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Full Circle The Mysteries Uncloaked Globe D —e

In Full Circle: The Mysteries Uncloaked I learned of the origin and purpose of existence. However, although I traced the development the Root-Races through Egyptian and Mesopotamian history, it was not until the second part of this thesis that I discovered how the Divine plan operated within historical periods.  Click to Read the Intro
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(Thesis-2nd Quarter) FULL CIRCLE THE MYSTERIES UNCLOAKED GLOBE D —e
SECTION 12A-B-C 1945 C.E – 1976 C.E.

Root Race 7: sub-race 6

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Like Section 8, this Section is also divided into three parts; however, these parts are determined by the time-line. The first part (A) covers the events leading up to the detonation of the atom bombs in Japan. Part (A) also covers the main events of the 1950s. The second part (B) deals exclusively with 1960s and the hope for change anchored in the Baby Boomers. The final part (C) relates how the 1970s saw the deterioration of the mass consciousness and the consequences for the world.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world began to deteriorate and divide into an East versus West situation with the Cold War, which was ultimately the “battle” between Communism and Capitalism. This was a time of fear of anything Russian or affiliated with it, which escalated with the Korean War. Although, the Korean War ended in a stalemate, it led to a massive build up of arms on both sides, which seemed destined to end in full out nuclear war. Nonetheless, the uneasy truce between the East and West held and there appeared to be a shift towards peace and equality in the 1960s with John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King’s brief reign. Unfortunately, as the video “Pneuma-Yod” created for Guy Juarez’s song “Because of the Fear” portrayed, after these three great men were assassinated the world devolved into a veritable orgy of ever increasing violence and atrocities. Although, I will be mentioning the multiple atrocities that occurred in this “upstepping”, I will not focus on them. Instead I will be centering my attention on the energy and causes that display the influences of the events.

A NEW KIND OF WAR IS BORN

To determine the driving forces, or causes of the main events of this “upstepping”, I need to start with the most devastating event that affected not only the Earth Plane, but also the Soul Plane. That event was the detonation of the two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, before I get to the affect, I will take a moment to investigate the cause. The official justification for the indiscriminate killing of unarmed civilians is that it saved thousands of American soldier’s lives, by forcing the unconditional surrender of Japan. However, in my investigation I unfortunately discovered that it was not as simple as saving American lives, because there were other goals met by the use of nuclear bombs.
Earlier, I said that the replacement of Harry S. Truman as Vice President to Roosevelt was “instigated by the “Shadow.” This was not because Truman was “his” agent, but because he was the best person to fulfill “his” devastating blow to the “Light’s” agenda. Again, I am not interested in blaming any individual, but merely examining the underlying causes. It seems strange to say that the Commander in Chief of the Allies, could further the “Shadow’s” agenda, when the protagonist that attacked Pearl Harbor was the Japanese Emperor Hirohito, so I first needed to ascertain the historical information on events in Japan both before and during WWII. I was interested to learn from Wikipedia that the first contact of westerners with Japan was in the 16th century, when “traders and Jesuit missionaries from Portugal…” arrived in Japan and began “initiating active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West...” The entry for Japan encapsulates the rulership of Japan in the intervening centuries, leading up to the unconditional surrender to the Allies in August 1945. However, I have selected excerpts only from the 19th century:

On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar treaties with the Western countries in the Bakumatsu period brought Japan into economic and political crises. The abundance of the prerogative and the resignation of the shogunate led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state unified under the name of the Emperor…The Meiji Restoration transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that embarked on a number of military conflicts to expand the nation's sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea, and the southern half of Sakhalin.
The early twentieth century saw a brief period of "Taisho democracy" overshadowed by the rise of expansionism and militarization. World War I enabled Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to expand its influence and territorial holdings. Japan continued its expansionist policy by occupying Manchuria in 1931. As a result of international condemnation for this occupation, Japan resigned from the League of Nations two years later. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany, joining the Axis powers in 1941.
In 1937, Japan invaded other parts of China, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. This act brought the United States into World War II. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, along with the Soviet Union joining the war against it, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender on August 15 (Victory over Japan Day.

I guess the main question is why such a small nation would attack a super-power like the United States. Some would answer this with the Emperor Hirohito believed that his co-axis powers Germany and Italy would win the war. Granting that this is a distinct possibility, something told me that there was more to Japan’s actions than meets the eye; consequently, I dug a little deeper.

EMPEROR HIROHITO OR SHŌWA

I began with Hirohito’s entry on Wikipedia and discovered that Japan’s entry into WWII as a member of the Axis Powers originated from their conflict with China. This is covered in detail in Emperor Hirohito’s entry. I should state that the Japanese emperor is officially known as Emperor Shōwa:

The primary sources reveal that Emperor Shōwa never really had any objection to the invasion of China in 1937, which was recommended to him by his chiefs of staff and Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. His main concern seems to have been the possibility of an attack by the Soviets in the north. His questions to his chief of staff…and minister of the army…were mostly about the time it could take to crush the Chinese resistance.
According to Akira Fujiwara, the Emperor personally ratified the proposal by the Japanese Army to remove the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners on August 5…During the invasion of Wuhan, from August to October 1938, the emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions, despite the resolution adopted by the League of Nations on May 14 condemning the use of toxic gas by the Japanese Army.
During World War II, ostensibly under Emperor Shōwa's leadership, Japan formed alliances with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, forming the Axis Powers. In July 1939, the Emperor quarreled with one of his brothers, Prince Chichibu, who was visiting him three times a week to support the treaty…
According to the traditional view, Emperor Shōwa was deeply concerned by the decision to place "war preparations first and diplomatic negotiations second," and he announced his intention to break with tradition. At the Imperial Conference on the following day, the emperor directly questioned the chiefs of the Army and Navy general staffs, which was quite an unprecedented action.
Nevertheless, all speakers at the Imperial Conference were united in favor of war rather than diplomacy. Baron Yoshimichi Hara, President of the Imperial Council and the Emperor's representative, then questioned them closely; producing replies to the effect that war would only be considered as a last resort from some, and silence from others.
At this point, the emperor astonished all present by addressing the conference personally, and in breaking the tradition of Imperial silence left his advisors "struck with awe." (Prime Minister Konoe's description of the event) Emperor Shōwa stressed the need for peaceful resolution of international problems, expressed regret at his ministers' failure to respond to Baron Hara's probings, and recited a poem written by his grandfather…
Recovering from their shock, the ministers hastened to express their profound wish to explore all possible peaceful avenues. The Emperor's presentation was in line with his practical role as leader of the Shinto religion…

The above excerpt was inconclusive for me in identifying the main influence on Emperor Hirohito’s consciousness. The reference to his “treatment” of Chinese prisoners and his authorizing the use of toxic gas 375 times shows a distinct predilection to the “Shadow.” However, his commitment to a peaceful resolution rather than war depicts the “Light’s” inspiration. I suspected that this ambiguity lay in his spiritual views. As the excerpt emphasizes the emperor’s peacemaking efforts “was in line with his practical role as a leader of the Shinto religion,” I felt I needed to start there.

SHINTOISM

I knew next to nothing about the Shinto religion, so I felt it was prudent to take a moment to examine the essence of this religion. According to its entry on Wikipedia, Shinto can be traced back to the “7th and 8th centuries in Japan. However, the author of the entry speculates that its origins are much, much older. He or she suspects it originates with the prehistoric Jomon (14,000 B.C.E.) peoples of Japan:

The Jomon peoples of Japan used natural housing, predated rice farming, and frequently were hunter-gatherers, the physical evidence for ritual practices are difficult to document…The Jomon had a clan based tribal system developed similar to much of the world’s indigenous people. In the context of this clan based system, local beliefs developed naturally and when assimilation between clans occurred, they also took on some beliefs of the neighboring tribes. At some point there was a recognition that the ancestors created the current generations and the reverence of ancestors (tama) took shape. There was some trade amongst the indigenous peoples within Japanese islands and the mainland, as well as some varying migrations. The trade and interchange of people helped the growth and complexity of the people’s spirituality by exposure to new beliefs. The natural spirituality of the people appeared to be based on the worship of nature forces or mono, and the natural elements to which they all depended.
The gradual introduction of methodical religious and government organizations from mainland Asia starting around 300 BCE seeded the reactive changes in primal Shinto over the next 700 years to a more formalized system…
With the introduction of Buddhism and its rapid adoption by the court in the 6th century, it was necessary to explain the apparent differences between native Japanese beliefs and Buddhist teachings. One Buddhist explanation saw the kami as supernatural beings still caught in the cycle of birth and rebirth (reincarnation). The kami are born, live, die, and are reborn like all other beings in the karmic cycle. However, the kami played a special role in protecting Buddhism and allowing its teachings of compassion to flourish…

As in all religions, to understand their structure, it is necessary to investigate its mythology, particularly its “Creation” myth. The entry provides us with an encapsulation of the Shinto myth, which not surprisingly involves a male and female divinity:

The creation story of Japan …is a depiction of the events leading up to and including the creation of the Japanese Islands. There are many translations of the story with variations of complexity.

Izanagi-no-Mikoto (male) and Izanami-no-Mikoto (female) were called by all the myriad gods and asked to help each other to create a new land which was to become Japan.
They were given a spear, stirred the water and when removed water dripped from the end, created an island in the great nothingness.
They lived on this island, and created a palace and within was a large pole.
When they wished to bear offspring, they performed a ritual each rounding a pole, male to the left and female to the right, the female greeting the male first.
They had 2 children (islands) which turned out badly and they cast them out. They decided that the ritual had been done incorrectly the first time.
They repeated the ritual but according to the correct laws of nature, the male spoke first.
They then gave birth to the 8 perfect islands of the Japanese archipelago.
After the islands, they gave birth to the other Kami, Izanami-no-Mikoto dies and Izanagi-no-Mikoto tries to revive her.
His attempts to deny the laws of life and death have bad consequences.

The Japanese islands are to be considered a paradise as they were directly created by the gods for the Japanese people, and were ordained by the higher spirits to be created into the Japanese empire. Shinto is the fundamental connection between the power and beauty of nature (the land) and the Japanese people. It is the manifestation of a path to understanding the institution of divine power.

It seems that like many indigenous cultures, Shintoism centers on the belief that everything contains spiritual energy, which they refer to as Kami. According to the entry “kamis” vary and can be “human like” or be “associated with more abstract ‘natural’ forces in the world (mountains, rivers, lightning, wind, waves, trees, rocks).” The entry continues:

It may be best thought of as "sacred" elements and energies. Kami and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity. Modern Shinto does have a central theological authority but no singular Theocracy. Shinto today is an inclusive association of local, regional, and national shrines of various rank and historical significance, expressing their various beliefs through similar language and practice, all adopting a similar style in dress, architecture, and ritual…

What I found most interesting about Shintoism was its apparent inclusiveness. Evidently followers of Shintoism recognize other religion’s deities and mythological figures are considered as embodying “kami”. The entry explains:

Kami is generally accepted to describe the innate supernatural force that is above the actions of man, the realm of the sacred, and is very inclusive of gods, spirit figures, and human ancestors. All mythological creatures of the Japanese cultural tradition, of the Buddhistic tradition, Christian God, Hindu gods, Islamic Allah, various angels and demons of all faiths among others are considered Kami for the purpose of Shinto faith…

Knowing the code of honor in the Japanese Samurai, I was not surprised to learn that Shintoism has a strict moral code too. In essence, Shintoism teaches that Life is sacred and that taking life, including animals without the proper reverence leaves the perpetrator impure, which can lead to ruin. This is elaborated in the entry with:

Killing living beings should be done with reverence for taking a life to continue one's own and should be kept to a minimum…
Failure to show proper respect can be seen as a lack of concern for others, looked down on because it is believed to create problems for all. Those who fail to take into account the feelings of other people and kami will only bring ruin on themselves.
The worst expression of such an attitude is the taking of another's life for personal advancement or enjoyment. Those killed without being shown gratitude for their sacrifice will hold a grudge …and become a powerful and evil kami that seeks revenge…

You may have noticed that Shintoism bears a striking resemblance to Buddhism. This is because according to the entry “Shinto has co-existed with Buddhism for well over a millennium.” The Japanese in general practiced Shintoism in their everyday life and Buddhism in respect to their death and afterlife. This meant that practitioners of Shintoism believed not only in reincarnation by the laws of karma.
In reading of this, I was surprised, because I was confronted with the Japanese atrocities carried out before and during WWII, but then I remembered Japan’s connection to Germany and Adolph Hitler. Remembering that Hitler was the physical incarnation of the “the prince of this world”, anyone aligned with the Nazis would be infused with the same energy. Please understand I am not making excuses about the Japanese soldiers, but rather trying to understand the influence that could lead spiritually-minded individuals to perform such inhuman acts; especially as these individuals believed that they would be punished in their next life for their actions.
That said I found another possible reason for how practitioners of a Buddhist pacifistic religion could abandon the teachings of Shintoism so completely. The entry relates how the Shinto religion was altered after the Meiji Restoration, with the separation from Buddhist teachings:

Following the Meiji Restoration, Shinto was made the state religion of the Empire of Japan, and in 1868 its combination with Buddhism was outlawed, in an attempt to purify Shinto by abolishing many Buddhist and Confucian ideals…The psychological shock of the Western "Black Ships" and the subsequent collapse of the shogunate convinced many that the nation needed to unify in order to resist being colonized by outside forces.
In 1871, a Ministry of Divinities was formed and Shinto shrines were divided into twelve levels with the Ise Shrine (dedicated to Amaterasu and thus symbolic of the legitimacy of the Imperial family) at the peak and small sanctuaries of humble towns at the base. The following year, the ministry was replaced with a new Ministry of Religion, charged with leading instruction in "shushin" (moral courses). This was a major reversal from the Edo period, in which families were registered with Buddhist temples, rather than Shinto shrines. Priests were officially nominated and organized by the state, and they instructed the youth in a form of Shinto theology based on the official dogma of the divinity of Japan's national origins and its Emperor.
As time went on, Shinto was increasingly used in the advertising of nationalist popular sentiments. In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was issued, and students were required to ritually recite its oath to "offer yourselves courageously to the State" as well as to protect the Imperial family. The practice of Emperor Worship was further spread by distributing imperial portraits for esoteric veneration. All of these practices were used to fortify national solidarity through patriotic observance at shrines. This use of Shinto gave Japanese patriotism a special tint of mysticism and cultural introversion, which became more pronounced as time went on.
Such processes continued to deepen throughout the early Shōwa period, when State Shinto became a main force of militarism, finally coming to an abrupt end in August 1945 when Japan lost the war in the Pacific…

The above excerpt reminded me of the Romans practice of deifying the Roman Emperor. It may also explain the Emperor Hirohito or Shōwa believing Japan could defeat a super-power like the United States. As he was aligned with Hitler and already subject to the influences of the “Shadow”, the energy engendered from the worship of the Japanese people would further strengthen his ego and lead to him thinking he was invincible.
Nonetheless, the reality was that Japan was desperate to secure resources for their growing population and the United States embargo appeared to leave them with no alternative other than to declare war on America. The ironical thing is if Japan had not allied with Hitler and the “Shadow”, it would have left it open to help from the “Light.” I know that sounds crazy but whenever, a person or group seeks help in a non-threatening way; they open themselves up to assistance from the spiritual forces of the “Light.”
Still, that is water under the bridge so to speak and does not concern the present discussion. I think that the entry demonstrates that Emperor Hirohito was ready to surrender and it was not necessary to drop the atom bombs. And so I come to the underlying reason for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

ENTERING THE NUCLEAR AGE

By the end of WWII the race to develop a nuclear fission bomb was well under way. With the discovery of Plutonium and the means to enrich Uranium it was simply a matter of time. As I mentioned earlier, history has shown it was Robert Oppenheimer and his team that succeeded in detonating the first atomic bomb. I believe the Manhattan Project was developed as a deterrent from any nation using nuclear weapons and never intended to be used on civilians.
Previously, I said that although the official use of the bombs on Japan was to save American lives, there were other motives, which were instigated by the “Shadow.” At the time of the Manhattan project, Stalin was already moving to develop nuclear weapons and it became a race as to who succeeded first. The fact that America was the first would appear to imply the “Light” was in favor of the Manhattan Project and that assessment would be a correct one. Of course it would have been disastrous if Stalin had got there first. The entry on Wikipedia for the Manhattan Project relates how in 1941 Russian scientists were developing nuclear fission:

The conferences in June 1942 provided the detailed theoretical basis for the design of the atomic bomb, and convinced Oppenheimer of the benefits of having a single centralized laboratory to manage the research for the bomb project rather than having specialists spread out at different sites across the United States…
A similar effort was undertaken in the USSR in September 1941 headed by Igor Kurchatov (with some of Kurchatov's World War II knowledge coming secondhand from Manhattan Project countries, thanks to spies, including at least two on the scientific team at Los Alamos, Klaus Fuchs and Theodore Hall, unknown to each other)…

Although there was speculation on the power of nuclear warheads, until the successful test by Oppenheimer, no one knew the devastation they would cause on people or the long term effects of the aftermath. Consequently, there was a good argument that using the bomb strategically on the “enemy” would provide invaluable data on the affects of nuclear detonation on human beings. This theory made sense and was enforced after I read about the actual bombs used. The entry for the Trinity “nuclear test site” in New Mexico describes the type of bombs used on Japan in August 1945.

Following the success of the Trinity test, two bombs were prepared for use against Japan during World War II. The first, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, was code-named "Little Boy", and used uranium-235 as its fission source. It was an untested design but was considered very likely to work and was considerably simpler than the implosion model. It could not be tested because there was only enough uranium-235 for one bomb. The second bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, was code-named "Fat Man", and was a plutonium bomb of the type tested at Trinity. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed at least 148,000 people immediately and many more over time. By 1950, the death toll was over 340,000. They were followed days later by the surrender of Japan. Debate over the justification of the use of nuclear weapons against Japan persists to this day, both in scholarly and popular circles.

In the video “Because of the Fear” on our Director Guy Juarez’s web site www.Pneuma-Yod.com are scenes of medical personal examining survivors of the bombs, measuring and documenting the condition and extent of their injuries. However, learning of the affects of nuclear warfare on civilian populations was not the main argument for using the bomb, it was the message it sent to the rest of the world that was fast developing nuclear fission that America could and would use nuclear warheads against its enemies. This turned out to be a very effective deterrent and led to the stalemate of the Cold War for more than four decades.
Now I come to the spiritual ramifications of using atomic weapons on people. Above I mentioned that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki affected not only the Earth Plane, but also the Soul Plane. When Hiroshima and Nagasaki was bombed it reversed creation. Let me explain, if we consider that the Big Bang that led to Life was the conversion of energy into matter, then nuclear weapons are the reverse as in converting matter (uranium and plutonium) into energy. By using nuclear weapons to take life (reversing creation) we sent ripples through all the layers and dimensions of the Soul Plane, creating rifts, tears and vortexes that weren’t there before. This allowed the lower emotions of human beings to contaminate the higher levels of the Soul Plane, which in effect allowed the “prince of this world” to freely move in the higher planes.

SACRED WRITINGS UNEARTHED

I will come back to the ramifications of Hiroshima and Nagasaki later, but for now I want to focus on four major events that occurred after WWII. I will start with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library in 1945 and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. In the chapter Gnosis versus Orthodoxy in LCD, I wrote of the discovery of the Gnostic codices:

“Before 1945, most of what we knew of the Gnostics came from their opponents, the Church fathers and heresiologists. However, in December of 1945, in Upper Egypt, at Nag Hammadi, a remarkable discovery of ancient Gnostic writings was accidentally made, not by an archaeologist or Egyptologist, but a simple native of the area. Unfortunately, as he was unaware of what he had found, some of the manuscripts were damaged.
Over the next few decades, intrigue and mystery would surround the translation of what would be known as the Nag Hammadi Library1 whose general editor was James M. Robinson. We are very fortunate indeed, that Professor Pagels was one of those selected to translate the codices. From her we receive a clear and objective perspective of the Gnostics.
Before the discovery, history had labeled the Gnostics as heretics, mainly because of the writings against them by the Bishops Irenaeus and Tertullian, writing in the late second century. Explaining this, Pagels in her, The Gnostic Gospels2 writes that initially, their opponents, the “Orthodox Church,” examined the Gnostics’ teachings. This examination occurred in order to deny the Gnostics’ claim to being a Christian sect. Instead the Orthodox investigators endeavored to prove that, the Gnostics’ doctrine originated from Greek philosophy, Astrology, Mystery Religions, magic and Eastern thought.
Another historian, Walter Bauer writing in 1934, before the Nag Hammadi discovery, informed us that in the first 200 years of Christianity, no definitive difference had been determined between “Orthodoxy” and “heresy.” Apparently, both had arisen simultaneously within the Church, with Orthodoxy being the later of the two. Mr. Bauer relates that formal Orthodoxy began as a splinter or minority movement under Episcopal (The Bishop) leadership and slowly became the dominant influence in the Church. There is more than sufficient evidence that the so-called heretics claimed to be Christians and churchmen. The Orthodox Church refused their claim, asserting they were from philosophical schools.
Putting the enlightened Walter Bauer aside, many religious historians deny the Gnostics even a Christian root, maintaining that the Gnostics were pre-Christian and not to be considered as a branch of Christianity. In connection with this, Elaine Pagels makes an informed observation. Explaining that, although today there are several denominations within the Christian faith, the different sects all have three main tenets in common. Those tenets are that: first nearly all Christians believe in the New Testament and hold the scriptures sacred. Second, most Christians confess the Apostolic Creed. Third, all Christian Churches have some form of hierarchy.
This was not the case during the early days of Christianity. On the contrary, the early Christians did not have just one sacred scripture as the Christians of today. Instead, as the Church Fathers reported, there were many Christian scriptures in circulation during the first and second centuries some of these writings included The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip, and The Gospel of Truth. Not to mention the several apocryphal and secret writings that are attributed to Jesus or the disciples. Some of these highly controversial writings were among those found at Nag Hammadi. Unfortunately, we cannot examine most of the Christian writings circulating during the first and second centuries, as the later Catholic (Universal) Church destroyed all Christian writings not considered Orthodox.
Pagels writes that many people who referred to themselves as Christians held, in some cases, dramatically different views on how Christians should worship and conduct their lives. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the third century, C.E. 200, the church had evolved into a definite organization, consisting of the Bishop, Deacon and Priest. These officials took their appointments very seriously, believing they alone held the teachings of the “true faith.”
Anything that disagreed with the orthodox view was considered heresy. By the beginning of the third century, the Church of Rome, held the dominant position and that position was that all diversity from the orthodox stand was thought of as the work of the devil. One of the leading characters in the burgeoning new church was Bishop Irenaeus. He maintained that there could only be one true church. Anyone unfortunate enough to be outside of the true church could not obtain salvation. Irenaeus asserted that only members of the Orthodox, which means, “straight thinking,” could be considered Christians. Through rigid church fathers such as Irenaeus, the Orthodox Church came to be known as the Catholic, or Universal Church. Whoever challenged that consensus, arguing instead for other forms of Christian teaching, was declared to be a heretic and expelled. Pagels relates that later, when the Orthodox gained the backing of the military, which occurred after the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, converted to Christianity, then being labeled as a heretic became distinctly dangerous to the health.”

Two years later in 1947 the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves near the Dead Sea. An excerpt from the entry for the Dead Sea Scrolls on Wikipedia encapsulates the importance of the discovery.

The Dead Sea scrolls consist of about 900 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the Qumran Wadi near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.
The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include some of the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 BCE and preserve evidence of late Second Temple Judaism. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus. These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE to 70 CE. The scrolls are most commonly identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, though some recent interpretations have challenged their association with the scrolls. Still, these represent a minority view, as references in ancient texts from Josephus, Philo, and Pliny all discuss the Essenes, with Pliny identifying the center of Essene activity on the west side of the Dead Sea, exactly where the scrolls were found…
Prior to 1968, most of the known scrolls and fragments were housed in the Rockefeller Museum (formerly known as the Palestine Archaeological Museum) in Jerusalem. After the Six Day War, these scrolls and fragments were moved to the Shrine of the Book, at the Israel Museum…
According to The Oxford Companion to Archeology, "The biblical manuscripts from Qumran, which include at least fragments from every book of the Old Testament, except perhaps for the Book of Esther, provide a far older cross section of scriptural tradition than that available to scholars before. About 35% of the Qumran biblical manuscripts are nearly identical to the Masoretic, or traditional, Hebrew text of the Old Testament and 10% to the Greek and Samaritan traditions, with the remainder exhibiting sometimes dramatic differences in both language and content. In their range of textual variants, the Qumran biblical discoveries have prompted scholars to reconsider the once-accepted theories of the development of the modern biblical text from only three manuscript families…It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Old Testament scripture was extremely fluid until its canonization around 100 AD."…

In 1952 a Copper Scroll that contained the name of Akhenaten was discovered at Qumran. I discussed this pharaoh in detail in Full Circle part one. However I think it might help if I briefly recap the relevant points to our investigation:

“Akhenaten’s claim to fame was the introduction of monotheism to Egypt. The writer explains that he is most, “…notable for attempting to single-handedly restructure the Egyptian religion to monotheistically worship the Aten. Although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this, it was the first attempt at monotheism the world had seen.”
Akhenaten saw the Sun as representing the Supreme God, above all other gods. He called the Supreme God, Aten. Apparently, Aten was already known to the Egyptians, although the writer says The Aten was an “obscure god…” Until Akhenaten elevated the Aten to the Supreme deity, Aten was “…considered to be an aspect of the composite deity Ra-Amun-Horus…” Apparently, like the association of Isis with other goddesses, her son Horus underwent the same process…
When we read Robert Feather’s THE SECRET INITIATION OF JESUS AT QUMRAN – The Essene Mysteries of John the Baptist, we learned that although, Mr. Feather follows the accepted time-line, he thinks that Akhenaten was the source for monotheism entering Palestine. This is because; he believes Solomon’s temple was modeled on the temple Akhenaten built to Aten (the Sun) at his capital Akhentaten, known today as Tel el-Armarna.
…Robert Feather connects pharaoh Akhenaten with the Essene community at Qumran, through as I mentioned earlier, finding the letters spelling the name Akhenaten interspersed as Greek letters in the Copper Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This was fascinating, but it was his relating that there is evidence that both John the Baptist and Jesus were at Qumran that amazed Craig and I.”

In the updates to the chapter Confused Chronology in LCD, I related what Craig and I learned from a documentary on the Dead Sea Scrolls:

While I was working on this update, Craig and I watched a documentary on the National Geographic channel about the Dead Sea Scrolls. We were fascinated to hear one of the commentators; Robert Feather, a metallurgist put forth a theory that links the “Copper Scroll” to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. I found an article entitled “Unfolding the Secrets of the Copper Scroll of Qumran,” which is based on Mr. Feather’s book Decoding the Copper Scroll of Qumran: The Essene record of the treasure of Akhenaten3 on the web site New Dawn Magazine written by Robert Feather. (Please note I have taken excerpts from the article verbatim and as Mr. Feather is British, the article contains British spelling.) He writes:

The language was a major puzzle for scholars. The Hebrew paleography (style of script) and orthography (spelling) in the Copper Scroll is quite unlike anything found in other texts of the time, from Qumran or from elsewhere. It has, nevertheless, been almost unanimously classified as one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and now resides in the Archaeological Museum of Amman, in Jordan.
The presence of Greek letters interspersed at the end of sections of the text aroused my curiosity, as their meaning was not understood and they appeared to be some kind of cryptic code. Many theories have been put forward to try to explain these apparently random Greek letters. They are variously considered to be made by scribes as reference marks of some sort, initials of place names, entry dates, or location directions, but none of these explanations is accepted as conclusive and they remain a puzzle.
There were other ‘anomalies’ for which there appeared to be no satisfactory answers. No other Dead Sea Scroll was engraved on copper, or any known Hebrew texts from anywhere else, prior to the period.
Why should this be? Why should a non-materialistic community go to such trouble to preserve the information on the Copper Scroll? Where did they get the extremely pure copper (99%) from? How could they afford its very high cost?
When I looked closely at the numbering units and weights used in the scroll, it soon became clear they were not of Canaanite or Judaean origin, where the Qumran Essenes resided, but Egyptian! Indeed, the numbering system in the Copper Scroll is typical of that in use in Egypt around 1300 BCE…
The strange thing is that, although the type of numbering system used in the Copper Scroll might have persisted in Egyptian temple writing for some time after the Greek conquest of Egypt (in 330 BCE), its use was always specific to Egypt and it was not in use outside Egypt, except in the period of Egypt’s campaigns in Canaan from 1400 to 1100 BCE. The use of the ancient Egyptian system for weighing metals died out around 500 BCE and had previously always been specific to Egypt…
When I started comparing descriptions of the treasure locations given in the Copper Scroll with sites at Armarna, it soon became apparent there were many close parallels. Not only that, some of the locations have already yielded archaeological finds of treasures that match very closely the descriptions and weights given in the Copper Scroll. Many of these treasures can be seen in Museums in Britain and Egypt. Having made a connection for the Copper Scroll to Akhenaten’s Holy city in middle Egypt, it was not surprising a most powerful piece of evidence emerged when I looked again at the strange Greek letters scattered in the Scroll. When the first 10 are put together, they spell out the name Akhenaten!
The validity of this conclusion is re-enforced by the opinion of Professor John Tait, of University College London, who considers the reading of the Greek letters as quite plausibly the name of the Pharaoh in question.

The excerpt from Wikipedia’s entry on the Dead Sea Scrolls stated, “Prior to 1968, most of the known scrolls and fragments were housed in the Rockefeller Museum (formerly known as the Palestine Archaeological Museum) in Jerusalem. After the Six Day War, these scrolls and fragments were moved to the Shrine of the Book, at the Israel Museum.” This brings me to the second and some would say most important event that occurred after WWII, the establishment of the State of Israel.

ISRAELITES RETURN TO HOLY LAND

In dealing with this history making event, I needed to examine it from an objective point of view. First I needed to ascertain whether either the “Light” or “Shadow” had instigated it. With all of the violence that has occurred since its creation, it is difficult to see the State of Israel being instigated by the “Light.” However, its creation has resulted in no end of discoveries that have illuminated the Holy Land; this is not something the “Shadow” advocates. Consequently, I concluded that this history making event was a neutral event with both sides only subliminally involved. Nonetheless, there are times when either the “Light” or the “Shadow” excerpts influence on individuals to further its agenda. So with this in view, I present the excerpt below from the entry on Wikipedia for Israel:

Beginning in the 12th century, Catholic persecution of Jews led to a steady stream leaving Europe to settle in the Holy Land, increasing in numbers after Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. During the 16th century large communities struck roots in the Four Holy Cities, and in the second half of the 18th century, entire Hasidic communities from Eastern Europe settled in the Holy Land.
The first large wave of modern immigration (Aliyah)… began in 1881, as Jews fled pogroms in Eastern Europe…
The Second Aliyah (1904–1914), began after the Kishinev pogrom. Some 40,000 Jews settled in Palestine but nearly half of them left. Both the first and second waves of migrants were mainly Orthodox Jews, but those in the Second Aliyah included socialist pioneers who established the kibbutz movement. During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued what became known as the Balfour Declaration, which "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people"…a line was also inserted stating "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country"…
In 1922, the League of Nations granted the United Kingdom a mandate over Palestine under terms similar to the Balfour Declaration. The population of the area at this time was predominantly Muslim Arab, while the largest urban area in the region, Jerusalem, was predominantly Jewish.
The Third (1919–1923) and Fourth Aliyah (1924–1929) brought 100,000 Jews to Palestine. From 1921 the British subjected Jewish immigration to quotas and most of the territory slated for the Jewish state was allocated to Transjordan.
The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led to the Fifth Aliyah, with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This caused the Arab revolt of 1936–1939 and led the British to cap immigration with the White Paper of 1939. With countries around the world turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, a clandestine movement …was organized to bring Jews to Palestine. By the end of World War II, Jews accounted for 33% of the population of Palestine, up from 11% in 1922…
After 1945 the United Kingdom became embroiled in an increasingly violent conflict with the Jews. In 1947, the British government withdrew from commitment to the Mandate of Palestine, stating it was unable to arrive at a solution acceptable to both Arabs and Jews. The newly created United Nations approved the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) on November 29, 1947, dividing the country into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. Jerusalem was to be designated an international city …administered by the UN to avoid conflict over its status. The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab League and Arab Higher Committee rejected it. On December 1, 1947 the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and Arab bands began attacking Jewish targets. Civil war began with the Jews initially on the defensive but gradually moving into offence. The Palestinian-Arab economy collapsed and 250,000 Palestinian-Arabs fled or were expelled.
On May 14, 1948, the day before the end of the British Mandate, the Jewish Agency proclaimed independence, naming the country Israel; it was not until this day that the world knew that the new state would be called Israel. The following day the armies of five Arab countries — Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq — attacked Israel, launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Morocco, Sudan, Yemen and Saudi Arabia also sent troops to assist the invaders. After a year of fighting, a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders, known as the Green Line, were established. Jordan annexed what became known as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Israel was admitted as a member of the United Nations on May 11, 1949. During the conflict 711,000 Arabs, according to UN estimates, or about 80% of the previous Arab population, were expelled or fled the country.

From the excerpt several things jump out that are extremely relevant to our discussion. First the mention of “the newly created United Nations” brings in the third major event to occur after WWII. The United Nations is a powerful tool used by the “Light” to bring peace to the world. As its creation was such a pivotal point in the history of the world it is prudent to take a moment to learn of its inception. Again I turn to Wikipedia for the fundamentals of the story:

Following in the wake of the failed League of Nations (1919–1946), which the United States never joined, the United Nations was established in 1945 to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems. The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization was begun under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the term 'United Nations' as a term to describe the Allied countries. The term was first officially used on January 1, 1942 when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort. On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the Charter of the United Nations. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946.

Despite the criticism leveled against it, the United Nations has held the world together even though member states still go to war with one another. One of the main criticisms is its failure to bring peace to the Middle East; however, this conflict has spiritual roots and can only be resolved by a different way of thinking. First, the West needs to recognize that its almost unconditional support of Israel over the Palestinians originates from guilt of the perceived West’s part in the Holocaust. Please understand I am not for one minute saying that the West is duplicitous in the Holocaust, but the subconscious will not let westerners forget how ships of refugees were denied entry to their countries. The second reason was related in The True Philosophers’ Stone, namely both sides are trapped in a time-loop of hate. To recap:

“Those individuals and nations that refuse to let go of past injuries and insults, set up a kind of tug-of-war between the past and future, with the present bearing the strain. This is never more apparent than in the “tension” in the Middle East. There are colloquiums, such as “life goes on” and “don’t live in the past.” But what do they really mean? On the face of it, it means that no matter how bad a tragedy a person experiences, they know to keep going and eventually leave the past behind.
In the case of the Israelis and Palestinians, large numbers of both groups are trapped between the past and future. This is tantamount to hooking one end of an elastic band from the “ball” around the past while the other end is still attached to the “ball.” Remember, the ball of elastic bands is still being propelled forward. As the Life Principle and evolution moves toward the end of this round, which is rapidly approaching, the tension on the bands reach critical mass. Either they will snap into the future with the ball, or spring back to the past. If they snap into the future, it means the souls awoke in time to the truth that they are spiritual beings and that this life is transitory. They will have raised their vibration sufficiently to proceed to the next round. If however, they break in the past, it means the souls are still locked in their lower emotions and will have to repeat this round again. Again Craig and Suzzan reiterate this is not a punishment, but part of the irrevocable spiritual laws of evolution. Tragically, if enough of a nation’s souls are linked to the past, then the tension can often lead to war and violent conflict in the present.”

It is important to remember that Universal Law dictates that if a person dies hating a group or ethnicity, they will be reborn in that very group. Consequently, Israelis that hate Palestinians will be reborn as Palestinians and vice versa. Maintaining ignorance of this fact is how the “Shadow” perpetuates the conflict. Imagine if members of both nations woke up tomorrow and realized that although their blood is Jewish or Palestinian, their souls were previously in their “enemies” bodies. This is why Jesus consistently said to love your enemies. Unfortunately, the ramifications of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict have resulted in organizations, which are instigated by the “Shadow.” However, before we turn to how the “Shadow” benefited in the creation of the State of Israel, I want to briefly discuss the fourth important event to occur following WWII. Interestingly, this event also concerns the British rule of a foreign land. That Land was India, which the British had ruled since the height of the British Empire.

MAHATMA GANDHI

India’s struggle for independence introduced us to the powerful member of the “Orders of the Quest”, Mahatma Gandhi who was born October 2nd 1869. His life had such a lasting impact on India that his birthday is celebrated worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence. This is because the way he advocated for achieving Indian independence from the British Raj is the epitome of the “Light’s” agenda. In fact, as Gandhi’s entrance on Wikipedia relates Gandhi’s “…resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total nonviolence…inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.” Gandhi’s entry on Wikipedia perfectly encapsulates what influenced him to lead a nonviolence resistance to free India from the British. For space I have chosen the most relevant excerpts, which support identifying Gandhi as a tool of the “Light.”
To me the most relevant aspect of Gandhi’s influence began in 1930 with the famous Salt March. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie Gandhi, portrayed by Sir Ben Kingsley is when Indian soldiers in the employ of the British Raj are ordered to prevent their fellow countrymen demonstrators from entering the salt works at Dharasana. Literally dozens of unarmed Indians were rifle-butted to the ground by the soldiers only to be replaced by more demonstrators. This event cemented Gandhi’s determination to end injustice without the use of force, a policy referred to as Satyagraha. The entry for this event on Wikipedia is very informative.

The Salt Satyagraha was a campaign of nonviolent protest against the British salt tax in colonial India which began with the Salt March to Dandi on March 12, 1930. It was the first act of organized opposition to British rule after…the declaration of independence by the Indian National Congress. Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi march from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, Gujarat to produce salt without paying the tax, with growing numbers of Indians joining him along the way. When Gandhi broke the salt laws in Dandi at the conclusion of the march on April 6, 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the British Raj salt laws by millions of Indians.
Gandhi was arrested on May 5, 1930, just days before his planned raid on the Dharasana Salt Works. The Dandi March and the ensuing Dharasana Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage…Over 80,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha. The campaign had a significant effect on changing world and British attitudes toward Indian independence, and caused large numbers of Indians to actively join the fight for the first time, but failed to win major concessions from the British.
The Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of nonviolent protest called satyagraha, which he loosely translated as "truth-force." In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main tactic for winning Indian independence from British rule and appointed Gandhi to organize the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of satyagraha. The Salt March to Dandi, and the beating of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in Dharasana, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice. The satyagraha teachings of Gandhi and the March to Dandi had a significant influence on American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and his fight for civil rights for blacks and other minority groups in the 1960s.

Although Gandhi maintained his determination of non-violent protest, many of his followers did not always adhere to Satyagraha. Consequently, Gandhi would go on hunger strikes to stop the violence. The entry on Wikipedia for India encapsulates the main points that led to Gandhi’s actions:

By 1856, most of India was under the control of the British East India Company. A year later, a nationwide insurrection of rebelling military units and kingdoms, known as India’s First War of Independence or the Sepoy Mutiny, seriously challenged the Company’s control but eventually failed. As a result of the instability, India was brought under the direct rule of the British Crown…
Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle against British. In Punjab, the …massacre of civilians by British troops …caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and acts of violence. Gandhi criticized both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following Gandhi's emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified. But it was after the massacre and subsequent violence that Gandhi's mind focused upon obtaining complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into …complete individual, spiritual, political independence…

With the outbreak of WWII, Gandhi tried to maintain his stance of non-violence by offering moral support to the British Raj. However, more radical members of the Indian independence movement, the “Congress Working Committee” were less inclined to support a regime that claimed to be fighting a dictator, while maintaining a dictatorship in their country. As a result, the British Raj saw the Indian Congress as a threat. The Wikipedia entry explains how the British responded to the criticism:

Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay by the British on 9 August 1942…He was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. Although the Quit India movement had moderate success in its objective, the ruthless suppression of the movement brought order to India by the end of 1943. At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress's leadership…

Although “vehemently opposed” to the partition of India, after partition became inevitable Gandhi worked as tirelessly for the Muslim’s rights as he had for the Hindus. His entry on Wikipedia relates the drastic steps he took in the interest of the Muslims:

Gandhi was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries, but an overwhelming majority of Muslims living in India, alongside Hindus and Sikhs, favoured partition…The partition plan was approved by the Congress leadership as the only way to prevent a wide-scale Hindu-Muslim civil war. Congress leaders knew that Gandhi would viscerally oppose partition, and it was impossible for the Congress to go ahead without his agreement, for Gandhi's support in the party and throughout India was strong. Gandhi's closest colleagues had accepted partition as the best way out, and Sardar Patel endeavored to convince Gandhi that it was the only way to avoid civil war. A devastated Gandhi gave his assent.
He conducted extensive dialogue with Muslim and Hindu community leaders, working to cool passions in northern India, as well as in Bengal. Despite the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, he was troubled when the Government decided to deny Pakistan the 55 crores (550 million Indian rupees) due as per agreements made by the Partition Council. Leaders like Sardar Patel feared that Pakistan would use the money to bankroll the war against India. Gandhi was also devastated when demands resurged for all Muslims to be deported to Pakistan, and when Muslim and Hindu leaders expressed frustration and an inability to come to terms with one another. Gandhi's arrival in Delhi, turned out to an important intervention in ending the rioting, he even visited Muslims mohallas to restore faith of the Muslim populace. He launched his last fast-unto-death on January 12, 1948, in Delhi, asking that all communal violence be ended once and for all, Muslims homes be restored to them and that the payment of 550 million rupees be made to Pakistan. Gandhi feared that instability and insecurity in Pakistan would increase their anger against India, and violence would spread across the borders. He further feared that Hindus and Muslims would renew their enmity and that this would precipitate open civil war. After emotional debates with his life-long colleagues, Gandhi refused to budge, and the Government rescinded its policy and made the payment to Pakistan. Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community leaders…assured him that they would renounce violence and call for peace. Gandhi thus broke his fast by sipping orange juice…

Gandhi’s fast for Muslim rights was not received well by his fellow Hindus, because just 18 days later he was shot while taking his nightly walk in the grounds of his home. The assassin and his accomplice were Hindu extremists who were angry at Gandhi for insisting on the payment of 550 million rupees to Pakistan.
So much for the historical impact of Mahatma Gandhi, I was more concerned with the spiritual impact of the man, especially as I had identified him as a member of the “Orders of the Quest.” To learn this I needed to determine his spiritual beliefs. Excerpts on Gandhi’s entry on Wikipedia summed up for me why he was a member of the “Order.”:

Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth…
Although Mahatma Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-violence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a huge scale. The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. Gandhi … was quoted as saying:
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall — think of it, always."
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."…
Gandhi earnestly believed that a person involved in public service should lead a simple life …
The practice of giving up unnecessary expenditure, embracing a simple lifestyle and washing his own clothes, Gandhi called "reducing himself to zero". On one occasion he returned the gifts bestowed to him …for his diligent service to the community…
Gandhi was born a Hindu and practiced Hinduism all his life, deriving most of his principles from Hinduism. As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith. He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all major religions…
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was truth and love (compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He also questioned what he saw as hypocrisy, malpractices, and dogma in all religions, including his own, and he was a tireless advocate for social reform in religion. Some of his comments on various religions are:

Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'être of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavoring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Seth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty.
—Gandhi's autobiography

Gandhi’s concept of the Divine categorically denied any form of injustice associated with it. Moreover, his respect for the truth in other religions is demonstrated by his words on how he answered his beliefs:

As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.
The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind.
I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians.
Later in his life, when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied, "Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."…

The fact that Gandhi’s birthday is celebrated worldwide as an “International Day of Non-Violence” is testimony of the lasting impact his life had. Nonetheless, spiritually Gandhi’s life has for more relevance spiritually than just a peacemaker. Mahatma Gandhi’s life achievements exemplifies how the soul learns through multiple lifetimes to fulfill its destiny. In the chapter Times and Times Again (subheading Many Chances) in LCD: I wrote how I was struck by the similarity of Saint Augustine and Martin Luther:

“…I had been struck by the similarities between these two great theologians. Both had struggled with their calling, and both had advocated, at first, the gentle persuasion technique, before later reverting to a heavy hand when dealing with dissenters.
I was told that Martin Luther had indeed been St. Augustine. And that is the crux of reincarnation. After his death, St. Augustine had seen his mistake and had sought to rectify it in his next incarnation. Although he didn’t completely succeed in doing this, I am sure that some would say that, on the whole, he did stem corruption in the church at the time. Nevertheless, the soul that had been both St. Augustine and Martin Luther finally succeeded in bringing justice to humanity without the use of violence, as his last incarnation was as Mahatma Gandhi.”

With the above I understood that the consciousness or soul that had been a part of the makeup of both Saint Augustine and Martin Luther had the imperative to remove injustice without reverting to injustice. Obviously, in the soul’s incarnations as Saint Augustine and Martin Luther, the individual consciousness had failed, but in Mahatma Gandhi, the consciousness finally understood Jesus’ instruction to “turn the other cheek.”

On 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new constitution came into effect. With the advent of the new decade, people hoped that the fifties would bring a more peaceful period. Unfortunately, this turned out to be wishful thinking as the fifties were dominated with the West’s battle with the spread of communism.

1950S RED SCARE

I can remember being dumbfounded as a child that so soon after the devastation of WWII anyone would want to engage in another war. But now I understand that the wars and conflicts of the 1950’s were merely the outward expression of an underlying cause. Before I get to the “underlying cause” let us briefly review the main points. Hostilities ostensibly began with the outbreak of the Korean War when North Korea invaded South Korea June 25th 1950. Of course as America and the United Nations backed South Korea and Soviet Russia backed North Korea this began the struggle which came to be known as the Cold War.

Joseph Stalin’s particular reign of terror continued after WWII with the deportation of over 3 million people to Siberia. According to Wikipedia’s entry on Antisemitism “Antisemitism in the USSR reached new heights after 1948 during the campaign against the ‘rootless cosmopolitan’ (euphemism for ‘Jew’) in which numerous Yiddish-writing poets, writers, painters and sculptors were killed or arrested. This culminated in the so-called Doctors’ Plot. Similar anti-Jewish propaganda in Poland resulted in the flight of the Polish Jewish survivors out of the country…” Just before Stalin died in 1953 the Soviet Union instigated a religious purge of most religions. This is reported in Stalin’s entry on Wikipedia:

Just days before Stalin's death, certain religious sects were outlawed and persecuted. Many religions popular in the ethnic regions of the Soviet Union including the Roman Catholic Church, Uniats, Baptists, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. underwent ordeals similar to the Orthodox churches in other parts: thousands of monks were persecuted, and hundreds of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, sacred monuments, monasteries and other religious buildings were razed.

Although the Russian Orthodox Church survived, because Stalin was a member of the church, Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev was not as accommodating and in 1959 he launched a campaign of closure of all churches. This was made even more serious when it was declared practicing religion excluded membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which meant they were considered second-class citizens. This action in effect forced religion underground and although much of the Eastern Block continued to believe in God, they could not congregate together to worship. Unfortunately, the rigidness of the Communism in the Soviet Union did not stay within Russia’s borders, far to the east in China; the Communist beliefs were gaining new ground.

BIRTH OF RED CHINA

China as one of the oldest civilizations in the world was seen to represent reason and civility. However, when civil war broke out in China in October 1949 between Nationalists and Communists, the West collectively held its breadth. The events that led up to the civil war are reported in China’s entry on Wikipedia:

The Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945 (part of World War II) forced an uneasy alliance between the Nationalists and the Communists as well as causing around 20 million Chinese civilian deaths. With the surrender of Japan in 1945, China emerged victorious but financially drained. The continued distrust between the Nationalists and the Communists led to the resumption of the Chinese Civil War. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Civil War many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented in mainland China...

In learning of the “ongoing civil war”, I was curious as to when it began. I learned from the entry on Wikipedia on the Chinese Civil War that both Soviet Russia and the United States were once again the underlying superpowers in the background of the conflict:

The Qing Dynasty, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911. China was left under the control of several major and lesser warlords in the Warlord era. To defeat these warlords, who had seized control of much of Northern China…the president of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, sought the help of foreign powers. Sun Yat-sen's efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored, however, and in 1921 he turned to the Soviet Union. For political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Communist Party of China, which would eventually found the People's Republic of China…
In 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance for China's unification. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration for cooperation among the Comintern, KMT and the Communist Party of China…
During the 1920s, Communist Party of China activists retreated underground or to the countryside where they fomented a military revolt, beginning the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927. They combined the force with remnants of peasant rebels, and established control over several areas in southern China. The Guangzhou commune was able to control Guangzhou for three days and a "soviet" was established. KMT armies continued to suppress the rebellions. This marked the beginning of the ten year's struggle, known in mainland China as the "Ten Year's Civil War"…It lasted until the Xi'an Incident when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to form the Second United Front against the invading Japanese…
In the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched the mammoth Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to attack the Japanese in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border. This operation …left the USSR in occupation of all of Manchuria by the end of the war. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year, Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure. He therefore made a deal with the Russians to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern material into the region. KMT troops were then airlifted by the United States to occupy key cities in North China, while the countryside was already dominated by the CPC…
The truce fell apart in June 1946, when full scale war between CPC and KMT broke out on June 26. China then entered a state of civil war that lasted more than three years.
With the breakdown of talks, an all out war resumed…The United States assisted the KMT...President Truman was very clear about what he described as "using the Japanese to hold off the Communists"…Over 50,000 Marines were sent to guard strategic sites.
…the CPC were able to capture a large number of weapons abandoned by the Japanese, including some tanks but it was not until large numbers of well trained KMT troops surrendered and joined the communist forces that the CPC were finally able to master the hardware…The effective propaganda machine of the CPC continued to make the irresistible promise in the countryside to the massive number of landless and starving Chinese peasants that by fighting for the CPC they will be able to take farmland from their landlords. This strategy enabled the CPC to access an almost unlimited supply of manpower to use in combat as well as provide logistic support, despite suffering heavy casualties throughout many civil war campaigns. For example, during the Huaihai Campaign alone the CPC were able to mobilize 5,430,000 peasants to fight against the KMT forces…
According to the Battle Summary in the 4 Years' Liberation War, from July 1946 to June 1950, the PLA eliminated 8,071,350 KMT forces and bandits, among them over 6,360,000 surrendered/defected/captured. Another calculation put the total enemy eliminated to about 10,658,000, which is based on combined unit reports. The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) suffered more than 260,000 KIA and 1,040,000 WIA.
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China with its capital at Peiping, which was renamed Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek and approximately 2 million Nationalist Chinese retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan.

Although the establishment of the People’s Republic of China resulted in the suppression of human rights for millions of people, from an energetic standpoint it was not the most devastating. Energetically, or rather spiritually the most devastating result was China’s invasion and annexing of Tibet. This effectively put an end to The Buddha’s Plan for Globe D for Buddhist monks to transmute the world’s lower emotions. However, all was not lost, because the 14th Dalai Lama escaped to India.

14TH DALAI LAMA

Although the “Light” lost a valuable tool in the East with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, it was successful in preserving the life and work of one of the most powerful representatives of the “Light” from the forces of the “Shadow.” This man’s influence promotes the “Light’s” agenda to this very day. In fact some would say that his exile from Tibet has made his message that more powerful. I am of course referring to the 14th Dalai Lama His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso. His Holiness’ entry on Wikipedia provides many insights into the 14th Dalai Lama:

Lhamo Döndrub (or Thondup) was born on 6 July 1935 to a farming and horse trading family in the small hamlet of Taktser, in the eastern border of the former Tibetan province of Amdo, then already incorporated into the Chinese province of Qinghai…
Tibetans traditionally believe Dalai Lamas to be the reincarnation of their predecessors, each of whom is believed to be a human emanation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. A search party was sent to locate the new incarnation when the boy who was to become the 14th was about two years old. It is said that, amongst other omens, the head of the embalmed body of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, at first facing south-east, had mysteriously turned to face the northeast—indicating the direction in which his successor would be found. The Regent…shortly afterwards had a vision…indicating Amdo as the region to search—specifically a one-story house with distinctive guttering and tiling…
The little boy was presented with various relics, including toys, some of which had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and some of which had not. It was reported that he had correctly identified all the items owned by the previous Dalai Lama, exclaiming, "That's mine! That's mine!"
Lhamo Thondup was recognized formally as the reincarnated Dalai Lama and renamed Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Compassionate, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom)…
At the age of 11 he met the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, having spotted him in Lhasa through his telescope. Harrer effectively became one of the young Dalai Lama's tutors, teaching him about the outside world. The two remained friends until Harrer's death in 2006.
During 1959, at the age of 23, he took his final examination at Lhasa's Jokhang Temple during the annual …prayer Festival. He passed with honours and was awarded the Lharampa degree, the highest-level …degree, roughly equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy…
As well as being Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has traditionally been the country's absolute ruler. In 1939, at the age of four, the present Dalai Lama was taken in a procession of lamas to Lhasa…
The Dalai Lama's formal rule was brief. He sent a delegation to Beijing, and under military pressure ratified a Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. He tried to work with the Chinese government: in September 1954, together with the 10th Panchen Lama he went to the Chinese capital to meet Mao Zedong and attend the first session of the National People's Congress as a delegate, primarily discussing China's constitution. On 27 September 1954, the Dalai Lama was selected as a deputy chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
In 1959 there was a major uprising in Tibet. The Dalai Lama's entourage suspected that the Chinese government may have been planning to kill him. On 17 March, he fled for Tawang, India, finally crossing the border on 31 March. It was later established that forces from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division had assisted the Dalai Lama's escape, and had supported initial resistance to the Chinese...

So much for the biographical history of the 14th Dalai Lama, I was most interested in his spiritual teachings. This was especially relevant in light of what was said in Section 7 about His connection to The Holy Spirit through Guan Yin. The entry did not disappoint me:

After the founding of the exiled government he re-established the approximately 80,000 Tibetan refugees who followed him into exile in agricultural settlements. He created a Tibetan educational system in order to teach the Tibetan children the traditional language, history, religion, and culture. The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts was established in 1959 and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies became the primary university for Tibetans in India. He supported the refounding of 200 monasteries and nunneries in an attempt to preserve Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the Tibetan way of life.
The Dalai Lama appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet. This appeal resulted in three resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in 1959, 1961, and 1965. These resolutions required China to respect the human rights of Tibetans and their desire for self-determination. During 1963, he promulgated a democratic constitution which is based upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A Tibetan parliament-in-exile is elected by the Tibetan refugees scattered all over the world, and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile is likewise elected by the Tibetan parliament. During 1970, he opened the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala which houses over 80,000 manuscripts and important knowledge resources related to Tibetan history, politics and culture. It is considered one of the most important institutions for Tibetology in the world…
On 6 January 2009, at Gujarat’s Mahuva, the Dalai Lama inaugurated an interfaith "World Religions-Dialogue and Symphony" conference convened by Hindu preacher Morari Bapu. This conference explored "ways and means to deal with the discord among major religions," according to Morari Bapu.
Many other meetings and dialogues have been held with other religious, spiritual, philosophical and scientific leaders throughout the life of the 14th Dalai Lama…
The Dalai Lama says that he is active in spreading India's message of non-violence and religious harmony throughout the world "I am the messenger of India's ancient thoughts world over", he said democracy was deep rooted in India. He says he considers India as a master and Tibet its disciple as great scholars like Nagarjuna went from Nalanda to Tibet to preach Buddhism in the eighth century… "Let the 21st century be a century of tolerance and dialogue."…

I was most interested to read that His Holiness favored Marxism over Capitalism. Considering his struggle with Communist China to free Tibet it seemed a contradiction, but that was because I did not understand that Karl Marx did not advocate the kind of Communism we see today. The entry on Wikipedia cites His Holiness’s own words, so I will let them speak for themselves:

“Of all the modern economic theories, the economic system of Marxism is founded on moral principles, while capitalism is concerned only with gain and profitability. Marxism is concerned with the distribution of wealth on an equal basis and the equitable utilisation of the means of production. It is also concerned with the fate of the working classes—that is, the majority—as well as with the fate of those who are underprivileged and in need, and Marxism cares about the victims of minority-imposed exploitation. For those reasons the system appeals to me, and it seems fair. I just recently read an article in a paper where His Holiness the Pope Benedict XVI also pointed out some positive aspects of Marxism (though disapproving of it on the whole).
As for the failure of the Marxist regimes, first of all I do not consider the former USSR, or China, or even Vietnam, to have been true Marxist regimes, for they were far more concerned with their narrow national interests than with the Workers' International; this is why there were conflicts, for example, between China and the USSR, or between China and Vietnam. If those three regimes had truly been based upon Marxist principles, those conflicts would never have occurred.
I think the major flaw of the Marxist regimes is that they have placed too much emphasis on the need to destroy the ruling class, on class struggle, and this causes them to encourage hatred and to neglect compassion. Although their initial aim might have been to serve the cause of the majority, when they try to implement it all their energy is deflected into destructive activities. Once the revolution is over and the ruling class is destroyed, there is not much left to offer the people; at this point the entire country is impoverished and unfortunately it is almost as if the initial aim were to become poor. I think that this is due to the lack of human solidarity and compassion. The principal disadvantage of such a regime is the insistence placed on hatred to the detriment of compassion.
The failure of the regime in the former Soviet Union was, for me, not the failure of Marxism but the failure of totalitarianism. For this reason I still think of myself as half-Marxist, half-Buddhist.”

Today His Holiness’s concern is for the environment and he believes that everyone must act now in order to save the planet. Again his entry cites the Dalai Lama’s own words:

“On the global level, I think the ecology problem is very serious. I hear about some states taking it very seriously. That's wonderful! So this blue planet is our only home, if something goes wrong at the present generation, then the future generations really face a lot of problems, and those problems will be beyond human control; so that's very serious. Ecology should be part of our daily life.”

After the fall of Tibet, the energy changed in favor of the “Shadow” and “he” gained the high ground both literally and figuratively. However, this was moot from the secular perspective; because once the People’s Republic of China was formed Asia began taking sides. As I said, the Korean War started this process with the North supporting communism and the South allying with the Western powers.

COMMUNISM SPREADS

To reiterate, the Korean War paused in a stalemate after three years and that stalemate has lasted up to the present day. The next area of Asia to choose sides was Indochina in Southeast Asia. In the 1950s the area was known as French Indochina and consisted of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Laos was the first of the three countries to gain “semi” independence from France in 1950, although “the French remained in de facto control until 1954.” The excerpt below from the entry on Wikipedia for Laos gives a brief history of Laos up to its independence:

Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang, founded in the 14th century…Lan-Xang prospered until the 18th century, when the kingdom was divided into three principalities…In the 19th century, Luang Prabang was incorporated into the 'Protectorate' of French Indochina…Following a brief Japanese occupation during World War II, the country declared its independence in 1945, but the French under Charles de Gaulle re-asserted their control and only in 1950 was Laos granted semi-autonomy as an "associated state" within the French Union. Moreover, the French remained in de facto control until 1954, when Laos gained full independence as a constitutional monarchy. Under a special exemption to the Geneva Convention, a French military training mission continued to support the Royal Laos Army. In 1955, the U.S. Department of Defense created a special Programs Evaluation Office to replace French support of the Royal Lao Army against the communist Pathet Lao as part of the U.S. containment policy.

I was curious as to where the “communist” party of Pathet Lao had originated from so I clicked on the link. I discovered that they were akin to the Vietnamese Viet Minh or Viet Cong and had grown out of the struggle for independence from France. Cambodia had an almost identical history to Laos with Cambodia becoming a “protectorate” of France in 1863 and being briefly occupied by the Japanese in WWII. After Japan surrendered in 1945, France again claimed control by manipulating who sat on the throne. However, they miscalculated when they chose a young eighteen-year-old to rule, because as Wikipedia’s entry for Cambodia says, “The French thought young Sihanouk would be easy to control. They were wrong, however, and under the reign of King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia gained independence from France on November 9, 1953…”
Although communism was present in Laos and Cambodia in the early 1950s its influence was not so impacting as its presence in the third country in French Indochina, Vietnam. The emergence of communism and the events it led up to in Vietnam would have the most devastating affect spiritually. It will help if we determine a timeline for this catastrophe. The entry for Vietnam on Wikipedia provides a comprehensive study of the events that led up to the Vietnam War. I have selected the most relevant excerpts:

France began its conquest of Indochina in 1859. In spite of military resistance, by 1888 the area of the current-day nations of Cambodia and Vietnam was made into the colony of French Indochina (Laos was added later). Various Vietnamese opposition movements to the French rule existed during this period but none were ultimately as successful as the Viet Minh common front (openly controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam) which was founded in 1941…
In August 1945, the Japanese had been defeated and surrendered unconditionally. In French Indochina this created a power vacuum as the French were still interned and the Japanese forces stood down. Into this vacuum, the Viet Minh entered and grasped power across Vietnam in the "August Revolution" (in large part supported by the Vietnamese population).
On 2 September 1945, Ho Chi Minh (leader of the Viet Minh) declared the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam before a crowd of 500,000 in Hanoi. In an overture to the Americans, he began his speech by paraphrasing the United States Declaration of Independence: All men are created equal. The Creator has given us certain inviolable Rights: the right to Life, the right to be Free, and the right to achieve Happiness.
However, the major allied victors of World War II (the United Kingdom, the USA and the Soviet Union) all agreed that the area belonged to the French. As the French did not have the ships, weapons or soldiers to immediately retake Vietnam, the major powers came to an agreement that British troops would occupy the south while Nationalist Chinese forces would move in from the north…
Following the party line from Moscow, Ho Chi Minh initially attempted to negotiate with the French who were slowly re-establishing their control across the country. In January 1946, the Viet Minh won elections across central and northern Vietnam. The French landed in Hanoi by March 1946 and in November of that year they ousted the Viet Minh from the city. Soon thereafter the Viet Minh began a guerrilla war against the French Union forces, beginning the First Indochina War.
The war spread to Laos and Cambodia where Communists organized the Pathet Lao and the Khmer Serai after the model of the Viet Minh. Globally, the Cold War began in earnest which meant that the rapprochement that had existed between the Western powers and the Soviet Union during World War II disintegrated. The Viet Minh fight was hampered by a lack of weapons; this situation changed by 1949 when the Chinese Communists had largely won the Chinese Civil War and were free to provide arms to their Vietnamese allies…
In January 1950, the communist nations, led by the People's Republic of China (PRC), recognized the Viet Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam as the government of Vietnam. Non-Communist nations recognized the French-backed State of Vietnam in Saigon led by former Emperor Bao Dai the following month. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 convinced many Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina was an example of communist expansionism directed by the Kremlin.
PRC military advisors began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950. PRC weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla force into a regular army. In September, the U.S. created a Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers…
U.S. carriers sailed to the Tonkin gulf, and reconnaissance flights over Dien Bien Phu were conducted during the negotiations…Vice president Richard Nixon, a so-called "hawk" on Vietnam, suggested that the U.S. might have to "put American boys in". President Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support, but London was opposed. In the end, convinced that the political risks outweighed the possible benefits, Eisenhower decided against the intervention.

With the Cold War in full swing, the fear of Communism spreading became the primary focus and the West deemed it necessary for the French to control Indochina. However, with the backing of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China the forces for independence in Vietnam grew stronger. The entry explains that after “…a stunning military defeat, and on 7 May 1954, the French Union garrison surrendered. At the Geneva Conference the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh. Independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.”
As history has shown a foreign colony being granted independence does not always mean peace. This is because the various factions within the country that were united under the goal of independence become divided when that common goal is met. The entry relates what happened after French Indochina gained its independence from mainland France.

Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel, and under the terms of the Geneva Convention, civilians were to be given the opportunity to freely move between the two provisional states. Elections throughout the country were to be held, according to the Geneva accords, but were blocked by the South Vietnamese president, who feared a communist victory. Around one million northerners, mainly Catholics, fled south, fearing persecution by the communists…
In the north, the Viet Minh established a socialist state—the Democratic Republic of Vietnam—and engaged in a drastic land reform program in which an estimated eight thousand perceived "class enemies" were executed. In 1956 the Communist Party leaders of Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners.
In the south a non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bao Dai, a former puppet of the French and the Japanese…In addition to the Catholics flowing south, up to 130,000 ‘Revolutionary Regroupees’, went north for "regroupment" expecting to return to the South within 2 years. The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 cadres in South Vietnam as a "politico-military substructure…
The Geneva Accords, concluded between France and the Viet Minh in 1954, partitioned Vietnam pending national elections (under international supervision) to be held by 20 July 1956. Much as in Korea, the agreement stipulated that the two military zones were to be separated by a temporary demarcation line (known as the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ). In June 1955, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem of the State of Vietnam (South Vietnam) announced that elections would not be held. South Vietnam had rejected the agreement from the beginning and was therefore not bound by it, he said. "How can we expect 'free elections' to be held in the Communist North?" Diem asked. President Dwight D. Eisenhower echoed senior U.S. experts when he wrote that, in 1954, "80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh" over Emperor Bao Dai…
Ngo Dinh Diem was named premier of South Vietnam in 1954 by former emperor and Head of State Bao Dai. A devout Roman Catholic, he was fervently anti-communist and was "untainted" by any connection to the French…
In April and June 1955, Diem (against U.S. advice) cleared the decks of any political opposition by launching military operations against the Cao Dai religious sect, the Hoa Hao sect, and the Binh Xuyen organized crime group (which was allied with members of the secret police and some military elements). As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diem increasingly sought to blame the communists.
Beginning in the summer of 1955, he launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. Diem instituted a policy of death penalty against any activity deemed communist in August 1956. Opponents were labeled Viet Cong ("Vietnamese communist") by the regime to degrade their nationalist credentials. During this period refugees moved across the demarcation line in both directions…The northern, mainly Catholic refugees were meant to give Diem a strong anti-communist constituency. Diem later went on to staff his administration's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics…
On 26 October 1955, Diem declared the new Republic of Vietnam, with himself as president. The Republic of Vietnam was created largely because of the Eisenhower administration's desire for an anti-communist state in the region…

Although both China and Russia was communist, they did not always see eye to eye. Such a case was in their views on how Vietnam should be governed. According to the entry the Chinese PRC and the Soviets split in 1956:

…Hanoi authorized communists in South Vietnam to begin a low level insurgency in December 1956. This insurgency in the south had begun in response to Diem's Denunciation of Communists campaign, in which thousands of local Viet Minh cadres and supporters had been executed or sent to concentration camps, and was in violation of the Northern Communist party line which had enjoined them not to start an insurrection, but rather engage in a political campaign, agitating for a free all-Vietnam election in accordance with the Geneva accords.
Ho Chi Minh stated, "Do not engage in military operations; that will lead to defeat. Do not take land from a peasant. Emphasize nationalism rather than communism. Do not antagonize anyone if you can avoid it. Be selective in your violence. If an assassination is necessary, use a knife, not a rifle or grenade. It is too easy to kill innocent bystanders with guns and bombs, and accidental killing of the innocent bystanders will alienate peasants from the revolution. Once an assassination has taken place, make sure peasants know why the killing occurred." This strategy was referred to as "armed propaganda."
…Four hundred government officials were assassinated in 1957 alone, and the violence gradually increased. While the terror was originally aimed at local government officials, it soon broadened to include other symbols of the status quo, such as schoolteachers, health workers, and agricultural officials.
According to one estimate, 20 percent of South Vietnam's village chiefs had been assassinated by the insurgents by 1958…The insurgency sought to completely destroy government control in South Vietnam's rural villages and replace it with a shadow government.
In January 1959, the North's Central Committee issued a secret resolution authorizing an "armed struggle". This authorized the southern communists to begin large-scale operations against the South Vietnamese military. North Vietnam supplied troops and supplies in earnest, and the infiltration of men and weapons from the north began along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In May, South Vietnam enacted Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death and property confiscation.
Observing the increasing unpopularity of the Diem regime, on 12 December 1960, Hanoi authorized the creation of the National Liberation Front as a common front controlled by the communist party in the South.
Successive American administrations, as Robert McNamara and others have noted, overestimated the control that Hanoi had over the NLF. Diem's paranoia, repression, and incompetence progressively angered large segments of the population of South Vietnam. According to a November 1960 report by the head of the US military advisory team, Lieutenant General Lionel C. McGarr, a "significant part" of the population in the south supported the communists. The communists thus had a degree of popular support for their campaign to bring down Diem and reunify the country.

With the spread of communism in Indochina, the level of fear of Communism “Red Scare” was escalating in the West. However, this was known as the Second Red Scare. Apparently the first “red scare” began in the 1930s when many Americans became fascinated with Lenin and Stalin. This second “scare” arose out of concern for the Soviet Union’s dominance in Europe and was enhanced with the emergence of communist China. The person that led the political force to root out all communists was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

McCARTHYISM

Whenever I think of America during the 1950s, I hear the words “duck and cover”, accompanied by scenes of school children jumping under their desks in anticipation of a nuclear strike. Of course the authorities knew that “ducking” under a desk would afford little protection in a nuclear strike, but these pointless exercises were more about keeping up the morale of the population. After the Korean War “ended” in a kind-of stalemate the level of fear rose exponentially on a daily basis. This was exacerbated by a “witch-hunt” launched on Americans known as McCarthyism. This shameful period is aptly reported in the excerpt from the entry on McCarthyism on Wikipedia:

McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents…
During the post–World War II era of McCarthyism, many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.
The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the speeches, investigations, and hearings of Senator McCarthy himself; the Hollywood blacklist, associated with hearings conducted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities; and the various anti-communist activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthyism was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.

American’s fear of Communism invading their borders took on a new level when their neighbor to the South, Cuba began experiencing political upheaval in the 1950s. Throughout the first half of the 20th century Cuba was seen as a playground for the wealthy to indulge themselves; all that changed with the rise of Fidel Castro who rebelled at President Battista.

CUBA

I was interested to learn that although Cuba gained its independence from America May 20th 1902 according to Wikipedia’s entry on Cuba “…the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations.” The status quo changed with the election of Fulgencio Batista, because under his presidency the communists gained a foothold in Cuba:

Batista was…elected as President democratically in the elections of 1940, and his administration carried out major social reforms. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration…
The 1952 election was a three-way race. Roberto Agramonte of the Ortodoxos party led in all the polls, followed by Dr Aurelio Hevia of the Auténtico party, and running a distant third was Batista, seeking a return to office. Both Agramonte and Hevia had decided to name Col. Ramón Barquín to head the Cuban armed forces after the elections. Barquín, then a diplomat in Washington, DC, was a top officer who commanded the respect of the professional army and had promised to eliminate corruption in the ranks. Batista feared that Barquín would oust him and his followers, and when it became apparent that Batista had little chance of winning, he staged a coup on March 10, 1952 and held power with the backing of a nationalist section of the army as a "provisional president" for the next two years…In 1954 Batista agreed to elections…
On April 4, 1956 a coup by hundreds of career officers led by Col. Barquín was frustrated by Rios Morejon. The coup broke the backbone of the Cuban armed forces. The officers were sentenced to the maximum terms allowed by Cuban Martial Law. Barquín was sentenced to solitary confinement for eight years…

In the late 1950s Cuba appeared to be thriving with many Americans visiting the capital Havana as a weekend retreat to enjoy the nightlife and casinos. However, like so many “glitzy” cities that attracts tourists for the glamour and nightlife, beneath all the “glitz” and glamour of the showgirls was the reality of the disenfranchised natives. The entry explains the harsh reality of the majority of Cubans:

…In 1958, Cuba was a relatively well-advanced country, certainly by Latin American standards, and in some cases by world standards. Cuban workers enjoyed some of the highest wages in the world. Cuba attracted more immigrants, primarily from Europe, as a percentage of population than the US. The United Nations noted Cuba for its large middle class. On the other hand, Cuba was affected by perhaps the largest labor union privileges in Latin America, including bans on dismissals and mechanization. They were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants", leading to disparities. Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba extended economic regulations enormously, causing economic problems. Unemployment became relatively large; graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs. The middle class…became increasingly dissatisfied with the unemployment, while labor unions supported Batista until the very end.
The United States government imposed an arms embargo on the Cuban government on March 14, 1958. On December 2, 1956 a party of 82 people, led by Fidel Castro, had landed with the intention of establishing an armed resistance movement in the Sierra Maestra. By late 1958 they had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general insurrection, joined by various people. When the group captured Santa Clara, Batista fled the country to exile in Portugal. Barquín negotiated the symbolic change of command between Camilo Cienfuegos, Che Guevara, Raul Castro and his brother Fidel Castro, after the Supreme Court decided that the Revolution was the source of law and its representative should assume command. Castro's forces entered the capital on January 8, 1959. Shortly afterwards, a liberal lawyer, Dr Manuel Urrutia Lleó became president; he was backed by Castro's 26th of July Movement, because they believed his appointment would be welcomed by the United States. Disagreements within the government culminated in Urrutia's resignation in July 1959; he was replaced by Osvaldo Dorticós, who served as president until 1976. Castro became prime minister in February 1959…

Historically, the 1950s would appear to be one long decade of violent struggle. However, there was a bright spot of hope that defied the general trend of self-interest, fear and inhumanity. That spot was the United Kingdom, which after the war launched an unprecedented move to ensure that every citizen was taken care of from the cradle to the grave. This change of attitude began with the British Empire becoming the British Commonwealth.

FROM EMPIRE TO COMMWEALTH

Immediately after WWII Great Britain maintained protectorates in the British Empire such as Palestine and India. Nevertheless, Britain had been moving towards decolonization for several decades. The transition from an empire to a commonwealth had begun in 1921. The course of events is explained in the “Commonwealth’s” entry on Wikipedia:

The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values and goals as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, and the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace.
The Commonwealth is not a political union, but an intergovernmental organisation through which countries with diverse social, political and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status…The symbol of this free association is the Head of the Commonwealth, which is a ceremonial position currently held by Queen Elizabeth II…
The formal organisation of the Commonwealth developed from the Imperial Conferences, where the independence of the self-governing colonies and especially of dominions was recognised. The Irish Oath of Allegiance, agreed in 1921, included the Irish Free State's adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations. In the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference in 1926, Britain and its dominions agreed they were equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. These aspects to the relationship were eventually formalized by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 (Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland had to ratify the statute for it to come into effect; which Newfoundland never did and Australia and New Zealand did in 1942 and 1947 respectively). The word British was dropped when the modern Commonwealth of Nations was formed in April 1949, after the London Declaration…
The Commonwealth comprises fifty-three of the world's countries, across all six inhabited continents. The members have a combined population of 2.1 billion people, almost a third of the world population, of which 1.17 billion live in India and 94% live in Asia and Africa combined. After India, the next-largest Commonwealth countries by population are Pakistan (176 million), Bangladesh (156 million), Nigeria (154 million), the United Kingdom (61 million) and South Africa (49 million). Tuvalu is the smallest member, with only 12,000 people.

The transformation of Great Britain began immediately after the war. Obviously, the collective terror of the blitz and the fear of imminent invasion experienced by all levels of society removed all barriers of division. This resulted in a desire by the people to take care of each other and make sure that everyone had the basic essentials of life. Consequently, when the economist and social reformer William Beveridge’s proposal was put forth in the reconstruction of the United Kingdom, the people of Britain were in favor of it. Of course there were obstacles to overcome, but the energy of the impetus was too strong to stop it. I have selected the most relevant excerpts to our discussion from the entry on Wikipedia:

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England (though the term is also used to refer to the four national health services in the UK, collectively)…
The NHS provides the majority of healthcare in England, including primary care, in-patient care, long-term healthcare, ophthalmology and dentistry. The National Health Service Act 1946 came into effect on 5 July 1948. Private health care has continued parallel to the NHS, paid for largely by private insurance: it is used by about 8% of the population, generally as an add-on to NHS services…
The NHS is largely funded from general taxation (including a proportion from National Insurance payments). The UK government department responsible for the NHS is the Department of Health, headed by the Secretary of State for Health…
In the aftermath of World War II, Clement Attlee's Labour government created the NHS as part of the "cradle to grave" welfare-state reforms, based on the proposals of the Beveridge Report, commissioned by Arthur Greenwood, Labour's Deputy Leader and wartime Cabinet Minister with responsibility for post-war reconstruction and prepared in 1942 by the economist and social reformer William Beveridge. The idea was that if Britain could work towards full employment and spend huge sums of money during the wartime effort, then in a time of peace equitable measures of social solidarity and financial resources could be redirected towards fostering public goods. Aneurin Bevan, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Health, was given the task of introducing the National Health Service.
Healthcare in the UK prior to the war had been a patchwork quilt of private, municipal and charity schemes…Bevan now decided that the way forward was a national system rather than a system operated by regional authorities to prevent inequalities between different regions. He proposed that each resident would be signed up to a specific General Practice (GP) as the point of entry into the system. From that point on, any resident of the UK would have access to any kind of treatment they needed without having to face the embarrassment of being unable to pay for it…
The principal NHS website (www.nhs.uk)states the following as core principles:
"The NHS was born out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth. At its launch by the then minister of health, Aneurin Bevan, on July 5 1948, it had at its heart three core principles:
That it meet the needs of everyone
That it be free at the point of delivery
That it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay…

As I work on this particular section of the thesis, the debate over healthcare reform is taking place in the Senate. Every day I hear people decrying the wisdom of a public option, because it will place the government before the doctor. Having grown up in a universal healthcare system, I can tell you that the government had absolutely nothing to do with any medical decision my doctors made; neither did any insurance bureaucrat. The British may gripe on occasion about paying taxes, but not one of them would advocate dismantling a system that takes care of everyone.
Since coming to America, I have become aware that large numbers of people constantly worry whether or not they have enough health insurance. Energetically this causes constant stress, which can lead to the manifestation of that very situation. To me it is madness to think that the ability to pay for care often determines whether a person lives or dies. Surely it is time for us all to take care of one another as Jesus advocated. I am not making a political statement, but rather examining the decision of the British people to become their brother and sister’s keepers.
The consciousness of co-operation and working for the good of all was enforced by the consciousness in the monarch of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth (II). Like her namesake, Queen Elizabeth (I) she has tirelessly worked to unite the world.

QUEEN ELIZABETH (II)

Without spending a great deal of time on the Queen of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, I would like to briefly review the hi-lights of her entry on Wikipedia.

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is queen regnant of 16 independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms…She holds each crown separately and equally in a shared monarchy, as well as acting as Head of the Commonwealth. As a constitutional monarch, she is politically neutral and by convention her role is largely ceremonial…
When Elizabeth was born, the British Empire was a pre-eminent world power, but its influence declined, particularly after the Second World War, and the empire evolved into the Commonwealth of Nations. Her father, George VI, was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth. On his death in 1952, Elizabeth became Head of the Commonwealth, and queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries…During her reign, which at 58 years is one of the longest for a British monarch, she became queen of 25 other countries within the Commonwealth as they gained independence. Between 1956 and 1992, half of her realms, including South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (renamed Sri Lanka), became republics.
In 1947, Elizabeth married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. They have four children and eight grandchildren. In the 1980s and 1990s, the private lives of their children were subject to great press attention, and contributed to increased discontent with the monarchy, which reached its peak in 1997 on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Since then, she has recovered public confidence, and her personal popularity remains high.

I was particularly interested in Queen Elizabeth’s religious views, especially in light of “her official religious role as Supreme Governor of the established Church of England.” Evidently, apart from attending services in the Anglican Church, the Queen also “regularly attends Sunday service” in the Church of Scotland. Curiously, although I have personally heard the Queen’s message at Christmas, I had never really thought about what she said. The entry points out that “Frequently, the Queen will add a personal note about her faith to her annual Royal Christmas Message broadcast to the Commonwealth, such as in 2000, when she spoke about the theological significance of the millennium marking the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ.” The entry records her words thus:

To many of us, our beliefs are of fundamental importance. For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christ's words and example.

Queen Elizabeth’s attitude to religious tolerance reveals that she is most definitely not a “tool” of the “Shadow. The entry relates that the Queen “demonstrated support for inter-faith relations, often meeting with leaders of other religions, and granting her personal patronage to the Council of Christians and Jews.”

Returning to my discussion of the instigation of the NHS, from a spiritual and consciousness perspective the decision of the British public to support one another had far reaching affects. This is because it prepared the energy for a new generation’s thought patterns, which brings me to the energetic and spiritual consequences of the events during the 1950s.
Considering the death toll of WWII reached 50 million souls, I was astounded at the level of violence world wide during the 1950s. One would think that the world’s population would have been heartily sick of war and violence for a lifetime. So why would so many decide to launch revolutions and coups that led to untold suffering and misery. Above I have primarily dealt with the 1950s from a historical and political standpoint. Nonetheless, the 1950s was a pivotal point spiritually. This was because of the generation being born at this time.
Earlier I said that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had devastating affects spiritually, those affects manifested in the conflicts that arose throughout the world in the 1950s. To understand we have to look at the world’s emotional state during the war. Because of Hitler’s and the Nazi’s actions literally millions of people wanted justice. One of the strongest imperatives for the human soul is to eradicate injustice, but to develop spiritually a soul needs to learn to temper justice with compassion. When the bombs were dropped it literally split the spiritual levels and the emotions of the Human Race were released. As the strongest emotion was the desire for justice this consciousness became dominant in the world. The unfortunate thing is that justice can easily become a desire for revenge and that is why so many nations rose up in violent revolutions against their perceived oppressors. The “Light” had to act quickly to stop the world devolving into chaos and destroying itself and so it was decided to send back all the great teachers and spiritual leaders of history to awaken Humanity to their true natures. In The Good News An Alternate Theory the generations were the Baby Boomers and their children: “Every soul born between 1945 and 1983 has returned at this time not to balance their personal karma, but to assist in the spiritual evolution of the Human Race.” Of course these two generations did not exert their influence until well into the 1960s and it is to that decade that I now turn in part B.

(Thesis-2nd Quarter) FULL CIRCLE THE MYSTERIES UNCLOAKED GLOBE D —e
SECTION 12B 1945 C.E – 1976 C.E.

Nearly all historians who have examined the 1960s see this decade as an important time for America and the world. From the consciousness perspective it was the decade that saw the probable success of the “Light’s” plan for change through the Baby boomers. 1960 was the pivotal year in this movement.

1960S A DECADE OF CHANGE?

1960 was a particularly significant because three tools of the “Light” moved into prominent positions. These three individuals were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. I am not going to spend a lot of time discussing the lives of these great men as there have been multiple documentaries and films on them. Here I will focus on their influence on the Baby Boomer generation. Starting with Dr. King, his entry on Wikipedia relates how the Civil Rights Movement began. But first we cannot think of the Civil Rights Movement without bringing up the opposition that drove thousands of men and women of all races to rise up against the injustice of segregation. Of course I am speaking of the infamous Ku Klux Klan. Although I mentioned this organization of the “Shadow” earlier, because its influence stretches over more than a century, I want to take a moment to relate the basics of the organization as reported in their entry on Wikipedia:

The first Klan was founded in 1865 by Tennessee veterans of the Confederate Army. Groups spread throughout the South. Its purpose was to restore white supremacy in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The Klan resisted Reconstruction by assaulting, murdering and intimidating freedmen and white Republicans. In 1870 and 1871 the federal government passed the Force Acts, which were used to prosecute Klan crimes. Prosecution and enforcement suppressed Klan activity. In 1874 and later, however, newly organized and openly active paramilitary organizations such as the White League and the Red Shirts started a fresh round of violence aimed at suppressing Republican voting and running Republicans out of office. These contributed to white Democrats regaining political power in the Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1915, the second Klan was founded. It grew rapidly in a period of postwar social tensions, where industrialization in the North attracted numerous waves of immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe and the Great Migration of Southern blacks and whites. In reaction, the second KKK preached racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, nativism, and anti-Semitism. Some local groups took part in lynchings, attacks on private houses, and carried out other violent activities. The Klan committed the most numerous murders and acts of violence in the South, which had a tradition of lawlessness.
The second Klan was a formal fraternal organization, with a national and state structure. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4–5 million men. Internal divisions and external opposition brought about a sharp decline in membership, which had dropped to about 30,000 by 1930. The Klan's popularity fell further during the Great Depression and World War II.
The name Ku Klux Klan has since been used by many independent groups opposing the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, they often forged alliances with Southern police departments, as in Birmingham, Alabama; or with governor's offices, as with George Wallace of Alabama. Several members of KKK-affiliated groups were convicted of murder in the deaths of civil rights workers and children in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and the assassination of NAACP organizer Medgar Evers, and three civil rights workers in Mississippi. Today, researchers estimate that there may be more than 150 Klan chapters with 5,000–8,000 members nationwide. The U.S. government classifies them as hate groups, with operations in separated small local units.

When I first began investigating the Ku Klux Klan I can remember being surprised that they were anti-republican, but then I remembered that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican president. Moreover, the Republican Party stood for equal rights for all and worked tirelessly to help the poor and disenfranchised, whereas the Democratic Party stood for the Southern wealthy land owners. Today it is the Republican Party that is seen as representing the wealthy and big business, while the Democrats are accused of being “Bleeding hearts Liberals” for their promotion of social programs; Quite a switch? However, I will leave the discussion on the difference between the “parties” until later, for now I want to return to the Civil Rights Movement. Although not the official start of the movement, many people associate the start with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. As Dr. King was one of the leaders in the boycott, I knew I had to start there to discover his inspiration to become a Civil Rights leader. The excerpt below from the Boycott’s entry on Wikipedia encapsulates the episode:

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many historically significant figures of the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott, including Martin Luther King Jr. and others, as listed below. The boycott resulted in a crippling financial deficit for the Montgomery public transit system, because the city's black population who were the drivers of the boycott were also the bulk of the system's ridership. The ensuing struggle lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person, to December 20, 1956 when a federal ruling took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional.

So was this the event that inspired Dr. King to make his life’s work the desegregation of the South? To find the answer I once again turned to his entry on Wikipedia:

Martin Luther King, Jr. …led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president…
Civil rights leader, theologian, and educator Howard Thurman was an early influence on King. A classmate of King's father at Morehouse College, Thurman mentored the young King and his friends. Thurman's missionary work had taken him abroad where he had met and conferred with Mahatma Gandhi…
Inspired by Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, King visited the Gandhi family in India in 1959; with assistance from the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee. The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America's struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation." African American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who had studied Gandhi's teachings, counseled King to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence, served as King's main advisor and mentor throughout his early activism, and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington…

I was not really surprised to see that Dr. King was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi as both men were inspired to be tools of the “Light” and so naturally the latter would be influenced by the former. Nonetheless, I was surprised to discover that Rosa Parks was not the first African American to be arrested for refusing to give up a seat to a white man. The entry for Dr. King explains:

In March 1955, a fifteen-year-old school girl, Claudette Colvin, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in compliance with the Jim Crow laws. King was on the committee from the Birmingham African-American community that looked into the case; Edgar Nixon and Clifford Durr decided to wait for a better case to pursue…The Montgomery Bus Boycott, urged and planned by Nixon and led by King…lasted for 385 days, and the situation became so tense that King's house was bombed…
In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group was created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform…In 1958, while signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a Harlem department store, he was stabbed in the chest by Izola Curry, a deranged black woman with a letter opener, and narrowly escaped death.
…King applied non-violent philosophy to the protests organized by the SCLC. In 1959, he wrote The Measure of A Man, from which the piece What is Man? - an attempt to sketch the optimal political, social, and economic structure of society, is derived…

In 1960 the second and third men who were the tools of “Light” moved into place with the election of John F. Kennedy and the appointment of his brother Robert as Attorney General. President Kennedy united the country with his speech of “ask not what your country can do for you…” at his inaugural address January 20th 1961.

CAMELOT’S REIGN

As stated, I am focusing on the impact the three men had on the Baby Boomer generation and although when Kennedy was elected in 1961 the oldest of them were still teenagers, Kennedy’s speeches and policies had a lasting impact well beyond his assassination. With this in mind I have selected a few excerpts from his entry on Wikipedia, which encapsulates the mystique the Baby boomer generation held for a president that died long before they came of age:

Arguing that "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable," Kennedy sought to contain communism in Latin America by establishing the Alliance for Progress, which sent foreign aid to troubled countries in the region and sought greater human rights standards in the region…
As one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy asked Congress to create the Peace Corps Through this program, Americans volunteer to help underdeveloped nations in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction…
In Southeast Asia, Kennedy followed Eisenhower's lead by using limited military action as early as 1961 to fight the Communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh. Proclaiming a fight against the spread of Communism, Kennedy enacted policies providing political, economic, and military support for the unstable French-installed South Vietnamese government, which included sending 16,000 military advisors and U.S. Special Forces to the area…
By July 1963, Kennedy faced a crisis in Vietnam: despite increased U.S. support, the South Vietnamese military was only marginally effective against pro-Communist Viet Minh and Viet Cong forces…On November 1, 1963, South Vietnamese generals overthrew the Diem government, arresting and soon killing Diem …Kennedy sanctioned Diem's overthrow…
Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military in Vietnam from 800 to 16,300. It remains a point of some controversy among historians whether or not Vietnam would have escalated to the point it did had Kennedy served out his full term and been re-elected in 1964. Fueling the debate are statements made by Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election. In the film "The Fog of War", not only does McNamara say this, but a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson confirms that Kennedy was planning to withdraw from Vietnam, a position Johnson states he strongly disapproved of. Additional evidence is Kennedy's National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963… Kennedy was generally moving in a less hawkish direction in the Cold War since his acclaimed speech about World Peace at American University the previous June 10, 1963…
Troubled by the long-term dangers of radioactive contamination and nuclear weapons proliferation, Kennedy pushed for the adoption of a Limited or Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited atomic testing on the ground, in the atmosphere, or underwater, but did not prohibit testing underground. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union were the initial signatories to the treaty. Kennedy signed the treaty into law in August 1963.

When the Kennedy Brothers came to power, the Civil Rights Movement was well under way and neither of them could ignore it. Considering that all three men involved in the Civil Rights movement were tools of the “Light” it is curious to see that they were not united at first. According to Dr. King’s entry:

The FBI, under written directive from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, began telephone tapping King in the Fall of 1963. Concerned that allegations (of Communists in the SCLC), if made public, would derail the Administration's civil rights initiatives, Kennedy warned King to discontinue the suspect associations, and later felt compelled to issue the written directive authorizing the FBI to wiretap King and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. J. Edgar Hoover feared Communists were trying to infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, but when no such evidence emerged, the bureau used the incidental details caught on tape over the next five years in attempts to force King out of the preeminent leadership position.
King believed that organized, nonviolent protest against the system of southern segregation known as Jim Crow laws would lead to extensive media coverage of the struggle for black equality and voting rights. Journalistic accounts and televised footage of the daily deprivation and indignities suffered by southern blacks, and of segregationist violence and harassment of civil rights workers and marchers, produced a wave of sympathetic public opinion that convinced the majority of Americans that the Civil Rights Movement was the most important issue in American politics in the early 1960s.

Although the Civil Rights Movement was prominent in American’s minds, in 1960 there was a situation which superseded all other concerns. This was the Cuban Missile Crisis and would become one of the defining moments of John F. Kennedy’s presidency.

TWO POWERS STAND OFF

According to its entry on Wikipedia “The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War…In September 1962, the Cuban and Soviet governments placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. When United States military intelligence discovered the weapons, the U.S. government sought to do all it could to ensure the removal of the missiles…”
To understand how this situation arose, we need to examine a few key points in the history that led up to the crisis. First we need to return to Cuba after the revolution. Again I found the fundamentals on Wikipedia. After the Cuban Revolution things in Cuba changed drastically. Cuba’s entry relates:

In its first year, the new revolutionary government expropriated private property with little or no compensation, nationalized public utilities, tightened controls on the private sector and closed down the mafia-controlled gambling industry. The CIA conspired with the Chicago mafia in 1960 and 1961 to assassinate Fidel Castro, according to documents declassified in 2007…
The government nationalized private property totaling about $25 billion US dollars, out of which American property made up only over US $1.0 billions.
By the end of 1960, all opposition newspapers had been closed down, and all radio and television stations were in state control. Moderates, teachers and professors were purged. In any year, about 20,000 dissenters were held and tortured under inhuman prison conditions. Groups such as homosexuals were locked up in internment camps in the 1960s, where they were subject to medical-political "re-education". One estimate is that 15,000 to 17,000 people were executed. The Communist Party strengthened its one-party rule, with Castro as supreme leader. Fidel's brother, Raul Castro, became the army chief. Loyalty to Castro became the primary criteria for all appointments. In September 1960, the regime created a system known as Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), which provided neighborhood spying. In the 1961 New Year's Day parade, the administration exhibited Soviet tanks and other weapons. Eventually, the tiny island nation built up the second largest armed forces in Latin America, second only to Brazil. Cuba became a privileged client-state of the Soviet Union.

The key statement is the excerpt is that “The CIA conspired with the Chicago mafia in 1960 and 1961 to assassinate Fidel Castro, according to documents declassified in 2007…” This information goes a long way to determining America’s stance on Cuba and why in October 1962 the world was brought to the brink of nuclear war when the Soviet Union and America locked horns over Cuba. As this confrontation would come to define the Cold War energetically and consciously its brief period’s affect lasted for several decades and as such impacted the Baby Boomer generation. Consequently, I will review the most relevant points that led up to the crisis. The episode has its own entry on Wikipedia, which documents each step in great detail:

The United States had been embarrassed publicly in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, which had been launched by the CIA under President John F. Kennedy. Afterwards, former President Eisenhower told Kennedy that "The failure of the Bay of Pigs will embolden the Soviets to do something that they would otherwise not do." The halfhearted invasion left Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and his advisers with the impression that Kennedy was indecisive…Covert operations continued in 1961 in the unsuccessful Operation Mongoose. Publicly, in February 1962, the United States launched an economic embargo against Cuba.
The United States considered covert action again and inserted CIA paramilitary officers from their Special Activities Division. Air Force General Curtis LeMay presented to Kennedy a pre-invasion bombing plan in September, while spy flights and minor military harassment from the United States Guantánamo Naval Base were the subject of continual Cuban diplomatic complaints to the U.S. government.
In September 1962, the Cuban government saw what it perceived to be significant evidence that the U.S. would invade, including a joint U.S. Congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force in Cuba if American interests were threatened, and the announcement of a U.S. military exercise in the Caribbean planned for the following month…
Khrushchev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro agreed to place strategic nuclear missiles secretly in Cuba. Like Castro, Khrushchev felt that a U.S. invasion of Cuba was imminent, and that to lose Cuba would do great harm to the communist cause, especially in Latin America…The Soviet leadership believed that Kennedy would avoid confrontation and accept the missiles as a fait accompli, based on Kennedy's perceived lack of confidence during the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Soviet missiles in Cuba could also been seen as a counter to the US Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey.

I said earlier that this event was a defining moment of John F. Kennedy’s presidency; however, it was also as important to the Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev. I found a fascinating account of the Cuban Missile Crisis told from both sides in Robert Dallek’s AN UNFINISHED LIFE John F. Kennedy 1917 – 19634
According to Robert Dallek in 1962 Khrushchev believed America was planning to invade Cuba to unseat Fidel Castro. This was because the Russian premier believed that Castro’s “support of subversion” would incite America to take action.
Mr. Dallek’s book related information I was unaware of, such as: the communist powers of the world were far from united and the Russian Premier was concerned that Castro was about to make an alliance with communist China. These were thought to be some of the reasons Khrushchev “decided to turn Cuba into a missile base from which he could more directly threaten the United States…”5
Nonetheless, Mr. Dallek presents a far more plausible reason for Khrushchev’s bold move. He relates that when America placed Jupiter missiles in Turkey, within reach of Russia Khrushchev determined to level the playing field by placing Russian nuclear warheads in Cuba that could reach the U.S. It seems that Khrushchev had concluded that President Kennedy was too “intelligent” to risk “…a thermo-nuclear war…” Khrushchev’s actions was pure brinkmanship as he never intended ever using the weapons. He just wanted to have a little bargaining power as his words portray. “Every idiot can start a war,” Khrushchev told Kremlin associates, “but it is impossible to win this war…Therefore the missiles have one purpose – to scare them, to restrain them…” The deployment would equalize “what the West likes to call ‘the balance of power’…”
Khrushchev gambled that he would be able to get the warheads in place in Cuba before they were detected. After the missiles were in Cuba Khrushchev was planning to confront President Kennedy at the United Nations with a fait accompli of “the existence of the Cuban missile base and extract concessions from the president over Berlin and Cuba…”6
The cat was let out of the bag October 14th after a U-2 reconnaissance flight took nearly a hundred shots of “offensive weapons…”7 When President Kennedy learned of this his main concern was how to remove the missiles without causing “a nuclear war.”8 After discussing his options it was determined that the best course of action was to quarantine Cuba to prevent the missiles being installed. However, before the president could implement the quarantine he needed the support of the American people so he went on national television October 22nd to inform the public of the threat and his proposed quarantine and “stated clearly ‘that we would accept nothing less than the ending of the missile capacity now in Cuba.’…”9
Once President Kennedy gained public support he then confronted Khrushchev over the military bases in Cuba. The consummate diplomat he gave the Russian Premier a way to save face, by stating that it was a possible mistake in a letter to Khrushchev. Mr. Dallek relates:

“…‘your Government would not correctly understand the will and determination of the United States in any given situation.’…‘since I have not assumed that you or any other sane man would, in this nuclear age, plunge the world into a war which it is crystal clear no country could win and which could only result in catastrophic consequences to the whole world, including the aggressor.’ …He insisted that Khrushchev remove the missile bases and other offensive weapons in Cuba...”10

The world waited with baited breath for Khrushchev’s reply, but when it came it did not assuage the fear. The letter was confrontational stating that President Kennedy’s communication “represented a ‘serious threat to peace’.” Still defending his position Khrushchev maintained that the missiles were only being deployed for defensive purposes. President Kennedy’s response was just as curt and reiterated “his intention to enforce the quarantine.”11 And so the game of brinkmanship was at hand. Both sides felt they could not afford to lose face as this would give the other the upper hand. Consequently over the next few days the world remained at the mercy of two men. According to Mr. Dallek, Khrushchev was the first to blink. On October 25th the Russian premier decided “it was time to negotiate an end to the crisis.”12
I was intrigued to learn that Khrushchev chose to approach President Kennedy through the American media. According to Mr. Dallek, at a meeting on the 26th a KGB official told the television journalist John Scali to “transmit to the State Department a three-point proposal for ending the Cuban crisis…”
Unfortunately, while the meeting was taking place, events in Cuba suggested that the negotiations were a delaying tactic by the Soviets to finish constructing their missile bases in Cuba. As a result these secret negotiations failed and the crisis deepened even more. Furthermore, an official proposal from the Kremlin advocated that Russia would remove their missiles from Cuba only if America removed its Jupiter missiles from Turkey.13
While the Kennedy brothers agonized over the “Cuba-for-Turkey missile swap”, reports of a U-2 being shot down so enraged the Joint Chiefs that they were advocating “a massive air strike” to be implemented by October 29th “to be followed by an invasion in seven days.” More and more, those with cooler heads in Kennedy’s administration saw the Cuba-for-Turkey missile sway as “the last chance to reach a settlement” and avert nuclear war.14
Now President Kennedy was under even more pressure to end the standoff militarily, but he knew that this would force Khrushchev to retaliate and could lead to nuclear war. So he and his advisers came up with a plan to end the crisis by acceding to Khrushchev’s proposal secretly. Officially, the president drafted a letter omitting the removal of the missiles in Turkey for removal of the missiles in Cuba. In the official letter, he appeared intransigent as is seen in his insistence that Khrushchev accede to the immediate dismantling of the missile bases in Cuba. However, after pledging that in return for Khrushchev’s compliance the U.S. “would end the quarantine and give assurances against an invasion of Cuba” he then added a clause that on the face of it did not make sense. President Kennedy added that “Such a settlement would enable us to work toward a more general arrangement regarding ‘other armaments,’ as proposed in your second letter which you made public…” Of course as leader of the free world he had to end strong, so he finished by clearly stating the consequences of noncompliance would result in “an intensification of the Cuban crisis and a grave risk to the peace of the world.”
Mr. Dallek reveals what the public did not know at the time was that while President Kennedy was sending an official cable to Moscow, his brother Bobby was personally delivering a letter to the Russian Ambassador to the United States. Mr. Dallek relates that employing the Attorney General as the envoy, President Kennedy was ensuring that Khrushchev knew that it was his earnest desire to end the crisis and to inform the Russian Premier of the need for expediency due to the pressure from the Joint Chiefs.15
This was all Khrushchev needed to curtail his hardliners in the Kremlin into agreeing to “the need for a ‘retreat’ in order to save…the world from a nuclear catastrophe…” Recognizing the need for an urgent public reply to prevent someone from overstepping their responsibilities apart from sending an official letter accepting President Kennedy’s proposal, Khrushchev had the letter “broadcast on the radio.” Secretly, he sent another letter acknowledging Bobby’s negotiations which included a pledge to remove the warheads from Turkey the following year, but that this agreement was not to be made public.
Considering what was at stake, I had assumed that everyone in Washington was relieved when the Cuban Missile Crisis was over. However, according to Mr. Dallek the Joint Chiefs of Staff saw the peaceful end of the crisis as a defeat. Amazingly when President Kennedy thanked them “for their counsel”, Admiral Anderson maintained that the Russians had duped them. Furthermore, another advisor, LeMay believed the agreement to be “the greatest defeat in our history.” He felt so strongly that he advocated an immediate “invasion” of Cuba. According to a witness President Kennedy was stunned by the response.16

The reason I wanted to cover the Cuban Missile Crisis is because it represented the energetic situation after WWII. Earlier I said that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had resulted in the release of the emotion revenge. In the Cuban Missile Crisis we can see how the forces of the “Light” were vying with the forces of the “Shadow” for control. This is best demonstrated in the two main players President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev. However, the “Shadow” concentrated “his” efforts on the advisers of the two main players, which is the reason why the Joint Chiefs of Staff were so “gung ho” to invade Cuba and risk all-out war with Russia. This action can only be understood in light of considering that these “military” men were influenced by the energy of conflict.

1963 TURNING POINT

The Cuban Missile Crisis had a profound affect on President Kennedy and led to his speech June 10th 1963 about World Peace. It also dramatically changed the way he saw war. Of course at the time he was forced to deal with a war in Vietnam, which by the summer of 1963, military advisers were advocating a regime change in Vietnam. Consequently, while President Kennedy was advocating peace, these “advisers” were encouraging the South Vietnamese generals to mount a military coup against Premier Diem. At this time there were still only a small American presence of 16,000 military personal and advisers in Vietnam, so it was not at the forefront of President Kennedy’s mind during the summer of 1963. There was a far more pressing concern the increasing public cry for Civil Rights. Of course this cry was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and in 1963 he decided to take his grievances on mass to Washington D.C.

I HAVE A DREAM VERSUS BLACK POWER

According to Dr. King’s entry on Wikipedia “Kennedy initially opposed the march outright, because he was concerned it would negatively impact the drive for passage of civil rights legislation…” However, afterwards the President and his brother Bobby were completely behind the Civil Rights movement. The entry encapsulates this historical moment, which would impact not only everyone who was present, but also the generation born to change the world, the Baby Boomers. However not everyone was a fan of non violent protests. The other prominent African American leader of the 1960s was Malcolm X, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Dr. King’s entry relates the contentious relationship between the two men, but first let us review the famous Civil Right’s March:

King, representing SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963…The primary logistical and strategic organizer was King's colleague Bayard Rustin. For King, this role was another which courted controversy, since he was one of the key figures who acceded to the wishes of President John F. Kennedy in changing the focus of the march. Kennedy initially opposed the march outright, because he was concerned it would negatively impact the drive for passage of civil rights legislation, but the organizers were firm that the march would proceed.
The march originally was conceived as an event to dramatize the desperate condition of blacks in the southern United States and a very public opportunity to place organizers' concerns and grievances squarely before the seat of power in the nation's capital. Organizers intended to excoriate and then challenge the federal government for its failure to safeguard the civil rights and physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks, generally, in the South. However, the group acquiesced to presidential pressure and influence, and the event ultimately took on a far less strident tone. As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony; Malcolm X called it the "Farce on Washington," and members of the Nation of Islam were not permitted to attend the march.
The march did, however, make specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public school; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 minimum wage for all workers; and self-government for Washington, D.C., then governed by congressional committee. Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success. More than a quarter million people of diverse ethnicities attended the event, sprawling from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial onto the National Mall and around the reflecting pool. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington's history. King's "I Have a Dream" speech electrified the crowd. It is regarded, along with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Franklin D. Roosevelt's Infamy Speech, as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory.

It was the mention of Malcolm X thinking the march a “farce” that had made me look him up on Wikipedia. Evidently, Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925. In 1963, he represented the angry black man who wanted revenge for the wrongs perpetrated on him. It seems according to his entry it was Malcolm X’s early life that led to his hatred of white people. The entry relates:

Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. By the time he was thirteen, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. His childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance and his own experiences concerning race, played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in hustling and other criminal activities in Boston and New York. In 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.

His brothers Philbert and Reginald while Malcolm was in prison joined the Nation of Islam and told Malcolm about the organization. Although thoroughly disgusted with religion, Malcolm nevertheless contacted the then head of the Nation of Islam Elijah Muhammad who told him to pray to Allah humbly on his knees. This was difficult for the proud Malcolm at first, but eventually he did kneel in prayer and it led to his joining the organization. The entry explains that “After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation’s leaders and chief spokesmen.”
As an influential black leader in 1963, he was obviously asked his opinion of Dr. King’s march on Washington. However, to understand his remarks, we have to understand that his reply at the time was as a leader in the Nation of Islam. The entry explains:

From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he left the organization in 1964, Malcolm X promoted the Nation's teachings. He taught that black people were the original people of the world, and that white people were a race of devils. In his speeches, Malcolm X said that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent.
While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. He proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves…
Many white people, and some blacks, were alarmed by Malcolm X and the things he said. He and the Nation of Islam were described as hatemongers, black segregationists, violence-seekers, and a threat to improved race relations. Civil rights organizations denounced Malcolm X and the Nation as irresponsible extremists whose views were not representative of African Americans.
Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement. He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment and said that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a "chump". He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington". He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive".
Malcolm X has been widely considered the second most influential leader of the movement after Elijah Muhammad. He was largely credited with increasing membership in the Nation of Islam from 500 in 1952 to 25,000 in 1963.

The subtitle for this sub-section is Turning Point, because I believe that the year 1963 was a turning point in so many ways. One of the most important turning points came through Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a Dream.” The speech catapulted him into the primary symbol for Civil Rights and mobilized the nation behind passing the Civil Rights Bill. Tragically, although President Kennedy had done a lot to further Civil Rights he did not live to see the fruits of his efforts. However, three weeks before his assassination, the president’s attention was consumed with Vietnam.

CHANGE IN VIETNAM

Another turning point in 1963 occurred through an event November 2nd in Vietnam that drastically altered the guerilla war status in the country. The event that changed the situation was encouraged by factions in the United States government. This is encapsulated by Wikipedia’s entry for Vietnam:

During the summer of 1963 U.S. officials began discussing the possibility of a regime change. The United States Department of State was generally in favor of encouraging a coup, while the Defense Department favoured Diem.
Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of Diem's younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. Nhu controlled the secret police and was seen as the man behind the Buddhist repression. As Diem's most powerful adviser, Nhu had become a hated figure in South Vietnam. This was conveyed to the US embassy in Saigon in Cable 243.
The CIA was in contact with generals planning to remove Diem. They were told that the United States would not oppose such a move nor punish the generals by cutting off aid. President Diem was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. When he was informed, Maxwell Taylor remembered that Kennedy "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face." He had not approved Diem's murder. The U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, invited the coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. Ambassador Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war".
Following the coup, chaos ensued. Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased its support for the guerrillas. South Vietnam entered a period of extreme political instability, as one military government toppled another in quick succession. Increasingly, each new regime was viewed as a puppet of the Americans; whatever the failings of Diem, his credentials as a nationalist (as Robert McNamara later reflected) had been impeccable.
U.S military advisers were embedded at every level of the South Vietnamese armed forces. They were, however, almost completely ignorant of the political nature of the insurgency. The insurgency was a political power struggle, in which military engagements were not the main goal. The administration sought to refocus U.S. efforts on pacification and "winning over the hearts and minds" of the population. The military leadership in Washington, however, was hostile to any role for U.S. advisers other than conventional troop training. General Paul Harkins, the commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963. The CIA was less optimistic, however, warning that "the Viet Cong by and large retain de facto control of much of the countryside and have steadily increased the overall intensity of the effort".
Paramilitary officers from the CIA's Special Activities Division trained and led Hmoung tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. The indigenous forces numbered in the tens of thousands and they conducted direct action missions, led by paramilitary officers, against the Communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese supporters…

In remembering that President Kennedy planned on reducing the American presence in Vietnam, it is understandable that he would not have approved of the CIA backed coup. And so this is another turning point in that a government agency could act without the knowledge and support of their commander in chief.
We know that the military were unhappy with President Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and were disappointed that he planned to reduce the troops in Vietnam by 1,000 at the end of 1963. However, this was all a moot point because less than three weeks later the military’s “problem” was removed when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. I am not going to address the ins and outs of the assassination here, nor am I going to address the energetic and consciousness impact at this time. At this time I want to discuss the affect of witnessing the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on national TV.

THE WORLD ENTERS THE LIVING ROOMS OF AMERICA

Television was relatively new in the average home in the early 1960s. Although it had been developing for several decades, it only became a common appliance in the mid-1950s. The entry on Wikipedia relates that the first time the TV was used as a news medium was during the Olympics in Germany in 1936:

In 1927, Philo Farnsworth made the world's first working television system with electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices, which he first demonstrated to the press on 1 September 1928.
The first practical use of television was in Germany. Regular television broadcasts began in Germany in 1929 and in 1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin were broadcast to television stations in Berlin and Leipzig where the public could view the games live.

Of course television could not become the world’s pastime until there were multi-varied programs to entertain the consumer; enter the broadcasting networks and cable. Under the entry for cable or rather “Terrestrial Television” on Wikipedia, I found this excerpt:

In 1950, Robert Tarlton developed the first commercial cable television system in the United States. Mr. Tarlton organized a group of fellow television set retailers in Lansford, Pennsylvania, to offer television signals from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania broadcast stations to homes in Lansford for a fee. The system was featured in stories in the New York Times, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. The publicity of this successful early system set off a wave of cable system construction throughout the United States…
A CATV System was developed in the late 1940s by James F. Reynolds…Large industrious companies then took the cable invention and began deploying it around the United States…
Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons is known for building the first system in the U.S. that used coaxial cable, amplifiers, and a community antenna to deliver television signals to an area that otherwise would not have been able to receive broadcast television signals. In 1948, Parsons owned a radio station in Astoria, Oregon…In the spring of 1948; Parsons …found that with a large antenna he could receive KRSC's signal on the roof of the Astoria Hotel and from there he ran coaxial cable across the street to his apartment. When the station (now KING-TV) went on the air in November 1948, Parsons was the only one in town able to see television. Soon others in town wanted the same service, and Parsons helped them hook up to the system…
On August 1, 1949 T.J. Slowie, a secretary of the Federal Communications Commission, sent a letter to … L.E. Parsons, requesting he "furnish the Commission full information with respect to the nature of the system you may have developed and may be operating." He did. This is the first known involvement of the FCC in CATV…

Once the government (FCC) was involved in regulating cable it grew beyond measure and by the early 1960s was seen as a necessary household expenditure both in America and most Western countries. Within a decade television replaced both radio and books as the main entertainment in most homes. Hence the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby was seen by literally millions of people and represented an end to keeping the more seedy side of the world outside of the home.
Before I leave 1963 there is one more significant turning point that occurred in this year. However, this turning point arose not from an event in America, but from a phenomenon that originated in the United Kingdom.

THE FAB FOUR ARE BORN

When I was first led to the Beatles as a “turning point” in 1963, I was surprised. I had grown up with the band and was well aware of their influence, yet I never realized how much of a spiritual influence they were to the Baby Boomers in shaping their consciousness development. Initially I thought they were members of the generation themselves, but after researching them, I realized that they were all born before 1945, which meant that like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedy brothers they were sent by the “Light” to help shape the generation born to transform the world. Consequently, I am focusing on the Beatles influence, rather than their personal lives. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the “Fab Four” as they were known in the UK, an excerpt from their entry on Wikipedia will introduce them to you:

The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. In their heyday the group consisted of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals)…The group came to be perceived as the embodiment of progressive ideals, seeing their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s…..

The reason the Beatles were a turning point in 1963 was because they started a wave of change that only gained momentum as it spread to America. As the entry says the Beatles had formed in 1960 and the band had released two singles, which according to the entry received “moderate success.” However, it was their third record “From Me to You” released in the spring of 1963 that launched the band. This single was the first song to reach number one in the record charts. To be honest I can remember singing the Beatles fourth single “She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah Yeah” around the house and driving my mother nuts. At the time I was only seven years old. As such I was not surprised to learn from the entry that it topped a million copies sold in less than “four weeks.” Curiously, the entry relates John Lennon as saying “little thought went into composition at the time; he and McCartney were ‘just writing songs…with no more thought of them than that—to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant’.”
The Beatles were seen as something fresh and new, not only because of their music, but because of their attitude. “The popularity of the Beatles’ music brought with it increasing press attention. They responded with a cheeky, irreverent attitude that defied what was expected of pop musicians and inspired even more interest.” Their popularity was such that it was described as “Beatlemania:”

As their popularity spread, a frenzied adulation of the group took hold, dubbed "Beatlemania"…Performances everywhere, both on tour and at many one-off shows across the UK, were greeted with riotous enthusiasm by screaming fans. Police found it necessary to use high-pressure water hoses to control the crowds, and there were debates in Parliament concerning the thousands of police officers putting themselves at risk to protect the group… “With The Beatles”…held the top spot for twenty-one weeks…In a reversal of what had until then been standard practice, the album was released in late November ahead of the impending single "I Want to Hold Your Hand", with the song excluded in order to maximize the single's sales. With The Beatles caught the attention of Times music critic William Mann, who went as far as to suggest that Lennon and McCartney were "the outstanding English composers of 1963"…

Although the Beatles were world known by the summer of 1963, their music was not released in the U.S. until December that year. The entry explains the reasons for the delay:

Beatles releases in the United States were initially delayed for nearly a year when Capitol Records, EMI's American subsidiary, declined to issue either "Please Please Me" or "From Me to You". Negotiations with independent US labels led to the release of some singles, but issues with royalties and derision of The Beatles' "moptop" hairstyle posed further obstacles. Once Capitol did start to issue the material, rather than releasing the LPs in their original configuration, they compiled distinct US albums from an assortment of the band's recordings, and issued songs of their own choice as singles. American chart success came suddenly after a news broadcast about British Beatlemania triggered great demand, leading Capitol to rush-release "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in December 1963. The band's US debut was already scheduled to take place a few weeks later.

After the single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released in the U.S. it sold more than two and a half million copies. Obviously, Americans were eager to see the Beatles in person. However, the entry relates that they were “still nervous about how they would be received.” They needn’t have worried as they were met at John F. Kennedy international airport by screaming fans “estimated” to number “three thousand.”

1964 SUCCESS!

The Beatles officially became stars when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Despite a critic claiming they “could not carry a tune across the Atlantic”, their appearance, which was viewed “by approximately 74 million viewers—over 40 percent of the American population was well received and the group was invited back before they returned home February 22nd.”
Back in the U.K, the phenomenon of Beatlemania only intensified as the group dominated the “Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.” Amazingly, the group had twelve singles in the chart; “five of them filling the top five spots.” The entry relates the Beatles appearance was a point of contention among the older generation. However, the “unusually long hairstyle for the era…was widely adopted and became an emblem of the burgeoning youth culture.”

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT BEARS FRUIT

Meanwhile, back in the States, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech was bearing fruit with the passing of the Civil Rights Bill. Because this was such a pivotal moment in the United States history, I want to relate the long process, which began with President Kennedy asking for legislation to protect civil rights in June of 1963. The report below was taken from excerpts from the entry on Wikipedia of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote."
He then sent a bill to Congress on June 19. Emulating the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Kennedy's civil rights bill included provisions to ban discrimination in public accommodations, and to enable the U.S. Attorney General to join in lawsuits against state governments which operated segregated school systems, among other provisions. But it did not include a number of provisions deemed essential by civil rights leaders including protection against police brutality, ending discrimination in private employment, or granting the Justice Department power to initiate desegregation or job discrimination lawsuits.
The bill was sent to the House of Representatives, and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Emmanuel Celler, a Democrat from New York. After a series of hearings on the bill, Celler's committee greatly strengthened the act, adding provisions to ban racial discrimination in employment, providing greater protection to black voters, eliminating segregation in all publicly owned facilities (not just schools), and strengthening the anti-segregation clauses regarding public facilities such as lunch counters. They also added authorization for the Attorney General to file lawsuits to protect individuals against the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution or U.S. law…Civil rights organizations pressed hard for this provision because it could be used to protect peaceful protesters and black voters from police brutality and suppression of free speech rights.
The bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in November 1963, and referred to the Rules Committee, whose chairman, Howard W. Smith, a Democrat and avid segregationist from Virginia, indicated his intention to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely. It was at this point that President Kennedy was assassinated. The new president, Lyndon Johnson, utilized his experience in legislative politics and the bully pulpit he wielded as president in support of the bill.
Because of Smith's stalling of the bill in the Rules Committee, Celler filed a petition to discharge the bill from the Committee. Only if a majority of members signed the discharge petition would the bill move directly to the House floor without consideration by Smith's committee. Initially Celler had a difficult time acquiring the signatures necessary…By the time of the 1963 winter recess, 50 signatures were still needed.
On the return from the winter recess, however, matters took a significant turn. The pressure of the civil rights movement, the March on Washington, and the President's public advocacy of the Act had made a difference of opinion in Representatives' home districts, and soon it became apparent that the petition would acquire the necessary signatures. To prevent the humiliation of the success of the petition, Chairman Smith allowed the bill to pass through the Rules Committee. The bill was brought to a vote in the House on February 10, 1964, and passed by a vote of 290 to 130, and sent to the Senate.

Considering how scathing Malcolm X was about the March on Washington, I had wondered how he felt when the House of Representatives passed a bill on Civil Rights. I was interested to learn that a month later he left the Nation of Islam and became a Sunni Muslim, taking part in the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia shortly after. Although he never stated that the success of the Dr. King’s non-violent movement influenced his leaving the militant Nation of Islam, I have to wonder at the timing of his departure. Moreover, according to his entry on Wikipedia after his pilgrimage Malcolm X “disavowed racism.” It seems he also “traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East…founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity.” Unfortunately, he was unable to influence others with his change of heart, because “Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York.”
Returning to the passing of the Civil Rights Act, although it had passed the House of Representatives, the bill could not become law until it also passed in the Senate. This was no easy task as the Southern Democrats were determined to defeat the bill. The entry relates the extraordinary lengths some of the Senators would go to ensure that segregation remained in place in the Southern States:

Johnson, who wanted the bill passed as soon as possible, ensured that the bill would be quickly considered by the Senate…
The bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964 and the "Southern Bloc" of southern Senators led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage…
After 54 days of filibuster, Senators Everett Dirksen (R-IL), Thomas Kuchel (R-CA), Hubert Humphrey (D-MN), and Mike Mansfield (D-MT) introduced a substitute bill that they hoped would attract enough Republican votes to end the filibuster. The compromise bill was weaker than the House version in regard to government power to regulate the conduct of private business, but it was not so weak as to cause the House to reconsider the legislation.
On the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) completed an address that he had begun 14 hours and 13 minutes earlier opposing the legislation. Until then, the measure had occupied the Senate for 57 working days, including six Saturdays. A day earlier, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, the bill's manager, concluded he had the 67 votes required at that time to end the debate and end the filibuster. With six wavering senators providing a four-vote victory margin, the final tally stood at 71 to 29. Never in history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a filibuster on a civil rights bill…
Key to the passage of the Civil Rights Act were not just the congressional maneuvers, but also the public pressure, which was fed by a campaign led by Dr. Robert Hayling and Dr. Martin Luther King in St. Augustine, Florida--the "nation's oldest city"--in the Spring and summer of 1964. The graphic incidents in St. Augustine, including the arrest of Dr. King at a segregated restaurant, the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, the arrest of the 72-year-old mother of the governor of Massachusetts, wade-ins at St. Augustine Beach, many brutal beatings, and the pouring of acid in a motel pool when an integrated group was swimming there, demonstrated for the American people the need to pass the law.
Finally, on June 19, the substitute (compromise) bill passed the Senate by a vote of 73-27, and quickly passed through the House-Senate conference committee, which adopted the Senate version of the bill. The conference bill was passed by both houses of Congress, and was signed into law by President Johnson on July 2, 1964. Legend has it that as he put down his pen Johnson told an aide, referring to the Democratic Party, "We have lost the South for a generation."

It was gratifying to read that the passage of the Civil Rights Act was passed through the will of the people. So often I have witnessed legislation passed in Congress that has been vociferously condemned by the public and wondered why the will of the people has been ignored. The answer to this question can be explained from an energetic and consciousness perspective, but that must wait until later. For now, I need to address another situation that bore fruit in 1964 only this “fruition” benefited the “Shadow’s” agenda, not the “Light’s.”

SITUATION IN VIETNAM DETERIORATES

Up until now, I have related the events which came to fruition in 1964 that were instigated by the “Light”; unfortunately there was also a situation that had been instigated by the “Shadow” in 1963, which began to bear fruit in 1964. I am of course speaking of Vietnam after the military coup and assassination of Premier Diem in November 2nd. The change in conditions in Vietnam is reported in the Vietnam War’s entry on Wikipedia, so I will let it speak for itself:

Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), as he took over the presidency after the death of Kennedy, did not consider Vietnam a priority and was more concerned with his "Great Society" and progressive social programs. Presidential aide Jack Valenti recalls, "Vietnam at the time was no bigger than a man's fist on the horizon. We hardly discussed it because it was not worth discussing."
On 24 November 1963, Johnson said, "the battle against communism... must be joined... with strength and determination." The pledge came at a time when Vietnam was deteriorating, especially in places like the Mekong Delta, because of the recent coup against Diem.
The military revolutionary council, meeting in lieu of a strong South Vietnamese leader, was made up of 12 members headed by General Minh—whom Stanley Karnow, a journalist on the ground, later recalled as "a model of lethargy." His regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General Nguyen Khanh. Lodge, frustrated by the end of the year, cabled home about Minh: "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?"
On 2 August 1964, the USS Maddox, on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast, allegedly fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf of Tonkin. A second attack was reported two days later on the USS Turner Joy and Maddox in the same area. The circumstances of the attack were murky. Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish." The second attack led to retaliatory air strikes, prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and gave the president power to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without declaring war. In the same month, Johnson pledged that he was not "...committing American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help protect their own land." …
An undated NSA publication declassified in 2005, however, revealed that there was no attack on 4 August. It had already been called into question long before this. "The Gulf of Tonkin incident", writes Louise Gerdes "is an oft-cited example of the way in which Johnson misled the American people to gain support for his foreign policy in Vietnam." George C. Herring argues, however, that McNamara and the Pentagon "did not knowingly lie about the alleged attacks, but they were obviously in a mood to retaliate and they seem to have selected from the evidence available to them those parts that confirmed what they wanted to believe."
"From a strength of approximately 5,000 at the start of 1959 the Viet Cong's ranks grew to about 100,000 at the end of 1964...Between 1961 and 1964 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men." The numbers for US troops deployed to Vietnam during the same period were quite different; 2,000 in 1961, rising rapidly to 16,500 in 1964.

Speaking purely from a consciousness perspective, the strengthening of the Viet Cong was as a direct result of the “Shadow’s” instigation of the military coup and the assassination of President Kennedy. Energetically, both of these events were of the masculine/active which could be used destructively to promote chaos. Nonetheless, in 1964 the “Light” had the upper hand so to speak in America with the peaceful passing of the Civil Rights Act, but in the summer it was the return of the Beatles, which really lifted the spirits of the Baby Boomer generation.

BEATLES RETURN TO AMERICA

When the Beatles returned to America in August 1964 it was as superstars. The entry relates they were performing at 30 concerts in twenty-three cities. “…the month-long tour attracted between ten and twenty thousand fans to each thirty-minute performance in cities from San Francisco to New York…” It was in New York that a meeting between the Beatles and an American folk singer took place that was of profound spiritual importance. This meeting is recorded in the entry thus:

At the end of the August tour they were introduced to Bob Dylan in New York…Visiting the band in their hotel suite, Dylan introduced them to cannabis. Music historian Jonathan Gould points out the musical and cultural significance of this meeting, before which the musicians' respective fanbases were "perceived as inhabiting two separate subcultural worlds": Dylan's core audience of "college kids with artistic or intellectual leanings, a dawning political and social idealism, and a mildly bohemian style" contrasted with The Beatles' core audience of "veritable 'teenyboppers'—kids in high school or grade school whose lives were totally wrapped up in the commercialized popular culture of television, radio, pop records, fan magazines, and teen fashion. They were seen as idolaters, not idealists." Within six months of the meeting, "Lennon would be making records on which he openly imitated Dylan's nasal drone, brittle strum, and introspective vocal persona." Within a year, Dylan would "proceed, with the help of a five-piece group and a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, to shake the monkey of folk authenticity permanently off his back"; "the distinction between the folk and rock audiences would have nearly evaporated"; and The Beatles' audience would be "showing signs of growing up"….

I felt that this meeting was the unofficial start of the Counterculture that exploded in the 1960s. Consequently, I decided to research my hypothesis. The definition of counterculture is the rejection of what is perceived as the accepted “social norms” according to the entry for counterculture on Wikipedia and yes it did associate the 1960s counterculture with the music of the era:

Rejection of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, pop-art and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era include The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Cream, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Velvet Underground and Nico. The pop-art culture led by Andy Warhol also played a part in social change in the United States by redefining what art was and what made it valuable. Warhol's mass-produced monographs and silk-screens, such as the iconic Campbell's Soup Cans, challenged the notion that art is only about certain subjects (i.e., wealthy patrons or pretty landscapes), or that art is a singular creation. An entire generation's liberal views about art and drugs found prominent expression in Warhol's paintings, films, and music. Sentiments were also expressed in the song lyrics and popular sayings of the period, such as 'do your own thing,' 'turn on, tune in, drop out,' 'whatever turns you on,' 'Eight miles high,' and 'light my fire.' Spiritually, the counterculture included interest in astrology, the term "Age of Aquarius" and knowing people's signs (Sun Signs)…

Earlier I related that in 1964 we saw the guerilla war in Vietnam escalating after the military coup of 1963. However, it was in 1965 that decisions were made that would embroil America in a devastating war for a decade.

1965 – VIETNAM ESCALATES INTO FULL BLOWN WAR

Whenever, there is instability in an area, the “Shadow” uses the confusion to incite the populace through “his tools” to create chaos. As we have seen throughout this thesis that “he” does this with decisions and laws that lead to unrest. We can see this in operation in the decisions the “Shadow” influenced over Vietnam in 1965. The entry on the Vietnam War succinctly explains the sequence of events that led up to full blown war:

The National Security Council recommended a three-stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. On 2 March 1965, following an attack on a U.S. Marine barracks at Pleiku, Operation Flaming Dart, Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Arc Light commenced…
Escalation of the Vietnam War officially started on the morning of 31 January 1965, when orders were cut and issued to mobilize the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing from Okinawa to Da Nang Air Force Base (AFB)…The mission of Operation Flaming Dart, to cross the Seventeenth Parallel into North Vietnam, had already been planned and was in place before the NLF attack on Pleiku airbase on 6 February…
After several attacks upon them, it was decided that U.S. Air Force bases needed more protection. The South Vietnamese military seemed incapable of providing security. On 8 March 1965, 3,500 United States Marines were dispatched to South Vietnam. This marked the beginning of the American ground war. U.S. public opinion overwhelmingly supported the deployment. Public opinion, however, was based on the premise that Vietnam was part of a global struggle against communism…
The Marines' assignment was defensive. The initial deployment of 3,500 in March was increased to nearly 200,000 by December…In May, Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces suffered heavy losses…They were again defeated in June…
Desertion rates were increasing, and morale plummeted. General William Westmoreland informed Admiral Grant Sharp, commander of U.S. Pacific forces, that the situation was critical. He said, "I am convinced that U.S. troops with their energy, mobility, and firepower can successfully take the fight to the NLF [National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam]." With this recommendation, Westmoreland was advocating an aggressive departure from America's defensive posture and the sidelining of the South Vietnamese. By ignoring ARVN units, the U.S. commitment became open-ended. Westmoreland outlined a three-point plan to win the war…
The plan was approved by Johnson and marked a profound departure from the previous administration's insistence that the government of South Vietnam was responsible for defeating the guerrillas. Westmoreland predicted victory by the end of 1967. Johnson did not, however, communicate this change in strategy to the media. Instead he emphasized continuity. The change in U.S. policy depended on matching the North Vietnamese and the NLF in a contest of attrition and morale. The opponents were locked in a cycle of escalation. The idea that the government of South Vietnam could manage its own affairs was shelved.

On a “lighter” note, I would label 1965, the year of the Beatles, because their fame and popularity only seemed to grow. A significant event in 1965 was the band’s exposure to the hallucinogenic LSD. However, before I get to this seminal moment for the group, in the UK, 1965 marked a moment that was unprecedented, Queen Elizabeth awarded the group a great honor.
The Queen conveyed the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) on the group and was one of the most controversial things that involved the Beatles. This honor is traditionally given to military heroes and community leaders who achieve extraordinary accomplishments that benefit the public and is only given after the individual is nominated officially. The amazing thing is that the nomination came from the then Labour Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson. This of course caused outrage among the opposition Conservative Party members with some feeling so strongly that they demonstrated their disapproval by giving their MBE’s back.
Although both the awarding of a rock group and the Conservative members outcry is ridiculous it goes a long way in showing how the Beatles were dividing the country. By 1965 they had become such a phenomenon that they were household names. For instance, one of my earliest memories was going to see the Beatles second film “Help!”, when I was eight. Talking of which shortly after its release, the Beatles traveled to America again, where they met another icon of the era Elvis Presley. This visit and meeting is recorded in their entry:

On 15 August, The Beatles' third US visit opened with the first major stadium concert in history when they performed before a crowd of 55,600 at Shea Stadium, New York. A further nine successful concerts followed in other US cities. Towards the end of the tour the group was introduced to Elvis Presley, a foundational musical influence on the band, who invited them to his home. Presley and the band set up guitars in his living room, jammed together, discussed the music business and exchanged anecdotes…

According to their entry it was John Lennon and George Harrison’s dentist that exposed them to the drug when he “spiked their coffee with LSD while they were his guests for dinner.” However, the first drug the Beatles were introduced to was Cannabis.

1965 – BEATLES EXPAND THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS

Evidently, the Beatles next album Rubber Soul that was released at the end of the year may have reflected the group’s experimenting with Cannabis. The entry relates:

Rubber Soul, released in early December, was hailed by critics as another major step forward in the maturity and complexity of the band's music… After Help!'s foray into the world of classical music with flutes and strings, Rubber Soul's introduction of a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" marked a further progression outside the traditional boundaries of rock music. The album also saw Lennon and McCartney's collaborative songwriting increasingly supplemented by distinct compositions from each (though they continued to share official credit)…As their lyrics grew more artful, fans began to study them for deeper meaning. There was speculation that "Norwegian Wood" might refer to cannabis…

With the mention of Cannabis and LSD, I was reminded of the psychedelic world of the hippies. As this counterculture was such an influence on the Baby Boomers, I knew I needed to understand where and how this sect of society had arisen.


ORIGIN OF THE HIPPIES

I learned from the entry on Wikipedia that the term “hippie” came to the forefront the year before in 1964 and was associated with a group known as The Merry Pranksters. This group’s leader according to the entry was novelist Ken Kesey:

During the early 1960s novelist Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters lived communally in California. Members included …Neal Cassady…With Cassady at the wheel of a school bus named Further, the Merry Pranksters traveled across the United States to celebrate the publication of Kesey's novel Sometimes a Great Notion and to visit the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. The Merry Pranksters were known for using marijuana, amphetamines, and LSD, and during their journey they "turned on" many people to these drugs. The Merry Pranksters filmed and audiotaped their bus trips, creating an immersive multimedia experience that would later be presented to the public in the form of festivals and concerts. Grateful Dead wrote a song about the Merry Pranksters' bus trips called "That's It For The Other One".
During this period Greenwich Village in New York City and Berkeley, California anchored the American folk music circuit…In April 1963, Chandler A. Laughlin III, co-founder of the Cabale Creamery, established a kind of tribal, family identity among approximately fifty people who attended a traditional, all-night Native American peyote ceremony in a rural setting. This ceremony combined a psychedelic experience with traditional Native American spiritual values; these people went on to sponsor a unique genre of musical expression and performance at the Red Dog Saloon in the isolated, old-time mining town of Virginia City, Nevada.
In the summer of 1965, Laughlin recruited much of the original talent that led to a unique amalgam of traditional folk music and the developing psychedelic rock scene. He and his cohorts created what became known as "The Red Dog Experience", featuring previously unknown musical acts — Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane…and others — who played in the completely refurbished, intimate setting of Virginia City's Red Dog Saloon. There was no clear delineation between "performers" and "audience" in "The Red Dog Experience", during which music, psychedelic experimentation, a unique sense of personal style and Bill Ham's first primitive light shows combined to create a new sense of community. Laughlin and George Hunter of the Charlatans were true "proto-hippies", with their long hair, boots and outrageous clothing of nineteenth-century American (and Native American) heritage. LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley lived in Berkeley during 1965 and provided much of the LSD that became a seminal part of the "Red Dog Experience", the early evolution of psychedelic rock and budding hippie culture. At the Red Dog Saloon, The Charlatans were the first psychedelic rock band to play live (albeit unintentionally) loaded on LSD.
When they returned to San Francisco, Red Dog participants …created a collective called "The Family Dog." Modeled on their Red Dog experiences, on October 16, 1965, the Family Dog hosted "A Tribute to Dr. Strange" at Longshoreman's Hall. Attended by approximately 1,000 of the Bay Area's original "hippies", this was San Francisco's first psychedelic rock performance, costumed dance and light show, featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Great Society and The Marbles. Two other events followed before year's end, one at California Hall and one at the Matrix. After the first three Family Dog events, a much larger psychedelic event occurred at San Francisco's Longshoreman's Hall. Called "The Trips Festival", it took place on January 21–January 23, 1966, and was organized by Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley and others. Ten thousand people attended this sold-out event, with a thousand more turned away each night. On Saturday January 22, the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company came on stage, and 6,000 people arrived to imbibe punch spiked with LSD and to witness one of the first fully developed light shows of the era.

The entry on Wikipedia includes a quote from Bob Stubbs entitled “Unicorn Philosophy.” I believe the quote encapsulates the thinking behind this growing counterculture:

“It is nothing new. We have a private revolution going on. A revolution of individuality and diversity that can only be private. Upon becoming a group movement, such a revolution ends up with imitators rather than participants...It is essentially a striving for realization of one's relationship to life and other people...”

In Spiritual Evolution, the key to developing individuality was expanding the consciousness. This is why the Merry Pranksters engaged in Native American shamanistic rituals. Of course the fastest way to expand the mind is through psychedelic drugs; such as LSD. When I first considered the practice of recreational drug use during the 1960s, I had a problem. First I have never taken recreational drugs and so my experience is zero. Second, I had seen the propaganda against the use of LSD while in school. So I turned to my husband Craig for advice on the drug culture of the 1960s. I should state that Craig was a hippie and has experimented with recreational drugs. However, he tells me that the marijuana or Cannabis the hippies were taking was no where near as strong as it is today. The term to “mellow out” perfectly describes the affect. As for LSD. Craig informed me that generally, whenever someone wanted to take “a trip”, he or she would take LSD with friends who remained sober to take care of them. This precaution was necessary because the drug so altered your perspective of reality that you could not trust your senses.
In listening to Craig’s explanation of his experience with LSD, I wondered what the spiritual implications were in taking recreational drugs. Considering the devastating affects of drug addiction today, I thought that it most probably was not instigated by the “Light.” The first thing I learned was that LSD is not addictive and up until it was outlawed in 1966 was used by government organizations. Obviously, I needed to dig deeper. Once again Wikipedia provided some important information on the entry for LSD:

LSD was first synthesized on November 16, 1938 by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland as part of a large research program searching for medically useful ergot alkaloid derivatives. LSD's psychedelic properties were discovered 5 years later when Hofmann accidentally ingested an unknown quantity of the chemical. The first intentional ingestion of LSD occurred on April 19, 1943, when Dr. Hofmann ingested…LSD…Hofmann found the effects to be much stronger than he anticipated. Sandoz Laboratories introduced LSD as a psychiatric drug in 1947.
Beginning in the 1950s the US Central Intelligence Agency began a research program …Experiments included administering LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions, usually without the subject's knowledge. The project was revealed in the US congressional Rockefeller Commission report in 1975.
In 1963 the Sandoz patents expired on LSD. Also in 1963, the US Food and Drug Administration classified LSD as an Investigational New Drug, which meant new restrictions on medical and scientific use. Several figures, including Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and Al Hubbard, began to advocate the use of LSD. LSD became central to the counterculture of the 1960s. On October 24, 1968, possession of LSD was banned in the United States. The last FDA approved human study with LSD, for use in dying cancer patients, ended in 1980. Legally approved and regulated psychiatric use of LSD continued in Switzerland until 1993. Today, medical research is resuming around the world.
Physical reactions to LSD are highly variable and nonspecific…
LSD is not considered addictive by the medical community. Rapid tolerance build-up prevents regular use, and there is cross-tolerance shown between LSD, mescaline and psilocybin…
LSD causes expansion and an altered experience of senses, emotions, memories, time, and awareness for 6 to 14 hours, depending on dosage and tolerance. Generally beginning within thirty to ninety minutes after ingestion, the user may experience anything from subtle changes in perception to overwhelming cognitive shifts. Changes in auditory and visual perception are typical. Visual effects include the illusion of movement of static surfaces ("walls breathing"), after image-like trails of moving objects ("tracers"), the appearance of moving colored geometric patterns (especially with closed eyes), an intensification of colors and brightness ("sparkling"), new textures on objects, blurred vision, and shape suggestibility. Users commonly report that the inanimate world appears to animate in an unexplained way; for instance, objects that are static in three dimensions can seem to be moving relative to one or more additional spatial dimensions. Many of the basic visual effects resemble the phosphenes seen after applying pressure to the eye and have also been studied under the name "form constants". The auditory effects of LSD may include echo-like distortions of sounds, changes in ability to discern concurrent auditory stimuli, and a general intensification of the experience of music. Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and temporary disassociation.

Whenever I considered LSD, Timothy Leary’s words “Turn on, Tune in and Drop out” came to mind. As I was only exposed to the comments from the adults at the time, I was unaware as to why this academic would advocate the use of LSD. According to his entry on Wikipedia, he became interested in the affects of hallucinogenic drugs after he “traveled to the Mexican city of Cuernavaca…and tried psilocybin mushrooms for the first time, an experience that drastically altered the course of his life.” This was such a transformative experience that the spiritual affects of mind altering drugs became his life’s work. The excerpts below from his entry on Wikipedia sum ups Leary’s journey:

In 1965, Leary commented that he "learned more about... (his) brain and its possibilities... (and) more about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than... (he) had in the preceding fifteen years of studying doing research in psychology."
Upon his return to Harvard that fall, Leary and his associates, notably Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass), began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project. The goal was to analyze the effects of psilocybin on human subjects …using a synthesized version of the then-legal drug— one of two active compounds found in a wide variety of hallucinogenic mushrooms including Psilocybe mexicana. The compound was produced according to a synthesis developed by research chemist Albert Hofmann of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals.
Leary argued that psychedelics, used with the right dosage, set and setting could, with the guidance of psychology professionals, alter behavior in unprecedented and beneficial ways. The goals of Leary's research included discovering better methods for treating alcoholism and to reform convicted criminals. Many of Leary's research participants reported profound mystical and spiritual experiences, which they claim permanently altered their lives in a very positive manner. According to Leary's autobiography, Flashbacks, they administered LSD to 300 professors, graduate students, writers and philosophers, and 75 percent of them reported it as being like a revelation to them and one of the most educational experiences of their lives…
Leary and Alpert founded the International Foundation for Internal Freedom in 1962 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was run by…a disciple of Leary and one of his many lovers. Their research attracted a great deal of public attention and, as a result, many people wanted to participate in the experiments, but were unable to do so because of the high demand. In order to satisfy the curiosity of those who were turned away, a black market for psychedelics developed near the Harvard University Campus…
Leary's activities interested siblings Peggy, Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, heirs to the Mellon fortune, who in 1963 helped Leary and his associates acquire the use of a rambling mansion on an estate in the town of Millbrook (near Poughkeepsie, New York), where they continued their experiments…
Repeated FBI raids ended the Millbrook era…
On September 19, 1966, Leary founded the League for Spiritual Discovery, a religion declaring LSD as its holy sacrament, in part as an unsuccessful attempt to maintain legal status for the use of LSD and other psychedelics for the religion's adherents, based on a "freedom of religion" argument. (Although The Brotherhood of Eternal Love would subsequently consider Leary their spiritual leader, The Brotherhood did not evolve out of IFIF International Foundation for Internal Freedom.) On October 6, 1966, LSD was made illegal in the United States and controlled so strictly that not only were possession and recreational use criminalized, but all legal scientific research programs on the drug in the US were shut down as well…

1966 – TRADITION ATTEMPTS TO REGAIN CONTROL

Throughout 1966 the hippie movement was growing on the west coast of America. The founders developed a company called Family Dog Productions and according to the hippie entry by early 1966 were operating from two venues, the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium. Evidently:

The Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium and other venues provided settings where participants could partake of the full psychedelic music experience. Bill Ham, who had pioneered the original Red Dog light shows, perfected his art of liquid light projection, which combined light shows and film projection and became synonymous with the San Francisco ballroom experience.

As the hippie movement became more popular Haight Ashbury in San Francisco became the center for the culture. The entry relates:

Some of the earliest San Francisco hippies were former students at San Francisco State College who became intrigued by the developing psychedelic hippie music scene. These students joined the bands they loved, living communally in the large, inexpensive Victorian apartments in the Haight-Ashbury. Young Americans around the country began moving to San Francisco, and by June 1966, around 15,000 hippies had moved into the Haight. The Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Grateful Dead all moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood during this period…
On October 6, 1966, the state of California declared LSD a controlled substance, which made the drug illegal. In response to the criminalization of psychedelics, San Francisco hippies staged a gathering in the Golden Gate Park panhandle, called the Love Pageant Rally, attracting an estimated 700–800 people. As explained by Allan Cohen, co-founder of the San Francisco Oracle, the purpose of the rally was twofold: to draw attention to the fact that LSD had just been made illegal — and to demonstrate that people who used LSD were not criminals, nor were they mentally ill. The Grateful Dead played, and some sources claim that LSD was consumed at the rally…

In Great Britain the music was dominating the lives of the young people. When the counterculture revolution began in the early 1960s, the establishment was caught off guard. At the start of 1964 the BBC had begun airing a weekly program which hi-lighted the most popular artists or those whose singles topped the charts; hence the name Top of the Pops. Also The 1960s had seen an introduction of “pirate radio” stations broadcasting off shore and circumventing the UK licensing laws.

ROCK RULES THE AIRWAVES IN THE UK

By 1966 several “pirate radio” stations were broadcasting in the UK; most notably Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline. It is interesting to take a look at this period through the struggle for control of the airwaves. The entry for Pirate Radio has an interesting excerpt on the most popular stations in 1966-67:

The English language evening broadcasts from Radio Luxembourg were beamed by Luxembourg licensed transmitters. The audience in the United Kingdom originally listened to their radio sets by permission of a Wireless License issued by the British General Post Office (GPO). However, under terms of that Wireless Licence, it was an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act to listen to unauthorised broadcasts, which possibly included those transmitted by Radio Luxembourg. Therefore as far as the British authorities were concerned, Radio Luxembourg was a "pirate radio station" and British listeners to the station were breaking the law (although as the term 'unauthorised' was never properly defined it was somewhat of a legal grey area). This did not stop British newspapers from printing programme schedules for the station, or a British weekly magazine aimed at teenage girls, Fab 208 from promoting the "DJs" and their lifestyle…
Radio Luxembourg was later joined by three other well known pirate stations received in the UK in violation of UK licensing, Radio Caroline, North and South, plus Radio Atlanta which became Caroline South and Radio London, all of which broadcast from vessels anchored outside of territorial limits and were therefore legitimate…

Because the British government issued licenses to owners of radios, they had some control over what aired and did not want “unlicensed” material being broadcast. However, the desire for the new sound among the young people in Britain was too strong and so in 1967 the BBC launched their new station Radio One.
Although multiple artists were being launched in Great Britain, the Beatles were still the most influential. However, in 1966 they decided to stop touring and performed their last American tour in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Unfortunately, a chance comment by John Lennon concerning their popularity offended many Americans. Nonetheless, 1966 marked a serious change in the Beatles’ music with the release of their album Revolver that summer:

In June 1966…Almost as soon as they returned home, they faced a fierce backlash from US religious and social conservatives (as well as the Ku Klux Klan) over a comment Lennon had made in a March interview with British reporter Maureen Cleave. Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying and that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now". The comment went virtually unnoticed in England, but when US teenage fan magazine Datebook printed it five months later—on the eve of the group's final US tour—it created a controversy in the American South's "Bible belt"…at a press conference Lennon pointed out, "If I'd said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it." Lennon said he had only been referring to how other people saw The Beatles, but "if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then okay, I'm sorry."
Rubber Soul had marked a major step forward; Revolver, released in August 1966 a week before the band's final tour, marked another. Pitchfork identifies it as "the sound of a band growing into supreme confidence" and "redefining what was expected from popular music." …Revolver featured sophisticated songwriting and a greatly expanded repertoire of musical styles ranging from innovative classical string arrangements to psychedelic rock…The album was preceded by the single "Paperback Writer", backed by "Rain". The Beatles shot short promo films for both songs, described as "among the first true music videos", which aired on Top of the Pops and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Among Revolver's most experimental tracks was "Tomorrow Never Knows", for whose lyrics Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead…McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby" made prominent use of a string octet; it has been described as "a true hybrid, conforming to no recognizable style or genre of song." Harrison was developing as a songwriter, and three of his compositions earned a place on the record…On the US tour that followed, The Beatles played none of its songs. The final show, at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on 29 August, was their last commercial concert. It marked the end of a four-year period dominated by touring that included nearly 60 US concert appearances and over 1400 internationally.

I was surprised that John Lennon was inspired by Timothy Leary’s book, but on reflection considering Lennon’s growing interest in Indian philosophy it isn’t so surprising. It is difficult to say who in the counterculture of 1966 had a greater influence on the maturing Baby Boomers; the Beatles or Timothy Leary. However, in 1967 Leary’s influence grew exponentially when he coined the phrase “Turn on, tune in and drop out”.

1967 – BABY BOOMERS JOIN THE HIPPIE MOVEMENT

Although LSD was outlawed in 1966, Leary was still promoting its use in 1967. The hippie movement was drawing more and more members of the Baby Boomers, which were experimenting with LSD. According to his entry Timothy Leary began suggesting that the use of LSD could lead to higher levels of consciousness which he believed were part of human consciousness and were only dormant:

…Leary (in collaboration with the writer Brian Barritt) formulated his circuit model of consciousness, in which he claimed that the human mind/nervous system consisted of seven circuits which, when activated, produce seven levels of consciousness (this model was first published as the short essay, "The Seven Tongues of God"). The system soon expanded to include an eighth circuit…
Leary believed that the first four of these circuits ("the Larval Circuits" or "Terrestrial Circuits") are naturally accessed by most people in their lifetimes, triggered at natural transition points in life, such as puberty. The second four circuits ("the Stellar Circuits" or "Extra-Terrestrial Circuits"), Leary claimed, were evolutionary off-shoots of the first four that would be triggered at transition points that we will have when we evolve further, and would equip us to encompass life in space, as well as the expansion of consciousness that would be necessary to make further scientific and social progress. Leary suggested that some people may "shift to the latter four gears" (i.e. trigger these circuits artificially) by utilizing consciousness-altering techniques such as meditation and spiritual endeavors such as yoga, or by taking psychedelic drugs specific to each circuit. An example of the information Leary cited as evidence for the purpose of the "higher" four circuits was the feeling of floating and uninhibited motion experienced by users of marijuana. In the eight circuit model of consciousness, a primary theoretical function of the fifth circuit (the first of the four developed for life in outer space) is to allow humans to become accustomed to life in a zero or low gravity environment…

As I said in 1967 the UK launched the radio station Radio One, which played all the latest popular music. With the availability of transistor radios people were able to listen to pop music anywhere. I can remember riding my bike while listening to Radio One on my transistor radio. Whenever I hear the Tracks of my Tears by the Miracles or A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harem I am immediately transported back to 1967. It wasn’t until much later that I learned the former was written by the lead singer Smokey Robinson a big Motown star.

MOTOWN A NEW SOUND FOR THE BABYBOOMERS

Even though I liked the rock music of the Beatles, to be honest I always preferred the Motown artists. Their music seemed more melodious and easier to dance to. Nonetheless, the 1960s not only opened up for the rock bands it also opened up for the African American artists. This veritably exploded after the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In 1967 the lead record producer for this genre was the Motown record label. As this music was so important to me I wondered how it developed. As usual I found my answers on Motown’s entry on Wikipedia:

Motown was a record company founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, USA, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of the words motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit…Motown Records was also the name of Gordy's second record label; the first, Tamla Records, began on January 12, 1959.
Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music, as it was the first record label owned by an African American to primarily feature African-American artists who achieved crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its soul-based subsidiaries were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as The Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence…
Berry Gordy got his start as a songwriter for local Detroit acts such as Jackie Wilson and The Matadors. Wilson's single "Lonely Teardrops", written by Gordy, became a huge success; however, Gordy did not feel he made as much money as he deserved from this and other singles he wrote for Wilson. He realized that the more lucrative end of the business was in producing records and owning the publishing…
Gordy's first signed act was The Matadors…who changed their name to The Miracles when Tamla signed them. Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson became the vice president of the company (and later named his daughter "Tamla" and his son "Berry" out of gratitude to Gordy and the label). Many of Gordy's family members, including his father Berry, Sr., brothers Robert and George, and sister Esther, were eventually given key roles in the company. By the middle of the decade, Gwen and Anna Gordy had joined the label in administrative positions as well…

I am sure I do not have to remind you of the famous names the Motown label recorded. But in case you are too young then let me just mention a few of my personal favorites - Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, The Contours, and Gladys Knight & the Pips. Motown crossed the racial barriers by integrating much of its music with other genres. The entry explains:

…Many more Motown-owned labels released recordings in other genres, including Workshop Jazz (jazz), Mel-o-dy (country, although it was originally an R&B label), and Rare Earth (rock). Under the slogan "The Sound of Young America", Motown's acts were enjoying widespread popularity among black and white audiences alike.

Turning from entertainment to politics, on April 7th 1967 the young State of Israel faced what appeared to be an insurmountable threat to its existence. With the advent of television, Israel’s struggle captured the imagination of the world.

DAVID (ISRAEL) FACES GOLIATH (EGYPT, SYRIA, AND JORDAN)

Ever since its formation Israel had struggled with its Arab neighbors, but in 1967, all the Arab nations that surrounded Israel mounted a united attack to eradicate the State of Israel. However, like David facing Goliath, the tiny state was not only able to repel the attack, but also capture more land. The excerpt below from Israel’s entry on Wikipedia encapsulates this tense period:

Arab nationalists led by Nasser refused to recognize Israel or its right to exist, calling for its destruction. In 1967, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan massed troops close to Israeli borders, expelled UN peacekeepers and blocked Israel's access to the Red Sea. Israel saw these actions as a casus belli for a pre-emptive strike that launched the Six-Day War, in which Israel achieved a decisive victory and captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. The 1949 Green Line became the administrative boundary between Israel and the occupied territories. Jerusalem's boundaries were enlarged, incorporating East Jerusalem.

I see this event as seminal in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because the areas that were captured during the Six Day War are still a bone of contention between the two sides, with Israeli settlers claiming the right to live there and the displaced Palestinians claiming their lands were illegally stolen. This was a huge “coup” for the Shadow as this one event has led to decades of conflict and suffering. I will return to this later, but for now in the West 1967 is remembered as the Summer of Love.

1967 – SUMMER OF LOVE

As I was only eleven years old the summer of 1967 and this was happening in San Francisco, I was unaware of this phenomenon. Consequently, I will need to defer to the hippie entry on Wikipedia again for insights into the influential time:

The Monterey Pop Festival from June 16 to June 18 introduced the rock music of the counterculture to a wide audience and marked the start of the "Summer of Love." Scott McKenzie's rendition of John Phillips' song, "San Francisco", became a hit in the United States and Europe. The lyrics, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair", inspired thousands of young people from all over the world to travel to San Francisco, sometimes wearing flowers in their hair and distributing flowers to passersby, earning them the name, "Flower Children"…
In June 1967, Herb Caen was approached by "a distinguished magazine" to write about why hippies were attracted to San Francisco. He declined the assignment but interviewed hippies in the Haight for his own newspaper column in the San Francisco Chronicle. Caen determined that, "Except in their music, they couldn't care less about the approval of the straight world." Caen himself felt that the city of San Francisco was so straight that it provided a visible contrast with hippie culture. On July 7, Time magazine featured a cover story entitled, "The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture." The article described the guidelines of the hippie code: "Do your own thing, wherever you have to do it and whenever you want. Drop out. Leave society as you have known it. Leave it utterly. Blow the mind of every straight person you can reach. Turn them on, if not to drugs, then to beauty, love, honesty, fun." It is estimated that around 100,000 people traveled to San Francisco in the summer of 1967. The media was right behind them, casting a spotlight on the Haight-Ashbury district and popularizing the "hippie" label. With this increased attention, hippies found support for their ideals of love and peace but were also criticized for their anti-work, pro-drug, and permissive ethos.
By the end of the summer, the Haight-Ashbury scene had deteriorated…Haight-Ashbury could not accommodate the influx of crowds (mostly naive youngsters) with no place to live. Many took to living on the street, panhandling and drug-dealing. There were problems with malnourishment, disease, and drug addiction. Crime and violence skyrocketed. By the end of 1967, many of the hippies and musicians who initiated the Summer of Love had moved on. Misgivings about the hippie culture, particularly with regard to drug abuse and lenient morality, fueled the moral panics of the late 1960s.

I wondered if the Summer of Love’s influence stretched across the Atlantic to the UK. Of course the Beatles were still the premier musical influence on the music scene.

1967 – BEATLES INFLUENCE ON THE HIPPIES GROWS

Although they were no longer doing concerts they were still producing music and in early 1967 they had released one of their most influential albums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Freed from the burden of touring, the band's creativity and desire to experiment grew as they recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, beginning in December 1966. Emerick recalled, "The Beatles insisted that everything on Sgt. Pepper had to be different…" Parts of "A Day in the Life" required a forty-piece orchestra. Nearly seven hundred hours of studio time were devoted to the sessions. They first yielded the non-album double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967; Sgt. Pepper followed in June. The musical complexity of the records, created using only four-track recording technology, astounded contemporary artists seeking to outdo The Beatles…Sgt. Pepper met with great critical acclaim…
Sgt. Pepper was the first major pop album to include its complete lyrics, which were printed on the back cover…The American literary critic and professor of English Richard Poirier wrote an essay, "Learning from the Beatles", in which he observed that his students were "listening to the group's music with a degree of engagement that he, as a teacher of literature, could only envy." …McCartney said at the time, "We write songs. We know what we mean by them. But in a week someone else says something about it, and you can't deny it ... You put your own meaning at your own level to our songs". Sgt. Pepper's remarkably elaborate album cover also occasioned great interest and deep study. The heavy moustaches worn by the band swiftly became a hallmark of hippie style…

As for my question of “did the Summer of Love’s influence cross the Atlantic”, my answer was yes, but the influence was not one way. While the hippie “flower children” were still gathering in San Francisco, the Beatles were spreading the “Love” with their newest single “All You Need is Love.” However, 1967 marked a great turning point for the Beatles. Their entry relates:

On 25 June, the band performed their newest single, "All You Need Is Love", to TV viewers worldwide on Our World, the first live global television link. Appearing amid the Summer of Love, the song was adopted as a flower power anthem. Two months later the group suffered a loss that threw their career into turmoil. After being introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, they travelled to Bangor for his Transcendental Meditation retreat. During the retreat, Epstein's assistant Peter Brown called to tell them Epstein had died…Epstein's death left the group disoriented and fearful about the future…
Magical Mystery Tour, the soundtrack to a forthcoming Beatles television film, appeared as a six-track double extended play disc (EP) in early December 1967. In the United States, the six songs were issued on an identically titled LP that also included tracks from the band's recent singles…It set a new US record in its first three weeks for highest initial sales of any Capitol LP, and it is the one Capitol compilation later to be adopted in the band's official canon of studio albums. Aired on Boxing Day, the Magical Mystery Tour film, largely directed by McCartney, brought The Beatles their first major negative UK press…It fared so dismally that it was withheld from the US at the time.

In reference to the Summer of Love, the entry for hippies mentioned that the behavior of the hippies unnerved the older generation and led to the “moral panic of the late sixties.” Considering that the Baby Boomers were the generation born to transform the world, I felt I needed to examine exactly what was meant by “moral panic”, so I clicked on the link in Wikipedia. I found it interesting that one of the examples in the entry concerns the “War on Drugs”:

A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. Stanley Cohen, author of the seminal Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972), says a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as "moral entrepreneurs", while people who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as "folk devils." Moral panics are in essence controversies that involve arguments and social tension and in which disagreement is difficult because the matter at its center is taboo. The media have long operated as agents of moral indignation, even when they are not self-consciously engaged in crusading or muckraking. Simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety or panic.
Some critics have pointed to moral panic as an explanation for the War on Drugs. For example a Royal Society of Arts commission concluded that "the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971...is driven more by 'moral panic' than by a practical desire to reduce harm."

Of course the “moral panic” that arose in America after the Summer of Love was driven by the “Shadow”, because “he” did not want the values of Peace and Love advocated by the Baby Boomers being accepted by society. One of the greatest criticisms from the older generation was that the young people (hippies) lacked discipline. All the “Shadow” needed to do was “suggest” that the way to remedy that was a stint in the military. Although no one consciously used the Vietnam War to reign in the younger generation, the energy of their fear and concern gave impetus to the idea. This sounded such a radical idea that I needed to test the theory, in order to do that I needed to look at what was happening in Vietnam in 1967.

VIETNAM DURING 1967

As stated from its entry on Wikipedia the ground war escalated in 1965 with a series of operations that involved large scale bombing raids. The number of troops in Vietnam in 1967 was as stated 200,000. These troops were conscripted into the army, but there were distinct differences to the training for a “tour of duty” from previous deployments. I was surprised to learn that according to the entry for the Selective Service System on Wikipedia, conscription during peacetime had been in place since 1948:

The number of volunteers in the post-war period was not enough…and the Selective Service Act of 1948 was passed to reintroduce conscription. All males 18 years and older had to register for Selective Service. All males between the ages of 19 to 26 were eligible to be drafted for a service requirement of 21 months…
The outbreak of the Korean War forced the creation of the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1951. This lowered the draft age from 19 to 18½, increased active-duty service time from 21 to 24 months, and set the statutory term of military service at a minimum of eight years. Students attending a college or training program full time could request an exemption… President John Fitzgerald Kennedy set up an Executive Order in 1963 granting an exemption from conscription for married men. President Lyndon Baines Johnson later rescinded this exemption by another Executive Order in 1965.

The above shows that in 1966 there were controls on who could be conscripted into the military, however in 1967 those controls were loosened. Apparently, legislation (The Military Selective Service Act of 1967) was enacted which lowered the draft age from 18 ½ to 18 and raised the ceiling age from 26 to 35. “It still granted student deferments, but ended them upon either the student’s completion of a four-year degree or his 24th birthday, whichever came first.” The main change however, was in the time it took to train conscripts and the length of their “tour of duty.” Moreover, the troops according to the entry were not kept busy:

The one-year tour of duty deprived units of experienced leadership. As one observer noted "we were not in Vietnam for 10 years, but for one year 10 times." As a result, training programs were shortened. Some NCOs were referred to as "Shake 'N' Bake" to highlight their accelerated training. Unlike soldiers in World War II and Korea, there were no secure rear areas in which to get rest and relaxation (R'n'R).
One unidentified soldier said to United Press International that there was nothing to do in Vietnam and therefore many of the men smoked marijuana…
Washington encouraged its SEATO allies to contribute troops. Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines all agreed to send troops. Major allies, however, notably NATO nations, Canada and the United Kingdom, declined Washington's troop requests. The U.S. and its allies mounted complex operations… However, the communist insurgents remained elusive and demonstrated great tactical flexibility.
Meanwhile, the political situation in South Vietnam began to stabilize somewhat with the coming to power of Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky and President Nguyen Van Thieu in 1967…This ended a long series of military juntas that had begun with Diem's assassination. The relative calm allowed the ARVN to collaborate more effectively with its allies and become a better fighting force.
The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor" in its dealings with the media. Military information officers sought to manage media coverage by emphasizing stories which portrayed progress in the war. Over time, this policy damaged the public trust in official pronouncements. As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called credibility gap developed.

By the fall of 1967 the Baby Boomers were voicing their policy of Peace and Love by mounting a demonstration against the Vietnam War at the Pentagon. Their cries fell on deaf ears though and resulted in 680 of them being arrested. Nonetheless, the impetus for anti-war was released and its voice only grew louder. One of the loudest voices against the war in Vietnam was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

1968 – PEACE MOVEMENT

After securing the Civil Rights Act, Dr. King set about ending injustice wherever he saw it. According to his entry on Wikipedia as early as 1965, “King began to express doubts about the United States’ role in the Vietnam War.” However, it wasn’t until his speech entitled “Beyond Vietnam” April 4th 1967 that America started to listen:

In the speech, he spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, insisting that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today". He also argued that the country needed larger and broader moral changes…
King also was opposed to the Vietnam War on the grounds that the war took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare services like the War on Poverty. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. He summed up this aspect by saying, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death"…
King stated that North Vietnam "did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands". King also criticized the United States' resistance to North Vietnam's land reforms. He accused the United States of having killed a million Vietnamese, "mostly children."
…Though his public language was guarded, so as to avoid being linked to communism by his political enemies, in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism. In one speech, he stated that "something is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."
King had read Marx while at Morehouse, but while he rejected "traditional capitalism," he also rejected Communism because of its "materialistic interpretation of history" that denied religion, its "ethical relativism," and its "political totalitarianism."
King also stated in his "Beyond Vietnam" speech that "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar....it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring". King quoted a United States official, who said that, from Vietnam to South America to Latin America, the country was "on the wrong side of a world revolution" King condemned America's "alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America," and said that the United States should support "the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World rather than suppressing their attempts at revolution.

A century earlier these kinds of words would have got Dr. King arrested for treason, one of the beneficial things in the Constitution of the United States is the First Amendment, which grants everyone the Freedom of Speech. Nonetheless, in terms of the threat to the “Shadow” in maintaining the status quo was Dr. King’s alignment with civil rights and the growing Peace Movement, which was advocating civil disobedience in refusing to register for the draft. For instance, Dr. King’s words at an anti-war demonstration recorded in his entry shows how he made the connection:

"I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both." Poor People's Campaign, 1968.

Unfortunately, peace was not being promoted in Vietnam and in 1968; the opposite gained the upper hand with the Tet Offensive. With the escalation of hostilities in Vietnam, the Peace Movement was deemed as dangerous to national security, because America judged its strength in military terms. Before I discuss the conscious and energetic ramifications of the Tet offensive, let us take a brief look at the historical record of the event reported in the Vietnam War’s entry on Wikipedia:

Having lured General Westmoreland's forces into the hinterland at Khe Sanh in Quang Tri Province, in January 1968, the NVA and NLF broke the truce that had traditionally accompanied the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday. They launched the surprise Tet Offensive in the hope of sparking a national uprising. Over 100 cities were attacked, with assaults on General Westmoreland's headquarters and the U.S. embassy in Saigon.
Although the U.S. and South Vietnamese were initially taken aback by the scale of the urban offensive, they responded quickly and effectively, decimating the ranks of the NLF. In the former capital city of Hue, the combined NLF and NVA troops captured the Imperial Citadel and much of the city, which led to the Battle of Hue. Throughout the offensive, the American forces employed massive firepower; in Hue where the battle was the fiercest, that firepower left 80% of the city in ruins. During the interim between the capture of the Citadel and end of the "Battle of Hue", the communist insurgent occupying forces massacred several thousand unarmed Hue civilians (estimates vary up to a high of 6,000). After the war, North Vietnamese officials acknowledged that the Tet Offensive had, indeed, caused grave damage to NLF forces. But the offensive had another, unintended consequence…
…The Tet Offensive was the turning point in America's involvement in the Vietnam War. It had a profound impact on domestic support for the conflict. The offensive constituted an intelligence failure on the scale of Pearl Harbor…
Westmoreland became Chief of Staff of the Army in March, just as all resistance was finally subdued. The move was technically a promotion. However, his position had become untenable because of the offensive and because his request for 200,000 additional troops had been leaked to the media. Westmoreland was succeeded by his deputy Creighton Abrams, a commander less inclined to public media pronouncements.

Naturally, Dr. King’s speech opposing the war would be worrisome to an administration which needed to garnish public support for the war. Because the Johnson administration had not been honest with the media, downplaying the failures and promising an end to the conflict in the near future, the Tet Offensive launched an unmitigated attack on Lyndon B Johnson. This attack was such that President Johnson announced that he would not be seeking a second term in the upcoming elections. This left the field open for Robert F. Kennedy to run for President.

THE LIGHT OF HOPE DIMS

Although Dr. King was outspoken against the Vietnam War, his passion was for addressing the “economic” injustice that was plaguing the poor in America. To combat the injustice he had mounted a movement called the “Poor People’s Campaign” in 1967. According to his entry in 1968, “The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C. demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States”:

King traveled the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol until Congress created a bill of rights for poor Americans…
King and the SCLC called on the government to invest in rebuilding America's cities. He felt that Congress had shown "hostility to the poor" by spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity". He contrasted this with the situation faced by poor Americans, claiming that Congress had merely provided "poverty funds with miserliness". His vision was for change that was more revolutionary than mere reform: he cited systematic flaws of "racism, poverty, militarism and materialism", and argued that "reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced"…

As history has recorded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s mission was cut short on a Memphis motel balcony April 4th 1968. In following the energies of the “Light” and “Shadow”, I was at a loss as to why the “Light” permitted such a travesty to be carried out. After all, had he lived who knows maybe the Vietnam War would have ended several years sooner? But then I was reminded of the “Light’s” absolute rule of non-interference in the freewill actions of individuals. Consequently, although Dr. King was such a force for change the freewill choice of his assassin had to be respected.
Nonetheless, there were energetic causes behind the assassination and I needed to look at the assassination objectively and devoid of emotion to understand the event from that perspective. The key is in the energy that was generated the month before in response to the Tet Offensive. With the death of thousands of civilians, the consciousness of war became so strong that the energy could be used to destroy its opposite “promoters of peace.” I realize that this is hard to take, but in this thesis we are examining our reality from an energetic and consciousness perspective. Consequently, the events that occurred after the Tet offensive in Vietnam can be directly equated to the bloodletting in that country and the assassination of Dr. King.
The very definition of someone who promotes peace is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and according to his entry “In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.” When he was assassinated Dr. King was literally the face of America’s need to address the social injustice. But it was his spiritualization of the struggle that has remained his legacy and led to his posthumous awards and acknowledging his work by setting aside a day to honor him that defines him as a major point of “Light” during the 1960s. One could say that when he died, he had achieved everything he was born to do. I believe that Dr. King on some level understood this because of the speech he made the night before his assassination:

King's flight to Memphis had been delayed by a bomb threat against his plane. In the close of the last speech of his career, in reference to the bomb threat, King said the following:
And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…

The next day April 4, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was “pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital at 7:05 p.m.” According to the entry his Biographer Taylor Branch related “King’s autopsy revealed that though only thirty-nine years old, he had the heart of a sixty-year-old man, perhaps a result of the stress of thirteen years in the civil rights movement.” The entry explains the ramifications of the assassination:

The assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 100 cities. Presidential nominee Robert Kennedy was on his way to Indianapolis for a campaign rally when he was informed of King's death. He gave a short speech to the gathering of supporters informing them of the tragedy and asking them to continue King's idea of non-violence. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April 7 a national day of mourning for the civil rights leader. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey attended King's funeral on behalf of Lyndon B. Johnson, as there were fears that Johnson's presence might incite protests and perhaps violence. At his widow's request, King's last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was played at the funeral…In that sermon, King made a request that at his funeral no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said that he tried to "feed the hungry", "clothe the naked", "be right on the [Vietnam] war question", and "love and serve humanity".

Someone who was deeply affected by the assassination was our third “Light” of the 1960s, Robert Kennedy. As with his brother John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I am not concerned with the personal life of Robert Kennedy, but rather his impact on the Baby Boomer generation.

ROBERT KENNEDY THE 3RD LIGHT OF THE 1960S

At the time of his brother’s assassination, Robert Kennedy was the Attorney General, but I was unclear as to what position he held after Lyndon Johnson took over, so first I needed to ascertain his activity in the interim years before he decided to run for president. Wikipedia’s entry as always provided an in depth article on Robert Kennedy, consequently I will relate the relevant excerpts below:

The assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963 was a brutal shock to the world, the nation and, of course, Robert and the rest of the Kennedy family. Robert was absolutely devastated, and was described by many as being a completely different man after his brother's death…
Nine months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy left the Cabinet to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, representing New York.
President Johnson and Robert Kennedy were often at severe odds with each other, both politically and personally, yet Johnson gave considerable support to Robert Kennedy's campaign, as he was later to recall in his memoir of the White House years.
His opponent in the 1964 race was Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating, who attempted to portray Kennedy as an arrogant carpetbagger. Kennedy emerged victorious in the November election, helped in part by Johnson's huge victory margin in New York…
In June 1966, Kennedy visited apartheid-ruled South Africa accompanied by his wife, Ethel Kennedy, and a small number of aides. At the University of Cape Town he delivered the Annual Day of Affirmation speech. A quote from this address appears on his memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. ("Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope....")
During his years as a senator, Kennedy also helped to start a successful redevelopment project in poverty-stricken Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in New York City, visited the Mississippi Delta as a member of the Senate committee reviewing the effectiveness of 'War on Poverty' programs and, reversing his prior stance, called for a halt in further escalation of the Vietnam War.
As Senator, Robert endeared himself to African Americans, and other minorities such as Native Americans and immigrant groups. He spoke forcefully in favor of what he called the "disaffected," the impoverished, and "the excluded," thereby aligning himself with leaders of the civil rights struggle and social justice campaigners, leading the Democratic Party in a pursuit of a more aggressive agenda to eliminate perceived discrimination on all levels. Kennedy supported desegregation busing, integration of all public facilities, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and anti-poverty social programs to increase education, offer opportunities for employment, and provide health care for African-Americans.
The administration of President Kennedy had backed U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world in the frame of the Cold War. Robert Kennedy vigorously supported President Kennedy's earlier efforts, but, like President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy never publicly advocated commitment of ground troops…Kennedy did not strongly advocate withdrawal from Vietnam until 1967, within a week of Martin Luther King taking the same public stand. Consistent with President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, Senator Kennedy placed increasing emphasis on human rights as a central focus of U.S. foreign policy…

So it seems that Robert Kennedy was determined to carry on fighting social injustice, plus he was in favor of ending the war in Vietnam. Interestingly, he was not going to run for president until he received a letter reminding him of the people’s hope pinned on his brother, John. The entry relates:

After the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, in early February 1968, Kennedy received a letter from writer Pete Hamill which said that poor people kept pictures of President Kennedy on their walls and that Robert Kennedy had an "obligation of staying true to whatever it was that put those pictures on those walls."...

This letter convinced Robert Kennedy that it was his duty to pick up his brother’s baton for the people and he announced his candidacy for president on March 16th. Although, the official reason given for President Johnson dropping out of the race on March 31st was that he felt after the Tet Offensive he had lost the support of the people, I think that hearing a Kennedy bother was running against him had a lot to do with it.
Apart from Robert Kennedy, there were two other candidates vying for the Democratic nomination; Vice President Hubert Humphrey and a “little-known Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota.” Right from the start of his campaign it was clear that Robert Kennedy was every bit as erudite and inspirational as his brother John had been, as is seen in his speech accompanying his announcement to run:

He stated, "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can."

Of course Robert Kennedy’s opponent railed against his candidacy claiming that he was running on the coattails of his brother’s popularity. Nonetheless, these attacks seemed hollow in light of the Kennedy’s campaign platform which is recorded in his entry:

Kennedy stood on a platform of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social improvement. A crucial element to his campaign was an engagement with the young, whom he identified as being the future of a reinvigorated American society based on partnership and equality. A good idea of his proposals comes from the following extract of a speech given at the University of Kansas.

“If we believe that we, as Americans, are bound together by a common concern for each other, then an urgent national priority is upon us. We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America. And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product…counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

These words electrified the students and spurred them on to support the anti-war movement. Of course this made him a serious threat to the establishment who wanted to maintain their way of life exactly as it was. This was the challenge of the Baby Boomer generation to find a way to change the world without resorting to violence. The young people achieved this by taking a leaf out of the Civil Rights Movement and peacefully demonstrating against the war. The entry explains:

Kennedy's policy objectives did not sit well with the business world, in which he was viewed as something of a fiscal liability, opposed to the tax increases necessary to fund such programs of social improvement. When verbally attacked at a speech he gave during his tour of the universities he was asked, "And who's going to pay for all this, senator?", to which Kennedy replied with typical candor, "You are." It was this intense and frank mode of dialogue with which Kennedy was to continue to engage those whom he viewed as not being traditional allies of Democratic ideals or initiatives. He aroused rabid animosity in some quarters, with J. Edgar Hoover's Deputy Clyde Tolson reported as saying, 'I hope that someone shoots and kills the son of a bitch.'
It has been widely commented that Robert Kennedy's campaign for the American presidency far outstripped, in its vision of social improvement, that of President Kennedy; Robert Kennedy's bid for the presidency saw not only a continuation of the programs he and his brother had undertaken during the President's term in office, but also an extension of these programs through what Robert Kennedy viewed as an honest questioning of the historic progress that had been made by President Johnson in the 5 years of his presidency. Kennedy openly challenged young people who supported the war while benefiting from draft deferments, visited numerous small towns, and made himself available to the masses by participating in long motorcades and street-corner stump speeches (often in troubled inner-cities). Kennedy made urban poverty a chief concern of his campaign, which in part led to enormous crowds that would attend his events in poor urban areas or rural parts of Appalachia…

From an energetic perspective, Robert Kennedy was a huge problem for the “Shadow”, as he was not only mobilizing the Baby Boomers, but also directing them to discover their purpose. This was unacceptable and as it seemed likely that Robert Kennedy was going to win the election, “he” acted. We can see how the “Shadow” stopped the “Light’s” impetus in the way Kennedy was assassinated:

Kennedy scored a major victory when he won the California primary. He addressed his supporters in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968, in a ballroom at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Leaving the ballroom, he went through the hotel kitchen after being told it was a shortcut, despite being advised to avoid the kitchen by his bodyguard, FBI agent Bill Barry. In a crowded kitchen passageway, Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Christian Palestinian-American …opened fire...and shot Kennedy. Following the shooting, Kennedy was rushed to Los Angeles's Good Samaritan Hospital where he died early the next morning.

It seemed pretty cut and dried. The assassin was reportedly angered over Robert Kennedy’s support for Israel during the Six Day War. However, I felt there was more to it than that. In researching the assassin Sirhan Sirhan’s story on Wikipedia one snippet of information from an account of testimony given during one of Sirhan’s appeals leaped out:

Teeter (Sirhan’s attorney) referenced testimony from the original trial transcripts regarding a prosecution eyewitness to the attack, author George Plimpton, in which he said that Sirhan looked "enormously composed. He seemed—purged." This statement coincided with the defense's argument that Sirhan had shot Kennedy while in some kind of hypnotic trance.

Although conspiracy theorists claim this as evidence that Robert Kennedy was killed by a group of nefarious conspirators bent on stopping his program of progress, the information can be interpreted in another way. As I have consistently said, energy and consciousness can influence susceptible individuals; especially if you mix drugs or alcohol. The assassin Sirhan admitted that he was drunk and that he did not remember killing Robert Kennedy. Consequently, I want to offer another cause for the assassination, which may or may not have been part of a conspiracy. There was a great deal of antagonistic energy directed towards Robert Kennedy, couple this with the energy released after the Tet offensive and we can get a clearer picture. Robert Kennedy represented everything the “Light” promoted peace, love, justice and humanity, as such like the energy used to remove Dr. King, the same energy was employed to take out the third Light of Hope, Robert Kennedy. The assassin Sirhan’s anger and hatred was merely the tool used to achieve it.
With the death of Robert Kennedy, the third Light that was to guide the Baby Boomers was extinguished. However, all was not lost, because there were still the musicians of the era, which carried the message of peace. Again it is the Beatles that were at the forefront, only the members of the group were changing.

1968 – THE BEATLES BEGIN TO FLOUNDER

As stated, the most influential rock band at the time of Robert Kennedy’s assassination was the Beatles, but in 1968 there were troubled waters lapping over the group’s unity. Their entry recounts the main events that led to disunity in 1968:

In January, the group filmed a cameo for the animated movie Yellow Submarine, a fantasia featuring a cartoon version of The Beatles. The group's only other involvement with the film was the contribution of several unreleased studio recordings. Released in June 1968, it was well received for its innovative visual style and humour in addition to its music…
In the interim came The Beatles, a double LP popularly known as the White Album for its virtually featureless cover. Creative inspiration for the album came from an unexpected quarter when, with Epstein's guiding presence gone, the group turned to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as their guru.

The Beatles interest in Indian Mysticism was sparking a huge interest within the Baby Boomers and meditation and Yoga gained in popularity. However, the group’s experience with the Maharishi was mixed and eventually led to a change of heart in John Lennon:

At his ashram in Rishikesh, India, a three-month "Guide Course" became one of their most creative periods, yielding a large number of songs including most of the thirty recorded for the album. Starr left after ten days…and McCartney eventually grew bored with the procedure and departed a month later. For Lennon and Harrison, creativity turned to questioning when Yanni Alexis Mardas, the electronics technician…suggested that the Maharishi was attempting to manipulate the group. After Mardas alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, Lennon was persuaded and left abruptly, taking the unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In his anger Lennon wrote a pointed song called "Maharishi", but later modified it to avoid a legal suit, resulting in "Sexy Sadie". McCartney said, "We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was."

The experience the Beatles had with the Maharishi had serious consequences from an energetic and consciousness perspective, as their music was infused with their consciousness. According to the entry it was during the recording of the White Album “from late May to mid-October 1968” that cracks in their unity surfaced. It was at this time that John Lennon became involved with Yoko Ono. The entry recounts an interview John Lennon gave about recording the White Album, but I found that a comment made by Paul McCartney concerning this troubling time summed up the situation both for the group and the world:

Recalling the White Album sessions, Lennon gave a curiously foreshortened summing-up of the band's history from that point on, saying, "It's like if you took each track off it and made it all mine and all Paul's... just me and a backing group, Paul and a backing group, and I enjoyed it. We broke up then." McCartney also recalled that the sessions marked the start of the breakup, saying, "Up to that point, the world was a problem, but we weren't" which had always been "the best thing about The Beatles".

Above I mentioned that the experience in India with the Maharishi had energetic and consciousness consequences. This is evidenced on the affect their White Album had on their fans. The entry explains:

By now the interest in Beatles lyrics was taking a serious turn. When Lennon's song "Revolution" had been released as a single in August ahead of the White Album, its messages seemed clear: "free your mind", and "count me out" of any talk about destruction as a means to an end. In a year characterized by student protests that stretched from Warsaw to Paris to Chicago, the response from the radical left was scathing. However, the White Album version of the song, "Revolution 1", added an extra word, "count me out ... in", implying a change of heart since the single's release. The chronology was in fact reversed—the ambivalent album version was recorded first—but some felt that The Beatles were now saying that political violence might indeed be justifiable.

In 1968, the Hippie Movement’s style of dress and music had spread and had entered the mainstream. The entry for hippies relates just how wide spread the Movement was:

By 1968, hippie-influenced fashions were beginning to take off in the mainstream, especially for youths and younger adults of the populous "Baby Boomer" generation, many of whom may have aspired to emulate the hardcore movements now living in tribalistic communes, but had no overt connections to them. This was noticed not only in terms of clothes and also longer hair for men, but also in music, film, art, and literature, and not just in the US, but around the world.

The entry records that Democratic nominee hopeful Eugene McCarthy attempted to persuade his followers “to get clean for Gene” by rejecting the hippie style of dress. Although he had some success with “a significant minority” with a group calling themselves the “Clean Genes” his affect on the majority was minimal. The media still “spotlighted” the “hirsute hippy adorned in beads, feathers, flowers and bells.”
Most of the hippies were seen as peace loving harmless weirdoes by the establishment, but unfortunately, because of the energy of war prevalent at the time, not to mention the shift in the Beatles energy, a small segment of the hippies, known as the yippies were more aggressive in their demands for peace and equality. The entry expounds on this:

The Yippies, who were seen as an offshoot of the hippie movements parodying as a political party, came to national attention during their celebration of the 1968 spring equinox, when some 3,000 of them took over Grand Central Station in New York — eventually resulting in 61 arrests. The Yippies, especially their leaders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, became notorious for their theatrics, such as trying to levitate the Pentagon at the October 1967 war protest, and such slogans as "Rise up and abandon the creeping meatball!" Their stated intention to protest the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, including nominating their own candidate, "Lyndon Pigasus Pig" (an actual pig), was also widely publicized in the media at this time.

I must emphatically state that the Beatles were not for one minute advocating violence; in fact they spent a great deal of time promoting peace love and harmony. However, because their experience in India was spiritual, their disappointment with their chosen guru tainted them spiritually and that is what infused their music. We will examine the ramifications of this a little later, but for now I want to address how the “Shadow” was able to stop the Peace Movement.

1969 – THE SHADOW GAINS CONTROL

I was surprised to learn from the entry on Wikipedia for the Vietnam War that in 1968 there were Peace talks going on over the war in Vietnam. The reason I had not heard of them was as history has shown they came to nothing. However, it was not until I was researching the war for this thesis that I learned the reason the peace talks failed from the war’s entry on Wikipedia:

On 10 May 1968, despite low expectations, peace talks began between the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. The Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, was running against Republican former vice president Richard Nixon. Through an intermediary, Anna Chennault, Nixon advised Saigon to refuse to participate in the talks until after elections…

This absolutely flabbergasted me, how could anyone put their political aspirations ahead of the lives of American soldiers; it did not make sense. Nonetheless, although it makes no sense from the human perspective, from the consciousness and energetic viewpoint it shows how devious the “Shadow” is and to what lengths “he” will go to achieve his agenda. Richard Nixon’s ambition was merely a tool the “Shadow” used. Obviously Nixon was not the only one influenced; in order to put his plan into affect he needed large numbers of the American people to elect “his” tool as president. The entry explains that President Lyndon Johnson’s “refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was seen as Johnson’s admission that the war was lost.”
The “Shadow” merely played on the fears of the American people in the fact that they believed as a superpower America could never be defeated and President Johnson was about to throw in the towel so to speak. The entry explains:

It can be seen that the refusal was a tacit admission that the war could not be won by escalation, at least not at a cost acceptable to the American people. As Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara noted, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead."

I am not saying that Richard Nixon was willingly compliant in the “Shadow’s” plan, but his nature was easily manipulated. However, because Richard Nixon was not “his” representative, he could also be influenced by the “Light”, as can be seen in his dealings in Vietnam in 1969:

Severe communist losses during the Tet Offensive allowed U.S. President Richard M. Nixon to begin troop withdrawals. His plan, called the Nixon Doctrine, was to build up the ARVN, so that they could take over the defense of South Vietnam. The policy became known as "Vietnamization". Vietnamization had much in common with the policies of the Kennedy administration. One important difference, however, remained. While Kennedy insisted that the South Vietnamese fight the war themselves, he attempted to limit the scope of the conflict.
Nixon said in an announcement, "I am tonight announcing plans for the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops to be completed during the spring of next year. This will bring a total reduction of 265,500 men in our armed forces in Vietnam below the level that existed when we took office 15 months ago."
Nixon also pursued negotiations. Theater commander Creighton Abrams shifted to smaller operations, aimed at communist logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN. Nixon also began to pursue détente with the Soviet Union and rapprochement with the People's Republic of China. This policy helped to decrease global tensions. Détente led to nuclear arms reduction on the part of both superpowers. But Nixon was disappointed that the PRC and the Soviet Union continued to supply the North Vietnamese with aid. In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died at age seventy-nine.

Unfortunately though, as the subtitle for this portion says in 1969 “the ‘Shadow’ gains control.” He did this by instigating atrocities on the civilian Vietnamese by certain U.S. soldiers, which were reported by the American media. A perfect example was the “My Lai Massacre in which a U.S. Army platoon went on a rampage and raped and killed civilians:”

The My Lai Massacre …was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children, and elderly people.
Many of the victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated…While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at My Lai, only William Calley was convicted. He served only three years of an original life sentence, while on house arrest.

This massacre defied explanation, because the G.I. soldiers were always seen as protectors of the innocent. So why would men murder at least 347 unarmed civilians. A clue can be discerned from the date it happened, March 16th 1968. This was a little over two months after the Tet Offensive, which had launched retaliation from the U.S. military that released so much masculine aggressive energy that it fostered the consciousness behind the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Robert F Kennedy. I am not suggesting that the perpetrators be excused, because they had a free-will choice, but that this senseless act was fueled by energy and consciousness beyond the normal energy of war.
The “Shadow” got a lot of momentum from this act not only because it generated so much negative energy, but that it also caused huge divisions back in America. The entry for the Massacre explains:

When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre also reduced U.S. support at home for the Vietnam War. Three U.S. servicemen who made an effort to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were denounced by U.S. Congressmen, received hate mail, death threats and mutilated animals on their doorsteps…

This reaction demonstrates just how passionately the nation was divided over the Vietnam War. This energy facilitated the “Shadow’s” next move to decimate the ranks of the Baby Boomers who were promoting peace. This was achieved through removing all deferments and exemptions from the draft. Young college students were incensed with this and began leaving in droves for Canada. According to the entry for the draft lottery on Wikipedia it is estimated that as many as 125,000 young men left the country. The rest were entered into the draft lottery to serve in Vietnam. The entry on Wikipedia for the draft lottery is worth reviewing, before I discuss the events of 1969:

In the late 1960s, President Nixon established a commission to study what the best option was to get more military manpower, to keep the current drafting methods or institute a volunteer military. After much debate within the Nixon administration and the Congress, it was decided that an all-volunteer force was feasible, affordable, and would enhance the nation’s security...

However, the Baby Boomers did not want to take up arms for what they felt was an unjust war and therefore were not willing to volunteer. This is when the draft lottery was instigated in which every able-bodied man over 18 and under the age of 45 was registered by their birthdays, which were placed in a huge drum and randomly selected. According to the entry:

In 1969, the draft lottery only encouraged the growth of the resentment of the war in Vietnam, and the draft. The anti-war movement all over America took a turn for the worst. People decried its discriminating ways "against low-education, low-income, underprivileged members of society". It was quickly noticed that draft ranks were not uniformly distributed over the year. In particular, birthdays in December had lower (earlier) draft ranks, on average, than birthdays in other months…
The draft lottery had social and economic consequences; draft evaders or 'dodgers', who were generally young, well-educated, healthy men, left the country and could have contributed positively in the American society and economy if not for the draft…

Nevertheless, the “Light” had not given up on the Baby Boomers in 1969 and was moving to counteract the atmosphere of conflict and war, with an event that would flood the world with peace and love. At the time there was distinct division between the hippies and the establishment.

WOODSTOCK ONE LAST HURRAH FOR THE HIPPIES

In April 1969 the hippie “Flower Children” ran afoul of the California Governor, Ronald Reagan. I found this interesting as the Reagan era heralded the era of Greed, which was the antithesis to the hippie philosophy of sharing. Nonetheless, later that year half a million of them would assemble to promote their philosophy. The entry for Woodstock on Wikipedia has:

In April 1969, the building of People's Park in Berkeley, California received international attention. The University of California, Berkeley had demolished all the buildings on a 2.8-acre…parcel near campus, intending to use the land to build playing fields and a parking lot. After a long delay, during which the site became a dangerous eyesore, thousands of ordinary Berkeley citizens, merchants, students, and hippies took matters into their own hands, planting trees, shrubs, flowers and grass to convert the land into a park. A major confrontation ensued on May 15, 1969, when Governor Ronald Reagan ordered the park destroyed, which led to a two-week occupation of the city of Berkeley by the United States National Guard. Flower power came into its own during this occupation as hippies engaged in acts of civil disobedience to plant flowers in empty lots all over Berkeley under the slogan "Let A Thousand Parks Bloom".
In August 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place in Bethel, New York, which for many, exemplified the best of hippie counterculture. Over 500,000 people arrived to hear the most notable musicians and bands of the era, among them Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Carlos Santana, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. Wavy Gravy's Hog Farm provided security and attended to practical needs, and the hippie ideals of love and human fellowship seemed to have gained real-world expression.

I entitled this sub-section the last hurrah of the hippies, because although they still held out the hope of a new world, events in 1969 were eroding that hope on a daily basis. One of the most distressing things for the Baby Boomers was the apparent imminent disintegration of their heroes the Beatles.

THE FAB FOUR BEGIN TO FADE

According to their entry “The Yellow Submarine LP finally appeared in January 1969.” However, January 1969 is remembered as the last time the Beatles appeared as a group. The entry relates the events that led up to this time:

Although Let It Be was the band's final album release, most of it was recorded before Abbey Road. Initially titled Get Back, Let It Be originated from an idea Martin attributes to McCartney: to prepare new material and "perform it before a live audience for the very first time—on record and on film. In other words make a live album of new material, which no one had ever done before." In the event, much of the album's content came from studio work, many hours of which were captured on film by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Martin said that rehearsals and recording for the project, which occupied much of January 1969, were "not at all a happy ... experience. It was a time when relations between the Beatles were at their lowest ebb." Aggravated by both McCartney and Lennon, Harrison walked out for a week. He returned with keyboardist Billy Preston, who participated in the last ten days of sessions and was credited on the "Get Back" single—the only other musician to receive such acknowledgment on an official Beatles recording. The band members had reached an impasse on a concert location, rejecting among several concepts a boat at sea, the Tunisian desert and the Colosseum. Ultimately, the final live performance by The Beatles, accompanied by Preston, was filmed on the rooftop of the Apple Corps building at 3 Savile Row, London, on 30 January 1969.

In March of 1969 both John Lennon and Paul McCartney got married. Paul married Linda Eastman who according to the entry was the sister of John Eastman and Paul’s choice to replace Brian Epstein as the Beatles manager. As John wanted Allen Klein who had experience with securing “contracts for The Rolling Stones and other UK bands during the British Invasion” both men were appointed. Unfortunately, this decision did not resolve the disagreement “and financial opportunities were lost.”

JOHN AND YOKO PROMOTE PEACE

Although John Lennon was having difficulties with the Beatles, his focus on promoting World Peace was never stronger. Capitalizing on the publicity of his marriage to Yoko Ono the newly married couple decided to use it to “promote world peace.” This “promotion” took the form of the famous “Bed-ins.” The entry for these “Bed-ins” records the sequence of events:

They spent their honeymoon in the presidential suite (Room #702) at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel for a week between March 25 and 31, inviting the world's press into their hotel room every day between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. After their other stunts, such as the nude cover of the Two Virgins album, the press were expecting them to be having sex, but instead the couple were sitting in bed—in John's words "like Angels"—talking about peace with signs over their bed reading "Hair Peace" and "Bed Peace". After seven days, they flew to Vienna, Austria, where they held a Bagism press conference.
During April 1969, John and Yoko sent acorns to the heads of state in various countries around the world in hopes that they would plant them as a symbol of peace. For eight months, the couple was not granted a single visit with any world leader. Their marriage ("You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain"), the first Bed-In ("Talking in our beds for a week"), the Vienna press conference ("Made a lightning trip to Vienna...The newspapers said..."), and the acorns ("Fifty acorns tied in a sack") were all mentioned in the song The Ballad of John and Yoko…
Their second Bed-In was planned to take place in New York, but John was not allowed into the country because of his 1968 cannabis conviction. Instead they held the event in the Bahamas at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel, flying there on May 24, 1969, but after spending one night in the heat, they decided to move to Montreal.
Eventually, they flew to Montreal on May 26 where they stayed in Room 1738 and 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. During their seven day stay, they invited Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Dick Gregory, and Al Capp and all but Capp sang on the peace anthem Give Peace a Chance, recorded in the hotel room on June 1. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation conducted interviews from the hotel room.

Because of the discontent between the Beatles in making the previous album Get Back, their Producer George Martin according to the entry “was surprised when McCartney contacted him and asked him to produce another album.” The album was called Abbey Road.

THE LAST BEATLES ALBUM

Although the album “received mixed reviews” among Beatles fans Abbey Road was a great success. The entry relates that it was during the making of the album that John Lennon’s single “Give Peace a Chance” was released under the umbrella of the Plastic Ono Band:

The completion of the Abbey Road track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on 20 August was the last time all four Beatles were together in the same studio. Lennon announced his departure to the rest of the group on 20 September, but agreed that no public announcement would be made until a number of legal matters were resolved.
Released six days after Lennon's declaration, Abbey Road sold four million copies within two months and topped the UK chart for eleven weeks. Its second track, the ballad "Something", was also issued as a single—the first and only song by Harrison to appear as a Beatles A side. Abbey Road received mixed reviews…

While the Bed-ins and bickering between the Beatles were taking place, the Apollo program by NASA was edging nearer to its final goal to land a human being on the surface of the Moon. This goal had begun with President John F. Kennedy who had pledged to succeed in the endeavor while in office.

JULY 20TH 1969 - A MOMENT FOR AMERICAN PRIDE

Although, he had been dead for nearly six years when the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon, it was seen by many as a fulfillment of Kennedy’s promise that America beat Russia to the goal. The entry on Wikipedia for the Moon Landing’s excerpt below provides us an encapsulation of the event:

The United States space agency NASA achieved the first manned landing on Earth's Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission commanded by Neil Armstrong. On July 20, 1969, lunar module Eagle landed on the surface of the Moon, carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the Moon and Aldrin the second. Michael Collins orbited above. Armstrong and Aldrin spent a day on the surface of the Moon before returning to Earth. To this day, twelve people have walked across the Moon's terrain.

The song “Give Peace a Chance” to me defined the slogan of the 60s and the hippie and Peace Movement. Unfortunately, the summer of 69 saw an event so heinous that its affect on the hippies would be so profound that literally thousands of them ceased to be hippies. However, as bad as the affect on the hippies was, it was the way it changed the way the general population saw the hippies that was the most devastating to the Hippie/Peace Movement.

THE EMBODIMENT OF THE “SHADOW”

When I heard that the History Channel was running a documentary on Charles Manson, I dreaded watching it. However, although it represented one of the darkest periods in the late 1960s, I learned that the “Light” was able to influence an individual to stop it from being much worse. I entitled this segment the “Embodiment” of the “Shadow” because, Charles Manson willingly took on the persona of the “prince of this world.” This was unlike Richard Nixon’s ego being used as a tool by the “Shadow” to fulfill “his” agenda. In Manson’s case his ego chose to become the embodiment of “evil.” So what about the young “hippies” that carried out the murders; did they choose to be tools as well? This question has perplexed me for quite some time as I’ve listened to the lawyers for the female members of the “Manson Family” lobbying for their parole, citing that at the time they were under Manson’s control and that now they have changed and are ready to re-enter society. Before I discuss the answer, let us take a moment to briefly review the event. The excerpts below are taken from the Wikipedia entry for the Manson Family:

The events that would culminate in the murders were set in motion in late spring 1968, when, by some accounts, Dennis Wilson, of The Beach Boys, picked up two hitchhiking Manson women and brought them to his Pacific Palisades house for a few hours…
Inside the house, Wilson discovered 12 strangers, mostly women. Over the next few months, as their number doubled, the Family members who had made themselves part of Wilson's Sunset Boulevard household cost him approximately $100,000…
Wilson paid for studio time to record songs written and performed by Manson, and he introduced Manson to acquaintances of his with roles in the entertainment business. These included Gregg Jakobson, Terry Melcher, and Rudi Altobelli…

When Dennis Wilson’s manager said the “Family” needed to leave Wilson’s house, Manson relocated the group to a deserted Movie Ranch owned by the 80-year-old George Spahn. In exchange for helping on the ranch and occasional sexual intercourse with the women Spahn allowed Manson and the Family to live there rent-free.
December of 1968, Manson heard the Beatles “White Album” and saw a secret message for him and the Family in its lyrics. According to his “fellow inmates” while he was in jail Manson believed he would be more famous than the Beatles, even though he believed the group “were ‘the soul’ and part of ‘the hole in the infinite’.” After hearing the Beatles White Album, Manson saw it connected to his plan to incite a racial war. That New Year’s Eve around “a large fire”, Manson laid out his master plan:

Manson explained that the social turmoil he had been predicting had also been predicted by the Beatles. The White Album songs, he declared, told it all, although in code. In fact, he maintained (or would soon maintain), the album was directed at the Family itself, an elect group that was being instructed to preserve the worthy from the impending disaster.
In early January 1969, the Family escaped the desert's cold and positioned itself to monitor L.A.'s supposed tension by moving to a canary-yellow home in Canoga Park, not far from the Spahn Ranch. Because this locale would allow the group to remain "submerged beneath the awareness of the outside world," …There, Family members prepared for the impending apocalypse, which, around the campfire, Manson had termed "Helter Skelter," after the song of that name.
By February, Manson's vision was complete. The Family would create an album whose songs, as subtle as those of the Beatles, would trigger the predicted chaos. Ghastly murders of whites by blacks would be met with retaliation, and a split between racist and non-racist whites would yield whites' self-annihilation. Blacks' triumph, as it were, would merely precede their being ruled by the Family, which would ride out the conflict in "the bottomless pit"—a secret city beneath Death Valley. At the Canoga Park house, while Family members worked on vehicles and pored over maps to prepare for their desert escape, they also worked on songs for their world-changing album. When they were told Terry Melcher was to come to the house to hear the material, the women prepared a meal and cleaned the place; but Melcher never arrived.

Still attempting to get an album produced, in March, Manson went looking for Terry Melcher at his residence. However, instead of Melcher, Manson discovered that Rudi Altobelli was renting his property to Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski. Manson and the Family did eventually meet up with Melcher two months later when he visited them on the Spahn Ranch “to hear Manson and the women sing. Melcher arranged a subsequent visit, not long thereafter, on which he brought a friend who possessed a mobile recording unit; but he himself did not record the group.”
Whether Manson was frustrated that Melcher did not record his album or not according to the entry, “By June, Manson was telling the Family they might have to show blacks how to start ‘Helter Skelter’.” (“Helter Skelter” was the title of a particularly “loud” track on the Beatles White Album.) Manson’s first act in his plan was to send Watson “Tex” to get funds for the Family to “prepare for the conflict.” After the African American “drug dealer” Watson cheated threatened “to wipe out everyone at Spahn Ranch” Manson answered the threat by murdering him in his “Hollywood Apartment” July 1st.
This murder must have spurred Manson, because a little over three weeks later, he sent three Family members to intimidate his acquaintance Gary Hinman “to turn over money Manson thought Hinman had inherited.” After being held hostage for two days, Manson decided to cut of Hinman’s ear. But even this wasn’t enough for Manson and he ordered Bobby Beausoleil to stab the man to death. Fortunately, Beausoleil was caught driving Hinman’s car and according to the entry “the police found the murder weapon in the tire well.” Rather than give Manson pause to re-consider his “helter Skelter” plan, “Two days after Beausoleil’s arrest, Manson told Family members at Spahn Ranch, ‘Now is the time for Helter Skelter’.”
I am not going to recount the details of the horrific murders, but suffice to say the “blood-lust” aspect of them reveals the masculine energy of the “Shadow” was well and truly present. However, I said earlier that the “Light” was able to mitigate the events from being much worse through influencing an individual at the scene. The individual the “Light” influenced was Linda Kasabian, who although being present at the location of both murder sites did not take part in them. The entry records Linda’s actions those fateful nights:

On the night of August 8, Manson directed Watson to take Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel—one of the hitchhikers allegedly picked up by Dennis Wilson—to "that house where Melcher used to live" and "totally destroy everyone in [it], as gruesome as you can." He told the women to do as Watson would instruct them.
When the four arrived …Watson…climbed a telephone pole near the gate and cut the phone line. It was now around midnight and into August 9, 1969.
…After cutting the screen of an open window of the main house, Watson told Kasabian to keep watch down by the gate. He removed the screen, entered through the window, and let Atkins and Krenwinkel in through the front door…
…Kasabian, drawn up from the driveway by "horrifying sounds", arrived outside the door and, in a vain effort to halt the massacre, told Atkins falsely that someone was coming…
The next night, six Family members—Leslie Van Houten, Steve "Clem" Grogan plus the four from the previous night—rode out at Manson’s instruction. Displeased by the panic of the victims at Cielo Drive, Manson accompanied the six; "to show [them] how to do it." …Manson gave Kasabian directions…to… (the)…home of supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, a dress shop co-owner…the LaBianca home was next door to a house at which Manson and Family members had attended a party the previous year.
According to Atkins and Kasabian, Manson returned, after disappearing up the driveway, to say he had tied up the house's occupants; he then sent Watson up with Krenwinkel and Van Houten…

According to the entry, Manson had directed Linda Kasabian to go with two other members of the Family to “the Venice home of an actor acquaintance of hers…” However, the “Light” used her to prevent the additional murder. The entry explains:

Kasabian thwarted this murder by deliberately knocking on the wrong apartment door and waking a stranger. As the group abandoned the murder plan and left, Susan Atkins defecated in the stairwell.

The process in apprehending the murderers was also indicative of the “Light’s” influence. At first, because the three murder scenes were not connected the police thought they were dealing with separate crimes:

The Tate murders had become news on August 9, 1969, after the Polanskis’ housekeeper, Winifred Chapman, arrived for work that morning and discovered the murder scene. On August 10—while the Tate autopsies were under way and the LaBianca bodies were yet to be discovered—detectives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which had jurisdiction in the Hinman case, informed Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives assigned to the Tate case of the bloody writing at the Hinman house. The Tate team, thinking the Tate murders a consequence of a drug transaction, ignored this and the crimes' other similarities…
By the end of August, when virtually all leads had gone nowhere, a report by the LaBianca detectives, generally younger than the Tate team, noted a possible connection between the bloody writings at the LaBianca house and "the singing group the Beatles’ most recent album."
In mid-October, the LaBianca team, still working separately from the Tate team, checked with the sheriff’s office about possible similar crimes and learned of the Hinman case. They also learned that the Hinman detectives had spoken with Beausoleil’s girlfriend, Kitty Lutesinger, who had been arrested a few days earlier with members of "the Manson Family."
The arrests had taken place at the desert ranches, to which the Family had moved and whence, unknown to authorities, its members had been searching Death Valley for a hole in the ground—access to the Bottomless Pit. A joint force of National Park rangers and officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office—federal, state, and county personnel—had raided both the Myers and Barker ranches after following clues unwittingly left when Family members burned an earthmover owned by Death Valley National Monument. The raiders had found stolen dune buggies and other vehicles and had arrested two dozen people, including Manson. A Highway Patrol officer found Manson hiding in a cabinet beneath Barker's bathroom sink.
A month after they too, had spoken with Lutesinger, the LaBianca detectives made contact with members of a motorcycle gang she'd told them Manson had tried to enlist as his bodyguards while the Family was at Spahn Ranch. While the gang members were providing information that suggested a link between Manson and the murders, a dormitory mate of Susan Atkins succeeded in informing LAPD of the Family’s involvement in the crimes. One of those arrested at Barker, Atkins had been booked for the Hinman murder after she’d confirmed to the sheriff’s detectives that she’d been involved in it, as Lutesinger had said. Transferred to Sybil Brand Institute, a detention center in Los Angeles, she had begun talking to bunkmates Ronnie Howard and Virginia Graham, to whom she gave accounts of the events in which she had been involved.
On December 1, 1969, acting on the information from these sources, LAPD announced warrants for the arrest of Watson, Krenwinkel, and Kasabian in the Tate case; the suspects' involvement in the LaBianca murders was noted. Manson and Atkins, already in custody, were not mentioned; the connection between the LaBianca case and Van Houten, who was also among those arrested near Death Valley, had not yet been recognized.
Watson and Krenwinkel, too, were already under arrest, authorities in McKinney, Texas and Mobile, Alabama having picked them up on notice from LAPD. Informed that there was a warrant out for her arrest, Kasabian voluntarily surrendered to authorities in Concord, New Hampshire on December 2.
Before long, physical evidence such as Krenwinkel's and Watson's fingerprints, which had been collected by LAPD at Cielo Drive, was augmented by evidence recovered by the public. On September 1, 1969, the distinctive .22-caliber Hi Standard "Buntline Special" revolver Watson used on Parent, Sebring, and Frykowski had been found and given to the police by Steven Weiss, a ten-year-old who lived near the Tate residence. In mid-December, when the Los Angeles Times published a crime account based on information Susan Atkins had given her attorney, Weiss' father made several phone calls which finally prompted LAPD to locate the gun in its evidence file and connect it with the murders via ballistics tests. Acting on that same newspaper account, a local ABC television crew quickly located and recovered the bloody clothing discarded by the Tate killers…A knife found behind the cushion of a chair in the Tate living room was apparently that of Susan Atkins, who lost her knife in the course of the attack.

The trial was a fiasco, which the megalomaniac Charles Manson played to the hilt. He seemed to have total control over the three women charged with him and “Tex” Watson as whatever he did they followed suit. All five were found guilty and sentenced to the gas chamber. However, executing Manson would have been disastrous as it would have released his consciousness into the world to prey on weak minded souls to carry out his plan of death and terror. For this reason the “Light” influenced the passing of the Law on April 24th 1972 that ruled the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment (I will be discussing this landmark moment in U.S History later). This law commuted all death row inmates’ sentences to life in prison. However, although the “Light” ensured that Charles Manson was not executed it is important that he is never paroled, because he would most certainly attempt to continue his plan of creating anarchy and chaos.
As for the three women and man who carried out the instructions of Manson and seemed to enjoy the murders and have no remorse, assessing their actions is a little more complicated. Above I related that originally I had considered LSD as very dangerous. One of the reasons I felt this was because of the Tate and LaBianca murders. Reports that the “Family” had taken LSD before the murders vindicated the authorities making the substance illegal. Still, Linda Kasabian acknowledged that she too had taken LSD and yet she was able to resist taking lives and even prevented a murder.
The second consideration was that these young people were Baby Boomers and were part of the generation born to later transform the world, so how could “advanced” souls be capable of such atrocities. The answer lies in the fact that although everyone born between the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 and 1983 were potential members of the 777,000, not all of them will reach that level of consciousness. The same can be said for taking LSD, which is neutral and can be beneficial to both the “Light” and the “Shadow”, some people will expand their consciousness and work towards the “Light’s” plan; whereas some individuals will surrender their consciousness to the “Shadow.”
In conclusion then, although I am not for one minute saying that the actions of the five young people are excusable in any way, because the influence of the “Shadow’s” representative (Manson) and the mind altering drugs their natural humanity that would have made their actions abhorrent, was temporarily removed. Anyway, as I said this episode was a death knell for so many in the hippie movement. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only one. In December of 1969, as if to demonstrate the end of the era of the Hope of Peace, an event billed as another Woodstock ended the year in a very different way. This event was the free concert held in December in Altamont, California. The entry for hippies describes how different the event was to Woodstock:

In December 1969, a similar event took place in Altamont, California, about 30 miles (45 km) east of San Francisco. Initially billed as "Woodstock West", its official name was The Altamont Free Concert. About 300,000 people gathered to hear The Rolling Stones; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Jefferson Airplane and other bands. The Hells Angels provided security that proved far less benevolent than the security provided at the Woodstock event: 18-year-old Meredith Hunter was stabbed and killed during The Rolling Stones' performance.

Still, the 60s did not end completely on a violent note as John Lennon released one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. The entry for the Bed-in reports:

In December 1969 John and Yoko spread their messages of peace with billboards reading "WAR IS OVER! If You Want It - Happy Christmas From John and Yoko". These Billboards went up in eleven major world cities.

TRIAL ON JFK’S ASSASSINATION SPLITS AMERICA

Before moving on to the next decade, there is one more defining moment of the 60s that I must address. Earlier, I alluded to an energetic and consciousness impact of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. The reason I did not discuss it at the time was because the ramifications of the assassination would not become apparent until six years later in 1969 when the District Attorney of New Orleans brought a local businessman up on charges of conspiracy in the assassination of President Kennedy. Before I address the ramifications, I will relate what Jim Garrison’s entry on Wikipedia has to say:

New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison began an investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy in the fall of 1966, after receiving several tips from Jack Martin that a man named David Ferrie may have been involved in the assassination. The end result of Garrison's investigation was the arrest and trial of New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw in 1969.
Garrison's key witness against Clay Shaw was Perry Russo, a twenty-five year old insurance salesman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During the trial, Russo testified that he had attended an "assassination party" at David Ferrie's apartment, where Shaw, Ferrie, and Lee Harvey Oswald had discussed killing President Kennedy. Russo’s version of events has been questioned by some historians and researchers, such as Patricia Lambert, once it became known that part of his testimony was induced by hypnotism, and by the drug Sodium Pentothal (sometimes called "truth serum"). Indeed, the early version of Russo's testimony, as told in the DA memo, before he was subjected to Sodium Pentothal and hypnosis, fails to mention an "assassination party" and says that Russo met Clay Shaw on two occasions, neither of which occurred at the "party." However in Jim Garrison's book On the Trail of the Assassins, he says Russo had already told of the party at David Ferrie's before any "truth serum" was admitted. The jury didn't see enough evidence to convict Shaw. A verdict of not guilty was given.
Garrison was able to subpoena the Zapruder film from Life magazine and show it to the public for the first time. Until the trial, the film had rarely been seen, and bootleg copies made by assassination investigators working with Garrison led to the film's wider distribution.
In 1973, Garrison was tried for accepting bribes to protect illegal pinball machine operations. Pershing Gervais, Garrison's former chief investigator, testified that Garrison had received approximately $3,000 every two months for nine years from the dealers. Garrison acting as his own defense attorney, called the allegations baseless, alleging they were concocted as part U.S. government sought to destroy him because of his efforts to implicate the CIA in the Kennedy assassination. The jury found Garrison not guilty…

The reason the trial split America is because it caused a real conflict in the consciousness of America. The constant playing of the Zapruder film on nightly television news forced people to address the possibility that Lee Harvey Oswald was exactly what he claimed to be “a Patsy.” The conflict arose in that if people accepted Jim Garrison’s theory that there was a conspiracy then that meant there was also a cover up with the Warren Commission that determined that Oswald was the sole assassin. As the trial progressed and news reporters covering the trial reported on the testimony, more and more people began to have doubts about the official conclusion. Essentially this led to disillusionment with the American government, especially as thousands of young men were dying for their country in Vietnam.
Having seen the Zapruder film myself, I have absolutely no doubt that President Kennedy was shot at least once from the front. However, I can understand why the Warren Commission maintained that Oswald was the sole assassin. If they had admitted that there was a conspiracy without being able to say exactly who was involved the suspicion and fear would have torn America apart. Consequently, I believe the members of the commission decided that it was better to maintain the sole assassin position and leave people to conjecture. Unfortunately, the members of the Baby Boomers were the hardest to convince and the thought that the US government had lied to them gave rise to anger and resentment, which manifested in the anti-war riots of the 1970s.
However, before I move onto the 1970s, in the previous “upstepping” I said that J. Edgar Hoover’s influence in this “upstepping” had grown so that he “was not only the most powerful figure in law enforcement, but also held significant political power.” Interestingly, while I was reviewing this section before posting it we began reading a book about the Kennedy’s, BROTHERS: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years,17 by David Talbot. The book tells the story of the assassination and “investigation” from Robert Kennedy’s perspective and focuses on who RFK believed responsible for his brother’s murder.
I knew of the antagonism between the Director of the FBI and the Kennedy brothers, however, I was surprised to learn of J. Edgar Hoover’s attitude to “organized crime.” Mr. Talbot cites Robert Kennedy’s “close” friend “…former Pulitzer Prize—winning Seattle Times reporter Edwin Guthman”18 as recently saying, “Bob (RFK) was right to worry about organized crime taking over our country. Where would we be if he hadn’t recognized the power and importance of the Mafia and the rackets? This was a time when the chief of the FBI, Hoover, was saying there was no such thing as organized crime.”19
“No such thing as organized crime”, wasn’t the FBI created because of organized crime? In hearing this statement I realized the J. Edgar Hoover was demonstrating the old adage of “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I interpret this in, as the FBI had grown in influence, so had Hoover’s political influence. We do not know how former administrations had interacted with Hoover, but I suspect that he pretty much had a free hand. However, when JFK was elected and appointed his brother Robert as the Attorney General, Hoover’s power was seriously curtailed. Although I do not think that the Director of the FBI had anything to do with the assassination, his attitude and animosity towards the Kennedy’s would certainly empower the “Shadow” to influence the perpetrators.
The sub-title 1963 – Turning Point demonstrates how pivotal the assassination of JFK and a comment about the ramifications of the change in administration to the relationship with the Soviet Union was thought-provoking. Quoting Bill Walton, a trusted friend of the Kennedy’s that Bobby Kennedy dispatched to Moscow following his brother’s assassination comments to Georgi Bolshakov a “Soviet agent” about JFK’s successor: “…he (Walton) shared with Bolshakov the Kennedy’s true scornful feelings about JFK’s successor. Johnson was ‘a clever timeserver’ who would be ‘incapable of realizing Kennedy’s unfinished plans.’ More pro-business than JFK, Johnson was certain to stock his administration with a legion of corporate representatives. The one hope for peaceful relations between the two countries was Robert McNamara. Walton described the defense secretary as ‘completely sharing the views of President Kennedy on matters of war and peace.”20
Considering that the Cold War did not end for more than two decades and in fact during the 80s escalated, I would have thought that the hope pinned on the Kennedy’s for peace was a little unrealistic. However, Mr. Talbot reports something so remarkable for this time in history that I was amazed. Evidently, when the Soviet premier “Khrushchev heard about Kennedy’s death, he had broken down and wept. ‘He just wandered around his office for several days, like he was in a daze,’ a Soviet official told Pierre Salinger.”21
The above enforced my conclusion that the assassination of JFK was the start of the “Shadow’s” influence dominating the world. Of course, with the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, “he” ensured that the reigns of America and therefore the world were firmly in “his” hands, metaphorically speaking. Please understand, I am not endorsing the Oliver Stone’s movie JFK’s plot that proposed that LBJ was complicit in the assassination, merely that President Johnson’s philosophy of pro-business enabled the “Shadow” to begin shifting the way America operated. Consequently, although the “Light” was successful with the passing of the Civil Rights Bill, the scene was set for the American government to become a tool for big business and special interests.
There is one more thing I would like to address about the three “Lights of Hope”, especially John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. Over the decades since the assassinations, information and rumors of President Kennedy’s possible affairs, particularly his and Robert Kennedy’s connection with Marilyn Monroe’s suicide have persisted. There have also been some comments on the faithfulness of Dr. King.
The possible validity of these accusations would seem to tarnish their roles as representative’s of the “Light.” I will not address the validity of any accusation laid at Dr. King or the Kennedy’s door, because they are irrelevant. It is important to understand that every soul that incarnates with or without a special mission has to contend with his or her ego and counterfeit spirit. Moreover, none of the “Lights of Hope” were members of the “Orders of the Quest.” All three men were simply of the nature that could promote the “Light’s” plan to help the Human Race spiritually progress. I will end this decade of Hope with Robert F Kennedy’s words recorded in David Talbot’s book:
 “I found out something I never knew. I found out that my world was not the real world.” –Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
To be honest, I did not know how important the BROTHERS book was to my thesis until we read about RFK’s two and a half year stint as chief counsel for the Senate Rackets Commitee. I am not going to discuss this as the author so succinctly relates it and consequently, I am going to recommend that you treat yourself to this explosive expose. To give you an example of how important its contents are, I have selected a few excerpts about this life-determining period of RFK’s life:

“Kennedy’s primary motive in taking on organized crime was his fear that it was becoming intertwined with government and business…There was no more shocking example than the CIA-Mafia merger…Kennedy knew how entwined American power was becoming with criminal forces…when distinguished senators and governors came before his committee to argue on behalf of organized crime despots, and when executives from fortune 500 companies…testified about deals they cut…to assure labor peace…. Kennedy saw this…human greed and turmpoil as…a battle for country’s very soul.”22

I think the above excerpts adequately describe what the RFK and JFK were facing in the early 1960s. However, Bobby Kennedy’s own words sums it up from the spiritual perspective when as David Talbot relates, how RFK described the gallery of thieves he “interviewed” during the committee as a “conspiracy of evil.” We will see how true these words were as we progress in this thesis.

SUMMARY OF THE 1960S

In looking at the decade of the 60s objectively, I would have to say that on the whole it was a decade that promised hope, but was overwhelmed by the “Shadow’s” influence. Nonetheless, although the Baby Boomers lost their role models John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F Kennedy, their collective messages of Peace, Love and Justice was carried through into the future for us to review when we were older and hopefully wiser.
As for evaluating the behavior of the Baby Boomers who came of age during the sixties that can be assessed only by taking into account the spiritual aspect. It is important to keep in mind that those who were born to transform the world, incarnated with certain predetermined imperatives.

  •  1 – To raise their consciousness.
  •  2 – To examine reality.
  •  3 – To change the status quo.
  •  4 – To address injustice and intolerance.
  •  5 – To transform themselves and the world.

There is no argument that using LSD and other mind-altering drugs shifts your perspective on reality and raises and expands consciousness. This explains why the Baby Boomers were drawn to experiment with psychedelic drugs. Imperatives 3, 4, and 5 explain why so many of them were drawn to the Civil Rights Movement and later the Peace Movement. One of the biggest complaints leveled against the young people of the 1960s was their sexual promiscuity, which is enforced with their slogan to “make love, not war.” This aspect of the mass consciousness can be explained through a perversion of the knowledge of how to affect a transformation.
In Section 7 I discussed in respect to Tantric Sex how The Mysteries teach that transformation incorporates the Life-force or sex-force, which is raised to the mental level and used to transform the ego. As I’ve said before, many people have interpreted this as needing to engage in physical intercourse in order to contact the Divine. This ritual was enacted as the Hieros Gamos or Sacred Marriage. Of course, when those who were to achieve this transformation, the 777,000 reached maturity they would understand that it was not about physical sex.
Finally, in conclusion of my examination of the 1960s, I would also define it as the decade the music changed, becoming more influential rather than just easy listening for entertainment. From an energetic perspective this is very interesting, because music plays a large part in The Mysteries and was used to carry sacred knowledge through the ages by the bards. Beginning in the 1960s, music became the vehicle for spiritual messages to be imparted to the young people affecting the consciousness. However, what started in the 60s with a few artists, exploded in the following decades. For instance, in the next decade, music became a commentary on the Vietnam War.

(Thesis-2nd Quarter) FULL CIRCLE THE MYSTERIES UNCLOAKED GLOBE D —e
SECTION 12C 1945 C.E – 1976 C.E.

1970S DECADE OF DEATH

When I was given the sub-title for this part, I was a little surprised, but as I progressed I began to see why. In spiritual terms Death represents transformation, this transformation is normally for the better, but in the case of the Baby Boomer generation, it represented the majority of them temporarily forgetting their purpose for incarnation. This is demonstrated in the writer Tom Wolfe designating the 70s as the “Me Decade”, which was the anti-thesis of the previous decade. Coincidentally, as I was starting this segment the History Channel aired a documentary entitled 70s Fever, narrated by David Cassidy. Although the documentary was primarily concerned with events in America, it was an invaluable tool to my discovering what happened to the Baby Boomers.
Unfortunately, the designation of the Decade of Death for the 70s also applies in the literal sense, as in death of both ideals and people. One of the most obvious reasons for the title was the Vietnam War, which although Richard Nixon had wanted to end peacefully, was anything but. The Peace treaty that he was instrumental in delaying never came to fruition. This can be explained as a direct result of Nixon blocking the energetic flow of peace for selfish reasons. As a result, although he genuinely wanted peace, because of his actions, there was no real energy behind it and therefore no impetus. There was however, a significant change in 1970 in respect to the Vietnam War; the method of selecting draftees through a lottery was changed. The entry for Selective Service System records this change:

In the 1970 and subsequent draft lotteries, a different method was used. Scientists at the National Bureau of Standards randomly prepared 78 permutations of the numbers from 1 to 365 (or 366 in leap years), using random numbers selected from published sources.
From the 78 permutations, 25 were selected at random and translated to calendars using 1 = January 1, 365 = December 31, etc. The calendars were sealed into envelopes. 25 more permutations were selected and left untranslated and sealed into 25 more envelopes. The 50 envelopes were furnished to the Selective Service System.
On June 29, an official picked one of the calendar envelopes and one of the permutation envelopes. The 365 days of the year were written down and placed into capsules and put in a drum in the order dictated by the contents of the calendar envelope. Similarly, the numbers from 1 to 365 were written down and placed into capsules in the order dictated by the permutation in the permutation envelope.
On July 1, the drawing date, one drum was rotated for an hour and the other for a half-hour (its rotating mechanism failed).
Pairs of capsules were then drawn, one from each drum. The first date out of the drum with the date capsules was September 16; the first number drawn from the drum with the numbers was 139. Thus men born on September 16th were drafted in 139th order. The 11th draws were the date July 9 and the number 1, so men born on July 9 were drafted first.

Another thing that happened in 1970 was the Vietnam War spread to Cambodia. This appeared to support the Domino Theory that President Eisenhower warned of.

CONFLICT IN VIETNAM SPREADS TO CAMBODIA

Although I mentioned how the Vietnam War entry explained the Domino Theory proposed by President Eisenhower earlier, in 1970 the events in Asia made the validity of the theory even more evident. To recap: the theory was that “if one country fell to communist forces, then all of the surrounding countries would follow.” The entry continues:

It was, and is still, commonly hypothesized that it applied to Vietnam. John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator, said in a speech to the American Friends of Vietnam: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam."

To catch up with the situation in Vietnam in 1970, we need to backtrack for a moment to examine what President Nixon had done since taking office. To be fair, I used the entry for Richard Nixon to supply the information. According to the entry when Richard Nixon took office in 1969 “300 American soldiers were dying per week in Vietnam.” Evidently, fulfilling his campaign promise to reduce the number of troops in Vietnam in June 1969, President Nixon “reduced troop strength in Vietnam by 25,000 soldiers, who returned home to the United States.”
In learning of this, I wondered why the war did not end more quickly, but then I learned of President Nixon’s decision to bomb Cambodia in March of ‘69. The entry relates:

Nixon approved a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia in March 1969… to destroy what was believed to be the headquarters of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam. The Air Force considered the bombings a success…

Whether or not the bombings were the result, Cambodia began to destabilize and in 1970 a military coup took place. Like the ousting of Premier Diem in 1963, the military coup according to the entry for Cambodia, was supported by the U.S. However, what no one knew was the destabilization of Cambodia would lead to one of the worst case of genocides in history. Still as this did not happen for several years, I will leave that discussion until later. Here I am interested in the events that started the process. The entry recounts the events that led up to the catastrophe:

In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father in order to be elected Prime Minister. Upon his father's death in 1960, Sihanouk again became head of state, taking the title of Prince. As the Vietnam War progressed, Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality in the Cold War. However, Cambodians began to take sides, and he was ousted in 1970 by a military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak with the back-up support of the United States, while on a trip abroad. Settling in the next alternative country, Beijing, China, Sihanouk was forced to realign himself with the Chinese communist. Soon the Khmer Rouge rebels would use him for gaining territory in the regions. The King urged his followers to help in overthrowing the pro-United States government of Lon Nol, hastening the onset of civil war.

In America the Peace Movement had lost momentum by the end of the 60s, because it was without leadership, having lost the two strongest proponents for Peace, Dr. King and Robert Kennedy. However, a decision by President Nixon was about to revitalize the peace movement. Richard Nixon’s entry on Wikipedia relates that despite withdrawing troops from Vietnam, he sent U.S. troops into Laos and Cambodia:

He soon enacted phased U.S. troop withdrawals but authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail that passed through Laos and Cambodia…In a televised speech on April 30, 1970, Nixon announced the incursion of U.S. troops into Cambodia to disrupt so-called North Vietnamese sanctuaries. This led to protest and student strikes that temporarily closed 536 universities, colleges, and high schools.

Although Richard Nixon’s entry passes over the reaction from the university students quickly, President Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia would lead to one of the most shameful acts in this nation’s history. Although President Nixon’s speech revitalized the peace movement, the peace movement of the 70s was a very different animal from its predecessor.

KENT STATE MASSACRE

The president’s speech elicited such a strong reaction at Kent State University that some of the students burned down the ROTC building on campus. The governor of Ohio responded by calling out Ohio’s National Guard. This event is recorded in the entry for the Kent State Massacre:

The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent-State massacre, occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.
Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30. Other students who were shot had merely been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.
There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students, and the event further divided the country, at this already socially contentious time, along political lines…

The tragedy at Kent State did not stop the anti-war demonstrations, on the contrary it only incensed more protests. However, more and more these protests were not peaceful demonstrations, but mobs of young people screaming and waving banners in which dozens of them were arrested. Consequently, I identify the first instance of death in the 70s as the death of the Peace Movement instigated by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Hippies. Talking of the hippies, I said earlier that the Tate/LaBianca murders by Charles Manson led to a change in the general public’s perception of the hippies. This culminated in the “moral panic” of the time directed at the hippies. So how did the Hippies react? The entry for the Hippies relates about the hippies after the Manson incident:

By the 1970s, the 1960s zeitgeist that had spawned hippie culture seemed to be on the wane. The events at Altamont Free Concert shocked many Americans, including those who had strongly identified with hippie culture. Another shock came in the form of the Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murders committed in August 1969 by Charles Manson and his "family" of followers. Nevertheless, the turbulent political atmosphere that featured the bombing of Cambodia and shootings by National Guardsmen at Jackson State University and Kent State University still brought people together…
Much of hippie style had been integrated into mainstream American society by the early 1970s. Large rock concerts that originated with the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and the 1968 Isle of Wight Festival became the norm. In the mid-1970s, with the end of the draft and the Vietnam War, a renewal of patriotic sentiment associated with the approach of the United States Bicentennial and the emergence of punk in London and New York, the mainstream media lost interest in the hippie counterculture. Acid rock gave way to heavy metal, disco, and punk rock…
At the same time, many thoughtful hippies distanced themselves from the very idea that the way a person dresses could be a reliable signal of who he was, especially after outright criminals, like Charles Manson, began to adopt hippie personas, and also after plainclothes policemen started to "dress like hippies" in order to harass legitimate members of the counter-culture…

The documentary 70s Fever explained that “by the end of the decade people were ready for a return to order.” A commentator on the documentary related that Richard Nixon had tapped into “the fear, anger and disillusionment of the silent majority” as the “candidate of law and order.” Essentially, this meant that America entered the 70s “divided.” The young people were angry which was reflected with their music, which began to change in 1970. Some artists songs such as Edwin Star’s “War” had strong messages with lyrics like “War, good God, what is it good for? - Absolutely nothing.
However, the greatest change in the 70s was the advent of Disco, with disco night-clubs popping up in every town. Although I had come of age in the disco era, I was unfamiliar as to how it started. The documentary 70s Fever provided the answer for me in relating that it began with a hippie called David Mancusco, a disciple of Timothy Leary holding private parties called “Love Saves the Day”, which was held at the “Loft.” The “Loft’s” entry on Wikipedia provides the following excerpt:

The Loft is the location for the first underground dance party (Love Saves the Day) that was created by David Mancuso on February 14, 1970 in New York. Since then, the term The Loft has come to represent Mancuso's own version of a non-commercial party where no alcohol, food, or beverages are sold…Unlike conventional nightclubs or discotheques, attendance is by invitation only…
When Mancuso threw his first informal house parties, the gay community was often harassed in the bars and dance clubs. At The Loft and many other early, private discotheques they could dance together without fear of police action, thanks to Mancuso's legal, yet underground business model.
The initial Loft was Mancuso's own home …The collapse of a neighboring hotel forced a move to …Soho in 1975. Vociferous community opposition ensued, and the party lay dormant for a year during the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs' longest administrative trial to date, based on their insistence that Mancuso required a "cabaret license". The department decreed in 1975 that he was free to host his parties as long as there were no sales of food or beverages. This decision set a new precedent that benefited…other private "clubs" in the process. The period also saw Mancuso's space serve as headquarters for the New York Record Pool, the very first Record Pool, which he founded with Vince Aletti and Steve D'Acquisto. Many of the disco era's leading disc jockeys…were early Loft attendees. Their venues …were influenced by the Loft…

Ultimately, David Mancusco is known as the “Father of the club scene.” The documentary stated that “Love Saves the Day” was a euphemism for LSD, which was taken at the “Loft.” As I reported, LSD was taken in order to expand the mind, but unfortunately the advent of “club scene” transformed the desires of the Baby Boomers from wanting to expand their consciousness, to simply taking drugs to feel good.
Narrator David Cassidy explained that the Kent State Massacre “represented” a generation at war with itself and began the downward spiral of mistrust of the government. This culminated in the release of the Pentagon Papers in June of 1972, which revealed that although the government had said the Vietnam War was going well, top officials believed that the war was un-winnable. This was exacerbated by nightly scenes on the news of the horrors of war. Nonetheless, the war continued and the anti-war riots became even more violent. One of the commentators on the documentary related that after the release of the Pentagon Papers, people felt so disillusioned that they were desperate to escape. This is when the drug lords stepped forward to provide copious amounts of “feel good” drugs. Unfortunately, the drugs available were the highly addictive cocaine and amphetamines.
Interestingly, the hippies were distrustful of people that took amphetamines calling them “speed freaks.” These drugs were not only highly addictive, but users quickly became desensitized to the drug, requiring larger and larger quantities to get “high.” This new culture of drug taking led to a relaxation of moral behavior, so much so that the early 1970s saw an explosion in sexual experimentation. This behavior quickly spread to the middle class especially after the release of the film “Deep Throat” in the summer of 1972. I knew that suburbia was engaging in wife-swapping parties in the early 70s, however, I was not aware that in America actual sex clubs opened in New York. A “sex club” mentioned in the documentary was the “Continental Baths” located in the basement of New York’s Ansonia Hotel. The entry for this establishment records that:

The features of this bathhouse included a disco dance floor, a cabaret lounge, sauna rooms, an "Olympia blue" swimming pool, and could serve nearly 1,000 men, 24 hours a day.
One gay guide from the 1970s described the Continental Baths as a place that "revolutionized the bath scene in New York."
Some features of the Continental Bathhouse included a warning system that tipped off patrons when police arrived. There were also a STD clinic, a supply of A200 (a lice-killing shampoo) in the showers and K-Y Jelly in the sweets dispensing machine.

"The Continental Baths in New York, the most exciting club of the lot, were host to the social register on Fridays. The baths were on the West Side, above Columbus Circle, in an old building: $11 entry. The dance floor was alongside a very large swimming pool with fountains, surrounded by beach chairs. Off to the side was a labyrinthine, white-tiled Turkish bath whose corridors ended in pitch black. The scalding steam took your breath away; in the darkest recesses a continuous orgy was under way, but the heat was so searing that only the most intrepid could get it up. Besides the Turkish bath, there were saunas, 100 bedrooms, a restaurant, a bar, a games room, a hair-dresser, backrooms with bunks, pitch-black orgy rooms and a sunroof; on a weekend it would be packed. It was possible to live there and, at $11 a night, cheaper than a hotel or apartment. I met one young man who had lived there for three months; he had only left the building a couple of times…The handsomest were the drug dealers…"

As is recorded in the entry the Continental Baths were originally a place were the Gay community could meet. This was because in the 1960s and early 70s homosexual acts were considered illegal and punished severely. Nonetheless, it was during the 1970s that the Gay Liberation Front was born, which began fighting for Gay Rights.

GAY PRIDE IS BORN

According to the documentary the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) arose from an incident at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. At the time homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, which was treatable. However, on June 28th 1969, the Gay community in Greenwich Village reached the final breaking point. The entry for the GLF relates what happened that fateful night and its repercussions:

The Stonewall riots are considered by many as the catalyst in the organization of the GLF and other gay and lesbian movements…On 27 June 1969 in Greenwich Village, New York, a gay bar was raided by New York police, routine at the time…When the police arrived, the customers began pelting them with coins, and later, bottles and rocks. The crowd also freed staff members who were put into police vans, and the outnumbered officers retreated inside the bar…For the next several nights, the crowd would return in ever increasing numbers, handing out leaflets and rallying themselves. In early July, due in large part to the riots in June, discussions in the gay community lead to the formation of the Gay Liberation Front…
The Gay Liberation Front was initially formed by thirty-seven men and women in light of the Stonewall Riots. The group’s first demonstration in response to the riots was the organization of a candlelight march, in which they demanded an end to homosexual persecution. The GLF was not only dedicated to gay rights, but also to the broader social ideals which dominated the 1960’s, including peace, equality and economic justice. Between 1969 and 1972, the GLF was an influential force, and ultimately consisted of more than 80 independent chapters across the United States and abroad…
Ideally, the GLF wanted to establish an open society, in which all individuals could express themselves freely, and it especially fought against machismo (the notion that masculinity is superior, and thus has a right to dominate), which the GLF felt oppressed all individuals in society – both straight and gay.

It seems that the Gay Rights movement spread to the United Kingdom and according to the entry “By 1971…was recognized as a political movement in the national press, holding weekly meetings of 200 to 300 people.” The events occurring in America were closely watched by the British public and there was growing concern that the promiscuity in the US was spreading to the UK. To counteract the American influence, outraged members of the public attempted to arrest the trend with the “launch of the Church-based morality campaign, Festival of Light”, which the UK chapter of the GLF “disrupted.”
Although the Gay Rights movement exists today, the GLF basically disbanded after the early 70s. The entry explains that “several members of the GLF including Peter Tatchell continued their campaigning beyond the 1970s under the banner of OutRage!”

WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Another Liberation Front also emerged victorious in the first half of the 1970s. However, unlike the GLF, which only affected a minority, this movement would change half the population. I am of course speaking of the women’s liberation movement or NOW (National Organization for Women). Wikipedia’s entry for the Second Wave of Feminism provides the historical background for this groundbreaking movement:

The second wave feminism came in as a response to the late 1940s post-war boom, an era not only characterized by an unprecedented economic growth, baby boom, suburbia expansion and the triumph of capitalism, being set as the standard socio-economic model that favors middle class development, but also an era marked by a consistent effort to re-establish pre-war patriarchal social trends. This fact was clearly illustrated by the media of time, television shows such as Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver idealized domesticity, placing women in a closed sphere where they only had to fulfill the roles of housewives and mothers…
The movement is usually believed to have begun in 1963, when "Mother of the Movement" Betty Friedan published her bestseller, The Feminine Mystique and President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women released its report on gender inequality. The report, which revealed great discrimination against women in American life, along with Friedan's book, which spoke to the discontent of many women (especially housewives), led to the formation of many local, state, and federal government women's groups as well as many independent women's liberation organizations. Friedan was referencing a "movement" as early as 1964.
The movement grew with legal victories such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965, and in 1966 Friedan joined other women and men to found the National Organization for Women.
Amongst the most significant legal victories of the movement after the formation of NOW were a 1967 Executive Order extending full Affirmative Action rights to women, Title IX and the Women's Educational Equity Act (1972 and 1975, educational equality), Title X (1970, health and family planning), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (1974), the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, the illegalization of marital rape and the legalization of no-fault divorce in all states, a 1975 law requiring the U.S. Military Academies to admit women, and many Supreme Court cases, perhaps most notably, Reed v. Reed of 1971 and Roe v. Wade of 1973. However, the changing of the social attitudes towards women are usually considered the greatest success of the women's movement.

I was absolutely astounded to read in the entry that in 1970 “President Richard Nixon vetoes the Comprehensive Child Development Act, which would have established federally funded childcare centers.” By this veto, the president was clearly attempting to maintain the status quo of the nuclear family. This further divided an already divided country over the Vietnam War. Irrespective of the president’s support, the momentum for equal rights for women was unstoppable. However, a Supreme Court decision in 1973, would lead to a division that has only grown wider over the intervening decades.

THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE VERSUS THE RIGHT TO LIFE WAR BEGINS

This division would have far-reaching affects both energetically and consciously, but before I address them let us review the nuts and bolts of the case. The entry for the Roe versus Wade landmark case has:

In September 1969, while working as a carnival side-show barker, Norma L. McCorvey discovered she was pregnant. She returned to Dallas, TX, where friends advised her to assert that she had been raped, because then she could obtain a legal abortion (with the understanding that Texas's anti-abortion laws allowed abortion in the cases of rape and incest). However, this scheme failed, as there was no police report documenting the alleged rape…Eventually, she was referred to attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington.
In 1970, attorneys Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington filed suit in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of Norma L. McCorvey (under the alias Jane Roe). At the time, McCorvey was no longer claiming her pregnancy was the result of rape, but she later acknowledged she had lied earlier about having been raped. The defendant in the case was Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade, representing the State of Texas. Although McCorvey was still hoping the courts would rule in her favor in time for her to end her unwanted pregnancy, she told her attorneys, "Let's do it for other women…"
The district court ruled in McCorvey's favor on the merits, but declined to grant an injunction against the enforcement of the laws barring abortion. The district court's decision was based upon the Ninth Amendment, and the court also relied upon a concurring opinion by Justice Arthur Goldberg in the 1965 Supreme Court case of Griswold v. Connecticut, regarding a right to use contraceptives. Few state laws proscribed contraceptives in 1965 when the Griswold case was decided, whereas abortion was widely proscribed by state laws in the early 1970s.
Roe v. Wade ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal…on October 11, 1972. Weddington continued to represent Roe, and Texas Assistant Attorney General Robert C. Flowers stepped in to replace Wade…
The court issued its decision on January 22, 1973, with a 7 to 2 majority vote in favor of McCorvey. Burger and Douglas' concurring opinion and White's dissenting opinion were issued separately, in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton.
The Roe Court deemed abortion a fundamental right under the United States Constitution, thereby subjecting all laws attempting to restrict it to the standard of strict scrutiny…
An aspect of the decision that attracted comparatively little attention was the Court's disposition of the issues of standing and mootness. Under the traditional interpretation of these rules, Jane Roe's appeal was "moot" because she had already given birth to her child and thus would not be affected by the ruling; she also lacked "standing" to assert the rights of other pregnant women… The Court concluded that the case came within an established exception to the rule; one that allowed consideration of an issue that was "capable of repetition, yet evading review." …
Some pro-life supporters argue that all nine justices in Roe failed to adequately recognize that life begins at fertilization (also referred to as conception) and should therefore be protected by the Constitution; the dissenting justices in Roe instead wrote that decisions about abortion "should be left with the people and to the political processes the people have devised to govern their affairs." Other pro-life supporters argue that, in the absence of definite knowledge of when life begins, it is best to avoid the risk of doing harm. Every year on the anniversary of the decision, pro-life supporters demonstrate outside the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. in the March for Life.
Advocates of Roe describe it as vital to preservation of women's rights, personal freedom, and privacy. Denying the abortion right has been equated to compulsory motherhood, and some scholars (not including any member of the Supreme Court) have argued that abortion bans therefore violate the Thirteenth Amendment…
In response to Roe v. Wade, most states enacted or attempted to enact laws limiting or regulating abortion, such as laws requiring parental consent for minors to obtain abortions, parental notification laws, spousal mutual consent laws, spousal notification laws, laws requiring abortions to be performed in hospitals but not clinics, laws barring state funding for abortions, laws banning intact dilation and extraction (also known as partial-birth abortion), laws requiring waiting periods before abortion, or laws mandating women read certain types of literature before choosing an abortion. Congress in 1976 passed the Hyde Amendment, barring federal funding of abortions for poor women through the Medicaid program. The Supreme Court struck down several state restrictions on abortions in a long series of cases stretching from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, but upheld restrictions on funding, including the Hyde Amendment, in the case of Harris v. McRae (1980).
The most prominent organized groups that mobilized in response to Roe are the National Abortion Rights Action League on the pro-choice side and the National Right to Life Committee on the pro-life side. The late Harry Blackmun, author of the Roe opinion, was a determined advocate for the decision. Others have joined him in support of Roe, including Judith Jarvis Thomson, who before the decision had offered an influential defense of abortion.
Roe remains controversial. Polls show continued division about its landmark rulings, and about the decision as a whole.

The final statement says it all, abortion is still a contentious subject, eliciting some of the most violent and passionate arguments on both sides. The last few sub-headings have been addressed purely from a secular viewpoint. However, in order to understand their affect on the world, we need to view them objectively from the energetic and consciousness perspective. Consequently, below I offer the origin and affect of the sexual experimentation through drugs and night clubs, GLF, the Women’s Liberation movement and the abortion rights question.

CULTURAL SWINGS THAT AFFECT THE CONSCIOUSNESS

I will first address the consciousness and energetic effect of sexual experimentation and the drugs Cocaine and Amphetamine shortly. First let me state categorically that the source of Cocaine, the Coca leaf is perfectly harmless in its natural form. I learned this on a mission to South America, which we related in TPS:

On the drive into town, Alan said “Cusco is 11,000 feet above sea level and it can take a while to acclimatize yourself to it…
 After the car pulled up, Alan steered them between two of the buildings and up some stairs. “I use this place to connect online,” he informed them, as they passed a small room with several computers.  “They serve good food here and it has a friendly atmosphere too.”
Walking down the hall, all three entered a large open room with wooden chairs and tables…“Some coca tea will help you with the altitude,” Alan stated. To be truthful, Suzzan was feeling a little queasy, so both she and Craig ordered the tea. The couple wasn’t sure what to expect, but it certainly was not what was placed in front of them. They had ordered yogurt to go with the tea, which consisted of plain boiled water and a bowl of dried coca leaves.
“Grab some leaves and put them in the cup.” Instructed Alan…Suzzan picked up the cup with the expectations of a suspicious child taking medicine offered by her mother. However, both she and Craig were pleasantly surprised.
It was strange to be drinking something that it is considered to be a dangerous drug in the Western world. As if reading Suzzan’s mind, Alan related, “The coca plant is very medicinal in its natural form. Unfortunately, they have messed around with it in the lab and made it many times more potent. That’s the problem and why it can be so dangerous.” For Suzzan’s part, as she had never indulged in recreational drugs, all she could say was that it had most definitely helped settle her queasy stomach and light head. Plus it tasted quite refreshing too.”

As stated, in the early 1970s discotheques produced non-stop music where people danced in close proximity to one another. As a teenager, I have attended many discos in the UK and can attest to the out-of-worldly feeling of the combination of lights, dancing and music. I would almost describe it as intoxicating. In the discos I attended drugs were not widely used, although I concede that there were some people taking drugs. Still, this was not the case in America and the drugs of choice were Cocaine and Amphetamines. In the documentary 70s Fever, a doctor describes the physical affects of these drugs not as mind expanding where you become aware of something greater than you. On the contrary, these drugs bring pleasure and excitement and focuses on the self. From the consciousness perspective these drugs are most definitely being promoted by the “Shadow” as they diminish, rather than enhance the spirit, by stimulating the physical senses.
These stimulating drugs, together with the music lower barriers and lead to sexual arousal. In America, clubs like the Continental Bath House facilitated people engaging their desires freely, by providing them with areas that open sex was acceptable. Again from the consciousness and energetic perspective “free sex” is detrimental to the spiritual development of the individual. In fact this is the reason the scriptures rail against it, because casual or “free” sex is fornication and results in a person transgressing. It is important to always keep in mind that I am in no way passing any form of judgment, rather stating the reasons the scriptures frown on casual sex. From a spiritual evolution perspective “transgression” is a step backwards in evolution, which is why it is so strongly condemned. This does not equate with damnation, merely a step back in the individual’s progress. This brings me to the very touchy subject of Saint Paul’s apparent condemnation of homosexuals.

THE REAL MEANING BEHIND ST. PAUL’S WARNING IN ROMANS

In the 16 years of investigation, Craig and I have learned that very often scriptural prohibition is to warn us that it is harmful to our development if we engage in the behavior. As such, we discovered that Saint Paul was not saying that for a man to love another man was wrong, genuine love between anyone is never frowned upon; the prohibition was the homosexual act itself. This is one of the reasons the laws prohibiting sodomy remained in place for so long. However, this warning was not only issued for homosexuals, but also heterosexuals. To understand why “anal sex” is so harmful entails knowledge of the energy centers of the body. Throughout this thesis I have repeatedly said that to transform requires the raising of the sex-force to the mental level. This is because in spiritual evolution the human being is destined to become a super-human being. Consequently, Humanity will evolve past using sex to pro-create. It is difficult to explain in a few words, but in a nut-shell, engaging in “anal sex”, literally debases the individual. The word debase carries a valuable secret as the “base” chakra (energy center) lies beneath the sexual or sacral chakra. One of the synonyms for debase is “lower”, in other words the act literally “lowers” the individual spiritually and can retard their spiritual development for quite some time.
Now I come to why if the homosexual act is so harmful, are so many men born to love the same sex? There are two answers and the first is found in understanding that this is the Fullness of Time and as such the “veil” between lives is very thin. Men and women born attracted to their same sex are demonstrating a cellular memory for their last life as the opposite sex. In conclusion then during this transition period, Gay people should form monogamous relationships and be permitted to legally bond as a married couple. Unfortunately, if Gays wish to advance spiritually then they should abstain from “anal sex.” The same applies to heterosexual couples. The “Shadow” encourages individuals to seek pleasure, convincing them that it is their right, but it retards spiritual development. One more thing, should an individual want to spiritually advance then he or she can, with the slate wiped clean so to speak. Again I do not give out this information in order to judge people, but merely to inform the members of the 777,000 who may have been misled. The second answer involves the affect of a soul imperative.
When I first learned of the meaning behind the warning in Romans, I felt that it was hardly fair to saddle individuals with such a burden. However, what I came to understand was that many individuals that are born attracted to the same sex are often of the highest consciousness. As the veil between incarnations has thinned, this imperative is very strong and the individuals involved will not be attracted to the opposite sex. Unfortunately, the “Shadow” works with the individual’s ego and counterfeit spirit to twist the reason for the imperative. “He” does this by seeding the thought that if the individual is not sexually attracted to the opposite sex then he or she must be gay. I am not for one minute saying that this is the case with every gay person, just that in some cases, very elevated individuals are diverted from their path by this tactic.
Leaving aside those who are not members of the 777,000 for now, in my experience, gay individuals are some of the most enlightened people I have ever met. This is simply because their masculine and feminine consciousness is almost completely in balance and they realize at the subliminal level their purpose is to transform. They also “remember” that in order to transform the consciousness, the sex-force needs to be raised to the mental level, which entails temporarily abstaining from using the Life-force physically; another reason they are born not attracted to the opposite sex.
Nonetheless, although some great souls have been temporarily diverted from their mission, they are still valuable tools for the “Light.” In choosing to manifest this consciousness with their sexual proclivity these individuals demonstrate their sub-conscious knowledge and purpose for their life. Moreover, they allow themselves to be constantly reminded by society’s treatment of them. In short then there is a high probability that many Homosexuals and Lesbians are members of the 777,000. For instance, one of our closest friend’s whom we love dearly, is Gay. He is one of the most gentle kind and compassionate men I have ever met and I know for a fact that he is one of the 777,000. All I ask is that gay individuals consider that maybe their sexual proclivity has a higher purpose.
Interestingly, from the spiritual perspective another physical phenomenon may also being driven by the individual’s spirit, Erectile Dysfunction. Remembering that I said, all physical illnesses are created by the individual, this condition is also created in this way. Again, in order to spiritually progress, a person needs to temporarily suspend using his or her life-force physically and divert it to be used at the mental level. Obviously, this cannot happen until an individual is fully prepared to transform, which is why I am not saying in every case this condition is created to spiritually evolve. However, whether or not the person is ready to transform and use the life-force to bring forth their Christ-consciousness, the purpose of abstaining from physical sex is still beneficial.
It is only when an individual reaches middle age that their spiritual purpose is revealed to them. This begins with the Uranus Opposition between 38 and 42, but a person’s spiritual purpose becomes a lot clearer in the Chiron Return (50-51) and the second Saturn Return at 58 years of age. During these periods, the Divine forces are able to help the individual assess his or her life and make any changes needed. This is why the phenomena of a mid-life crisis often occur; it is caused by the individual’s spirit trying to awaken them. As the Baby Boomers are all reaching these milestones, I suspect that the drop in libido is a direct result of the spirit trying to move them. Consequently, before anyone interferes with this natural progression with medication, it is important to make sure that the phenomenon is not a wakeup call from your spirit. Again as I said, this explanation will not apply to everyone. For those not ready to transform, your soul may have simply created the phenomenon to shift your attitude towards your body or your marriage.

ROE V WADE’S SPIRITUAL RAMIFICATIONS

The Women’s Liberation movement provides us with another demonstration of subliminal past life recognition. One of the major universal laws dictate that if you mistreat or hold hatred and or resentment for a segment of society, then in your next life you will be born into that very segment. This is a very powerful way the consciousness of the Life-Principle corrects injustices. For instance, White-Supremists would be re-born as African Americans and male chauvinists would be re-born as women.
The documentary 70s Fever informs us that by the mid 1970s there were more women working outside of the home than there were housewives. A commentator on the documentary laments that because of the women’s lib movement “the divorce rate soars.” From the consciousness perspective, this would most affect the children of the Baby Boomers, which is the next target for the “Shadow.”
However, the “Shadow’s” most successful action in causing division and a shift in consciousness among the Baby Boomers was the Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion. Before I discuss the ramifications to the “Light’s” plan, I want to share with you what I learned concerning abortion from the spiritual perspective. One of the most vociferous arguments for the pro-life movement is that abortion prevents the “baby’s” soul from going to heaven. Although I never believed this argument, I have to admit that when I started my journey I was far from clear on the moral position of abortion; that is until God gave me the precious gift in Jordan May of 1994. Craig had taken me to visit his long time Jordanian friend, Raslan who lived in a remote Jordanian village with his wife Asha and their five children. We wrote about this event in our first book My Lost Love and the excerpts below are taken from it:

Driving into the village a few hours later, Suzzan felt she was entering another world. The village was nestled in a valley surrounded by hills. Its narrow, dusty lanes were barely wide enough for a car. Children scampered happily down the streets. Craig, searching for Raslan’s house, spotted a skinny little boy who appeared to beckon him. As the child drew closer, he recognized him as Raslan’s eldest son. The child, grinning from ear to ear, ran ahead of the car, leading the way to a white stonewall with a steel gate. Before Craig and Suzzan could get out of the car, a large man emerged from the gate. With him were three children, two boys and a little girl…
Inside, a woman shyly approached and shook Suzzan’s hand. Raslan’s wife Asha, a woman in her early thirties, wore a brightly colored caftan and a veil wrapped about her head. Pulling on her skirts were two adorable toddlers, who Raslan proudly announced were twins. Asha could speak very little English, but her genuine warmth and friendliness made words unnecessary.
Craig and Suzzan received a tour of the house and grounds. Their eldest daughter, Freda, a small child of nine years, had golden hair with soft brown eyes. Drawn to Suzzan, she followed her around, never more than a couple paces from her side…
Craig and Suzzan were led into the comfort of the living room to wait, while Asha cooked the dinner. The room was full of large cushions, instead of chairs. Seated cross-legged, next to each other, they found themselves alone with Freda. She sat quietly smiling at Suzzan, from the other side of the room. Craig, touched by the child’s obvious affection for Suzzan said, “She likes you.”
Suzzan adored children, and calling the little girl over to sit with her, replied, “Yes, she’s my little angel.” As she placed her arm around the child and hugged her, God told Suzzan that Freda was her little girl. Powerful emotions surged through her, and tears ran silently down her face.
Craig, reaching across to hold her hand, said gently, “Just be happy.”
Suzzan turned to him, realizing he knew, though not one word had passed between them. The other children came into the room then, and Suzzan did not get the chance to talk to Craig about the strange event…
Suzzan… when she was nineteen years old…had given birth to a son. A beautiful and, thanks to God, also healthy child. However, it had been a very difficult breech birth, demanding physical recovery, which was complicated by severe postnatal depression. Mentally and physically exhausted, she discovered she was three months pregnant only six months later. Because she was getting progressively worse, the doctors decided she was not fit enough to go through another pregnancy so soon.
The feeling of being trapped was the strongest memory for Suzzan. People were trying to kill her baby, and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Tony took the news very hard, and as a result, alienated his wife by not talking about it. The procedure was scheduled without her consent. Tony had left her to face the ordeal alone. After coming to, following the procedure, Suzzan had begun to cry. A motherly nurse sat on her bed and comforted her. Feeling like a murderer, she condemned herself…
In retrospect, Suzzan realized that the pregnancy did add to her illness and, after the abortion, she grew stronger…Although never told, Suzzan knew the baby she had been carrying was a girl.
That night, God talked to Suzzan at length and gently explained, “Abortion is not murder.” Then He continued, “Women should never use abortion as a contraceptive. All life is sacred and should be taken very seriously. However, I would prefer you end a pregnancy rather than bring a child into the world to suffer starvation, or abuse. There are circumstances, such as for medical reasons, when a termination is advisable. Many denominations wrongly teach of the damnation of the child’s soul forever, because he or she died before the benefit of baptism. This is simply not true. At conception the baby is merely a mass of cells. The cells do not become a person, with a personality, until the soul is imparted into the child.”

Throughout my journey, I have learned that knowledge is always dynamic and only when we are ready can deeper levels of understanding take place. This was the case in my understanding about when an unborn baby becomes a living soul and what happens during pregnancy. Although I said above at the moment of conception, the fetus is merely a mass of cells; I need to reiterate that all organic life contains the spark of God. Consequently, at conception when a soul is assigned to the fetus the potential for incarnation begins. In a normal pregnancy, over the next 20 weeks the fetus develops and grows into a human being. Around five months, usually when the mother first feels the child move, the soul enters the fetus to develop the consciousness, but it does not remain there as it communicates with the Soul Plane determining the best body it needs for its present incarnation. In the last trimester the soul gradually remains in the womb more and more until it is bonded with the child when it is born. I said normal pregnancy, in that the pregnancy comes to full term and the child survives birth and its first six months or so. This means that the soul has agreed to incarnate at this time.
The above statement may appear shocking, but the soul assigned to the pregnancy does not always want to incarnate at the time. If this is the case then the pregnancy will end in a miscarriage. Sometimes, the soul’s decision to not incarnate comes late in pregnancy and may in some cases not be made until after childbirth, these cases result in still births and SIDS. The point I’m making is that a child does not die naturally unless it wants to. As I said, this is a critical point to understanding life and death.
However, because free-will is sacrosanct, a woman has to choose to have a baby and from the spiritual perspective may freely choose to terminate the pregnancy within the first five months. In this case the mother’s decision can override a soul’s decision to incarnate and the soul will simply choose another mother to be born to.
In turn now to the most contentious aspects in the Abortion debate, late-term abortions or partial-birth abortions that result in the baby’s death. As this takes place after the fifth month of pregnancy when the baby can survive outside the womb, it can be spiritually harmful to the mother. The harm is that the mother knowingly takes a life that would otherwise survive and is consciously damaging and can lead to a life-time of regret. The fact that the baby could survive is the main reason the Pro-Life associations are so against late-term abortions. Consequently, from a purely spiritual perspective, late-term abortion or partial-birth abortion, unless in extreme cases when the mother’s life is at risk, is unadvisable from the spiritual perspective. However, even in these cases, the soul will not suffer; it will merely have to wait until another opportunity arises.
In the case of premature birth, the time and condition a baby is born is determined by the pre-incarnate soul. For instance, in order to fulfill its purpose in this life a soul may need to be born prematurely in a highly weakened state. Whether or not the baby survives is also dependent on the soul. However, keeping a child alive artificially that is suffering horribly is also inadvisable; there is such a thing as quality of life.
One last thing on the subject, the excerpt reported that God said women should not use abortion as a contraceptive, but that was before the invention of the “morning-after pill.” Although all organic life has the spark of God and the potential for life, the morning after pill is not abortion as the cells have not had time to form into a fetus for the soul to choose.

Moving on, to the spiritual ramifications of Roe v Wade on the Baby Boomers. It is important to understand that from a consciousness perspective every one knows right from wrong and how to spiritually evolve. The problem is that the “Shadow” is continually trying to retard spiritual growth by causing individuals to forget what they have learned in between incarnations. This is the case in the abortion debate. From a consciousness perspective we all know that to end an unwanted teenage pregnancy in the first trimester rather than expose a child to neglect is the wise thing to do. However, we also know that to deliberately kill a baby because a woman has left her decision to not have a baby too late is equally wrong. Therefore a dilemma arises and conflict ensues. This is emphasized by the “Shadow” fanning the flames of the individual’s egos to believe each side is on the side of right. To overcome this, the two sides have to learn to meet each other in the middle. A way to bring the two sides together could be focusing on preventing teenage pregnancies and helping those in their third trimester to see what a wonderful gift they would be giving to couples who cannot have children if they gave the child up for adoption. Realistically though, as a race we should be looking to reduce the population as the earth cannot continue to sustain the population growth at its present rate. Unfortunately, during the 1970s the gulf between the two opposing sides was wider than the Grand Canyon.

GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE SCREEN - BOTH BIG AND SMALL

Above I mentioned that the movie “Deep Throat” released in the summer of 1972 had launched the desire for sexual experimentation, which brings me to the discussion on how television and the movies affect the consciousness. “Deep Throat” was a huge success earning a staggering $25 million and the documentary 70s Fever connected the film to the “sexual revolution.” This demonstrates the power of the big (Cinema) and little screens (TV) to influence the consciousness. According to the entry for the History of television on Wikipedia “The development of cable and satellite television in the 1970s allowed for more channels and encouraged businessmen to target programming toward specific audiences.” The documentary related that by the early 1970s, “more than 52% of households had color TV”, compared to the 3% percent in 1964. Moreover, in 1972 the TV stations were able to produce original programming when the government deregulated the industry. With this both the “Light” and the The “Shadow” had a tool that could inspire or influence the collective consciousness on mass.
Unfortunately, as the “Shadow’ held the market on greed, “his” influence dominated the commercial advertising and slowly the general public was influenced to become more and more material. This was accomplished through constantly tantalizing the public with products, with the subliminal message that to be successful they must purchase the products as soon as possible. In addition, the TV could sway people to join groups and adopt certain mannerisms. We see this in the fads like the Pet rock, jogging and fashion that spread like wild fire among TV viewers in the 1970s.
Unfortunately, the greatest power the TV had was to influence public opinion on political issues, which could cause huge shifts in the emotions of the nation and therefore the consciousness. During the early 70s the nation’s focus was on the Vietnam War, which as I said was entering American’s living rooms every night through the reports on the nightly news. This brings me back to the most damaging event to the consciousness of the Baby Boomers.
As I said, in learning that President Nixon began pulling out troops from Vietnam in 1969; I had wondered why the war dragged on until the fall of Saigon in 1975. I had identified Richard Nixon as the unwitting tool of the “Shadow”, but if he was reducing the troops then surely he was on the side of the “Light.” This is a complicated issue and involves understanding the affect on the consciousness in America during these troubling times. Above I recounted the events in Vietnam from the entries on Richard Nixon and Cambodia. Now I want to review the events from the entry on the Vietnam War:

Beginning in 1970 American troops were being taken away from border areas where much more killing took place and instead put along the coast and interior which is one reason why casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969's totals.
Prince Norodom Sihanouk had proclaimed Cambodia neutral since 1955, but the communists used Cambodian soil as a base and Sihanouk tolerated their presence, because he wished to avoid being drawn into a wider regional conflict. Under pressure from Washington, however, he changed this policy in 1969. The Vietnamese communists were no longer welcome. President Nixon took the opportunity to launch a massive secret bombing campaign, called Operation Menu, against their sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border.
This violated a long succession of pronouncements from Washington supporting Cambodian neutrality. Richard Nixon wrote to Prince Sihanouk in April 1969 assuring him that the United States respected "the sovereignty, neutrality and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Cambodia..."

So it seems that in 1969 President Nixon was interfering in the affairs of Cambodia. This played into the “Shadow’s” strategy as it gave the Khmer Rouge the opening it needed. Nonetheless, the world did not experience the results of this until the late 70s. The main reason President Nixon was a tool for the “Shadow” in the early 70s was because of his policy in Vietnam. Up until the Vietnam War, the soldiers returning from the front were greeted as conquering heroes. In the Vietnam War, because of the anti-war sentiment, not to mention the media reports of the Mai Lai Massacre, in the early 70s, the young men returning from Vietnam were spat at and called “baby killers.”

VETERANS NO LONGER HEROES

Since the Vietnam War, many veterans complained they did not have a clearly defined objective during the Vietnam War. For instance, they would often fight to take ground only to be told to withdraw from it at a later date. As lives were lost in taking the ground, this was extremely disheartening, not to mention confusing. President Nixon’s policy of Vietnamization, in that the U.S troops were replaced by South Vietnamese forces only added to their confusion. According to Richard Nixon’s entry, “From 1969 to 1972 troop reduction in Vietnam was estimated to be 405,000 soldiers.” As more and more of these young men were sent home, the Viet Cong gained even more ground. In the eyes of many Americans, the veterans returned home not as conquering heroes, but as aggressors that were sent packing by the rightful owners of Vietnam. Ultimately, this treatment led to alcoholism and drug addiction, which stopped the Baby Boomers momentum of bringing justice and peace to the world in its tracks.
I can remember being struck by the Paul Hardcastle’s song “19” that proposed the average age of the men serving in Vietnam was nineteen. Although some people dispute this, I doubt if many of the men serving were over 21. The age of Spiritual decision is 21 and to place young men in a situation of fear and death affects them spiritually. This situation is further exacerbated when 19-year-old men are ordered to “police” their own citizens. David Cassidy, laments in the documentary 70s Fever, that at Kent State, “nineteen-year-old American national guardsmen were shooting at nineteen-year-old American students.” In men under the spiritual age of consent any violence they perpetrate leaves a scar on their consciousness, which they will have to work through eventually. Nonetheless, the most damaging aspect of the Vietnam War was that the young soldier’s treatment by their own countrymen so seriously damaged their psyche that many of them simply withdrew from society altogether, becoming homeless.
In summary then by the time President Nixon pulled out all the U. S. forces and stopped the draft in 1973, the damage was done to a large percentage of the Baby Boomers that had been exposed to the three great “Lights” of the 1960s. Richard Nixon’s entry relates how the draft was discontinued:

Nixon formed the Gates Commission to look into ending the military service draft, implemented under President Johnson. The Gates Commission issued its report in February 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without conscription. The draft was extended to June 1973, and then ended. Military pay was increased as an incentive to attract volunteers, and television advertising for the United States Army began for the first time.

Although President Nixon had a policy of Vietnamization he still authorized American bombings in North Vietnam. In 1973 peace talks began in Paris. However, bringing peace to Vietnam was not as simple as the two leaders coming to terms and Richard Nixon’s entry relates how complicated it was:

In December 1972, though concerned about the level of civilian casualties, Nixon approved Linebacker II, the codename for aerial bombings of military and industrial targets in North Vietnam. After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973. The treaty, however, made no provision that 145,000-160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the Central Highlands and other areas of S. Vietnam had to withdraw. Under President Nixon, American involvement in the war steadily declined from a troop strength of 543,000 to zero in 1973.

The withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam did not alleviate the tension in the country, because in the summer of 1973, America was about to be torn apart by the discovery of President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate break-in. I am not going to discuss the actual break-in or the long drawn out investigation by the two Washington Post reporters. At this time, I am concerned with the affect on the consciousness of America and that did not take a drastic shift until after Richard Nixon resigned on August 8th 1974. The main division arose from the newly incumbent president Gerald Ford granting Richard Nixon a full and free pardon from prosecution a month later. This caused the innate need of people for justice to realize that the country had changed.
It had begun with the revelations of the Pentagon Papers in 1972 which revealed that the Government had lied to the American public about the progress and prospects of the Vietnam War. As stated this had resulted in the wild abandon of all society’s mores; When Gerald Ford, who was vice president, pardoned Richard Nixon September 8th 1974, it was seen as – one law for the rich and powerful and another for the rest of the people. This resulted in a further alienation from traditional society by the Baby Boomers, which had begun finding escape from reality any way they could. As stated, many of them turned to the recreational drugs of cocaine and amphetamines. However, the 70s Fever documentary related that the most prevalent drug used during this time was the legally prescribed anti-depressant Valium. According to the documentary by 1978 2.5 billion tablets were sold.

OIL CRISIS OF 1973

Apart from the disillusionment of the government, the American people were dealing with a crippling economic crisis, with large numbers unemployed and a shortage of gasoline. This crisis was brought about because of the Nixon administration’s support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. I knew very little of this war, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Under the entry for Yom Kippur I found this encapsulation:

The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War, …also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states backing Egypt and Syria. The war began with a joint surprise attack against Israel by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. Egypt and Syria respectively crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, which had been captured and occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.

The entry for the Yom Kippur War did not explain what happened that led to the Oil Crisis in America, so I did some further digging. Not surprisingly, I found an entry on Wikipedia entitled the Oil Crisis of 1973:

The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC, plus Egypt and Syria) proclaimed an oil embargo "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war; it lasted until March 1974. OAPEC declared it would limit or stop oil shipments to the United States and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict. With the US actions seen as initiating the oil embargo, the long-term possibility of embargo-related high oil prices, disrupted supply and recession, created a strong rift within NATO; both European nations and Japan sought to disassociate themselves from the US Middle East policy. Arab oil producers had also linked the end of the embargo with successful US efforts to create peace in the Middle East, which complicated the situation. To address these developments, the Nixon Administration began parallel negotiations with both Arab oil producers to end the embargo, and with Egypt, Syria, and Israel to arrange an Israeli pull back from the Sinai and the Golan Heights after the fighting stopped. By January 18, 1974, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had negotiated an Israeli troop withdrawal from parts of the Sinai. The promise of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Syria was sufficient to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974. By May, Israel agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights.
Independently, the OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil to stabilize their real incomes by raising world oil prices. This action followed several years of steep income declines after the recent failure of negotiations with the major Western oil companies earlier in the month.
For the most part, industrialized economies relied on crude oil, and OPEC was their predominant supplier…The targeted countries responded with a wide variety of new, and mostly permanent, initiatives to contain their further dependency. The 1973 "oil price shock", along with the 1973–1974 stock market crash, have been regarded as the first event since the Great Depression to have a persistent economic effect.

I found the statement that “Independently, the OPEC members agreed to use their leverage over the world price-setting mechanism for oil to stabilize their real incomes by raising world oil prices” illuminating. When we consider how much the world depended on oil to function, this action of greed would have far reaching affects. These affects included the returning GIs from Vietnam who came home not only to slurs and insults, but a country in an economic crisis with no jobs. As stated, many of them were suffering from PTSD and needed counseling. Unfortunately, PTSD was not recognized at the time and so these young men were left to their own devices. This was a tragic mistake, because while in Vietnam many of them were introduced to the highly addictive and destructive drug heroin.

THE “SHADOW” USES HARD-DRUG TRADE TO CORRUPT HUMANITY

The trafficking of drugs was probably the most efficient way the “Shadow” found to corrupt the Baby Boomers. “He” once again used organized crime, which in America was dominated by the Sicilian Mafia. However, before it gets to America, Heroin has to be refined from its natural form opium. Before I discuss this development from the consciousness and spiritual aspect, let us take a moment to review what Wikipedia has to say about the Heroin drug trade from where the opium is grown. I found the most relevant information under the entry for the “Golden Triangle”:

The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main illicit opium-producing areas. It is an area of around 350,000 square kilometers that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. (Other interpretations of the Golden Triangle also include a section of Yunnan Province, China.) Along with Afghanistan in the Golden Crescent and Pakistan, it has been one of the most extensive opium-producing areas of Asia and of the world since the 1950s…
Heroin from Southeast Asia is most frequently brought to the United States by couriers, typically Thai and U.S. nationals and Hong Kong Chinese, traveling on commercial airlines. California and Hawaii are the primary U.S. entry points for Golden Triangle heroin, but small percentages of the drug are trafficked into New York City and Washington, D.C. While Southeast Asian groups have had success in trafficking heroin to the United States, they initially had difficulty arranging street level distribution. However, with the incarceration of Asian traffickers in American prisons during the 1970s, contacts between Asian and American prisoners developed. These contacts have allowed Southeast Asian traffickers’ access to individuals and organizations distributing heroin at the retail level…

It was more difficult to find articles that specifically identify the Mafia as the main dealers in the drug trafficking of Heroin. Nonetheless, I found this article, which I have excerpted that gives us a pretty good idea of what was going in:

How the Sicilian Mafia flooded the US with heroin

For over fifty years the Sicilian Mafia has been one of the biggest operators in the international heroin trade. And although their domination of the American market has dwindled, they still import tons of heroin to satisfy American drug addicts. The American Mafia has cultivated a myth in which they deny having anything to do with narcotics. A lot of turncoat mobsters have testified about the "ban-on-drugs rule" within the US mob. However those same turncoats testified how that rule was broken many times and how most mob bosses didn't mind accepting money they knew came from drug deals…
From October 10 to 14, 1957 Joseph Bonanno chaired an important meeting between Sicilian-American mobsters and Sicilian Mafiosi. The four day meeting was held at the Grand Hotel des Palmes in Palermo, Sicily…The main topic of the meeting was drugs…The American mobsters and Sicilian Mafiosi would form a partnership. The Sicilians could operate in the US under the protection of the American mob families, and import, and distribute, the drugs. The American bosses would get a cut from these operations.
The Sicilian Mafia families involved were making millions from the drug trade. With so much money at stake things were bound to get out of hand...
In the late 1970s the Bonanno Crime Family was ruled by Carmine Galante, who was Joseph Bonanno's consigliere during the 1957 Hotel des Palmes meeting. Galante continued Bonanno's practice of bringing in Sicilian Mafiosi to work for him…
At this point Galante was a true powerhouse. One of the most feared mobsters in the US. He had seen it all. He had learned from Bonanno, had led the family's Montreal wing, and had been involved in narcotics from the start…
On the early morning of April 9, 1984 law enforcement carried out raids throughout the United States. Four-hundred federal agents and police officers arrested twenty-two suspects, seized handguns, rifles, shotguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Salvatore Catalano was among the arrested. The trial went down in history as the Pizza Connection trial; simply because pizza parlors were used to distribute the drugs and launder the money. Authorities (have) said over $1.5 billion worth of heroin was imported. The money had been moved through wire transfers, private airplanes, and using men who would travel the world with a suitcase filled with drug dollars. The trial lasted a stunning seventeen months and cost the American taxpayer more than $50 million. But in the end the government came out the winner. The so called bosses of the Pizza Connection were all found guilty, including Catalano who was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

1.5 billion dollars sounds like a fortune, however, according to Wikipedia’s entry for the Mafia, “it is estimated that the Sicilian Mafia has made 8 billion from drug trafficking.” The entry relates how the Sicilian Mafia took over the trafficking of heroin by moving to America:

When heroin refineries operated by the Corsican Mafia in Marseilles were shut down by French authorities, morphine traffickers looked to Sicily. Starting in 1975, Cosa Nostra set up heroin refineries across the island. As well as refining heroin, Cosa Nostra also sought to control its distribution. Sicilian Mafiosi moved to the United States to personally control distribution networks there, often at the expense of their U.S. counterparts. Heroin addiction in Europe and North America surged, and seizures by police increased dramatically. By 1982, the Sicilian Mafia controlled about 80% of the heroin trade in the north-eastern United States. Heroin was often distributed to street dealers from Mafia-owned pizzerias, and the revenues could be passed off as restaurant profits (the so-called Pizza Connection). Through the heroin trade, Cosa Nostra became wealthier and more powerful than ever.

Whenever, I consider the War on Drugs, I am reminded of Prohibition where organized crime, which was replaced by the Sicilian Mafia, made a fortune supplying liquor to Americans. It was through the money made from Prohibition that organized crime managed to gain such a strong foothold in America. After Prohibition was repealed the Mafia simply went back to their former activities of running gambling and “protection” rackets. They took gambling to the enth degree when they founded the gambling Mecca of Las Vegas.
Prohibition should have been a cautionary tale in that whenever, you infringe on a person’s freedom, even if it is for their own good, someone will get very rich and powerful in providing the forbidden “fruit.” I believe that if there was no money to be made by providing drugs then the “crooks” would not bother. Consequently, the “Shadow” never wants the legalization and taxation of drugs. From the consciousness perspective, the energy behind organized crime simply developed and grew into the drug trafficking business. Unfortunately, the result of the illegal drug trade has had devastating affects on many Baby Boomers, particularly the veterans that became heroin addicts and subsequently homeless.
Unfortunately, corrupting the Baby Boomers with drugs was not the most devastating tool the “Shadow” used in the 70s. No, it was during the 70s that “he” launched “his” most effective method to alter the mass consciousness, by creating mass fear. This was a relatively easy thing for the “Shadow” to achieve, when he was able to influence certain individuals to use terror to achieve their manifestos. In this way the 1970s marked the death of people’s conception that other nation’s wars could not reach their homeland. Growing up just 30 miles from London, I remember the 1970s as a time of concern over visiting London.

END OF THE SENSE OF SAFETY IN OUR HOMELANDS

A brief look at the number of bombings, kidnapping and hostage taking in the 1970s reveals the shift in the energy. It began in 1971 with an inexplicable bombing in the tallest building in London, the Post Office Tower. Below are listed the bombings from the entry for the List of terrorist incidents in London on Wikipedia that occurred on British ground during the 70s:

  • A bomb exploded in the Post Office Tower…on 31 October 1971, resulting in the building's permanent closure to the public.
  • 8 March 1973: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) conducted its first operation in Britain, planting four car bombs in London. Two bombs exploded, killing one person and injuring 180 others…
  • 27 March 1974: A bomb placed by the Provisional IRA exploded in a garbage can at the top of an escalator in a crowded exhibition hall, Earl's Court. 20,000 people were attending the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition at the time. 70 were injured, 4 people lost limbs.
  • 17 June 1974: A bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament in London, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.
  • 7 November 1974: An off-duty soldier and a civilian were killed when a bomb was thrown through the window of the Kings Arms pub in Woolwich, and 28 people were injured…
  • 21 December 1974: A bomb was defused in Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London, (A second bomb was defused in the King's Arms public house in Warminster, Wiltshire).
  • 28 August 1975: Seven people were injured when a bomb exploded in Oxford Street, London. A telephone warning was issued to The Sun newspaper five minutes before the explosion.
  • 5 September 1975: Two people were killed and 63 injured when an IRA bomb exploded in the lobby of the Hilton hotel in London.
  • 6–12 December 1975: Four IRA members held two people hostage in the Balcombe Street Siege.
  • 30 March 1979, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave was killed as he left the House of Commons car park by a car bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in 1979.

This sense of that no one was safe anywhere grew even more after the Munich Olympics in 1972, where the world watched the hostage taking of Israeli athletes play out on TV. Wikipedia has an entry called the Munich Massacre, which encapsulates the event:

The Munich massacre is an informal name for events occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.
By the end of the ordeal, the terrorist group had killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and one West German police officer. Five of the eight members of Black September were killed by police officers during a failed rescue attempt. The three surviving terrorists were captured, and were later released by West Germany following the hijacking by Black September of a Lufthansa airliner. Israel responded to the massacre with Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God, a series of air strikes and assassinations of those suspected of planning the killings.

Talking of hijacking reminds me of one of the most well-known hijacking, the hijacking of the Air France Flight 139 followed by a daring rescue by Israeli commandos. The entry for the rescue on Wikipedia describes it thus:

Operation Entebbe …was a counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on the night of 3 July and early morning of 4 July 1976. IDF acted on intelligence provided by Israeli secret agency Mossad. In the wake of the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 by members of the militant organizations Revolutionary Cells and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations and the hijackers' threats to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met, a plan was drawn up to airlift the hostages to safety. These plans took into account the likelihood of armed resistance from Ugandan military troops.
Originally codenamed Operation Thunderball by the IDF, the operation was retroactively renamed Operation Yonatan in memory of the Sayeret Matkal commander Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the only commando killed in the fighting. All the hijackers, three hostages and 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed, and five Israeli commandos were wounded. A fourth hostage was murdered by Ugandan army officers at a nearby hospital.
Idi Amin, the leader of Uganda at the time, was humiliated by the surprise raid. He believed Kenya had colluded with Israel in planning the raid and hundreds of Kenyans living in Uganda were massacred soon afterwards…

The mention of Idi Amin reminds me of one of the most vicious and some would say mad dictators of the decade and a good reason for the sub-title “Decade of Death.” His entry on Wikipedia relates the main points that are relevant to our discussion:

IDI AMIN

Idi Amin Dada …was the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979… He took power in a military coup of January 1971, deposing Milton Obote.
Amin's rule was characterized by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is estimated by international observers and human rights groups to range from 100,000 to 500,000…
In August 1972, Amin declared what he called an "economic war", a set of policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians and Europeans. Uganda's 80,000 Asians were mostly from the Indian subcontinent and born in the country, their ancestors having come to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises that formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy. On August 4th 1972, Amin issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens (most of them held British passports). This was later amended to include all 80,000 Asians, with the exception of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and teachers…
Following the expulsion of Ugandan Asians in 1972, most of whom were of Indian descent; India severed diplomatic relations with Uganda. The same year, as part of his "economic war", Amin broke diplomatic ties with Britain and nationalized 85 British-owned businesses.
That same year, relations with Israel soured. Although Israel had previously supplied Uganda with arms, in 1972 Amin expelled Israeli military advisers and turned to Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya and the Soviet Union for support. Amin became an outspoken critic of Israel…Amin later stated that Hitler "was right to burn six million Jews"…
Over time, Amin became more erratic and outspoken. In 1977, after Britain had broken diplomatic relations with his regime, Amin declared he had beaten the British, and conferred on himself the decoration of CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire)…
Amin became the subject of rumours and myths, including a widespread belief that he was a cannibal. Some of the unsubstantiated rumours, such as the mutilation of one of his wives, were spread and popularized by the 1980 film Rise and Fall of Idi Amin and alluded to in the film The Last King of Scotland in 2006…
By 1978, the number of Amin's close associates had shrunk significantly, and he faced increasing dissent from within Uganda…in 1977, several of Amin's ministers defected or fled to exile. Later that year…troops loyal to him mutinied. Amin sent troops against the mutineers, some of whom had fled across the Tanzanian border. Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of waging war against Uganda, ordered the invasion of Tanzanian territory, and formally annexed a section of the Kagera Region across the boundary.
Nyerere mobilized the Tanzania People's Defence Force and counterattacked, joined by several groups of Ugandan exiles who had united as the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA). Amin's army retreated steadily, and despite military help from Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi, he was forced to flee on 11 April 1979 when Kampala was captured. He escaped first to Libya and ultimately settled in Saudi Arabia where the Saudi royal family paid him a generous wage in return for his staying out of politics…
Amin died in Saudi Arabia on 16 August 2003. He was buried in Ruwais Cemetery in Jeddah; according to the Associated Press's sources, few attended the funeral ceremony.

Returning to the subject of terrorism in the 1970s, one of the most virulent groups to spread terror through bombs was the West German Left Wing Baader-Meinhof Group or their preferred designation the Red Army Faction. Throughout the 1970s, this group and the Revolutionary Cells terrorist organization laid the foundation of urban terror. The entry for the Red Army Faction reveals just how devastating these groups were to the public’s peace of mind:

The Red Army Faction … shortened to RAF and in its early stages commonly known as Baader-Meinhof Group, was one of post World War II Germany's most violent and prominent left wing groups…The RAF was founded in 1970 by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, and Ulrike Meinhof.
The Red Army Faction existed from 1970 to 1998, committing numerous operations, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as "German Autumn". It was held responsible for 34 deaths, including many secondary targets, such as chauffeurs and bodyguards, and many injuries in its almost 30 years of activity. Although more well-known, the RAF conducted fewer attacks than the Revolutionary Cells (RZ), which is held responsible for 296 bomb attacks, arson and other attacks between 1973 and 1995.
…The terms "Baader-Meinhof Gang" and "Baader-Meinhof Group" were first used by the media and the organization was thus generally known by the public as Baader-Meinhof during its first generation…RAF never used these terms …the German media used them to avoid legitimizing the movement as an actual political organisation. Although Meinhof was not considered to be a leader of the RAF at any time, her involvement in Baader's escape from jail in 1970 and her well-known status as a German journalist led to her name becoming attached to it. there were three successive incarnations of the organization, the "first generation" which consisted of Baader and his associates, the "second generation" RAF, which operated in the mid to late 1970s after several former members of the Socialist Patients' Collective joined, and the "third generation" RAF, which existed in the 1980s and 1990s.

Although America was not targeted by these groups, the consciousness was still affected. Consequently, as the level of fear and despair grew in the 1970s, the Baby Boomers sought more and more to escape. However, by the mid-70s drugs and sexual experimentation was no longer providing sufficient release from the tension and the Baby Boomers started looking for leaders again to guide them. Unfortunately, the “leaders” that stepped forward to take up the role were unconsciously tools of the “Shadow.” This was because they presented themselves as gurus that held the answers to life and that all an individual needed to do was to surrender their will to them. As the need for guidance grew the number of sects multiplied until according to the 70s Fever documentary by the mid-70s there were 300 fringe religious groups operating in San Francisco.
When scenes of the fall of Saigon were flashed on the TV screens, the illusion of American invincibility was shattered. Although it may not have appeared to at the time, the fall of Saigon caused a serious backlash in the psyche of the Baby Boomers. Once again the “Shadow” took advantage of this by inciting even more hedonistic behavior, by initiating the opening of two very controversial clubs.

STUDIO 54 – AND – PLATO’S RETREAT

I am not going to discuss the operations of these two clubs instead I will let their entries from Wikipedia relate the fundamentals. Afterwards, I will discuss the serious spiritual ramifications that the opening of the two clubs led to, starting with Studio 54:

When CBS began marketing the building in 1976, various interests in the art and fashion world pushed for turning it into a trendy disco…
Carmen D'Alessio, a Valentino public relations agent who had been throwing fashionable parties, encouraged Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who were operating the Enchanted Garden at 63-20 Marathon Parkway in Queens, to make the leap into Manhattan…
During 1977 the building was purchased and renamed for its street address, 254 West 54th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, a location already noted for another tenant in the building, famed disco recording company West End Records, as well as being the former home of Scepter Records.
The nightclub was founded by four equal partners: Steven Rubell, Ian Schrager, Tim Savage and Jack Dushey. They operated the company as Broadway Catering Corp. Another partner, Richard DeCourcey, was present until September 1977.
D'Alessio, after working in Rome and around Europe as a fashion PR, was well known by fashion, music, and film people, and generally with the kind of celebrities from across the United States, South America, Europe, and other parts of the world who would be ideal patrons…Rubell and Schrager gave D'Alessio much of the control for the design and promotion of the nightclub.
Before the April 26, 1977 opening, D'Alessio sent out 5,000 invitations to her exclusive mailing list together with an enticing surprise gift to each of her invitees…
A week after the opening, Halston asked Rubell to open the nightclub on a Monday night (May 2, 1977, when it would have been closed) for Bianca Jagger's 32nd birthday party. Bianca entered on a white horse and the resulting publicity firmly established Studio 54 as the preferred nightclub for celebrities…

Plato’s Retreat

The club opened in 1977, and was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was located in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel… Prior to Plato's Retreat, the building housed the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse where Barry Manilow and Bette Midler provided musical entertainment early in their careers.
Plato's Retreat, a members-only establishment, required everyone to follow the club's numerous rules. Levenson, determined not to permit his nightspot to become infiltrated by homosexuals, insisted that only straight couples – and women, escorted or otherwise – be allowed to enter the premises, and once a woman left a room after a sexual encounter, her male companion had to accompany her. This rule was intended to ensure that women nearly always outnumbered men – Levenson strictly prohibited sexual activity between males but welcomed lesbianism. Drugs, including alcohol, were not allowed, though they were frequently used despite the rule. The club had a disco dance floor, an in-house DJ, sauna rooms, and a swimming pool with waterfalls.
During its heyday, Plato's Retreat was considered the world's most infamous sex club and was popular with many celebrities, porn stars, and well-to-do couples. The clientèle was described as "an assortment of kinky types from the suburbs: dry cleaners and their wives or fat men in toupees with their heavily made-up girlfriends."

Although Studio 54 did not engage in sex escapades, it did promote the use of drugs as in the infamous enormous figure of the man in the Moon “snorting” cocaine. As the publicity for these two clubs increased a reaction began to stir within the Baby Boomers. Very slowly, the “Silent Majority” as they were known in the documentary 70s Fever, distanced themselves from the young people, but as parents they became increasingly concerned with the hedonistic culture’s influence on them. This concern had begun much earlier in the UK which culminated in the Nationwide Festival of Light.

COUNTERACTION TO THE CULTURE OF HEDONISM

It is strange how events occurring in your life when you are young can literally go over your head. When I was researching this aspect of the thesis I was surprised how many names I recognized, although I had been unaware of the movement behind them. I found an entry for the Nationwide Festival of Lights on Wikipedia and have excerpted the most relevant parts:

The Nationwide Festival of Light was a grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the development of the permissive society in the UK at the end of the 1960s.
Its leading lights included the clean-up TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse, the journalist and author Malcolm Muggeridge and a number of leading clergymen. The British pop star Cliff Richard was a leading supporter. The movement was opposed to what they saw as the growing trends in the mass media for the explicit depiction of sexual and violent themes. Its culmination was a pair of mass rallies in Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park, London in September 1971...
In November 1970 a young couple, Peter and Janet Hill, returned to England after four years as evangelical Christian missionaries in India. They were surprised to find a much more permissive society than the one they left…
Soon Hill was in contact with a wide network of people sharing his concern and offering their encouragement…Grassroots support came from Anglicans, Baptists, Brethren and Pentecostal church denominations…
The movement had two expressed aims: to protest against "sexploitation" in the media and the arts, and to offer the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation. Some supporters naturally emphasized the first, and others the second. Plans were made for major public events, including the lighting of beacons on hilltops throughout the United Kingdom, and culminating in a massed march to a public rally in Trafalgar Square and an open-air concert of Christian music in Hyde Park.
The administrative task of enlisting the support of Christian churches and denominations throughout the UK was a colossal one, as indeed was the necessity for public relations with the press and the general public. The committee and many local volunteers were occupied with this throughout the first half of 1971. Then on 9 September, an initial rally was held in Westminster Central Hall, where the exploitation of sex and violence in the entertainment industry was denounced; the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) invaded this meeting in drag, releasing mice, sounding horns, and turning off all the lights.
Around the country more than seventy regional rallies followed. In Bristol the cathedral was filled to capacity, largely in reaction to the opening of a "sex supermarket" in the city. A nationwide day of prayer was observed on 19 September. Then on the night of 23 September bonfires and torches were lit on hilltops throughout Britain. In Sheffield a calor gas flare was lit by Cliff Richard. Local authorities were generally co-operative, and individual opposition muted. There were probably about 300 such beacons, and approximately 100,000 people taking part in these local events…
The Festival stimulated inter-denominational contact among evangelical Christians, and is considered to be, along with the Billy Graham campaigns, the Keswick Convention, and the university "Christian unions" a significant expression of twentieth-century evangelical co-operation in the UK. Proponents claim that many Christians were persuaded to shun violent and sexually explicit films, magazines and television programmes, and to prefer newspapers lacking salacious content. For a decade or more, evangelicals generally held to this position.
In the nation as a whole, however, the impact of the Festival was much less evident than its supporters had hoped…Commercial, political and artistic pressures worked against any attempt at a stricter censorship, either by law or by voluntary agreement.

Remembering how every other day Mary Whitehouse was denouncing one program or another for being immoral, I was not that surprised that in 1971, the parents of the hippies were fighting back. However, I was surprised to learn that the Baby Boomers had begun to shift towards traditional Christianity by the mid-70s.
According to the 70s Fever Documentary by 1976, America was moving towards conservatism and as many as 40% of the population claimed to be born again. In order to understand why a generation born to transform the world would in essence take a step backwards, we need to first examine the definition of the term born again. The excerpt below is taken from its entry on Wikipedia:

In Christianity, being born again represents a spiritual and metaphorical rebirth, accepting Jesus as the Messiah and receiving the Holy Spirit. The origin of the term "born again" is the New Testament: "Jesus replied, 'Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.'"[John: 3: 3] It is a term associated with Salvation in Christianity.
These terms are frequently used by Evangelical, Fundamentalist and Pentecostal branches of Protestant Christianity…In modern Christianity, the act of baptism is often regarded as a physical representation of the process of being spiritually born again.
The term "born again" gained new popularity in society in the 1970s through a very publicized conversion-to-Christianity experience by Watergate conspirator Charles Colson and a very public self-description of being a "Born-Again Christian" by then U.S. Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.

At the time of the revival in evangelical Christianity, many Baby Boomers were lost in drugs and sex. Some of them had joined religious sects and given up their free-will to a number of gurus. Those that had children maintained the perspective of raising them free. Unfortunately, there is a reason for the saying “spare the rod and spoil the child”, meaning that a child raised without discipline or boundaries goes astray. From the spiritual perspective, these individuals were in danger of forgetting altogether their purpose for incarnating. So the individual’s spirit decided to “reset” them so that they could help rear the next generation to take up the reins where they had left off. This became cemented into the mass consciousness with the election of the born again Christian Jimmy Carter in 1976. I will not discuss this president’s contribution or influence at this time, because the year after he was elected, a major Astrological event would occur that would bring in the final sub-race of the 7th Root-Race, which I will discuss in the next “upstepping.”
In the next section we will continue tracking the influences throughout the late 1970s. However, it was in the next decade, the 1980s that the world changed so quickly and drastically at the consciousness level that most of us were left reeling.
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