Here are the next five definitions from John’s unfinished UFO dictionary. The idea of etheric ships, I believe, was first suggested by Meade Layne. The Omega Group is defined later in the dictionary: “General term for hostile or malevolent ultra-terrestrials.” His definition of “The Third Eye” is certainly a provocative combination of elements.
John owned a copy of the familiar “ESP cards” developed by J. B. Rhine and Karl Zener at Duke University in the early 1930s; I assume he experimented with them. Here, as a footnote, is a scan of the box, as well as a deck from my own library: the edition distributed free by Zenith Radio Dealers in 1937, so listeners could participate in the “Zenith Foundation Telepathy Program,” aired on Sunday nights on CBS.
The first time I heard about the third eye was at the age of fourteen when an aunt of mine lend me her copy of the book coercively The Third Eye by Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. Written by a supposed Tibetan lama, The Third Eye and other books by the same author dealt with subjects like out-of-body travels, seeing the aura, pre-cataclysmic civilizations, flying saucers, reincarnation, psychic powers, prophecies of the future, even the Bermuda Triangle. Rampa claimed to have had an operation on his forehead to open his third eye and enhance his psychic powers. I believed the whole thing.
Unfortunately, Lobsang Rampa turned out to be Cyril Henry Hoskin, an unemployed Englishman who had never left England. After he was found out he claimed he really was Rampa transmigrated into the body of the Englishman Cyril Hoskin. His book <iThe Third Eye had appeared shortly after another book about Tibet, Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer, sold millions of copies. Looks like somebody saw the possibility of capitalizing on the fad about Tibet.
Rampa’s books are full of errors about Tibet. Tibetans don’t fly in giant kites, don’t perforate the foreheads of children to increase their clairvoyant powers, are not vegetarians, and many other details like that. The biography he writes about himself reads like unpublished pulp stories he kept in a drawer and decided to string together into one narrative. They have exotic locales, are full of fights, dangerous escapes, and violence. Rampa seems to get a lot of his more esoteric information from popular softcover books like some about Edgar Cayce, books by Charles Berlitz, predictions by Jean Dixon, and the books of English jounalist and Ancient Astronaut proponent, Harold T. Wilkins.
I no longer take Rampa as seriously as I used to. Still, a part of me misses the thrills of seeing the world as more interesting, more exciting and more hopeful than it seems to be.
Comment by Mestiere — May 13, 2022 @ 7:38 am
I actually have one of those card decks. Duke University is only 5 miles from here. The Rhine Center was still selling them for $14 until the advent of Covid. Never knew they were given away as premiums.
Comment by Cat — May 18, 2022 @ 10:06 pm
I hadn’t known about the Zenith radio connection until I found this deck. Listeners were encouraged to test their ESP along with the radio show. An unusual moment in the history of parapsychology!
Comment by Doug — May 21, 2022 @ 10:09 am