Volume 7, Issue 9, page 12

That afternoon, on our way home, we looked,
but the sign was nowhere to be seen. "I saw
them putting it up," I insisted. Nevertheless,
the sign wasn't there, nor was it apparently
anywhere near. "They must have left it on top
of the building while they fixed the brackets,
I suggested.

Next afternoon, at about the same time as I
had "seen " the sign being put up the previous
afternoon, I "saw" it again. I called Alice to
the window. "Look! There's the sign I saw yesterday. They 're finishing putting it up today."
However, when we checked with the clerks we
knew at the store, they were as surprised as
I had been the day previously. No, they hadn't
brought the sign over for a test erection. No,
it hadn't been on top of the building; no one
had seen it, or known it was coming, until the
day they actually put it up.

So, what happened? Why did I see an exact
duplicate of a sign 24 hours before it was put
up? If it was prevision, why was it important
enough to me that I saw it " 24 hours early" as
clearly as I see it today as I write this? It
confuses me -- and shakes my belief that I have
absolutely no so-called psychic powers of any
kind. Maybe, I say, they, did try out the sign,
and the clerks just weren't aware of what was
going on. How we do fight knowing.
-- Alphia Hart, Enid
ZEN, THE TURN TOWARDS LIFE, by
Hugh Woodworth. 40 pp., 50t.
Stows Pub. Co., Victoria, B.
C., Canada.

If you accept Zen Buddhism,
99 99/100% of all "isms", "ologies" "ics", and beliefs being marketed today are about
as useless as mud swim trunks.
And if you stop to think about
this, you've pulled the chain
on the last 1/100%. And if you
think this is a bit rough --
well, you shouldn't be thinking, says Hugh Woodworth, in
"Zen, the Turn Towards Life",
because that's what's wrong
with you, and me, and all of
us so busily engaged in acquiring learned ignorance.

Woodworth, whose Zen booklet was preceded by two larger
books, "Sanity Unheard Of" and
"The Nature and Techniques of
Understanding", says there are
two primary things wrong with
the animal who calls himself
Man-1, Thinking, and 2, Being
slave to rules laid down by
other people's thinking.

For a cure, he suggests
acting on a whim, doing exactly
what you want to do for once --
just because you want to do it
-- without fear of criticism,
censure, or mental gymnastics;
which may lead you back to the
wonder-world of a child, who
can become so completely absorbed in a bug, or a bit of
broken pottery he has found.

Some startling concepts -- if
you stop to think about them .
Which you shouldn't. That's
what's wrong with you now, as
we think we said earlier.-A.H.
*_* *
STRANGE PROLOGUE, By Alberta
O'Connell, 297 pages, $4.75.
Christopher Pub. Co., Boston.
"Strange Prologue" almost
doesn't make it on the metaphysical book list, even t ho
its author, Mrs. O'Connell, ex12
presses an interest in metaphysics which her religious
training nearly suffocated during her youthful years. However, in this autobiographical
novel, Mrs. O'Connell tries to
make up for the lack of metaphysics in the first part of
the book by tossing it at the
reader in big lumps in the concluding chapters.

Actually, "Strange Prologue "
is the career story of a young
singer, whose beautiful voice,
face, and figure get her involved in one intriguing situation after another. Following the death of a talented
lover-pianist, she consults a
mystic, and is told that she
eventually will become a
famous composer. Since her piano playing was restricted to
one finger, she was a bit skeptical, but this forecast was
borne out when she authored a
Sousa-like march, "Our Nation's
Capital March ", which was introduced by the U.S.Navy band.
From this march, she has gone
on to compose other music,
complete with lyrics, plus do
a bit of creditable painting.
Inspiration, she says, comes
thru Guidance from Within.

Metaphysical readers, this
reviewer f eels, . would have
preferred more emphasis on
this "guidance from within"
and less on the "without ", but
if you were a beautiful, talented singer, what'd YOU do?
Well, so did she. -- T. N.
***
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
WRITINGS of the SANHEDRIN
and TALMUDS of the JEWS, by
Rev. W. D. Mahan, 1884. Pub. by
deLaurence Co., Chicago, 1923.

In the past year I have read
more articles in responsible
publications, which challenge
the historical fact that such
a person as Jesus of Nazareth
ever lived, than in all my
preceding life. If you, too,
have been dismayed at this
barrage of anti-Christ insinuations, and have had nothing
to point out to those more
gullible who may have challenged you to produce a single
historical paper by writers
The ABERREE
contemporary with Jesus -- as I
couldn't -- you will find this
small book of 313 pages, with
large type, a complete vindication of your beliefs.

Rev. Mahan, of Boonville,
Mo., had already published two
books, "Acta Pilata" (Acts of
Pilate) and "Hebrew History of
Baptism". Contacts with scholars over the years resulted in
Dr. McIntosh of Scotland telling Rev. Mahan while both were
studying the ancient writings
in the Vatican: "The 20 cartloads of talmuds (scrolls of
parchment or papyrus, 20 inches
wide, rolled up on a windlass)
that history tells us were
burned by Gregory VI, were the
talmuds of Babylon, but the
talmuds of Jerusalem are all
safe, and so are the records
of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin."
The fact is that in the year
748 of the Roman Empire and
337 of the Christian era, Constantine III removed his seat
of-empire f rpm Rome to Byzantium (later balled Constantinople and now Istanbul), and
took with him all the records
of the Christians to that city .
In a letter still extant, he
ordered 50 copies of the Holy
Scriptures written and bound.
When Mohammed took possession
of the city, he had these deposited in the great St. Sophia Mosque.

Rev. Mahan, with scribes he
employed, copied many of the
ancient scrolls, and for those
who like to read history, this
book quotes many documentary
reports and gives the sources.
For Christians it is thrilling
to read, for instance, the report of the priest of the synagogue of Bethlehem to the
Sanhedrin, the report of Caiaphas to the Sanhedrin concerning the execution of Jesus,
Pontius Pilate's report to Tiberius Caesar, emperor of Rome ,
Herod Antipater's defense before the Roman Senate in regard to his conduct at Bethlehem and on the execution of
John the Baptist, an d many
other veridical evidences of
the historicity of Jesus. --
Harold Kinney.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1961