by Ernest L. Norman
More than 4,000 years ago, a Greek philosopher was asked how to become wise. He replied, “Know thyself”. It is doubtful that this man, wise as he was, knew the full impact of this utterance; and so these words have become the classical understatement of history. For while it is possible, theoretically at least, for an individual to evolve into a state of consciousness which would seemingly encompass all elements and perspectives known to mankind, yet it is inconceivable for any man to know himself in his entirety. Indeed it is, that the very nature of Infinity is constantly adding to the perspectus of every individual, unknown and intangible elements, and the desire to learn of these things creates a libido or drive to satisfy this demand to acquire knowledge of these unknown elements.
While on the positive side, curiosity of the unknown has often led man into his greatest discoveries and achievements, yet the predominant driving force or mainspring of life is fear. Fear is either a product of bygone ages or is carried through the pattern of evolution into our present time; and in more modern times fear is no less, despite modern scientific technology which supposedly eliminates various sources of fear from our daily lives. Indeed, this very technocracy has, by its very affluence of various scientific achievements, increased fear a hundred fold.
Since the dawn of time and the beginning of man’s life upon this earth, when he first started as a primitive creature, the jungle trails were filled with many dangers, fear was the coercive force which kept him alive; for the primitive ‘law’, “survival of the fittest”, demanded only that the strongest bodies, the keenest eyes and ears, and the quickest reflexes would survive and breed another generation.
This is the first and most primitive principle by which man has learned to live; a principle made mandate by the Infinite which would enable the lower beastial forms of mankind to evolve to the point where reason and logic would supplant this old carnal law. Yet as of today no individual, indigenous to this planet earth, has arrived at the point of emancipation from coercive fear and the primitive law of survival. It is an inescapable fact, despite various platitudes which he has showered upon himself, that his religion or technocracy has not, nor will not, absolve him from this primitive fear and survival situation.
Science has eliminated many killers of the weaklings. It has also invented new and more terrible methods of mass murder. Through systems of communication, science has shrunk the earth and pushed aside all natural environmental barriers. With each advance in technocracy, created supposedly for the benefit of mankind, it has only increased his fear and made his life more complex; for these very creative forces and efforts in which man has sought to better himself and to raise his standard of living is as a two-edged sword cutting both ways.
Thus the future generations will live to see the destruction of this civilization by the very forces which created it. This may at first appear as a great enigma, but past history will prove the truth of these statements. Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Carthage, are but a few of the great past civilizations which have thus so perished; and would it be, that for the benefit of humanity, mankind at this present time, had leadership with foresight and understanding which could prevent future disintegration of this civilization.
Perhaps it is too late, for the hour has already struck, which began the downward fall of this age. The dynamic creative forces which brought it out of the darkened past, have passed the point of equilibrium; for as the will and necessity for survival became the creative and driving force, the necessity to waylay fear, anxiety, and insecurity, and in the creation and achievement, then began to foster a degenerated race of people. A massive hoard of humanity began to lead a puppet-like existence through complex social systems, preponderant masses of laws, and an ever increasing tempo of life.
Man has now found himself inextricably caught in the web of his own making; a great vortex which is sucking him down into oblivion. You doubt these statements? Then let us look at statistics. More than 29% of the American public is suffering from comparatively mild or advanced forms of various mental aberrations and badly in need of corrective therapy. A statement made by J. Edgar Hoover, F.B.I. Chief, in recent articles published by a national news syndicate, that more than 51% of all crime committed is by the American youth, before the age of twenty—one years. More than 30% of all dope addicts are found in this group, and incidentally, figures on crime and dope addiction are staggering. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, juvenile delinquency is rapidly increasing, and has more than doubled since 1948, as compared to a 19% increase in population; one typical year, 1955-56 a 22% increase as compared to a 4% increase in population. Nor do we need to look in these directions for evidence of decadency, for all about us are the telltale signs of moral and spiritual decay; the same destructive trend which obliterated so many past civilizations. Through various fields of entertainment and communication, the American public has literally been drenched in a sewage of vice, lust, and murder; radio, motion pictures, TV, as well as magazines and newspapers, have been the carriers and purveyors of this vile brew, steeped in the black cauldrons of the lowest hells, and destined in its manufacture by the lords of the underworlds, to enslave humanity, to destroy the last fiber of moral tissue.
And there are other agents which are aiding and abetting the common destruction of this civilization. The psychic pressures of these times have turned millions to alcoholism and perhaps worst of all in some respect, the cigarette habit.
The dollar cost of smoking is staggering; consumption per capita is 11.5 lbs., costing the American smoker over five billion dollars! Of the $1,023,190,000 fire bill in 1957, 26% was caused by matches and smoking. More than 20,000 lose their lives yearly in fires — of these 4,000 die in bed as a result of that last cigarette. 8,000 children die yearly in fires, playing with matches and cigarettes — imitating adults — and numerous others die in fires caused by careless smoking habits; yet these losses are small by comparison to the uncalculated loss of personal health and longevity suffered by the smoker. Only study and research could give you the true picture of what this one nefarious practice has done to the masses of humanity swarming upon the face of this globe. [Ed-Of course these figures are even more staggering today]
These and many more important destructive factors have given power to the finger which has already written the prophecy of doom upon the wall. No, it shall not be a nuclear weapon or another war which will destroy man and his civilization; he will destroy himself when he has passed the point of equilibrium wherein the dynamic progressive powers which motivate his progressive evolution no longer function as factors of integration in advancing his position in infinite perspectus.
In passing this point, he outlives the necessity of his being. He is no longer useful either to himself or to the Infinite, for in this pathway of all men there must always be a constructive balance which outweighs the seemingly destructive or reactionary.
To you who are Truth seekers, be not afraid of the appearances or disappearances of civilizations, or that your world of today is faced with destruction. This has always been so and as it should be, for it is the way of the Infinite Mind to right certain unbalances which have occurred in the selective processes of life, as they concern mankind in general.
This is the way the Infinite purges itself, so to speak, of the great negations; to discharge negative static energies which have accumulated through wrong usage and wrong living. And, as the Infinite cleanses itself in this cyclic manner and form, so may you, too, learn to discharge negative static forces which have accumulated in your dimension of life; static forces which have been called karma and which tie the individual to a wheel-like cyclic repetition of various configurations of experiences which are revolving in the vortexes of these negative static forces.
In our present-day world, much can be seen in the vein of psychic affiliations, and that humanity is constantly expressing in numerous ways, manners, and forms, these various psychic affiliations with the past. The ladies who don the garb and raiment of some past life in which they lived in masculine attire as a male, and some of the males of this day who psychically remember themselves as females and despite strong outward displays of masculine propensities admit feminine attributes in many subtle ways; yes, even occasional examples of completely reverting to a female life. Could the screaming masses jumping up and down upon the seats of our modern coliseums be part of the same masses of humanity who screamed and jumped in the time of Nero, or in the last days of Pompeii? And could our baseball and football heroes who trample the sod on these fields be the old gladiators who trampled the sand and many times reddened it with their blood in these long—ago days?
For these are but a few of the countless thousands of ways that life as it is lived and expressed by each individual, lives and regenerates itself in common cyclic patterns from out his past. And how can we temper the evil of tomorrow, knowing that all that is good and evil of today will thus so regenerate itself. Of what good are our educational systems, our political fronts, our various interpretations, interpolations and integrations, of all the various known elements of this life when they can be so considered as merely resurgent patterns and expressions. And as they have doomed the people and their civilizations of the past, so will they doom the future, just as we in the present are finding this same enigmatic doom.
Hasten then the day when the Radiant Light of introspection will contain all that is necessary for man to see his past, present, and future, for knowledge of the past in constructive usage of the present combined with certain directive and progressive elements of the Infinite Mind, will enable man to see his future, a future free from the pestilence, greed, and destruction of the material life.
How blessed will be the day of morrow
That brings forgetfulness of all the past
And yet the past is but the way
The morrow grows
Excerpt from Infinite Contact