Volume 8, Issue 10, page 4
TRIES
PLITTING the blankets", as they express it out West, is something
that doesn't happen to
people you know and care about. Then ' suddenly, it does happen,
and the details are none of
your business, and if either side of this most tragic human
controversy seeks to enlist your
sympathy, you remain neutral if you have any sense.
I couldn't remain neutral when it was George and Zoe Nickerson,
because I was and am part
of the Nickerson -Burks Research Foundation and have a profound
interest in Parastudy, both
of which corporations grew up around the work of Zoe Nickerson,
largely developed by her
husband George. Close as I was, I was as disturbed and shocked as
any member of either group
could possibly have been. Why hadn 't I known? Why had not the
samadhi studies turned up
something about it, so that members of Parastudy and petitioners
for readings could do
something to cushion the shock of more delays?
Then I realized, because it had happened in my own family, and in
the families of friends
' that there were times when husband and wife might well, by
mutual agreement, and in
accordance with mundane law, be better off if they were no longer
husband and wife. My first
feeling was a selfish one, even as it probably was for every
member of Parastudy, every
sponsor of the Nickerson-Burks Research Foundation.
"How." I asked myself,"could they possibly do a thing like this
to me? And what will hapDen
to the two corporations?"
Should they, because of the corporations,
(it's uspally because of the children! ), have
stayed together even when there was virtually
nothing personal left between them' ' I I f you
knew any of the inside, you realized that the
corporations could manage to get thru it at
least as well as children usually seem to man-
age to get thru divorce. Better, in fact. There
are children involved here, and consideration
of them went further than consideration for
children usually does. They'll be all right.
I resolved, when the story could be cleared, to tell as much of
it as concerned the public
in any way and remind avid seekers of sensation that the
Nickersons have a right to privacy
despite the fact that Zoe's talent is available to public demand.
If it hadn't been for that
talent, actually, neither I nor thousands of other people would
have known Zoe and George,
and when they agreed to disagree - as do hundreds of thousands of
lesser-known people every
year-almost nobody would have heard about it. Now, however, they
have heard, and the usual
gossip starts.
There is nothing here that hasn't happened in virtually every
family of anybody who reads
this. No third parties-closer than parastudy members and sponsors
of the Foundation - were
romantically involved.
There has been more delay in doing studies, which I find to be
understandable. Other
conductors must be found to take George's place; he was Zoe's
chief conductor, who grew up
with tier talent. I'm one of the few she can "hear in the
silence", and I'm not often
available. I'm always away somewhere lecturing or doing readings
on my own. I do what I can,
for Parastudy and the Foundation have a big payroll to meet every
month, just to handle
details of the Projects George developed from Zoe's work
Every bit of it is of great value to the worl~
The ABER
and must somehow reach the world. Money is and al ways has been a
Problem. The departure of
George creates or complicates the problem; he worked out ways of
finding money for the
Dayroll, every'member of which is indispensable. The payroll
should be larger, not smaller.
Ernest Solway, one of the corporations' most loyal supoorters,
thinks $1,000 a month would
handle all expenses nicely. He suggests 10 persons who'll
obligate themselves to the extent
of $100 a month each, to obviate the necessity of asking
thousands of peonle for a few
dollars each.
I Suppose, right now, I'm one of the ten. I lecture, do readings,
healings - for Parastudy
benefit. It may well run over that amount. I intend to find ways
and means to go further. 1
hold classes in healing, I make tapes of my lectures.
Transcribed, these mimeographed lessons
are property which Parastudy can sell. Zoe hasn't yet decided
what the lessons are worth on
paper - probably the same as on tape, which is $20 for the ten
lessons.
Right now, there is a backlog of 294 readings, oldtimers yet to
be done. Zoe is back on
them after many months of experiences in personal tragedy that no
other human anywhere has
any right to hear about. Disregard snide stories which seem
inevitable, esoecially about
people with great talent. Talented people are so often targets
for gossip.
Zoe has told me she expects to amortize the huge backlog; in many
instances she has returned
the money of sponsors who haven't wished to wait, or whose need
of studies has passed.
Zoe gets into sa-aadhi stride slowly. Shock to the psyche has
been a definite drawback which
she courageously insists she will overcome. I conducted her the
other day, and suggested she
postpone readings another month. She refused. ThenI urged she ask
the energies, while in
samadhi, and abide bywhat they say.
"Not this time," she stated. "This body is mine. While it can,
I'll put it on the job and keep it on
the job."
For me, that's enough.
THE COVER--For the benefit of non-Scientologistsamong ABERREE
readers, "Saint Hill" is a mansion
maintained near London by the founder of Dianetics, which started
out to be "The Paor Man's Psychiatry'. From a
$4 book, with which any reader could help himself and others
escape mental obsessions that plagued them, the
cost of Sc-entology has climbed mountains - or at least. hills
~~aint.Hill,.to be specific~. In the latest
irective, auditors" (those who practice Scientology
professionally) can use only the baser, non-"clearing"
techniques - no matter how much they've spent in training
schools-unless they've been personally approved at
Saint Hill, or been approved by a "teacher" who has been approved
at Saint Hill and are usin an E-Meter (amateur
lie dete~ter) which a?so has had personal inspection and approval
of the Saint Hill hierarchy. To use the 'top
echelon' techniques without such approval and additional expense
means that last certificate (or its predecessors
as well, if you're a "retread') doesn't mean what it says any
more. So... it's "Saint Hill---or be busted."
R E E WARCH, 1962
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