Hazelrigg's fight to grant astrology academic respectability

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It's rather interesting reading John Hazelrigg's preface to the Yearbook of the American Academy of Astrologians for 1918, on a number of levels.

One is to note how little has changed in the past 80-odd years when it comes to senior astrologers striving but struggling to gain a stronger footing of academic respectability for astrology and often feeling the need to rebuff attacks levelled at these efforts by uncharitable critics within the ranks of astrologers.

Another is the extravagantly intellectual (my Aqua-Mercury, Sagittarius-Moon wife felt 'pompous' even, but to my mind it is just in an old fashion of gentlemanly, albeit slightly carping, debate) tone and language of this New York astrologer's verbal delivery in print. I would like to see a mainstream astrological publisher in the early 21st century let this kind of discourse past its editors, ever-conscious as they are of the need for mainstream market readability.

Since everything published in 1918 is safely out-of-copyright by a margin of over five years, it seems harmless to quote an extended section here:
The water has gone once by the mill since the establishment of the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ASTROLOGIANS, and though the gods grind slowly they have wrought finely and to felicitous purpose in the year that has passed. This statement is privileged in view of the encomiums that have come hitherward from various sources, commending the effort and the methods, and in other ways giving hearty emphasis to an endorsement of the undertaking.

It is, however, an inexorable law of physics that one pole of a battery cannot be exercised without arousing opposite or adverse forces, and we are constrained to admit that the law in this instance has run true to form. Which leads us to remark that there is one sort of creature that is blind to any excellence that has the temerity to exist independently of his sanction, approval, or co?peration. He is not found in the ranks of the high-minded critic whose frankness and discrimination, though it combine a seeming harshness with the praise, must nevertheless stimulate and impel to further strivings.

We are reminded in particular of one source whence a thriving petulancy of this nature periodically exudes, apparently through a constitutional belief that no good can come out of Nazareth so long as Nazareth is unwise enough to choose this particular astrological quarter as its Holy Place. Though it may not be whispered in Gath, nor proclaimed in Askelon, yet we have a lurking suspicion that this individual has either a kink in his superheated omniscience, or is affording asylum to an elongated specimen of the genus Toenia - though it would require a most ingenious bit of camouflage to disguise the fact that his superstructure is of too narrow a physical outline to permit even moderate freedom to the gymnastics of a truly husky cestoidean. Truly one knows not whether to go a-chiding at the childishness of it, or to gird oneself in sackcloth and 'mourn before Abner' for the pity of it. To say the least, however, such attitude so strangely persisted in can only beget distrust of its source, in that it reveals a spirit of silly prejudice or that of actual spitefulness, either of which is sufficient to make of any mother's son a sort of corrugated nincompoop, and neither of which operates for the dignity or the upliftment of the Cause. The enemy within a camp can hardly claim a like justification for truculence as the open and avowed adversary outside the ramparts: the latter as a legitimate upholder of his hatreds and opinions may be pardoned his disgruntlement or his malice in a measure condoned - the other, alas! is merely a malcontent, and a very sorry specimen at that.

The steadily progressive growth of Astrology in this country, in both a popular and academic sense, gives eminent satisfaction to those who have sincerely at heart the interest of the doctrine: not only by reason of this reenforcement of adherents, but chiefly because of the calibre of intellect now being directed to its serious examination and its more than tentative acceptance. This valuable endorsement - or patronage, if you will - is not born of sudden impulse or of merely speculative curiosity, but proceeds from a gradual and thoughtful recognition of facts no longer regarded as being too fantastical for the intellectual gravities.

One is so prone to imagine the votaries of the science as possessed of the uncogitative mind, or as including only the professional practitioner who may or who may not venture beyond the surface depths, that it gives pause to learn that its leaven has permeated the college faculty and laid metaphorical hold of the scholastic brain, as well as extending into the ranks of the law, of medicine, and of other technical avocations, and that one and all they are coming to realize that scientific punctilio owes a deference to the celestial tenets that can no longer be withheld.

And though these highly literate disciples are seldom or never heard of in the active circles, many of them represent a profundity of learning not heretofore looked for in the devotees of a science that should by all the laws of propriety attract only the most penetrative of intellects. The most acute astrological judgment it has been our good fortune to contact is that possessed by one of the foremost lawyers of Colorado, a practitioner in the Supreme Court of the United States, and who has found time and great personal satisfaction in collecting what is perhaps the most complete library of books and MSS. on the subject in the world. Another is a prominent physician of this city, who has developed a system of medical astrology that surpasses any such treatise now extant - and we have seen most if not all of them, good, bad, and indifferent. Unfortunately he does not yet deem it wise to permit his name to be associated with a work of this character, though he promises ultimately, at a time of greater expediency and of less hazard to professional considerations, to give to the world the systematized results and to take unto himself the onus probandi. And it is a part of the mission of this Academy to help remove the prejudices and to fabricate a spirit of opportunism that will serve to make potential just such accomplishment as this, which is already a silent actuality.'
Any guesses as to which Supreme Court lawyer and which prominent New York doctor he might be talking about? Tom, Kim, any ideas?

And as to the identity of the particular critic that Hazelrigg is trying to rebuff without naming him personally, anyone who can positively establish this with reference to other historical sources of the period deserves more than a good round of applause!

Philip

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H.L. Cornell lived from 1872 - 1938. In 1918 he would have been 46, and established in his medical practice. I believe his book on medical astrology was published posthumously. Hazelrigg says "This city" but i didn't see the City named. Hazelrigg's teacher, Luke Broughton was a physician and I believe his son was, too. Broughton Sr made no secret of his passion for astrology. Broughton died in 1899.

It would be somewhere from difficult to impossible to identify the lawyer as hundreds perhaps thousands of lawyers are licensed to practice in front of the US Supreme Court. Keep in mind that the Court doesn't hear oral arguments in every case, so the lawyer may have practiced in the Court without ever setting foot in Washington, DC. Unless the lawyer "outed" himself late in life or his descendants did, I can't imagine he could be identified assuming he existed at all.

I agree with your wife. This was painful to read.


Tom

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Thanks for your thoughts, Tom!

I had been thinking of Cornell too, but I don't have any firm evidence to hand to establish that Cornell was ever based in New York.

I presume 'this city' refers to New York because the American Academy of Astrologians was based in New York, holding its regular meetings there, and also published its yearbooks from there (though as far as I'm aware no more than about two or possibly a few were ever published, starting in 1917).

There is an advertisement at the back of the 1918 yearbook for an early but quite lengthy work by Dr. George W. Carey called 'The Biochemic System of Medicine', but his address is clearly given as L.A., Cal., ruling him out.

The Astrologers' Memorial site gives no location information for Cornell's life other than his birth in PA.

The foreword to the Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology by Cornell is signed by him (in 1933) from Los Angeles, California, while the preface to the 1939 second edition is signed from the same location by his successor Henry J. Gordon, who was presumably too young in 1918 to have achieved the sophisticated model of medical astrology to which Hazelrigg alludes.

However, Cornell states in his introduction that it was in the fall of 1918 that he moved to Los Angeles with his family and gave up the practice of medicine after many years of work in the field, devoting his life to astrology and writing on it, and especially to compiling his encyclopedia. So he might have moved from New York in the very year that the 1918 yearbook was published.

Also I note that Cornell is listed as a member of the New York Psychical Research Society and an honorary profssor of Medical Astrology at the First national University of Naturopathy and Allied Sciences in Newark, New Jersey, both of which would suggest a strong east coast connection in his life.

I have a copy somewhere of Cornell's earlier short book 'Astrology and the Diagnosis of Disease', published in 1918. The publication details therein could prove at least interesting, if a place is mentioned. I'll see if I can find it and edit this post if it shows up anything interesting!

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Tom wrote:H.L. Cornell lived from 1872 - 1938. In 1918 he would have been 46, and established in his medical practice. I believe his book on medical astrology was published posthumously.
Tom
PS: The first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Medical Astrology was published in 1933 when Cornell was still alive; the second edition published in 1939 with the added foreword by Henry Gordon was posthumous. The bindings of the two editions are apparently identical externally, and the 1933 date is retained internally, leading many a bookseller to mis-sell a second as a first by not bothering to read on as far as Gordon's note. I bought a second mis-sold as a first myself, but since it looks the same on the outside and since the bookseller was in Australia and these volumes weigh a lot I didn't think it was worth sending it back at Swedish international post rates....

G.J. McCormack, Astro-meteorologist continued the fight...

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Hello Phillip,

The 1917 yearbook contains an example of Certificate of Fellowship which states the first meeting was held on January 14, 1916 at 7:15 P.M. in New York. Below the table of contents the address is listed as 711 W. 180th Street.
The certificate example certificate is signed by John Hazelrigg and George J. McCormack who was one of the co-founders and secretary of the academy.
7+2= 9 and 2 goes into 18, 9 times.

In 1966, Joseph F. Goodavage wrote a book called Astrology: The Space Age Science. In his chapter on numerology he says the following:
In the monthly bulletin of the New Jersey Astrologians Association, editor George J. McCormack published many series of cosmological cycles, all of which equate to the number 9- and to man. ?The added digits of various cosmic cycles? he wrote in the November, 1958 issue of ASTROTECH, ?when reduced to 9 show a striking relationship between macrocosmic and microcosmic cycles. The Grand Year of equinoctial precession, 25, 920 years, equates to 18 or 9. The 360 degrees of the Zodiac and of terrestrial longitude also equate to 9. Whether you add all the minutes in a day (1,440) or all the seconds (86, 400), the digits always add to nine.
In the forward of the 1917 yearbook, Hazelrigg states that the group limited member ship to 30 based on an interpretation of the Kabala.

I?ve only glanced at 1917, 1918 yearbooks which I found at the Davis Special Collections library at the University of California Santa Barbara branch and I?ve made some copies of some of the drawings and advertisements in the back of the books. I?ve read that Ballantine reprints sells these books and I know that the U.S. Library of Congress has a copy of the 1916 yearbook. I?m not aware of any other publications by the academy.

Also in the same book, in the author?s acknowledgments Goodavage says this:
Yet it was largely though the efforts of John W. Campbell, editor of ANOLOG, and George J. McCormack, editor of ASTROTECH, that I was exposed to a finely discriminating scientific application of astrology.
In 1978, Goodavage wrote a book called Our Threatened Planet which he dedicated to the memory of George J. McCormack. Here are a few excerpts?
When he was editor of Analog (Science Fiction-Science fact) magazine, John W. Campbell suggested a "put up or shut up" department called (Crucial Experiment) to prove by prediction, if possible, whether nationwide weather could be determined on a long-range basis for six consecutive months.
Also-
It took the combined efforts of Senators Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating, then Sen. Robert F. Kennedy to twist enough arms and bring enough political pressure to bear on the chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau to set up a special seminar in the New York offices. McCormack presented the results of his life's work to the government. To say that the weather bureaucrats unwillingly complied with their orders, and in a cold, unfriendly manner, is an understatement. They were downright hostile.
Note- In George?s book, Long Range Astro-Weather Forecasting, self-published in 1965 and available at Sacred Science Institute, G.J. McCormack, affect atonally known as Gee-Jay by his friends states that the date of the seminar as October 3, 1963. In 1963, Robert F. Kennedy was the Attorney General. Also, in the same book, Goodavage references an article by G.J. McCormack from the 1917 yearbook called; Some Weather Fundimentals.

Also, Dr. George Winslow Plummer was a member of the academy and the found of the Society of Rosicrucians in America. He established the publication, Mercury which he describes as the offical organ of both the S.R.I.A. and the academy as well. In the 1933 edition, on the topic of weather he references C.G. Abbott, the head of the Smithsonian Institute from 1928-1944. In in Our Threatened Planet, Goodavage states that Abbott was an astro-meteorologist but was unable to get his papers published in America so he had them published in Europe.

According to JSOR, early academy members contributed to the early publication of ISIS, the annual publication put out by the History of Science Society. ISIS was edited by the head of the Smithsonian from 1963-1978. So, in closing I can say that I don?t know who the doctor was but as Tom mentioned in reference to the lawyer when he said, if he existed at all? I would suggest that he did.



Also, I?m hoping you look into G.J. McCormack?s Fight to grant astro-meteorology scientific respectability. I have some very good information if your interested.

Also, I?m half tempted to agree with your wife?s opinon of Hazelrigg?s writing style. Keep in mind he was class poet when he graduated Perdue University and went to New York to become a stage actor. That being said, I'll be the first too agree with Tom's desription of this text as painfull.

I?ve decided to commit a few paragraphs to memory so that this way the next time I get called on to speak at Alcoholics anonymous I?ll finally be able to explain how I wound up in this situation in the first place. And one last thing. In America, a baseball player named Ted Williams was the first athlete to admit publiclly that he could see the baseball appear as if it was moving in slow motion. The number on his jersey was 9.

Ed Jacobsen, Jr.

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Hello Ed,

Thank you for sharing such a fascinatingly informative post, and also for your dash of humour at the expense of Hazelrigg's writing style at the end, which certainly had both my wife and myself laughing a lot this morning!

I have both the Goodavage books and the Sacred Science reprint of McCormack's 'Long Range Astro Weather Forecasting' here somewhere. Sadly to say, they have in common with approximately 80% of my astrological book collection the fact of having been bought within the past three and a half years when I have been generally too busy with personal life commitments to put in the study time to read, and very soon will of necessity be packed away into storage facilities for the next few years. But I'll look forward to them even more now in the future.

I was looking out for the 1917 yearbook but all used copies had sold out last time I checked. Yes, I believe John Ballantrae reprints it. His reprints of all books are of excellent quality in my experience, and this might be another one to order from him if I don't eventually track down an original.

Certainly I'd be interested to learn more of what McCormack did in his life to attain more scientific respect for astro-meteorology. I have a particularly strong interest (not in common with all contemporary astrologers by any means, but we're all different, and there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion) in scientific research into astrology and the history of the actual studies that have been undertaken to this end, so any information in this area would be very welcome. I'm sure in fact that there are plenty of others here at Skyscript who would be fascinated to learn more of what you know about this too, so please share away!

Going back to Hazelrigg, I can see in the light of your reports on his love for poetry and training as an actor that this was not necessarily a typical verbal diatribe even in 1918, and that it had his personal stamp very much written upon it. One of my wife's first thoughts was that he was trying so desperately hard to confer a veneer of intellectual respectability to his profession and the work of the American Academy of Astrologians in particular that he massively overdid his verbal style and ended up sounding as though he was trying to fake intellectual credentials he probably did not have in such great measure. I have the feeling that he must have been quite intelligent to come up with such a text as this, hideously and tortuously convoluted though it sounds, but still it may be true that he was trying to exaggerate his own intellect in order to adopt an apparent position of intellectual superiority unvanquishable by the detractors of his efforts. This in itself, I believe, was nothing new for a writing astrologer, as I think back to Renaissance-era texts in which authors such as Partridge invested a great deal of verbal energy in trying to sell the intellectual strengths of their own particular treatises to their readerships and the public at large, but still it arguably harks back to a certain inferiority complex in the astrological profession at large carried down through the centuries....

I'd love to hear you recite your memorised passages of Hazelrigg's introduction as part of an after-dinner speech to an assembly of astrologers, in full acting mode. It would surely go down a storm!

Philip

PS: Did you ever read Herge's Adventures of Tintin? I can just visualise Captain Haddock adopting a few of Hazelrigg's choice insults with which to curse his foes as he shakes his fist angrily, broken whisky bottle in hand: 'ELONGATED SPECIMENS OF THE GENUS TOENIA! CORRUGATED NINCOMPOOPS! SORRY SPECIMENS OF MERE MALCONTENTS!'

Sorry, couldn't resist sharing that image....

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In America, a baseball player named Ted Williams was the first athlete to admit publicly that he could see the baseball appear as if it was moving in slow motion. The number on his jersey was 9.
Skyscript is perhaps the last place I ever would have expected to see the name Ted Williams, but

Theodore Samuel Williams
August 30, 1918
12:20 PM PWT +7 hours
San Diego, CA
21 Scorpio 19 rises

Williams was not only a remarkable athlete, probably the best hitter in baseball history, but a remarkable man. He served as a pilot in WWII and Korea earning a silver star for conspicuous valor in the latter war. Having exceptional eyesight was a plus for a combat pilot in those early days of radar detection. A couple of years before he died he was interviewed by Bob Costas. Referring to Williams' accomplishments, attitude, war record, and hero status as athlete Costas said:

"You know, you've lived the life John Wayne portrayed on the screen.

Williams: "Yeah I know."

Teddy Ballgame was a man of few words.

Tom

Hazelrigg and McCormack

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Hello Philip,
I?ve needed a few days to recover and I think I can reply now. I want to start by saying what a great pleasure it is to meet you Philip and you also Tom. I see this is a special place and time we are in.

I want you to know I have the highest respect for Hazelrigg and I?m certain he?s having more fun at my expense then I am at his. Your idea for a show is very funny Philip and I?m certain Hazelrigg would approve.

When I first started reading his text I had no idea what he was talking about yet I was immediately fascinated as well. He seemed to have a very distinctive tonality which reminded me of the Wizard of Oz. I dismissed the idea only to have it become a reoccurring thought.

When I learned U.C.S.B. had copies of the 1917, 1918 yearbooks I became very excited. In 1973 I was 14 years old and I remembered my parents telling me that George McCormack contributed and article to the 1917 yearbook and because they had the highest admiration for George, and considering an entire life time has passed since then, this was a sacred moment for me and I didn?t want to be disrespectful and have immature thoughts in my mind of Hazelrigg as the Wizard of Oz.

I sat down at the table in the special collections library and opened to the first page which listed the four officers of the academy. I then turned to the second page and saw an example the certificate of fellowship which was signed by both Hazelrigg the president, and McCormack, the secretary. I then turned to the third page and saw a picture of a wizard, complete with crescent moons and stars on his robe and that same reoccurring thought, reoccurred again.



I then turned to the table of contents and found the chapter I was looking for. Some Weather Fundamentals by George J. McCormack and turned to the chapter for a brief look. I returned to the table of contents and scrolled down to The Genius of Shakespeare by Allie B. Hazard and flipped through a few pages and decided to browse the pictures and advertisements in the back of the book. I found one by Hazard which is followed by an endorsement which I?ll share with you now.


ALLIE B. HAZARD
Lectures on Astrology, Theosophy, Symbolism and Medical Diagnosis

?I have heard Miss Allie B. Hazard lecture on Astrology a number of times, and have hesitancy in saying that all who hear her cannot help feeling that they have not only been instructed, but highly entertained.?
JOHN P. ST. JOHN, Ex- Governor of Kansas
After I saw the word Kansas I thought- the most fundamental weather hazard in Kansas I know of would be a Cyclone which was in that highly entertaining drama, the Wizard of Oz!

I learned Louis Schaettle was the artist who did the drawing of the wizard and I found 17 of his paintings posted by the Smithsonian art museum and many of them were used as studies for the panels that where over the doors in the Old Senate Building.

Tom, I don?t know that much about government and I haven?t been able to find the location of the Old Senate Building. Do you have any idea if they are talking about Washington, D.C. or New York? And thank you so much for that story about Ted Williams. Amazing.


I did quick search on the Wizard of Oz revealed that the book was written by L Frank Baum. Like Hazelrigg, he had an early interest in both writing and acting. At one point he worked in his brothers store and when he opened the closet, found a dead clerk who had commit suicide and it inspired him to write his first book, The Suicide of Kiaros.

His father bought him a theater in Richburg, New York and he wrote a script called Matches. He left town to tour with another troupe and when he did, his theater in Richburg went up in flames and burned the building down and when it did, Matches, the script, went up in smoke.


I can?t say for sure what happened afterwards, but I?d suspect that a story like this probably spread throughout the theatrical community like wild fire. Knowing from personal experience how childish performers can be, I can easily visualize his friends having an endless amount of fun at Baum?s expenses. And I suspect they all probably played the same joke, Striking a wooden match as he came around the corner and asking, What?s wrong, scared of a little fire Frank? I can?t say that Matches influenced the dialog between the witch and the scarecrow, but it?s easy to see the striking similarity between the two.

I read that Baum joined the Theosophical society and that may account for some of the terminology he used for the wizard. There?s no indication that he met Hazelrigg at any of the theosophical meetings or on the theatrical circuit but, I?d suppose if they ever did, I?m sure Hazelrigg would have made the same impression on Baum as he has on us. Who knows? Maybe Baum heard Hazelrigg performing an after dinner speech for an assembly of theosophists.

What I do know for sure is that both Hazelrigg?s Astrological Herald and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were published in 1900. Oz became a successful children?s book and two years it was preformed as a theatrical in Chicago. An immediate success, it headed straight for Broadway where it ran for 10 months and played an amazing 293 nights and then returned in 1904.

I don?t know if whether Hazelrigg attended any of the performances but I can say that, this was before the age of Hollywood and New York was the cultural capital of the country. Broadway was big and Manhattan is a small island. Wizardry was Hazelrigg?s genre so I?d say he was not only aware of the play, but also aware of it popularity in the culture. I?m certain he had an endless amount of fun with it. At least by this silly search I got to find out a little bit more about the times Hazelrigg lived in and some of the things he probably dealt with in addition to all of the rest of it.

I?m not sure but I think it was in Astrosohpic Tractates that he describes himself as a man of the street. I picture him as a bohemian street actor with an experimental mind who liked figuring out complex puzzles and playing mind games. To paraphrase John Lennon; He was some sort of Druid Dude and now, he?s projecting his images through space and in time and now I?ll give you an example.

Lennon got the title to his song after reading a book called Mind Games by Jean Houston. George Plummer was a member of the academy and a doctor of Sargadia Theology. He was the legal founder of the S.R.I.A. and if you check their site you?ll find an article he wrote called, Those Alchemists, Our Glands. I?d guess in 1923. And he says he believes that our glands effect our personalities and makes special mention of the pineal gland or the third eye. In 1964, Goodavage wrote an article in Fate magazine called Man, the Bio-Magnetic Animal which also references the pineal gland. Recently, Dr. Rick Strassman wrote a book called, DMT, The Spirit Molecule and he?s worked extensively on the pineal gland. If you notice the cover of the book, you?ll see it was painted by Alex Grey. Grey has created and organization to help complete the Sargadia Familiar Cathedral in Barcelona that Gaudi was building. One of the people on Greys board is Jean Houston who wrote the book, mind games.

Three years ago this past October, the New Yorker magazine published an article by a Neurologist named Oliver Sacks titled Speed. In this article he talks about the slow motion effect that Ted Williams spoke of and tells us modern sports psychologists call this effect, tachy-psychia, relaxed concentration, and the athletic zone of concentration typically referred to by athletes as, the Zone. Dr. Sacks references a film called the Matrix which features martial artists and slow motion effects of speeding objects.

If you see the film, you?ll notice the speeding bullets appear in slow motion and you?ll notice a they are surrounded by a translucent light. The contents is Hermetically sealed. In this way, the Greeks associated Hermes with the athlete.

I found a letter from Israel Regaudie, a member of S.R.I.A. dated 1933 where he talks about this and here?s the excerpts-

?Patanjali is careful to tell us that the Siddhis may be brought into manifestation by chemical means, by which he intends to indicate the use of certain drugs. (To be sure the reaction from these drugs makes them unsatisfactory for the purpose of genuine unfoldment; it being, so to say, too high a price for the Siddhis).?

Siddhis is the non-temporal state or the zone which comes in many gradients.
Here?s the other excerpt-

?The more so because the Temple is in Arabia, which place-name means ?desert,? or ?sterile,? and so corresponds exactly to the temporary state of Brahamacharya which is indispensable to success in this kind of practice, as it is, in lesser measure, to success in say, boxing or foot-racing.?


So, we are talking about the slow motion effect Ted Williams talked about in baseball and Dr. Sacks is now including martial arts and Regaudie is including boxing and foot racing. And foot racing produces runner?s high, a gradient of the zone.

In 1978, the same year Goodavage wrote Our Threatened Planet which he dedicated to George McCormack, he also wrote an article for Analog Magazine called- Skyquakes, Earthlights, and E.M. Fields. I haven?t had a chance to read it but I?ve read a post that claims it mentions the work of a neuro-psychologist named Michael Persinger. Persinger has written extensively on the subject of bio-meteorology and in the laboratory he?s re-produced extra low frequencies, that stimulate the same altered states that some people experience during earthquakes. Out of the body, spirit/alien visitation, earthlights and etc?

Also during earthquakes, some people experience tachy-psychia. So, instead of seeing a speeding baseball or speeding bullet appear as if it?s traveling in slow motion, they see a surface wave which travels at between 1-5 km per second. If your not familiar with Persinger, there?s a very good article on the net by Jack Hitt which he wrote for Wired Magazine which is very good. I forget his exact words but, he says something to the effect of- he?s not sure if he wants to see god reduced down to something as simple as runner?s high. Persinger has his C.V. posted on the web as well as numerous enlightening articles.

So, these wizards back at the academy? they already knew that sports and earthquakes create these altered states of consciousness. They only lacked the neurology and the software and they knew that, 90 years ago! Hazelrigg, McCormack, Plummer, Goodavage, Sacks, Persinger?

Hazelrigg and McCormack were astrometerologists and I have it on very good accounting that George was a talented athlete when he was young. Most people enter this altered state through sports, but some people have a extra sensitivity to nature which can also trigger this state which the ancients called the third eye. They also knew that some animals detect earthquakes about a week before they occur.

So, in closing-- after McCormack?s seminar with the U.S. Weather Bureau was over, the chief of the bureau sent RFK and I believe Senator Keating a letter stating there was no validity to McCormacks theories on astro-meteorology. He failed to prove anything. It?s now 44 years latter and what?s changed is the fact that Persinger has the neuro-sensors that pick up that detect the brains change in extra low frequencies and send it to the computer as digitized information. Scientific Proof.

In theory, if a network of astro-metorologists furnish their earthquake predictions to Persinger or neurologists with his technology, people with proven natural sensitivity can be placed in the prediction zone wearing the sensors so that when the quake hits, the brains change in extra low frequencies are sent to the computer. Proof. Can this same technology be used on animals? I don?t know yet. Doesn?t matter, using people is good enough to start with.

Because after you get the photos, the question is, how did you know in advance to get the sensors strapped on ahead of time? Simple, astro-meteorology.

What I?m saying gentleman, is that, the technology has caught up to what Hazelrigg and McCormack were waiting for. And now is a good time to start the conversation at least. I know I?ve said a lot and I haven?t said it as clearly as I?d like to but, I feel my response is so late that maybe saying something not as clear as I?d like is better then saying nothing at all. Maybe you can give it some thought. Ed Jacobsen.

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Hi,

What follows is not astrology, but I think it has relevance.

First off the reference to the Old Senate Building is probaby a reference to the Old Senate Office Building. The US Captiol Building in Washington DC is in the same location it always was holding both Houses of Congress - although it has been enlarged over time. What has changed, I believe is the Senate Office Building. As government grew the sizes of the staff of the Senators grew and a new more modern building was required. All buildings are in Washington, DC.

Secondly, I'd like to address the issue of "The Zone" that athletes refer to. It is real, and as any athlete will tell you, they aren't in it often enough. I am not or was not ever a superior athlete. I loved sports, though, particularly baseball and when I got older tennis. What I learned, particularly from tennis, is that sports are mental. You have to have the skills, but skills are not enough.

I've never heard that Ted Williams said he saw the ball in slow motion, but I believe it. Williams was known for his superior eyesight, and he hated it when people said that was why he was such a good hitter. He thought it was the practice and study. It was both. Williams taught youngsters to "practice 'til the blisters bleed." He could pick out the rotation of the ball when it was about halfway to the plate. Think about this: a major league baseball pitcher is throwing a small round object from 60 feet six inches away, actually by the time he lets go of the ball it is a few feet closer than 60 feet. He is throwing the ball between 90 and 100 mph. At 90 mph the ball is travelling 132 feet per second. That means it covers the distance from the pitcher's hand to home plate in less than half a second. The ball is not delivered on a straight line. The hitter then has to judge, in less than half a second. how to adjust his swing high or low and allow for the movement of the ball towards him and the other curving or hopping movements, and time it so that te round bat contacts the round ball in a perfect place. Furthermore, a thrown baseball is often still gaining momentum at the time it reaches the plate, unlke a tennis ball which loses momentum from about the time it reaches the net. In this less than a quarter of a second, Ted Williams could see which way the seams on the baseball were spinning. Most big league hitters say they can't tell which way the ball is spinning until it is 2/3 of the way to the plate.

Ted WIlliams batting average over the entire course of his career was .342 (or thereabouts). That means he reached base safely 34.2% of every official at bat. Or conversely he failed 65.8% of the time and he is considered the best hitter ever. None of this has anything to do with seeing the ball in slow motion. That is purely psychological, And I swear to anyone reading these words that happens.

It happened to me a few times. The ball could have been thrown by the biggest strongest fastest pitcher I ever faced and it looked like a balloon. I couldn't miss. It's not limited to hitting either. There are times in the field when you know where the next ball will be hit. I recall a time in college (and that I till remember this is significant in itself) where I was playing second base in a pick up game and I had been playing well and my confidence was soaring. There was one out and a runner on first. I looked at the hitter and thought, if he hits a high boucing ball to my right I can time it so I can catch the ball at the top of the bounce, touch second with my right foot as I catch the ball with my left hand (the glove hand), pivot and throw to first for a double play. Now you don't think like that; it is strictly visual, and the thought lasts way less than a second, but when you're in the zone the details are extaordianry and in this case included the runner sliding into second so I had to anticipate that, too. So I moved a little bit to my right, and back a step and it happened exactly that way - perfect timing - double play. Two innings later I made an error. That ball was hit right at me. I had too much time to think, whereas the better play I made I had no time to think - only react.

Tennis players talk about being in the zone all the time. The ball comes at you in slow motion no matter who is hitting it. You know where they will hit it. It's almost like chess - you see things in advance. Sadly these experiences are few and far between - even for the pros.

Emphasizing the mental aspects is not unknown in sports. There was a tennis player on the tour in the 1950s whose name I can't recall. I believe he was from Denmark. His son became a famous drummer in a rock band. When it was his turn on the practice courts he would sit on the court and meditate. He practiced visually. He was once asked, "How long have you been playing tennis seriously?" He answered, "I've never played tennis seriously."

Ted Williams practiced til the blisters bled and studied pitchers, baseball bats, and other hitters. He had fabulous eyesight, but when he saw the ball in slow motion, that was the psychological fruit of his labors. He was in the zone.

Tom

Williams anecdote. He was a gruff, loud, profane man. At 6' 2" solidly built, and very agressive he was no one to trifle with. He had zero respect for authority and he hated newspaper reporters (with good reason). But he loved kids. He would do anything, part with fame and fortune to help a kid who needed it - even if he didn't like the kid's parents - always a strong possibility.

In response to Ed

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Hi Ed,

Your post was very interesting.

I regret that I know nothing about what it feels like to be a professional baseball player, my furthest achievements in the area having amounted to obligatory participation in the watered-down version of the game called 'rounders' when a schoolboy in the 1980s.... Nor do I know anything about the life of L. Frank Baum, but thank you for sharing your discoveries.

But I completely take on board your point about science catching up with astrology, and believe that there is major progress still to be made in this area, little of the totality of which any of us alive today are likely to be fortunate enough to see - it will continue in dribs and drabs for centuries ahead, I feel most likely. Certainly one of the leading grounds by which scientists have been inclined to assert scepticism towards astrology to date has been the lack of a convincingly demonstrated mechanism for its functioning on a causal level, but science still has a long way to go to catch up with fully accounting for reality.

If it is of any interest, however, I have a copy of Hazelrigg's Astrological Herald to hand here. Have you seen one or would it interest you to know of its contents?

Best regards,

Philip

Flow

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Hello Tom, Philip,
I?ve needed bit of time to process.

Thank you for clarifying the Old Senate Office Building. As I said, Louis Schaettle did the paintings as studies for the over door panels. It?s a small but revealing piece of astrological history.

Your article on the zone was excellent. I?m always looking for information on this topic and I had a feeling you?d know about it. Philip, I don?t want to loose you on this aspect of the conversation because it?s important aspect of Hazelrigg and McCormack?s thinking and I can show how it pertains to the advancement of astro-meteorology and more. At the end of this post I?ll include a few articles which are very informative.



In my case, I?ve never been athletic , yet the zone or what Gestalt therapist Abram Maslow called Peak Experience comes naturally to me and in many different ways. Recently I browsed DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Dr. Strassman and noticed that he said that at the moment the tennis ball appears as if it?s enlarged, the brain is operating on theta waves. Back in 1982-83 I was in San Francisco during an earthquake. About a minute before the quake I went into a state of vertigo and shrank down into a crouching position where I regained my equilibrium.

I started at a point on the ground and saw the surface of Rayleigh wave appear and roll to me. I was in tachysychia so, to me it appeared to be traveling at about 10-15 miles per hour, when in fact it was traveling between 1-5 kilo meters per second. I returned to California last October and since then I?ve spoken with 6 other people who?ve also seen Rayleigh waves. So, now maybe we are switching our terms from sports psychology to psycho-biology and bio-meteorology.



Recently I read Michael Persingers C.V. and noticed the following article:


Michaud, L.Y., & Persinger, M.A. Geophysical variables and behavior: XXV. Alterations in memory for a narrative following application of theta frequency electromagnetic fields. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1985, 60, 416-418.

Not everyone sees surface waves, some people have epileptic type experiences such as, out of the body, spirit/alien visitation, they see mysterious earthlight or skylights and etc? Through usage of extra low frequencies, Mr. Persinger has successfully proved he can stimulate these experiences in the laboratory. The computer creates and sends the signal to the brain, and then a set of sensors on the headset pick up the signal and return it to the computer as digitized information where it?s analyses. At this point, he?s even creating a menu of experiences to choose from. For out of the body, press one. For alien visitation, press the star key?


In my mind, in theory, what this means is that if a person with this proven sensitivity was to sit on location with these sensors attached, and should an earthquake occur, the sensors would then carry that signal to the computer where it would be recorded as digitized information.

Dr. Sacks is the chief consulting neurologist in the epilepsy department at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. After I read his article, I started researching epilepsy and found and article on Meta Religion by Clifford Pickover, author of a book called, Strange Brains and Genius, the Secret Lives of Scientist and Madmen. Pickover is the first I know of to relate Sleep Paralysis to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy or, TLE. TLE gives creates the same experiences as Epilepsy Gran Mal, only there?s no physical seizure.

In my case, I started having Sleep Paralysis at seven years old. I?d wake up, couldn?t move and had the feeling that I was going to leave my body or that there was some sort of highly intelligent cosmic visitor in the room with me. After I read Sacks and found Pickover, and learned he related S.P. to TLE, I found Michael Persinger and his neuro-magnetic head set which stimulates these experiences and has since been dubbed, ?The God Helmet.?

Hippocrates was an astrologer who said that weather effects our health. He was also the forefather of modern medicine. He confronted what the ancient Greeks called Sacred Disease, (epilepsy) in book II and said it was a brain disorder. Also, he mentions frightening sleep episodes and uses the word ?choking? which pertains to S.P.. In SP, many people believe they feel a weight on their chest and feel as if someone or something is choking them. The weight on their chest is associated with Incubus-Succubus which was also called The Nightmare. Swiss. Artist Henri Fuseli did a painting called the Nightmare which depicts a little demon sitting on the chest of a sleeping woman with her neck exposed and vulnerable. Hippocrates decided that epilepsy and these types of experiences were caused by a problem in the brain. I?ve never heard of him associating epilepsy with weather, such as earthquakes.

Aristotle wrote the first known treatise on astronomic weather and also a book called Famous People with Epilepsy. I haven?t read it so I can say whether he associated epilepsy with earthquakes.


In McCormack?s; Long Range Astro-Weather Forecasting, he mentions that in the great influenza epidemic of 1918, and that he a case and was in bed for a month. In America alone, over 600,000 people fevers before they died of influenza. I don?t know what the numbers were in Europe were, but McCormack says the peak came in India where over 15 million people died. High fever is another way the brain triggers the same epileptic type visions. This suggests to me that a lot of people were experiencing epileptic type visions and expressing them to their family and friends.

Also, in the same book, George tells us that it was around this time that he, or they, meaning the academy did a test weather prediction which was published in Azoth magazine. Michael Whitty, the editor of Azoth was a member of the academy and has an advertisement in the back of the yearbook. It lists the name of Hereward Carrington who was a well-known British investigator of psychic phenomena. He was also a member of the Society for Psychical Research .

In Our Threatened Planet, Goodavage mentions Hazelrigg investigating the prediction of influenza and also an out break that McCormack predicted in 1964. They knew the relativity of events. Predicting an outbreak of influenza meant predicting an outbreak of fevers, and epileptic type visions. They knew that animals start reacting about a week before the quake and that certain people experience epileptic type visions and others see surface waves. So, today?s astro-meterologist who predicts a surface wave is also predicting a theta wave. I know people are recording seismic waves as they occur, but, is anyone recording theta waves as they occur?

I?ll give you another example. I joke about the Wizard of Oz but when we get older we realize there?s a lot of truth in myths and fairy tales and one of the leading authorities on this was Joseph Campbell, author of Hero With A Thousand Faces. Tachypsychia or Peak Experience has always been one of the great corner stones of mysticism. Bill Moyers did a series of interviews with Campbell and in the last interview, he asked about Peak Experience. Campbell said he had only had them back in his youthful days as an athlete.


Head injuries can also lead to epileptic type visions. Dorothy gets a bump on the head and meets a witch. I believe it was in 1982 that Hufford wrote a book called Old Hag and it was the first sort of clinical approach to understanding these types of mental experiences. Hufford targeted sleep paralysis and found that roughly between 12-14 percent of the population experiences this on a somewhat regular basis. Anywhere between 3-4 times a year, to every single night. That?s a significant percentage of the population.

The University of Waterloo has an excellent online survey which focuses on Sleep Paralysis and breaks it down into categories. Floating, cosmic visitor, touch, sound, smell and etc? in the Bible, the word used for these experiences is ?Trance.? I forget the verse but in one, Peter states he went into a trance and saw a sheet descending being held by four corners. So, in the modern world, we can look it up in the survey and find that 20 percent of the respondents report having an episode that includes bed covers, such as sheets. Hopefully Michael Persinger will add sheets to the menu because this is a way for people to not only understand these experiences, but also gain valuable insight into the people who were writing about them, and making decisions based on them. Decisions which still greatly effect all of our lives today, one way or another in our culture.


Waterloo like many others claim that Lilith is a sleep paralysis related character. Here?s why I mention it. Academy member Grace Ellery Williams wrote an article called Lilith the Demon which Dr. Plummer published in Mercury. Williams based her knowledge of Lilith on the mythology and then tried to correspond it to the black moon and gave her astrological interpretation. Not very scientific, but still she made an effort. Let?s bring it into the modern world.

Unfortunalty, Waterloo has neglected to add radio boxes for date, time and place of birth. If they?d add those data fields, a modern astrologer would be able to pick up where Williams left off only with more scientific approach. Also, I know from experience that for some reason, after the SP episode ends, we often reflexively get up and check the time. As if it?s going to offer some profound explanation for the experience. Maybe it will. If the on-going survey also had a data field for the time of experience and one last additional field for the persons current location, a modern astrologer would be able to examine the experience for possible astrological corresponding events with complete accuracy. Creating a new online survey like this would be a good opportunity for a modern astrologer. It hasn?t been done before. Using astrometeorology to predict earthquakes as a mean of recording theta waves hasn?t been done before.


?And it is a part of the mission of this Academy to help remove the prejudices and to fabricate a spirit of opportunism that will serve to make potential just such accomplishment as this, which is already a silent actuality.?
1918 yearbook, John Hazelrigg,

Yes, Philip, I would greatly appreciate any information, and insights on Hazelrigg you can offer. In Our Threatened Planet, Goodavage tells us that McCormack was Hazerligg?s student. I have it on good account that McCormack was a talented athlete in his youth and that he became interested in astrology as a teenager. So, that would be around the time that Hazelrigg produced the Herald and I?d suspect that the Herald contains some of the first articles that McCormack read on the subject.

Tom I want to thank you again for that great article. It?s a little talked about subject and you got into very particular details I haven?t seen in these other articles. I?ll give you the list and you can see what you think. I?m thinking of the way you ended, by mentioning how Ted sincerely tried to pass along the best of what he had learned and without prejudice. He was mindful and correct. He understood what was important in life. And Philip, I just want to close by saying that in one of these articles they mention Bolen, the author of the Toa of Psychology. In it, she claims the Greeks had two types of time. Chronos, the ordinary time on a clock, Kiaros, the timeless state we get into when we are doing something we enjoy. Reading, painting, etc? In my experience, there?s a third definition for time which is Hermes. That?s when Kiaros hit?s it?s extreme. That?s when you can see the seams on the side of base ball at 95 miles per hour.

In his book, Hermes, Guide of the Soul, Karl Kerenyni says something to the effect of?. We normally see life as having five elements. A creative, a lethal, a femine, a masculine and in time. But in a spontaneous act of Hermes, time is replaced with a sixth element, that which is timeless and eternal. As I said, this experience comes naturally because I?ve got this strange brains and Oliver Sacks type mental wiring, so, I?ve got pretty good instinct about this experience. I?m confident that you?re the type of person who has this latent ability. If you interested in developing it, juggling is a good way to start. It creates a relaxed concentration, a sort of state of hypnosis. Eventually one day, suddenly the balls appear is if they are levitating all by themselves, and moving very slowly and you can notice all the details and it?s so easy to move them anyway you want because you?ve got all the time in the world.

But what the person observing you sees, is your hands suddenly moving extremely quickly, like the sudden reflexes of a martial artist. Natural reflexes. Just some food for thought. Thank you both again for your insights. Ed.

1. Relaxation and Meditation* From Competitive Fire by Michael Clarkson
2. Athletic Insight Online Journal, Cycling in the Zone.
3. In the Zone: The Zen of Sports By Andrew Cooper
4. Transformative Practices, An Esalen Invitational Conference
Michael Murphy.

P.S.- My father was a super athlete and after my parents attended the Erhard Seminar Training, they enrolled me in the training in 1977. My parents had it figured out before they even took the training. It?s taken me 30 years to figure out why they signed me why they signed me up in the first place. Also, they told me about Oliver Sacks around 1974, right after he wrote a book called Awakenings based on his experiments L-Dopa which he used on a group of patients with a sleeping disorder. So when I read the Sacks article a few years ago, it triggered a massive recall of life?s events and I had my own awakening and I?m completing a 30 year life cycle. What ever I've learned now is what they already knew and anticpated then. They already knew where the oppertunities were.

also

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?Discussion is made of the influence of Luke D. Broughton (1828-1899) which extended via students such as William H. Chaney (1821-1903), Catherine Thompson (1858-1934) and John Hazelrigg (1860-1941), founder of the American Society of Astrologians, and students of theirs, including Evangeline Adams (1868-1932) and others.?
Robert Zoller.