrow I top it off by partaking in a dance pageant—you never know what I am up to.

I have been planning to write Richard since Guy and Alma were here—all my good news came after they left.

How is “Mr. Stone-farmer?” If I come I hope he can give me some ideas about coffee—which is another story. I am sure you are happy, whether you are to stay in one place or travel. I don’t know anything about Brazilian soft drinks or their foods. About all I know is Villa-Lobos—but that is something. Or problems of aridity—which is too serious to discuss here.

Anyhow love and blessings,

Samuel

February 4, 1965

My dear Cousins:

Shall we dance? I still do, you know. In fact I go to a combined gymnasium and dancing class twice a week and somebody told me I am not getting old because my feet are warmer than in early times.

Now I have to write a codicil or something unless in the course of time I get hitched—which has not happened. And although the course of romantic love goes and comes, now we must get legal instead of serious, or both for

“According to the law” (See Gilbert & Sullivan on “The Mikado”), I am duly and duty bound to make a codicil, transferring, if any, any portion of my banking and fiduciary assets, if any, to one.

Marianna Adriana, born on January 8, 1965, which will be duly communicated to my attorneys, Rockwell & Fulkerson, of San Rafael, Calif.

I cannot, of course, account for what will be there especially if I should be so unfortunate as to depart in this land and let the morticians take care of the balance. But planning and preparing to leave this land some time after September 1965, the matter will be carefully considered. For although still poor, the possibilities are growing.

At least Christian Science Monitor and Cosmopolitan (February issue) have published letters, which encourages a return to my memories. By this time at least this persons has contacts in so many lands, and although he has a tough time here, he need not remain here. So at this time of rejoicing and dancing neither the sad nor happy, the romantic or adventurous, the scientific or artistic, will be communicated.

And if in some future date we reach the summit of social or scholastic or other preeminence, the child will be properly protected, I hope, and thus the beginning of a college career—which matter will be given further consideration, also I hope. Now therefore I return to my two loves (my typewriters) and send you love and blessings, and next, if you wish, on receipt thereof of the hour of the child’s birth, will deign to call on my astrology friend and have a horoscope cast, if you so wish and if you send this hour.

Yours, etc.,

Samuel

February 18, 1965

My dear Cousins:

The other day I received an exciting telephone call from my astrologer friend, Gavin Arthur, telling me that the child, Marianna Adriana, had a most wonderful horoscope. He has cast thousands of charts for all kinds of people. For his actual name is Chester Arthur III and his grandfather was President of the United States. This has meant he has met all kinds of people in all walks of life.

Now at that time I paid just for his making the chart, and while we discussed it together we agreed that I would write my interpretation and send it along and then have him make his which would take some time for him to type.

I don’t know if you know anything about Astrology and I am inclined to think that Big Brother may have different ideas. To me the question will be solved or resolved by whether the predictions and other data are true or not.

The trine is the best configuration possible but when one has a grand trine—and you mathematician should know or understand that—that is a wonder. So Marianna Adriana looks like a wonder praise to God, Allah or what you will. Sun trine Jupiter means successful leadership and trine Pluto may be that she will be a world-wonder and with Uranus conjunct Pluto it means she should be a genius.

These are all in earth signs and a detailed analysis will be sent later when I contact the Astrologer and have him write it up.

She has Venus conjunction mercury but squared to Mars, Moon and Saturn and this looks not only that she should be, but will be a careerist. This contra-indicates from my point of view domesticity, marriage and satisfactory relations with the opposite sex. But the Neptune trine Moon and Sextile to Pluto and Uranus also indicates she may have unusual facilities.

One does not like to make predictions but it looks as if she shall be a daydreamer and then when interrupted surprise her teacher and parents that she has known what was going on all the time.

Despite the above statements about domesticity and sex and even conjugality, she will have the Wise heart and would belong to the type of women such as the Voluspa in Norway and the Priestess of Isis in ancient Egypt. I don’t know how much you go along with such things.

She should excel always in leadership, not so well in following excepting that the bigger the scope of anything the more interest, concern and success. She will never be petty or small.

This, of course, is very cursory and it will take some time to work out details.

It is interesting to me as a person that her rising sign is exactly conjunct with my Sun at birth which can make us understand each other mutually if nothing more. This is enhanced by the closeness of our Moons. And her Neptune indicates that when she gets on in years—I mean by the time she reaches her teens she will understand me better than most people.

Of course if I had your charts or birth data I could indicate or Mr. Arthur would indicate relations with either or both of you. But he may be able to do this also. And if I see my god-son this or next weekend, who is also interested in Astrology, I’ll let you know what we find.

I have a sort of interest in my god-son at the moment because of the arrival here of a man from Sudan who has had all sorts of adventures and we have to get together.

My life is also complicated because Asians are accepting everything I propose for Thailand, Vietnam and that part of the world and Americans either reject it, or ignore it, Asia Foundation excepted, for we have in common dealing directly with the people. Someday I may write a real life drama on “The Princess and I,” relations with a grand-daughter of King Mongut (Vide “Anna and the King of Siam”), very funny and very, very serious.

Let me hear from you on this, and I’ll send more when I can.

Love,

Samuel

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

April 23, 1965

My dear Marion:

On the same day that my mother passed away several letters were received, chief of which was one summoning me back to Pakistan, expenses paid, and jobs at the other end. This has enabled one to put all eggs in one basket, but this has happened anyhow.

My mother’s funeral was quite simple but there were surprisingly few people there. This may have been due to the death of so many of her associates whom she had outlived. Or as Elliott just wrote, socially she was dead a long time.

Today one is compelled to take a very objective view. There may or may not be trouble over the disposition of property. In the past there always has been and with the exception of the estate of my father, where I had previously contacted an attorney I got practically nothing, will or no will. But one does not wish to discuss such matters, the burden of which is at this end.

The great melodrama in my life has been that mother, father and brother counted all of my mistakes and faults and disregarded any triumph at any level. This is mentioned only because in the last month there has been a complete reversal and every project that has ever been undertaken bodes fair to become successful.

When I returned here in January to meet the #3 man of India he upset an indifferent audience by pointing his finger saying: “Why you are the man I came five thousand miles to meet. I came to San Francisco just to meet you.” Fortunately there was a husband and wife, lifelong friends in the audience. But now this sort of thing is occurring at such a rate the details will be omitted. Anyhow all my projects in life have been integrated into the World University of New Delhi which is also headed by this man, Surendra Ghose, deputy speaker of the Lower House of the Indian Parliament.

No doubt the climax came at the meeting of the Asian Conference a few weeks ago when this person was permitted to speak, solved a knotty problem and his answers were accepted. But one can go on.

I am on the panel of a most important conference in September, after which, as soon as legal matters are straightened out, I come east by stages, presumably sailing from New York to London and then flying by stages to Pakistan and other points. If the legal matters are straightened out, I am hoping, God willing, to put aside a fund for your offspring, one or more in such a way that if this body lives, they can benefit with a college education.

No doubt my social status will rise during the UN meetings here this summer, but today one is received with cordiality and respect by many professors in universities where not so long ago the doors were closed. One hesitates to give details because these are usually snubbed, and therefore one concentrates on those who have common interests and common outlooks. This is especially true on food problems on a large scale where one has the advantage of not being a specialist and where one’s outlooks were entirely rejected in the past only to become what is now orthodox procedure, i.e. in the new science of Ecology where I am very much at home.

At the Asian conference a publisher’s representative said he would look at my manuscripts. That is, Tuttle of Vermont. They have been printing the works of my life-long friend, Paul Reps. This week, out of the blue, I received such a commendation from Paul Reps, that only once before anything like it was received and this will add but there is the detailed work of typing, etc.

Behind this is another outlook and if one mentions it he is often regarded as mad. I see beyond this world of “realism” deeper aspects of existence which we can call verbally the realms of Mind and Heart. This is based on experience and not from any particular cult-teaching. It is bringing more and more associations and fine outs, starting in with persons like myself who seem to be ahead of their time. Our outlooks cannot be categorized like the various “isms” which are essentially analytical. One started out with the mathematical philosophy of Cassius Keyser of Columbia, and gradually the heart-philosophies came. We may look askance at them but it opens channels to all sorts of “exotic” people and is functioning here now. My saying that if you can eat, dance and pray with people friendships came easily and rapidly—is proving just as true as it does not coincide with the political philosophies of the day. So one has to have a “light heart” (any definition you please) and ignore public reactions.

I shall be glad to hear from you further.

Love,

Samuel

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

May 25, 1966

My dear Margaret:

I was very glad to hear from you. You might have phoned John Rockwell who is, in a sense, my attorney though my present legal complications are in the hands of an associate of his.

One of the things I learned in the Orient was the equivalency of Pain and Joy, that capacity for either makes capacity for both. Life has brought more than the usual amount of Pain—i.e. in similar distressing circumstances one holds up better than others—but this increases the capacity for Joy.

A good deal of my time is spent with Buddha-studies, by which I do not mean Buddhist-studies. Buddhism is a religion, Buddha taught man how to experience a maximum of Joy. Christ began that way but we have swallowed up the Beatitudes with wrong translations to begin with and terrible interpretations to end with.

It is easy to quote “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.” In your own case I see two quite different careers—of housewife and mother, and of creative genius and adventure type which must be reconciled. From the standpoint of time one works in one direction and from the standpoint of eternity in another.

At the present time I have to associate a good deal with scientists who are not like the “scientists” described in the press. There is a publication called “Science” which is by scientists for scientists and which is not much read by others. And you will see that the real scientists are now discussing the nonexistence of any division between Art and Science and the esthetic views of scientists are far from the descriptions of how they are supposed to behave which has become the popular view.

Sufism teaches that we must balance Power with Beauty, Beauty with Power. I am still in the throes of an esthetic revolution which will lead me back to poetry. It is quantitatively most difficult, and even more so when one sees a thousand inspirations.

The other day I told some art-teacher friends of mine that if I returned to study I have a single project—six-months on a Rose-Petal! This is far from nonsense and may be near Wisdom and is certainly Tennyson.

I am even conceiving a paper on Vietnam which will be almost entirely quotations from poets. You can be sure that the Hawks and Doves will unite against it. Or as I see it, America is a great nation trying with all its efforts to get the Lamb and Lion to lie down together and trying equally to see that the little child does not lead them.

It is so easy to write trite aphorisms, and life is never that way. Yes, you should sell your home and you should write.

You could do me a very great favor by giving me the address of your Bengali editor but this is not to be rushed. My examinations will be completed next week and then I should concentrate on my memoirs. Working on two books and trying new styles in each. The second will be epical, but the mind must not dictate the style. In good time it will flow out and easily.

Mama Ruth St. Denis wishes my poetry but one cannot grind this out or even copy it by mere wishing.

I hope soon to clear my slate and visit Marin. Have a lot of things to do and some people to visit. At the moment on a full program—my two closest men friends are here and it is awful, but not painful. Never a dull moment and this makes some people think one is not busy.

Tomorrow night I go to the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design. I have found the objectification of what I consider the “revolution.” It is a sort of combination of multidimensional thinking and very direct feeling harmonized. More and more young people operate that way and they are misunderstood by their elders, the power-structures of our so-called “right” and “left.”

The Wisdom Schools of the Orient show how to actualize Joy. I have yet to meet a teacher who has not taught that capacity for Pain and Joy go together but we can rationalize Pain while Joy may be spontaneous.

No doubt we should avoid dissonances and disharmonies. Studies in Anthropology no doubt free one from religions influences that do not harmonize with the daily life. You may tell Gay that I suspect philosophically and philologically there is a connection between “Gay” and “Joy.” But what good are words if they do not manifest in the daily life?

A few young come to me and the whole concentration of studies and disciplines in Oriental wisdoms is centered around increased capacity for Joy. For that reason I am going to attend the forthcoming LSD conference in Berkeley. People are seeking Joy and if they cannot find it naturally they will try it artificially. And what is natural? and what is artificial?

When School is out, I shall write or phone again,

Samuel

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

July 3, 1966

My dear Margaret:

I left the other day feeling a little ashamed, that I had talked too much. But there was one mitigating circumstance that after years one learns to “see with their ears” and “hear with their eyes.” I have put it in another sense in “The Rejected Avatar” a poem, all copies disappeared, all kept by people who were supposed to review them and yet it had the key to some situations.

What is worse, in a sense, was that the holy men of Asia definitely directed me to look after widows and although this has produced some complex situations, these situations may be right with God, so to speak, if not with man.

Yet in another sense things were “right” only in meeting some immediately ironical situations. There have been two women in Hollywood who have been like elder sisters to me for years. My god-daughter phoned me and urged my immediate trip South because one of them had had another accident—she is accident prone. The other is also accident prone and arrived in Alameda the day I was in San Rafael.

Then I received another letter that my old dancing partner from Mill Valley would be here with her daughter. She was assistant post-mistress in Mill Valley and against her doctor’s orders worked overtime, had a stroke and is confined to a wheel-chair. It is fortunate that this was a beautiful day here and I was happy to be in her company, even though in this not too pleasant circumstance.

Well I don’t want to repeat all the things that go on excepting gradually I am being drawn into the Vietnam complex with a different approach.

However I have taken a liberty and called on Wells-Fargo Trust Co. A card is enclosed and Mr. Knick told me he puts in one day a week in San Rafael, so if you wish to meet him any time, the chances are that you may reach him by phone or mail and he will either call at your home or arrange to meet you in your city.

My boys were here Friday night, i.e. spiritual disciples. They bought a house in Corte Madera with the idea of fixing it up and selling it. They have a small apartment also which they rent. The present occupant does not pay his rent. So I urged them to get rid of him.

Now this is one possibility if you should sell your home and have to move quickly. I have taken it upon myself to do this and it obligates nobody:

If they remove their tenant they have agreed not to place the apartment for rent without being sure you do not need it. The apartment is small, no doubt but the idea is that you might want to buy the whole house and then they would move out themselves as soon as this could be conveniently done.

This is not of itself a suggestion but it could be an assurance.

The Bodhisattvic vow is to work for the alleviation of the pain of others. This vow, in an unusual way, was given by my Sufi teacher after he had become a disciple in Buddhism of my Zen teacher. Vows are one thing and living them is another matter. While we may have various views of “vicarious” atonement, in the universe-of-heart we are all conjoined.

I have been almost forewarned that next time I should limit myself to meditation and listening to you.

MY Santa Barbara “brother” is moving to this city and as soon as he is settled I would like that we come over and take you to the Greek restaurant mentioned.

Sufi teachings divide the personality so to speak, into body, mind, heart and soul—there may be other ways to divide, too. Your radiant heart body is wonderful, clear, cleaning shining and becoming evident and effective. This is exactly as your mother would have had it.

With all love and blessings and assuring you of a clothes-pinned tongue,

Samuel

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

August 30, 1966

My dear Uncle:

I was away in Southern California for a while and ran into a strange situation, that people I had to meet, including friends, were all suffering from broken bones. It was all the same pattern as if there was a plague of accidents.

On my return I learned that Ted Lachelt was away on a trial but we got together today and will meet again either tomorrow afternoon or shortly after. I have answered the questionnaire from Elliott’s attorneys and placed it in his hands.

He tells me I have the right to submit my own questions but I have told him I would accept any suggestions coming from him.

However there is a big set-back. In your original testimony it seems you declared that the will was drawn up in the house; and when you had to take deposition, you swore that it was drawn up at the office of Elliott’s lawyers, that they asked the questions and wrote it while he was an observer. And if this is so it might be binding unless it was declared she was legally incompetent.

I understand that Ellis of Ellis & Levy is dead. When I first protested about the arrangements he said I should have nothing to fear, that any pressure on Elliott’s part would make a one-sided will impossible. This is the only “expert” have met in the usual sense of “expert.”

I shall bring your letter to him.

As I was not present during the deposition and actually do not know what happened excepting by hearsay, at the moment your sworn testimony may not help me much; it may even be the other way around.

It is rainy here today!

May have to return to Santa Barbara to see if there is an opportunity there for me.

Love,

Samuel

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco 3, Calif.

December 28, 1966

Dear Piero, Marion and Marianna:

Thanks for the Christmas card. Yes, this has been the best winter of my life. Seventy and still going strong.

Our second family battle has been settled amicably and there is also a chance for a third dividend. This has left me with enough money to plan another trip. My friend Bill Hathaway is always around and he has wished to go to New York. So we hope to leave in April.

If the third dividend comes up I shall make a new will and provide for Marianna. Any nearer relatives are either well to do or not on speaking terms, so why not? Of course that has not come yet. But the same will be true if Elliott predeceases me.

He looks much older and spends much of his income on the doctor, medicine etc. and if I am as fit as a riddle it is more like Yehudi Menuhin’s than Jack Benny’s.

When I was lonely a woman in southern California fell in love with me and then confessed she was much older than she pretended. I said, “All right I am still older than you.” Then a former lady friend came to town, I think I have mentioned, she is paralyzed and tomorrow I shall be pushing her wheel-chair around. But on top of that a former pal of mine showed up—she had long been divorced and living in this vicinity. Should I consult one of those editors for the lovelorn? At my age?

With this settled I shall devote more time than ever to manuscripts, and plans for the world. It seems crazy. Here I have been in the royal palace of Japan and Thailand and the presidential mansions of Pakistan and India and all the groups devoted to “world peace” won’t give me an interview. But I shall be off and tell you more when I reach N.Y. presuming present plans go through. I hope to leave in May for England.

Please remember me to your family, all of them.

Samuel

772 Clementina St.,

San Francisco, Calif. 94103

January 13, 1967

Dear Cousins:

Please hold your fingers crossed. After years of warfare Elliott has suddenly become my champion.

As the will stands, excepting on the matter of illness and I am not sure of that, he is entitled to or wants a considerable sum and we are supposed to share and share alike. This would mean a larger amount coming to me than I desire now, unless I hire a secretary.

I have already taken the matter up with one attorney and also with a person to be a witness. I wish to leave here by April but if the litigation is long am not sure of plans. Besides I am very optimistic now of the acceptance of my memoires and various peace plans. They are always turned down in this country and always accepted abroad and this goes on and on. And also the war goes on and on.

I have letters which, if I bring them to England, will start some furors. You would think somebody would look at them here, and I am again trying—thirty one rejections so far, and the war goes on. True, the official historian accepted them, and also his principle but it is very awkward indeed.

My health remains good and my relations with women is awful—like I was 30-40. It seems that their husbands all die. But I only want somebody interested in what I am interested in—food or peace.

My close friend, Mrs. Vocha Fiske is in town. She was once secretary to the late Count Korzybski, author of Science and Sanity and will speak on the mathematical portions of that work. Do you know it?

Please keep well and alive until I see you.

Love,

Samuel

Elliott M. Lewis

567 Ninth Avenue

San Francisco, California 94118

Wednesday, January 25, 1967

Dear Sam:

I figure that Mr. Sahlberg at the bank has my estimate of what I need immediately to fix up the house already. Now, I figure he wants to know Why you need money and what for.

Well, you can tell him that if Elliott gets five or ten thousand you are entitled to the same amount from the estate. Also if you need money, Elliott should get the same amount.

Also, you may tell him you need funds to complete your education and you want to travel to England or wherever you want to go to and that you want to go back to India and Pakistan and establish residence there; that you had been there in 1960 and 1961 and made wonderful contacts there and they want you back. Also you intend to live there for the remainder of your life etc. etc. Do not tell him your business. This is your affair and nobody else’s.

You may repeat that this estate is for our personal benefit before charity. Send me a copy of the letter you write. Also if you wish you may consult Mr. Lachelt. But do not obligate yourself to him financially. By now you should have the check I sent to Mr. Lachelt through my attorney, Mr. Vlahos.

Rennie Colvin is my attorney. He is President of our Board of Education and serves on Committees with Dan Koshland on Jewish affairs and is one of the best attorneys in this city. Colvin had Gerald Marcus, another big attorney and a close friend of Koshland and Walter Haas, to handle the estate. Vlahos, whom you met is their trial attorney.

I feel we will have to take the bank to court. These trust departments are tough bastards. They want that account for the bank. If we go to court, the bank will not like that as they will not like the publicity. If we go to court, I may have Art Rosenbaum of the Chronicle and one of the big staff writers of the Examiner write an article roasting that bank. The bank will not like this and probably come through without a court case after Colvin has papers served.

Sometime in the near future I want you to go with me when I visit Henrietta and Don Palmer. They are my very dearest personal friends. They have the keys to the house and Henrietta has a power of Attorney to act for me in case of emergency. In 1962 when I was in the hospital 39 days they took care of me, the house and everything.

Their three and a half year old grandson telephones them without any help and says, “Grandma come over and play with me.” A wonderful child. Two weeks ago I had supper at the Palmers and Henrietta asked me what I wanted and I said, “tripe Spanish with rice.” I brought two empty quart jars with and said, “one is for tonight and one for next time.” I got the jar full to take home.

Let me have a copy of your letter to Mr. Sahlberg.

Good luck,

Elliott

February 3, 1967

My dear Marion:

This is a strange letter written under pressure but not containing anything necessarily “bad.”

I have had two terrific fights in life. One is still going on, that in the midst of international strife nobody is in a worst position that those of us whom I call “Sarkhanians” who have lived in Asia, worked in Asia, broken down the social barriers between races and classes and faced those problems which Asians say are problems.

One has against him the whole culture which Lord Snow calls “Literary-humanist, and one has for him the whole culture which he calls “scientific.” And while the lips and pens of politicians and commentators call for “new ideas” and “more information” they are almost unanimous against receiving either ideas or information.

We are having a war in Vietnam because my dear late friend, Robert Clifton, who was a very real “Ugly American” or as I call them now, “Sarkhanian” was turned down by everybody and died of a broken heart. And I am going to a Tibetan relief dinner soon, a country taken over by China because my friend Nicole Smith was turned down also. Nicole Smith was believed in his “Burma Road” and totally disbelieved when he told of communist invasions of Tibet. Today as a Nation we believe what we want to believe and events have nothing to do with it.

I have, fortunately, been successful with two of our official historians who are quite willing, even compelled, to publish facts. But the rest is hopeless in the literary-humanist field and hopeful in the scientific field.

Even now I am in the ridiculous position of having the American member of the World Bank learning of my career and considering me seriously while the State Department ignores all correspondence.

The successful termination of my mother’s estate, though not leaving much due to an interminable illness, is enabling me to go to England. Plans were to cross the country with my friend, Bill Hathaway, see you, meet Uncle Harry in Montreal to see the Fair; take the ship to England and return to meet my goddaughter, Miss Khawar Khan, who is coming to this country on a “sabbatical” and take her to Oklahoma on the way west. But this plan has been interrupted by a matter which may be of more interest and concern to you.

Elliott has lost a fortune trying to keep me from getting modest bequests. Our father’s executors, or trustees, have taken advantage of the situation to keep the moneys he left, which are piling up at a rapid rate. Although the Will definitely calls for the duty to look after us, it has not been done.

I have had to live modestly and Elliott has had heavy sieges of illness, broken bones and other misfortunes. His preset attorneys have showed him the folly of personal feelings which now hit him in the pocket book.

On the top of that the various kin of Uncle Harry and other people (not Uncle Harry himself) have taken advantage of the situation and squeezed large sums out of him. Now when he needs help he can’t get it from them. So a long enmity has made him see the advantage of joining forces. Besides we are on in years and at least he admits I am going to outlive him considerably.

He has had reason to regret his present Will a fact I mention for quite objective reasons:

a. Grandma Krause’s Jewelry. I understand she left a lot of valuables and they were not mentioned in my mother’s Will, being heirlooms. Elliott asked me what to do, he having lost all feeling about our immediate cousins. “Why not leave or give them to Marion Mann? After all she is descended from Grandma Krause.” “Good idea.”

b. Next of Kin. I don’t know about the legalities of it but I said that in my present Will I had you and Richard as “next-of-kin,” but this did not cover much money and would mean little other than sentiment unless….

c. Joint Effort. We hope to meet with our attorneys soon both to recover portions of the accumulated capital and to force a definite interpretation of the Will of Jacob E. Lewis. There seems to be general agreement on this.

At the moment Elliott needs considerably more than I do but I am all for what he wants. I told my lawyer I could use an equal sum to hire a secretary, that my memoires and files are full of important historical material.

Elliott has gotten hold of letters I have written others and for reasons I do not know he is in favor of my work in Asia and is opposed to my connections here. He seems to be mad at lots of people and groups here—which need not concern us.

To sum up we are going to insist both on a discrete interpretation of the Will, an increment of moneys, etc. and then re-make our own Wills.

I am not going into Elliott’s private affairs but if we am become friendly as we have not, I am going to try to see that he put you and your family into his will and remove the Rosenthals.

At the present time he seems to have selected as heir a woman who was our playmate when young and whose grandmother was a cousin of Grandma Krause, not very close kin, indeed beyond the legal limit which is second cousin. I don’t mind that excepting as to family heirlooms.

More important: any kind of success would bring me enough money to put aside a small, or larger amount which I would “freeze” so to speak but hope to see you before too long. This does not put you, or Richard, under any obligation whatever, and while this is not a promise, it is a plan.

The god-daughter mentioned above is quite well-to-do and she wants me to have a home in Lahore, Pakistan. But there are two other projects which would mean splitting the rest of my life between the respective countries.

Elliott is also in favor of my Oriental efforts and plan to write memoires. This becomes more complicated when one mentions the dramatic events going on here such as the complex on the Berkeley campus and the LSD events here. I don’t want to go into these. But my lectures are full of memoires and dramas in which I have been a participant and which the young, and I hope the future generation will pay a little attention to eye-witnesses of dramas whether in the East or West.

When I called recently on Bishop Pike he nearly hit the ceiling when I told him just a couple and the rejection of eye-witness reports by so many “respectables.” Well, that is the world we live in.

I am now over 70, don’t look or act like it and there are still lady friends around.

Love,

Samuel

July 2, 1967

My dear Cousins:

This is a late answer to your letter of February 24th but it may be an important one. So much has happened in private and public life and I am putting this on record, so that in case of emergency, anybody who finds it can follow it up.

I shall have to be quite personal here for reasons that will be made clear as one goes along. Living in larger contexts things generally go well with me in the larger cycles and bad in the smaller cycles. I don’t know exactly where to begin.

This year I suffered for the first time from a serious disease putting me in the hospital—you can tell Alma and Guy it was the Chinese Hospital; I have a Chinese doctor, etc. and there is no question that in clearing up the latent malignancy a lot of other things were cleared up. And am now enjoying a kind of vigor, not exactly youthful but decidedly useful.

On the public side I went into the hospital in the frying-pan of Vietnam and came out in the fire of the Near East. I am one of the few individuals who has had the experience of sitting down with Zionists and with Arabs and with UN officials and working on a program upon which they might mutually agree. But excepting the American Friends of the Middle East and Asia Foundation I have been totally unsuccessful with nearly all Americans, individuals and groups. However having had experience and knowledge and contacts, correspondence is being carried on with Senator J. Sherman Cooper, the only men who has lived in Asia, with Asians and won the respect of them.

Yesterday I received just three letters—Americans do not usually answer me—one from President Z. Hussein of India, one from the office of her serene Highness, Princess Poon Diskul in Thailand and one from Art Hoppe. He is a local newsman and told me he would never have gotten along at the UN without my advice.

There are two aspects of the Near East upon which I have been working for years, religion and desert reclamation. In general all efforts in religion fail in this country, succeed abroad; and nearly all efforts on desert reclamation succeed. I don’t want to go into that here but I always tell Art, “If you can’t lick ‘em, laugh at ‘em.”

The relations between Elliott and I have cleared up entirely so far as you are concerned. We had long litigation. I was cut out of my mother’s will, brought suits, and my own attorney and I were paid off—thus a plan to go to European, cancelled by illness.

My lawyer, Ted Lachelt, asked me to make up and I said, “He will either double-cross me or become my champion. I know him.” Within 24 hours Elliott became my champion.

We then joined forces on my father’s estate. Elliott had figured out that we could be getting $1,000 a month for life without touching the principle. I have been living in the Styx. He was all ready to have cameras and newsmen visit Clementina St. and take pictures. The trustees must have guessed it for they more than doubled my income and somewhat increased his. This means moving into this house—along with an old friend, and making plans for the future.

In order to prevent further litigation we reached agreements. Elliott has gained nothing by fighting me. A number of attorneys have benefited and I, of course, have lost. But that is gone by. And I told him that in case of death I would leave him nothing but make him my executor, which satisfied him. Roughly speaking, in case I leave the world first, with a few small exceptions and books, the moneys would be divided between you and the University of California, Los Angeles.

But if he predeceases me—generally his health is not good, I shall be faced with the unusual situation of having more money than I would know what to do with. So I suggested—and he agreed—that we would do what we could for Marianna, subject to the proviso that by that time you might have more children, or by that time Richard might be married. Of course this is on paper.

Now I am hiring a part-time secretary and other things look bright. I am hoping by October to make a suitable will. You will understand that there are unusual factors of doctor, hospital, advance income tax etc. which prevent me from formulating a clear budget but I think these will be over.

There are some other things. Though I have lady friends, the attachments are not great and with one single exception none of them could face the careers I must face, have had to face. Then there is the pleasure and temptation of “foster daughters.” Up till now this has been “safe,” the ladies in question being socially and financially secure.

The Hippy Movement is in full programs here and I have been able to penetrate where other have not. In the first place I know considerably more of Oriental philosophies than most Americans; at least Asians think so, and I, through conceit or knowledge being it. This attracts a lot of young.

The Hippy revolution seems to have a center here and I seem to get mixed up in it like I get mixed up in international affairs. Allen Ginsberg keeps crossing my trail and there is a father-complex and also a mother-hatred in him, a little of Orestes, etc.

The next thing I become a sort of father-image and must be very careful. None of my new friends is over 35, and I feel very much at home with them. Only my ubiquitous companion, Bill Hathaway is around.

There will be a seminar on Korzybski in August; cost $100. Can pay.

H. Rosenthal, Suite 103 Arlington Court,

233 East 14th St.,

Vancouver, E.C.

He has been very lonely since Aunt Elizabeth died. He made a rash move getting out of his home and away from his friends. The idea was that he would soon be getting another pension if he lived in Canada and this may come along but in the meanwhile he is not too happy, and rather lonely.

He has been also caught in family litigation and has not benefited much.

My relation with universities is improving. On the one hand I am engaged in collecting materials, “How California Can Help Asia” and on the other in personal relations. One of the most importing is Huston Smith of MIT. I met him at the Psychedelic Conference. The conference leaned on Prof. Cohen of UCLA who leaned on Smith who has since accepted all my credentials and backgrounds.

Alice becomes my secretary Wednesday. She is a student alike of Horticulture, General Science and Oriental Philosophy and we have the same side-diversions.

My illness softened Elliott and after that he also became ill. We run in such different channels. He is in the entertainment world and I am in the worlds of the sciences and Asian matters, but also near dancing.

No doubt this letter rambles. Since April life has been in all sorts of throes but I feel the coming of stability. I keep in touch with Gavin Arthur, the Astrologer. He also saw Jayne Mansfield and I may discuss that horoscope. He did not tell me about it.

I used to say: “Gavin, I am going to insult you. You are better than Jean Dixon.” After the TV showing of that woman, there is no comparison. She has nothing but good public relations. I know many people who have predicted present event.

I don’t know when I can travel. No long trips for a while, but air lines not forbidden. I am glad to adjust to a rhythm, feeling ageless but knowing I am on in years.

Let me know if you can come this way. Last night we went to an Indonesian restaurant. I saved money by illness, not going to England and Canada, but for two months out of everything.

Love and best wishes,

Samuel

40 Atlantic St.

West Gloucester, Mass.

Dec. 23, 1967

Dear Sam:

Eva, Bobby and I want to wish you the best of health for the coming years. The season for camping is over and I planted the garden with winter rye a month ago and I think it is just coming up. Eva and I just came in from shoveling snow. About 5 inches fell last night and early this morning. The temperature is 35 degrees F. Yesterday is was almost 60 degrees. The birds are eating apples in the snow. I watch them as I type.

I hope you are fully recovered from you food poisoning but your inner feeling, as you say, has much to do with the use and metabolism of food. I am glad you are still deeply interested in world affairs. We have met several interested people from the Near and Far East here at Cape Inn and more so at Montreal’s great Expo 1967.

We had contact with many vital and stimulating viewpoints of people and countries at our several visits to Expo 1967 in Montreal this fall. Especially from India, Pakistan-Ceylon-Cuba-Israel-Egypt-Russia-Japan-Iceland-Finland-Holland-Australia-Italy-Greece-Czechoslovakia-Canadian and Alaskan Indians-Mexico etc. The Paintings, Architecture-Sculpture products etc were very good.

Charles Olson was in England for almost a year. When I introduced Leonard Belasco of Philadelphia and of the “Insect Trust Gazette” poetry magazine to Olson, Olson introduced me to Allen Ginsberg then, with, “Meet your cousin,” Ginsberg said “I didn’t know I had a New Gloucester cousin.”

Bob is a bio-chemist scientist with New England Nuclear Corp. They make isotopes etc. He had a 3 year graduate research fellowship at MIT before he took the job. I haven’t read Julie Medlock. I would like to read her books.

Eva and I and about six of us including Vincent Ferrini (He just published “I have the World”) studied with Gerrit Lansing (who published poetry magazine “Set”) the works of Thoreau, Emerson etc to Burrough all last winter.

You have worked long and hard on the Desert Reclamation Research Project. What are you pleased with on this? The Israelis and Arabs both have to work together, as you say. I think they will work together sooner than most people realize.

As ever,

Adolph M.

Samuel L. Lewis

Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti

Reverend He Kwang

University of Islamabad (Zen-Shi)

410 Precita Avenue

San Francisco, Calif. 94110

January 2, 1968

Dear Marion, Piero and Mariana:

Happy New Year. Before you jump at the above titles, let one say one has led a very wild life, has been on plenty of “missions impossible” and is generally disbelieved but this is not a sad story. And there is a story within the story which stimulates this letter or confession or whatever you want to call it.

One has been behind the scenes of the three areas of dispute in Asia: Vietnam, South Asia and the Near East and while everything he wrote was rejected, the two official historians accepted in full. They dare not reject obvious facts and if one has not been eye-witness, one is only one grade removed. And if you ever read “Goods for Luck” this is this person’s career plus “The Ugly American” and “Sarkhan.”

Fortunately everybody does not have closed ears and closed minds. Having too many mutual acquaintances if not friends, Senator Cooper of Kentucky began to accept and knowledge can easily be verified. Now one has several Senators who accept and someday after one is dead one’s diaries and files will be of great value. But hardly today. We have too many “experts.”

We have so many “experts” but now one is awaiting a real teacher of Real Vietnamese Buddhism who is due tomorrow. He came to San Francisco and refused to permit me to introduce him to any “experts,” only to Asia Foundation.

Then there is the Chassid Rabbi. He came from Jerusalem and was coming back to meet your madcap cousin when his own father died. One has to wait a month but one is now writing because in the absence of “experts” one may be able, or both may be able to do something to bridge the misunderstandings.

In the meanwhile there has been a strange history. For the first time in life one got really sick. One felt one would have to be here for the “Hippy Revolution”—which did not come off in the expected manner. And when one recovered peace was restored with Elliott, the income went up and “then the fun began.”

The Hippies began slowly to visit a man who knows the real philosophies and real disciplines of the real Orient, having learned them from Asians and not from graduates of Oxford, Leyden, Heidelberg or Yale. Then also some graduates of Big Ten colleges—I don’t know how it started but they are coming here and then regard me as a teacher simply because I have been rejected by their elders.

About 24 of them gave Cousin Sam a birthday party in October and then Sam gave a party (Chinese) for about 30, only four or five being of mature ages-old friends. Then at Christmas about forty gave this person a great big dinner and then another one and on New Years, and there was not a person, excepting at the first party, half of this one’s age! It seems that the old won’t listen and the young go the other way.

Even now one is on the verge of two big projects. For there are two women who have taken Sam in tow. One is Nancy who became my local God-daughter and the other is Sheila. And most of their friends are partly Jewish—good “bastards” or “Mutes,” “mixed races” and they are outside any group and they are forging their own groups.

The papers dare not tell what is really behind the Hippy movement. It is part of the “evolution” of the race and was foretold variously by Bulwer Litton, H. G. Wells and others. Only when “new” people act just as predicted it causes confusion and to me, quite unnecessary confusion.

Working with the young brings out the vitality and also brings out all the frustrated parenthood, if you want to call it that. I finally am a sort of parent and “guru” to a growing family.

I tell you this because of a single incident. A young woman came and wanted to become my pupil. One is not chasing girls and one is not running from anybody. She told me her story—wow! Her name is Marion. She has a very high intellectual and idealistic outlook; I guess even scaring men away. She looked and acted like Marion and the more she talked and the more she told the stranger it seemed! So now for a very strange “reason”—is it just “reason”—I am thinking of you often.

There is an old song: “Last night was the end of the world” and there was a certain truth in it. This formerly shy, withdrawn person has become open, embraces men and women alike and has learned, perhaps, to kiss with affection; to give more than a superficial love and tenderness and regards all these young people as part of oneself. It is a new career and perhaps a most essential career. But it is often awkward, especially socially, to find Marion acting like … Marion!

Now I guess I am stuck here. There are some big things going on underground and if one is patent, one may learn and also benefit.

The rest of the time is spent either at the University or on documents from Asia, or Asians, particularly Buddhist ones. After 33 rejections of a paper on “Vietnamese Buddhism” I met Dr. Thich Thien An from Saigon. We understood each other at sight and I am expecting him now. One finds oneself poles apart from both “Doves” and “Hawks” who avoid associating with Asians and agree on telling them that they need electricity, “education,” sanitation, etc. But they never ask what they want. We don’t ask Asians anything.

Anyhow one feels one has found purpose in life and one has anyways these young people whom one loves and protects and in turn am being loved and venerated as one did not dream to be possible.

All my love to you and Happy New Year,

Samuel

October 28, 1968

My dear Adolph [Metz] and Eve:

I am taking advantage of a certain event to write to you; i.e. “The Rejected Avatar,” one of many several epic poems has been published and is about to go on the market. This was published by some of my disciples without their asking permission, and it is a sign of a great change in my social life and otherwise.

One does not know how much news you get from out here. There is much drama largely because people plan, call in the press and get publicity. That is easy. There are 24,000 students on the Berkeley Campus of the University of California who have taken part in no demonstration and it is almost impossible for the presidents of the student bodies of the various large universities out here to be heard at all. I do not wish to confer they are silent but whatever their opinions are, they are seldom on record.

These signs of unrest come in part because a “New Race” so to speak is manifesting here. I should say that millions of “souls” formerly occupying Indian bodies are now manifesting here. They seek amalgamations of East and West, but have little leadership.

In May of last year I was on my back in a hospital. One recovered and “then the fun began.” Today one has a good income, a very solid following of about 40 disciples, growing audiences, growing response. Even my early “Glory Roads” on the reform movements of California has been resuscitated and is being used more and more. Nearly all the predictions of Mr. Whiteman and myself have come true and come true with a clarity and precision far beyond that of any Jean Dixon.

Actually the predictions were even greater in the poetry and someday I am sure these poems will be published. Today I have several young friends interested and a very beautiful young Jewish disciple now in New York who wished to help. At the least the young accept the hard, hard fact that Americans who have lived in Asian and studied with Asians may occasionally know more of Asian outlooks than newspaper men or European professors. This, unfortunately, is not part of our national ethos. We prefer excitement and personalities to truth, so we get excitement and personalities, (I think I shall vote for Paulsen but am not sure).

One is now even teaching Yoga and Dervish dances and pays no attention to the rejections of the “elite.” The closed classes are full and the first efforts to dance in the park met with unusual response. Barring rain this program will continue unabated.

We now have a Sufi home in the city of Novato some 30 miles to the north. The place was first suggested by some of the new type of commune which is being established by the young, not always with any basic principles but because that is the way they wish to live.

I am now teaching real Oriental philosophies with techniques to the young. The body is evidence for on my birthday this rather superannuated person out-danced both pretty young girls and athletic looking young men.

Besides this one is now a top consultant for two gigantic undertakings in India. These are both very promising and never mentioned by the press.

There is a strong probability of a young scientist coming here to arrange my work, research and writings. At least I have collected during the years loads of documents. Our first assumable project has to do with desert reclamation, but we shall see.

How is Bobbie? I am much interested in all people who go on adventures. I now have some disciples do that in faraway places.

Elliott is still alive and doing a little adventuring himself. Although I am older he has not the same stamina.

One has two active god-daughters. One is at Cornell working for her Ph.D. and one is in bed waiting to make me an ersatz grandfather!

There are no doubt laws of compensation but one does not always feel comfortable that in past years one was rejected no matter what one had to offer and today one is accepted no matter what one says. The truth should be somewhere between.

This poem is being reviewed this week and then will officially be on the market. If there is any sale it will lead to the gradual publicity of other poems, which will bring a mélange of fame, money and animosity. “Glory Roads” brought nothing but animosity and is now being accepted—nearly all predictions came true. The same is true of these poems, all epics.

We are now doing the dances inferred here based on the Asian doctrines of having three bodies—all scriptures teach that and all “religions” bypass it.

Love,

Sam

November 25, 1968

My dear Uncle:

I am feeling fine and most things are going along very well here. I asked for Mildred’s address to write her where I may be when she comes here. I now have two homes and split the time between them. She said she was coming here in December or January. I cannot leave this place until there are certain reports from world organizations and I have not yet these reports.

The reason I asked was just to write because she said she will be back soon, where to reach me, that is all.

There is some organizing going on which may result in an increased income and this would be followed by marketing manuscripts which I have. There is no question of publishers, there is only the question of editing the materials and send them out.

The trouble on the campus is complicated because the press, radio and TV interview everybody excepting the leaders of the students themselves. This also happened in Berkeley. When I was on the Berkeley and also on the San Francisco State campuses we were just as wild but did our deviltry off campus, never on. The campus was considered sacred.

A lot of the trouble at San Francisco State is by non-students. The whole idea of restoring racial separatism is contrary to the history of the last century. The South had separate universities and there was room for black studies. What is wanted is for non-blacks to put up the money. I have attended several courses on African Archaeology and there was a total of one single Negro in the classes.

I know several professional agitators who go around causing trouble and there is no use exposing them for they gang up on you and you will not be believed anyhow. I have found students 90% interested in studies and 10% in sex and love. And these are the ones that don’t count. At the University of California if 15 students will pay for a course they can have it; they do the paying. What is wanted is not free education, but education which others have to pay for—this is wrong and will fail.

Five days will be spent at Novato where I am laying out a vegetable gardening and also doing some dance instruction.

Love,

December 30, 1968

My dear Marion:

One appreciates your New Year’s greeting. It was impossible to celebrate Christmas in the traditional way. There has been no time. One now has two homes—one in the town of Novato some 30 miles to the north and one here. They are occupied jointly by young people and myself. The place in Novato is owned, this one rented.

The campaign “Joy without Drugs” has been succeeding. One is teaching unusual sorts of dances to arouse Joy and they succeed. And there is a strong possibility of attracting many young people.

I have had two Marions. One was an elderly lady living in Ojai. While I had no following it was lovely but as soon as Sam began attracting the young she became jealous and I never hear from her. I did wish come mature colleagues to help with the young but it is not easy.

Then there is Marion in Novato. She reminds me so much of you. She is a beautiful blonde, mostly Scandinavian and either with a mixture of Jewish blood or raised partly Jewish. Her studies were chiefly Physics and Mathematics. She has a brain, and despite her beauty this has either scared off young men or they do not come up to her ideal.

Marion and Nancy are very good friends. Nancy is now a mother. She used to be an actress and very worldly. Now she has become a beautiful matron. Sometimes I am frightened by these beautiful young women who come to my meetings. I have considerably more young men followers today but the girls are either beautiful or they attain beauty by being encouraged in self-assurance. This does something.

Samuel is not only a mixture of father and grandfather figure but wears a beard. And with Nancy’s child he is a grandfather, so he is also a grandfather to some other young children. We have one in the house at Novato.

We celebrated Christ rather than Christmas. One is offering love and tenderness to the women; strength and courage to the men, rather successfully. We are also planning a big New Year’s Eve part. In between Birthday parties. And this one has become a gourmet cook!

Your letter reminds me of some things going on. While I regard you as my legal god-daughter, I have two “spiritual” god-daughters and your life parallels each. Nancy out here has become a mother and her husband also has been making sacrifices but I am glad to report been quite successful.

The other is Khawar from Pakistan. She was the youngest full professor in all Asia at one time, and a woman! To many this would have been unthinkable. She is now at Cornell (Ithaca) work for her Ph.D. She specializes in clothing, textiles, costumery and related subjects, and all home arts.

Psychically and socially her reports are remarkably like your own.

My Christmas shopping was limited to one gift for my former roommate, a large Audubon volume—and a wagon for Nathan who lives in Novato. When we took him into the toy-store all he wanted was the whole store! He had never seen anything like it.

I am, however, closing an indirect gift for Mariana. Her horoscope showed she would be a gifted child and I am very happy about that. I made up this check before reading your letter so it can be a first contribution toward her education. At the moment I had to gift two big loans to my younger disciples, very necessary for each of the houses. But by late Spring the coast should be clear.

All love and blessings,

Samuel

February 14, 1969

My dear Elliot:

This is to confirm on paper our conversation of the other day. I do not know anything about laws governing wills. I have again gone over the last detailed report and concede that the will says we are entitled to the full income of earnings.

My conclusion is that in spirit the legatees are entitled to full benefit of the estate, excepting on points where it definitely says otherwise. It definitely says that we are entitled to the full increment of earnings. It also says that the trustees may at their discretion add to this, presumably in the case of accident, illness, etc. In 1958 I had a small illness and wished relief. They told me they could do this provided you, my brother, and the residual legatees agreed. But they suggested otherwise that this would reduce the general capital and mean a diminished dividend in succeeding periods.

I did not know then, and later reports definitely reveal, that the capital etc. principal had gone up considerably and that such relief would not have diminished our allotment. So I paid for the illness. Unfortunately my physician of that time is now dead.

Nevertheless I believe this is one of the reasons they acceded to later presence for increase. I believe that the spirit of law in general and even the particular items in our father’s will indicate that we should have relief if not benefit for our old age. If you wish an estimated budget, I must tell you I am now compelled to have both cook and housekeeper. My other general expenses have not changed. The only reason my ends meet is that I am getting some outside assistance through paid lectures. I am compelled to do this.

I agree absolutely regardless of other factors that the estate can and should pay all doctor, medical and hospital bills. This has not been done. When our father died, these costs were much less then they are now.

Therefore I am sending a copy of this to my attorney, Theodore LaShalt of San Rafael whom you have met. I am inclined counter offer. The only question is how much. I am making no decision but waiting for your further consideration.

Faithfully,

Samuel L. Lewis

cc T. LaShalt

410 Precita Ave.

San Francisco 94110

March 15, 1969

H. Rosenthal

Apt 103 Arlington Court

233 E. 14th

Vancouver, B.C./Canada

My dear uncle:

I have not heard from you for a long time. It is very difficult for me to get away from here, both because I have little spare time and because opportunities are coming very rapidly.

There is going to be an increased allotment to Elliott and myself. I do not understand law, and they do not believe it has been the intention of any deceased to leave monies to foundations unless the last wills and testaments specifically say so. In this instance the trustees, Wells Fargo & Co., have refused so far to come out with a single interpretation of phrases in the will that the needs of Elliott and myself be properly looked after in the cases of illnesses and debility due to age. I do not wish to say that they have been unjust; they have merely not come out with a clear interpretation of what has in practice become enigmatic phrases in the will, leaving us as wards of the estate. The enigma is so evident from the fact that it remains an enigma.

Last year I did not have the previous medical expenses. I understand Elliott did. I myself think we should have each $200 a month for house-keepers. In his case, he seems to be left alone in a large house. In my case, I have companions who work without a salary but otherwise provide for me.

In fact today I have two homes. In the one at Novato I am a joint owner while I live. This has been a very fortunate adventure. Many successes have come from it. I have already been written up or down in Playboy magazine for March of this year. While the article is in many ways objectionable, at least I have been mentioned, which is something. I am now getting ready to send out for publication a number of my memoirs. Or, as I said in public recently, my two greatest achievements have been to be an honored visitor at the imperial gardens in Japan, and to have been given a free meal by the Armenians, and I don’t know which is greater. My associates are also now in control of a local magazine, and it is highly probable that both articles and memoirs will be published. I have had a great many defamers, several of whom are now in public limelight, and any material from me published would complicate their careers without necessarily benefiting my awn.

Next week, we are going to have a series of birthday parties, both here in San Francisco and in Novato. They will largely center around my old friend Gavin Arthur whom you met. He will have what we call a ball, hundreds and hundreds of people. My own affair at Novato will center around both a huge curry dinner which I am cooking myself and around dances, my own choreography. It has not been known, and a lot of people would not accept, that the late Ruth St. Denis was, as I call her, my “fairy God-mother.” I am now giving to the world what she taught me. Everywhere the young people are accepting it, and more and more and more every week. In fact as I told Elliott I could not live within my present income, but fortunately am able to add to it a small but substantial sum through my own efforts. I have to find out from social security what my status is. As I worked generally for either the state or federal governments I am not covered much by social security benefits. But as I am it now over 72, I believe there is another provision covering this.

I am written up (or down) in the March issue of Playboy magazine. I could easily sue them, but I see no benefit in wasting time and effort when most of the affairs of my private life are coming out very well indeed. Danger has been my stock and trade and still is. How much do you remember of your own early life? Did you expect me to be different? I am a sort of billikin that seems to come top side up in the end. Despite a momentary cold, my health has been excellent. I am helping to build a big garden at Novato and the chances are I may have still bigger opportunities soon.

I live with 3 people here and with 6 at Novato. They are my family. Besides this, I have 2 God-daughters and a God-son. Our relations are excellent. My first God-daughter was a Pakistani, very beautiful, very successful and quite well-to-do. I did not know that when I adopted her. She is at Cornell University now and may be here this summer.

My first God-son is a mulatto. When I adopted him, I did not know his father was a millionaire, one of the wealthiest Negroes in this country. My local Goddaughter is a New York Jewess. We have a most marvelous father-and-daughter relation. And in her case I am also ersatz Grandpa and enjoying it. So you see Harry there are compensations in life, although they may come the hard way.

Sure I have problems and troubles. They have become dramatic and some of them may become public unless great caution is shown in this case by others, not by myself.

At present time I do not wish to leave here. I am busy all the time, and opportunities are with me, not around corners. If you intend to come to California I may not only be able to visit you, but even to help. I am no longer concerned with the past and its complications. Despite age, I am living as if I were a young man. I may send you some pictures soon of myself at work or play. Or as I have written Art Hoppe of the San Francisco Chronicle, I may not convince you of the truth of my philosophies, but just look at the pretty girls in my classes. O you’ll get some pictures all right. In them you may not be able to recognize the bearded hoodlum, but it is still,

your loving nephew,

Sam

April 12, 1969

My dear Uncle:

There is a man in San Francisco who knows me a long time. He asked me for $10 so he could give me letters of introduction to big people in foreign parts. I wrote back that I had been a guest of honor at the Royal Palace Grounds in Japan and Thailand and had teas in the Presidential mansions of India and Pakistan. Wherever and whenever I go abroad I am received as an important person and in this country they don’t believe it. And I am not trying to convince anybody any more, but the young people believe it. I have some pictures and a lot of diary entries.

There were certain streaks of adverturism in both Walter and yourself and I have had the same streaks and maybe still have them. It has taken years but now slowly but surely I am getting “in.” And I have to go to the university today also to have an opportunity to tell my experiences. It becomes ridiculous. Thus once I went to the Japanese Consulate here and was given the brush off. Then the chief cultural attaché came in, and bowed so delightfully that all the others lost face. And you can believe it or not, even the Prime Minister of Japan, coming here bowed to me. And when a former Prime Minister of another land came here, he got out of the line and make people come before this person. Which made them all mad.

When I was last in India at a time others could not get appointments I walked right into the home of the President and this may also happen with the present President. I gave up trying to convince people but now I am convincing university professors one by one and more and more.

One of my ideals was Sir Richard Burton. I never believed I should ever be following in his footsteps and have. He gave us a fine translation of “The Arabian Nights” and lots more.

The Playboy article has been copied. It is not a good article and friends wanted me to sue, but I had too much to do. We have a good income now from the Estate. But besides this I am earning more and more money and getting slowly larger audiences every week. I worked for both the State and Federal Governments and so did not come under Society Security, but I worked. There is an interpretation for those over 72 that they either get an allowance or are permitted to earn money. I am doing the latter now. But I have to file or else pay income tax on it. But there have also been changes in the law. I have my Social Security Card. Even now there are two seminaries considering hiring me. And I understand one of the local universities also wants me.

My home here was the place I have been living in and doing most of my work. The home in Novato was offered to me as part owner in exchange for teaching.

I have been planting both flowers and vegetables and have cooked at least two meals from the vegetables. We have a large lot but have been offered the ground next door for corn, squash and other summer crops. The weather is fine now.

I am becoming a leader of an ever growing number of young people. I am teaching them forms of dancing, the ideas coming from the late Ruth St. Denis whom I call my “fairy god mother.”

I think you will gain by living in Southern California. True, there they have had more rain this year too, but the temperature is much better. Here the wild flowers are out, wonderful. I still do hill climbing and if I don’t do mountain climbing it is because I am pretty busy. We have several cars and take trips up through Sonoma County. The apple blossoms are all out.

My health has been remarkably good. Still do physical work and hill climbing, easy. Also getting lots of Hippies off of drugs. I shall not argue over this but there is success, and the young listen to me and their elders do not. In fact things look very, very good.

Love,

Sam

April 13, 1969

My dear Marion:

It is a beautiful morning. We have had a cold, not a wet winter. There have been many predictions of earthquake here but Allah, so it seems, is planning rather to wash the State into the ocean. We have not yet had the floods of the Midwest, but the run-off is increasing and only the good weather keeps them from higher place in the news.

I am very happy to hear about Marianne. It was indicated in her horoscope. One now has two “homes,” the place in Novato being jointly owned. We had a big Spring festival on March 23, five joint birthdays and a work partner. I cooked a curry dinner for about a hundred people and about a hundred showed up.

On Saturday we had a great lamp and shush-kabob and then I cleaned it all and used it in a lamb curry. But that was not the end—the dogs and cats really used the scraps. Have five types of curry. But next party will be easier from the kitchen point of view. We are getting a May-pole and will do the dances I have choreographed. All kinds of dances come out of me like all kinds of poetry and very slowly these things are becoming known. Had a very unfavorable write-up in Playboy but at least they mentioned one. This week, after a long delay, The Oracle will appear here with articles by friends and myself. It has been doing well financially but not very regular in appearance.

Then in July the children’s party. We have dedicated part of our grounds for Nathan who will be 3. We are going to put in more equipment. Although we have plenty of room there has been no reason now to look after this little boy’s future and his mother also is planning to return to school to take up seriously teaching little children. I have now five expectant mothers. My local Goddaughter, Nancy, who reached you by phone has a bouncing little girl. But her poses are very much like my own at the same age.

The program to take the young off drugs into joy is both succeeding and not publicized. “Wrong” methods are so upsetting, and not always acceptable to those who seek refuge in publicity or personal leadership.

Marion #2 resembled you in so many ways. Same general appearance, same type of career and same slowness in finding the right sort of man. Now at last she has a sweetheart whom she can lean on. She has just built a great kiln and may go into business with Nathan’s mother, Jemila. Jemila’s husband is Mansur, my chief secretary. He is beginning to get ideas which I entirely approve of. And we expect both to work into ceramics and writing and this keeps one very busy.

Marianna’s career is starting out so like mine. But my parents never gave me a boost and from this I learned how to help others. So my following is growing.

Marin County is to the north of San Francisco. It contains the southern end of the Redwood Highway. To the south is El Casino Real which touches the old Spanish Missions and to the north quite a different country with plenty of Redwoods and rain. The Redwoods stop at the Oregon border, roughly. We do gardening of some sort every month of the year.

The Oracle may be out soon. This started as a Hippie newspaper backed by the celebrated Allen Ginsberg. Somewhere or other along the line it flopped and gradually fell into the hands of my friends. If, as they have promised, both my articles and those of friends are published I shall send a copy.

The other influence was, as you might have guessed, Timothy Leary. But these people do not have the vitality that comes to those who have disciplined themselves as this person has. There is no opposition to Marijuana but it is, to me, like a crutch and once one finds his old heartstrings, so to speak, one does not need stimulation. But neither is one preaching. There is a totally different sort of young person today, with quite different outlooks, visions, ideals, and they keep on increasing in numbers. And they have no leader and one is daring to exert a sort of leadership and influence, very very slowly and very, very gradually but also very, very successfully.

There is one thing I must certainly do and that is look for the “new education” for young children and some of my friends and associates have been interested in it. And perhaps a few years something definite will arise.

I have had several “Michaels” come to my meetings lately but do not know their last names, so will now pay particular attention.

Love,

Samuel

May 19, 1969

My dear Uncle:

Thank you for your letter of the 13th. Things are going very well for me but too much. The need to investigate Social Security was not so much to get money but to get a ruling, how much one over 72 is permitted to earn without this interfering with his general position. For my income has been going up from outside sources.

I actually paid in for more than ten years but this was under the Federal and State governments and I don’t know the rulings and really do not care.

Nor am I bothered much by the cost of living. We go to the Farmer’s Market or even buy from stands along the highways. In Novato I am now growing a number of crops and it appears we shall have more. Besides I know how to buy very cheaply at good markets; I know this city. And also where to buy dinners, fine dinners at low prices.

Do not own a car but have five at my service. No TV but one at Novato very good and one of my associates here is an engineer and he knows what to do. But little time. Have been giving 9 classes a week but two end now. One of these at San Francisco State.

There will be campus troubles as long as the war is on. The papers had an outbreak at Berkeley. I was on the campus at Davis which is near Sacramento. There was also a protest there, and it looked as if it were an anti-war protest but when literature was put into my hands it was so obviously communist or subversive. To be against the war in Vietnam and also to be against the reds puts one in a tough spot. I have had the communists and State Department both hound me at the same time. But the truth will come out. One of our very top generals just wrote me, “Dear Samuel….” I shall not give his name or the contents but there is an entirely different way of handling these things and our present State Department will not hear of them. But I have just received a letter from a U.S. Senator and am in contact with others. I don’t try to convince older people whom I know or where I have been but the young people want more and more of my memoirs and are paying, and the price is going up. I was one of the few Americans at the services for the late President of India.

I am sure the weather is fine in Vancouver now. Plans to go north have had to be changed for I have been send for to visit New Mexico, at least expenses paid. Will do this in June. No bad news only very busy.

Love,

Sam

July 7, 1969

My dear Uncle Harry:

I had been holding off writing because of several invitations to visit Seattle, where it would be easy for me to come to Vancouver. But this also I have been holding off for I am supposed to visit New Mexico as soon as I can get away from here and I cannot get away yet.

The life has been very busy, In many things you might not understand. But my relations, especially with the University of California and to some extent San Francisco State have been improving. You never read in the papers what is really going on and far far more is going on than ever becomes public. Most students and teachers are interested in education and research. I am not defending any “system” for both sides in these controversies cover a very, very small percentage of students. I have found 90% of them interested in study and 10% in love and sex and a very very small number in excitement and trouble.

My relations with the late Ruth St. Denis are now becoming public and I am teaching forms of dancing to an ever growing number of young people.

But last night after I returned to San Francisco, Elliott called and his report is not very good. He probably has his reasons for living alone in a large house. (I don’t live alone and have two homes.) I have always continued to use my body and can still hike but do a lot of gardening and this very successful, both flowers and vegetables and apparently olives, too.

I do not know what Elliott expects but will probably do it. As time has passed “family” does not mean too much. But I do have one God-son and two God-daughters and our relations are wonderful. So I am not lonely and what is more awkward I am quite well most of the time and have also my gourmet restaurants, and at the same time teach all the young people—or they teach me—how to cook gourmet. In fact on the 19th I shall have a gourmet dinner here using vegetables we have grown ourselves.

Let me know if you are coming to California. If I do not make other arrangements I am hoping to come north about the beginning of September.

Love,

Sam

September 1, 1969

My dear Irene:

I am very glad to get the details of Charlie and your family. This is what happened: My God-daughter from Pakistan is here and she was giving us a special dinner, cooking lamb the way they do in their country. We had a big houseful of guests. During that afternoon not only was Charlie in difficulty but my brother also. He was getting ready for a presumable capital operation. And before the afternoon was over a phone call came from my other God-daughter, Nancy, who lives in Sausalito, that she had suddenly become ill and needed my help!

Of course things don’t always happen like that together, and when they do they do not always mean happy endings. In this case both Charlie and my brother seem to be “under the same stars” for these two crises are temporarily (at least) over. And Nancy, my other God-daughter, recovered and now we are planning a great big Pakistani dinner with a fashion show. This will be held in conjunction with the annual Precita Park festival, which takes place right in front of this house.

My brother and I did not get long for years. I had to sue him and the lawyers urged us to get together. I said: “He will either double-cross me again or become my best friend.” But, Irene, he is now old and lonely and again leans on my as he did when we were very young, which is all to the good.

I have not been out to the Aquarium lately but am all for the Academy of Sciences. I think it is one of the brightest spots in this city, or anywhere. But with two homes and households I do not get away much. Had to write a long article on the garden in Novato and am waiting for find out when it will be published, if accepted and I believe it is accepted. We took a picture of a Hollyhock then 13 feet high! One alone, and the other with the joint families. But when I returned from a two-week stay in New Mexico I found it is still growing. And between the Hollyhock and the Pole Beans I feel like “Jack the Giant Killer” may be coming to life!

Not only have we had an unexpected surplus but these are being bartered for other things!

I had a funny letter from my over 90 year old Uncle who lives in Vancouver, B.C. When he was young he carried two six-shooters. He had lived in Mexico and San Antonio, was an Oklahoma pioneer, also lived in Denver and then in Western Canada. I am very touch like him and he can’t see it at all!

Well I have been high in the Rockies and loved it and had to tell Uncle I was doing the same as he had many years before but this old carcass is not aging as it should be according to the books! Why I even gave lessons in breathing in order to do mountain climbing. Of course the Rockies aren’t as high as the Himalayas but where I was it was higher than most of the Asian spots. However, Saadia, my Pakistani God-daughter has it all figured out. She has her own private ski resort planned and I am to be there. Only now next summer I am expected to go to New Mexico again.

Usually dry, they had an enormous amount of rain this year. I was caught in a deluge in Santa Fe and just at that moment a young friend of mine appeared! Anyhow I have had my fill of Mexican food for a while, but this week Pakistani food before we go back to plain American and Chinese. Everybody to the place I was took turns cooking and I collected the vegetables.

Now I am waiting for a call from Seattle but if it does not come, three of us will be off for a tour through Northern California, going up to Eureka, through the Trinity to Shasta, and then continue on to you ought to know where, and then down to Reno. It is still uncertain but if I go to Seattle it will not be a vacation in the true sense.

If Roberta is there she will see two of my young followers. I have a larger and larger following today, nearly all in their late twenties.

Yesterday we visited San Anselmo and Fairfax and drove up Hillside Dive. Things have changed, all built up. But we did not stay because I have Open House on Sunday Afternoons, but next week here.

It is wonderful to hear how Roberta behaves, really wonderful…. Came back without thinking this is a holiday. My Pakistani God-daughter is more interested in people than in places so we may not take her to where you visited, but personally I like the Park and Zoo. But this p.m. must go to the beach, on a private business matter.

In any event I shall write again by the 10th to let you know if we caravan, as above or not. Please tell Charlie to get well, but I won’t try to teach him mountain climbing!

Love,

Samuel

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif.

December 20, 1969

My dear Cousins:

Your will please excuse this old fossil but the pressures of life have resulted in some illness—I say pressures rather than misfortunes. For I am, and continue to be, a madventurer, and lately have made friends with other “madventurers.”

However today I am well enough to look after the “widow and orphan” at this Yuletide and begin “at home.” This year has been somewhat more fortunate financially and otherwise, but the otherwise includes a large and growing ersatz family (including another Marion, of course, also math shark, etc., the etceteras being more important than the “math shark” item).

But tell “little brother” I also have another math shark in the ersatz family. He is transferring to the University of New Mexico which is in the of the “madventuer” country. whence I received my most beautiful and loving Christmas greeting. I am wondering whether brother Tom still wishes to wander physically and mentally. On the whole he would approve of my family—with one look.

(I had my picture taken with eight beautiful girls, the guest of my Pakistani god-daughter, she put on a Pakistani fashion show here once before 1500 “Hippies,” most of the young out here being “Hippies.”)

Christmas day I go to my local God-daughter’s* house for a party. We are celebrating Christmas eve in this house with a cross—no tree, lots of candles, some incense, and a crib to be occupied by my “ersatz Grandson, Samuel Vilayat. Events with the young, and to some extent in the colleges and universities, have been going on very well.

I just talked to Elliott. Since we made up my affairs have benefited, but his health is always bad and he now tells me he is going in for an almost capital operation next month. I hope he pulls through, for if he does not should benefit tremendously and I don’t like to think of that.

My present schedule says Istanbul next March but I don’t know whether it will be via Washington or New York or both. If I do not pass through N.Y. en route must on return for I have a “dining pal” from here now in the Big City. I shall keep you informed.

*This god-daughter is Nancy whom I think you spoke to over the phone once or twice. She now has a marvelous child herself. We spent it having a paella dinner in the city of San Rafael. It was brother Tom who introduced me to paella, and I do not forget. Tell the rest of your kin that this person grows wiser as he gets older, whatever that means.

Love,

Sam

Jan. 26, 1970

Dear Marion, Pieto and Marianna:

My dear cousins. You will pardon me for writing what may be an emergency letter. I find you did receive the Christmas check but no acknowledgement.

Ordinarily this would not matter, but Elliott is now in the hospital and he may be dying—he is not sure, and the hospital is not sure. You will be glad that after 50 years animosity, we are on fairly good terms. While I would not directly count on it, his leaving this world would leave me in a very comfortable position financially.

This would necessitate a new will, and I presume at would be most proper to provide at least for the education of Marianna, etc. The details of any document sited by me would be left rather open, because Elliott himself seems to have changed his own will constantly. Other things considered, there would be two quite separate legacies coming to me, one from a final probate of my father’s estate; which would be almost immediate; the other from the probate of Elliott’s estate assuming and presuming.

My own affairs are in quite a good condition although very complex. I am awaiting a letter from Washington which would determine a date of departure for Europe, not a long stay, involving a fairly lengthy visit to the Northeastern part of this country.

I also have commitments in several Western states also.

In any event, if the aforesaid event takes place, I shall keep you informed.

Love,

Samuel

February 13, 1970

My dear Marion:

I have hesitated answering your letter of January 29 until it became fairly clear that Elliott would either recover, or leave this world. Apparently he is going to get better. But one thing seems sure, that this illness has gotten a lot of emotional and moral impurities but of him. He really now sounds all right.

There were two matters to consider: whether he would live or not; and about my trip abroad which seems now assured. Unless there is a sudden change in plans I expect to leave here for Geneva late in March. We may stop over a single night at the airport—I do not know, but will let you know. I do not think there are direct flights from here and do not care. After Geneva a short visit to London and then back to the US. but that becomes very complicated because there are many requests for visits.

Elliott has lost many of his friends. Some by death, and some because he discovered they were not friends. I am in a different position: always rejected by all and sundry, not only friendships were made with the young but as humorously written, my efforts to become a Pied Piper failed miserably, only the young showed up. But now! Even now I am preparing for a Spring festival based on my own dances, pageants and choreography. There are rumors also that this may be filmed. I do not like to look beyond.

Your invitation to paella is accepted but I can’t promise whether to stop long en route. All kinds of things are happening. Australia is now being added to my correspondence. I liked Tom marrying a Czech. I am all for more and better foods. Friends are here from New Mexico and we go to a Chinese restaurant. We have lots of good ones here as Guy and Alma discovered but we have more today, all over; excellent meals and even the most expensive are not out of line.

Already at this date I have the whole year scheduled and much of the country. Have to write a book review now for southeast Asia. Am in a class at the university. It is a very “funny” class. Almost all to students and both the teachers have lived in that part of the world. In other words, we are all “Ugly Americans” and no nonsense. We understand each other and are not understood by the press and “experts.”

The young children today are quite advanced and out here they are very different. Some of them have me pegged; but no adults dig me. It is funny, it is delightful.

Wait until Elliott is a little better. He does not want callers or mail.

Everything is so different now. I have a beard and little children call me “Santa Claus.” Whereas I used to be surrounded by children, now it is with people in their twenties and gradually also in their thirties. Neither eternal nor internal loneliness. Internal loneliness is no doubt rarer and harder to achieve, but once one knows how to surmount it one can help others in many wars. Will write when there is further news. And when I return wish to “bed-time” story for Marianna.

Love,

Sam

Feb. 21, 1970

My dear Marion:

Your last letter was very opportune. It arrived when Bill was in the house here. He has been worrying about the baby, especially as he had not heard from Daniel. He has not been too well himself, but says it is his own fault. Mansur and I hope to take a few days off this coming week, but it will be strictly business.

The dances are catching on. Several people want to knows about them including some dance teachers. We also wish to call on the Fraley’s, even if only for a few minutes.

We are very busy planning to attend a peace conference that we hope can become a peace conference and not just another one of those gatherings where famous people make delightful speeches and all go home. Usually the only beneficiaries are the travel agents. We hope to accomplish something more.

Yes, all kinds of famous people succeed in acquiring property, and why not. Those who want fame will get fame no doubt. Those who live for something more will also reach their goals if they persist.

We may go to Switzerland and after that to London, but much depends on the state of health of my brother.

I do not think we can do more than give you a telephone call. We have no time anymore for social affairs. I have not had a day off this year so far and accept that as part of life. Mansur also has been very devoted to the ideal for which we are working together.

I am also now the ersatz-grandfather of a whole flock of young children.

Love,

Sam

March 2, 1970

Dear Marion:

Until last week this person did not have a single day off this year, nor even half a day. We had to rush to southern California to see Mrs. D’Mitrieff (Bibijan) the Secretary of the Sufi movement, for we are preparing to go to Geneva. Every minute was occupied by business, and we even had to skip some meals. Our work with the Fraley’s was entirely of a spiritual nature. We did stay overnight, but not even for breakfast; that was all. All the conversation was about spiritual matters, and even there we could not fulfill our common efforts.

Mansur and Samuel leave shortly to go to Switzerland. Today we received word that our hotel reservations have been accepted. There were other pleasantries in the same general direction, indicating that we may be fulfilling the will of God, in our efforts to promote peace, and even good-will, among human beings. I must tell you that Sheikha Bhakti Engel is my spiritual sister. In the last few years I have undoubtedly seen her more on the inner planes then on the outer planes. Whatever may be true of the external world, the internal is full of love, joy, and good will, and none of the dualistic analysis which is the common human habit. I have nothing to do with her faults; I have considerable to do with her perfections.

Our trip was marked, not marred but marked, by strange events in picking up hitch-hikers, each of whom had some spiritual message for us. It was really wonderful. Nor has there been any free time since returning. The response of classes and public lectures continues to improve, and we are planning a Spring Festival every sign for which looks wonderful.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

March 10, 1970

Marion M. Martini

34008 76th St.

Jackson Heights

New York 11372

My dear cousins:

Although I dislike to use the word exciting, that is what the life is nothing else but … and then some.

We are booked to leave this city on the night of the 28th, arriving in New York very early the next morning. I have written to one of the churches in Manhattan asking if they could reserve seats for us at Easter Service. This church is involved in the international missions in which I have long been engaged, but which have been ignored. Few people have any idea of what is really going on and there is no way in which to inform them. Publications of all philosophical and social views unite in interpreting reports whether these reports are based on fact or not. For instance, recently when the first “big news” came out about Laos there was a friend in this house, a very close friend, who had lived in Laos. The American papers reported a civil war, but he and his principals left the country because nothing was happening at all. I am not going to relate his personal report, but it was corroborated down to fine detail by others and their efforts to have eye witness reports published was not only snubbed, but they were insulted to boot. I can only say that recently, while the press is reporting a tremendous civil war, the American hospital there was surprised to find no wounded were being brought in. It is this kind of knowledge which blacklists an American citizen, no matter how much he knows.

Saturday I had to submit to an examination on Southeast Asia. I think every student in the class and the two teachers have lived in some part or other of that region of the world including “little me.” You can be sure our individual and collective attitudes bear no relation whatsoever to the reports and views of any group in this country, from and including all types of communists and leftists to and through all types of conservatives and all between.

I shall not only be meeting bigwigs, many of whom I know quite well, but also the latest brochure of the Vice-President of India (Dr. Giri) at his own cognizance. I shall also carry a compendium of what I consider the finest aspects of American outlooks, outlooks also ignored by practically all politicos, but which are today loved and admired by the great majority of the young.

It is not only been part of a strange career to have been an eyewitness to many real events of real history, but I had to watch the campus outbreaks at the University of California in Berkeley and on Francisco State college, unwittingly. And equally unwittingly, we ran into some new movements around the Santa Barbara campus which you can he sure were not mentioned by the Press, communist and Birchers included.

This may help you understand why I have laughingly been writing, my efforts to become a pied Piper have failed miserably—only the young have shown up.

For many years I have longed for a happy family. I now have a happy family, or rather, two happy families, one in San Francisco in the Mission district, and the other in the city of Novato 30 miles to the north. But my Pied Piper efforts have caught up with me. A local radio-TV station had a preliminary filming of my meeting in the central part of Marin county about 20 miles north of here, last week. Wednesday and Thursday will be spent at the Novato home, and the technicians will be there. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be spent here, and the technicians will be here.

Now if we can integrate these two efforts it may mean a very revolutionary change and one can well become a public figure. And especially so if we continue to be riled over false reports and garbled news about peoples with whom we do not associate.

The theme of both these efforts is peace. I have already some nonsense ideas about peace, including:

a. Listening to Vietnamese tell us what they want.

b. Having actual Arabs and actual Israelis meet together and discuss the future of that unhappy part of the world.

c. Impelling if not compelling religious leaders of each faith to listen to religious leaders of other faiths.

d. Bringing the youths of all nations together on bases they, not us elders, will select.

As to the last, I am already called to lead a summer school in the northern part of the state of New Mexico, based on these principles.

One reason for not staying away too long is Elliot’s condition. He remains rather unwell. I think this has sobered him up tremendously. Besides that there is the complex question of the re-interpretation of our father’s will, and disposition of the capital funds of the estate. As I understood it, illness in which age was a factor should mean the release of funds, and if this verbal interpretation is borne out by facts and action, it will certainly ease my burden, for whatever is given to one is also allotted to the other.

As we will arrive very early on the morning of the 29th, I may not telephone you until we are properly assured of our preparations for departure, and also for our bus trip to Manhattan. Presumably we go to church, and then if it is open, to the Karachi Restaurant on 46th street. After that we should be “free” and would like to meet you before our departure, which will not take place until late Sunday night.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

March 28, 1970

Mr. Elliott M. Lewis

c/o Dr. Kauffman

Mt. Zion Hospital

My dear Elliott:

This is to let you know I am leaving the country within a few hours en route to Geneva, Switzerland, then London, then Boston, to be back I hope on Friday, April 24.

The nurse said you were improving. Mary Lou has taken the children away for a week’s vacation; I do not blame her. She also has her mother Mildred and her grandmother Pearl on her mind, and with the other problems she has had to face, this has been too much for her.

My own affairs have been going on very well, and I had a very successful Spring Festival in Marin county. I was only sorry you not only had to miss that, but also your birthday.

Your brother,

Samuel L. Lewis

April 8, 1970

My dear Cousins:

Things have been happening, dramatic and otherwise making for strange uncertainties.

The visit to Geneva was a surprise for all who have underrated this person who go along marvelously well with some of the world’s top prelates and spiritual leaders. And one’s “private” plans for Palestine were not only well received but one met with VIPs later on.

It is a long story into which I hall not go because on arrival there was a cable hat Elliott has died and in few moments we go to the Embassy to put in a long instance call to San Francisco. While this brings up some complications it will be a largely increased income at the least; a new will; and some provisions for Marianna. We shall try to telephone when we return on the 10th or so, the future also depending on the probability that the air-port strike is over. We shall try to phone but no assurance (one way or other) that we can meet.

Temporary address St. Ermine’s Hotel

Caxton St.,

London, W. 1

April 13, 1970

Dear Sam,

I write to you here since I cannot be sure that you would receive this before your London departure.

Your letter hints at some success in Geneva, and I do hope that it will continue.

I am sorry to hear the news of Elliott although it probably was to be expected sooner rather than later since he had been so ill. I don’t know that there is anything that I can do as I feel so remote from the whole situation. However, one does hope that he has found peace finally and that which his spirit has sought.

If we do miss you when you pass through New York, I shall be sorry and so will Marianna because she liked “Santa Claus” who made quite a hit.

Nothing much new about here since we saw you. If we can be of some help in any way, please write. Best wishes to you always.

Marion

April 26, 1970

Mr. Harry Rosenthal

Apt. 103 Arlington Court

233 E. 14th

Vancouver, B.C.

My dear Uncle Harry,

We returned home last night. I guess some mistakes were made, especially in typing, but so many wonderful things happened we were constantly amazed. Before I went away, my Pakistani god-daughter ran into difficulties because she neglected her private affairs and I determined the same should not happen to us. Therefore although everything has been going alone very very fine indeed, the death of Elliott did produce some complications, and we have considered it wisest to return home as soon as convenient.

Tomorrow night we sup with Mary Lou and her children. I think we will have no trouble in reaching an understanding. Every sign is that Mary Lou wishes to do that which is right.

I do not know whether I am mentioned in Elliott’s will or not. If he did not mention me, the will can be nullified. If he did mention me and cut me off, the will is valid. Besides this, I was certainly on record as next of kin at the hospital.

On the other hand, as matters stand, it would seem I shall be obtaining a much larger monthly allowance and that by it and through it I shall be accomplishing everything I have wished to do all my life. It is certain that all my major and minor errands have been very successful. The doors opened up for us everywhere. We hope to go to England again, but in a warmer season. The weather was miserable in London, but that was the only thing that was miserable.

I received a beautiful welcome on coming home with Mansur. Tomorrow night Mary Lou and the children; Tuesday meeting with my lawyer Ted Lachelt, Whom you have already met. Everything looks very proper and beautiful at this writing.

Love,

Samuel

May Day, 1970

My dear Dorothy and Harold:

It is a beautiful day for correspondence or anything. When I arrived in London from Geneva, there was a cable-gram that Elliott had just died. I had felt it coming, due to a very strange but momentary physiological condition.

In the last few months I guess I was as close to him as anybody and be assented to my going abroad. I had just learned that in 1968, when my cousin Mildred visited my birthday party she returned home and said, “I was wrong; I could not have been more wrong.”

Well there have been a lot of silly rumors going around. I do not expect, have never expected anything different than what happened to Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Everybody took advantage of him until…. But I am not going to work for “revenge,” there is no fun in it.

At Geneva I was totally at home with some of the biggest people in the world. I am not going into details. There will be a single speech next Friday, May 8 in public. For the rest I shall confine myself to the universities where I am most welcome and not to society and “peace” groups where I am not. Indeed there is some possibility of my writing an autobiography under the title, “The Stone that was rejected.” My secretary collected autographs and I collected most profound apologies from one after another VIP.

Sorry, but I do not need any consideration from colonels. One of my collaborators is a retired Lieutenant-General with whom I worked during the war and we are very close. The same holds true for almost everything else.

Mildred comes here next week. Uncle Harry is around and he joined Mary Lou and the
children.

While the older people snub and ignore, the young are my devotees, more and more. My work as the “god-son” of the late Ruth St. Denis has been overwhelmingly successful and so have a lot of other things. The additional income through Elliott’s death will be put to good usage. And tomorrow I shall have my own May Festival, a day late, where my own dances, choreographed by this person, will be presented. The young all over like them, and the same pattern operates in other spheres of the life.

One is still full of vigor and élan.

Faithfully,

Samuel

May 1, 1970

Dear Esther and John:

Thank you for your postal card. I did not try to reach many people on the way home from abroad. Had been to Geneva and very successful at a peace conference not reported in and by the press here but certainly well covered in Europe.

On the day I arrived in London there was a cable that Elliott had died. We had not been friends but as he grew older he found that most of his acquaintances were false friends, concerned with his money and not with his person. He became very lonely and this effect a reconciliation but he died almost friendless, while my own circle of acquaintances is constantly on the rise.

I would much rather have had him and others know about my careers. Although they have all been belittled, it seems that all of them are now succeeding. On the surface my “spiritual dances” are drawing the most attention, but entirely from the young. I was a sort of God-son to the late famous Ruth St. Denis and the fruit of it is evident.

Elliott’s last days were unfortunate. The doctors compelled him to be in the hospital; forced him under medication; he died and they have charged an enormous bill. This does not weigh upon me, and cousins who have the burden have both money and bills coming to them.

But Elliott’s death leaves me very well off and I can assure Marianna of a college education. However it is not necessary to make a new will. My old one makes Marian or assign chief heir. Only first I must replenish the coffers—the trip cost a pretty penny as it involved a secretary also.

It looks now as if we have to come east again in the Fall. I have a Summer School awaiting me for June, in New Mexico and lots of new contacts and belated recognition makes an old age look very bright. Besides I don’t feel it at all.

Hope you are both well. Am sending the copy to the Martinis to save time. Believe me there are enormous tasks—tasks not problems—to handle here.

Love,

Samuel

May 4, 1970

My dear Marion,

I have certainly been busy since returning. Elliott left his affairs in a most peculiar shape. Our father apparently anticipating this has made it possible for me to benefit somewhat without interference. At this writing I do not know exactly all that details.

In one sense I have a sort of guardianship for three small cousins. Elliott made them his heirs, whatever that means. Our uncle Harry has been here also, and wanted your address.

You will also find copy of a letter to Esther enclosed, this to save me time.

Love and Blessings,

Samuel

May 28, 1970

My dear Uncle,

Thank you for your letter of the 22nd. I am so active now there is hardly any time to pay to present day events. I shall be leaving shortly for New Mexico along with my friends, Mansur and Saul, but we shall be accompanied by three ladies with their children. They are going to a summer school which will be under my auspices in the north part of New Mexico, high in the mountains. Mansur and I have each been there before.

We shall also work on an organic garden. This business is thriving and I am benefiting both directly and indirectly because of it. In fact we are also seeking markets for our supplies because the supplies are in short abundance. And my first test of the year—with potatoes, proved to be remarkably good. Also so far the chard, New Zealand spinach and a few other things.

We have been putting in especially squashes of all kinds, and tomatoes; yesterday eggplant and peppers. Keep both my homes with lettuce, very good supply when the market price is comparatively high.

My lectures are being well attended and my dancing classes so full I shall have to split them. This may also bring in more funds. My farewell parties both in San Francisco and Marin very well attended. And fortunately health is good.

I am sorry your leg is not well. Saul here is studying both herbs and masseuse treatments. We had a girl that was paralyzed and was set for an operation but within a week she showed up to one of my dancing classes and did remarkably well. But one cannot always promise that.

My next address for June will be

Lama Foundation

Box 444,

San Cristobal, New Mexico 87564

Love,

Sam

Dec. 1, 1970

Dear Uncle Harry,

It is very difficult for me to write for the quite unusual reason that something is always happening. There is a professor at the University of California who is teaching both the philosophy to which I adhere and the Dances which have come to the world through my person. This afternoon I have to go out to visit an important teacher from India, then to return and go back to the Berkeley campus to lecture. It is fortunate in one sense that Tuesday is my free night, if you want to call anything free. I understand from Mildred that you have not been too well. I am not a doctor and have been so mistreated by doctors that I had to keep well without going to them, and mostly I have kept well. I got rid of arthritis years ago by living for a long time on grapefruit and certainly have enough knowledge of diet to keep myself well and also enough sense, I think, not to tell others what to do.

I cannot even urge you to come to San Francisco. You know where your friends are. I have lived mostly in Marin County and it is beginning to look I may have to live there more. For there are many signs I may be going more and more into what is called organic gardening. There are many aspects of it and I know nearly all of them. Besides that I have a sort of verbal contract that everything I grow may be marketed. Even today we are eating a lot of some large zucchinis, too large to sell, so I had to show some young people how to cook them, etc., and everybody is happy with the result. You can eat the large zucchini alone or with rice or with chopped meat like hamburger, or with cheese, or Creole. All good dishes.

It has been raining terribly here and in much of California, but this may be to the good side. I have a lot of lettuce and chard growing, and some celery root, and intend to go in more for garlic, parsley and the cabbage family.

My chief associate Moineddin Jablonski was released from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. We had a large (30 lb) turkey cooked on the stove I bought them for Christmas.

Sunday was a wonderful surprise. I was invited for brunch to 9th Avenue. I don’t think anything like that ever happened before. Most of my life I was not permitted to have guests—Elliott was but I wasn’t—but I want to forget the past. I was so happy with most of the people I met. I feel very very close to Mary Lou. And I think Mildred and I are becoming more like brother and sister which should please you. I always wanted to be a father, and life did not permit it, so I sort of adopted Marianne. She was a pathetic child when I first met her, with her parents fighting and poverty. She now has a fine husband and a very intelligent little girl to whom I am very closely attuned and she to me. Both Marianne and the little daughter Marianne look very much like Grandma Kraus.

Saul and Mildred got along fine. Saul lives on the hill just back of me and we see each other very often. (Mansur has gone into the film business and has been very busy and is very optimistic about his future.)

The general picture around here is very very fine. My Dances are spreading, and we are having a very special benefit for me in Sausalito December 20.

I am sure we would all be glad to see you if you could come this way.

Love,

Sam

December 19, 1970

My dear Cousins:

Please excuse my being over-due with a Christmas greeting. Samuel has not had a single day off since his return. And on top of that has had a case of Hives which began in New York. Only now we have learned that it is a combination of stomach infection and nervous disturbance.

But please do not react. Nothing has gone wrong; only too much. Have spoken twice at the University of California and am on excellent terms with the Alumni Association. Have had to increase my dance program and on the whole this has brought in more money. Have a contract to write which will be taken up more seriously late next month. Even now a few of my things have been published, though rather privately.

Our peace program for the Near East is progressing though the workers are few. My chief representative has been most successful in New York and is on his way now to the Near East. Tomorrow there is a great bazaar being put on in the city of Sausalito which is just across the Golden Gate Strait from here for my personal benefit and also for the Peace program.

For the first time the newspapers have recognized my existence—and so have accepted some of the efforts. The picture has appeared in several papers previously refused to admit my very existence! I have turned down a number of requests with the negative statement that a person who is accepted only because of his signature on checks is not accepted at all. This seems to have had some avail.

It is a beautiful morning, very springy after a severe rainy season.

Last night took out Uncle Harry’s grandchildren—our first time together. There are no men around due to deaths, divorces and illness. At the same time my social “family” has grown enormously. Peter Kahn, who you have met is most busy with all kinds of functions. If successful we hope to send funds or clothes to East Pakistan.

Our choral group has been totally successful and they expect to cut records immediately after the turn of the year.

Love and blessings,

Samuel

Dec. 21, 1970

Mr. Harry Rosenthal

Apt. 103, Arlington Court

233 E. 14th

Vancouver, BC

My dear Uncle,

I am sorry to hear you have to undergo operations. These are painful to say the least. I have been very fortunate in life in this direction, although I am not the least sure that I may not have to go to the hospital in the not distant future.

In fact I have just come from the doctor’s. his name is Dr. Fung, an old Chinese friend. Since I was his patient a few years back I don’t think I have even had a headache, but I caught an infection in New York, the nature of which is not clear to me. What is clear is that I have had it, and been under pain for many weeks, not always obvious.

Yesterday was a banner day in my life. My friends and associates put on a great bazaar. Despite bad weather, it was crowded. I personally had another newspaper interview, whatever that means. A local TV station also seized us up and may come to my next meeting, Wednesday. These meetings are in Sausalito and are quite well attended.

My young friend Saul was perhaps more responsible than anybody else in putting the whole thing over. We had all kinds of bazaars, excellent food (Near East styles), singing, dancing (led by myself) and other forms of entertainment, as well as a cinema showing of pictures of my own efforts and those of my disciples in various parts of the world.

The family was there and they met many of my followers and friends. This can mean their visiting my Novato place later on, but so far it has been very rainy and muddy. Other than my infection there is nothing else unfavorable. Quite the contrary. But it may be that there is a factor due to my nerves being overwrought.

Love and Blessings,

Sam

December 25, 1970

My Dear Marion,

Merry Christmas! I wish to express my appreciation of your telephone call. Yes, on the negative side I have had an infection for six weeks or so; I don’t know exactly what it is. It breaks out in pimples and rashes on the skin. I have only been to the doctor’s twice, and it was necessary for him to calm my nerves because during this period there has been very little sleep.

Years ago I had something slightly like it when some yellow jackets stung me. That was apparently an allergy, and my then doctor cured me very rapidly. But this time he did not know what it was or is, although it slightly resembles what is called scabies, there is no sign of an living creature, insect or non-insect. The way it spreads it much is like that of a fever, but there is no fever.

Outside of that, everything is marvelous. Our Bazaar held last Sunday turned out to be a great financial success. This money is to be used to promote a peace plan for the Near East and also to help the victims of East Pakistan. It was a tremendous undertaking; it manifested human brotherhood like few events or affairs have ever done. We even have now the press and radio people recognizing our work. Indeed, we have seen the result on the air, and this was also true last night. We don’t know what the next turn of events will be.

I have not had a single day off since my return. We have been low on secretaries and help, partly because of the Christmas season, and partly because of the very hard work by the young to further our endeavors.

I now have six dancing classes and three public lectures It is too much for me, but there are no failures. The hardest thing is to make people understand that help is needed, not vacations. But as things now stand, there will be help.

The Sufi philosophy and dance methods are now being offered on a small scale at the University. There is every possibility of our programs increasing. Everything looks bright. The general attendance keeps on mounting. Nothing more can be asked. Other beautiful things are also happening, such as a reconciliation with the younger members of my family. It is really marvelous.

Next month I am to go to Arizona concerning the possibility of my writings being published.

My personal representative is now on the way to the Near East, with a program we have devised which was so admired by Dr. Gunner Jarring of the U.N. And very gradually the religious peace groups are coming close to us, or we to them. Our organic gardening program has also been successful.

I am sorry to hear about Margaret Houghton, but she worked under very strenuous conditions. At least I work with those who are healthy in body and sometimes in mind. I am sorry I have no spare time at this writing, other than this,

Love and Blessings,

Samuel L. Lewis

Editors Note: This file contains letters from Paul Reps to Samuel Lewis followed by letters from Samuel Lewis to Paul Reps. It could benefit from further organization. If you would like to help, please contact the steward of the Murshid Samuel Lewis Archive.

[undated, 1957]

Dear Samuel,

            Along with this article are others to appear, startling ones coming both in Japanese and in English.

            The best Kyoto art gallery is planning an exhibit of reps art and poems; have written an article GOING TO HELL WITH A BUDDHIST NUN extolling their na-mu-a-mi-da-bu sound practice for organismal health and a talk to students or largest zen university in world was tremendous success. Am subsequently going to instruct them in their practices and this may change all zen meditation.

            Kann-on means SEE-SOUND.                       My art is      PICTURES BEFORE ART

                                                                                    POEMS BEFORE WORDS

            The blobs attract the eyes to the deep meaning of the word telegrams. Tuttle asks me for two more books. Zen flesh Zen bones appears before July; have asked them to send and bill you for 1 copy; Tuttle Co Rutland, Vermont their USA address, may be doing this so it may arrive later you for this reason. If you want in sooner airmail Tuttle and go 15 Edogawa-oho, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo.

Have received THE SCRIPTURE OF LIGHT, THE SCRIPTURE OF SOUND, THE SCRIPTURE OF BREATH, THE SCRIPTURE OF MOTION as accompanying the poems.

Instructed the monks on how to loosen their stiff necks; how they ate it up. Unknotting is the way organismally; but sound is a way too, and silent sound we ARE; this all in sound scripture.

All is well. Just thot you'd like to hear this. All constructing, no time for criticizing others, let them be as they be.

saladin

Tuttle have constructed a shrine just for my wire Buddhas that now are bowed to daily in 100 shrines thru this land and they MEAN it

[undated, probably 1957]

Samuel,

            Thanks for letter. Young East has published several articles before for me.

            Asks me to go to their summer gathering of Buddhists. Probably wont have time.

            Since writing you enclosed letter my exhibit broke.

            The chief gallery of Kyoto offered the space.

            I bought a lot of bamboo poles for 100 yen, 30 cents hung them horizontally all about the room, edges intermeshing, poems on thinnest Japanese paper as enclosed fixed to bamboo, bottoms lose.

            White clothes with Reps poems on them too, silk, and the whole exhibit waves slightly in the wind; the only one ever where all the pictures are moving.

            Crowded with viewers.

            TV came in and sent it twice all over Japan.

            Japanese Mainichi wrote it up splendidly, followed next day with still better article.

            English Times about Reps Yesterday; same day English Mainichi prints my articles

            HOW TO SMOKE ROSES.

            NOH AS REVELATION

            TEA CEREMONY STINKS

            WRITING WITH WATER (calligraphy) follow. Also other reticules.

            I GAVE all my art to a poet whose wife was dying of heart trouble; as she lay she whispered to reporter If I die it will be for the success of this exhibit.

            Reporter rushes to find Reps. TV shows whole room of Reps art, then bedside of poet with dying wife; ultra-dramatic and all happening easily effortlessly without me even knowing it was to be.

            Was so discouraged about my TV showing I refused to look at it, but they woke me up, I ran down, and it was splendid.

            Talk today American Culture Center (whose officials are buying my poems and good friends) on Good and bad about Tea ceremony.

Talked again on new yoga of centering to Zen Students; they were amazed.

            ZFZB out but I haven t yet seen a copy.

            Other articles by and on reps follow.

            What more could anyone ask.

            Whole poem book to appear I hope both in Japanese and later in English. Tuttle has some for 2 more books. Lots of fun. My lovely maid ama-sans are every night, feeds me wall; I live in tree top hotel outside of Kyoto, before running stream at foot of Mt Hiei; more friends than I can handle.

            I am simply working Kyoto, and reaching thru Japan and world from one spot, not traveling.

            Thanks for your good thoughts, feelings, verve, wind, etc

                        reps-ing

[undated, august 1959]

SUBJECT: DRINKING THE STREAM

Dr Larsen—

You discussed with me how a woman told you that she reduced a growth in about a week's time by drinking the stream (urine) and that she related other marvelous cures from this practice.

As your appointed representative to gather research data on this subject over the world may I report:

CHING

old Chinese custom:

the health food man tells me that if a child is dying or a person is in some very critical situation, that if you get the stream of a young person and have them drink it they say recover, perhaps miraculously.

BERGAU

This is in line with Sophie Bergau calling for a drink of vinegar water after a severe fall to relieve the shock.

Also, once by mistake I drank strong vinegar in Japan and felt miraculously cleared out.

VEDAS

I also reported to you that in Hindu ayurvedic medicine the drinking of the first, middle and end of the stream is discussed; and, if I recall rightly, the first is best. Or is it the middle?

ORANG-UTAN

This morning, August 59, I saw the orangutan in the zoo eating a piece of meat and he waters on it and then nibbled at it, three times. In a tree.

Of course I do not claim this beast has the wisdom of shot-giving physicians, not by any means. But then he has not had the opportunity of six years study in medical school. But how did he learn this practice—from the Vedas, from the Chinese? He does not read Sanskrit nor speak Chinese.

reps

[labeled "before 1968"]

I said allah, not Allah  

I mean you should be

singing saying it, not formalizing it as a Gawd

be intimate with me

call me inayat

SAMRAM

Why write a letter to a dead men? Shamsar has been

since he was 18.

When the old folks learn what you DO and HAVE

they will love in on you. I can see 5 of them sitting

in the front row.

They will organize you, take you over, like they did IK.

BUT

IF YOU HAVE A SCHOOL

WITH NO CHARGE

and let young others run it

you can keep free of their dead bodies.

IK said Vilayat would have a hard time.

So what, do your stuff.

you took a lifetime to in build what you have,

well, start vibrating for your school

and let it flower

in a year or 10.

who wants to get initiated by a shitty old fart

who charges and poses

when he can attend the Lewis school for Soofism

and get the real low down on the real saints

who still are

fuck them old folks, men, you're IT.

[labeled "before 1968"]

Dearest Samuel,

            Your letter dances through me as

soft rain.

It is sheer delight.

If you get the Public Heath to give you credential

that you have a penus this would be worth more than

your so-called zen credentials.

I never use the world zen but when they paste it on

my book I show my face covered with shit

but

smiling.

You are a great saint. I am nobody, way way behind

chanting all ah      all ah

If it's fun it be worth doing

Your whole is FUN    

Congratulations

Let us de-sect and not constrict the in-breaths

with our esteemed self-admirations

we are

less than and turnips flies.

Here I move in the best society

in the

zoo

did I tell you spent an evening in HK with Subud

who tells me, one should learn his language

to get him

in it is song and joy etc

the english invested 25,000 in his promotion

and have to be paid back of course. The same man

that forbode me asked me in their private meeting

and it had to be private for the guys moaned, rolled,

grimaced, sat—in short—acted cracy like

for Subud said be yourself

you are lucky to have avoided goin the way of allflesh

subud smokes, wears glasses, sits in a chair,

talks and talks all the same Islam doctrine:

God, not me, does it, so you have nothing to worry

about.

He also blows huu on the person

Right now this is the sound of the wind outside

through the tree and sunlight

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

Dearest Samuel,

arrange with any printed publication (no matter how

small) for them to run a column named

             ORIENTAL POSTCARD

                        Sam Lewis

or EAST MEETS WEST

and they run them only here supply material they LIKE

no more than can be typed on postcard,

            so as a press representative you can deduct

            travel, hotel, food while away from home on

            your income tax (and if any year is a loss

            carry it over for 3 year as a deduction)

but then when you get a few articles as samples sell

them to a big newspaper

                                    and you are on your way

for you would then have a voice

you lack now

example:

                        A Norweigan who couldn't get along with

            his wife has taken her to India to find a

            doctor who may cure her illness.

                        It seems to me this is a long way to go

            to find love.

3 of these would make one postcard. You could really

do a bang-up job with such writing and REACH people

and give a whole new view of the Orient.

Also you can syndicate it later (several papers)

and have a small fortune. But it must be

SHORT

HUMAN

CONVERSATION

ADVENTURE

CLEAR

CUTTING

This is constructive

you can support the wreck of

Islam, Shinto, Buddhism etc. YOU make the new world.

saladin

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

dear samuel,

thanks for letter and right advices in deed

My ride taking me to the session came late

and almost failed me   this was disturbing to me

I expected 4 persons for dinner and that huge bunch

showed up and no food on hand

the hall, that has to be rented, was not

expected to be used, and using it, jeopardized

marion saltman's living there

along with 3 other renters from a server landlady

what to do       I simply was flabbergasted

I also was overwhelmed by the loving kind response

of the individuals showing up to hear me

and especially appreciative to you for leading

them there and being there yourself

also I was tired            after a 22 talks in colleges

and you please advise me what to do for tiredness

the book review was awful awful

japa lost in India derided in India is double-played

with your wondrous dances ! ! ! !

if you still hunger for recognition take a dozen

dancers to the orient and you will be acclaimed

by thousands

but what value is such acclamation in the end

the value is in the persons DOING IT

and, man, YOU ARE ON THE EIGHT TRACK

and just think what it will lead to, a complete

revolution in that western world IN MIND within a

decade or two or three

don't take time defending your position to others

in words          just speak to the young           not the old

well     there are those who can hear you       how

different than in Murshid's days

maybe ramdas' joy is penetrating the world mind

and compelling JOY DANCE TONE MOTION BLISS BLESSING

reps

[undated,  likely Feb 10, 1968]

the key is free

if you ask no money millions

will pour in

shamcherisdead

he could be orientallyburied

10 Feb NEW ADDRESS

reps 2439 Paauilo Place Honolulu 14 hawaii

SAMUEL

YOU ARE THE LION

SO YOU MUST GO IN THE LION'S DEN

AND WHIP AND WAKE THE SLEEPING GIANTS

YOU ARE THE ONLY MAN IN THE WORLD WHO CAN DO IT

FOR ONLY YOU HAVE HAD THE TRAINING

AND HAVE BEEN BORN FOR IT

I SUGGEST TALKS THRU THE ORIENT, FREE OF COURSE,

SPONSORED AT TIMES, BEFORE THOUSANDS

ASKING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL SUFISM

CALLED MAYHAP    the joiners

You require those who join you to join all other

groups, movements, pirs, organizations etc

and BY ACT become universalized oriented macrocosmically

IMAGINE 100 or 500 or 1,000 or 2,500

of your "members" calling on some Pir or organization

in mass en mass and saying "We have come to join you"

The Pir would swell up, open hearted, and find he had

swallowed the world.

I see no reason you might not extend this "move-meant"

even to nations.

You have to keep it BIG and SIMPLE You can do it! 

I don’t care what you call it.

                        reps

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

THE CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION OF ME

When I was a small boy in knee pants

I was forced to

(A)   wear a stiff collar

         that dug into my neck and gave me boils,

(B)    and sit in church for an hour and a half

         each Sunday, and

(C)    listen to the droning of en old preacher

         extolling his idea of God, on and on and on.

Before that for another two hours

I was compelled to attend a Sunday School

taught by his chief assistant,

a rigid man who claimed decisively

that only Presbyterians were right

and that all others would go to hell

and fry there.

These were his Sunday claims.

Weekdays he was head of the packing house

slaughtering thousands of animals in hot blood.

The stench was awful. The shrieks and groans

of the animals was unbearable. I can still hear them.

I soon wrote the preacher a letter resigning from

the church. This was my experience with Christianity.

I have observed Christian missionaries over the

world asserting their rightness too, demeaning

the faiths of other races as inferior.

They were their part to turn the world

against whitey.

God, whispered to me, "Whatever you do,

don't call me God."

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

Reps is booked to give seminars

Wainright House, Tarrytown NY Fri eve May 24, Sat Sun. 25, 26

Oasis, Oasis / Midwest Center for potential

                        3542 N. Kimball Ave.

                        Chicago Sat. Sunday June 1 - 2

Kairos near San Diego at

Rancho Santa Fe Lama Govinda Fri June 7,'s S 8, 9.

What about him arriving in San Francisco, say May 17th?

This arrival date open as yet.

He returns to Hawaii after above dates.

Samuel,

The older they are the less words to them please.

Europe soil has gone out on them, overcrowded, old

at birth or before 20, too smart, know something,

no we must turn to youth.      I would much rather see you

conserve written words and put into book.

Anyway above is reps plans, only to jell date of

SF arrival remains and what he does there is anything

besides see you (and his sweetheart).

reps

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

As I see it, we are entirely overlooking

the market demand from youth,

youth younger than Hippies and wiser,

acutely wise and waiting and ready

for the message.

Not a moment is to be lost to supply

this enormous starvation, not a moment.

Service is this way, not back arguing with

people of the past about the wrongs of

other people of the past.

The tragedy of this too is that there

seems to be no one to supply this need,

no one with your background and skills

from the one stream before Islam on through.

Of course all this must have been put

into the atmosphere by the great ones,

this we know, and we knew one doing it,

but the time has come when it is here.

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

SAM

you SAY Sufism has always meant experiences

of various stages and states of consciousness.

How come? How come no one ever said that before?

If that is true, repeat, if that is true

it becomes interesting instead of bewildering.

and one then has to ascertain if it is possible

to have stages or states of consciousness

and what one does to get into them and get them

going. Pay dues? Pay fearful homage? Bow?

Sit like a stone?

Posh on the religionists. Posh. Maybe you have

a better way. If so, its about time someone

spoke such a piece.

And

told

how.

(see? function See? communication of function.

see? school.)

rePS

            don't rush me.

[undated, labeled "before 1968"]

Samuel,

            Why not no postcards, letter once a month or once

a week? Better. Very Busy.

            (dropping humility), I am not a teacher but a teacher of teachers. they make so many mistakes not having mastered both themselves and how to communicate communing.

            If IKKY (IK) wasn't a master no one is. He had had and mastered deep yoga practices. His eye instruction however threw his vision off.

            But when Murshida complained and complained to him in my Plymouth going south, where in such a box he couldn't away from her, he finally broke down and appointed me temporary head of Sufi Movement to stop her. I told her to shut up her complaints. Then she did. He couldn't.

            But Ikky would not take my advice of no-organization. He told me the organization was in order to reach people True. But that wasn't the way to do it, it turned out, he only reached goons like Sirdar the Dutchman who sterilized the words of his prayers and much else.

            Vilayat inherits the rich building at the Hague and the bunch of Holland worshippers he detests. Richness on your hands, papers galore, in the house now of the dead.

You tell it.

            If you can call NS Fatso I can call the greatest of all Ikky. Murshida advised me NOT to use Saladin in public, so I dropped it.

            I was born to be an advisor (virgo).

            So lets cook up something and advise the world.

                        re P S

[undated, labeled "probably 1968-1970"]

            Red fort, old Delhi clearly shows land must then

have been verdant and opulent (for rooms to have wide

brooks of rose water running thru them).

Hindus used or burned up land, burning cow dung.

Americans now destroying their land and themselves with

sprays, DDT etc.

            Meanwhile Australia and African lands still green.

            But really this earth is such a tiny place and almost inconsequential. However there is no death on it as soon as that experience comes the gink is born again like putting one's finger thru a newspaper. Surprise.

[undated, labeled “probably 1968-1970”]

Dearest Samuels,

                        You are not your own worst enemy but your own best

friend, as, you are like the Samurai in the movie wino has killed

all his enemies (yours are dead) and looking around says, "Dear friends

I have not slain you; this is only a dream."

            That bum reps talked for 4 years and got you finally to go to

Orient. Then he talked lay off wats and finally you did that.

Then out of nothing he began stupid ravings about you ought to have

a newspaper writing, then that came.

NOW oh now he sees a tremendous success accruing to you In Near East.

            And why not; you have the requisites

your intent (heart) is pure

your concentrations for years harmonize Moslem and Christian

you are breathing this

            It comes to say also that you can live for nothing there and let your income accrete here. You will be living as a king (we see and hope).

            Those without feel or heart ray chatter but generally sneaking, Orientals work from heart naturally. They never have been over-read.

                                    GO EAST, YOUNG MAN!

                                                                        Saladin

[undated, labeled “probably 1968-1970”]

O SAMRAM

So intensifies by sound and shape whatever it is near

so

S

intensifies AMing

in your case, right!

R

brings blood to head

is heady

understanding

so

RAM

is understanding AMing

right?

I have been led to read carefully vol 5 of Inayat

he knows the whole truth

but

talks overly (these are talks, not books)

and patronizes or talks down to the foreigners

hoping to bring them to the hindu view of god

it may work after defeat

in time

why not!

but on my repeated questions (as advice) he replied

I organize to reach more people

he very naively said that Sirdar was actually

putting the prayers together

so sirdar may be to blame for the formal fierce

organization he did word the prayers

the point to me being

the utter innocence and simplicity of view

of Inayat about this

so here we have two things, the giver and the frameup

in the book I read inbreath prolongs life outbreath

quickens the body

just the thought of that works

along with your mantram too

it is very rich food for the starving,

reps

over

my father's father fled germany to avoid

militarism

it must be in my blood

any time I have ever fought I have COMPLETELY LOST

so have no inclination to fight

my mothers father came also to st louis Mo

from england

a bit of dutch too and a swiss name

none of which seem to me reps at all

it is you who should be named saladin not me

if you want to monkey around in name form

see dec l0 LOOK mag for fine article on picasso

who says he needs meditation

and has devised a way to get it

working in still of night

[undated, labeled “probably 1968-1970”]

Remember it takes only a word

or motion of enter you

intrinsic ecstasy.

DANCE is a way too, especially

the Sufi dance invented by

Sam Lewis to actualize ALLAH.

Pay attention to his gift.

Receive it. Practice it.

If the music is too strong or the

beat too loud, STOP.

Begin again.

Do one dance well.

It takes only a word or motion

to enter you intrinsic ecstasy.

—reps

[postcard size paper, undated]

reps can’t decide

maybe you could help him

to leave this

poem speak for itself

or to accompany it with

a bit from his next book:

O sum of suns

adored

in our sun

glowing in cells

whose beloved

we are

perfect be-ing

[postcard size paper, undated]

In Orient Murshid means

teacher (school idea).

Every family has at least

one Murshid in Kashmir.

You teach me good stuff.

So you are my murshid.

I license you to call

you that, if you like to.

Teacher is better, simpler,

like SAM. SAMRAM

is not sampan.

But a murshid in awe

and fear cannot really

be dear. IK always said,

call me Inayat.

Chapter on China in Segal's

(Viking) THE RACE WAR

is worth 5 months of

newspaper writings about

China.

[postcard size paper, undated]

America will burn?

Jeanne Dixon's prophecies will come about?

One party dictatorship?

At war with China?

Disintegration of usa on purpose

to break money system and buy it all in

2ct on the dollar?

Civil war to facilitate the take-over?

[postcard size paper, undated]

Each poem

has 3 faces,

the crude picture

the few words

the spaces.

            Live it BIG + free

            in the spaces.

                        I did not make

                        the INfiniting

                        spaces.

                                    rePS

[postcard size paper, undated]

SAMRAM

It looks to me from where I sit that you are

GIVING SUFISM TO THE WORLD

perhaps for the first time in the world.

There have been religious initiations in India

That have given their method to millions. But not

out here.

You can teach private exclusive Sufism and get

some students. But think of the NEED of millions!

Why not give, give, give.        GIVE it all in a

public lecture, say, of course I can initiate you if you

wish (without charge) (no $35) but the

point is you PRACTICE. And it is so urgent let me

give you the PRACTICE right now. This throws the

thing wide open, makes you a giver and grinner

and you win the race, leaving the old folks far back

in the dust. Whoops! Then it SPREADS.

But don't forget, the Hippies are the old folks too

and YOUNGER generation is right behind the

curtain!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    reps

[on back of the above]

This is in line with the times

and increase in population.

It breaks the charge for it system.

Charging in coin or assumed respect

for a superior. Inayat said Call me Inayat.

He had everything. He just hand t solved

the communication-communion problem.

ONLY A PURE HEART gets it. What happened was you

generated big IN wish for years, now see it manifesting

not you, me, not me, IK, not IK but ALLAH , not allah

but ALL AH

            get it

                        all

                                    ah!

[postcard size paper, undated]

Murshid TOPS

He gave me a few yogic practices I do,

not even an introduction to yoga or soof.

Sirdar, with dutch cement, hardened the

prayers. Murshid let him. He killed them

like Sufis kill everything, whitey ones.

TO THEE WE GIVE WILLING SURRENDER

                        WILLING S IS LOVE.

                        We means us, feminine,

                        give, all of us.

                        IK had 4 wives.

Islam Dept Library, McGill U. has a Sufi,

Montreal,

has set of 12 books all IK, big type,

printed England, wonderful photo in each

one of him; very well done. Texts of all

old books. Must be much money behind them

for sueing purposes. They all sue each

other too. Vilayat hates small dutch so

leaves his mansion in Hague for SF old folks.

Thee: archaic for you

throws you into a fear pose,

stopped cold. Fear of father.

If you could dig IK yoga teacher

you'd find rare treasure

Ask—and receive.

[postcard size paper, undated]

Will tell Tuttle Japan to publish your book

unless an in, MSS lay there for a year unacted on

BUT your income from him will be very small

American publisher better, but be sure and get

dependable one, established.

Am having sent you from India GAYATRI RAHASYA

by a man who believes Gayatri is a yoga, not a

mantra, and the supreme one, curing all diseases.

He makes a good case for it. By test it works.

[postcard size paper, undated]

SAM

sent copy of MS 5 METHODS OF MEDITATION

to Dartmouth student, now he's reproducing

all over campus

I had talked there at times

students from U of Hawaii have group meeting

weekly immensely interested in subject

the thing's all over world

By forming a school (with an unimpeachable

Dean) this school can have a subordinate

School for Sufism etc etc and REPLACE

the false fighting whitey sufis in world

in fact, make a new international religious

world

but not if you keep turning back

to write long letters to the deadheads

over 30. It's up to you.

I do not see the

Dean as a sectarian Sufi but as an

international light assessing and USING and

commending and explaining the practices

of all religions and anti-religions.

reps

[postcard size paper, undated]

Beloved lord, almighty god.

I don't get it. Must be Sirdar's version.

Beloved means me as lover addressing beloved

then he she scares me at once with the threat

almighty god.             god almighty too stale a phrase.

so how do I juxtapose beloved (-) with almighty +

in one sentence feel thought.

Answer: I don't. Hence, frustrated.

Superimposition, talk down.

Of course we have to translate and do any word

or meaning into us

I prefer your way of doing

it perhaps more functionally; hope so

so if no condemnations, no judgments, no old folks at home

rich Hindu feel, not whitey feel

[letter size paper, undated]

It seems to me

it is an offence against man and beast

to write a letter to someone

who does not wish or invite it

praising oneself as right

and condemning others a wrong

with

sequent

English

sentenced

words words words   tothelivingdead

In the British museum 20 years or so

before I met I K

I read Walter Gorn Old's THE SIMPLE WAY

excellent prose of Lao Tze telling about

unlearning,

that later Murshid echoed in sequent prose

form.

He really taught a presence or with his

presence focused on what he named

the only being.                        Ramana

Maharshi called it the Self

It calls itself silently though all nature.

[undated]

dear Samuel,

you only exist as a figment of my imagination

(to me) but a good one

your school is wonderful

and you should give it up so it won't burden you

and your teaching is too

because you POSITIVISE negative people

and because you require SWEAT

which is simply wonderful

I get so enthused over it

but it is not my work

do not expect me to be as you are I cannot

for 20 years I have refused to take any pupil

I am not a teacher don't know enuf

in fact know nothing

when ramana maharshi had to make a deposition

before authorities he deposed he never had

taught anyone formally (but in silence?)

and this is my way

I do not believe in organization crystallization

and told Murshid so I declined his ranks

to see his whole organization

end in fighting and cursing each other to the death

of course this was not his message

but a device to reach others

but all his work ends up in

                        ALLAH MALIK no more.

Please send me once monthly if you wish a report

of your work, but not oftener as oftener takes

too much of your time and effort and my mail is

too large

especially when I leave here as I may again

any day

I feel your detailed letters all contain self

praise and condemnation of others and that if you

stopped these two you would be a much greater man

but this is only my idea

not true from another view at all

in emergency use postcard why not

I speak to colleges over usa and never prepare

just idle talk rambling conversational silly

but I refuse to formalize          this is my way

I do not believe in exclusivism in any form

ramdas highly praised sai baba

he found him "worshipped" wherever he went

sai did thousands of "miracles"

he also promised to return in an 8 year old

this he did and is with us again, doing even more

miracles and adored by lacs of Hindus

also tested by many sharp ones          this is a world

phenomenon

my duty as with murshid would only be to tell sai

he cannot crowd his books with foreign terms or

capitalize Vasnavas and come thru in total communication

he has things to learn too

in our dream of course

sai says it is a mistake to consider him as a separate

one as sai

and in this he gives world a real teaching

as the illusion of separate persons fails

on death

murshid has reappeared twice in bodies* we have

3 to consider, not one

and why only 3

why not 3 million

this is closer to the truth

there is no secret teaching

that was pushed on me in book

my simple breathing is only for the outsiders

who never can get to the place where they

ever even think of finding a "teacher" or a "way"

fumbling is better than planning

so it seems to me

so do not expect me to be like you

I cannot and do not choose to be

but as in all else am helpless in this matter

 in fact do not ex-ist

ALLAH MALIK

reps

*not in Europe

[undated]

My reply to stone who asks

for an article on zen for the magazine

if you do it please send me

a copy. It ought to be good

Justin

            in re your request

for an article on rinzai

zen I defer yor to

sam lewis

441 precita ave

san Francisco

who is well qualified

to write one this subject.

He is I believe a Rev.

Zen-shi.

Thank you for your request.

I hope this reaches you

without your zone member.

As ever

            rePS

Samuel

            Vilayat is in deed an important man

I wouldn't want the load of all this plus

two women

            you can have it

            thank you for your spirited information!

reps

[undated]

O Samuel,

         Inayat used to say that mysticism of sound

was much much longer and had been boiled way

down

         I bought a set of the books alter sending

you yours

         observing my re-acts to your good letter

I find it declarative where you quote murshid

and coming alive where you experience

R and Q

         why is this? I ask me

         maybe because it had been boiled down?

or spoken to a living dead audience?

or carefully articulated constructed?

         did you know Inayat used to have an

office in Chicago with his name on the door?

         did you know he was married four times?

         did you know he was murdered poisoned?

         saida claimed so, said his illness was

not such as to cause a sudden violent death

when miss stam phoned the physician he said give him one more pill

         his whole line had died from poison before

him I was told

         it must have been so since at the moment

of his death I experienced such strong reactions

of something entirely wrong

         it is not a pleasant death to be shot

in stomach they say

         there is only one samuel lewis uniquely yours

         money station support recognition titles people

all this behind Vilayat carries him on

and cannot be jettisoned         I think you have

jettisoned pretty well

the real zen answers live under bridges

the Japanese used to tell me over and over

[undated]

O SAMUEL

this is the first day of november in this year!

I asked for your SCHOOL

and you have it gloriously

now I ask for this:

instead of calling it sufi and yoga dances name it

SUFI YOGA AND QUAKER DANCING

the first makes you imposing something foreign to

many simple folk

the second includes christian and stamps you as

universal which you ARE

a quaker dance could be HUM HUM HUM Chanted by circle

and WHEE WHEE by those inside

something VERY simple setting up a sound harmony

after all quakers quake

which is itself dancing

now hire a hall for one hour only

or do so out of doors

put announcement in paper weekly for 4 weeks once weekly

SUFI YOGA AND QUAKER DANCES

8 to 9 PM only

Place date

doors open 7:30

close 8:30

$l donation

write a simple paper describing what is intended by these dances (and let me revise it)

and give it to those coming

but say the same thing on paper, explaining the dance before it starts

as a lead in, saying no spectators, all may participate

but rest as you wish

no smoking or drinking          joy without drugs please etc

and if you will limit the time to any time shorter than

the people wish—TO MAKE THEM EAGER TO COME FOR THE NEXT TIME

you will find that within the 4 weeks you will have the hall

paid for and more and MORE

now turn to next page

people are urgently wanting to DO something

and they don't know how

and they have been denied simple exercise by their cars

and mode of living

and they have been inundated with talk talk

and not knowing what to do, have turned to drugs and sex

a year ago in Canada I went to platform and said:

"Close eyes"

Everyone in room at once DID SO     it startled me!

I have had whole audience chanting ALLAH HOO

giving sufism away

they love it

in a huge auditorium in Wisconsin a few days ago

I started with everyone standing up etc and moving

they were startled

and did it delightingly

why? because a vast college format has been erected

on people with droning talking lecturers they have to

listen to saying nothing but words

they are sick and tired of it

but this is all they get

so an enormous demand has sprung up for something more aliving

imagine then

SUFI YOGA AND QUAKER DANCING spreading through the whole

country. You need 100 teachers at once

but you must formulate it simply

so no one will be shut out of it by esotericisms

it matters little how crude the movement is

it matters MUCH if you DO it

it matters 1% if it is awkwardly done

IT MATTERS 99% IF YOU DO IT

Why?

because in doing

you move in joy without drugs

and unlike the old square dancing with one caller

here everyone both sings and moves

Since everyone world over imitates USA in buildings,

hotels, blacktop, refrigerators, movies etc

I see no reason why this dancing may not spread world-wide

anyway I have multiplied myself a million times to penetrate

world mind (in my dream) so there is no reason you may not

put forth 10 or 1,000 Samuels.

HOW ABOUT THAT!

reps

[undated]

YOU WILL ADMIT THE QUAKERS ARE MOSTLY DEFUNCT

why? because they can t handle words with words

SO IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

SO ARE OTHER CHURCHES

LETS GET THE YOGIN UP OFF HIS ASS

LETS PUT LIFE IN THE QUAKERS WHO ARE AFRAID TO QUAKE

LETS MAKE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE POSSIBLE           THEY ARE GOOD FOLK TOO

reps

[undated]

samuel

         of course they want to change and dress up the legend of Inayat

         he left Europe secretly on a boat with Miss Stam Saida told me

         she was with him in India but he required her to keep in purdah and she bitterly didn't like this and on boat too

         she was with him when he died and it happened suddenly from one pill Murshid in a kneeling position

         hasan nizami told me he knew nothing of it until a time afterwards

         that Murshid had gone to the english hotel where he died and he might have come to him

         he felt a bit put out about this and went to length to tell me it TWICE

         he also told me the Europeans came to dig up his body and take it back

         and while he objected he finally agreed with them and said he himself would do the removing

         he did and it had scarcely any decay to it at all only in the feet

         he thought this remarkable

         then they gave up and they put it back

         a raw shockeroo of a tale!

         I told murshid in SF he should not quarter WITH Miss Stam but he disregarded my observation

         no doubt the english knew all about his life

         he had to leave england suddenly without clothes anything

fled to France his life was threatened said Saida

         all this detail has of course nothing to do with his "message" just news

         afterwards miss stam went about europe talking against him and telling horrible things about him, saida said

         saida said her place would go to Vilayat / if it has there's a quarter of a million property right there and records papers of murshid's talks, oodles Sirdar spent a lifetime recording I have sat reading some of them until I could read no more no doubt that is THE library

         how about that! you wrote me you had a teaching beyond murshid's, jnana no doubt but you never gave any detail

lost it?

         remember THERE IS NO ONE LIKE SAMUEL             be HE!

                                                                                                reps

also not so long; before Murshid was bitterly shocked by

the murder in the street of a friend close to him

I do not believe in asceticism

the ramakrishna order ruling out women and sex

have handicapped themselves since its founding

by this attitude

moslems do better

[undated]

SAM

probably every reverend is suspected of being a

fake, except by some old women, a home,

a pretender

ditch your old self-praising letterheads and

            LEWIS SCHOOL OF COMPARATIVE

                                                RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

                                    S. Lewis, Dean

EVERYONE without exception LIKES

a school.

Besides this is what you are doing.

Money, big money can be raised for a school,

especially inviting the donor to attend

Everyone wants their child to go to school

and learn something, the bastard

so they are all for a school

Almost every college has a similar chair

and an office lined with books

to study religion and philosophy is the thing

In this sense the subject is not outmoded.

A Dean is a very important man and welcome anywhere.

If you call it a LOVE SCHOOL all, all the youth will

like it and adults dislike it, so hard to support.

Just a notion from the ocean,

                                                rePS

[undated]

SAM

announces

a marriage

at the Zendo

between

To-Lun, superman

and

Krishnabai, superwoman.

All are IN-vited.

RSVP                            reps

[undated]

Dear Samuel,

It is very funny to hear you complaining for assistance and being loaded under a huge pile of papers because this could not have happened if paper had not been in-vented.

As a mathematician you surely know cells compound and that you are only beginning this compounding and that 1 secretary leads to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 16 and soon to a zillion pentagon trap. Why not set fire to the whole works?

This is only my notion of course. This is why I try to write poems of few words. I am trying to conserve on paper for you.

Mike Murphy who phoned you had me give two see seminars at Big Sur. One he paid my way from Japan, $800 for. I do not like seminars for paying older folk, but only youth. I wrote him to get me a free talk in a hall if he wished or could.

I have spoken at Zen Center but am overwhelmed at being imposed on by a Japanese shrine that looks like a kind of out of this world skyscraper village—and no one ever explains to me what the contraption is all about. Does it hold the bones of gods and dogs?

Please do not overestimate reps. He is a nothing of a nothing, no more, a disturbance unnecessarily, and a very poor polemist. Really he is a pawn of the skies. Not only secretaries, he smells.

undated]

letter to reps:

Naturally, I still do Maharishi meditation,

though he is down on me for not helping him in his

"movement" and previously turning down his request

to manage his finances ("I don't want to sell God,

Maharishi."—"Why not, it's being done all over

the world every day"—("That's right , but not by me").

What he teaches—mental Japa on a Mantra

given by Guru (and stepped up as time goes on)

is very valid. He himself is a great teacher,

great salesman. To sell, he compromised some.

I do not like religious financial movements,

with In groups and Out groups, and

Important people (all important).

My friend Sasaki Roshi here in

Gardena from Myosinji, only speaks

in pure non-dual terms. No compromise,

no fooling people—so he can never have

the following of Maharishi, who,

nevertheless, is doing good work.

undated]

Patanjali defines yoga as a suspension of the

modification of the thinking principal.

Reps differentiates Centering from the ZFZB stories

and is told in time it will be of more interest

than the stories.

Both Huxleys, husband and wife, used it in the

teaching of kindergarten and young children.

I never met them so don't know how.

Now the 112 ways of centering confront the

reader with mind suspensions. He is baffled.

He has to do it for himself. Reps gives him

no help either. Why should he? If he has

the brains of a bunny he will crack that nut

himself.

He will try and try, and like the Hindus get

moar and maor positive positively trying

and getting nowhere when suddenly it will reverse

on him on him, + to -, and the door will open.

So, you are right when you say all it needs

is a teacher and the pupil is IN, has made

the solution. What is that? RECEPTIVE,

yes receptive to center, allah, atman,

just plain humble honest thanking loving

and it's done.

Only the teacher is needed to keep the rig

on the track. By saying teacher, this means

for anyone. If I say Guru I Hinduize it. If I

say Roshi I dull it. If I say teacher, this

means a school and everyone likes a school,

yes they do.

In sum, the demand is so huge and already

around the corner that to limit the gift to a

few initiates is to possess it for one's own

ends and spoil everything including oneself.

The old folks have had it. Let's remember

them kindly.

            reps

reps: paauilo, Hawaii 96776

SPROUT TO LIFE

paul reps

Please sprout to life. Do it in this way.

Live foods build live cells. Dead foods congest cells.

So think, feel, breathe, move, rest lively and eat live foods. The most live foods are seeds.

Seeds or grains are: alfalfa, fenugreek, sesame, sunflower, rice, millet, wheat, buckwheat, soy and mung beans, lentils, oats, rye, barley, chia and many others. They usually may be found in grain and health food stores.

One way to sprout seeds:

Place 3 tablespoonfuls of a sproutable seed in a quart bottle. Soak in water for a few hours. Cover the top of the bottle with cheesecloth held in place with a rubber band.

Run water over the seeds to freshen them. Turn the bottle upside-down and let the water run out, leaving the seeds moist and the bottle on its side with the cheesecloth acting as a kind of wick.

Repeat the procedure daily or more often if necessary to keep the seeds moist. In two or three days you will have a heaping plateful of sprouted seeds rich in enzymes, hormones and other food elements yet unknown to man.

Sometime before place the bottle that may have been covered near the light so the sprouts will turn green with chlorophyll. Neither enzymes nor chlorophyll can be man-artificed.

Here you have high-quality low-stress food. Such educative indoor farming can provide you with a variety of tastes. Sprouts will help you assimilate any other foods you may choose to eat with them.

EAT THE SPROUTS FIRST, ALWAYS WITHOUT SALT. EAT ONLY WHEN HUNGRY. EAT ONLY WHEN HAPPY. EAT LESS THAN YOU WANT.

Free you from food theories and from thinking about what you eat in fear. A month's supply of alfalfa, king of sprouts, may be carried in one pocket. Horses show us how to take sprouts. They eat grass tips in preference to the grass. Other animals eat sprouts daily.

Eat the seeds with their sprouts fresh and young. This solves the raw food problem. A seed that has been in fire for even a second will not sprout. Wild animals thrive on unfired food but sicken and fail to reproduce when fed cooked food in zoos. The Chinese eat cooked foods that are live, heating them minimally and eating soon after warming.

This way of nourishment can solve the world food problem, cut food costs in half, double nourishment, lessen sickness, stop internal war and relieve the world of man-madness due in part to a deficiency of fresh enzymes. Sprouts antidote radiation. This page can save your life.

Copy it. Give 20 million copies away and see the greatest revolution in human history. Humans actually will sprout to life.

[undated]

Later I worked my way to India

and investigated many philosophies,

beliefs and practices. That is another story.

The most INlightening Hindu of all I met

in USA. His name was Inayat Khan.

I became his friend, admirer and chauffer

in California and, in a way, his student,

although at that time I could not comprehend

his religion.

He was a Sufi. He founded an organized Sufism

in Europe and USA and his followers took

his organization away from him.

They had this in common: each one was right

and each other follower of Sufism was wrong.

Almost all of them, have passed away, feeling

on their deathbeds hatred for their fellow Sufis

and satisfaction with themselves.

The point is: what is religion? What does

it mean to feel religious? Is spiritual a

kind of experience or some hair oil?

The word religious so commonly used seems

never to be defined. Can it mean a justification

for exclusion, judgment and hatred?

Have not religious people fought and killed

each other over the centuries? Is this the

religious experience?

Not at all, someone will say, at once setting

up his exclusive idea as true.

[undated]

IK: "Saladin, those who do not join us are closer to us than those who do."

Murshid said this 2 or 3 times to Saladin, once also to Murshida Martin.

He felt this.

What was the message for, humanity or a few closed mureeds?

Why were they closed? Because he closed them. He formalized something living.

He bewildered them with cherags and shakes and strange words like mureeds (not an eye wash)

and with Sirdar's help gave them stiff prayers to say like robots. More than this, he gave them a word, religion, they simply had no translation for. They knew nothing of Islam.

No wonder they were bewildered. He shut them out?

On purpose? Maybe. I often asked him, Why do you organize?

I was his teacher trying to teach him? He said, To reach more people.

Well, he reaches them in heart, the way everyone reaches.

Livelove, says reps.

BUT let this be a lesson to you? Do you wish to intimidate, threaten and stiffen more mureeds? They are too smart to go for it. Not 50% but 80% will drop it. Who will be left? The defeated ones. What a turnover. Better to turn over whole humanity.

How? Be a dean, no more. Have a school. Everyone likes the word school. Everyone is VERY suspicious of the word religious or of foreign words or systems. Make it YOUR system.

Beloved lord, almighty god

beloved means I am the lover

but right away I am confronted with

an almighty who will beat me down.

I am stopped! Sirdar at work? Dutch stiff?

reps

[undated]

dearest samuel,

being a person of some eminence,

having once been head of the Sufi

Order in USA,

(for a short time)

I must report to you I have no judgment on

or complaint of anyone claiming

he is or is not a Sufi

or that others are or are not

or about anything in particular.

When I complain it means

I am not well, not as well

as well, not as well as,

for instance all ah,

the sweetest name, so very sweet.

It is my fervent hope

that you will not look backwards

but forwards to help the stream

of youth blessing your door mat,

maybe, since the great ones

rebirth at will (or mayhap by order)

one of them being Ramdas.

reps

[undated]

dear samuel

            it would seem to me your work is so valuable

to world that you should have a place where

you can do it privately

and not have your food box raided by strangers

and your time imposed upon for jabber

            although senzaki got the stories out of

books so they were not "his" and I put them into

possible english, his was not possible, and then

got them published

            I gave all income therefrom to him during

his lifetime but I was responsible for

publishing contract

            now if you wish to republish some other

things of his you must work it your way

            however it is my opinion he fails to

communicate and I wonder if the reams of his

stuff may not discredit him by being made

available

reps gives a seminar at stanford Mch 14-16

and probably will be in SF the 16th or 17th

en route east

            what we need is a narration by you of

dervish dances 1968 (or 1970) a sequent

development of the thing and how yours fits into it

if it does and if permanent results will justify

it there is a lot of ground here never covered

            that an American should even try such a thing

is in itself a marvel and should be worth more

than any moon landing where all they do is land on

the moon         well where do your kids land?

            also there is only one snowflake

there is only one samuel and I have grave doubts

if any european can come anywhere near approximating

him      and so

            reps

[undated]

dear samuel

            thank you for this card

speaking of your life fulfillment

you have worked so hard for so long

that should have the air of great thankfulness

and rejoicing

            are the whitey sue-fees mad?

so it seems

each one while living

set himself up to JUDGE the others

to condemn the others

to ASSERT that his interpretation was right and others

wrong

and to SPEAK AGAINST other sufis

and then of course to sue them

to me this is madness

            I have long rooted for your coming

through into love and congratulate you

murshida martin come to think of it

qualified more as to 2nd PP instead of 3d

no need to send me postcards as I am well

aware of what you are doing and saying

and when travelling I do not even see them

thanks anyway

            I recall being offered head of sufi

movement in usa by one of murshid's (in europe)

relatives and GETTING OUT OF THERE within

21/2 minutes after the offer was made

            I do not wish to live a life of JUDGMENT

CONDEMNATION COMPARISON SPEAKING AGAINST

AND HATRED IN THE NAME OF LOVE

            when we have FULL access to the

unlimited blessings of ALLAH (not god)

no letters

have only writ this

to tell you I am laughing with you

all best and keep up the good work

r

[undated]

Dearest Samuel,

            unasked and unappreciated you for a long time

attached your GLORIOUS SELF to whats

and now from your letter I see you are still smelling

around the great verbalizers.

            that moslem and christians to not meet

that jews and moslems do not see eye to eye

is your fault for not articulating their commonglory

so they may instantly comprehend it

            send me $800 at once; if you cant do that send me $995. I urgently need it. In this way I will with words, (1) excuse myself from my own resultants and (2) use my in-telligence to get you to work for me.

            I do not wish to move my right hand in gear shifting or left foot to open clutch so I wish a

car with automatic shift, and when hungry I wish you to feed me with a spoon as I do not wish to lift my hand that far       so send this money at once     I know you will since you have announced yourself as a philanthropist        I hope I get your money           before someone else does

            Your evaluation of chinese philosophy is just splendid      it happens ZENFLESHZENBONES is selling BIG in England, NYC, Chicago, worldwide. This book pulls the rug out from under Buddha Zen and makes it 4,000 years old, so now the daily recitations of lineage shall have to go back before Buddha to the other Buddhas. This will take roughly a week to recite. Do not forget God is somewhere milling around in all this.

            I receive letters like enclosed; a rare tea master and dear friend is now building a home for me in a lovely valley outside of kyoto. The picture/poems are being shown now in Tokyo on obi and have been shown in 3 other large cities in Japan; about 10 such obi are bought daily and they say this revolutionized obi mfg as before only decorative works appeared on obi, not originals as art but mine is not art but before art

            Keep up the good work,

                                    Hurrah for you!

                                                Saladin

[undated]

WOULD YOU LIKE TO FEEL BETTER?

paul reps

Would you like to feel better than you have in years?

Try this: Pour two cups of water over a cupful of brown rice, bring to a boil, turn down and let simmer until the rice has sobered the water. Make this your perfect food for one or two or ten days.

Add a little sea salt, sea weed, vegetable or fish if you wish before cooking. Reduce your liquid intake as much as possible. The brown rice has sample liquidity.

What happens?

1. From the first meal the brown rice sooths your inners.

2. Providing bulk, it helps your elimination.

3. It defats.

4. It nourishes.

5. It absorbs and eliminates systemic poisons.

To verify this, eat only the brown rice without meat, potatoes, yeasted breads, canned or artificially treated foods, foods out of season, and no medicines, vitamins, liquor, sweet drinks, fruits. And no sugar.

If desired vary the rice with buckwheat greats, wheat, eats, barley, millet, corn, foods that have sustained whole civilizations for over 5,000 years. Increase the sea salt to stop the sweet craving, then diminish it since too much salt calls for too such liquid.

 This in brief, presents the macrobiotic rejuvenating procedure of George Ohsawa as practiced by thousands of persons over the world from his thirty years of teaching based on the yang-yin transformative philosophy of China.

You may read about it in his many books in Japanese, some in French, and in English from his quaint Japanese Macrobiotics, the art of rejuvenation and long life, $2 from the Ohsawa foundation, Box 238, Chico, California; 61 West 56 street, New York, USA, 8 Kasumityo, Minatoku, Tokyo, Japan, or in a macrobiotic restaurant in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo.

Why should such a seed-nourishing method have us feeling better? It limbers rather than
stiffens and ages being in an approximate proportion of 5 potassium to 1 sodium, Sugar is 4,000 to 1.

Groans of earth absorb the minerals, creatures eat the greens as seeds mutating homoglobin from chlorophyll. If one can eat 13,500 opened (cooked) seeds a day (1-1/2 cups of uncooked rice) my billion cells enjoy it. One herb bearing seed buds into 10,000. It is the source of my potential, energy and joy.

Try it.

No one can do this for you. Do what? Discover the spirit of life.

The miracle of a tiny seed transforming into a tree or packaging again into a seed is possible because of an unborn spacious expansive state unfolding and compacting tree and seed.

We are finite because of our infinite, our ever being. Speaking and chewing slowly,
considerately, our sustenance and our thanks springs from here.

[undated]

SAM

ASTOUNDING

THE ACCOUNT OF HOW THEY STOLE FAIRFAX

AND KICKED YOU OUT TO BOOT

AND GAVE MONEY TO THAT OAF.

LOOKS LIKE NO ONE LEFT BUT SAM

OF ANY CONSEQUENCE

WAS READING CONFESSIONS LAST NIGHT

WRITTEN AT 41 IT READS SURPRISINGLY

IMMATURELY BUT THEN HE WAS DEALING

WITH A WORLD OF IMMATURE PEOPLE.

ASTOUNDING

FUNNY

THINK FOR ME

I’LL BLINK FOR YOU

            r

[undated]

RPS to SAM

Never never overtalk. Cut talk to 45 minutes.

Answer ?s for 15 minutes.

Then say, we have gone an hour. Talk ended.

Anyone who must please go any time.

Those who want more, I will be glad to

answer questions.

But if you talk 1½ you begin to wear out the

weak ones in audience and even bore them though

you enthuse yourself. Hence above technique.

Give home-made bread or gifts of hearts or

something away sometimes.

Explain simply.

Hurrah, you'll have many public appearances.

These should be recompensed or as part of your

school,

shool being general, inclusive of all,

not attackable, and one can go there

to get a puzzle solved, an evaluation

not only of one but of ALL teachings

and reps says ALL are good. We need a Swami,

a Yogin, a Zen Roshi on every street corner.

(With a guide, you to explain them!)

Ceylon moribund.

LARGE LOVING FAMILY WHO LOVE EACH OTHER

man, this is it. Buddyism better than boo-ism. New age!

am giving seminar in Chicago May 11-12.

                        r e p s

[undated]

O Samuel

You are sitting atop a huge gold store.

Rip up the floorboards and you find a big white box.

With a writing on it. Read it:

We are now teaching by breath, by heart,

By eye, by atmosphere. These are universal.

They are not "metaphysical." These are

operational.

Evidently this was spoken LOOKING BACK to someone

metaphysical. But they reveal the state of world

with its ideal lost and THEY TAKE A STEP toward

replacing that lost ideal BY DOING SOMETHING

ABOUT IT.

If you school this, if you teach this, you replace

the lost devotional stance with something man

can DO. This is why I am wildly enthused over

your possibility.

Of course if you lined up 50 persons to prove it

this still would be no proof because their words

would be questioned or lost, but you too

HAVE PUT IT IN THE ATMOSPHERE.

If you possess the school or possess the function

then you are looking back and argufying with the

living dead instead of going ahead and functioning,

maybe you cant help this. The book THE RELIGIOUS

IMAGINATION by R L Ruben stein explains why.

Reps says you have only so much time and energy

and it had better be given to youth instead of

To metas. Huzzah! Banzai! Don't possess the school,

DEAN it. Don't possess anything. How can we.

The only being may be adored but unpossessed.

anyone can deny The Only Being but no one denies

the (only) being. It is too close to him.

DO NOT READ THE WORDS. They are in english. Just

LOOK LOOK LOOK at the pictures in the Sufi books.

They are sent for THAT purpose and function.

ALL to all,

r

In the days of Midrash and Aggadah these moralisms were still going on

As Nyogen used to say over and over, It may not even be

called Zen in the future.

Yes, nor soofism? What "it" is called does not matter.

Only "it" matters. not reps.

[on back of the previous page]

SAM

I sent a man named Sam to see you. I know nothing of him.

Others often use my name as a kind of a talisman to get a meal maybe. Or free lodging for 3 months.

Is that all this name will deliver?

Say, if you stopped all your doings now and just went mad writing protest letters to the living dead soofis, your work would have been accomplished. All work is, before it’s started.

All claimants with titles are afraid.

The titles are to back them up.

Actually man is a killer

often forgiven in his dream.

They are after Mahesh now for 10 years

of back income tax not declared.

They don’t like selling mediation as

groceries there and besides they

are jealous of success.

Man likes to undo man

and will if he claims anything for himself.

This is really Allah in action behind

the scenes.

But, alas, allah is a noun, and

the one=ing does not go for nouns,

but unfixes them pronto. Or near pronto.

[undated]

SAM

YOUR 3 LETTER WORDS ARE ZOW!!! FCK TOO IS A 3 letterer.

Our letters crossed; you wrote me of 5 gals and I of a book.

Cancel both.

My book idea NG; you can well write your own books better than me; also word religious no good, repellent because so much fakery under that name. Also it takes me a year to write a book, too long.

Send me Ryazat, whatever it is, if it is easily sent in one piece? If you think so.

AM IMMENSELY ENTHUSED OVER YOUR POSSIBILITIES.

YOU CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT THEM.

THEY ARE ALREADY DONE.

Have spent 8 months with Hippies over USA colleges, Canada, europe. Never talk on Sufism, just on what comes, all interested in food, drugs, an inner outlook so I talk on those. Questions galore follow.

Rough stuff but my own. Have lived ate slept with them listened to their music for 8 long months, thousands. Long story.

Also my assistances are now booking me over usa for 1968.

SO

your notes on prayers before "lectures" as you call them very precious.

I have to translate it into my language, but vary precious and RIGHT. Thank you.

There MUST be a way to teach yoga instantly and I think you hit on it. It MUST be that way, not sitting for days weeks months years paying tribute to superiors and hoping something happens.

ANOTHER THING    YOU ARE RIGHT IN SAYING to-lun is it. Yes, man. He is LIGHT. He lives on a plane far above words and meanings (concepts). He is a man worth touching and bringing an apple to.

So dear Samuel, You have the key to yoga—and its all yoking joining merging—ah yes, but how? Let's tell how.

You do, (I think) generously, lovingly and others accept it and work it. What more do you want than that, man !!!!!

Paul (one syllable) re (1) pss (1) this makes 3 syllables.

P explosive, 111 carrying it on re lifting pss warning

Those who can't IN lighten heavy burdens jabber.

Those who can, do, you and to-lun, I say.

Gosh you may be a no-fee soofi.

[undated]

O SAMRAM

how wonderful rePS can send a letter to japan and

have Soen-san scurry Tai-san from nyc to help rescue his old letters

did they ask for them?

why not give them to them I say tell them I say that

but you may have some expenses say $l,000? I do not know your mind

Soen-san is head of the great Ryutakuji where he has dedicated a poem house as reps'

probably the only one such

he started reps giving away poems as gifts everyone brings gifts in japan

Tai-san was a young man then just starting

now he has been given outright $70,000. in nyc

and as soon as this happened a fight started as to

whether to have the zendo in the city or country

Tai-san also joined the fight complaining he simply could not handle more than 70 pupils

all strong hard sitters for fro zen how simply wonderful!

Japanese never ask outright but plan long time to get what they want

as soon as they get that material you will never see them again

both these masters are my old friends for years

they are real professionals I am only an amateur outsider

those in japan always say after being there 10 years

they understand the japanese less than before

why not they don’t understand themselves

yet they have told me I understand them how come?

Soen sends me a picture card thanking me for putting him onto you saying:

            thank you very much for your letter

            all is revealed as it is now!

not bad, he?

please turn over

you can’t do anything else

cheer up

you can’t I don't do ANY thing

we only represent THAT

the name reps means this

[undated]

INNER SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL

Dean, Samuel Lewis

School of research

School of philosophy and religion

School of historic Christianity

School of Islam

School of Soofism

School of Jainism

School of Chan and Zen

School of love

In this school the students are the teachers

and any teachers, students. It is a non-profit

organization with its president appointed

by the students, free except for nominal tuition,

without examinations and brimming over with

love and joy.

To initiate, to start something, how splendid!

To possess initiation, to past tense it,

to formalize it, to say I have initiated someone

is a terrible thing. Formalization saturates small

Japan, hence no, repeat NO Japanese in Hawaii wants

to be thought of as a Japanese. They've had it,

formalization, and they want to get away from it.

A school is a living going-on thing, no one knows

where but who knows where anyway.

                                    rePS                 BANZAI!

[undated]

                        dearest samuel

                        WE MUST HAVE AN UNIVERSAL INCHANT CELEBRATING

            it isn't jay

            it isn't joy

            but JAH-EEE jai          Jahee said fast

            it sounds like joy

            it is referred by Ramdas as joy!

            Of course it is JOY! ! ! ! ! ! !

but look here

if you only chant one chant

you will be considered as those specialists

what if you have a repertoire?

AH then you are universalists

trying to show something wider and more inclusive

than private sufism

the time has come for love and joy

not exclusion and separation

Tassajara missed it when youth began coming there

from all over USA and then they prohibited them

from coming there

$300,000. raised for exclusion.

This is why AKUA

AHH KUU AH

hawaiian name for ever present BEing

should be included.

DO NOT EXCLUDE US HAWAIIANS PLEASE

we are supermen, as Fijians (See article on Fiji in squaresunsquaremoon)

            if you met one of these hawaiians

            you would KNOW they are supermen

            full of superLOVE

                                                rePS

[undated]

This is a case to get you to say Joy and love

not love and joy

if you do you put + first - second

SAM

LOVE

            follows reason

but

LIGHT

            precedes love

                        light being + and love -

to state such a thing intellectually or

comprehensively is dead wood stuff

anyone can ratiocinate and theorize and

conjecture about the cosmos and his idea

of it in it

but this is not BEing in it

BEing

            is all JOY

            and LOVE

and the BE

            cannot be possessed or exploited or owned or sold

though the living dead would like to do so. Krishnamurti

has suffered for years with his old living-dead audience

so no wonder the man moves to SF to take advantage of

your alive group         BUT

                                    BE cannot be possessed only

                                                INjoyed,

                                                            rePS

[undated]

SAMRAM

maybe

            THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

            with a subordinate phrase

            of all faiths (stinks of religion)

            of meditation (too limited, technical)

            of meditations BETTER!!

maybe

the international school of meditations

            sharing techniques

            of the world's inner practices

            usable by all men

there is still something wrong implied here

what is it?

it is the pretensiveness of it

the old-man-ness of it

it lacks a bright sense of humor YOU ARE FULL OF

it lacks a sparkle

I could see each faith asked to contribute its interpretation

IN EXPERIENCING if it has any

to state explicitly where it is going

and how it COMPARES with associate faiths in the going

            this then would force closed "religions" to open up

            AND it would put this school on top and in the center of

            all the world faiths

            and with a little adroit advertising it would draw YOUNG

            FOLKS (for scholarships) all over world

            and THEY would teach function explore visit study compare

            and elect those they wished to hear more from than a test

            half-hour

                        SAMRAM could do it                         he IS the center n o w

[undated]

Dear Samuel,

         just returned after 22 talks over usa

splendidly compensated in responses

and in dough

         mountains of mail

         your school already in effect formally

in most colleges in religion dept

With many religious attempts in book

form widely studied

         but your school is already going

in your group and need only enlarged

         to make it international get a

non-christian name god so casually used

as the moment that word is heard it is

associated with demonic christians in minds

of young quite rightly

         the only being

         perfect being

         etc etc

         the beloved is much more fucky and groovy

if not capitalized

nouns and capitals and periods are finished

         start forth again in late oct

         japan trip undecided

         talk so poor of reps we shared was

         in adverse place, christianized pretenders

trying to hang on to a dead orienting

i kept still, got out of it quietly

if I had opened up the walls would have

fallen down.

Instead of throwing away your self-production

at end with last chant

stand for a moment and

chant it through SILENTLY

then resume sitting.

(we are then in a condition TO SIT).

this last is what reps calls an INCHANT.

IT FEELS GOOD

(this is where WILL turns into WILLING)

reps

[undated]

S A MMM

now you've got me doing it

sending you copies of MY letters

you treated vilayat very nice

seems he should be your representative

as you are more comprehensive than he

imagine how that ram chant must have gripped him

well what is a better sufi chant

UUU of course

the UU thru upanishads

aUUUm akUUUUah you

but that ram chant CLEARS all verbalized atmosphere

and all humbug

of pretending teachers

all in one swoop

your invasion of world for peace is

splendid idea

only you’re going to wrong places

of course the closed religious shops

want your money and nothing else

that’s why they're closed

its as simple as that

I have visited bldg they bot in suresnes for

world temple

where he was initiated as some kind of head

as a little boy

before he was aware of anything

then he got into lawsuits, fights, bickering for an adult

lifetime also at home with catholic wife

so his nerve system is ingrained with fighting

murshid said he would have a hard life

now of course he would like to take your group over

you too and make you all constricted exclusive

self-adulant and small

that system is dead noawadays d e a d

art school sounds nice place maybe ok

made mistakes in AUKUA chant return for corrections

my mistakes, not theirs this chant very powerful

especially AFTER a 2 hr hawaiian massage by a FULL BLOODED

HAWAIIAN (only 400 left now)

RAMDAS was no fool

even tho the others were

over

with a trick signature signing the bldg at suresnes

was given to state for housing

that ended the temple dream

started the fighting

murshid's whole line ended life by poisoning,

said Saida,

he may have sensed this

shall we blame english

why did he trust english doctor to give him the pill

when stam phoned him he said, Give him another.

DONT TRUST DOCTORS, MAN

THIS IS, AS REPS SAYS,

a butterfly world.

            reps

[undated]

SAMRAM SAMRAM SAMRAM

Call it a school, any kind.

(don't take my advice but call it a school.)

Members free; others under 30, $1 admission; over, $2.

This is a free school.

Tuition carries our expenses.

Income and outgo posted for anyone to see.

A livelove school, says reps.

If you want education?

Where do you go?

To a school of course.

From where I sit it looks like you have the only

FUNCTIONING zendo in the history of the known world.

I am enthused over it?

This school deserves grants!

Some parents may come with them when

a. they are asked for and

b. when they see the school is above drugs.

A secy-treasurer can receive and bank and post

money, you countersign check; school pays you salary

or expenses so you can move around, get quarters etc

thus income is not charged against you personally.

Almost no one even imagine a FUNCTIONING school

except maybe carpenters school, electric school,

Yoga system from back is only fine entry.

From front all the bigwigs hanging around pretending.

IK fine spirit but talked too much to too old folks

lacked faintest inkling of FUNCTIONAL communication-

communion (so too dreamy).

Your school does not compete with outmoded posing

religionists but REPLACES THEM.

Another thing:

Don't forget your young folk are already old

AND A HUGE THRONG OF STILL YOUNGER ONES TEN YEARS

AHEAD OF THEIR AGE IN INNER EDUCATION IS COMING UP.

This is the real gang. O, man.

School is social too, conversational. Why not stop

all letters etc to those over 30, especially important

persons.

OVER over ov                                                                         er

A great healer came to me and gave treatment.

Very fine.

One more person who said to me,

"I used to give it free

no one wanted it"

when I charged little

a few wanted

now I charge nominally and many more want it.

He said, "If you don't charge you lay a quilt feel

on the receiver. He got something for nothing."

MY SCHOOL IDEA ELIMINATES CHARGE yet charges

tuition, and outsiders.

I think you need a "SCHOOLROOM" and hold forth

twice maybe weekly

on set routine of no routine no set nothing

but livelove, reps.

If you stop in 1 hr; go on; stop in reasonable

time, saying

Next meeting (date)

they leave wanting more.

If you satisfy all, they leave overfed. ng.

Note

Why should sufi professor approve buddhism

who cares

they've had it

they have lost their contact with living world

of youth

good for you,

                        rePS (s)

If you call it a Zendo the wrath of zen and church and newspapers bludgeons you. If you call it religious its the shits, If you understate it, keep it quiet, let it grow of itself, and when they come to investigate they find they're investigating "a school" you are in well with all, so can do your stuff without having to ward off snapping dogs. My idea.

Also who can you blame for anything at a school? The Dean? No. The prexy? Maybe, but he resigned. You don't like what is taught? Take another class. etc etc.

[undated]

Pronounce JAI about as joy or jaay in Sanskrit                       means Joy-Praise

Write it           aUm sree Ram joy ram joy joy ram

[this adds a dimension to new hearers and says you actually are voicing joy]

then see page 45 SQUARE SUN SQUARE MOON the dancing prayer

then chant sree ram mantra 3 times

beginning to move, eyes closed, as you feel like it

on 2nd and 3d time through

(to complicate a bit) on 4th time through

on first joy ram raise right arm to sky

on second joy ram raise left arm to sky

on joy joy ram raise both rams to sky

(this makes 6 times through)

on

7th

8th

9th time through do as 2nd and 3d, simple

move as you feel guided, turning as you wish

and 10th could be just Auummmmmmm

This would produce a bit effect on audience and participants.

Then audience could be invited to do up to 6.

Reps would do this with audience to let them

participate in your gang-delivered chant if I were speaker.

It should be explained what is being sung,

and number of times (6).

Must start easy.

I would also do this midway between talk

or ask permission to - to lighten up the ponderous talk a bit,

and in some cases at end, if speaker wished it.

Self dancing or self rhythmic moving to inner music (self-made) is superior to any movement imposed by others,

and in this case superior to my book because here the dancer would be both mover and singer.

This should be produced with other mantra to show their good too, thus making it an universal mantra dance.

I will choreograph others for you if desired.

                                    rePS

[undated]

Allah is living.

God is dead

at least to millions

who have lost any taste for

hypocrisy and double-talk.

If you use God and not Allah

you automatically put you

on the side of the fakers

so half your following

do not even come.

The other half walk out

half way through

and there goes your school.

Of course the old folks rush in

and argufy with you

to ditch you later.

Whitey has had it.

We young need a new gleam.

Your talk God is alive

should be written,

read

and published.

It will be well received by the

old folk and automatically rejected

by us youth. You use offensive

dirty language. Besides just to stir

up argument and thinking is bad.

What we need is a practice.

Better not talk at all than to offend

one of my little ones.

How old habits persist.

[undated]

Yes, dear Samuel,

you have done IT.

You have actualized the highest of all teachings, Jyana.

Dyana, meditation, ch'an, the trance state of Patanjali

yoga is surpassed by Jhana, Jnana, hard to english, perhaps Jyana is best way to write it.

IK came from an all-loving family (with its attachment problems) in a long loving land

and found westerners heartless.

So, he said to himself, I must give myself, my adoration, my worship to them.

How they need it.

So he outpoured worship, adoration, God.

But those westerners had already spoiled God so they had a hard time bridging east and west so they possessed God or formalized the system.

European soil has long gone out, and the peoples are crowded and so got small. So Sirdar smalled the prayers so they became ritual and lost some feel.

BUT IF YOU WILL PASS YOUR TWO HANDS UNTOUCHING

OVER FOREHEAD, BODY, DOWN

                        you will heal it wondrously

and if you will whisper AL LAH you will feel so sweet, such a sweetness

so it is up to you to GIVE GIVE GIVE this good feel and sweetness (as you are doing) and not sell it.

Half the mureeds will fail in west. No matter, Murshid used to say those who have not joined us are closer to us than those who have joined

                        He said this often to me.

                        Because he said I brought him wonderful people.

It is still true.

Give, dear Samuel, and do not try to possess mureeds.

The name mureed is foreign itself. Why formalize your GIVING.

Ganapati who did the splendid Vasishta translation wrote me "There have been many Vasishtas, so this man is older than 5,000 years." All Yogins say Vasishta was top Yogin, and he taught pure Jyana. THIS IS IT.

over

Everyone in west

hungry for love found in Murshid

a stream of love.

He fell for it.

murshid was loving him or her.

This put him or her in the beloved position.

With the possessiveness of woman

each one then felt, felt

Murshid loves me. I am most

and others keep out.

Woman does not want to share her love.

This bewildering fix

fell on them

and Murshid schooled in his school

and delivering his presence message

did not have the time or advisors

to solve this one.

So it happened.

I hope you are doing your way

your way to clear it up.

More power to you, man!

To sit and become a stone is no good.

To sit and breathe and all ah is good,

very simple and very good.

Try it?

rePS

No charge. No homage expected.

Just free service. To set you free

from me.

[undated]

dearest DEAN

I thank you from

the bottoms of

our heart

s intensifies sala, energy flow,

hence saladean, dean of energy flow

zillion dollar miracle shagal why

because we already are breathed of

a l a

the nitwits will nit wit with and

against you why bother why not

do your work Dean of love school

reps 

[undated]

Samuel

I am talking may 1, or 2nd or 3d

in SF

where I don't know

talk by Paul reps

10 METHODS OF MEDITATION

under 25, free

over, $1.

[undated, likely 1959]

Dearest Samuel,

I do not know Prof. moore. Japanese Consulate General, my friend, wished me to go to his reception for philosophers but I wrote him I was not worthy of meeting important philosophers. We must be very careful not to get old or stiff. Did you get my gift copy of Zen Telegrams?

Suzuki now 89 gave a good talk at U the other night, and crowds seem interested in "Zen."

I think the white skinners need some doctors and their degrees and inability to learn are really jokes and I only wish you would stop attacking others and do it in a series of articles instead—you have a tremendous something to give if only someone would get you started writing short bits for some common reader (maybe a column???).

In September, Allah willing, I plan to go Orientally again. The interest in Orientalisms is just the bare beginning of the world opening of hearts. In 500 years you won't know this place. Probably Africans will be on top, yessed by Hindus?

saladin

[undated]

Dearest Samuel,

                        Thank you for your copious dramatic letters.

In a few days I will be leaving here for probably 8 or more months. Until I get an address and even after that no mail will be forwarded, so no longer use this address. The only one I could think of would be care American Express Co Auckland, New Zealand.

                        Though I will miss hearing you detail I will be cheered with the knowledge of your coming invasion of Moslem strongholds and sure of your victory.

                        I am also wondering about your permanent address. I remain in Tokyo but one day, then begin my unexpected travels. Good hearts are everywhere.

saladin

[undated]

Dear Samuel,

                        Please read, criticize, suggest, change, improve, the enclosed and return? Thank you.

                        I wrote it after complaining long about the lack of one page giving the method
anywhere. They say they are not writers and couldn’t do it.

                        Am having fun sitting in a short time, the walking out on their dogmatic meeting lectures in silent protest. Ohsawa comes 15th aug. Or I may shout "Disagree."

                        The elder Japanese says he likes this article and that he finds it extremely difficult to state the principle in english, that it takes years of work to do so.

                        Many Japanese have followed Ohsawa in action long before food came into it and they deplore (usually) presenting their sacrifice-life in terms of food.

                        I think they are hung up on the basic difference between China and India, Mongolian or Aryan interpretation of the Tao God ideal. Plus the fact, the lack of discipline taught Japanese children so they spring up as egotists later; thus egotism, brash assertion, in Ohsawa. But his intent probably is right.

                        Big funds behind AMA and Cancer Inc. should pounce down on them for putting out in health stores books that claim cures and wreck the whole baby project. This seems only a
matter of time. They have the 2 books redone without objections of cures and cancer in them but cant find a publisher. I suppose if they found one he would be AMA waylaid too.

                        I probably will advise the dissolution of the foundation. Gals in it very friendly to me say "Food isn't all" etc. They are learning something for their venture. I am HAVING FUN.

saladin

[handwritten air letter]

Sep. 16, 1952

Houseboat Erin

opp, No. 1 Guest House,

The Bund, Srinagar, Kashmir

Dear Samuel,

Answering your good letter of May 28, the Tablighi Mission I can’t find in Delhi as they have moved somewhere in Pakistan. Do you know where? Would like to learn of any Sufi schools but so far they all seem to be independent persons. I may be at this address a few months yet. I have a whole houseboat, 4 servants, meals, tea, guide on the Thellum in Srinigar for $2 a day. Kashmir was written up in Fortune I hear with the Massachusetts cover. I have met 3 Pirs and have a wondrous one as my servant from whom I am learning too. But the Pir here is a most practical servant of the people, naming the newborn, advising, marrying, finding lost persons, praying, etc. The Moslem seems far more alive than the Hindu, the name of God I seldom hear chanted as it was everywhere when I was here before. The Hindu has fear and worry written on countless foreheads.

As in America and in Japan (but not Mexico!) everyone says how poor they are. It looks like the world talks one talk.

The gardens, lotus filled canals, lakes and altitude (3000’) are probably the most beautiful of all places. I ride through them in a Shikara like a king. The place is conducive to deep realization. Go to 8700’ today. After this Turkey, Greece, Capri. Now I’m in the Aryan instead of the Mongolian mind as in Japan and Thailand and China.

best wishes in the One,

Saladin

[handwritten air letter]

Prof. Abdus Samad, MA, LLB, BT, Raj Bagh, Srinigar, Kashmir, India

Oct. 13, 1952

Houseboat Erin

opp, No. 1 Guest House,

The Bund, Srinagar, Kashmir

Dear Samuel,

Can you send any small photo of Murshid to Abdus as above? He is a good friend and has translated for me, visiting the Pirs here. He wishes to do a book on the history of Sufism and its practices and I told him about you. Perhaps you could outline him your ideas on this or collaborate? He may also be able to visit the U.S. on a government exchange grant. This seems the most beauteous place in the world. Each family here has a Pir and there are also some great ones but none so great as Inayat Khan in any world at any time. He claims nothing and says trust call me Inayat.

May stay here a month longer. America has the future. The Hindus are very weak, disorganized, often dishonest; the Muslims stronger yet losing inner ground. What shall I see in Turkey? 2 of Reps' works being published in Japan. Very fruitful here!

December 3, 1955

Amer Express Co CPO Box 115 Tokyo

Dear Samuel,

It happens I am just now in Tokyo and got your letter quickly. You have been in a rut some years and digging yourself in deeper. You need (as I have told you for some years) to get out of it. The best

way is take a year leave, go slowly around the world, and, it seems best to me, to go one's own rather than in a group. In Japan no one talks of God. You would come most to life it seems to me in Muslim lands. My plans are undetermined but I may return shortly to USA. Have just completed 84 articles poems stories on my Japanese life and they are to be published in Japanese as a book by a big publisher here, further opportunity for reaching the people.

The time for Delhi is winter. The time for Kashmir is Spring or Fall. The time for Japan is not winter.

I usually bury myself in farm country, work with farmers, make friends, sans civilization contact for months. [?] is best door to Allah, better than political man. I have 6 books of poems done also, some being printed by a magazine comparing them with great Chinese Zen masters. [?] me. I am nothing, so please disregard above writing.

saladin

December 19, 1955

Dearest Samuel,

Your letter has a lot of cheer in it, some things that have happened well for you I don't know what perhaps because you're starting to move move move.

The Paul problem has always been with me; I never liked the name nor do I wish to appear affected before westerners who have big doubts and questions when they bump into the name Saladin. Murshida told me to use it privately, not publically long ago but this doesn't settle the matter.

I just use Reps here in Japan, easy to learn, but that too is too short for style. What shall I do? You know experts are never experts for themselves, so your sparkling originations should come up with something

Dec 20 I fly to Honolulu, there 8 days and thence to

            11637 Gorham Ave W Los Angeles 49, Cal.

            where I hear my house has just been sold.

Sep 8, 1957 world war starts, Nehru violently dies in 1958 and 1959 1/6 of world is destroyed; war ends in 1961.

Thus take your pleasure trip now before the end of ruts and rutting,

always

            to

                        you

                                    saladin

May 5, 1957

Dearest Samuel,

                        that you should speak on soofisms to various people or that they should be interested means little as human minds are always chasing something.

                        but that you should radiate JOY and be FRESH enough to take off your too-heavy shoes means much. If you can radiance, if you can be joy-full and honest, then someone else can too, and it may be for him to find out how, through your example.

                        It is the LIGHT within you shining just as it has been in others that is the treasure and power and glory, and what you have found others may and you needn't blame it on soofism or even God because when you name it you squeeze it very small and when you live it you live it for the good of all

            says

                        saladin

                                    me too

April 18, 1957

Dearest Samuel,

            I live in a lovely Japanese home, my own they say, served gorgeous meals thrice daily, then a steaming ofuro, and an manna-san, in the mountains where day and night nightingales are singing, the cherries blossoming in profusion, the farmers most friendly. This is real old true Shinto. Their bow and spirit are much like Murshid's.

            The other day they built a huge arch with a big sign, welcome on it, with American and their flag, 200 came, 9 musicians from Kobe, a big welcome party for Reps, with Reps the chief speaker. I am in paradise.

            Hawaii is also paradise, one of sun and radiantly happy people of all races interblended, a real brotherhood.

            Your letter to Shamesir is a dilly only it wastes too many words on a clogged instrument.

            Get a notebook. For one day mark down the start of each sentence you say. Note how many start with I. Your jelal is so intense most persons cannot take it. It is necessary for you to consciously use means that win them over to what you have to sell—the greatest buy on earth. Only sometimes you outsell yourself.

            BUT you are on the right track, others don't even have a track alas. Keep the steam up.

            Have just finished reading copy on ZEN SKIN ZEN BONES and it is a splendid work, to come out on lovely style probably midyear.

            Thanks for addresses.

            So now I have met and am real friends with the best Pirs in Kashmir, the greatest Shiva devotee there, the farmers of Shinto Japan, a Samoan Kahuna in Hawaii and others there where I shall settle down after July, the Lord of heaven and earth willing.

            O tiny bud

            open this heart

            with your invisible hands

O imo-san (sweet potato)

forgive

these teeth

                        Shrieking

                        torn from it stem

                        the flower

            Saladin

May 23, 1957

Dearest Samuel,

Royer Books, 463 N Robertson, LA bought my entire edition of UNKNOT THE WORLD IN YOU for one cent and are selling them for 50 cents have perhaps 200 left.

YOU are the only one most appreciating this work. I am glad to hear you are to take my advice and turn on more jelal to ignite dead wood and especially intensifying jelal power by your not using I I I that sounds like boasting when it aint. Am convinced you have a great mission.

Report: 200 farmers near Himeji welcome reps with huge party, big arch erected, with welcome sign on it, meetings, etc.

Reps starts wire art with adults children in Japan, writes about it, remarkably everyone at once becomes an artist.

Reps friend indeed another room on another house built for him, of teacher so great here he wont let himself be known at all.

Reps the goes outside of Kyoto, totally unknown and by wandering meets two spiritual heads of great shrines.

Reps now instructing Jodushu nuns in meaning of their practices, the most pure hearted persons in all Japan.

Newspaper writes up reps, Ohara farmers discover it, tell reps, not even interviewed.

Unworthy as he is on all counts THE SCRIPTURE OF LIGHT has just come thru him making all other scriptures dated. About to be launched in Japan by foremost national poet.

Reps goes to Shinto shrine in Kyoto. Within an hour on Noh stage sacred dances are produced for him, an unheard thing, reps sitting on Noh stage.

So it goes, and this tells nothing of the heart contacts, friends made and enjoyed, the world is an opening heart.

Tuttle Co most enthused about ZEN FLESH ZEN BONES that will appear July 1—can be ordered from Tuttle Co, publishers, Rutland, Vermont, also.

Towards the one, the perfection of love, harmony beauty the only being and          woops

saladin

also greatest brush artist astonished at reps flower drawings.

This letter, forgive, sounds like an advertisement.

dine again tomorrow night with Ruth Sazaki.

was invited to wedding announcement dinner of Joan, Watts' daughter. When meeting her I exclaimed on learning who she was: That’s your problem.

also my shogi playing has improved so much I beat ordinary players and they are astonished no end.

Also got a book of 4 old Tibetan practices for increasing energy and life and they sure click

also writing something each day

gave away my typewriter, one appears whenever I need it.

My abridged translation of a famous poem to me:

would I were

pure-hearted

as sweet air—

with such mercy

as the sun

for everyone—

as a flower innocent

in beauty still

before the good

and those who will

—Chiko Komatsu, head of Jakkoin, a dream place

December 14, 1962

Dear friend Carp,

You got me a fine scolding so you ought to know of it I skeletonized the frame for a book on Soofis by Saida and left an area that could amplify it by filling in various Soofi practices to illustrate what to do to be good all through. You and she have it but what you do with that framework is your affair.

However you said (1) They try to keep those practices secret and (2) If they were comprehensive ones and not solely from Inayat Khan it would be better.

On (2) my estimate of you rose 74.66% as it showed a broadmindedness surprising for a Hollander.

But when I repeated (1) to Saida she scolded me and said I must not even say such things. She said for example, the practice of letting your head go from your body, also arms and legs, and bringing them back would kill people doing it, What's wrong to die that way? I wondered. Doesn't God kill everyone?

Anyway she said this is supersecret and should be locked up. But the old dervishes were prohibited from having secrets and did all their whirling in public openly for all to see. Besides this secret practice is in books in British Museum, Srinagar Kashmir, known in Japan, in China. The paperback book Monkey by Arthur Waley gives an improved version of it.

Besides the Sufi practices are grounded in yoga and yoga tells of this aparting. So where is the secret?

Now it seems to me those Soofis are fast disappearing and the Yogins too and if they keep secreting looked up all we will find is skeletons.

If you are of an open mind you could collect Soofi practices from books, from others, from Murshid Samuel Lewis, in fact, make a world trip and do so and plant them like flowers in that area of the book so they need not be lost but found.

As for me I feel that any practice that is built-in, that the heart is already doing, that is really given by Mr and Mrs God, must be true and it is these that are unhidable valuable.

As for me I think we should make a child book of such and drop them all over Africa so the blacks can have an open Soofism, not a white closed locked in one.

Probably we should drop them by planes to keep from being ju jued if there in person. The point is:

If you have something that is sun-gold, offer it to the Chinese and Africans and you may get it really accepted.

The assistant head of the big museum in Goteborg, Sweden was troubled by this look it up attitude. So he made a picture poem: DANCING KEYS that looked rubbery. Probably this poem will free all the keys of the world. I am living in rural Ireland now, simple friendly people, green and cool and hope you are the same,

            reps

Ireland

December 12, 1962

airletter addressed to:

Murshid Samuel Lewis

1088 Fulton St.

San Francisco, Calif    

Looking

the field over

East and West

I see the most possible

aliving pre-sentation of

s o o f i s m

d

e

p

e

n

d

e

n

t on one man

named on other side

of this paper

May 15, 1964

Hello, dearest Sam who is !!!!!

Item 1) I gave a copy of Inayat Khan book

to a young American in Hawaii married to an Okinawan gal

and find he is raving over it tho

knows nothing of "Dr Kahn" as he calls him

who says breath is the secret wine etc

but he says "Now if only this book could be

translated into Japanese for my Japanese

speaking wife!"

So, if you have any ideas on this that might

help, and you are an IDEA man, send them along.

But only once: I am now leaving here soon

as I left my two groups of Chinese friends in

China HK, and have no address; so only

an airmail if any to

            reps care Amer express Co mail section

            CPO Box 115, Tokyo.

Item 2) Great waves of good feel from me toward you

you know we wave all over the place, each one

but to be perfectly honest with you I feel

I have a much closer interpretation relation

with Murshid than you do

and, marvelously, you surely feel the same

and still more marvelously the European

suefees think I am barely tolerable and

you perhaps intolerable and they have IT

and Murshid smiles having played his little joke on each one

but ONLY as long as they think are right and the other one is wrong.

It's a puzzle nuzzle.

Do you know ALL ELSE IS BONDAGE by Wei Wu Wei

Hong Kong University Press $1. US prepaid?

He is the best Chan interpreter of the lot.

Neither he nor Huang Po try to exploit Buddhism.

Alls well here and surely there,

            reps

[undated]

Friend Carp,

Not that it matters but just for the record

1. Murshid once turned to me and said, Do you know, Saladin, in Europe someone is trying to make the prayers exact and even fitting movements to them.

He said this very seriously as if they were killing the prayers and he was letting them.

2. Turning to Murshida he said blanching, "They have taken my organization away from me in
Europe. I can count my loyal followers on the fingers of one hand."

Of course everyone who ever met Murshid knows that he or she is ALL of those fingers.

3. I was ushering in people to see him. He met my simple father and mother and exclaimed "Those

are the kind or persons we should have in the movement." About my brother who died at 43, "There is something very fine about him."

He also said. "The people who do not join us are often closer than those who do."

"How do you meet so many interesting people?" he asked me (surrounded by uninteresting ones).

4. Murshida Martin returning from her trip to India an Arabia and Persia said that Sufism was grounded in the old Hebraic teachings.

And they in the Egyptian?

5. A Pir in Srinagar Kashmir told me that Murshid has the power to immediately take birth again and was living again in India.

Well, if I have done it 500,000 times couldn't he once?

6. Is God dead? Asks theologian Rahner in Dec 14, '62 Time Magazine.

                                                                        saladin reps

Honolulu, May 14, 1958

Dear Samuel,

A week ago May 7, at 4 AM Nyogen passed away in his sleep. Helen Freeman Corle wrote me at that hour she woke, reached for a book, that happened to be my name book, opened a page and found herself reading: Nyogen, a friend who understands.

The doctor later estimated he passed at that time. He had had heart trouble badly; through Helen I had him take Violin (wheat germ oil in large doses) and he recovered. He had conducted
meditations the weekend before.

I have the distinct impression he with Murshid are out of troubles.

I also admit no limitation to "consciousness" and can easily conceive of Murshid as passing over for those who remember and also as rebirthing for those who wish. Why shouldn't our consciousness be synchronously in various bodies IN SYNCHRONY? Each day, and today I get my lesson; then there is nothing more to be done for the day except see Samurai movies and play chess with an 8-year old girl. Today:

Samuel merges Allah and God. Saladin merges Kami, Allah. Only ONE moment is valuable, split moments fritter. This is electric.

Saladin

August 28, 1958

Report

Geijutsu-shincho, leading

lit and art mag

has Aug 25 issue article with photos

by and on reps

Takashimaya Tokyo supposed to put on

big show by reps sep 15

tuttle bringing out my new show book of

house-of-poems and poems before words

in one volume—if all goes well

500 obi done silk on silk by reps

has revived and entire old industry

more wanted

big obi show also Tokyo same time

have been in many cities before this

two poem houses in country offered

for house-of-poems one near Tokyo one near

Kyoto

care Amer Express Co CPO Box 115 Tokyo

until Oct 1, then to Ceylon, India

via Formosa, China

saw obi the other day for first time

they used only the pictures yet they

radiated life (quite in contrast with

other local done obi) but why

Amer NYC girls wish to take my exhibition

over Europe / I wish it taken over

Japan without me / all giving

saladin

1/3 of the 44 poems are faced with actual constructions—rocks in this case

International Hotel

Hong Kong

December 13, 1958

Dearest Samuel,

Here a token gift to the Chinese temple, the only dollars available just now. Please tell them their
formulation of intent before the world is as important as the bricks they build it with. I should be glad to go over it with them.

Went over and made many accepted changes in delineation of meditation-zen paper with Ruth Sazaki, so you may know reps had a hand in it / because he is yes for everybody.

Ruth propounds an inherited transmission through love and devotion but I doubt if you can priest this. Yes you may formulate intellectually and unintellectual zen but haven't you dug yourself in a hole the youth won't crawl into?

With the 20 breaths each morning I have "hung onto" Murshid until breaths are not breaths.

2 prayers:

Hand over heart

speaking from palm

O finite Be-ing in my heart

thanks for perfect guidance

yesterday today tomorrow

Hands over head and down:

Every atom every cell.

build youth and health

to have me well.

Saladin

December 19, 1958

772 Clementina St.

San Francisco 3, California U.S.A.

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Let me take the liberty of giving your name to Mr. Wang and his file of qualifications (with return envelope and dollars for stamps).

What may Mr. Wang to obtain a teaching position in U.S.A? Might you get this Question answered for him?

The U.S. Government will give him permanent resident status as a Chinese refugee. He is uniquely qualified in his teaching profession. He is one of those special persons making a distinct contribution to civilization.

Any counsel you can give him will be appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

paul reps

Honolulu, Sep. 4, 1959

Dearest Samuel,

Here is your Samurai sword

made of the frozen blood

of love

to cut the confusion between

Moslem and Christian and

Hindu

and you will do it for man hungers

for it just as he starves

bodily.

How? I do not know for such

a cell work is not known or

stated in mere words, not

just formulated but

g i v e n

o

f

a l l      a h

saladin

[letter contains a small plastic red sword]

November 1, 1960

Dearest Samuel,

HURRAH !

HELLOW !

GREETINGS !

RETURNED FROM YEAR AWAY TRIP MANY COUNTRIES

HERE FOR A MONTH THAN OFF AGAIN

NO ADDRESS SET AS YET

SOME MAILS RECEIVED 6 months later

ACCEPTING $50,000,000. for foundation

world house of poems

YOU DESERVES A REAL PLACE IN USA POLICY-ING

BUT IT'S A BIG JOB AND AMERICANS ARE

FAR AWAY FROM RUSSIAN CHINESE JAPANESE MINDS

WILL THEY BE DECOMPOSED BOMBINGLY?

SENT YOU BIG BATH, PUBLISHED HONGKONG

AMERICAN FABRICS GIVING THOUSANDS OF THAT BOOK

AWAY TO SUBSCRIBERS

VOGUE Oct 15 HAS 2 PAGE SPREAD ON ZEN FLESH ZEN BONES

POEM SHOWS GOING ON IN VARIOUS COLLEGES OVER USA

WITH ONE OF MY TRAVELING SECRETARIES

ALSO IN NEW ZEALAND, INDIA, AUSTRALIA

AND TO COME IN MEXICO, PUERTO RICO

HOPE THIS REACHES YOU

                        BEST!!!

                                    reps

Honolulu, December 29, 1961

Dearest Samuel

            Thank you for two letters sent me in Japan, just received. My address right now is above although early spring may travel me elsewhere.

            You say you spoke to 50,000 people. Grand! But better yet, you spoke to one person.

            And in this communion you GAVE him or her something of yourself.

            If this be true, then it opens the door for you to help one, one, one anywhere (and so
countless others thru that one) and you are automatically a Murshid or teacher whether you get any documentary proof of this or not.

            You are not helping another documentarily. If this be true, then you may so focus on this as to entirely eliminate any political activity. No one can measure the phenomenal outcome of various political acts. Our only measure is TOWARDS THE ONE. Towards frees, away complicates confuses.

            A spoonful of vinegar in a glass of water should antidote dangerous water. Garlic should do it for food, plus less eating, slower eating and doing nothing, no thing, called rest.

            This something of yourself is of course your heart's intent.

            More, TOWARDS THE ONE is to be practiced and techniques of ways found to do, more than say, to start anyone towards.

            This is as simple as LET receive and LET express. It is the management of one's given
instrument.

            If we steal of lie or dull or dogmate or stiff or set, how then are we respecting the instrument of attuning we are given?

            May Allah bless you in your life's work.

saladin

26 March 1957

April 1 July 1 care Express Tokyo

then: Reps care, S Bergau, 402 Damon Bldg. Honolulu TH

Dear Samuel,

Your letter most pleasant. Dzen, Chinese T'sien.

Herewith Reps and Lewis, associates

Oriental Research

We are in business.

Have formulated and museum here is considering work on

MEDITATIVE USE OF ORIENTAL FIGURES.

If we form such a business, it will develop in due time later.

If you are in any business, as writer, salesman for your works,

etc

then you can take expenses incurred as income tax deductions

and lodging, food, travel expenses away from home, if you keep

accurate estimate with receipts where possible of expenses.

You would be surprised how much postage, phones, taxis,

fares, etc mount up in your work, even when not away from home.

This is all legitimate deduction from your tax, IF you

are in business. You are if you say you are, and demonstrate it.

God or central One is a curiosity to those trying to manipulate

others, for Shamesir!

Your boat idea is superb. Look more into it.

But you still start too many sentences with I (not ego but

tremendous positive) and this makes it hard to stay with

you on a boat. You could take turns. But boat is splendid place

and way to live, anywhere. On land, trailer

over

All you need to know on market is this:

Pick out good Co. Buy and stay with it.

DOW at 50, 40, 30, 20

or X (US Steel) same.

                        This would put you in on bottom

                        and double your money if you had

                        patience.

This also protects you against down market

and relieves mind of guessing.

You automatically get in on some low level.

DOW is more growth, less return; X pays more income.

If you don't like this

then

you can do same with GENERAL PUBLIC SERVICES GPV

an investment Co. LISTED on NYstock exchange.

Never buy an unlisted investment Co; the commission is

exorbitant.

Get address of GPV from any NYSE broker; write for

annual statement, last one, study it; a cross section

of best companies.

Buy GPV from any NYSE broker; write for annual statement, last one, study it; a cross section of best companies.

Buy GPV 4, 3, 2 or however low you can get it.

This is the other way of doing it, equally good as DOW or X.

My guess is market down into 1958 bottom; am hoping

for Sears under 20 for buy; this probably would be bear market

low level. Dont know if it will go down there or not,

but this methodology prepares you.

Reason for nitwits talking Dzen is

Americans have bound feet tight with shoes all day

for years, like old Chinese custom, so tension

sets up and breaks out mouth as words.

Recall when my knee swole you sent me to foot doctor

who cured it; thanks; all nerves lead from feet

from head, from heart

Fly to Japan tomorrow.

                        God bless you

                                    Saladin

Honolulu, March 4, 1962

Dearest Samuel,

How can I share my complete set of I K books with you? Where may I send them to you in SF?

RSVP quick.

I go to SF for 5 days in April where in Batman gallery April 10 to May 10 is a big reps picture poem show to introduce the new poems book, GOLD FISH SIGNATURES.

Then to Japan, midsummer to Europe.

Your letter shows you deeply snagged by Soofism / if you go any deeper you will come to center of earth.

But you are held back by who owns what. DARE TO GIVE. No one is restricting you but yourself.

Banzai!

January 30, 1962

box 2934 Honolulu

Dearest Samuel,

If

Samadhi: trance state, higher consciousness

                                    in Sanskrit

muga: mu, no ga, ego in Japanese

are the same

then what is the equivalent in Islam

                                    or in Hebrew

                                    or in Arabic

Please to explain this (state) in Soofic terms?

I am doing an article on above and would like

to include a third party.

Perhaps the old Hebrew had its term for this

too and the Egyptian? Anyway, it is written

large in the eyes of all the Buddhas!

            thank you

                        reps

Honolulu, January 22, 1962

Dear Mr. Lewis,

                        I am a friend of Mr. Reps. He informs me you are an authority on Sufism. I once joined the western Sufis but they reviled each other for so many years I felt it best to let them fight themselves into their graves without my pushing.

                        I would like to ask you

1. How is the dervish dance done (recently pictured In Newsweek and quoted as "we are whirling less, the kids would rather go to the movies.")

         Hand positions? Foot positions? How to keep from dizzying? All detail please.

         Reason for doing? Only clockwise? Your personal experience with it? Others?

2. Name address and write up of the visit to your saint referred to as your life's most wonderful experience. I am sure you may feel like sharing good things with others. Or are you the old style combative exclusive Sufi?

3. A page or more giving your 9 best Sufi practices for the world and of course then for me. I cannot accept anything unfreely given, used to collect fame or money for the giver, in short, given for an
unworthy motive. I think 1962 is far past such function and I think such exclusive function one
reason why so many have been disgusted with religions and rejected them.

I am told you are different, although this is hard to believe of anyone religiously associated. I am told you plan to create (as did Inayat) a new Sufism that anyone can have and use for their own good and that of others.

I hope this is so.

Awaiting your 3 gifts I have made bold to request,

I am,

            Very truly yours,

                        Mr. P. Reps care of Mr.'s Reps

                                                            world

January 17, 1962

Box 2934 Honolulu

Dearest Samuel,

            After reading your long letter twice some invisible entities (these are always good or bad, the other fellow's are bad) have simply evaporated it. I have hunted high and low for it and your Delhi address so I will send a carbon of this to your SF one and hold this original until that precious letter is replaced.

            We need a new Soofism and you are the renewer to give it to us. With these requisites:

1.   Anyone using it must be able to run a foot race

2.   There must be no charge

3.   It must be presented functionally—do this and see what results are had.

      This is the way it was done 4,000 years ago (by Shiva in Centering in Zen Flesh Zen Bones).

      Bengalis overtalk. Ratiocination is largely avoided by the nation and carnations.

4.   When it is GIVEN us USE-FULLY and FREELY so we do not have to pay gold or sombre respect                          for a "master" WE CAN USE IT AND WILL.

5.   It must be presented more as play and less as intimidation (if you don't do it you're less than I                              am and headed for hell).

The ranks will be in the order of the best play, the footrace, freest smile, the lovingest ways and the fewest words.

You simply put down 10 or 25 PRACTICES and we simply start doing the one's we choose. 122 give us an immortal text !!!!!!!!!!

For example, a recent Newsweek article shows a Dervish doing Zikr whirling, quotes him as saying "I am losing ground. The younger folks would rather see the movies than whirl." No explanation of any good from it.

He is defeated lacking techniques of presentation. One brief example of how to do something was Unknot the world in you.

I look forward eagerly to your freely given instructions!!!!!

I look forward eagerly to your account of visit to the holy man in the woods and his name and address and how to get there. If you write it fresh this experience will not fade out for us.

It is those lads who should come to you, not you to them for good hearted as they are, wise in heritage as they may be, ONLY YOU can communicate HOW to do it to us outsiders.

As long as their parties are exclusive I am sitting on the outside and waiting, so an outsider.

My hunger and starving is really healthy, keeps me lithe and racey.

Go to it, boy! Banzai!

                        reps

postcard from Hawaii

March 27, 1963

A

There is a house, very peaceful; I lives in it with one cat.

B

There is another house with people in every room. They are stiff and old. They fight with each other continually. They think every other person is wrong but themselves. They die judging and blaming the others. They call themselves Sufis.

Now which house do you want to live in?

A B                  reps

postcard from Hawaii

March 24, 1963

Kashmir is packed with Murshids. If you teach and you may and do you certainly are a teacher, a "Murshid." If you say you are one and not a bad one, you will be derided as "One more fake teacher" and turn many against God. Why not as he said, "Call me Inayat." Wasn't that enough and let your teaching show by presence and service, not by mouth boasts and pocket charges. Of course you must sow your own wild oats. LION roar is poem and LIFE but asseverating lion no one will believe; they're too ready to walk back.

Orient that was or is and Occident that was isn't are nightmares of air breathers, not light breathers that you ARE

reps

I never said to roar

I said

soar

not sore

no soap

no dish

no fish

I never said not to roar

postcard from Hawaii

march 19, 1963

In your splendid page

what are baka, fana

and how do these strange

words apply to us doubletalk?

reps

postcard from Hawaii

March 16, 1963

THANKS for one chap, your lotus eaters

book / would like to read and return whole

thing / some good points in chap. sent/

disagree with title as motive for book

leaning negatively or attacking another

A complaint is always weaker than a simple

assertion and only advertises the opponent/

change title/

anyway work shows you are not in it at least

trying to recommend yourself as you have been

trying for years in letters / must be a

mother dominant order against child,

child still trying to overcome with words/

a long road / article however is smooth

quite wise, understanding, not much conclusion

leave me hanging up anyway not down

s

postcard from Hawaii

April 1, 1963

YOUR CHAPTER ON CATHOLICITY SUPERB REALLY SLAYS FALSE RELIGIONISTS GOOD A MAN WHO CAN WRITE THIS WELL SHOULD NEVER TAKE TIME WITH LETTERS.

IT IS OBVIOUS THAT SO FAIR A MAN AND SO OBJECTIVE CAN CONTINUE THIS WRITING TO WHAT WE REALLY WANT AND NEED, A SEQUEL TELLING US JUST HOW TO DO IT * GET TO GOD * OTHERWISE THIS MAN IS PULLING OUR LEG * WE WANT AND NEED PERSONAL APPLICATION NOT DEPRECIATION OF THE FALSE * SO LOOK EAGERLY FORWARD TO LATER WRITINGS OF THIS LEWIS WHO HAS A LOT ON THE BALL AND HAS THE FALSE C'.S BY THEM AND WRINGS THEM

HURRAH. MOAR. MOAR. SEQUEL PLEAS.

                                                reps

postcard from Hawaii

March 28, 1963

SAMUEL

YOUR LETTER DETAILING YOUR LIFE VERY ENCOURAGING SHOWS YOU ARE THE MAN TO MELT EAST WEST OR SHALL WE SAY ISLAM INDIANISM GO TO IT PROBABLY YOU ARE OUTGROWING SAN FRANCISCO CONGRATULATIONS BETTER KEEP CLEAR OF THE SECTARIAN FIGHTERS WHOM NOTHING WOULD EVER SATISFY HURRAH

s

To westerners the word Sufi means the cursing fighting sects / to easterners a wholly man

I BELIEVE YOU HAVE SOMETHING GRAND TO GIVE EACH PERSON IN THE WORLD YOU MEET AND EAGERLY LOOK FORWARD TO RECEIVING MY PRESENT FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

postcard from Hawaii

March 28 1963

Lewis talk in Orient: "Friends, religion died the other day over Europe way. There and in USA too Sufis are well known more or less as people who fight each other continually. This is not the point. The point is: IS YOUR RELIGION DEAD? I do not mean your official faith whatever it is. I mean something in your heart . . . .

etc

then with such a broad educative evocative human no-axe-to-grind approach my LION would give a few roars and sweep the field. I do not mean a lion with fleas but a spiritual lion eating up human smallnesses. This would then bury the western Sufis for good. Mayhap should write it Soofii to distinguish you from them?

reps

ANNOUNCEMENT

Lecture by Samuel Lewis in big hall old Delhi bagh

bag means tiger. No lions in India or Hawaii.

postcard from Hawaii

April 2, 1963

another thing, maybe THE thing:

Soofees are not all great in number and good in orient, few and skunks in occident though admit they smell pretty bad      my content-ion is that THE Lewis has something to give EACH person wherever and when he makes this gift it may be used and multiplied / EACH one isn't fed best with generalizations and rigging up an outmoded religious controversy; religious are about out but human need is in / second part of lotus should man to man fill a human need moar than just talk at others   get it? No soapness

reps

your picture of jesus is TRUE, magnificent and your call for HUMOR right down my alley / the old die by stiffening and inches hurrah for THE L.

postcard from Hawaii

April 6, 1963

LETTERS NO WRITINGS YES

stop giving reports in letters overlong start writing would be inclined to say also simply forget even never mention European anti-Sufis but against this the most most most wonderful gift I ever
received was direct from you in an overlong letter

the telling of your seeing jesus! and how he was is.

such is the great Pir of Kashmir who had to flee thousands in mid-winter to save his life, all asking gimmee, pray for me.

his inner brilliance warmed him; he found a cave; I have been in it with him; how he cried when I left; yet guide said if you did not leave your life might have been in danger; rival pirs circling jealously trying to get me away kali yuga

WRITINGS SI

LETTERS no

exhilarating yes

double-talk no

fish yes

fry no

brown rice yes

soap no

postcard from Hawaii

April 9, 1963

you you are a liar speech superb quite aliving much more than your overlong unclear complaining whining letter to Sufis / how do we know they want to receive any letter or how they hate the sender for sending it or if Allah just visited them before the letter came how can we judge them wrong
without a co-complaint to Allah too

reps

speech yes letter no

My complaint: do not understand foreign words used explaining speech distinguishing kinds of muslims

you are not a liar

you are rather an honest man who lies sometimes

or anyway a man

or maybe a dream

or maybe a me

postcard from Hawaii

April 2, 1963

IS IT POSSIBLE TO FEEL RELIGIOUS? What is it?

Father awe? Fear? Mother sucking? Inferiority? What is it?

I think it is possible to feel poemic rather than prosaic. We sentence ourself. AND FORGET TO LAUGH. Now if someone says there is a holy man—what does it mean? Wholly? Poser? Pretender? Preacher—after money? Or the gold of recognition? Its about time someone explained these things before the last person walked out of the church doors for good. The outsiders it seems have the good, the insiders, well they have self adulation. None none of what you describe jesus as having. THEN A WILLOW AROSE AND BOWED (my poem)

reps-ing

sing

to S.A.M.

no soap

no dope

postcard from Hawaii

April 8, 1963

probably Murshid didn't fail but showed. He showed the not-me way to allah who made him do this. You will show too. Orient needs to be shown. Stop wasting energy with letters to Europe to
discredit s.l. You cant know, maybe one there is greatest of all. They feel so stop judging, start
showing. For give

in-version by reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 10, 1963

Dear Mr Lewis,

Like a voice from another world you sent me a letter with words in it I do not understand. What is kashf? what is darood? what is fikr? what is ryazat? what is nimaz what is khatum? what is complete spiritual illumination and while you are at it what is Allah? In the Kashmir Mts near Tibet they couldn't understand my "Allah" but did UGL-LAH more as a heart sound. reps

If I say let light be represented as dodo and dodo symbolized as Z 24 this is still one more removed from communication if I write you Z 24. Then I have to say Z 24 meaning dodo and dodo meaning light and light meaning…. Finally perhaps if we have the time and patience we get to Allah.

postcard from Hawaii

April 11, 1963

Samuel, I would like to loan you my complete set of Inayat's books (not the recent big ones published in Europe) but the problem is how you would keep them if you left your room or went to live in India and how I then might recover them.

saladin

postcard from Hawaii

April 8, 1963

SAM

your letter confirms my guidance of your coming service to man and so to man-kind and man-unkind. When a request comes to you for help or a CONFRONTATION by another you are bound to help that one MAN TO MAN. You cannot even impose a sheet of paper or papers between you and him. This makes you a giver (hence a receiver) before generalizations. If you have 1,000 before you still must give TO ONE MAN, then thru him or the atmosphere or presence the 1,000 also receive. This then precludes papering, complexing, confusing, puzzling, referring to others. There is only you and he. The more complex your gift the less will receive it; the simpler and grander your gift, the more will he and all he's and she's receive it. You know all this; I am only enthusing. You haven't time for books and papers.

You are YOU!!!!!

reps

PS. man to man is secretly man to Allah.

postcard from Hawaii

April 9, 1963

R to L: You say you can't find anyone who puts God first. That's not God's fault; it yours. We are waiting for you to show us how. Don't tell us something or tell us about your aches and pains, just tell us how to do it. We are the outsiders. We are the most.

Eagerly waiting….

It should all go on a postcard or telegram. Have you seen reps book GOLD FISH SIGNATURES? Will write Marlene Casperia altho the last dame you sent me to seduced me in 5 minutes. Jungle very dangerous. unsigned

postcard from Hawaii

October 19, 1964

SL!!!

Why didn’t you come see my short time in SF? Did you miss my message? Banzai anyway. Do you recall sending me some sufi mantra you said you found in a book so could transmit? ya Shafee ya khafee (health) ishk allah mahebood lilla (love). they always work Do you recall giving me a nondescript reply as to why? Do you think Jesus knew when he was miracling? If you answer yes, then apart, if you answer No … etctetcetc.

postcard from Hawaii

January 26, 1968

Talking to and with thousands of college students I find them all really hungry for PRACTICES of a true inner life and each one against forgiving Christianity, yes, repeat, each one. This means a mind and soul revolution is underway in world youth and a tremendous demand set up for the SCHOOL, in LOVE in JOY in PLAY with no scoldings and against and criticizing no one, that can give them a survey of variant practices all leading, where, whisper it, to THE ONLY BEING! Chinese Zen, Jap Zen, Hindu Japa, Tibetan Jhog, you can list 20 or 30, scheduling one for each night and, man, THEY'LL HAVE A LIBERAL EDUCATION if you can or dare make it liberal. If you do, one will tell another and thousands will come to the playground and love teacher. Isn't this uniting with all the illumined souls? Those teachers will all love you too for telling about them and sending them
scrutinizers so freely. No one is ever against the word school somehow; they are conditioned in favor of this word. Plenty are against private religious set-ups for private gain of some kind or
another. You can have dozens of teachers in your faculty, a travelling school and world wide
branches, all non-profit and pro-you. It can be done, it can.

reps

Precita is Spanish for proceed, precise, preserve, precipitate. Go to it, man.

postcard from Hawaii

March 7, 1969

Dear samuel,

leaving this address for 2 or more months no more ratiocinative letters for now

keep IN

reps

postcard from Hawaii

July 16, 1963

Samuel: No more letters here; am leaving.

Temporary address: 2139 Puualii place,

Honolulu 14, Hawaii

Leave Mon. 10 AM PAA 844 July 27 arr. SF 5:45 PM but plane may be delayed, late, takes hour to get in town etc; would like to see you any time Sunday 28th / leave SF 29th AM plan to be at

California or whatever its name just outside down town terminal air depot; it had neon sign on it last time I was there / do you have phone? I can phone you say 8 AM Sun morning 28th or you me if you're still in occident. Hurrah.

saladin

August 13, 1963

Box 238. Chico, Calif.

Dear Samuel,

Obviously, from your mastery of the terms of the Moslems they have a spiritual culture equivalent to the Hindus and I think stemming from the Jewish which may make you so agile in it. Your grasp of it is astounding and probably would floor most anyone. Surely this means you have a mission there and probably will become immensely rich. In fact you already are rich, perhaps in one sense the richest of them all.

That To Lun talks as if you are a beginner is interesting. I think he is way out, a wondrous man who has left the "world" and is way out there in his bliss a bliss so immense he wishes others to join him in it. If a black God were to come along and tell him all men had this bliss I doubt if he would even be able to think black or bliss or believe it. Anyway I must thank you for taking me to see him and I wish to go again, perhaps on my own, and just look and look at him. But I can't go for his
ceremonials as a way to get into the thing. In brief, some Chinese in some ways have simply lost communication with the whites. Senzaki (help Chinese) often said he could not "handle" me, that is he didn't have the facility to impart his Perhaps you stole it?

I have come upon a remarkable scientific work an wish to send it to you 1) to get your opinion on it and possibly 2) to get your advice as to where to get it printed PROVIDED you will read it and send it back to me. Read translator's preface and page 49,58,107,117,135 and you have it all in 15 minutes. It was placed in my hands to get a publisher, not amuse me, and I enclose envelope for its return. If your time is too busy, kindly return without reading.

reps

Japan

September 9, 1963

Dear Samuel,

Hello. Send me nothing but postcards or air letters as I leave Tokyo and mail forwarding is long delayed.

I enjoyed seeing you very much and meeting TOO-Lun but I feel your hundreds of letters elevating yourself (unnecessarily) and complaining about others (remembrances of Murshida) had better have their energy put into books more constructive for others. I can see from your overtalk about being embraced and about some other man giving To-Lan teachings years ago that you are misunderstood as a breaker up of other persons' meetings (to your discredit). Your three time dogmatic recommend of some writer on Egypt complaining by implication of other writers sounded questionable. I also question the food accumulating on your unbrushed teeth. These things offend me and may others who may then miss your submerged genius. God has become a dirty word in world, Allah an historical one, so when you give a function Walk with God and fall to identify the God you mean your communication breaks down somewhat. You have so far in common with all other western Sufis the belief that you alone are right and they are wrong and you know why they are wrong. This is the regular outworn line. Is a religious feeling possible or soapy or faked or superior? Can people of different color skins using different God names ever approach on a religious basis? Religion has done me more harm than good, exemplified in most cases by charlatans or talk-talkers who elevate themselves over others with it. If I tell you he zuzzed her and you ask me what does zuzz mean and I tell you it can't be translated, I have double-talked you out of my sphere effectively at least for a year while you try to look up the word. Is this human or inhuman?

You could write 3 books in the time you take extrapolating but you may be blocked from communication by being prohibited from giving function without pay and your charges are enormous. Do you dig this? "Are you aliving?" is an African morning greeting. World revolution to sweep away all

religions and establish belief in new god named Lah-lah.

reps

Japan

September 17 1963

I met a fellow who gave me his impress of S.A.M. as below. I do not agree with this nor do I agree any person as S.A.M. exists: or that inside outside are feasible sneezable wheezable, a small old man (contractile)

with baggy pants

dirty teeth deep

traverse-wrinkling forehead

staring eyes (hardening nerve system)

strident voice

quick to judge and condemn others

tense musculature

stiff back

one of the hating Sufis each one alone right fight to death

who writes endless betters praising himself

and criticizing others and

who goes around breaking up other peoples' meetings

complaining complaining complaining.

March 21, 1963

SAM

TEN MINUTES AFTER I SEND YOU POSTCARD IN RE MURSHID—BECOMING I RECEIVE YOUR REQUEST FOR SUGGESTS

FRANKLY YOU MAY BE THE ONE MAN ALIVE WHO CAN RECONCILE ORIENT AND
OCCIDENT IN IDEA (AND ALL COMES FROM IDEA) AND THIS MAY BE WORKING OUT IN AND AS YOUR LIFE BUT IF SUCH A BIG VICTORY COULD BE IN WORLD SAVING LIVES OF SINKING DOWN MYSTICS ALL OVER IT SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED OR CONSTRICTED BY COLLECTING PAPERS, ACQUIRING LEGAL RIGHTS AND PLACATING THE DEAD OR DYING.

I SEE YOU AS A WORLD TEACHER OR ADJUSTER, NOT AS A PRACTICING ACCREDITED MURSHID SO AWAY WITH BOOKS PAPER CREDITS NAMES STATIONS "JUST CALL ME INAYAT" AND DO IT BY PRESENCE, BY YOUR PROFOUND SENSE OF JOY, BY PLAY, BY
RECONCILIATION OF FAITHS, BY TALKING, ESPECIALLY BY SPEAKING IN THE ORIENT AND I WOULD WASTEBASKET ALL THE SHODDY ACCREDITING MURSHID WORSHIP
STUPIDITY OF THE OCCIDENT AS HANDICAPPING AND BELITTLING YOUR GREAT SKILL

you may not be able to do this for suffering under a mother command you have fought for verbal recognition for years and the more I recommend or praise myself the less others think of me and the more I depreciate myself the others like me / its a law of reversals you ask for it so I tells you no soap

                                                                        reps

and start sending telegrams, all caps, power punches, lion roars instead of overworded overwritten detail that belong in sequent books. you will be a huge success anyway in orient in talk dept.

you are right / all groups are interested in

possessing and hiding the teachings, plus money

so you should reverse this

openly give everything,

claim nothing,

not admit you are a teacher (murshid) God alone is

and never never ask for money

what you have to give is priceless

so how can anyone pay you

start in this vein and a few roars

and they'll all fall down

I know heart love is precious and private

but I also know religion has a dirty

face

due to fighting, judging, claiming I am right and you

are wrong, and if you don't agree you go to hell

they all orient this way

so why associate yourself with such fights

your mission should be grander than this

you should have some precious present for any human you meet

and GIVE it to them

man to man, no more, no less, and wastebasket all

organization / leave that to the worms

in sum, your heart communication is for every man in world

take it or leave it

I base all this on your JOY no soap may be the most

valuable words you ever wrote

Muraraff sued Vilayat so he dare not claim he is sufi movement

big fight, he may sue you too tho he's jump at chance of

any affiliation to bring in the dough

all papers for ten thousand thousand years are in your heart

ALL THIS ONLY FROM MY VIEWPOINT THERE ARE ALL VIEWPOINTS

TOO USE THEM ALL

saladin

AND 101% HONESTY

AGAIN read the chapter of your LOTUS and it reads better than ever

but where is the letter writer interminably long too many

who has always been complaining and scolding and whining for

the last 33 years? There is NONE of this in the book.

Of course am inclined to agree with his scoldings but this

makes him and me right, God wrong.

Murshid once had an office in Chicago with his name on the

door. He organized to reach more persons.

You do not worship a knife and fork after eating. The

organization was his fork, no more.

He said, Saladin, they want to regularize all the prayer

motions. This was Van Tuyll Dutch formalism. So when I

told this in Europe they didn't agree with me (with Murshid)

because he had taught them regular movements.

Where do you find such interesting people? he asked me.

Many of his gang were deadheads as Shamser.

So, if you want to follow the rules, you must die

with your Murshid all secreted and never break a rule and hate

and exclude your inferior fellow man.

Not for me, boy. No soap.

I see a wide open, happy free world-gift from you

because you have wrote so well in this chapter

AND BECAUSE YOU ENJOY YOURSELF. Don't lose this as you age.

Let her rip, kiddo and scatter the papers to the winds

to read instead of selling to others as a pontificator.

Naturally the Orientals want you to have a station because

that helps them but they don't realize it undoes you and makes

you a laughing stock. They wont write you from Europe

because they think you're crazy, having deserted the best

Murshid. So, each seed sprouts in its own field. Be

you, be Samuel if you can.

So the puzzle is before you: which road, small or great,

closing or opening, charging or freely given?

reps

[undated]

Von Stolk, an appointee, went to Africa and got

hundreds of followers there

he just died

and of course left his daughter a fortune, whom I know

whose husband also immensely rich

I gave them both hell in their home dinner for me

for being only a fourth alive as their children

and they loved it and admitted it

so

IF you had a pure heart, =

broad viewpoint

and no wish to get, only to give, AND THIS INCLUDES MONEY

you could go to Africa and sweep the soofis up

off their feet do you have these? I doubt it?

nor do you act lionlike            lions only send telegrams

never long discursives

they save those for their sequent thoughts in books

in Europe they know you to be a crackpot

because you are untrue to your Murshid,

you accept other Murshids so have defected

so of course they are going to avoid you like a plague

they don't avoid me because I am not at all advanced

only a harmless eccentric

and very ignorant, only an outsider who met Murshid

by chance

I never frequent any religionists nor have writ on zen

for 30 years

you once wrote me you were thru with them but have fallen

back into their clutches because secretly you want

recognition and money? is this it? I ask you answer

it is no use to be a scold everybody

always complaining

you must be a lion and so positive they must bow down to be

eaten to get POSITIVE send $2 to

                        Chico-san

                        667 E 3 St.

                        Chico Cal.

for book MACROBIOTICS and follow Ohsawa food plan

I do its terrific

no meat few vegetables meat too + vegs too -

and put in a balance +- of cells by

MAJORING IN RICE OR MILLET

etc

this Ohsawa probably greatest man living on planet for

curing cancer, leprosy etc of thousands; he is 70 looks

40 they tell me.

anyway this is a BIG opportunity hurrah

lamb reps

postcard from Hawaii

June 2, 1963

S L: We do not see how you are a man without free time; really you have almost nothing to do. When you make a talk in Orient and get 100 pupils you really will be busy with papers. Maybe you will have to buy a paper factory. "You should see the higher Sufi mantrams and the higher Buddhist mantrams" Hurrah!! let me see them; the potency of sounds seems immense but only because they all stem from the one sound soundlessly. Even so sound is the best medicine. Here living is before the invention of the typewriter and before paper. This is not type and paper you are reading, but sound. You know this. Apr 15 National Observer newspaper, in libraries, p 8, has an account of the SF Buddhist church. There is money enuf in Europe to build a soofee Taj if they would do it.

s.

postcard from Hawaii

May 14, 1963

THE NAME OF Buddha is bud-ah!

THE NAME OF Jesus is yes-us!

THE NAME OF Allah is all-ah!

The name is a word, the word is a sound,

the sound is a shaking of silence, the silent

being who is, the ONE through the many, me, you.

You may turn both ways, towards the many and

towards the ONE, out or in, down or up, in fact,

you may breathe since you are breathed. By taking

a watch, seeing how many times you breathe in-out

a minute you will find it comes to 24,000 times

a day, this many opportunities of turning.

But do not fool yourself.

This turning, this breath, this being is in heart.

Whoo silent and sound

shakes us awake, ah, the first

baby mouth sound, Oh, the

sound of wonder—such are

through ordinary extraordinary

speech. Listen. Listen

reps

postcard from Hawaii

May 7, 1963

diagnosis started, cure possible:

THE TWO GREAT PROBLEMS ON EARTH ARE THE FOOD STARVATION IN THE BACKWARD “LANDS AND THE HEART STARVATION IN THE FORWARD LANDS.”

This may be the most penetrating sentence ever written in English.

Consonants constrict sounds that vowels give free flow to. Said another way the silent audible sound stem raying into space creating nature may be re-entered through sound and consonants are the stoppages of sounds. As one can be sounded and silently sound through pores and feet as well as mouth and mind, one becomes kind of

                                    reps

What suggestions might you have to feed the heart starvation? in forward lands?

postcard from Hawaii

May 21, 1963

SL: Your Saladin expert probably is truer than your life (poemly speaking). Your letter to Bahai exposes the whole thing splendidly. If "Satan" is analyst, you are using Satan, maybe an employee? You say "The whole country is 'schizoid.'" Maybe Allah's way to get you with more heart people, even save your life (as we predicted).

If OK with you, I plan to arrive SF Sat July 27th, 5:45 PM, take airline bus to downtown terminal, stay at hotel with neon sign just outside terminal door (Clift?) spend Sunday there, leave Sunday AM. Me: postcard. You: probably might save oodles of time if you dictaphoned instead of typed writings. No soap.

S.

postcard from Hawaii

May 16, 1963

told you shamser was dead zombie

brain cramped walks around in fathers image

this cramps heart to open heart unknot

this un ok everyone has a beloved someone

in heart but this someone sometimes gets tired

being squeezed and cuts up a bit what fun

Moslems but plan to open heart yet cramped

closed fought others each others for centuries

still fighting lost key sounds open but only

simple ones not formulated keys codes brainings

its too simple moral abolish newspapers books

cement sidewalks walk instead on path

reps

postcard from Hawaii

May 3, 1963

Dear Samuel,

Feeling fine but great Japanese Dr in Japan says from photo: Large nose means possible heart strain, lines under eyes kidney weakness. OK. Now how to correct any such? Your Ya Shafee of course. Any other suggests? Thank you.

The 20 lines carbon copy letter sent to someone with prescriptions very precious. The Ishk Allah ALWAYS has worked for me for years. You are IT. Thank you again and again.

                        reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 30, 1963

Dear Mr Lewis,

In receipt of your letter of the instant instant this is to advise you that practically each political minded person in USA is completely mad including the entire nation. All the more the it is your duty to decontaminate them thru sound but this should not be foreignized labeled. If you can do this you will receive the heartfelt thanks of

Anent notice on other side be advised that if receptivity is cut off the doer becomes mad thru unbalance. This (receptivity) is impossible to entertain due to contamination of such impartation by the clergy, educators, scientizers and humanizers, trapped by words, opinions, biases and you know what. Good luck to you but NO SOAP. Please breathe.

1 To many God (Allah) (Khudah) has become a dirty word.

2 To many Khudah (God) has become a etc.

1. Right 2 Wrong.

Better than 1 or 2

no foreign word at all

Foreign words are for foreigners but HE is not foreign nor prosaic.

postcard from Hawaii

April 29, 1963

Samuel,

What is Wazifa? what is tasbih (sounds like ashcan)? Why does Ya shafee work rather than some other words? (as it does) Just what is divine love? throne in heart, thot we were thru with "thrones?"

THOSE instructions are particularly yours; you got them no matter where to give. What is the difference between feeling and materialing and how do they relate? Do your "practices" produce a split between feel and fact? Can you get results with ordinary words or do you insist everyone must be a Muslim? In brief, is it propaganda for a payoff? Or, maybe you wish to be exclusive? And, lastly, what are you complaining about today? Hurrah. reps

any way

they work

but why not complain

about your

complaints as

something to do

these days

snorkeling

postcard from Hawaii

April 29, 1963

Dear Samuel,

I guess it would be OK to write me once weekly should you, choose care of Davis, 71 Pohakulani, Hilo, Hawaii for the next few weeks. Your patented Ya Shafee (and Ishk Allah) I have use for years (as your gift) and so am continually thanking you. These gems I found again in your letter copy sent me. How wonderful could you give them to world in their own language not foreign to them. Of course they work but magic is really love unforeign. In converse Murshid never obscured his talk to heart with words needing explaining. Just a notion from the ocean. Please see from my point of V.

                        reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 18, 1963

Dear Samuel, your medicino trip sounds loving and loved, very good am leaving this island very shortly, mail probably not forwarded—discontinue sending until we set somewhere again / hurrah

1 to 1 / following Murshida's instructions I do not use name saladin publicly, postcard is public sayonara              reps

your each page should tell how to realize Allah no time for social or theorizations public desperately hungering, forget professors how how how who who huu

ALL    AH !

postcard from Hawaii

April 19, 1963

YOU ARE RIGHT SO RIGHT WITH MAGIC FOREIGN ABACABA YOU TURN ON LIGHTS. BUT THIS IS SYMBOL OF GIFT YOU ARE GIVEN TO TURN ON LIGHTS IN INDIVIDUALS, 1 to 1, NOT DO SHOW MAGIC. THIS CAN BE DONE BY YOU WITHOUT PAPERS, CHARGES,

COMPLICATIONS, DEFERENCES STRAIGHT AHEAD WHOOPS GOD ONCE BURNED UP ALL YOUR PAPERS. BUT HE HAS GIVEN YOU THIS GREAT GIFT. EACH PAGE SHOULD SAY THIS, TURN ON YOUR LIGHT. LEAVING HERE. HOLD LETTERS, O TURNER ON OF LIGHTS. reps, "pray for me"

(famous moslem begging phrase)

INSIST YOU CAN TURN ON FOR ANY PERSON IN ANY LANGUAGE DIRECT 1 TO 1.

BUT THIS GIFT IS TO GIVE NOT TO GET WITH AND THE MORE YOU GIVE THE MORE COMES ALONG GO TO IT, BOY.

 postcard from Hawaii

April 13, 1963

"when we are released from some hate or fear, from some unbalanced lust, passion, persuasion, from birth or death, we have made a grade in school we have surrendered and so some miraculous appreciation is given us—as seeing to the blind, hearing to the deaf, touching to one who was turning to stone. This play is about turning."

(In one of a book of 30 reps plays)

            reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 17, 1963

WHAT keeps you cooking, youngering, is that you are given a tremendous power to help another. You know what.

So he she comes to, you and what do you do? I don't know. Maybe you fill his arms with old papers, lecture him on how grand you are, let him in on the fighting Sue-fees you delight to fight with and so do they. Maybe you tell him Come back tomorrow. But its man to man. He by presence ASKS for help and deserves it. It may not be what he expects. But he needs help desperately. This is why he doesn't want to read long papers or listen to a self praise or a fight that continues until death among cursers. This is your great opportunity, your cooking. No soap. reps

PS THIS MAN TO MAN STUFF is easier among Orientals than white skinners.

smile yes

letter no to others

letter to me yes

if letter to me is

shown another then

I must be told or

it must be headed

Open letter.

Otherwise

unfair.

see from my viewpoint

not yours!

postcard from Hawaii

July 27, 1959

'54 in Young East mag almost verbatim in my long poem your title 'How to be a Buddhist, how to be a Buddha" but cannot sue you because I love you and titles are not copyrightable. But send me Horizons; or at least issue and address. NY World ran article on me after I left for India; found stone book-ends, said I was stone worshipper; threatened to sue them, made good friends, became their

feature writer. Gentry mag cribbed stories from ZFZB, wrote them, became fast friends; they ran paid spreads on reps; even went with me to Japan; this is another opportunity for love (with force)

Strange I had similar sick experience to yours; laid down breathed ya shafee etc got healed. But Allah is sole owner of all vowels.

s

postcard from Hawaii

August 28, 1959

SL: HAVE DISCOVERED TREMENDOUS WEALTH IN YOUR NAME YOU ARE UNAWARE OF: YOU HAVE TERRIFIC POWER TO HELP OTHERS BY TELLING THEM WHAT TO DO (if when as you leave yourself out of it and don't extol yourself. Your self-claims sure to be resented even if true). Just specialize on helping others. I KNOW NO SINGLE PERSON YOUR ENEMY. Our enemies we imagine because we are not 1000% building constructively. Forget your imagined enemies. BUILD BUILD BUILD THRU OTHERS FOR YOU HAVE THIS POWER. USE IT. IT WILL REDOUND TO YOU. (It took me years to get you to go Oriental. Long ago I said forget wats.) NOW I HAVE DISCOVERED YOUR ENORMOUS WEALTH. USE IT. Letter splendid.

s

postcard from Hawaii

May 25, 1963

Notice:

water moves earth

fire flows water

air dances fire feel

sound stirs air breath

all from the one sound

never leave it if you

reps

Well, you're always telling so: a boy was named after me in New Zealand; a NZ woman offers me her daughter; a NY group wants one of my plays to produce

forgive my saying this

will meet you in India Dec 21 and we will have a 2 member speaking tour

they need and like speakers in India desperately

missionaries, always white, have missions

beware them,

Black reps

YOU FORGET TO SAY WHY YOU THINK THE MAGIC WORDS WORK

YOU SHOULD KNOW SOMETHING OF THIS YOU ARE THE EXPERT EXPERING

those old fellows cribbed my unknotting but failed to verb it

consonants kill verbs sound alives

postcard from Hawaii

June 17, 1963

Why not be a world citizen

why not spend half of each year in orient wintering

What about you mother, your brother?

Many secys possible in orient stir up

you haven't told me yet why the magic words work so well.

s

postcard from Chico, Calif

July 31, 1963

urgent to 5 am wakers sent two books on brown ricing, also sample sea salt, shoyu sauce, brown organically grown

El molino mills 3060 valley blvd alhambra has nice long grain brown rice don't know if organic

also can usually get this in health food stores their make

only 4 copies left here of bigger book sent you

hard to work this elec typewriter it hums

basic

chew

thank

eat hungry

brown

with seaweed a fish weekly

sea salt = rich man ways to paradise hurrah

sea salt in health food stores

postcard from Chico, Calif

August 5, 1963

Dear Samuel,

you are perhaps the most brilliant brain on earth specializing in writing letters to the dead.

You are destined to enliven the mission of Inayat and give it to the orient, give his life to the orient as only you can but fewer and fewer persons will stop these days to delve in old tomes to find the meanings of foreign words or even read books

why not dictate speaking by word instead of fingernails

you can see through iron 50 feet thick

you can solve problems 5,000 years old

you can speak the word and rain comes

you are the greatest

the most the exquisite and you admit it yourself

you give me endless exuberance and hurrahs you are

IT

all organized religions have this in common:

1. I am right and you are wrong and

2. If you don’t agree you go to hell

postcard from San Francisco, Calif

August 7, 1963

RIVER SWIMMING

POOL SWIMMING

BICYCLE THRU WOODED COOL MORNS

NICE YOUNG FOLKS

FOOD COOKED FOR ME MACROBIOTIC

GOOD WATER

PURE AIR

PICTURE POEM SHOW LATER

BUM TALKS I REBUKE

GALS

FINE AIR AND WELL WATER

COOL NIGHTS, AIRCOOLED ROOM

JAPANESE AND WHITIES

VERY PLEASURE AND NON

RELIGIOUS GROUP OPEN

MINDED HEARTED.

postcard from Chico, Calif

August 16, 1963

Have airmailed you Kevran book, asking its return in very short time

thinking his scientific work of possible interest to you and hoping you might

1. give me a react on it

2. and how to publish same

this if you like it.

Ohsawa comes this Sat 17th.

If not impressed I leave here for Japan in about a week or 10 days.

Picture poem show goes on Sat on.

reps

postcard from Chico, Calif

August 26, 1963

Dear Samuel, Your address is not clear.

I probably will be in SF next Sunday and would like to see you. Before then should you write me give times To Lun meditates. IF YOU HAVE NOT MAILED ME HOLD IT. OR MAIL IT TO REISER BY AIRMAIL: I'LL PAY. From your letters you do not state if you have mailed it to me or not definitely. Will stop at California hotel as before. See you soon.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

January 3,1968

by reps-yoga presume you mean unique anyone's yoga, lewis-yoga, wholly expressing with utmost love and joy

as per 112 practices in centering in ZFZB

if you wish moar copies of that book in paperback, can send as gift

from nyc

fikar must be uniquely one's own led from within not fro outer guru

heart must melt heart must melt

how is reps-jhog

walking as zombies to another's pace is not so good except for zombies

it's all an exploration, there are thousands exploring in

Rishikesh and so many other places this evening,

yes this evening

OM SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM

THIS IS ENUF WITHOUT BOOKS

well Krishnabai worked it, not by comparing, not

by judging and not by complaining and not by

self-elevation but by the heart-melted mantram

s

what is ryazat, who by, contents?

Islamic library McGill U, Montreal has 12 set books of Murshid, fine.

postcard from Hawaii

January 26, 1968

SAM!

Your activity should be named PLAY SCHOOL OF THE INNER LIFE        

(such as I have been setting up in usa)

and teach different "Jhoga" each night

and refer audience to place they can study further into special one,

and then they'll all LIKE you for advertising them

and the idea, school, lets you out of Guru attacks and slander, and its fun;

and I think it's what you are really doing in LOVE and JOY.

But it must be free, on donation basis, and even a button, something should be given to receive,

and it could be a world survey of PRACTICES as you can do it,

and the REAL education the young hunger for,

and thousands will come to learn and I will help you;

and like a library they will go there for references and comparisons because it is HONEST,

not wanting money or recognition or anything but REALLY HELPING!!!!!!

This is IT. Teacher no scold is best best best.

With world of youth hungering what mockery to set up a private charge—for instruction only for the elect!

No, no, that will only exclude the ones who need to be included.

It ain't love, it ain't.

It is up to you to open up a world soofism freely, from and to heart, giving, giving, radiating.

You must formulate this, otherwise no joy in doing, only labor and fatigue.

Go to it.

Shall I send you fine Yoga book?

reps

January 27, 1968

SAM

        Please forgive me for offending you by non-reception of letters, ban now removed, but I don't read long books any or letters except by touch. Think your love and joy and no scold reverse old policy of, like Murshida, condemn condemn condemn. Hurrah.

        30 is nothing, you will have 300, then 3,000, then why not, 300,000!

        They are there waiting for your school, worldwide.

        If you say you can handle any more than 30 this sounds like the Zen Roshis complaining. How about getting a hall, opening the doors!

        How about asking them to given $1 a week if they can afford it, and putting a box or plate for it, and they will respect the small sum asked and double it.

        Then if you also say, a report of income-outgo will be posted and give a financial statement on the wall they know you're not digging them for dough.

        All Yogis and Gurus, hail! But Mahesh Yogi 8 times has milked Americans for money and taken it back to India. His paid talks go on and on, they pay to hear they should pay a week's wage to study with him. Very takeative. And North Americans so innocent they don't see through it.

        ZEN NEEDS A TECHNICIAN ADJUSTMENT. It has entered and appeared often as a foreign import. You adjust it into a universal experience. They easily raise $300,000. For a few to sit exclusively, whereas all men SIT AND SHIT.

        Sufyism, Islam, Icelam and other lams also need your adjustment. If there were 1,000 or 10,000 or a guru on every street corner they could not even then fill the coming need.

        ALLAH orders followed, MOHAMMED says Give him what he asks, so BE it.

$1 a week means, or, say, $1 a week, that's better, means 52 x 300= $15,600 a year.

See your lawyer for non-profit set up to work from.

Why only 300?

Why not 3,000? 52 x 3000 = $156,000 a year. You NEED a building, not for SCHOOL but to HOUSE all the youth who will stream to SF to attend this school.

The $15,000 will pay for your announcements and let them know where to go. You don't need to do all this; your managers will do it; you direct.

            reps

February 1, 1968

Samuel

            I am writing two books on RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES OF THE WORLD.

            One is finished but has NO word religion in it and no smell of it, all one-to-one simple, repeat SIMPLE practices. Format startling. Name

                                                                        ZEN end

                                                                        and     

                                                                        REPS yoga

            I propose to write another book. Name

                                                                        RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES OF THE WORLD

                                                                        BY

                                                                        paul reps

                                                                        all packed prose in

                                                                        this book by Samuel Lewis.

The word packed may not be right. Maybe sequent, or maybe, informative prose.

You supply me with 12 single-spaced typed pages, not more than one page for each of the 12.

You detail the religion and its practices and results.

I contract with you to give you HALF of all income from the book, and all income if I predecease you, and both contract to devote total income of book to spreading it after we die.

I have full management of selling book and its movie rights etc but in any contract of sale your half is specified. Maybe I can make you $20,000. or moar for these 12 pages.

This is my proposition to you, subject

A. to your approval of text

B. and mine.

You get your 12 pages in 12 talks. Announced ahead, and you use them as instruction in your SCHOOL too. This delivers a liberal education and a CHOICE of religious practices to anyone, a free gift to humanity and a kind of exposure of the closed-fisted past ways of religious teachers, and a liberal comparison of all of them including the Eskimo.

                        Paul Reps

postcard from Hawaii

March 9, 1968

MAN, YOU ARE REALLY COOKING WITH DYNAMITE. ADVICE: FOLLOW NO ADVICE. LOVE AND JOY ARE THE DOCTOR'S PRESCRIPTION YOU BET. AM SENDING TO MONTREAL TO GET NAME OF PUBLISHER IN ENGLAND TO HAVE SET OF KHAN BOOKS SENT YOU KEEP AS MY GIFT. MAGNIFICENT PHOTOS OF HIM IN THEM. KEEP CALM.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

March 12, 1968

Samuel! I never intended you should come to Stanford talk

lounge talks are invariably dull besides you have heard and do hear

please avoid this energy expenditure in favor of your own work

hi

reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 1, 1968

The eyes are the windows of the sound

a brilliant title.

Waiting for book with baited breath!!!!

Man in Sweden did a book, 1st picture in farm suit with hat, second without hat,

third without hat and coat, and so on and last picture he stood entirely naked.

Long text I could not read in swedish.

re PS

postcard from Hawaii

April 8, 1968

SAM

would love to drop in and listen, just listen to your Sunday May 19 class.

Speaking high school May 16th, May 17th 2:30 PM San Jose State College, Journalism Bldg 141. Expect to be at Don hotel May 19 SF;

seminar outside NYC, Rye, NY May 24,5,6;

Chicago June 1-2. San Diego

perhaps June 7,8,9 Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

then Hawaii;

then SF late Fall.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 11, 1968

SAM

Your teaching by breath, heart and eye and atmosphere sounds wonderful!!!! Your defense of it to oldsters sounds unnecessary. With your permission plan to sit in your May 19 meeting (what time?) Sunday and leave Tue or Wed for NYC. This would leave me only 19 or 20th open (maybe stretched to 18th or 21st

A Marion Sattman (whom I have met and is not my representative) seems kindly helping with a reps talk but reps doesn't need to talk; she wrote I would hear from SF State College but I haven't.

I doubt the advisability of any houseboat talk as I think this is Bro. Watts' territory.

Isn't it enuf just to talk with you?

YES. Plan return thru SF in Fall. Don hotel SF, my plan, after talks San Jose, 16, 17.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

April 20, 1968

Sam says! I am now teaching by Breath, by Heart, by Eye, by Atmosphere.

These are universal. They are not metaphysical. These are operational

Excepting it should say we, since you are not doing it apart,

this is the most or only worthy statement you ever made,

and this despite the fact that it is in sequent English that kills any wholeheartedness.

Long self praising other-condemning reams into the ashcan but this shines with Allah's glory.

Of course it is not substantiated by humans because there are no humans,

only unknown beings calling themselves humans, ranking themselves as important and right.

reps

This statement puts a new soofyism into world

antiquating old methods completely including initiations.

To initiate is to start.

It cannot be formalized.

Except for the living dead.

postcard from Hawaii

July 16, 1968

SAMRAM

Asia drama was sent not because we like it

but dislike it as a test

you passed

but between each word ramdas is smiling

r

however there are some other reasons

if not you might not have received this card.

postcard from Hawaii

August 5, 1963

LET me confess to you I have been working on a book for almost a year and it is now done

NO NEED TO KILL

11 WAYS TO MEDITATE

Inayat (he always said "Call me Inayat") told me his mysticism of sound was a large thick volume at first and it was reduced and reduced. This shows us we teach ourselves by talking with us about what we think might be so, ne.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

August 6, 1968

Dear SAMRAM

It seems I have two speaking living engagements at colleges near San Diego thus to arrive in SF weekend of Nov 9.

Your vast energetic letters shower me with a 3,000 audience.

OK, man, all samee 3,000 or 3. or 3.

The number 3 has a vast significance.

It comes after 2 and 2 comes after 1, yes it does.

The effects sequence and the English language. ah oh

reps

postcard from Hawaii

September 5, 1968

Dear Samuel,

You seem to be doing nicely, no complaints. Its the others who should be complaining!

Leave for Japan Sep 12; leave for southern Calif. Oct 30th series of seminars and college talks; plan arriving SF about Nov 15. Return from Japan early Oct.

Allah to you!

"Call me Inayat" he said, and made a simple "order." Now an order sounds harmless enuf. Not so. Lawsuits and threats and boasts for years and years continually afterwards. SCHOOL FOR WALK is superb. Meditation is an overused word, so is international for title.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

October 21, 1968

O Samuel,

had most wonderful experiences of life on recent trip to Philippines and Japan

leave here Oct 27 for college talks as far east as Wisconsin, Nov 10

on houseboat at Sausalito 6PM I think.

Keep humming!

reps

postcard from Hawaii

November 25, 1968

Samuel, thank you for your life your life

your dancing is the most important innovation in the history of the western world

your book is superb

your oracle is splendid.

I will see you march 10, 69

reps

postcard from Hawaii

December 6, 1968

The $900,000 Siamese Buddha and the $750,000 Sineasy Buddha are worth less than the two words you sent me. but what do they mean? Imagine their worth in a time when people knew what they meant! And what does ryazat mean AND HOW CAN I SEE IT????

P99 ANALOG science fiction Dec newsstands 60ct has article by scientist "situation of some gravity" excellent predicting bad times for Dec this month.

Probably why the pope lost his temper in public the other day. Very well done article.

Fatigue diminishes by the way as interest rises.

I wished to have you and yours to dinner that night also but there were too many for too few food we need a hall under 20 free, over 20 $1, over 30 $3??

reps

postcard from Hawaii

December 13, 1968

SAM-RAM

If you get discouraged with the quaint customs of old Europe or the druggists delights just turn to the back cover of dejected avatar and see that smile.

Soupism is nothing to me without a SMILE don't forget world is upset right now but Nixon is a Quaker and will calm it down but Europe suefees have only been sueing one another for one lifetime rest assured,

reps

postcard from Hawaii

December 16, 1968

SAMRAM forgive me for writing you a letter

why send a handful of trash when you can send a whole post (card)

why capitalize on someone or period or comma him.

I got to nothing about the utter innocence of Inayat when he said, just think,

sirdar is making all the prayers with just the right wording

I was shocked at this I never expected such detached innocence from the wise man

but I realize anything not rejected from me talking is or may be

because of an innocence, the very nerve of getting up

and saying such things if we write down what is said

it has lost its spontaneity innocence but gained in formalism,

in other words gone from heaven to hell

and everyone living in hell as a matter of coarse

let's dance.

rePS

postcard from Hawaii

December 23, 1968

S a m

you are RIGHT

food articles mere trash without LOVE

words without LOVE better never said

you are RIGHT

and shall be right in 1969

in the face of the pretenders deniers

and strivers

nowwhatis love? hunger?

reps

[after Christmas 1968]

O Samuel,

esalen has taken control from mike murphy and is in the hands of the old men for money

though they paid me $850 to come from Japan

and $450 another time to come from hawaii

my seminars must have been trash for the place

to arrive where it is (in our dream ha)

esalen chicago man who paid me for a seminar there

with elaborate reception of apartment with a great

round bed and a private airplane

imported lama govinda at his request

to break the midwest monotony

they liked him

as he sat on the platform always beside his wife

which is tiring

so en route to india where he lived in mayavati

which is tiring

and writes long strings of words

which is tiring (to me)

he endured (with oppositions of fellow germans

already ensconced there) esalen big sur

I must buy some of my stock you say is going up

but it has nowhere else to go

our abject non-functioning in western world

continuing

the day after lama's seminar in chicago reps gave

one (functional) talk

the young turned out for it

they never had before

and the recording was muffed

so it is where it belongs

down the winds

but it was a dilly

it wrapped up the llama good

who by the bye likes reps books

his wife wont let him be hugged because she says

holy men are never touched in India

however he winks at this

so you see the SITuation

take a look at your photo in your book LET'S LAUGH

reps

[undated]

Dear Samuel,

The repository for Nyogen Senzaki works should be

Ryutakuji

Mishima City

Shizuoka, Japan.

Soen Roshi was the inheritor of all Senzaki-san things

by his written last instructions and should honor the material.

As you know Japanese are notoriously careful about keeping treasures.

May God bless you in your work,

man,

reps

postcard from Hawaii

January 4, 1969

Dear Samuel

there aren't very many of us

most of us are rushing pressing forcing

others fearing just to be me

a cat and Asian trip was given you thru me

the best gift Inayat ever gives is his

innocence about those prayers

the rest was projected by him and others to do good

in these projections we lose our life

that never loses us what fun there is

absolutely no one like Sam Lewis nosiree

so be it.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

January 8, 1969

O Samuel,

did you ever have any idea of why the q sound used with the Sufis?

as Haaq

is it a language situation do you think?

why do we find no such sound elsewhere?

you usually know any everything so I suppose

an inspired reply maybe put in spheres here or there.

rePS

postcard from Hawaii

February 14, 1969

Hurrah you have made playboy

altho I know nothing of such things you can ask for 150,000. and settle for 5M not bad

they have oodles of bread and would use suit

for publicity purposes perhaps your stuff so good why? because your INTENT

is pure that's why,

r

WHAT ISSUE PLAYBOY REJECTED YOU?

postcard from Hawaii

February 20, 1969

When Inayat asked me what I wanted I would say only your good feeling and he would say

You already have that

indeed I have we have and not only that but yours and not only yours but

THOUSANDS of others likewise MILLIONS do you appreciate THIS?

It poureth thrueth hereth so-it-is.

reps

postcard from Hawaii

February 21, 1969

Dear Samuel,

Thanks for copy of asvaghosha

please send me book reference, publisher, price address

wherefrom your page was taken.

It is even better than Inayat.

Best,

reps

postcard from Hawaii

February 28, 1969

shaku patronizing of nyogen in very bad taste

because the father boss dominant superior is always in bad taste asking to be humbled

allah alone IS however nyogen was half chinese

so the closed end setup of the smaller Japanese

didn't sit well with him who at end of life

outgrew his father and did pretty well for

himself but couldn't convey it clearly functionally,

you have the only dance in USA so far

it promotes health and do-it-yourself

tho it may be contaminated with exclusivisms

by no means can we call exhibitionism or theatricalism

or eroticism dance in deed no

topless in USA does not mean headless but up to breasts revealed

to the man-child in USA who couldn't get any

higher yes it is a disgrace to be mentioned in play, boy.

however Japanese use derogation as backhanded praising

the moar derogate the moar praise

howaboutthat

Paauilo, Hawaii 96776

March 6, 1969

dearest sam

you offered me the huge sum of $40 to do a cover

for a book for you

and when I asked you how I get paid

when you didn't even reply

so maybe you don't have that $40

you specified it, not I

it was your idea, not mine

and

you suggest I speak at barkeley

and when I suggested your place was too small

to get even 100 persons in

you did not oven reply

so maybe

it is

it was your idea, not mine

so

I am sending george hoyt to you

who can do your magazine you speak of

perhaps without cost for you

and this

should be

just grand

also I suggested a better title for your endeavor

would be good and you never even replied to this

which is

as-it-should-be

as all things ARE

reps

PLEASE REPLY SEMI-ANNUALLY ONLY

JULY   JANUARY

HEAD REPLY: "THIS REQUIRES NO ANSWER"

Paauilo, Hi. 96776

July 4, 1970

Sam

I am fully cognizant that your prayers

as your call them are changing the race mind

yes they're being answered and changing

the race mind

this is obvious

hasan nizami told me he had a million mureeds

or followers    quite a bite for a soofee

I called him on it and he said it was so,

factually          yes in deed factually

they were the living-dead ones

you have done a whole of a lot better than that

sometimes I think you are the only living soofee

Reps

Paauilo, hi, 96776

December 30, 1970

dear Samuel,

thanks for good, short, telegraphic, compacted,

non-judging-others letter

let us correspond jan 1 each year and

maybe july 1

glad to hear things going well for you

I too had an infection

stopped eating for 7 days, one

fruit a day, and with a few streptomycin

cleared it

exhibited and talked over usa in 70

also two Us in Sweden           also nyc gallery

show and 3 talks

after 10 days in nyc it took my throat

2 months to clear itself of lodged

minerals          I refuse to stay overnight

in nyc in future

speak at esalen sf april 29, 8PM

love and blessings,

reps

November 7, 1962

My dear Saladin:

I received your note from Bergen and had no intention to write—your life seems so utterly far from mine in everything. But in the next mail I received a letter from my Pir-o-Murshid from which I quote:

What a joy to remember you this morning. I was spiritually busy or less I would have replied to you earlier.

I hope you would be kind enough to forgive me. It is no exaggeration to say I have never met a man to touch you.

Your devotion to ISLAM is very highly appreciated here. The message of our Pir-o-Murshid SUFI INAYAT KHAN CHISTI is of course a real message of ISLAM.

Love to humanity. Unconditional and unrestricted love to humanity irrespective of black and white. Your love to humanity is the real worship of God. If you love humanity means you love God. Very few SUFIS know this.

End of quotation

I am enclosing picture which shows me in robe. This robe was instituted first as Wali and then as Murshid over the Khalifs, 200 being present at the first, 500 at the second gathering. I won't tell you here what happened because in view of what is written above it is so out of line with all our
traditions, sentiments, attitudes.

When the real Zen monks came here all the experts kept away. When they had their convention I insisted on addressing them when a hostile chairman wanted to refuse. I simply Fudo'd and I can Fudo because I am Fudo and this robe is the Sufi equivalent of Fudo and man can do nothing about it. And when I finished a Japanese monk arose and supported me in everything, down to fine details and said I should be given a vote of thanks and ovation. Bye-bye blackbirds Watts, Humphreys, Blythe and a bunch of Ph.Ds, and P.D.q.s Whose words are read far and wide.

Then I wrote to the vice-President of India about my read mission and the Consul-General here at once telephoned me. Ho-hum.

Bryn objected and Bryn also did not take my reports on salt-water conversion and now he is stuck with two big problems and at last he has gotten into his head that may be, just maybe, this one is not a complete idiot. But you know what Pir-o-Murshid said about his true disciples.

I am trying to convert some Sufi mureeds not to inner practices, but occasionally to accept a few things written in the printed publications. Like Shaw happing to convert a banker to Sufism, I hope to convert a mureed here and there in the West.

Now all the seers, psychics and saints including this Pir-o-Murshid, Barkat Ali, predicted two things for me and then minor things. The minor we won't discuss excepting to say that a Sufi may function anywhere, in anything and does not depend on the faith of others. When you are interested talkie, but not. Also nearly all the x-followers of Alan Watts are on the fringe, and he, of course, is fur, fur away.

[next page(s) likely missing]

April 4, 1963

Dear Saladin:

The deluge is upon me which I knew was coming. Today another letter from Pakistan. More and more Sufis are not only looking to me but want to know about Pir-o-Murshid's teachings. I do not favor the purchase of books for these people because the book without the teacher does not help and I do not like to ask for money from anybody for Gatha typing because I know of nobody excepting in Cleveland who is suited to this work and there they would also supply the money. I cannot go and ask people to type this class of writing. But since writing this morning the next letter confirmed the need to a simple breakdown of Pir-o-Murshid's lessons, plus the commentaries which he asked me to do.

In 1957 after I was snubbed by everybody the Prime Minister of Pakistan came here, lined up
everybody in the room and made them come one by one for my blessing. He, Mohammed Ali Bogra, is now dead. But the man who started the same thing in Pakistan, Hakeem Sahib, has suddenly
appeared in the midst of my friends and they made a pilgrimage to my Khalifa, Khawar Khan, who has been ill.

I two or three of instructions for Khawar:

a. The new method based on Mohammed, Ali and Hujwiri mostly for Muslims.

b. The method Pir-o-Murshid wanted plus commentaries.

But this is a sign of what if going to happen after I leave this world, that all the mureeds of
Pir-o-Murshid are going to be lined up by him just as the Pakistanis were lined up by Mohammed Ali Bogra. While I have seen this again and again, the kind of recognition from Hakes Sahib is the basic reason why I do not to travel any more. I want somebody with me, one or more persons and let them do the recording.

Pir-o-Murshid said: "It is his teachings that make the Murshid" and all inquiries given me are
basically by esoteric methods with a minimum sermonizing and just enough explanations to make things clear. Or as Pir-o-Murshid said: "What I give to you must give to others. This is the great curse and some day diseases or plagues will break out among the gatha-hiders who do not either teach or distribute.

Once I want to Purdah and Pir-o-Murshid came and gave me three sets of studies and when I came out I found the original papers, almost identical and tore the sheets up. But the subject matter is
going to be integrated for mureeds and possibly others at the University of Islamabad and no
gatha-hiders or githa-secluders are going to stop it.

I am even now on the verge of spiritual training through music, and there are the methods of
magnetism and concentration which I consider too. The praying, "May the Message of God reach far and wide" and then hiding his attainment but by the reactions of the simpletons who do not practice what Hazrat Inayat Khan taught them—or what they assume he taught without even getting the instructions.

The finality of this will come, no doubt, when we meet and I explain in universal terns the Fudo
mission which I neither avoid nor wish to avoid though others may want it. I wish to give you a complete picture before anything else.

[next page(s) likely missing]

January 12, 1968

Mr. Paul Reps

Paauilo, Hawaii

Bodhisattva,

I here is a moral law and there is karma but one doubts whether one can convey the nature of them to the experts and metaphysicians who have been dominating the fields of Oriental philosophy (?) and mystical teachings. Hazrat Inayat Khan spent some time with Samuel in 1923 outlining his hopes, a matter not stressed because of the seemingly more important interviews of 1926. But having begun the study of the Upanishads in 1926, one might imagine that the person knew just a little on the subject. But when I returned from India with the "Lesser Upanishads" the experts with their "moral-spiritual" (?) outlooks refused almost unanimously to accept the bare fact that one had this literature, let along the knowledge involved.

The first prediction coming true is that the Hindu students have now their own cultural society and they have invited Sufi Murad Chisti to join them. This is sometime no "good" expert (?) on "Oriental Philosophy" would think of doing. But now the cards are going on to the table.

The real follow up of 1923 came when Paul Reps proposed a School. A School of learning and techniques, not of important and self-important people to bring East and West together. Evidently this must be in the Sphere because yesterday a special delivery registered letter arrived with the first endowment. I don't know how it got around. I do not even know the name of the donor but it is certain that the young people of the day, wishing to find spiritual liberation and Joy with (or without) drugs, and finding a solid person (to them) are responding more and more. Indeed putting one's foot down one got one's first substantial collection during the week and one's first effort to get public lectures have had what the Oriental but never the Orientalists would call "karma." Or in another way Sam is getting the reward of what Her Serene Highness called punya and I do not wish to go into that for Princess Poon has no use for the "only in America" ?Orientalists?

Indeed the welcome she gave Sam's delegates to the conference of The Temple of Understanding shows she is satisfied. And it is remarkable how the "experts" on Oriental ?Philosophy? and our public speakers kept away from the Calcutta conference where the cards were on the table.

The obtaining of the endowment came at a critical time for the total difference between Sufism and" only in America" Oriental ?Philosophy? is that in the former Teacher and pupil are one and Sam has taken on a tremendous burden and this has been wiped away very suddenly. And one is unable to share because the people accepting checks do not accept that Sam is a yogi or a Sufi or passed his Zen Buddhist credentials. They are willing even to forego money than to accept these basic facts so it is necessary to come out now and give the young Oriental-Oriental Philosophy.

On my sixtieth birthday Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj invited Professor S. Chatterji, then head of the philosophy department of the University of Calcutta and this worthy immediately attacked Sam. "You Americans! You miserable Americans! You are not only liars you are woards. You not only lie you employ Germans to lie for you, you cannot do your own lying." It took the Swami some time to calm the professor down. And Sam said, "Which do you want, the flute-of-Krishna or a talk on Chandogya Upanishad right off, no preparation?" "He means exactly what he says." Swamiji interjected. The professor apologized but I can assure you the men whom Chatterji loathed have been the speakers before during and since that period and even now when you never find Sam invited to address public audiences at any East-west gathering! This is our moral-and- spiritual law!

The coming of Swamiji caused Sam to Contact the Hindu students and they not only invited him to join them but to participated in their Independence Day. This was followed up by Sam finding an address of Mahatma Gandhi which I can assure you none of these German, English and Phdesists would dare to read in public. So Sam has this for January 26 and it will be accepted—no "experts" stand in the way now just as no "experts" stood in the way in India. We are all ready.

Sam had reached the end of his rope—standing all the expenses and burdens, so he applied for an outside job and had a favorable answer. The miserable situation when all these "experts" on "Oriental Philosophy" adamantly refuse to accept the religion of the President of India! But they'll "celebrate" India's Independence Day. So Sam will be with the Hindus and not with the "experts" and "Orientalists."

The very theme of Hindu-Muslim unity is deep in my hidden self. The refusal to accept any real speaker on Sufism is going to have its karmic repercussions. True, I have been invited to speak at certain groups which means Sam brings the audience and they take the collection! This is the moral-spiritual outlook!

Yesterday I received a report that a least four colleges in the Bay Area want a real speaker on real Sufism and real mysticism and I am tired of crabbing about Emperor Akbar whose name, fame and history has been shut out from the public by the "experts."

Add to that that a letter from Vocha came yesterday anent Ruth St. Denis. Sam is carrying on the work or Ruth St. Denis and we are going to have some real yoga dances on either a May day or a Maypole holiday. And I am going to tell the young that the "experts" don't want any such things—they want lectures, not realities.

Yesterday the Dancing Class got a real lesson on Kundalini Yoga from a real guru and the effect was magical. It was particularly true on a Hatha Yoga instructor named Krishna Das. He realizes he is getting neither bunk nor oratory from this person and the centres are not only being awakened but functioning and everybody (without any university degrees) is learning through direct experience of a real Guru what this all means.

The classes go on with several being ill. Differing from the verbal-verbal-verbal "Advaiting" Sam has considered it his duty to look after the health of the ailing disciples. Kwannon, or if you wish Avalokitesvara, is the other side of Fudo, who is a sort of Avatar of Shiva. While the "experts" and PhDeists refuse to accept hard facts and realities, the young are getting them by example and demonstrations.

Another group of absentees are those who have gone off to hear Vilayat in Los Angeles. Nothing could be more pleasing. We hope to have tape-recordings and more. Everything has started right. Everything. Praise Allah! And we are also planning to join him in Colorado this summer and the campaign is off to a booming start.

The paper called The Oracle came off the press yesterday. Indirectly Sam is the guiding spirit now and sooner or later there will be an article, not exposing but pitying these "experts" who have refused stubbornly and absolutely to permit any talk on Sufism. Akbar or President Hussain—one after another, often in sharp disagreement with each other but refusing to accept realities.

A Parsi—and he may be very spiritual—has been given the attention Sam could not get with a thousand pleas. The totality of these people is small. A single Order of Dervishes has more members then the whole community and there are many orders of Dervishes.

This work on real Esotericism takes much time but the response of the assistants and secretaries is tremendous. They are finding out what is, not what important people think, and they are getting keys to their own personalities and the solutions of their own problems.

There is not much time. Swami Ranganathananda will be here shortly and then "Papa-Guru" is expected. We will let those who wish to run off to the Maharshi (who was welcomed by the "experts"). Now the possibilities of the School loom but as a single person, even now with an easy financial situation I cannot alone do it. Fortunately the young are so different. They act rather than react! They do not observe the word karma. One of the chief "experts" pleading for money actually insulted a very wealthy man who was in his audience purposely class in very poor clothes: The bible says: "Show kindness unto strangers for many have thereby greeted angels unawares."

It looks now as if Sam would have his own school of real Oriental studies. Or what you call The School. We are ready for the next act. Sam wanted to include the "experts" but they have rejected Sufism and Akbar and President Hussain. The Indian students have now. Don't we have fun?

Love and blessings,

Sam

410 Precita

San Francisco

January 30, 1968

Saladin, Beloved one of God:

The surprise letter with check has been received and the contents of the letter are more important than the money, which will be put to the usages you want, not because you want it that way but because that is exactly what has been going on.

The faculty called Kashf by Sufis and Prajna by some Buddhists and most of all by Dr. Radhakrishnan is the direct insight into the nature of things. And first Insight and now Direct Sight are coming into manifestation. Not only that but the story of m God-daughters is going to affect life.

One confesses that Sillivitic Estelle had been my God-daughter and she walked out on me, and no sooner had she walked out than Nancy walked in and the Voice said, "This is your new God-daughter." And Nancy has recently had a full illumination experience and we have a date tomorrow.

In the meanwhile the same Insight-Voice said to Samuel about Nancy's husband, Ralph, "He is your Mr. Zanetti." And I know that my financial future might lie in Ralph. Since that time he has been very successful financially. I still do not know what it means.

Sheila also walked into my life and the question of having two women favorites (most of the disciples had been men and the men still lead) never came because when these two women met they recognized that they are as sisters in the aeonic life, or in our language, in former incarnations. Sheila has two wealthy men in toe that she has been trying to arrange to meet me and after the Nancy meeting tomorrow there are what one may have to meet.

Now this same Voice said that no matter how Reps-san acted, Saladin was to be among the elite and in addition to the "Mauna Yoga" in the back of ZGZB, one had to start reading the stories. No matter what is said in writing or life, one never disobeys, one dare not disobey the Inner Voice. And it is certain that the young take to Reps-san and I am only the communicator (my ruler is Mercury, not the Sun, no Jupiter).

You are right in pointing out that Kashf-Prajna is not always in accord with my wishes or plans of anything and I had been considering asking you to visit this city. There are two sorts of projects: alone and with others and really they are the same.

Some time ago on Dr. Neville Warwick came into my life. He claimed to be a Lama and I was utterly shocked the way he was treated, absolutely contrary to social customs and also the "Sutra of 42 Sections" introduced to the West by Roshi Shaku Soyen. I have never forgiven the so-called "Zen" master here of the Soto School but since then he has been berated by the late Mrs. Sasaki, and Roshis Soyen and Yasutani—all egotisms parading as spirituality, a fashion show which people love. And four of the Pancha Sila are thrown into the dust. Popularity, not spirituality.

As to the so-called Maharshi. It has been one's career not only to meet the saints who come here like Soyen, Yasutani but also Sidi Abu Salem Al-Alawai, Rabbi Schlomo from Jerusalem and others. I don’t know how far advanced ThichThien An is but Thien is Vietnamese for Zenshi. But also the first to meet others, some "neutral" like Dr. Chaudhuri and some decidedly like this
Maharshi. I was the first person to have had an interview with him and can no more meditate than Samuel can operate a Jet Plane. Only my war is with the Establishment . In fact I told one of his followers this was the cheap-skate meditation hall. But I send those who wish "Zen" either to Rev. Wagner my "nephew" in Dharma or next to Master Too Lun, also a disciple of the great Tai Hsu.

Wagner, Warwick and my life-long friend, Joseph Miller, form a spiritual Sangha to bring the Dharma to the America people. And in class on "Buddhism" last week not one person knew the Triratna! This is "only in America" Buddhism! I was initiated as Fudo Bosatsu on Mt. Takao to purify the Dharma and have acted under initiatory processes and not from ego.

The same is also true in Sufism that the visitation and blessing of Khwaja Khizr is the source of the continued vitality in life. When the masseur came the other day she was amazed at this—she is also an occultist and directly aware of the "finer bodies." The second reason for vitality is the Tawajjeh of Inayat Khan given at the Beverly Hills hotel and he put all his magnetisms and power (not his wisdom) into it. These things happened and I have been directed on the same Jelali path by Zen Masters and Sufis over and over again. It was only Ramdas who smothered it all in Love—he did not change it, he smothered it in Love.

Now one kisses the girls and embraces the men—this also derived from Talbut Mundy. But one feels like a father, sometimes like a grandfather and it is only because of the tremendous
progress of disciples that one feels like a teacher. "It is the Mureeds who make the Murshid."

The Power from Nyogen Senzaki came at his last lecture when he closed the Zendo here, in the Dharani: "Buddha Hridaya." Samuel passed this on to one Helen who claimed to be his last secretary. It is only by giving that one can have.

Brother Neville Warwick has been initiated into Buddha, Christ and Mohammed. Sometimes he tells sometimes not but until recently the Philistines rejected and he has had to go through the same negative nonsense which characterized one's own life. But it is different now. And it was not so much the arrival of beautiful Hippy girls here as that it had been shown in vision and was dismissed as fantasy.

The reason for the illness of last year was that Samuel was not to go away but lead the Hippy community toward spirituality. And equally Inayat Khan wanted him to contact the intellectuals and now universities to accept what "occultists" and "mystics" refuse, in the name of "Love, Harmony and Beauty." But firmness has won an apology from Hugh Lynn Cayce who has built his career on that of his celebrated father. The substitution of messiahship for science and the non-recognition of the prowess of Asians stands in the way of good-will. But now some universities are accepting Asians with occult sensitivities, not "Maharshis," for Christ is in the low as well as in the high.

After seeing Nancy one must see both Ralph and Sheila. Everything you have written may come true. Inayat Khan explained (at the Beverly Hills hotel) the relationship of masters to money and how this was overcome. I am keeping your letter for these special purposes. Now you can how one is busy day and night.

God bless you,

Samuel

410 Precita Ave.,

San Francisco, Calif. 94110

May 23, 1968

O Reps-san:

While consideration  to write an evaluation report to you today some surprising things happened about which more below. You will not be surprised that your two chief critics were the oldest men there; at the same time they were each far more opposed to each other.

People from 28 to 35 in general liked you, but were slightly ashamed of the dualistic picture which comes during the proceedings. Those under 28 loved you, and in general the love and devotion increased as one went down the age scale. The youngest once were enraptured and nothing one can say can add to that. One's only comment is that it fits in with the general picture I have of the psychic evolution going on.

If there is any suggestion from me—and do not take it too seriously—it would be to revive some of your earlier works. I leave that to you.

There is a long story here. When my father died I went to the University of California, Asian Studies, to settle some enigmatic portions of his will and was thrown out on my ear. After my first trip I went and tried to get them to accept some reports on my living in Indian villages. This was worse. The same thing happened to two friends to two friends of mine and we agreed to cut them out of our wills.

The articles published became more subjective and finally Sam challenged some PhDs. with hard faces. The PhDs. accepted the corrections, the editors did not. Now I challenged them by going to the Pakistan Consulate and followed this up by calling on Prof. Shover of San Francisco State. He told me he has nothing to do with the University of California. After all he has lived in Pakistan, about the worst credential for becoming an expert. No Sarcasm.

All one has to do is too read the latest book of Commander Lederer. It is very, very true and hits the very spot I have been aiming at for years. Indeed I have just refused to play the hypercritic to get articles published. One is anxious to solve problems, not to become famous.

Prof. Shover discovered the Sam Lewis who celebrated with Luther Whitman years age. Our "Glory Roads" is now used as a reference book in courses on history and social studies! Here we two "bums" and got nowhere but made enemies and now we are becoming famous. We stood for integrity and there one stands and does not care.

I did not see anything going on the San Francisco State campus. I am not a newsman. Besides I have been enrolled in courses there from time to time. Am also fighting a "war of two worlds for integrity." Don't know which is worse, Asians on America or Americans on Asia.

Faithfully,

Sam

July 29, 1968

O Reps San:

I am enclosing copy of a letter to Julie Medlock who is directing the construction at Auroville, near the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in India. Some day when we get out of "realism" into objective honesty some people will listen to the history of Julie as she revealed it to Sam but just now that is the last thing the various "East-West" centers want to hear. And really this letter and the enclosure is for Sri Haridas Chaudhuri for one has still the hope that he will get into the actualities of cultural exchange and stop this nonsense of promoting self-important people of previous generations as the "Suez Canals" of the age.

Why, he has associated with men who have the audacity, the damnable audacity to consider themselves as representatives of "Universal Religion" which is nothing but the defiance of the Living God Himself. As you know, this is a new age and with the efforts of Judith Hollister and Julie Medlock—who have very many friends in common but whom the "humility" experts do not want to hear about—we are seeing that the very persons who are rejected and ejected by their culture are being chosen by God Himself to be the female Moseses, so to speak, of the New Age.

And it is most regrettable that while Sri Haridas Chaudhuri is promoting reverends and ex-reverends who have no congregations as spokesman for "universal religion" the grand operations are going on in this land and in other parts of the world without the approval of the self-esteemed "experts."

The presence now of the Master from Korea means a further approval of your School. Master Seo gave everybody he contacted an examination in true Buddhism, the Buddhism of Millions of Asians and you might guess who passed #1. And I shall follow this up by summoning the living Vietnamese Buddhists who in this land of the free (?) are excluded and especially by the cultural exchange people.

Having the heritage and some of the original papers of Roshi Shaku Soyen I must continue his efforts to have real cultural exchange from the average as well as the superman of Asia and America, and this can be done, is being done, without any interjection of State Department, the press of the self-esteemed experts. God created all mankind in His image and likeness and last night we had some fusing of Buddhist and Hebrew yoga, and no nonsense.

Why, we even had four mature ladies, something that never happened before. They have tried everything and not seen a single sign of God-consciousness or Samadhi but last night they saw the real integration of real Love and real Joy in little people whom God does not neglect and whom the proud and naughty must serve in the next world, if not in this. Why I am even "converting" my oldest friends! A long time, but effective because "heart calls to heart and soul to soul."

 With Sheila and Shirin nothing goes wrong. Sheila has already met and I am hoping this week Shirin will meet the non-existent Sufis of the Bay Area. Why, I had a son of a Sufi here yesterday for a whole hour and his application of the sacred phrases proved successful. This is what the "east-west-experts' don't want to hear.

Both Sheila and Daniel gave their versions of the Saturday night dinner and there will be more, next time in Berkeley. The Indian Professors were so delighted. And as Nyogen used to say, quoting Tauler: "The eye with which I see God is the same eye as with which God sees me." Functions, functions, functions.

Love, real Love, is the greatest magnet. The day is full and the night is not empty. The last thing I am worrying about is money. There are wealthy men and plenty of funds on the horizon, and apparently publicity too. And when the nature as well as the young experience expansion in real Love, real Joy and real Peace, no further argument is needed. Why, I am even supporting two secretaries from the collections which I never touch!

It may be legally necessary to reestablish Mentorgarten exactly as both Robert Clifton and the disciples of Senzaki wished, and now with the blessing of Soen Nakagawa I don't care a hoop about any "Zen" Buddhists presenting anything to the American public. Not a satori in a shipload but lots of prestige, plenty!

I hear Conze has been removed from the University of Washington. On the surface this is unfortunate. And now with Lama Govinda coming and 40-11 bandwagons ready to meet him. We shall have a repetition of Nicholas Roerich, no doubt. Same old stuff, the big cheese! "My puja is better than your puja."

I must, however, give an unfavorable report: The last time in Samadhi, Sam asked a cabbage! "What have you to say?"

Love and a'that,

Sam

August 2, 1968

O Reps-San:

This is being written very rapidly. I have a number of very good friends (you among them) who are constantly sending wonderful inspirations, disregarding constant remarks that I have been working 16 hours a day six days a week, and now I am working over 16 hours most days. These good friends (you among them) are sending wonderful things and may things which are "musts," and it is only due to the fact that I have now three secretaries and that they see sides of me that other people, for the most part, have a priori rejected, God bless them

Most important, no doubt, were the two letters received in the same mail from Bryn Beorse of Keyport, Washington and Shamseddin Ahmed of Lahore. Shamseddin was a mureed of the Khalif Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan had in undivided India. He is now closed to the brother of the great Hasan Nizami who is regarded as the great saint of the day.

Both Shamcher (Bryn) and Shamseddin have declared that the understanding between Vilayat and Sam will have world effects. There was no question, Vilayat wanted the world (the circle) and Sam was instructed to lead the Hippies (the dot).  And there is no question of inferiority, but only of complement and supplement. Vilayat goes to Darjeeling and I am preparing Sheila and the higher up one goes the less the obstacles.

Both Sheila and I have been bothered by "mosquitoes," little people who play at being big and who delight ion nothing more than being able to turn down big minds. I won't go into detail here, but the meeting of Sam with a lot of younger people who are in effect the leaders of the Hippies, made it necessary to "annex" rather than throw down the gauntlet to what passes for the "Semantic" movement, a priestcraft cult led by power hungry individuals with Freudian frustrations. They try to conceal them by autocratic behavior toward others and they do not realize that there is still a democratic spirit which is certainly not in the words they utter and that when enough "peasants" get together there is a revolt. And although this revolt (a negative move) was not planned, it will go along with a pile of positive moves.

It is very serious to have you address 3,000 (three thousand) people when you come next—i.e. if we can keep the number down. We start our first "thing" Sunday. The rehearsals hare been very good, the Ramnam and Zikr. Actually this is totally in line with Vilayat's real universal approach, not the claptrap of seek-corporations and hundred "pretas" who steal the words but never the thoughts from sages.

I am compelled to absorb from Vilayat because that exactly fits in with my existence. And the young are getting what they seek, God willing and apparently He is willing.

Added to the events of March 1925, and the initiation in public in Pakistan the affairs of the week now throw the gauntlet down to all the pretenders to Asian Wisdom. It started last Sunday when dinner was dinner to Krishna and Juggernath, two Indian savants and the disciples Sheila and Daniel saw that we met at once and are discussing deep facets of Indian philosophy which are totally hyberbolized here. There is no doubt we shall meet again.

Then the main lesson of the week was the extension of "Concentration on Salat" but now Sam is able to efface the ego and demonstrate the prayer. And on Wednesday night there was the manifestation in walk (there has already been in sound) of Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. It was so obvious and so effective; only in the Krishna effacement Sam fell in love with all the young women and how beautiful they are (or are becoming), that he was glad to get out of it. But said God: "You need it. For you this experience is good, for others this would be dangerous." nevertheless last night Sam demonstrated Christ-consciousness and while there were probably no followers of Yogananda, there certainly were of the Bhakti-Vedanta movement. A person is not ordained as "Sufi" for diplomatic purposes.

It becomes tiresome to give fasts. The self-centered people won't accept them, Realism is the calm acceptance only of pleasurable facts. It has little to do with Reality.

But last night Sam was able to demonstrate any and all age-levels causing a degree of delight by meeting each child at his or her own age. He is giving spiritual teachings through games such as "Follow the leader" and coalescing all the teachings of the late Mother Ruth St. Denis and Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Havelock Ellis said, "By their dance ye shall know them." Srimati Ruth and Sam said, "By their walks ye shall know them." The children understand what the PhDeists simply cannot surmise. "The lamb and the lion can only lie together if We lead them." No wonder Sam has come out for "Cosmic consciousness for the brethren of dirty finger-nails."

I am hoping to get a day off next week. If people would stop sending suggestions I could get time off; but they will not and I am asking nobody to. The secretaries all realize where Sam stands in the real mystical life and that is something. We do not walk alone.

Love and blessings,

Sam

August 30, 1968

Dear Ram:

A copy of this letter I being sent to both Pir Vilayat and Shamcher Bryn Beorse. Things are happening so rapidly that it is hard to keep equi-mindedness and the weather is very hot.

I have written Vocha about the forthcoming apparent successful ending to the war against the General Semanticists. They have forgiven me neither for having studied with Korzybski's teacher nor for successful application of semantics in laboratory research. But one finds this hauteur has been overdone and one is now is full alliance with number of others who have been given the same unfair treatment.

A number of articles have been accepted and the last news is that those opposed to the G.S. people are starting two papers, one basically on psychedelics and one basically on mysticism, but both largely objective. It would appear that the alliance with Prof. Huston Smith of MIT is on firm basis and now I have been asked to submit an explanatory paper on "Sufism."

This is not so simple as it seems. The Sufis are out. They are ignored. The vast highly toted Auroville project at Pondicherry has been expecting Sam to help them out both with money and errands. It is ridiculous. They have refused so far alike to accept Indian customs laws and the existence of Sufis. Now one of the top friends of Sam is now one of the chief custom inspectors, but this is a long, long subject related to my work with Luther Whiteman. Metaphysicians and speculative egotists always choose to ignore rather than refute those with whom they do not agree. And with a disciple of Sufism as President of India it is utterly fantastic that a paper proposal to bring all religions and cultures together should ignore the Sufis, and with that the Taj and Fatehpur Sikri.

Later today I shall address the present ambassador from India to the United Stated who is a Shia Muslim if not a Sufi. Even he is "out" in all these paper, fund-raising "East-West" campaigns. There are now at least four "East-West" foundations in this city!

I am awaiting a return of a disciple from New York. He has established friendships with both Huston Smith at M.I.T. and Cantwell Smith at Harvard. Cantwell gave him an introduction to Prof. A.A. Siddiqui at Punjab U. Ala-ed-din is not only one of Sam's very best friends he is totally against the family of Hazrat Inayat Khan with the exception of Vilayat who is approved! But here again we encounter "Reality us. 'realism.'"

 There is considerable pressure of wealthy men behind efforts to get Sheyla to leave for India. It is Sam who does the work and he is going to suggest some financial cooperation from one of them who is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the religion. Also in secret, a high initiate. This will be taken up later.

The basic reason for writing is The School. There is now not a single cloud in the sky or anything standing in the way but action. I don't know where to begin. Don McCoy has asked to go to India and I shall prepare him and another disciple. I am writing letters of introductions to all sorts of people whom VIP's refuse to recognize one knows. (This is "realism" and "moral [?]-honesty"). In turn Don has asked Sam when he wants to go to India and has promised to finance the trip.

When Sam asked God—and Sam does just that—about living at the Ranch in Novato God answered him in the negative but said Sam might be living near there. Now a group of disciples has selected a place for a Khankah in the town of Novato just a little over two miles from the Ranch and our first meeting showed me might raise the capital but after that it would be easy. The rent after that would be less than Sam alone pays now. So there is a good chance that Sam will move near to Novato and then take over for the time the spiritual overseeing. It is too early but it looks fine.

Vilayat has already dedicated the place as International Meditation Center. Sam has suggested that those people who go cooperate to the full with both Vilayat and Prof. Seyyed Hussein Nasr who will be the official Sufi at the gathering of all faiths in Darjeeling this October. Dr. Huston Smith is also preparing to go. Everything is moving very rapidly.

Sam has discontinued several classes until these people depart and then will start School of the Walk and apparently will have a goodly following to begin with. The Dance Class is the best of all. There is no nonsense about the objective fulfillment of Salat and the prowess in self-effacement is affecting an ever great number of people.

There is no question one complies with Vilayat. There is nothing else to do. We shall next have to give attention to Berkeley. The Bolinas and Novato people, though miles apart, are already cooperating and the Bolinas people may move to Novato. There may be a change in Southern Marin County and there is an increase in Central Marin. There are two parties planned to eat at Khyber Pass in Oakland, owned by members of Sufi families and there is cooperation with the Persian Art Store in Berkeley, owned by a Sufi. Everything changes.

I am only awaiting papers from Vilayat to go on a really great venture.

The family opposition to him is based on nothing but egotism and cannot last. God does not wait on or for anybody. God alone was Founder of Sufism.

The manifestation of actual Love and Light and not just verbalisms is affecting more and more people. There is no time for anything else. And there is a strange re-invigoration of body, heart and soul which one experiences without being able to understand.

If God permits Sam to go to India with Krishna Das it will become a matter of great import. The tremendous respect shown to Sam at the Indian (and some other) Consulate stands in marked contrast to other groups but Sam is pretty sure to gain the good-will of Asia Foundation.

Next Tuesday is the "Summit" Buddhist meeting and Thursday the Vietnamese Art Exhibit! Tonight Indian dance actual. No time for "nonsense."

Love and blessings,

Sam

[undated, October 1968]

My Dear Brother,

I hope this reaches you before you leave Paauilo. We shall certainly welcome you when you come again—the question is where shall we put the audience. That houseboat will prove too small.

I have not seen the current issue of the Oracle. I understand it will largely be devoted to Sufism. Also to a review of The Rejected Avatar. The brochure of this poem is now on the market. The first I hope of many objective endeavors, inshallah. The next one scheduled and for Tuttle is the Tai Hsu manuscript.

The khankah—The Garden of Inayat—was opened Sunday. About a hundred present, nearly all young. The program consisted almost entirely of spiritual dances, Sufi and Yogi, choreographed by this person. There was also a birthday dance. From the birthday dance came the idea of the "Dance of Love and Brotherhood" which will be presented tonight. Also on the forthcoming agenda is the pas des deux for Jemila and Murshid. This will put the numbers one and two, the triangle, the cross, the five and six-pointed stars in dance forms. There will be a degree of complexity here, the next step beyond the six-pointed star will be Shiva and Shakti and or Shiva and Parvati. I do not know what relation this will have to your material in Zen Flesh Zen Bones. Allah, to Whom be all Praise, reveals the dances one night and explains them on some subsequent night.

We already do the Rama dance, mostly for Murshid (Guru) and men only, chiefly mureeds. The Krishna-Radha dance was originally programmed for a disciple now in jail. Murshid Sam took the part of Krishna, but when Krishnadas is released he will be welcomed with it, inshallah. This is a completely new cycle, the heritage of the joint efforts of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ruth St. Denis given in this country in 1911.

Disciples Sheila and Dara are now with Vilayat either in Calcutta or Darjeeling. Now work seven days a week for man and open to divine vision at night. Murshid's progress accompanied by great progress among disciples.

All love and blessings,

Sam

December 4, 1968

O Reps San:

The teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan that a Sufi is one who sees from the point of view of another as well as of himself does not go over readily. Indeed a great part of the so-called "generation gap" is simply that older people in general (many exceptions) cannot see from the points of view of others at all. It is beyond their capacity.

An eye-witness to the Free Speech drama at Berkeley, the gap between the actual happenings and the reports was tremendous. It was two years before any article was accepted from the President and Secretary of the student body on that campus. Older people simply refuse to accept anything but what appears in the papers and on radio-TV. Facts do not interest them. They want to be entertained. And the same thing is going on at San Francisco State. And the very worst took place in Honolulu and was not in the papers at all!

Thus older people also do not and cannot accept the teaching of Sankara of the identity of Brahm and the human ego. They cannot accept it and do not know why. The younger people cannot accept the differentiations against which Hazrat Inayat Khan protested. Older people want differentiations even though they pray otherwise.

A warning was sent out that it would be an easy matter to get thousands of people to attend your sessions. Although Sam only wanted the 20 of his dancing class and for obvious reasons, to meet you, word get out. There was a big faction of Mahayana Buddhists and another of Vedantists. Less than half who joined in the Dervish dancing had ever been in it before. The audience also included a number of followers who are not mureeds, and also a group which is building up a big spiritual power here and are all for you and even more for Bryn Beorse.

Sam is not hungering for recognition. But as elder people refuse to accept that he has met many Masters in and out of the Himalayas and that these Masters (several of them real Sufi real Murshids) gave him instructions he is expected to fulfill these instructions. He is more likely to be criticized for nonfulfillment and does not give a hoop or whoop whether he has the world acclaim or not. But again elder people simply refuse to accept that he has the joint heritages of Ruth St. Denis and Inayat Khan so these things have to be demonstrated, and , of course, the young rush in. They want facts and not ego-individual reactions to personalisms.

There is a whole history in the robe were which will make Douglas's book, "The Robe" very trite. Older people do not come here. The oldest disciple is 47 and she has been rejected by her generation and is accepted by the young, and this is too obvious. Her husband and brother-in-law and one Hatha Yoga teacher are the only disciples ever 35.

The last dance, the Ram-Sita not only big but in the Guru capacity one finds it very hard to maintain sobriety.

There is little doubt but I shall live on and in the Grace of Health until all the messages of Hazrat Inayat Khan are given to the world. It may still take a long time. The fracases on the university campus are opening doors, doors to honesty, objectivity, sobriety and truth.

Love and blessings,

Sam

December 5, 1968

O Reps-Sam:

You must understand that the Sufi invocation means exactly what it says. There is One universal mind-heart. Renee is far older in age than other disciples. She has never gotten along with her own generation. She gets along fine with the young, although lately one has found that she is on excellent terms with the university professors and more mature students—the type with whom I am associated when not with the mystical young.

Renee has opened a store to be used as a theatre-workshop. Last night at the Sufi meeting in Marin county we discussed using the place for both spiritual dancing and spiritual drama. Therefore, when I opened your letter in regard to "Sufi Yoga and Quaker dances," there is nothing more than to put it into effect.

You must realize, however, that there is a full program to begin with. We are now having in our midst a woman long connected with the Cleveland Sufi group who is also a friend of Vilayat Khan. The house on Precita is being turned into a Sufi motley—very gradually, involving financial problems not solved by a wand; there is also considerable changes in disciples with regard jobs and residences; this also involves cats.

There is another complex for which there is no cushion which has hurt Sam very hard. The disciples sent to India not only did not fulfill requests, but one of them has broken many principles of morality and decency. Add to that that there is an average of 2 conferences a day on personality problems—I mean at least 10 every week in addition to normal conferences with disciples. I see no way to travel, and yet have been urged to do so. On Sunday we go to Golden Gate Park and attract public audiences.

My work has been effected in many directions by the San Francisco State college complex.

The work on the ryazat of Inayat khan is hardly touched. And there is probably nobody on earth but Sam who can to this. We are just beginning to organize.

Esoteric Sciences are very difficult to impart. The behavior of electricity through rubber, steel, nylon, silk, copper, etc. is very different The blockages in the breath functions of people may be in any part of the anatomy from the pituitary to the feet. We gave 6 sessions in dervish dancing, 3 in yoga dancing, and 2 on walks last night. Instead of a 15 minute reading—and the reading did not occupy more than 15 minutes—the whole sessions took 2.5 hours, at least.

The Murshid-guru has to act as a Condenser-Transformer. This is very important and functional. Samuel's critics are faced by the hard fact that the body is not aging though at times the mind seems to be .

 A number of years ago Sam met Earl Blighton. He had been victimized by the same powerful social dowager, who regards herself as very important spiritually and has been very successful in collecting a following of mature females who benefit from her opulence. She is a past master of gossip and innuendo. Very successful in spreading rumors and lies. Those who do not know her remain totally unconscious of her nefarious schemes and successes.

Having been victimized by her (as well as by many other mature ladies) Sam formed a defensive alliance with Earl Blighton. At that time we each had 6 followers. Now Earl has over 50 and is acquiring a series of inn-hotels for the young, especially those who have been rejected by their families of society. He has raised these young from the various gutters.

Sam teaches Christian mysticism and a Christian yoga, most certainly not from the Himalayas. Salat says, "Let us know thee as Rama Krishna Shiva Buddha mosses Jesus Mohammed etc. To the Sufi these are actualities, not petitions, demonstrable and demonstrated. This is our Christmas work and no nonsense.

Next week we have a birthday, followed almost immediately by the visit of the family, followed by a wedding, followed by Christmas, It is only because one is responsive to constant inner guidance that he is possible to endure such a program.

Nevertheless what you have seen or proposed also seems to be part of the divine program.

Love and blessings,

Sam

December 8, 1968

O Reps San:

You are entirely right. It is necessary to "damn the torpedoes, go straight ahead." You will find enclosed copies of two letters just written and also "Announcement of Courses" for the "California Institute of Asian Studies."

This is one of those many organizations for which the money of people (including that of Sam) is very welcome but knowledge and wisdom not so. And I am quite willing they go ahead and collect all the money in the world. We give them the money. We want and maybe we have Sri Krishna.

The next few weeks shall be appalling not in any evil way but in the parade of persons coming here from various parts of the Orient, in particular India. Yesterday we had a Persian girl at our spiritual dances. She is the lady who asked Sam about Shams-i-Tabriz. So we gave her copy of "The Whirling Ecstasy." Her family came from Tabriz and were Sufis—the very reason which also excluded her from seminars here! That day is over.

Not only are celebrities and lesson persons coming here but the doors will be open at the University of California in the spring and no more nonsense of the welcome of the money of this person but otherwise no welcome. Even now the great project of Auroville is leaning on this person. The important Karma-Yogins and Purna-Yogins are too busy to indulge in such matters as the obtaining of machinery and heavy equipment and the shipping of them and the passing through customs. They have to go ahead with vapid dreams which are called "Yoga." We do!

Doing is our work. We have no lip service for any hypothetical Sri Krishna. We act and leave the fruits to Him. I mean actually. This puts us in the manger where he was born and lived.

The challenge this week will go to Lama Govinda and we shall challenge him with "Finite Compassion" against his "Infinite Compassion." No wonder Tibet was so easily conquered with its "Mahsters" and "Infinite compassion." Govinda, the Beorses, the reports from Pondicherry, Pir Vilayat and then the visit of Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda, and I understand more. And the Dances and rituals not yet written.

Well as I have been excluded I have been excluded. Now the School will be as you proposed. There are no alternative.

Love and blessings

Sam

December 21, 1968

O Reps San:

Today marks the solstice and another climax. The last one came unexpectedly with a step forward in a mystical-spiritual direction and has brought the love and devotion of a number of young people. This mystical-spiritual direction looks as if the application of the words of Academicians who popular in certain circles and so concerned with monetary charges and intellectual credentials. It is easy to convince the American public that God-consciousness is in some ways connected with the bizarre, the complex, and certain terminology. This has gone on for years. But now the young want the realities of Love, Tenderness, Sincerity, Compassion, Power, Generosity, Fearlessness, etc. Their elders given them words, words, words.

Lama Govinda is here. He is, of course, among the elite. He has been welcomed by Esalen and no doubt will be by the rival academies of "Asian" Studies. The stock of Reps went way up. The Lama was asked to given a simple practice and it knocked him for a loop. He had to stop and ordered a silence, the only decent thing on a whole program which undoubtedly delighted some of the seniors, but not all; and which failed miserably to touch of young who actualize and not verbalize. It was this that prompted this letter.

This expectation of non-violence from a Sufi (who is never of the elite) to be used as a doormat received a stern reaction. The reaction was entirely successful. And I am sending a copy of this to Dr. Chaudhuri. I was the first man to meet him when he came to San Francisco. I have sat at this feet but the opposite is almost impossible although this did happen with Dilip Koomar Roy, once an associate of this. And with Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda coming we are going to see a new day, with real culture exchange with real Hindus without any more interposition of Suez-Canal "experts." I am sorry. We could use their educated people but they have assumed the role of spiritual interventionists between man and God.

The reaction resulted in my receiving some money due and some of this will go to Pondicherry. The elite are too busy to help Pondicherry where the real disciples of Sri Aurobindo are doing things. Here it was not accepted that Sam had been there and when he spoke not a single disciple of the Ashram excepting the chairman showed up. This is our moral and spiritual outlook. Pondicherry needs help. And humanity needs help and these are not two causes.

The conference for The Temple of Understanding was a farce. The same old sermons of the same old people and they are asking the young for ideas and not accepting them. And the idea of religion without God-consciousness nearly fell. Princes Poon did her part but it was Vilayat who saved the day. And us non-existing Sufis who occasionally listen to God and don't yap at Him all the time will undoubtedly affect the young.

 With the Swami and Pir coming here within a few days of each other, this means that the School will advance. I should like some of the academicians but they have "humility" which means frozen ears. The Supermental consciousness is not just a phrase, it is an activity, it is a stage in cosmic development but apparently those who do the lecturing don't have to recognize anybody (else). The irony is that the nephew of Judith Tyberg has attended at least two of my meetings and may be in the class of Spiritual Drama. This depends on the experience of transformation and transmutation and not on the use of these words from platforms without any corresponding exemplification.

The basis of my present program is Chanting to Singing; Singing to Dancing; Dancing to Darshan; intermingled by Walk. The rejection of my relations to Hazrat Inayat Khan and Ruth St. Denis will become in time the basis of scandal. And when my diaries are published, the world will look at dismay at the attempts of nonparticipants to monopolize the universe of spiritual attainment.

Shamcher Beorse has been here and will return. He has already conferred with the disciples who are in virtual control of the Oracle. When a revolution took place and the Oracle was acquired by the New Age people they had no direction and the directions are now in the hands of the disciple of man known as a Sufi teacher in Asia, but not yet here among the elite.

One no longer cares. Most of the staff of the Oracle, originally followers of Timothy Leary, have been affected the spiritual dancing. This will climax on Christmas Eve when, with God's help I hope to put on a fine Darshan about which there is no nonsense and these Darshans are very effective.

Hazrat Inayat Khan says that the sings of spirituality are Love, Tranquility, Compassion, Joy, Power and Equi-mindedness. These words belong to the prelates. The actualities are feared because they require ego-transformation. That is why I shall introduce next, inshallah, Spiritual Drama. It is noticeable that all religions teach this basically but deny it to other religions. What is worse, those who pretend to believe in universal religion are champion excluders. None of them appeared at the conference in Calcutta. They had better not.

The Lama was fatigued and it is evidently the privilege of the superman to become fatigued. The superman, the privileged, may do anything including sermonizing the rest of us for our imperfections. So next night Sam called on all his disciples who suffered from fatigue and gave them one after another spiritual practices. The rejection of this by the elite and academicians will become, as I said, a scandal to the New Age.

 Today Sam goes to a wedding. Matthew is the groom. When Sam met him he asked, "What is your name?" "Matthew." "Why aren't you?" "What?" "Matthew." Today he is, which will undoubtedly annoy all the sermonizers and lecturers on Zen and transformation, etc. He has a teacher and this teacher has had more disciples having illumination than all the rest of us, spiritual and intellectual together. While the rich and powerful and elderly sit charmed at sermons on spiritual transformation this teacher is affecting it. The New Age is here.

There is going to be a New Age Coffee shop in the Haight-Ashbury District and, shades of the Beatniks, they will serve bagels, too. There is going to be a New Age "thing" on Fillmore St. in the heart of the so-called Negro ghetto. This sort of undertaking is going to hit deeply into the efforts of all the dualists whose solutions are simple; put us in charge. The young are taking over.

Both these will be avenues to reach the young and misled, but I do not know if there is time.

The non-existing Sufis are now contacting each other and we shall have another kind of brotherhood, inclusive without having to accept this or that PhD. as the spoke for the Heavens. The University of California is opening doors closed by the academicians and PH-deists. It is the New Age.

A fire took place at The Garden of Inayat. It was soon put out. But the cause for the fire was exactly the same as that which destroyed Kaaba Allah and caused a forest conflagration where Meher Baba was supposed to come and did not. Superman does not have to obey any moral laws, they are just for us ordinary people. But this is giving us the opportunity to do some real spiritual art work and no nonsense. Shamcher has had the opportunity to meet so many of the young directly and he may be back any hour.

The house here is being changed and we have cleaned the garage for dancing. One after another of the Beautiful Names of God are being put into dance-form. And also we have more real Yoga dancing and no nonsense. I shall write this up also for Washington and Pondicherry. I have given up trying to reach people here. As Murshid tells of the story of the man who chased the horse and did not catch him and then awaiting his coming, I shall now await. You only saw a fore-shadow of what will happen to Pir Vilayat Khan and Swami Ranganathananda. Besides the Hindu students have their own Indian cultural movement, totally difference from the academicians and Esalen. Nothing can stop truth.

Love and blessings,

Sam

January 2, 1969

O Reps San:

The New Year is here and perhaps the New Age. Sufis, who are excluded by the elite, hold more to karma, which is to say that for every action there is a reaction and also believe in what Jesus Christ has said, "Whatsoever ye do to the least of my creatures, ye do it unto me," are now gradually coming forth and the possibilities of the School, as you envisioned it, is coming. This was not the way Samuel wished it but there is no use going into that. A professor is a professor is a professor and a prominent is a prominent is a prominent and although we may hold to, "There is no God but God"; these words are not part of the culture of egocentric seniors who control the world and promote its confusions.

I am sending copy of this to a Hindu professor, and I had the experience of being the first American whom he met and which he has never forgiven. I also had the privilege of being the first American to meet the Maharshi but there is no great moral code in Hinduism as in Buddhism or Christianity and you can't lecture on the Gita unless you have a remarkable manas-ahankara, which is denied Samuel and which he denies too, so there is agreement.

With the establishment of an Indian Cultural Society by the Indians themselves without the grace of Prof. Von Plotz or Dr. Smythe-Smythe, Samuel will be permitted to join in discussions as an equal and not as an outcast. Besides, with the coming of Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, the whole picture changes. And while in my autobiography there are plenty of notes there is no intention to try to convince the more equal.

The New Years Eve Party might indicate the way for the year. It was the largest gathering, more than when you were here, with many disciples absent. We had to have three circles and this means I shall open up another item of real Occult trashing soon, using the Fire, Earth, Water and Air types separately, making their rhythms, etc.

It was a joint meeting with the Vajrayana Buddhists. While I have been somewhat skeptical, there is an end to that. This Puja is operative and it was very hard to keep the external consciousness. Besides, the Leader has always accepted the actual history of this person and his initiations in actual places by actual people—something both the elite of the clergy and the puppeteers who have replaced them refuse to examine—this being part of "moral and spiritual" culture????

The week is full of other climaxes. For the first time we have made an alliance with "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and forebode an overwhelming meeting. This next Monday. The young want truths and their elders personalities and there is a war between them.

All this stuff about "generation gap" is nonsense. The old want to lead and the young want knowledge. Another climax may be reached when The Oracle appears which may be this week or very soon. This publication is now in the hands of disciples and friends and if the forthcoming issue succeeds—and well it might—there will be a big opening for honest spiritual philosophies and Oriental-Oriental wisdom, Already the staff has accepted unofficially Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan.

And the next item will be the welcome to Pir Vilayat. He may be here only a short time. He is becoming, as he wished, the leader of the New Age and the pulpiteers will gawk, no doubt. And some day a pulpiteer here and there will accept "repentance" as taught by his religion. But they all want the Kingdom of Heaven without repentance. And they get just that.

Then the Guru, disciple of Sri Aurobindo. This is a case of "Heads I win, tails you lose" for he will not join the pulpiteers and he has already foretold he is coming to help The School. To have the International School of Meditation without Prof. Von Plotz and Dr. Smythe-Smythe will be something.

Last week we introduced the Sufi analogue to Kundalini Yoga into the Dancing-Walking class. Already several have passed and we gave the essence of this to a few disciples in Tantra New Years' eve. Why not? No use trying to tell anything to the manas-ahankara people. They reject—being of the "moral and spiritual-awakening" school that Sam has the inheritance from both Inayat Khan and Ruth St. Denis.

The San Francisco house is being changed and we have the basement for dancing. The landlord is so delighted he may make some improvement of and by himself. There is easy enough room for thirty people for Walking and Dancing.

Tonight we shall get the report on Auroville which is no interest to the East-West groups and in Los Angeles. Both have excluded this person and in turn the young ignore them. The joke is that Judith Tyberg's own nephew may be in one of Sam's classes! That is, on Spiritual Drama. We are planning this carefully.

But the great work quantitatively is "The Heritage of Inayat Khan" and at the moment secondarily of "The Heritage from Nyogen Senzaki." No nonsense, too.

God is in His earth and all's right with the Heavens.

Love and blessings,

Sam

January 9, 1969

O Reps San:

Samuel is in a deep difficulty today and it is for the sake of wisdom that this has occurred. And if one were to be helped out, it might also be that the karma not being completely fulfilled, another difficulty would arise until the fundamental problem—which is not yet clear—were solved.

No doubt one has almost superhuman power and superhuman faculties but one still is human, has to pay rent, meet social and financial obligations, income tax, etc. One gets plenty of advice, no end to advice, advice, advice world without end.

On New Year's Evening one performed the Darshan that not even the greatest teachers who come this way can give. And yet one is supposed to sit around and wait for appointments with this one and that one. This will not be done. And tonight one mall make a farewell address because the people who come to Samuel's meetings are quite capable of paying admission, fees to all sorts of meetings before all sorts of speakers on all sorts of subjects but for spiritual instructions, they have not been paying and one cannot stand this burden any more.

There are several ways out: (a) one is that people who accept spiritual help should be willing to do something material for Murshid. Unfortunately some think that metaphysical help is more beneficial than financial or physical help. But Murshid does not need metaphysical help or advice.

The other is to get the manuscripts out first for Tuttle. The first is ready and is being mailed today. Others will follow. This is preferable than seeking help from persons who may even be willing to give it. For there should be some return from these manuscripts. For instance we have a lot of real Zen material collected separately and together by Nyogen Senzaki and myself during the years.

There is the greatest volume of Senzaki's writings. And here is a peculiar situation which shows the difference between the anatta Buddhists who are real anatta people and the Western people who are still ego-bound. Samuel wished to publish the papers for Roshi Soen Nakagawa and the Roshi wants Samuel to benefit, partially because Samuel has done the work and partially because Soen doesn't believe he will live as long as this person. Now very few have fundamental honesty and one has not been successful even to getting acceptance of one's relation with Sokei-An Sasaki and this movement is moribund because it has remained egocentric. The relations with Mary Farkas have been one-way traffic but with Mrs. Sasaki were two-way traffic.

A lot of disciples do not pay dues. And besides there are non-disciples who come to meetings and pay nothing and then they go to this lecture and that one and pay whatever is asked, and they seem glad to pay. So one does not know whether one will continue any more lectures.

Besides, yesterday one took up with a colleague the possibility of lecturing on Oriental Philosophy for money and this man who has the meeting places says it is right, only he is getting more meeting places and wishes a slight delay so he can pick out the right ones. And then these people who come to all of Samuels gatherings will come and pay. They will pay for public lectures but for the real mystical instruction and Darshan, that has not made the impression that there should be any sacrifice for the Teacher, and yet the Teacher cannot charge. But all he can do is to stop.

Besides, this one is opening up all the spiritual methods. Between Vilayat and Samuel I do not think there is an esoteric teaching we do not have, although there are some one never refers to. And one sees people using I Ching like it was a super scripture and they ask little questions of no avail and think that is wonderful and from God. That is also all right but it has nothing to do with mysticism and spiritual awakening.

One is now working alone at a feverish pace on what Hazrat Inayat Khan wanted. One today has the inner knowledge and does not care if all the "experts" and public speakers who charge money deny it. Samuel does not begrudge anybody money.

The manifestation of the Dance-form partly delays the work on "The Esotericism of Inayat Khan" and partly illustrates it in comprehensible manners. Sooner or later this will be given to the public and one hopes to get an article published here soon on "The Religion of the President of India." Why is it by-passed by all the "experts" on Oriental Philosophy?"

One has had the audacity to send at least one of your postal cards to Tuttle. He and his staff have been cordial; the laxity has been at this end.

Love and blessings,

Sam

January 16, 1969

O Reps. San:

This year started off with an unusual celebration, over seventy persons, and a report was sent to you, that it may be ominous for a real new year in a New Age.

No doubt miracles can happen to all those establishment seniors who will not, under any circumstances accept the words of Jesus Christ, that we must become like little children to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. I am sending copy of this to two old friends, one of whom has been empathetic and one who should have been not so, for I still hope that some older people will recognize the signs of the times.

There was an important football game on last Sunday. The New York quarterback intuited the game excellently and all his predictions came exactly true. So he was accused of egotism, bombast and braggadocio. My disciple Melvin who lives with me, and I tuned in with this man and sometimes we could intuit the game play by play. But the rejection of intuition is the abuse of all our troubles made infinitely worse by too many self-selecting their "messiahs" who invariably turn out to be false. And a true "messiah" like this football player is held to public ignominy despite his foresight and accuracy.

Of immediate concern is that our Cinderella turned out to be a fairy princess in disguise. I shall not relate the story. She and several disciples have been with Vilayat and the date of their return is uncertain and perhaps unimportant. But there is no question that Vilayat will be leading oodles of young people and the only senior whom he has accepted and who has accepted him is a man turned down and shamefully down by the "seniors." I won't tell the story—if you are really "in" in Asian philosophies and spiritual development you did not have a chance. Be a phony and you get money and fame.

The great Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj will be here any moment. Already the Hindu students have had the audacity to invite S.A.M. to partake in their program for their Independence Day. They have not accepted a single great "expert" of whom there are a legion and never a single one ever called upon by the Indian Consulate. And of course the Indian Consulate is in bad stead with the "nice" people. How could it be otherwise? "Do you know Mr. Lewis? He knows more about India than any other American?" Why, the "experts" will not even invite the staff of the Indian consulate.

But Allah is great and a colleague in Ajmir has sent a speech by Gandhi on Brotherhood which you can bet no "expert" would dare to read. They would rather praise Gandhi, but never, never, follow him. There are few Americans who can do that and this person once got into the doghouse by winning an essay contest put on by Vincent Sheen. He should have know better.

 The Oracle" is out and there is a one-page display from a plagiarist using your name. Or is it you? The resemblance is remarkable; so is the contribution. What is more, the young readers like it.

The most important scene is the number of young people having spiritual experiences. This has two aspects; (a) that the young are having enlightenment experiences which would be dreaded by our metaphysical friends, and even by the so-called "Zen Buddhists." The second thing is that there are three groups, Christian, Hindu and Sufi and these are all on good terms with each other. This sort of thing does not happen with seniors and as Hazrat Inayat Khan foretold, the brotherhood would form of itself.

This is a good warning for we are scheduled to lecture on Oriental Philosophy before the young. The class in Christian mysticism is resulting in evaluations and assurances. My colleague here was lambasted by the "good ladies" some time back, blackballed and gossiped all over. Their result is that in a short time his disciples have risen from 3 to 60 and from no centers he has 5 and growing. You convince the metaphysical people that God may have some ideas and selects His own—without their help.

As there are so many pseudo- and self-praising cosmic-consciousness (?) people last night Sam read of Edna St. Vincent Millay. He got two jolts: (a) young in the audience not mureeds who had this experience; (b) the love, veneration and warm heart-feeling between the guru and the audience and the various members of the audience one with another. Love ye one another is a fact with so many young people.

The Dervish dances have had two revocations: (a) almost all the moral teachings came now be imparted by dance without any need of sermon! (b) the "chorus" is given a role to play while the selected ones perform.

When Hazrat Inayat Khan gave the science of commentaries to this person, it was not envisioned this could be done sub-verbally and super-verbally. We are teaching  more Yoga methods than all the advertised and advertising people and don't stop  together. For the real Zen holds that we all have Enlightenment (something our Zennists almost unanimously reject!) They have words, words, words and are stuck.

This has been also marked by influences and this tough curmudgeon has had to work—also using the dance—to promote vitality and healing. Actions work better than words.

There is lots more going on. Not a dull moment.

Love and blessings,

Sam

January 24, 1969

O Reps San:

There were three letters in the mail when I returned from The Garden of Inayat and I, am therefore writing to you and sending copies to each of the others to save time, one of these carbons goes to F. Clive-Ross editor of "Studies in Comparative Religion," and the other to Julie Medlock of Auroville, Pondicherry. Each of these letters will contain a small contribution.

The beginning of the year found one a thousand dollars in debt, mostly due to unforeseen problems with disciples. There is no need to go into that for the very persons involved also became the means of getting out of debt. It is just like a fairy story. Here the "Cinderella" whom we rescued proved to be a "Fairy Princess" in disguise, so to speak.

One has been very slow in getting out manuscripts. The one of Master Tai Hsu went to Tuttle. We have not heard from him but soon will send on Shaku Soyen. My plan—and it is not based on any particular principle perhaps, other than if the name appears in enough fore-words, it will warrant a follow-up. But here I have a long complex relationship with the Korean Grand Master, Seo Kyung Bo which will be taken up—in a few days.

At the present time Swami Ranganathananda Maharaji, Secretary of the Supreme Board of the Ramakrishna Mission is here. When we met at the University of California it was similar to meeting Her Serene Highness, Princess Poon Diskul, only this time the audience was composed either of young people or University staff members and there was nothing but harmony and acceptance. I have put myself on a limb, advertising this man as "God-realized" as against a lot of fly-by-night temporarily important persons. Yet the names of Meher Baba and J. Krishnamurti were on the bulletin board—at the University.

Fortunately nearly all the young people who came to test Murshid's statement that Swamiji was a real Master, having had actual Divine experience, accepted it. And instead of being out on a limb, one's stock went up. In turn this has enabled one to take disciples and non-disciples further on the spiritual quest.