Upload
victor-chibici
View
227
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
1/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
2/168
BoRM
T.-tf
a5
Ha
1
'
I
'
'
#
i/;
PS
J&*
nft
HI
HI
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
3/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
4/168
jqns
Cvi
Hi
n
I
H
HSS8 c^ II ^H
KME9
Ml
*
,-../i.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
5/168
Utopian
Visions
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
6/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
7/168
MYSTERIES
OF THE
UNKNOWN
^Utopian
Visions
By
the
Editors
of
Time-Life
Books
TIME-LIFE
BOOKS,
ALEXANDRIA,
VIRGINIA
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
8/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
9/168
CONTENTS
Essay
The
Garden of Paradise
6
CHAPTER 1
In Quesf of (he
Ideal
Life
16
Essay
Builders
of
Backyard
Utopias
43
CHAPTER 2
Seeking Eden in America
56
Essay
Dream
City by the Sea
87
CHAPTER 3
Perfecting
(he
Human
Spirit
98
Essay An
Obligation
to Redo Everything
120
CHAPTER
4
Toward a
Planetary
Vision
134
Acknowledgments
154
Bibliography
154
Picture
Credits
156
Index
156
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
10/168
The
Garden
of
Paradise
Whether
as a
heavenly realm
or an
earthly
Eden,
a
state
of primeval inno-
cence
or
perpetual bliss, the
concept
of
paradise
is
one of the oldest
Utopian
visions.
Each
culture
has depicted
par-
adise its
own
way,
but nearly
all share
an image
of
paradise as
a
garden
of
eternal
spring, wherein
the mortal
be-
comes immortal
and
the human spirit
dwells
in harmony with the
divine.
The
word paradise
is
from the Old
Persian
pairidaeza,
meaning
park or
enclosure.
It
was
on the arid Persian
plateau that
gardens most clearly ac-
quired
religious
significance. The
Per-
sian
garden
was
a
walled
oasis
divided
by
channels of water
a
cosmological
idea
echoed
in
the biblical
Eden.
Sym-
metrically
patterned
by fruit trees,
flowers,
and verdant shrubbery,
it
was
designed
as much
for philosophical
contemplation
as physical
enjoyment.
The
garden
paradises of other
cul-
tures
also
embodied
eternity. The
Koran
says that
the blessed
will
be
brought to
the
Lord
in
gardens
of
delight.
And
the
eternal
abode
of
the
Hindu
gods is
a
land of
flowers,
per-
fumes,
and paths
of gold.
JSaU^
$^ 2s:
i?m>&
cU*u*ii>-
*&^-
#$&&*
h&
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
11/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
12/168
In the
eighteenth-century
Indi-
an
painting
below,
a gopi,
or
shepherdess, and
her
compan-
ion await the arrival
of
Krishna,
thegod
of
love.
A
symbol
of
the
human soul seeking
union
with
the
Divine
and
thus
paradise,
with its
freedom
from
reincar-
nation
each
gopi
believed
she
alone was
the
god's beloved.
The waiting
women
are
enrap-
tured
by the
beauty
of
spring,
which
signals a time
of
renew-
al,
awakening human hopes
for
spiritual consummation
and
for
release
from
the
earthly
c
birth and rebirth.
In
the Indian painting o
site,
a
richly
attired Krish
arrives
at
full
moon to
pe
his Cosmic
Dance.
While
real
helpers
rain
flowers
f
above,
the
gopisform
a
c
symbolizing
the
marriage
heaven
and earth. The
Bl
God,
as Krishna is also
kn
dances simultaneously
wi
each gopi;
the joining
of
couple represents
the dev
embrace
of
the Divine.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
13/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
14/168
,w.
wt
^s
**&%*:-
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
15/168
^jji
,*
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
16/168
* *
Envisioning
paradise as
a har-
monious
land
where
nature is
bountiful,
the
Florentine artist
Sandro
Botticelli
portrayed
the
coming
of
spring in his Primave-
ra
(below),
completed around
1478. The
painting depicts
Zephyrus,
the
West
Wind
(far
right
in the picture), seizing the
veiled
Primavera,
or
Spring,
and
transforming
her
into
Flo-
ra,
the
petal-scattering goddess
of
flowers.
A
melding
of
classi-
cal mythology and Christian
symbolism,
the
artist's eclectic
vision
reflects
the Early
Renais-
sance
philosophy
that a contin-
uous spiritual circuit
joined
all
creation
with
God.
At
right,
a menagerie
of
crea-
tures, including
man
and
wom-
an,
share
a bounteous Garden
of
Eden in this
work
by Flemish
artist
Jan
Brueghel the Elder.
Rendered small and unobtru-
sive,
Adam and Eve recall hu-
mankind's original carefree
and
innocent
state
and
reaffirm
the
biblical
ideal
of
the
fruitful
earthly park planted
by
God.
12
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
17/168
'M
^k
'
/
^
J
i
ft
s^
93^fe>
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
18/168
14
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
19/168
The peaks
and
valleys
of
para-
dise meld with
a
sublime sweep
into
the
white
light
of
eternity
in British
artist
John
Martin's
1853
painting
titled
The
Plains
of
Heaven. The
landscape il-
lustrates
the Christian
vision
of
paradise
as
it is
described in
the
New
Testament's
book
of
Revelation: a lush and
ethe-
real other world, spirited
with
angels, where
souls
await
the
LastJudgment.
15
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
20/168
CHAPTER
1
In
Quest
of
the
Ideal
Life
n
Utopia, where every man has a right to
everything, they
all know
care is taken to keep
the public
stores full, no private
man can want
thing;
for
among
them
there
is
no
unequal
distribution,
so
that
no
m
poor, none in necessity; and
though
no man has anything,
yet they
a
rich; for
what can make a man
so
rich
as to lead a serene and cheerfu
free from
anxieties?
So did Thomas
More, the sixteenth-century English
statesman
scribe his version
of
the ideal society and
coin
the
term
that
would f
be
associated with
a
perfect place.
More,
who
would
later
become
chancellor
of
England during
the rule
of
Henry
VIII and
a martyr
f
Catholic church,
wrote
Utopia
in two
parts
during 1515
and
1516.
The
a play
on
the
Greek word
Utopia,
which has
the double
meaning
place
and no place.
It
is
written
in
the
form
of
a
report
by
a
fictitious
Portuguese
Raphael
Hythlodaye
another
Greek pun,
meaning
dispenser of
sense
who is
described as having
made
three
voyages to the
New
with
Italian
explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
The
first half
of the
book consi
a
veiled
critique of
Renaissance England,
while
the second
describes
lodaye's
visit
to the
land
known
as Utopia, an island
off the coast of
S
where,
whose way
of life
provides
not
only the happiest basis for a civ
community,
but
also
one which,
in all human probability,
will
last fore
Thomas
More
was just one of a long line of visionaries who dre
of
an ideal world,
a
heaven on earth
free
from evil and imperfect
Throughout
history, braveand sometimes
foolhardy optimists in
n
every
civilization,
from
ancient
Sumerian
ruler-priests to
Renaissance
losophers
to
twentieth-century social revisionists, have offered
their
versions of this universal dream. Some envisioned a paradise like the
den
of
Eden, where
humans could
live
in eternal
splendor, free
from e
travails.
Others
preferred
to
design
their
own societies, setting out on
Utopian
cities or
nations that boasted
the
perfect
solutions to
humanki
problems. More's Utopia
and
Plato's
Republic are
among the
best-k
examples of these
blueprints
of perfection.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
21/168
Many have not been
content
merely to
dream or plan
Utopias.
Rather, they have
boldly
rejected established
and
banded together in their
own
would-be Utopian
Members of a sect led by
Pythagoras, the
Greek
mathematician
and mystic,
lived
ascetic lives within
monastery-like
communities
in
attempt to
achieve
perfection. Later Utopians
with a spir-
bent
would
look
to the past, to
early mystical
sects,
to
their
own
magical
ideas
to
guide
them
in
establish-
their own
paradises
on earth.
Two thousand
years after
Pythagoras's
time,
countless
saw the discovery
of
America as a new
beginning,
opportunity to
return
to an
Eden-like
existence. Reli-
Utopians
established model societies in America
that
the
chance to
attain
spiritual perfection. Others
to forge in
the
New
World
Utopian
communities or-
on radical
intellectual notions. The twentieth century,
has produced its share of Utopian
visionaries
includ-
those
who believe they
live
in a
New
Age and who
hold
Utopia
exists
within
oneself.
By
developing
the
spiritual
of human consciousness, they
con-
people
can
live together
harmoni-
and
create
a
global
Utopia.
The urge
to
carve out a
bit
heaven
on earth
has usually
strongest in
times
of
and
upheaval. For
the catalyst
was
the
of
his
beloved Ath-
to mighty Sparta;
More,
it
was
signs
the
coming Refor-
4
9t
mation; for many
who
decided to immigrate to
America
was
religious
persecution in their homelands;
for
so
twentieth-century Americans, it has been war, poverty, a
racial
injustice. The quest for Utopia
shows no sign of
ab
ing.
Those
who study
the
subject
estimate
that in
the Unit
States
alone
there are
presently
no fewer than
3,000
int
tional communities
that is, groups that purposely band
gether
in
an organized
effort
to
achieve
some
mutual
agreed
goals or
ideals.
The
definition
of
Utopia
seems to be as
varied
as
groups
that have
sought it.
For most, however, Utopia
perfection,
and perfection in this sense is usually defined
harmony within oneself
and with
others.
But Utopias
also
concerned with how
people should
live addressi
such
issues
as
religion, work, equality,
sexual
mores,
fa
ly,
property, and authority.
How
the
various communiti
deal with
those
issues
covers
a
wide
range
of possibiliti
Some
see the
ideal
society as one of
material
prosperi
others
want to be free of
material trappings.
Utopian
visi
aries
may
aspire
to
a
totally
natural
life,
or they
may
e
brace
modern technology
as fundamental
their
communities. Some
advocate
pe
sonal property,
but most
espou
communal
sharing, with equ
access
to
all
goods and
equ
status
between
all people.
y
No
matter what
fo
it
takes,
the Utopian
sion
is always
with
As Oscar
Wilde
wrot
A
map
of
the
wor
that does not
inclu
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
22/168
Utopia
is
not
worth even
glancing
at,
for
it
leaves out
the
one
country at
which
Humanity
is
always
landing.
And
when
Humanity
lands
there, it
looks
out, and
see-
ing
a
better
country,
sets sail.
Progress is the
realiza-
tion
of Utopias.
While
the word
Utopia
was not used
in the context of
an
ideal
society
until
the Renaissance, the concept
of
a
place
free
from suffering,
where the inhabitants
are
immortal
and
forever
young,
is
as
old
as
humankind
itself.
Every
cul-
ture
has had
its
paradise
myths, as
scholars
call
them, and
the
paradise
myths of
the past
have
piled
one on another in
the
minds
of modern
humankind, inspiring the
secular
Western
world's
vision
of Utopia.
Many of these
myths
describe
an
immemorial
golden
age
where
humans lived without fear or want. The
Chey-
enne Indians,
for instance,
spoke
of a
time
gone
by
when
men
and women
cavorted naked
and
unashamed amid
fields
of
plenty.
Other peoples have envisioned
paradise
as
a part
of
the
universe
yet
unseen,
a
place that
promises a
happy
existence as a
reward
after
death.
In
all
of these
myths,
paradise
is a place of innocence, free from conflicts.
It
is
also
eternal
or,
if lost
for
the moment,
destined
to re-
turn
in
the future.
The
Garden
of Eden
in the Old
Testament's book
of
Genesis,
whose
images
have
become
part
of
the conscious-
ness of
Western
civilization, may
be the best-known exam-
ple
of paradise,
but
it
is by
no means the
earliest recorded
description.
That
distinction
belongs to
the paradise myth of
the
Sumerians,
the
remarkable
people
who
occupied
the
Tigris-Euphrates valley
from about 4000
BC
to
2000
BC.
In-
deed,
linguists
believe
that
the
Hebrews
borrowed
the
word
eden
(meaning
fertile
plain )
from
the Sumerians.
Sumerians were noted for their developments
in agri-
culture,
trade,
art,
architecture,
and especially literature.
Modern
archaeologists
have found
more
than 5,000 tablets
and
other fragments of
objects inscribed with Sumerian
lit-
erary and
religious works.
One
tablet
has proved
particularly
fascinating. It told
of
the
land
of Dil-
mun, a
magical
place
where man
had no
rival.
The tablet began: The
land
of Dilmun is pure . . . / It
is
a
clean
place,
it
is
a
place
most
bright
. . .
/
In Dil-
mun the raven utters no cry, / The
kite
utters not the
cry of the kite, /
The
lion
kills
not, / The wolf kill
not the lamb,
/
Unknown is the
kid-killing
dog, /
Un
known is
the
grain-devouring boar . . . /
The sick-eye
man says not, I am sick-eyed, /
The
old woman
sa
not,
I
am
old.
The legend
of
Dilmun describes
a land that suff
violence
from neither wind nor
rain,
whose fields
eternally green and
fruitful,
a place
where pure waters
the
earth
spring
forth. The
idyllic Dilmun is peopled
immortal
gods
and
goddesses
who
are
free
from
toil
immune
to
the
ravages of age
and
disease. Yet
those
dwell in
Dilmun
are not
immune to
temptation.
Accor
to
the
Sumerian
legend, the
mother
goddess
Ninhu
caused
eight
plants to grow among
Dilmun's
fertile f
which
she
forbade the immortals
to eat.
However, Enk
god
of
fresh
water,
cannot resist
sampling
the
plants.
stricken
with a
fatal
illness
after
eating
them.
Althoug
18
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
23/168
pi
a,
created
by**
8
'
left)
and
man
Thomas
More
J
r
depicted
in
th^^
oolcUto
.
W??
still
debate
whether
More
-*WV
conun
u-
rehgious
to
eran
^.
n
utopifl
nal
principles^
1
a
or
whether
thet>o
^dre.
The
author
too
^.^
r^
St
S^roJmga
able
'
m
rnhabet
and
an
exam-
Utopian
dP
h
f
v
e
;
(be
low)-
P
le
f
V
lTfSr
&
K
\
w
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
51/168
Colorful Walls
(o
Shui
Qui f
he
World
When
Eddie
Owens Martin
was
living
in
New
York in
1 935,
the fortuneteller
claimed a voice
from the spirit world
informed
him
that
he
was
to be
the
start of
something new. You'll call
yourself
St.
EOM,
the
voice
instruct-
ed, pronouncing Martin's
acronym
as
ohm, and you'll
be
a Pasaquoyan
the
first
one
in
the
world.
But not
until
years later
did
the
Georgia-born Martin
figure
out
what a
Pasaquoyan
wasone
who
brings the
past and the future togetherand
it
was 1957 before
he
began
to
fulfill
his
mysterious
calling.
That
year
he
l
moved back
to
Georgia and began
V transforming the house and land
his
mother had left
him
in Buena
Vista
into the
fortress
he
named Pasaquan.
St. EOM, as Martin
thenceforth
called himself, said he
built
Pasaquan
as
a monument
to
all the primitive
peoples
in
the
world.
Indeed,
its
style
reflects
his
intentions:
The
colorful
designs
look
Indian, African,
or
Orien-
tal.
But more
than anything,
the dense-
ly decorated walls and buildings (below
and
lower inset) served
as a
refuge
for
its
eccentric
creator. After
I got these
walls put
up, then
I
felt I had
the
world
shut
out,
Martin
remarked before his
death in
1986.
Here
I
can be in my
own world . . .
and
wherever
I
look,
I
see
something
beautiful.
MP*.
-W
i
f
K
t'
V\-
.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
52/168
The
Reverend
Howard
Finster
(right) claims
that this could
be an
eternal
planet
if
all the
people
actually come to
God.
He
views
his
art
which
in-
cludes
Paradise
Garden
(be-
low)
and the World's
Folk
Art
Church
(lower inset)
as a
means to
spread
this message.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
53/168
Sacred
Ait in
a
Homemade Paradise
God sent
me here
to be
a
man of
visions,
evangelical
preacher and
self-taught artist
Howard
Finster once
remarked,
and to
tell the
world
about
my visions
through
my
sacred art and
my
garden.
In
the
early
1960s,
Finster
began transforming the two acres be-
hind
his house in
Pennville,
Georgia,
into
a
surreal
scene of
makeshift mon-
uments,
bottle
houses, and cement
hills encrusted
with
mirrors and
reli-
gious
sculptures.
A
hand-lettered sign
in
what
is
now
popularly
called
Para-
dise Garden
explains its
creator's goal:
I
built this
park
of
broken
pieces
to
try
to
mend
a
broken
world.
After some fifteen years of
working
on this backyard Eden,
Finster
had a
vision
instructing
him to create a
num-
ber of
paintings he
calls sacred art.
A
few
years
later, he built the World's
Folk
Art Church near the
garden
to
serve as a sort of
holy
art gallery.
Its
purpose,
said
Finster,
was
to
reveal
the truth
of
God,
the truth of mankind
and
his
discoveries,
the truth of the
present, and the truth of the
future.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
54/168
-
p;;^
V
Raymond Isidore
(left)
decorated
every
conceiv- I
able object in his
house, >L
from
flowerpots
to
the
furniture
(inset,
below),
\7.
with pieces
of
broken
glass
and
crockery.
The
locals dubbed him
le
pique-assiette
French
erand
his
creation La
Maison Picassiette.
i it
w
m
>M
&c
6 v
$&
?>
V
i
?A
II
II
s-fc'&jp
***..?
t V
>.
4
v.
IT
,v-
A Glittering Mosaic
of
Broken
Glass
We discard
so
many things that could
be
used
to create
life
and
happiness,
Raymond
Isidore
once
said.
He
was
himself, however,
a
striking
exception
to
this observation. From 1938 until
his
death in
1964,
the French cemetery
caretaker,
a resident of Chartres,
col-
lected
ceramic
and
glass
fragments
from
dumps, roadsides,
and
his
ac-
quaintances
and used them to
create
the fantastic
mosaics
that
eventually
covered
every
inch of his
house
and
garden
(right).
Reportedly
inspired
by
God, nature,
and the
great
cathedral in his town,
Isidore embedded
both the interior and
exterior
walls of
his
home
with
scenes
from
the Bible,
models
of
Chartres
and
other
cathedrals, and various
images
he
found
pleasing.
Isidore believed
he
was
guided
by
a
divine spirit,
although
he
also admitted that he
created
the
monument
to
suit
his own
tastes, so
that he
could live
in
his
own
element.
His
jewel-like house and
garden,
he
said,
were
a dream
come true.
9*'
[I
iW
*>':;
i
*
t
v
Pm7E
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
55/168
us Mi
teas
lift
r
HI
*
^Kk
teSSs
^3
fe3
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
56/168
Obsessed
with
light and
reflec-
tions,
Clarence Schmidt illu-
minated
his
home
with
strings
of
bulbs and
tinsel-wrapped wires
(above). In the gardens,
A
he
built shrines to his
heroes.
One series hon-
ored
U.S. presidents,
including
George
Washington
(lower
inset);
others
featured photos
of
Schmidt
himself.
-*.*.
,-
/.
fVj
r
\
**
r'
*n
.
.
-
rLrr'i
*tf^
JiT^*
-*
Jk
j*
SL^
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
57/168
An
Incredible Edific
Made
from
Junk
Visionary artist Clarence Schmidt
on
described
the phantasmagorical
hom
stead
he
created
on
a
mountainside
in Woodstock,
New
York, as a hal-
lowed undertaking
that
would brin
peace
and happiness to this vilely
mixed
up and
war
torn
world.
Around
1948,
Schmidt, a plasterer
trade, began
enlarging his mountain
cabin.
He
soon became obsessed
by
the
project,
devoting
all his time and
energy to
it.
Some twenty
years
later
the cabin and
a
large tree nearby ha
been
completely
swallowed
by a
thir
five-room,
seven-story tinderbox
of
mansion
made from
discarded
junk
scrap
wood,
tar, and glass.
Inside,
strings
of Christmas-tree
lights
illuminated
a maze of passage
ways and rooms encrusted with mir-
rors
and a
dazzling collection
of cas
off
items
including
women's
shoes,
coffeepots, and artificial
flowers. The
gardens
around
the
house
echoed
it
contents:
Sculptures fashioned
from
other
people's rubbish were
placed
among
the trees and shrubs, hundre
of whose limbs
and
branches were
wrapped
in foil
to
reflect light.
The
reclusive
artist
dubbed the
ori
nal
cabin
at the heart
of
his chaotic
creation
his
Inner
Sanctum,
where
h
lived
what
he
called a
ritually clois-
tered
holy
existence, dedicated
to
building
a
new world all
tenderly
wrapped
up with
mountainous
harm
ny and everlasting
peace.
Unfortu-
nately
perhaps inevitably Schmidt'
highly
combustible
dreamland
caugh
fire
and
burned
to the ground in
196
he died
ten years
later.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
58/168
Robert
Tatin
and his
wife,
Lise-
ron,
show
off
a grinning
sculp-
ture
he
called
The
Beast
Tamer
(right).
Most
of
his
images
which
have
been compared
to
Aztec,
Assyrian,
Mayan,
and
Inca
art
are
deliberately
sym-
bolic:
The
dragon
inset at
lower
right,
according
to
Tatin, repre-
sents
evil,
ego,
selfishness,
and
the
other
trials
one
must
over-
come
to
attain
redemption.
.
gap
-
s#
Europe
was
I
B
etweenl9l0
and^9
by
\
ravaged
by
-ar^
any
artists
a d
-
A
ic
turmoil-
For
onAy
actuate,
each
ne*
heir
pleas
ir a
compete
breaK
cenlury
,
l.
Pnrooean
inters
-
dea
that
fnSv^^ns
needed
,he
Russian
wnter
*
Many
members
of
eu
v
w
,.
^Vwere
veteran^
^
-
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
126/168
^a
wved
too
long
*
_.
dorie
s.
bsessionswi*
5110^
d
^
c
sensation
o/
.
in
,s
capture
tne
d
.
ve
Tchockandsounawuv^.
induced
shocK
\aunciw>
Casting
aside
**
Uon
m
the
futurists
sought
_fresn
techn0
,
oaz^^rolmdostnaUttiesTW
5
nthusiasm
i
~
-
mhVb
tted.
'
wasmf
ecUousana^
ebumenlMan:
;=
more
beautiful
a
hu
,
;
trsu^ng>V>eP;
cat5
t
em
eng^en^
we
?
e
often
*esub
suspension
bridge
5
.
fatunsts
a
XemaKerstogtonV*
o
ph
o
''^Se'uer
capturing
*e
selves
as
free
of
u
S*e
P
astinpn.c
e
times
ended
in
nots
hal
his
cause
'*
f
c
^
eWe
of
B
Sg,
and
thinking-
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
127/168
i
Ru
demon
sensa
* ^*^,Xi-
r,
S
tote**
*
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
128/168
in
his
search
/or
v
Tetn
a-
lightenment^^rMalevach
,,920
the
Russian
art
V
een
1914
and
192^
nalpara
\-
Ad
was
shaken
by
a
re
l91?
the
poUtical
upheaval
^
)
contrasting
V1S1
*
ism
,
poet
and
An'
KaZi
tpoterf>'nsP'
e a
notentially
p
w
represent
^al
styles
of
*e
Past
^^
tract
elevates
imanl'..
onlyb
.
spiritual
Wfj*l
rising
above
the
Roving
wss'an
P
u
tions
.
deepest
metaphysics
H
t
^Leonstntcuv^^e
)f
t;;
shattered
Russ,
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
129/168
Ill
A
ct
matter
'tivist's
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
130/168
iono/design-
1914
Gennon
^
r
r
The
struc
:
that
was
tureda
,,ndtecn
vvno
dauy
^
written,
rssgssssft
exchange*^
ubUs
hin
pseudonyms
ana
P
Utenc
joiivna^s
^
i-Mjelrv
DOXe
.
IftheCtysw*
soon
as
wuc
consciousness.
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
131/168
*- **
'sttzssze
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
132/168
* t
uf
Future,
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
133/168
,
g
accu
art
ha
me
moral
ana
^
dege
tf
6kedtt
_
1 yrl
fi
tradmc
(or
his
jvlding
\ved
in
C-er-
,bacVcinto
many
r
the
pas
corrvrnc
fcndcooperano
^
fcs
.
Aons^ouW
ll
artists.
n
e
creative
Oddly
en
Gr
opius
m
^
emberr
expressionist
mo.
that
talent
r
k
01
art
Aire
cuw-
eption
of
7^dp
*at
*-- ,.e
the
*
^Stuaen-r^aa>sofina
new
ways,
he
>
^bud
a
better
one-
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
134/168
-
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
135/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
136/168
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
137/168
M's
red
and
blue
vitedtojoin
A
1
i
A
>
s
counter-
-rf5-
nulfl-
^
n
'
a
'
V
is
ted
his
styl
who
insist
wfl
sso
e
theleft*^
OV
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
138/168
CHAPTER
4
Toward
a
Planetary
Vision
he
German
soldier was
a kid about
1
6,
his hair strung
out in the
bushe
alive.
The
30-caliber
bullets
had scooped out
his
chest and 1
saw
his
He
was
gray
with
shock, going
fast.
He
stared
up
at
me
a
mournful
boy's face.
He
asked:
'Why
did
you
shoot?
1
wanted to
surrender.'
Leo
Litwak
was a
U.S.
Army medic
on that spring
day in
1945,
war
in
Europe neared
its
end.
His
outfit
had
taken a German
village
w
resistance, and Litwak
was
contemplating
the
happy prospect
of h
himself from
cellars filled
with sausages and
wine
when he
heard
rifle
followed
by
shouts
of
Aid
man Running
over
to
some
bushes,
found
the young German, mortally wounded by GIs
who said he had
to answer their
demand
for surrender.
Litwak
shrugged
off the
death. That was war;
war
was hell. A
twenty-two years, the grim scene
lay submerged,
seemingly
forgotten,
subconscious
mind.
Yet during those
years,
he
was
nagged
by
a
sp
emptiness,
an inexplicable
numbness,
as
he called it. Then, in
1967,
employed
as
an
associate
professor of English
at San Francisco
Stat
lege, Litwak was commissioned
by
the New York Times
Magazine
to
wr
article
about
California's Esalen Institute,
which
was
achieving
a c
fame
among
groups
exploring the outer
edges
of
human
potential.
To
research
his
subject,
Litwak enrolled
in
a
five-day
workshop,
at
first
failed
to engage him.
A
fat lady in leotards directed
us
absurd,
he
wrote.
We
touched our
noses with
our tongues. We ju
We ran.
We
clutched one another,
made faces
at
one another.
But
after
his
initial disdain, Litwak
became
engrossed as he m
through
exercises
in
sensory
awareness,
fantasy
experiments,
and
ps
drama in
which
participants act out the details
of their most deeply h
secrets.
For Litwak, the
cathartic
climax came
when he
was
instructed
down, close
his
eyes,
and imagine
that
he was a
tiny
self entering
m
body.
In the
course of
that trip, he
suddenly
saw a heart sheathed in
hung with
blood
vessels.
With a
start he
recognized
it as the heart
slain
German
soldier.
At
that moment, Litwak
felt
a
freedom,
a pure
and
shining joy h
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
139/168
never experienced before.
I wailed for
that
German
boy
who had
never
mattered
to
me, he
recalled, and
I heaved
up
my numbness. I
started
to feel again and
discovered
what I'd
missed.
I felt
wide
open, lightened,
ready
to meet
others simply and
directly.
Leo Litwak
is one
of thousands
who
testify
to psycho-
logical
enrichment
at Esalen, where even the
scenery lends
enchantment. In
the rugged
Big
Sur
country,
where wild
boars and mountain lions still
roam,
Esalen's
more than
100
acres nest
on a
cliff nearly 100 feet
above the pounding
waters of the
Pacific.
Rustic cabins
nestle
beside a
redwood
lodge,
hot sulfur
springs gush from
the
mountainside, a
bountiful garden grows atop a
3,000-year-old compost
heap
created
by
the now-extinct
Esalen Indians,
and a cylindrical
community
tent, designed along
traditional
Mongolian
lines,
is
called
the Big Yurt.
To
the wildness of Big Sur in 1962
came
Michael
Mur-
phy and
Richard Price, both
thirty years old,
both from well-
to-do
families, and
both (although
they
had not known
each
other
at
the
time) former
psychology majors
at Stanford.
There
Murphy had
developed an in
terest
in
Eastern
philosophy; after
graduation and
a
stint in the ar-
my,
he
took himself
to
India,
to
a
religious community called
the
Sri
Aurobindo Ashram,
where he
meditated for eight
hours
a day. A
year and
a
half
later,
Murphy returned to the
United
States, worked two
days
a
week
at
such
jobs as
bellhopping,
and contin-
ued his
contemplations.
His path eventually led
him to
Francisco's
eccentric North
Beach district,
to
which Ric
Price
had
also gravitated
after serving in the air f
and doing
graduate
work
at
Harvard. The
two bec
friends, and
between them,
the idea
of
the Esalen
Inst
gradually
emerged.
We
didn't
have
a
blue-print,
Mur
later recalled.
The
whole idea
was
exploration
into
sciousness in generaland the notion
to
support a diver
of approaches.
Murphy's
grandmother
was
persuaded to proff
long-term
lease
on
property she
owned in Big
Sur.
And
most overnight,
Esalen
became a 1960s bazaar
for
eclectic,
the
esoteric,
and the
experimental. It offered
rums,
seminars,
and workshops
on
Gestalt awaren
training,
somatic disciplines,
psychotherapy,
the
mel
Eastern philosophy
and
Western science, mysticism,
shamanism. In
so-called
encounter
groups, men
wres
one another to
work
out their
hostilities,
and
all sort
people stripped
to
expunge
their
inhibitions. In Esal
soothing
hot-spring
baths, mixed
groups of
nude men
women contemplated
the
cosm
It
was
a
heady
time.
We
thou
we
were astronauts
of in
space,
Murphy said la
about
to break
through
new realms
of
consciousne
We wanted
to put
man on
psychic moon.
Inevitably,
Esalen
came
a
target
for
cri
who
saw
it
as
a
to
of psychobabble
an
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
140/168
136
8/9/2019 Utopian Visions (Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown).pdf
141/168
for group gropings.
But
Esalen
survived
and has
with
the
times.
Richard
Price
was
killed
in
1985
by
falling
boulder,
and
Michael
Murphy
long
ago gave
up
direction
of
the
institute.
He
does, however,
re-
its
chairman,
and
he
has
helped
steer his
brainchild
what has
been
called
new-wave
citizen diplomacy.
As a
concrete
and
political counterpart to its marrying
Eastern
and
Western
philosophies, Esalen
in
1980
initiat-
a
Soviet-American
exchange
program designed to
ope]
between
individuals and
organization:
the two
superpowers.
Esalen
arrang