| Scientology Rare Book Library | Dr. Christopher Evans - Cults of Unreason |
WITH THE DEATH of George de la Warr, the most interesting and potent protagonist of radionics moved off the stage, and it seems unlikely that the topic will rise to such public prominence again. In the mid-fifties the excitable science fiction magazine, Analog, which had given Hubbard his first proper exposure for Dianetics, ran a series of articles on something called the `Hieronymous machine'. This device, if one can call it that, consisted of a kind of rudimentary circuit of about equivalent vagueness of the Delawarr or Abrams boxes, with few electric components and of course with no power supply. To call it a machine might be thought to be stretching the imagination a bit far, even for the anchorless minds of SF fans, for the system, in its simplest form, involved merely drawing a circuit of some kind on a sheet of paper and using this blueprint itself as the machine! John Campbell, editor of Analog (or Astounding Science Fiction as it was then called), spoke on the wonders of the device to an enthusiastic audience at the World Science Fiction Convention in London in 1957, backing up his talk with a practical demonstration of an instrument which had been made to the Hieronymus specification by a Mr Eric Jones of Cheltenham. Commenting on the conference, and on Campbell's talk in particular, the entertaining weekly paper, Psychic News via its science correspondent, Dr A. H. Janser, described so-called `psionic' and radionic instruments as `magic modernized', adding that `the sooner this was recognized, the better'. It was a shrewd comment. The search for modern magic continues today with as much enthusiasm as ever before.
While on the subject of mysterious gadgetry and the iconography of modern cults, it is worth saying a word or two about that complicated tool of medicine, psychology and physiology, the electro-encephalograph. Like the psychogalvanometer, which has had a limited role in psychological laboratories for a century or so and has metamorphosed into one of the most significant features of the mythos of Scientology, so the EEG has acquired, subsidiary to its medical role, a minor cultish significance. This has manifested itself particularly in one of the latest off-beat quasi-religious movements to flourish in the United States of America - the so-called Feedback Cult. The evolution of the ideas inherent in the Feedback Cult are interesting and particularly relevant to the theme of this book, but before they can be fully appreciated some background to the basis of elcctro-encephalography must be given.
Most biological systems rely on electrical energy for the transmission of neural information - vision, audition, touch and pain sensations, etc. - and it is possible to detect the presence of minute electrical currents, measured in microvolts, in all living nerve cells. The greatest concentration of neurons being in the brain, one might expect the richest source of electrical energy to be concentrated here as indeed it is, though the discovery of cerebral electric currents on a grand scale had to await the development of suitably sensitive recording apparatus. The first successful recording of `brain waves' is generally accredited to the Frenchman Berger and the English physiologist Adrian. These pioneers, using electrodes attached to the outside of the scalp and linked to powerful amplifying equipment, found that the central nervous system was generating a relatively massive supply of electrical energy, but also that this was broken down into a number of distinct and characteristic waveforms whose frequency and amplitude seemed to bear some kind of relation to the mental state of the individual under study. In sleep, for example, waves of erratically high amplitude and relatively low frequency appeared, whereas during concentrated mental activity the waves flattened out and disappeared altogether - almost as though rhythmic neural pulsing had ceased. Most interesting of all, Adrian found that when people were in a relaxed, passive state of mind - halfway, if you like, between active attention and sleep - a striking and dominant rhythm, occurring at between 8 and 12 Hz and of very constant amplitude, appeared. This was christened the alpha rhythm and was soon taken by psychologists to be an indication of the brain in a `relaxed' state, and for decades has been one of the primary props of the technique of electro-encephalography. While it has, for various reasons, not lived up to its early promise - the pioneers had all clearly hoped that whole regimes of brain waves reliably corresponding to specific psychological states would soon be found, which they have not - the EEG has turned out to be of value in determining the foci of cerebral tumours, epileptic lesions, etc.
In psychology, as opposed to medicine, it has turned out to be something of a disappointment. The polygraph or `lie-detector' favoured by police forces in various parts of the world incorporates an EEG, along with an EKG (heart-rate detector), a plethysmograph (blood volume measurer) and even the GSR (psychogalvanometer), which forms the basis of the Hubbard E-meter, but few people, either police or criminals, take this too seriously today. As far as the public was concerned the EEG itself might easily have remained tucked away in the scientist's toybox were it not for the discovery, made more or less simultaneously by a number of scientists in different parts of the world, that individuals could, under certain circumstances, modify their brain waves at will.
There are a number of ways in which this control can be effected. In the simplest case, the alpha rhythm (reputedly only to be found when the individual is relaxed) may be induced simply by rolling one's eyes up in a rather extreme fashion, or alternatively by a conscious act of focusing and defocusing on some distant object in the visual field. One scientist employed by the US Air Force, Dr Edmund Dewan, even trained some of his subjects to switch their alpha rhythm on and off in morse code, arguing that this might conceivably be employed in an emergency by astronauts strapped up to EEG equipment whose normal radio channels had failed.
The initial bout of investigatory scientific work on control of the EEG, which began in the early sixties, soon petered out as the limitations of the method became obvious. However the field has remained enormously attractive to the speculative scientist and much unusual material has been written about it. Typical of such work is a publication, The alpha rhythm; its meaning and applications, by Dr Marjorie Kawin-Toomin, writing from the Toomin Laboratories in Los Angeles. In this privately published work, Dr Toomin points out that Western man is increasingly concerned with exploring, understanding and controlling his inner world. This is leading him into paths which unite the science of the West with the mysticism of the East - a common strand in modern cults which we shall be inspecting more closely in the next chapter. Man can, the doctor claims, control all aspects of his being particularly if he is allowed to observe his brain waves while attempting to effect this control. In other words he can learn to control his conscious cerebral state at will, provided that immediate feedback of what is happening to his brainwaves is given to him. This could be done, for example, by arranging for a light to switch on whenever alpha rhythm appeared on the EEG machine, or even for displaying the EEG recordings before the subject's very eyes. In her paper Dr Toomin waxes enthusiastic on the subjective benefits of being able to induce the alpha state at will. A man from India who has practised Raja Yoga for forty years reported that when his brain was generating alpha rhythm he had `succeeded in stilling his mind' and had achieved a `state of knowingness', whatever that might be. The study of yogis had indicated that these enlightened individuals' brains were particularly likely to flip into alpha rhythm.
Attempting to answer the question, What can be done with alpha control?, Dr Toomin states that first and foremost it can be looked upon as a new and perhaps hitherto undiscovered sensation of pleasure `With feedback', she says, `individuals are able to discriminate the kind of thoughts, feelings and attitudes which represent an easy flowing with the environment and with their inner selves (the inner synchrony of the brain).' It is possible, she adds, to learn to function at this level more often, `thus generally making life more comfortable'. Comfort and pleasure aside, Dr Toomin (who manufactures and sells an interesting device called the Toomin Alpha Pacer) suggests that alpha control has an exciting future for meditation and achieving altered states of consciousness. For quickly acquiring voluntary control of such states, she points out that there is much to commend the Toomin Alpha Pacer which not only gives visual feedback of the pattern of brain waves but also introduces audio feedback, a pleasant tone rising and falling in step with the EEG. Users of the Pacer have reported a marked feeling of well-being, to say nothing of a `sense of one-ness with the universe and great joy as they moved into higher frequencies (up to 12 Hz)'.
The wonders of feedback control, particularly when coupled with the proper use of the Toomin Pacer, could even be an aid to psychotherapy. Not only would the therapist find the patient's ability to drive his own brain waves a significant index of progress, but he might also get useful information by examining his own brain waves while conducting a psychotherapeutic session. The image that is conjured up here of both patient and doctor with their heads wired to Toomin Alpha Pacers against a background of rising and falling auditory bleeps is a curious one, and reminds us of the strange directions which the super-technological Californian society takes.
Aroused by the message writ so bold by Dr Toomin and others, enthusiasm for learning to control one's own brain waves has leapt to a fad of major proportions in the USA. The craze has recently advanced to an extent which would be incredible unless matched up against the other data presented in this book which reveals beyond much question that modern religious strivings can only find satisfactory expression in creeds which embrace the terminology of fringe and pop-science. A quick glance at psychic and occult magazines shows feedback devices, similar no doubt in many ways to the Toomin Alpha Pacer, being marketed at prices ranging from 50 to 1,000 dollars. In essence these are no more than immensely simplified EEG machines, sensitive only to those frequencies in the range known as `alpha' (8-14 Hz.), and line as long as all one wants is the crudest possible index of what is going on inside one's head.
As an aid to meditation, psychic ecstasy, `knowingness' or even plain old-fashioned relaxation, the feedback cult is reputed to have no equals. No self-respecting yogi, swami, Zen Buddhist, transcendental mystic or bogus psychologist would, during the height of the cult, feel his equippage to be anywhere near complete without a simple EEG machine. Those with a mere pair of waggling pens, recording signals from the occiput at the back of the skull, of course, come at the bottom of the league. Optional extras such as audio tones will cost more, and flashing coloured lights in tune with the cerebral rhythms yet more again. Stories even circulate of feedback orgies, with whole groups of individuals of both sexes, linked to each other's alpha machines, enjoying the thrill and challenge of manipulating each others brain waves.1 In fact, the latest trend is very definitely away from solitary exploration of the phenomena into real group activities organized within the framework of formalized religious organizations - Feedback Churches, no less, with such free-floating titles as The Church of the Sacred Alpha (Los Angeles), the Holy Feedback Church (San Diego), etc. At the time of writing an embryo Feedback Church was being formed in London, its advertisements, offering spiritual comfort and enlightenment for those who would know the one true Alpha, appearing in the raffish publications of the Underground Press. In America it is possible to be ordained as a Priest of a Feedback Church and acquire as a bonus the degree of Ph.D. or D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) without whose assistance many cultists - in particular cult leaders - evidently feel themselves naked in the Conference Rooms of the World.
Since the various feedback devices employed by Feedback Cultists are perfectly describable and sensible from the point of view of electronics, if of dubious psychological merit, it is perhaps a bit unfair to call them Black Boxes as such. It is clear, however, that to most of their users they are effectively as mysterious as Abrams's reflexophone or de la Warr's thoughtographic camera and thus, for all practical purposes, may be classified under this heading. Their role would seem to be to make the achievement of yogic or meditational states more credible and acceptable by adding a pinch of science to an otherwise mystical notion. Where ideas themselves may be hard to grasp or accept, there's nothing like a working box of tricks - never mind what it does - to add a bit of extra conviction.
So far the mini-EEG machines marketed in the interests of self-revelation, etc., seem to have escaped the heavy-handed assaults of one of America's many guardians of public
1 The erotic, or at least emotional, possibilities of feedback devices, incidentally, have not gone unobserved by Dr Marjorie Kawin-Toomin, who reports that subjects in her laboratory have conducted experiments in attempting to measure their depth and quality of feeling for each other. One couple found that when they looked deeply into each other's eyes the `amplitude of their alpha activity increased substantially'. manners and morals, the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA, it will be recalled, takes an interest in Black Boxes of all kinds and has been putting the screws remorselessly on the Scientologists for their E-meter for over a decade (without, incidentally, getting very far). Presumably it finds feedback devices to be totally harmless, even in the hands of the bemused individuals likely to be interested in purchasing them. One particular box, and its creator, were not so fortunate and after attracting the FDA's attention were well and truly sat upon. The box in question was called an Orgone Accumulator, and refusal to obey an FDA order to cease distributing it led its creator, Dr Wilhelm Reich, to imprisonment, death and something pretty close to martyrdom.
The history of Reich and his remarkable studies about the nature of the universe are highly relevant to the theme of this book, but they deserve a more lengthy treatment than we are able to accord them here. For those who require a full and frank discussion of Reich's work and his theories, the reader is referred to Martin Gardner's interesting Fads and Fallacies, or alternatively to Reich's own voluminous writings, which range in scope from The Sources of Neurotic Anxiety (published in 1926 in honour of Freud's birthday) through his well-known Character Analysis, The Mass Psychology of Fascism and The Function of the Orgasm to Deadly Orgone Removal and Cloud-Busting (1952), which was one of his last published works. The story in brief is that Reich, who was at one time a brilliant, if somewhat unorthodox, adherent of psychoanalytic theory, felt he had discovered one of the fundamental secrets of life - the existence of orgone energy. Orgone is an energy corresponding rather loosely the elusive elan vital which has intrigued philosophers and mystics for centuries; its proper regulation in the body is essential to psychological and physiological well-being. The unimpeded flow of orgone energy in the body is necessary for gratifying sexual orgasm; the source of the energy is the sun. The Orgone Energy Accumulators, which Reich's American organisation manufactured in the 1940's and 50's, were relatively simple devices which were so constructed as to accumulate orgone energy from the atmosphere, subsequently releasing it to anyone requiring additional orgone. The patients merely had to sit in the special boxes or booths for a number of short treatments. These boxes are mentioned incidentally because they were at the root of Reich's investigation and, some say, persecution by the FDA, which in 1954 pronounced that there was no such energy as orgone and that the accumulators were worthless as therapeutic aids. Reich vigorously defended himself against the FDA in court, but was given a two-year prison sentence and fined $10,000. The Court, in an intolerant mood, also ordered his books to be destroyed and Reich died in the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1957. His tragic death lifted him briefly into the role of martyr, and American liberals, a distinct minority group at the time, rose to his defence, with prominent intellectuals, such as Norman Mailer, undergoing Reichian therapy as an experiment. In 1960 the United States boasted about a dozen qualified medical psychiatrists who practised Reichian therapy, but the movement inevitably suffered in the absence of the founder's dynamic and crusading personality. At the present time there is a distinct upsurge of interest in his ideas, and a curious and insightful East European movie, WR, the Mysteries of the Organism, which has achieved international release, has brought his unusual ideas to a new and wider public than they ever achieved in his lifetime.
This must complete our review of the mysterious and wonderful cultish devices which have sprung from the minds of some of the world's must outre and scatterbrained inventors. Before dismissing their efforts too lightly we should pause to recall that in all probability 95 per cent of inventions, and particularly those with a really original twist, seem outre at the outset - to all except their inventors. The creator of anything is a lonely individual who has only the fire of his own belief, and perhaps the psychological support of family and close friends, to warm him. If all inventors paused on the threshold of their work to pay attention to the sceptic, then the world would be a poorer place indeed. More to the point, the fascination that human beings show for hidden mysteries of the Black Box variety, whether at the creator or user level, clearly reflects the vital curiosity drive in man that makes him on the one hand twiddle knobs on the outside of an empty box and, on the other, train a radio telescope on the bleakest depths of outer space.
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