I DEDICATE THIS BOOK

TO ALL WHO HELPED FOR HALF 4 CENTURY

THE GREAT DREAM OF MY YOUTH
BECOME A REALITY,
Search for the Ageless
VOLUME ONE

MY UNUSUAL ADVENTURES ON THE FIVE CONTINENTS

IN SEARCH FOR THE AGELESS

WITH ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS

by

EDMOND BORDEAUX SZEKELY

MCMLXXVII
INTERNATIONAL BIOGENIC SOCIETY
We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers o f dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
O f the world for ever, it seems.
—A.W.E. O ’
Shaughnessy
 SOME BOOKS BY E D M O N D B O R D E A U X S Z E K E L Y

IE ESSENE G O S P E L OF PEA C E , B O O K O N E
•O K T W O , T H E U N K N O W N B O O K S O F T H E ESSENES
' O K T H R E E , LOST S C R O L L S OF T H E ESSENE B R O T H E R H O O D
lO K F O U R , T H E T E A C H I N G S OF T H E E L E C T
IE ESSENE W A Y - B I O G E N I C L I V I N G
S C O V E R Y OF T H E ESSENE G O S P E L OF P E A C E : T h e Essenes & th e Vatican
A R C H FO R T H E A G E L E S S , in Throe V olum e s
IE G R E A T N E S S IN T H E S M A L L N E S S
IE T E N D E R T O U C H
HE B I O G E N I C R E V O L U T I O N
HE F I R S T ESSENE
O G E N IC R E D U C IN G : TH E W O N D ER WEEK
HE ESSENE B O O K OF C R E A T I O N
HE O R I G I N OF L IF E
C A C H IN G S OF T H E ESSENES F R O M E N O C H T O T H E D E A D S E A S C R O L L S
HE ESSENE JESUS
HE ESSENE B O O K OF A S H A : J O U R N E Y T O T H E C O S M IC O C E A N
HE Z E N D A V E S T A OF Z A R A T H U S T R A
R C H E O S O P H Y , A N E W S C IE N C E
HE ESSENE O R I G I N S OF C H R I S T I A N I T Y
HE ESSENES, B Y JOS EPH US A N D HIS C O N T E M P O R A R I E S
HE ESSENE T E A C H I N G S OF Z A R A T H U S T R A
HE ESSENE S C IE N C E OF L IF E
HE ESSENE COD E OF L IF E
SSE NE C O M M U N I O N S W I T H T H E I N F I N I T E
HE ESSENE S C IE N C E OF F A S T I N G A N D T H E A R T OF S O B R I E T Y
HE C O S M O T H E R A P Y OF T H E ESSENES
HE L I V I N G B U D D H A
O W A R D T H E C O N Q U E S T OF T H E I N N E R COSMOS
■AT H ER , G I V E US A N O T H E R C H A N C E
HE E C O L O G I C A L H E A L T H G A R D E N , T H E B O O K OF S U R V I V A L
' H E D I A L E C T I C A L M E T H O D OF T H I N K I N G
THE E V O L U T I O N OF H U M A N T H O U G H T
tHAN IN T H E C O S M IC O C E A N
THE S O U L OF A N C I E N T M E X IC O
THE N E W F IRE
N L G R I M OF T H E H I M A L A Y A S
MESSENGERS FR O M A N C IE N T C IV IL IZ A T IO N S
S E X U A L H A R M O N Y : T H E N E W E U G E N IC S
L U D W IG V A N B E E T H O V E N , P R O M E T H E U S O F T H E M O D E R N W O R L D
B O O K S , O U R E T E R N A L C O M P A N IO N S
THE F IE R Y C H AR IO TS
C R E A T IV E W O RK: K A R M A YO G A
T H E A R T OF S T U D Y : T H E S O R B O N N E M E T H O D
COSMOS, M A N A N D S O C I E T Y
I CAME BACK TO MORROW
BROTHER TREE
I IB B O O K OF L I V I N G FO OD S
I II I C O N Q U E S T OF D E A T H

Typesetting & Book Design by Norma Nilsson de Bordeaux

C o p y r i g h t © 1 977, b y E d m o n d B ordea ux Szekely

I'rl ntod In th e U n ite d States o f A m e r ic a —A l l Righ ts Reserved
 SEARCH FOR THE AGELESS
VOLUME ONE

MY UNUSUAL ADVENTURES ON THE FIVE CONTINENTS

IN SEARCH FOR THE AGELESS

PREFACE 10

THE BEGINNING 11
ANCIENT TEACHINGS FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY
THE ESSENE BROTHERHOOD AT THE DEAD SEA
ST. JEROME AND ST. BENEDICT: PRESERVERS OF THE ESSENE TRADITIONS
LET ST. FRANCIS SING IN YOUR HEART

THE ETERNAL CITY 15

ARRIVAL TO THE ETERNAL CITY - MY RESEARCH IN THE ARCHIVES
OF THE VATICAN
MY DISCOVERY IN THE SCRIPTORIUM OF THE BENEDICTINE MONASTERY
OF MONTE CASSINO
AN UNFORGETTABLE FAREWELL FROM MONSIGNOR MERC ATI

THE CITY OF LIGHT 22

PARIS: THE ESSENE RENAISSANCE BEGINS AT VERSAILLES
THE SEED IS SOWN AT THE SORBONNE
INVITATION FROM THE MYSTIC OF TOURETTE SUR LOUP
I MEET MY MEMORABLE FRIEND, JEAN PIERRE
ESSENE RENAISSANCE IN GREECE
THE ISLAND OF COS: HIPPOCRATES AND THE AESCULAPIONS
BIRTH OF OUR LITERARY SPA: SHAW, MAETERLINCK, GIDE, MARINETTI
ZARATHUSTRA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
AN ECCENTRIC PATRIARCH IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

I MEET THE FOUNDER OF FUTURISM 38

THE GHOST OF CORNARO, THE VENETIAN NOBLEMAN
THE MOTORCYCLE AND I - DESTRUCTION OF AN ICE CREAM CART
MY TEMPESTUOUS ENTRY TO THE FAMOUS CINQUENALE
THE GREAT ITALIAN POET IN THE CATABOLIC SANCTUARY
MEETING MY VICTIM AT THE POLICE STATION - A HAPPY ENDING
I l lli LITTLE ESSENE BROTHERHOOD IN THE SOOTH OF FRANCE 44
OUR NOSTALGIC STRING QUARTET
THE ANARCHISTS OF THE RIVIERA
THE ANARCHISTS BECOME ESSENES
PLINIUS REDIVIVUS

WITH THE HUNZAS AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD 52

TRIBUTE TO MY ANCESTOR, THE PILGRIM OF THE HIMALAYAS
MY UNUSUAL LECTURE TO THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
MY HAZARDOUS JOURNEY THROUGH PRECIPITOUS HEIGHTS
ARRIVAL TO THE LAND OF THE CENTENARIANS
THE MIRACULOUS MIR, RULER OF THE HUNZAS: ESPERANTO AND
A VIENNESE GRAND PIANO
HUNZA DWELLINGS AND NATURAL REFRIGERATION
HUNZA FOODS: SIMPLE, WHOLE AND NATURAL
HUNZA ECOLOGY AND GARDENING

THE SYMPHONY OF THE CARPATHIANS 62

IN SEARCH OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE LEGIONS OF TRAJANUS
MY COLLABORATORS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ
THE BUCOLIC FOOTHILLS OF THE CARPATHIANS
I ENTER A HASIDIC COMMUNITY
MYSTIC FOLLOWERS OF BAAL SHEM
MY FIRST MEETING WITH A GREAT ZADDIK
I MEET A LITTLE “HOLY FAMILY”
UNEXPECTED ESSENE REFERENCES IN AN UNUSUAL LIBRARY
HASIDIC PURITY AND ECSTASY - LATE ECHO OF THE ANCIENT ESSENES
OUR UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY OF A TOLSTOYAN COMMUNITY
THE INCARNATED DREAM OF TOLSTOY IN THE CARPATHIANS
WE LOSE OUR LIVIU
IMPENETRABLE PRIMEVAL FORESTS - BEARS AND WILD BOARS
PEACEFUL SHEEP, FEROCIOUS DOGS, AND A SHEPHERD FROM ANCIENT ROME
WE MEET URSU, THE HEAD OF THE SHEPHERDS
URSU BORROWS HONEY FROM A BEAR
OUR FASCINATING CARPATHIAN ROMANS - A SHEPHERD COMMUNITY
A ROYAL SHEPHERD BANQUET: PRIMEVAL CORN MAMALIGA
AND BRINZA SHEEP CHEESE
THE GIANT CARPATHIAN SHEPHERD HORN
AN UNFORGETTABLE COSMIC SYMPHONY OF HORNS, FIRES AND STARS
SLEEP IN THE HIGH CARPATHIANS
CARPATHIAN DELICACIES
ETHNOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CARPATHIAN SHEPHERDS
PHILOLOGY OF THE HIGH CARPATHIANS
THE WAY OF LIVING OF THE HIGH CARPATHIAN SHEPHERDS
SIGNS OF APPROACHING WINTER - SORROWFUL FAREWELL
THE ARDUOUS RETURN TO CIVILIZATION
BACK TO THE UNIVERSITY
AFRICAN INTERLUDE: A COMPLETE FAILURE 93
PREPARATIONS FOR EQUATORIAL AFRICA
MY ADAPTATIONS OF THE ANCIENT ESSENE METHODS OF HEALING
THE SAD FATE OF MY COLLEAGUES
THE UNCOMFORTABLE SIGHT OF MY OWN GRAVE
THE APOCALYPSE: FIERY HOLOCAUST AND A SEA OF KILLER ANTS
SORROWFUL RETURN TO PARIS

TAHITI AND THE SOUTH SEAS 98

IN SEARCH OF A LEPER COLONY IN POLYNESIA
THE SPEAKING TIMBERS: MY TICKET TO POLYNESIA
MY SECOND ASSIGNMENT: PSYCHOMETRY IN THE FRENCH ISLANDS
MY SHIP AND SHIPMATES
TAHITI, THE ISLAND OF DREAMS - MY FIRST TAHITIAN FRIENDS
I START MY WORK IN THE LEPER COLONY
MY TITIORO: MECCA FOR THE ISLAND’
S SICK
PARADISE LOST
MORE FRIENDS - AND THE ADVENT OF MONSIEUR MARCHAL
PERILS OF A BACK-SEAT PASSENGER
MONSIEUR LE GOUVERNEUR DECLARES WAR
CONFRONTATION AND BRINKMANSHIP: AN UNFORGETTABLE TEA PARTY
LE SCANDALE INTERNATIONALE DU PACIFIQUE - MY COMPLETE VICTORY
THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF PURCELL WEAVER
THE BIRTH OF COSMOS, MAN AND SOCIETY

A REVIEW OF COSMOS, MAN AND SOCIETY 119

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE
COSMIC RADIATIONS
CELL-REGENERATION IN SEVEN MONTHS
ATOMS AND STARS
MAN AND TREES
WORLD CHAOS AND CALAMITY
THE GREATEST RENAISSANCE

THE EERIE WORLD OF THE SOUTH SEAS 125

SPROUTS, PSYCHOMETRY AND MIGRATIONS
BOUGAINVILLE AND CAPTAIN COOK DESCRIBE THE POLYNESIANS
CHILDREN OF PARADISE: SPIRITUAL TREASURES AND PHYSICAL PERFECTION
OUR MAORI FRIENDS SAVE US FROM SHIPWRECK
CAPTURED BY THE CHESS AUTOCRAT OF MANGAREVA
M. L’
ADMINISTRATEUR WANTS TO BEQUEATH HIS ISLAND TO ME!
SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF THE MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS OF EASTER ISLAND
THE EXILED CHILEAN GOVERNMENT AND DANGER OF MUTINY

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: THE ESSENE BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 140

INDULGING IN THE DELIGHTS OF A POST OFFICE IN A FREE COUNTRY
WE SAIL TOWARD LAKE ELSINORE
MY FIRST LECTURE IN LOS ANGELES
WE SETTLE IN FOR A FRUITFUL SUMMER VACATION AT LAKE ELSINORE
THE AMERICAN ESSENE GOSPEL OF PEACE AND THE FIRST ESSENE CHURCH
IN THE U.S.A.
MY COOPERATION WITH THE ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION
THE MEMORABLE VEGETARIAN-VERSUS-CARNIVORE EATING CONTEST
MY LECTURES AT THE BAHA’ I SUMMER SEMINAR IN GEYSERVILLE
WINDING UP OUR SUMMER VACATION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
PREPARATIONS FOR OUR WINTER SEMINAR AT RIO CORONA, MEXICO

IN THU MAHOGANY FOREST OF RIO CORONA 153

OUR FRANCO BRITISH DRIVE TO RIO CORONA
ARRIVAL AND SETTLEMENT IN THE MAHOGANY FOREST
AT THE EDGE OF THE MAJESTIC RIO CORONA
ABUNDANCE OF LOCAL FOODS AND FRUITS
THE GRADUAL ARRIVAL OF STUDENTS FROM EVERYWHERE
OUR LOCAL FOLLOWERS: THE MAYOR AND TWO PROFESSORS
THE ESSENE GOSPEL OF PEACE IN SPANISH
HUMOROUS EPISODES OF THE SEMINAR
PREPARATIONS FOR A SUMMER SEMINAR IN ENGLAND

MY ARCHEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK 165

MY SPECIAL FIELD IN ARCHEOLOGY
MY METHODS OF WORKING AND ORGANIZATION
WILD FOREST CREATURES IN THE TROPICAL JUNGLES
A NIGHT WITH A HUGE SNAKE UNDER MY BED
AN AGGRESSIVE JAGUAR
MY CANINE ASSISTANTS
THE ENIGMA OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TARASCAN INDIANS
MY ACQUAINTANCE WITH PRESIDENT CARDENAS
THE “AZTEC”MISSION OF SAN IGNACIO
THE MEEK COCHIMIS DID NOT INHERIT THE EARTH

MIDSUMMER NIGHT’
S DREAM IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE 181
UNEVENTFUL BUT ARTISTIC JOURNEY TO ENGLAND
A SHATTERING LINGUISTIC EXPERIENCE
MY ACQUAINTANCE WITH SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS
MY LECTURES AT THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND EDUCATION CENTRE
THE DISCIPLE OF TOLSTOY - MY BRITISH PUBLISHER
I MEET HIS MAJESTY’S SWANMASTER
HOW I PREVENTED A HAZARDOUS HIMALAYAN JOURNEY
FOR A DISTINGUISHED OLD LADY
SAD FAREWELL TO ENGLAND, AND TO AN ERA OF PEACE

JAMAICAN INTERLUDE 190

MY NEIGHBOR, FRANCIS THE PATRIARCH
THE BLACK ESSENES OF JAMAICA
JOE LOUIS ELECTRIFIES THE ESSENE CONGREGATION
A LONELY, FORSAKEN SYNAGOGUE IN THE WILDERNESS
SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS’VISIT AND THE GATHERING STORM
SHIPWRECK AND SURVIVAL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 197
MY INTRUSION INTO A BUREAUCRATIC SANCTUARY
ENTER MY SAVIOR: THE MEXICAN CONSUL, MY CLASSMATE
FROM THE SORBONNE
OUR JOVIAL BOAT DISINTEGRATES IN THE STORM
SWIMMING FOR MY LIFE
THREE SURVIVORS ON A ROCKY ISLAND: THE COOK, THE CAPTAIN, AND ML
HUNGER AND THIRST ON THE ROCKS
GOOD OLD PLINIUS COMES TO MY RESCUE: WE LICK THE GRASS
HAUNTED BY EGGS IN VERA CRUZ

CROSSING AND AGONY IN THE SONORA DESERT 204

MY FATE IS DECIDED BY THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE
DEUS EX MACHINA - DR. GAMIO TAKES ME UNDER HIS WING
THE NAZI CONQUEST OF FRANCE SEALS MY DECISION TO STAY IN MEXICO
MY GOAL: BAJA CALIFORNIA
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE U.S. IMMIGRATION
THE FORBIDDING SONORA DESERT: THE SAHARA OF MEXICO
AGONY IN THE DESERT - MY TWO GUARDIAN ANGELS
ARRIVAL TO THE PROMISED LAND
 PREFACE
Who, me? An unknown person writing a preface to such a monu-
metiial work as these three volumes? Well, the author insists, as I have
been i) close personal friend o f his for the last forty years. As a conse­
quence, he .says, I am more competent to write it than any o f the world
c elebrities wlio have crossed his path over the years.
What can I say about the first volume: My Unusual Adventures
<)i>ei' the Vive Continents in Search for the Ageless—even if we disregard
the most essential parts, dealing with the philosophical, ethnological
and archeological research described in this book, there still remains the
intriguing autobiography o f twenty short stories, leading the fascinated
leader from the Vatican and the Sorbonne, through the High Carpa­
thians, India, the Plateau o f Pamir, Central Africa, the South Seas, to
California, Mexico, Central America and the Northern Territories o f
Canada -all in search for the ageless.
The second volume: The Great Experiment: The Conquest o f
Death, involves mind-staggering proportions. The Great Experiment
spanned 33 years, 123,000 participants, 5,600 lectures given by the
author, some 30,500 individual consultations on his part, on an area o f
over 1,200 acres. And interspersed with these overwhelming statistics,
there is more autobiographical material, all o f it told for the first time,
utterly fascinating as well as thought-provoking.
The third volume includes the factual, scientific, revolutionary
results o f his Great Experiment. I will not even attempt the impossible:
to explain in a nutshell his original, pioneering work in the fields o f
ecology, organic gardening, prolongation o f life, and prevention o f
disease and aging. It is called, simply, The Chemistry o f Youth.
If you want to apply in your life the practical benefits o f half a
century o f immense accomplishments, do not miss reading these books.
They will change your life in a way nothing you have ever read has been
aide to do.
Only one nagging question remains in my mind after trying to
absorb these three incredible volumes. It was forty years ago that I
first met my friend, Edmond Bordeaux Szekely. I know how old I am,
and I always thought I knew how old he is. But after reading about
all 1>i.s adventures, accomplishments and creative achievements, I begin
to wonder just how many centuries ago he was born...
Martin Temple

10
 THE BEGINNING

ANCIENT TEACHINGS FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY

From the remote ages o f antiquity a remarkable teaching lias
existed which is universal in its application and ageless in its wisdom.
Fragments o f it are found in Sumerian hieroglyphs and on tiles and
stones dating back some eight or ten thousand years. Some oi the
symbols, such as for the sun, moon, air, water and other natural forces,
are from an even earlier age preceding the cataclysm that ended the
Pleistocene period. How many thousands o f years previous to that the
teaching existed is unknown.
Traces o f the teaching have appeared in almost every country and
religion. Its fundamental principles were taught in ancient Persia, Egypt,
India, Tibet, China, Palestine, Greece and many other countries. But
it has been transmitted in its most pure form by the Essenes, that
mysterious brotherhood which lived during the last two or three cen­
turies B.C. and the first century o f the Christian era at the Dead Sea
in Palestine and at Lake Mareotis in Egypt. In Palestine and Syria the
members o f the brotherhood were known as Essenes and in Egypt as
Therapeutae, or healers. Whatever their origin, it is certain the Essenes
existed for a very long time as a brotherhood, perhaps under other
names in other lands.
The teaching appears in the Zend Avesta o f Zarathustra, who
translated it into a way o f life that was followed for thousands o f
years. It contains the fundamental concepts o f Brahmanism, the Vedas
and the Upanishads; and the Yoga systems o f India sprang from the
same source. Buddha later gave forth essentially the same basic ideas
and his sacred Bodhi tree is correlated with the Essene Tree o f Life.
In Tibet the teaching once more found expression in the Tibetan Wheel
o f Life.
The Pythagoreans and Stoics in ancient Greece also followed the
Essene principles and much o f their way o f life. The same ancient
teaching was an element o f the Adonic culture o f the Phoenicians, of
the Alexandrian School o f Philosophy in Egypt, and contributed greatly
to many branches o f Western culture, Freemasonry, Gnosticism, the
Kabala and Christianity. Jesus interpreted it in its mdst sublime and
beautiful form in the seven Beatitudes o f the Sermon on the Mount.
THE ESSENE BROTHERHOOD AT THE DEAD SEA
The Essenes lived on the shores o f lakes and rivers, away from
cities and towns, and practiced a communal way o f life, sharing equally
in everything. They were mainly agriculturists and arboriculturists,

11
having a vast knowledge o f crops, soil and climatic conditions which
enabled them to grow a great variety o f fruits and vegetables in com ­
paratively desert areas and with a minimum o f labor.
They had no servants or slaves and were said to have been the first
people to condemn slavery both in theory and practice. There were no
rich and no poor amongst them, both conditions being considered by
them as deviations from the Law. They established their own economic
system, based wholly on the Law, and showed that all man’ s food and
materia] needs can be attained without struggle, through knowledge
o f the Law.
They spent much time in study, both o f ancient writings and
special branches o f learning, such as education, healing and astronomy.
They were said to be the heirs o f Chaldean and Persian astronomy and
Egyptian arts o f healing. They were adept in prophecy for which they
prepared by prolonged fasting. In the use o f plants and herbs for healing
man and beast, they were likewise proficient.
They lived a simple regular life, rising each day before sunrise to
study and commune with the forces o f nature, bathing in cold water
as a ritual and donning white garments. After their daily labor in the
fields and vineyards they partook o f their meals in silence, preceding
and ending it with prayer. They were entirely vegetarian in their eating
and never touched flesh foods nor fermented liquids. Their evenings
were devoted to study and communion with the heavenly forces.
Evening was the beginning o f their day and their Sabbath or holy
day began on Friday evening, the first day o f their week. This day
was given to study, discussion, the entertaining o f visitors and playing
certain musical instruments, replicas o f which have been found.
Their way o f life enabled them to live to advanced ages o f 120
years or more, and they were said to have marvelous strength and
endurance. In all their activities they expressed creative love.
Records o f the Essene way o f life have come down to us from
writings o f their contemporaries. Plinius, the Roman naturalist, Philo
the Alexandrian philosopher, Josephus Flavius the Roman historian,
Solanius and others spoke o f them variously as “a race by themselves,
more remarkable than any other in the world,” “the oldest o f the
initiates, receiving their teaching from Central Asia,” “traditions per­
petuated through an immense space o f ages,”“constant and unalterable
holiness, in thought, word and deed.”
From its antiquity, its persistence through the ages, it is evident
the teaching could not have been the concept o f any individual or any
people, but is the interpretation, by a succession o f great Teachers,
ol the Law o f the universe, the basic Law, eternal and unchanging as

12
the stars in their courses, the same now as two or ten thousand years
ago, and as applicable today as then.
Some o f the outer teaching is preserved in Aramaic test in the
Vatican in Rome. Some in Slavic text was found in the possession ol
the Habsburgs in Austria and said to have been brought out o( Asia
in the thirteenth century by Nestorian priests fleeing the hordes ol
Genghis Khan. And o f course there are the Dead Sea Scrolls, found
by an inquisitive goat some forty years ago. Thanks to the centuries ol
dryness in the caves where they were buried at the Dead Sea, many
scrolls survived and brought sudden awareness o f the Essenes to the
middle o f the twentieth century.
ST. JEROME AND ST. BENEDICT: PRESERVERS OF THE ESSENE TRADITIONS
A few o f the scrolls were not discovered in the middle o f the
twentieth century, however. It was in the middle o f the fourth century
that St. Jerome began to find fragments o f some ancient manuscripts
in the possession o f certain anchorites living in little huts in a hidden
valley o f the desert o f Chalcis. As he learned Hebrew and Aramaic, he
began to understand the significance o f the fragmentary scrolls, and he
gradually acquired more o f them. O ff and on through the years that
followed, he translated them into Latin, and the teachings contained in
these scrolls affected the rest o f his life profoundly. For among the
tattered scrolls which Jerome labored so hard to translate, acquiring
two difficult languages in order to do it and sacrificing his whole life in
intense devotion to the “desert way”, was the Essene Gospel o f Peace.
After the death o f St. Jerome, his manuscripts were scattered,
including his Hebrew and Aramaic translations, but many o f them
reached sanctuary in the Secret Archives o f the Vatican. In the next
century, in his search for truth, the young St. Benedict somewhere
stumbled upon the translations o f St. Jerome, just as Jerome himself
had stumbled upon the original scrolls in his own search for truth many
years before. The Essene teachings had a profound effect on the young
hermit, tortured as he was by the threatening world chaos o f the middle
ages. Inspired by the vision o f the Essene Brotherhood, Benedict con
ceived the Holy Rule, that masterpiece o f order and simplicity which
gave rise to a monastic system that eventually saved western culture
from extinction during the Dark Ages. When Benedict founded his most
famous monastery at Monte Cassino, certain ancient scrolls found their
way to safety behind those peaceful walls. And there they slumbered on
the shelves o f the Scriptoria, where monks patiently copied parchment
after parchment, century after century. They waited patiently, too,
under layers o f dust in the Secret Archives o f the Vatican. They had.

13
been written hundreds o f years before by the Essenes themselves, the
mysterious Source. They had been resurrected and translated in the
fourth century by St. Jerome, the Stream. They had been the inspiration
for the founding o f an order which would save western culture from
extinction by St. Benedict, the River. And now they were about to
be rediscovered by me.
LET ST. FRANCIS SING IN YOUR HEART
It came about from a thesis I wrote about St. Francis, which I read
to my high school graduating class as valedictorian. It was called Let
St. Francis Sing in Your Heart, and it bespoke my love and devotion
for the gentle “pagan saint” who had always been my favorite. I was
finishing my high school years at a Piarist monastery before going o ff to
a Unitarian university. (My mother, a French Catholic, and my father,
a Transylvanian Unitarian, had come to a peaceful compromise concer­
ning my education.) My thesis impressed very much our beloved Piarist
headmaster, Monsignor Mondik, and right after my graduation he called
me to his office with some astounding news. I had said in my thesis
that my greatest desire was to learn all I could about St. Francis, and
now he told me that I had been chosen to study for some months in
the Archives o f the Vatican, to accomplish just that. Msgr. Mondik gave
me a letter o f introduction to his childhood friend, Msgr. Mercati, who
was now Prefect o f the Vatican Archives. The only condition was that
I must live in poverty, chastity and obedience, just like a Franciscan
monk, during the time I was to be in Rome, which meant I must live
and dress in the simplest possible way and eat only black bread, cheese,
fruit and vegetables. On the other hand, Msgr. Mondik told me, I would
have a spiritual banquet every day, having at my disposal the inexhaus­
tible treasures o f the ages in the Archives and Library o f the Vatican.
From my present perspective o f many years later, what it all came to
was that I would live like an Essene in order to study about one who
was the very embodiment o f the Essene spirit, St. Francis. And though
I did not know it at the time, I would soon know far more about the
Essenes than anyone had for almost fifteen hundred years.*

*The complete story o f my adventures in the Secret Archives o f the Vatican is told in my
book, The Discovery o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace: the Essenes and the Vatican.

14
 THE ETERNAL CITY

ARRIVAL TO THE ETERNAL CITY

MY RESEARCH IN THE ARCHIVES OF THE VATICAN
After a highly forgettable first night in Rome, spent at a very
noisy and dirty little hotel, I made friends with two chessplayers who
took me to their boarding house, or pensione. The plump Signora who
owned and ran it took a liking to me and let me have a tiny room on
the roof, very short on creature comforts but long on fresh air and a
magnificent view o f part o f The City. The very next day I made my
way to the Vatican, about an hour’ s walk, and valiantly holding my
letter o f introduction like a talisman, I successfully got past the Swiss
Guard and to the outer office o f Msgr. Angelo Mercati, Prefect o f the
Archives, and boyhood friend o f my headmaster. That first day I was
told to leave my letter and come back the next morning, as the Prefect
was unable to see me. It was a blow, but I had resolved to be faithful
and obedient, so I did as I was told.
The next morning began my first real day in Rome, for I finally
met Msgr. Mercati, one o f the most unforgettable figures I would ever
meet, a kind and benevolent sage with burning eyes and a superhuman
memory embracing, it was said, the entire twenty-five mile length o f the
long shelves o f the Archives. He told me he had read my thesis, and
asked me why I wanted to study at the Archives. I told him o f my
desire to know the source o f St. Francis’knowledge, to study every­
thing that most original and unique o f all the saints had known. His
answer to me was cryptic and fascinating. He told me that St. Francis
was the Ocean, and I must find the River nourishing it, just as he did.
Then I must look for the Stream. And then, if I am firmly on the Path,
I will find the Source.
I was tremendously inspired, not only by the challenge o f his
words, but also by his kindness to me, that lordly compassion that
shone from his eyes and enveloped me like an embrace. I resolved to
find whatever source it was he referred to, if it should take me the
rest o f my life. And when I took my first good look at the Secret
Archives o f the Vatican, I began to think it might take me at least that
long. There were endless halls and corridors, dozens o f subdivisions,
an index room with over six hundred handwritten indices, and over
twenty-five miles o f bookshelves o f scrolls, parchments, paper manu­
scripts and codices. In one square, dust-filled room there were over ten
thousand packages o f unexamined documents! But I was not alone in
my bewilderment. There were students there from all over the world,
and we shared a fraternal atmosphere o f friendship and unity. We did

15
not always understand each other’ s languages, but we had in common
an intense dedication to our studies and an unswerving devotion to
Msgr. Mercati, whom we all loved.
Perhaps it was my fluency in Latin and Greek, perhaps my patient
struggle with the dusty indices, but one day Msgr. Mercati rewarded me
with another o f his mysterious statements: “Remember, my son, the
Latin Ocean is nourished by the Greek River, which is nourished by the
Aramaic Stream, which originates from the Hebrew Source.”And he
assigned to me a French monk to help me with my Aramaic and He­
brew, languages I was not as fluent in as Latin and Greek. His words
touched o ff something in my mind, like a chess move which suddenly
reveals the whole pattern o f the game, and it was not long before I
knew I was on the right track.
It was then I decided to descend a mysterious, circular staircase
which led to the oldest part o f the Secret Archives, where the most
precious and ancient documents were kept. I also had my eye on a
permanently closed door near the end o f the lower corridor leading
from Msgr. Mercati’ s office, to which only he had the key. But for the
moment I concentrated on this oldest part o f the Archives, struggling
as I never had before with four ancient languages, operating as much
on intuition as on perseverant detective work.

MY DISCOVERY IN THE SCRIPTORIUM

OF THE BENEDICTINE MONASTERY OF MONTE CASSINO
When I finally had my first real clue, I felt a deep and profound
satisfaction, and an insatiable desire to know more. I went immediately
to Msgr. Mercati and asked his permission to visit the archives o f the
Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino. He granted it right away, with
a twinkle in his eye. His letter o f recommendation to the Abbot was
dated the day before. He enjoyed my astonishment. “G o with God, my
son. I think you have found the River.”
I had found the River, but my first visit to Monte Cassino did not
reveal the Stream. However, after spending a week in the monastery,
watching the monks walking in the groves and working in their garden,
eating their bread and fruits together at their communal meals, medita­
ting in their small cells, singing together their beautiful chants morning
and evening, I knew what I had to find in the Archives o f the Vatican,
and I knew where to look for it.
I returned to Msgr. Mercati. I gathered up my courage and asked
him for the key to his locked room. There was a long pause while his
eyes searched my own, and then he gave it to me solemnly, wishing me
luck and telling me to be sure to return it to his own hands.

16
 Our Chambre d ’
Etudes at the Vatican

■
II
I
f
t

1
■
I

View from the Benedictine Monastery at Monte Cassino

 I entered the secret room as an initiate o f old must have entered
the sacred chamber o f the Great Pyramid, and I burrowed alone through
the dusty manuscripts, using all my hard-earned knowledge to find the
way. It was not long before I found what I had been seeking.
A few days later I returned the key to Msgr. Mercati and asked
permission to return to Monte Cassino. He looked at my face and
smiled. “I am glad you have found the Stream, my son,”he said. “Now
I hope you will find the Source.” And again he handed me a letter
dated the day before, this time asking the Abbot to let me use the large
vitrines in the Scriptorium.
I delved into the archives o f Monte Cassino like a fish returning to
water. The River o f St. Benedict carried me, the Stream o f St. Jerome,
which I had discovered in the precious repository in the locked room,
urged me on, and I pored over unexpurgated editions o f Josephus,
Philo and Plinius, along with many other Latin classics. Again I looked
through beautiful manuscripts o f St. Jerome. Many o f these priceless
works had generally been considered long lost, and I read and read
through a treasure-trove o f unbelievable richness. I learned that other
copies o f his works survived in other Benedictine monasteries, such as
the library o f San Salvatore, where a beautiful copy remained for cen­
turies until, with the destruction o f the abbey, it reached the Biblioteca
Laurenziana o f Florence, where it is now classified as the Amiatino
Gospel.
The original manuscripts o f St. Jerome, believed lost in the fifth
century, fortunately survived in the Benedictine monastery o f Monte
Cassino and in the Secret Archives o f the Vatican. Among these manu­
scripts was the complete text o f The Essene Gospel o f Peace.
I had found the Source: Hebrew fragments o f the Essene Gospel,
the Aramaic version o f which I had just read from the shelves o f Msgr.
Mercati’ s locked room. I knew now the origin o f the inner light that
shone from that beloved figure, and I perceived in a flash o f awareness
the heroic measure o f his silence. Now, should I be silent, too?

AN UNFORGETTABLE FAREWELL FROM MONSIGNOR MERCATI

I returned to the Vatican and immediately went to Msgr. M ercati’s
office, that book-filled study I had come to know and love so well.
When he looked up, I saw something new in his expression: mingled
with his familiar glance o f wise compassion was an indecipherable look
almost o f commiseration—o f something shared that he had shared with
no other person.
“You have found the Source,”he said, quietly.
“How do you know?”I asked.

18
 “Because, my son,”he said, with a twinkle, “you have that look.”
And again that strange expression crossed his face: 1 saw mirrored
there all the wisdom and compassion o f the ages, mingled with tender
humor and the sharing o f an unutterably precious secret. Tears sudden-
ly stung my eyes.
“What shall I do, Father?”I asked.
“Let St Francis sing in your heart, ”he whispered.
I knelt and kissed his hand. He said only one word, the shortest
one-letter word in the Latin language, “ I.” Go. And I went, and I
never saw him again.
Paris in the T w en ties
Versailles
 THE CITY OF LIGHT

PARIS: THE ESSENE RENAISSANCE BEGINS AT VERSAILLES

The history o f the Essene Renaissance Movement really begins
with my discovery o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace, in 1923. The story o f
this discovery is told in my book The Discovery o f the Essene Gospel
of Peace, subtitled The Essenes and the Vatican. My literal French
translation o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace from Aramaic and Hebrew
was printed in Paris by the publisher Felix Alcan, more than fifty years
ago. This printing appeared simultaneously with my treatise on the
discovery o f the Essene Gospel which I gave to my classmates at the
University o f Paris in 1925, and which later became the book described
above. Both my treatise and the Essene Gospel made a great impression
on some o f my classmates, all good friends o f mine between the ages o f
twenty and twenty-six, and inspired a group o f us to form a little
church based on the Essene Gospel o f Peace, to start a diet o f raw
fruits, raw vegetables, nuts and germinated seeds, and try to live accor­
ding to the suggestions o f the Essene Gospel.
The only thing not quite in accordance with the simple life style
of the ancient Essenes was the location o f our church. The father o f one
of our members was the superintendent o f the grounds o f Versailles,
that most luxurious estate in the world, the court o f Louis XIV, replete
with pavilions, statues, lakes and endless fountains, and one can imagine
how we felt when our friend told us that his father invited us to come
every Sunday and use any part o f Versailles we wished for our church
services! So for more than three years a good-sized group o f us went
every week to Versailles, where amidst the ghosts o f kings and queens,
surrounded by the incredible natural beauty o f that former cultural
center o f Europe, we created our own son et lumiere, communing with
the Angels o f Sun, Water and Air, sharing in meditation, music and
experiences on the path o f the Essene Way. We were also deeply im­
pressed by the changes we found in our organisms, all for the better,
brought on by our adoption o f a 100% raw fruit-vegetable-nut diet. O f
course we had started to eat that way for spiritual reasons, because they
were the foods described in the Essene Gospel, but we were pleasantly
surprised to discover the tremendously improved health and well-being
which followed.
THE SEED IS SOWN AT THE SORBONNE
1 want to take a moment to explain the very excellent method o f
communal study we had at the Sorbonne, because it led directly to the
nexi Essene nucleus in France. In our class, everyone was assigned a

22
study, and then each o f us read to the whole class the results o f his
study. In this way, every student in that class knew about: everybody
else’s assignment and field, whatever was presented. (My field was the
extremely exclusive area o f cosm ogony and cosm ology—what ancient
civilizations thought about the origin, structure and function o f the
universe.) And as most o f us wanted a permanent record o f these highly
instructive and interesting reports, following the presentation o f a thesis
we all went o ff to see M. Du Bois.
M. Du Bois had a little printing plant, though one acquainted with
a modern printing press would probably not recognize it as such. It was
located on a side street, with an inconspicuous entrance marked by a
very high gate leading into a patio. In the middle o f the patio was a large
fountain, surrounded by parrots and all kinds o f other tropical birds
hanging in bird cages and a riot o f flowers everywhere. When you went
through the arches in the corridors, you saw a little door on the left
side which opened onto the printing establishment o f M. Du Bois.
And there, under a very high ceiling, was M. Du Bois himself in all his
splendor, sitting at a table upon which was a Hammond typewriter, that
very ancient prototype o f the modern vari-typer machines, as it was
the first to use a type cylinder which was moving around and printing
the letters; it represented the latest achievement in technological pro­
gress at that time. Then at another table was a mimeograph machine
which worked with stencil and ink. It was a Gestetner, one o f the very
first models, and if it could be resurrected it would probably be in a
museum today. M. Du Bois’entire staff consisted o f a twelve-year old
boy who cranked the mimeograph machine by hand.
Since there were three hundred o f us in the class, we would each
contribute one franc and a delegation of us would be sent to M. Du Bois
with the manuscripts and the money. In exchange, M. Du Bois himself
typed the thesis on a stencil, put it on the duplicator, and the little boy
cranked the machine three hundred times. He had a stapling machine
which he used to fasten them after they were folded, and we each had
a copy o f the thesis. We made a few extra so our professor could have a
copy, and we always made three or four copies for the archives o f the
Sorbonne. It was in this manner that my thesis about the discovery o f
the Essene Gospel o f Peace was first printed.

INVITATION FROM THE MYSTIC OF TOURETTE SUR LOUP

About three weeks later I received a letter from a certain gentle­
man, an historic occasion, as that person later played a very important
role in the propagation o f the Essene traditions and philosophy and in
the foundation o f the first Essene church in the south o f France. The

23
Tourette Sur Loup
letter came from Tourette Sur Loup, on stationery which bore the name
o f La Magdalene, and it was signed Jean Pierre Weiller. In the letter was
a ticket to Tourette Sur Loup, together with an invitation to visit liini
during my forthcoming vacation for the purpose o f discussing my re
search work at the Vatican. Needless to say, I was very impressed and
proud that som ebody wanted to discuss such matters with me, and I
took the letter immediately to my professor, who was a kind of big
brother to me. I asked him what he thought o f the letter and if I should
go there. After glancing through it he told me that I definitely should
go to visit M. Weiller. I must have looked curious about his unreserved
approval because he went on to say that though he had never met M.
Weiller, he was very famous and he had certainly heard all about him.
Then he proceeded to tell me this amazing story.
During the First World War Jean Pierre Weiller was a very excellent
French pilot on the German front. He shot down a good dozen o f
German planes (not a very Essene activity, but at that time he knew
nothing about the Essenes) and was given more and more difficult
assignments until finally his mission was to blow up an extremely large
ammunition dump. On the way to his target he met two German planes,
one o f which escaped, the other he liquidated in a dogfight. Without
further incident his target was reached and he dropped his bomb on the
ammunition dump. The whole thing went up in an enormous holocaust
visible for many miles, and in this respect his mission was a success.
However, the strength o f the explosion was so powerful that it damaged
his plane and he lost control o f it. He crash-landed into a barn and
miraculously survived. But the noise o f the explosion had irreparably
damaged his ear drums and Jean Pierre was stone deaf for the rest o f his
life. However, at that moment he was glad just to be alive, and he got
out o f the demolished barn, made his way to the French lines during
the night and was welcomed as a great hero. A gala reception was held
in his honor in Paris, and he received his nation’ s highest tribute when
he became a Chevalier de la Legion d ’ Honneur. But Jean Pierre was a
changed man after that experience, and it had nothing to do with his
loss o f hearing. He said that in the interval between the explosion and
his crash-landing into the barn, he had a kind o f inner revelation—a Hash
o f insight that his whole life up to that moment had been meaningless.
When he found that by the grace o f G od he had survived the crash, he
decided to leave the army and from then on dedicate his life to spiritual
pursuits, study o f mysticism, study o f philosophy, exploration o f many
branches of all-sided knowledge. He retired to a beautiful place he
owned, La Magdalene, in Tourette Sur Loup in the south of France,
and left instructions with all the important publishers in France and

25
England to send him whatever book they published about mysticism,
philosophy, archeology, etc. With these books he built a library which
in time grew to more than fifty thousand volumes. Any book he was
not interested in he donated to the little library in the town o f Tourette
Sur Loup. That tiny library, which began with about two hundred
books, ended with more than fifteen thousand—quite a lot for a sleepy
little southern French town.
My professor closed this remarkable tale by saying that Jean Pierre
was very wealthy and very eccentric—but that I should definitely go
to see him.

I MEET MY MEMORABLE FRIEND, JEAN PIERRE

So I went. I arrived first to Nice and from there I took a bus for
Tourette Sur Loup. Upon arriving there, I asked for directions to the
estate o f M. Weiller. The invariable response was a stroking o f the chin
and a meditative, “ah... La Magdalene!”which did not make me any
wiser. Finally I found a fiacre to take me there but was surprised when
the driver stopped a few yards before the gate and would go no farther.
I asked him why he did not drive up to the entrance. “Oh no,”he said,
“I don’ t want to have anything to do with him—il est fou !”(He is a
madman!) I was puzzled because this opinion did not coincide with the
one held by my professor, but I decided that a little walk would not do
any harm, so I paid the driver and proceeded on foot toward the gates
o f La Magdalene.
As it turned out, M. Jean Pierre Weiller was definitely not a mad­
man, but his home was not exactly run-of-the-mill, either. In that huge,
Mediterranean-style mansion were nothing but shelves and shelves and
more shelves o f books. Books were everywhere—in his office, in his
living room, in his bedroom, in his cellar, in his attic, even in his bath-
room —there were nothing but books.
He greeted me warmly and thrust a pad and pencil into my hands.
1 soon realized why the superstitious townspeople thought he was mad.
Although he depended on the written word to receive communication,
hence the pad and pencil, he answered the writer by talking. And not
being able to hear the sound o f his own voice, the sounds he made were
strange indeed, very high-pitched and weird-sounding, and it was this
that gave the impression to his neighbors that he was mad. Oh, the
folly o f human prejudices!
He told me he had read the Alcan edition o f my translation o f the
Essene Gospel o f Peace, and that in some way my thesis about the
discovery o f the Essene Gospel had also come into his hands. He told
me that lie had been so impressed by the Essene Gospel that he began

26
at once to eat the foods recommended therein and that in just a few
weeks he felt much younger. Then and there he proceeded to show me
all kinds o f incredible exercises he was able to perform after following
this diet, a spectacle enhanced by his otherwise dignified appearance,
long beard, etc. Well, I was impressed, but I couldn’ t help wondering
if this was what he had summoned me from Paris to observe. But soon
the reason for our meeting became clear.
ESSENE RENAISSANCE IN GREECE
He told me he had a friend in Greece, on the island o f Cos, the
home o f Hippocrates, the father o f medicine, and that this friend,
a physician by the name o f Dr. Damoglou, had also read the Essene
Gospel o f Peace and had started a large congregation on the island o f
Cos. They had meetings under a very ancient and huge plane tree, the
same tree under which Hippocrates gave his lectures some two thousand
years ago. He had written to Jean Pierre, enclosing pictures o f the
group, the plane tree, and the ruins of the aesculapions which dotted
the island, and asked to be put into contact with me as he wanted to
know from an authoritative source if he was conducting his Essene
church in the right way. Well, at this I felt almost as important as the
Vatican and said I would be glad to cooperate in any way. I asked Jean
Pierre what he would suggest. He smiled at me and said, “Look, my
friend, let us not tell him how young you are, as he may be disappoin­
ted. But we will both write the letter and sign it, as he knows me and
trusts my judgment.”And so we compiled a long letter to the energetic
Dr. Damoglou. In such a way did my friendship with Jean Pierre begin,
a friendship which flourished and endured for many, many years, until
the war put a continent between us.
THE ISLAND OF COS: HIPPOCRATES AND THE AESCULAPIONS
The story o f Dr. Damoglou and the Essene Church on the island o f
Cos has some interesting sidelights. One is the connection with the great
Greek philosopher Hippocrates, acknowledged as the father o f medicine
but very far from the sad state o f modern medicine. It was Hippocrates
who said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”He
practiced heliotherapy, hydrotherapy and treatment with herbs, right
breathing, simple diet, and so on. He taught his students under that
beautiful plane tree on the island o f Cos, and he wrote treatises about
his ideas, calling his therapies the airs, the waters, etc. His statue exists
in every medical institution in a prominent place and his books are
continuously quoted, but very seldom read. In fact, every physician at
graduation takes the Hippocratic Oath, but if they would follow it
there would be much less disease.

27
The Aesculapion
 The other interesting story is the origin o f the ruins all over the
island o f Cos, the ruins o f the aesculapions. The name comes from
Aesculapius, the Greek god o f health, whose statue always marked the
entrance o f an aesculapion. In ancient Greece, just as today, people
living in the cities usually got into health troubles, and when they were
very tired and run-down they went to visit an aesculapion, which was
a large piece o f land in the country, covered with orchards, crossed by
many creeks, and populated with goats pasturing on the rich grass. The
physicians there were geniuses o f simplicity in their methods o f treat­
ment. First, they told the patient to walk until he was tired. When he
was tired, he was to lie down and rest under any o f the innumerable
large and shady trees. When he was rested, he was told to walk again,
and so on. If he felt cold, he was told to lie in the sun with the body
exposed until he felt warm. And this walking, resting, sunbathing, and
again walking and resting, continued alternately through the day. When
he got hungry, he was given an earthenware pot and told to milk one
o f the goats which was pasturing, then to pick some fruits from the
trees. This routine usually went on for two or three weeks, and by that
time the patient felt strong and healthy, ready to again face the stress
o f city life. I was extremely impressed by my study o f the aesculapions,
and consider that never in history was there invented a simpler way to
build up the human body, nor a more pleasant one. Nothing could be
more enjoyable, as well as healthy, than to alternately walk and rest in
beautiful natural surroundings, eating figs and almonds from the trees
and drinking fresh goat’ s milk.
It was the combination o f Hippocrates, the ruins o f the aescula-
pions with their heritage o f genius in therapeutic simplicity, and the
reading o f the Essene Gospel of Peace, which inspired a modern Greek
physician, Dr. Damoglou, to found his Essene church, which existed
for many years. After our initial correspondence, in which Jean Pierre
helped to make me seem properly elderly and authoritative, we also
became good friends, and maintained contact for a long time. In fact,
when I founded Mille Meditations* some forty years later, it was Dr.
Damoglou who sent me in a beautiful urn soil from the grave o f Plato,
so I could bury that soil on the grounds o f our reconstructed oak grove
o f Plato. (Plato’ s famous Academy consisted o f an oak grove in which
he walked with his disciples while practicing Socratic dialogues and
teaching them—the word “peripatetic”means to walk under the oaks.)
So the congregation o f Dr. Damoglou on the island o f Cos became the
second Essene church in our history.
*The story o f Mille Meditations, the Mountain o f a Thousand Meditations, is fold in V oIudh-
Two o f Search fo r the Ageless: Tlie Great Experiment: the Conquest o f Death.

29
 BIRTH OF OUR LITERARY SPA: SHAW, MAETERLINCK, GIDE, MARINETTI
Meanwhile, my friend Jean Pierre was full o f ideas. The first one,
Inspired and challenged perhaps by his Greek friend, was to found an
Essene church. And this he did, donating a very beautiful area o f his
land for the use o f about two dozen o f his friends, where they got
together once a week and read the Essene Gospel, discussed the Essene
teachings and talked about their experiences in following a simple and
natural life and diet.
He expressed his second idea to me in this way: “You know, my
dear Edmond, up till now we have been working with the Essene teach­
ings from the grass roots. Why don’ t we start now from above?”I must
have looked somewhat puzzled, because he went on to explain his idea.
“Edmond, I suggest you organize a “literary spa” for writers, poets,
painters, sculptors, composers, where they can come together to spend
their vacations and carry on writing or painting or composing and mean­
while follow the Essene ideals o f a simple, natural life. They would
combine the artistic discipline with a diet o f simple foods and natural
living, all infused with the spiritual element. It would truly be a fusion
of all the highest ideals that man can aspire to. And we will have the
most important and most active points in the universe in the service o f
something good. Not to mention the fact that the Essene Gospel will
propagate much more effectively!”
Well, it was a very impressive argument. In fact, I never have been
able to resist a good idea. So the next step was for Jean Pierre to put
me in contact with one o f his friends, which became something o f a
standing joke between us—for if there was one quality o f Jean Pierre’ s
which was his most distinctive, it was that he knew everybody.
It was incredible. When I wanted to do some research about an
obscure question concerning the Knights o f Malta, he just made a little
note and a few days later gave me exactly the information I needed.
“Oh,”he said, in reply to my surprise, “I just wrote to a friend o f mine
who is a Knight Templar o f Malta.” When I wanted some rare plant
from an unknown Central African location he immediately put me in
contact with the British governor o f that area who also happened to be
a friend o f his. So it was not surprising that when we were discussing
how we should obtain the land we needed for our literary spa, which
wc had decided should be in Aspremont to take advantage o f the excel-
Icnl: climate o f the Riviera, he said without a m om ent’ s hesitation, “I
will put you in contact with my good friend, Mr. Yelland.”
Mr. Yelland was a gentleman from England who had founded in
Aspremont an Esperanto center. Esperanto is an international language
invented by a Russian opthalmologist called Dr. Zamenhoff, also a

30
philologist who spoke eighteen languages and considered that there
would be no linguistic barriers between man and man and ....... and
nation if everyone spoke the same second language. This internal idea
which he called interna ideo was one he thought would bring together
mankind and the diffusion o f the fraternal spirit. Inspired by these
ideals, Mr. Yelland had established a center where people came from all
parts o f the world to speak Esperanto. He also had a beautiful valley
which he did not use at all. So my friend Jean Pierre persuaded him to
put the valley at our disposal for the worthy cause o f our literary spa.
He was more than willing, with the one condition that he would be
allowed to give a lecture on Esperanto once a week to all the great
and famous people who, Jean Pierre assured him, would soon overflow
the entire valley.
So we established the world’ s first literary spa. The beauty o f the
natural surroundings was unsurpassed: rolling meadows and tall trees,
a creek flowing through the valley, a good well, a fruit orchard, and a
perfect climate. Jean Pierre had another friend, Mr. Gottland, who con­
structed about two dozen little cabins o f an asbestos-like material called
fihrocement, and they made excellent small Essene dwellings. Jean
Pierre began to write to some more o f his friends, and within three
months and every summer after that, the valley was indeed overflowing
with the great and the near-great.
One eminent guest was George Bernard Shaw, who entertained
everyone with his dry and sometimes caustic wit. One o f his more
popular jokes, though I suspect he was serious about it, was to maintain
that whenever he had insomnia he could cure it successfully and be
asleep in a few minutes just by opening my book on astrophysics and
reading a few pages. He also enjoyed the wonderful hiking our moun­
tains afforded, and o f course liked very much the food as he was already
a vegetarian and it was not necessary to convert him. In fact, he was
always putting little stickers on his correspondence which said: Be kind
to animals—don’ t eat them.
Then there was Maurice Maeterlinck, another good friend o f Jean
Pierre’s. This quiet, gentle man wrote so many beautiful and mystical
books, some o f which became very popular, like The Bine Bird; others,
not so well-known, were even more meaningful, like Le Grand Secret,
in which he described the beautiful teachings o f ancient India, the
Upanishads, the Vedas and many other mystic scriptures.
Another frequent visitor was Andre Gide, the great French writer,
humanist and moralist, who years later in 1947 would win the Nobel
prize for literature. He kept very much to himself, walking for hours
alone along the beautiful paths which wound through the foothills o f

31
26 1 . NICE L a P r o m e n a d e d e s A n g l a i s el la }eU*e~Promenaue . LI,
the Alps. I felt in his presence a great deal o f the seventeenth century
classic tradition, and his writing also reflected that integrity and nobility
o f thought, whose purity and harmony o f style gave him a permanent
place among the great masters o f European literature. Somehow one
never wished to disturb him, and though he was invariably courteous
and polite, his eyes were always focused on some distant miracle, and
in his veins there seemed to beat the rhythm o f another century.
Then there was Marinetti, who later became the head o f the Italian
Academy o f Arts. He was the founder o f Futurism and wrote strange
poems. If the major activity o f Shaw was hiking, and Maeterlinck’ s
writing, then Marinetti’ s chief occupation was clowning. I remember
once when it was his turn to give a lecture. There he came, preceded by
two husky musclemen dressed as Roman legionnaires who carried a huge
book made o f steel which they set down on a table. Then, as Marinetti
read his poems from the steel book, the two legionnaires were turning
the pages with great effort. It was very amusing, but when we asked
him afterward if it was not simpler to have his poems printed in a book
made o f paper, he said, “Oh no, my old friend Horatius said exegi
monumentum aere perennius!”, which means, “I have erected a monu­
ment which will be more perennial than iron!”It was a rather immodest
quote considering that he was speaking o f his own poems. He went on
to say that using steel instead o f paper would surely guarantee that his
poems would remain for posterity. He was a wonderful person, though,
and I will tell shortly about the very amusing manner in which we met
for the first time.
So we had quite a conglomeration o f the strangest people—great
geniuses and eccentrics—and life was never dull. The most interesting
thing was that though opinions were very different about practically
everything, they all accepted as common ground the Essene Gospel o f
Peace and did not object to the diet o f fruits and vegetables and the
simple, unadorned way o f living. All o f them were used to a luxurious
life style, but at the spa they existed happily in a little asbestos cabin,
lying on a wooden bed, with only a table and a chair for furniture. And
they had a wonderful time and returned home in much better health.

ZARATHUSTRA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

There is another adventure connected with my friend Jean Finn,
which bears telling. It came about when I mentioned to him once dnu
I had become interested in investigating the Zend Avesta o f Zarathust'-tM
Now most people had never heard o f either that ancient scriplum m
Zarathustra, but as usual Jean Pierre not only knew o f them but hiU Tpd
that I visit a friend o f his! (I should have known.) His friend’
s m»m> *

33
M. (nil's Costes and the only thing Jean Pierre would tell me about him
was that he possessed a rare edition o f the authentic translation o f the
Z e n d Avesta o f Zarathustra by Anquetil-Duperron, and Jean Pierre was
very jealous as he too collected first editions and was mystified as to
how M. Costes was able to obtain such a treasure. One thing Jean Pierre
did. say about him, and it was very humorous hearing it from his lips:
“I warn you, Edmond, he is a very eccentric person!”
Well, by now that was a warning that would certainly not dis­
courage me, so when I returned to Paris I tracked down the address
given me by Jean Pierre. I soon found myself standing at a gate which
made me wonder if I was in a suburb not far from Paris, or rather trans­
ported magically somehow to ancient Persia. There was a high stone
wall, at least twelve feet high, and a massive iron gate covered with
carvings o f all kinds o f Sumerian and ancient Persian figures. There was
a little opening in the gate and a niche where a note was attached which
read: in case you have any serious cause to discuss with us, please leave
a note, come back tomorrow, and you will find in this box the time
of your appointment. Well, I left there the letter o f recommendation
from Jean Pierre and went back to Paris.
The next day I came back at about ten in the morning and noticed
that my note had disappeared from the box. I knocked at the gate
and when it opened, revealing an ancient Persian apparition, I was not
really taken aback, remembering my old friend Horatius who said nil
adrnirari (never be surprised). So I entered and explained to the appari­
tion, who at second glance I saw to be a personable young man, that
I would like to talk with M. Jules Costes. “Oh yes,”the young man
said, “we gave your note to my grandfather and he will be very glad to
see you. My grandfather said that ‘ les amis de nos amis sont aussi nos
amis.’”(The friends o f our friends are also our friends.) And he led me
to the library where he asked me to wait.
As one may have guessed, the library was also filled with ancient
Persian and Sumerian art, and I had just begun to look more closely
at some o f the figures and paintings when a most remarkable figure
entered the room. Though I knew, according to reason, that it must be
M. Costes, my eyes saw someone who seemed to have just stepped out
of an ancient Persian painting: a dignified elderly gentleman in resplen­
dent Persian attire, authentic down to the last thread, with a long beard
and long hair and very vivid eyes—a figure definitely not o f this century.
He asked me to sit down and then told me without preamble that he
had read in my letter o f introduction from our mutual friend Jean
Pierre that I was very much interested to read the Anquetil-Duperron
edition o f the Zend Avesta o f Zarathustra. I answered that that was

34
indeed my desire. His eyes flashed as he said, “I do not wish to be rude,
but it will be absolutely useless to you!”I asked him, rather startled,
what he meant. His eyes flashed again as he said, “Young man, you are
not the first to come here. Many times in the past, curious people have
come to see my edition o f the Zend Avesta, and after they have seen it
they go away and nothing happens. Now you are here—and o f course
you will have to come back several times because you realize I will
never let that book leave this house—so you will come back and read it
and read it, and o f course you are welcome to do so, as much as you
like until you have finished it. But, I repeat, you will do nothing about
it!”His words rang in silence for a few moments, and then I asked him
patiently to please explain his meaning more clearly. He looked long
at me and said earnestly, “My friend, the Zend Avesta is not just an
archaic museum piece, it is a world in itself. It contains information
about how to live, how to eat, how to meditate, how to grow a garden,
and so much more I could not begin to describe—and you theoretical,
scholastic people, you never do anything about it!”Well, it seemed he
was determined about the truth o f his statement, but I asked him to
please not have any prejudices.
“M. Costes,” I said, “I do not know yet what I will do about it,
but I feel I will do something—I feel there is very important knowledge
in that book.”
Again the flashing eyes. “O f course there is important knowledge!”
he exclaimed. “It is the most ancient sacred book of mankind and it is
an encyclopedia! It has everything we ever need to know!”
Then he collected himself and seemed to remember that I was a
friend o f his friend, for he smiled and suggested that before I sat down
to read, he would like to show me around his extensive estate.

AN ECCENTRIC PATRIARCH IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

We left the library and entered a beautiful otherworldly recreation
of ancient Persia. I saw wonderful orchards, vegetable gardens, flowers
of all kinds, and carved tiles and sculpted stone figures representing
ancient Sumerian symbols. I saw several people in Persian attire, taking
care of the fruit trees, gardening, making compost, and doing all kinds
o f other less familiar activities. He walked me over to four o f them and
said he would like me to meet his grandson. I told him we had already
met—that it was his grandson who had greeted me at the gate. My host
smiled and said he remembered. Working alongside his grandson was a
charming young woman whom he introduced as his grandson’ s wife.
Then I met his granddaughter and her husband. I commented on how
healthy and happy all four seemed to be, and how much they appeared

35
to enjoy their creative activities in this ancient Persian microcosmos.
He assured me they did, and told me that although his son and daughter
did not have much in common with him and were working for the
government in some high bureaucratic offices, their children, the next
generation, had come to him. “And here they are,”he said with pride.
“My grandchildren came to me, to follow my way o f life.”
We returned to the library. I sat down at a table and started to
read that most valuable and rare edition, translated by the elusive and
enigmatic Anquetil-Duperron, who deserted from the Foreign Legion to
spend his life in Persia pursuing the near-impossible task o f translating
the least-known but most universal and profound of all the holy scrip­
tures o f antiquity—the Zend Avesta o f Zarathustra.
I returned every day for several days to that tranquil, book-filled
room, where unaccountably, so close to Paris, the spirit o f ancient
Sumeria and Persia resided. I took notes which later formed the base o f
several books o f my own on Zarathustra, and led me to the acquisition
o f my own copy o f Anquetil-Duperron’ s edition.
After about a week o f my visits, I brought to M. Costes one day
my French translation o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace. He glanced at it
and said it looked interesting, and if I would just leave it on the table
he would read through it and give me his opinion the following day.
When I left, I couldn’ t help remembering how I had left my original
note o f introduction in just the same way.
The next morning a strange thing happened: my host invited me
to have lunch with him. We entered a sunlit room with a table laden
with fresh fruit from the garden, ripe tomatoes, almonds, hazel nuts,
and a beautiful array o f other fresh foods. When I expressed my admira­
tion, he smiled. “If you follow what you translated,” he said, “then
these are more or less the foods you eat.”I told him they were. For
the first time, I saw a twinkle in his eye. “You know, my dear Edmond,
maybe you will do something about it!”And then we feasted, enjoying
a spiritual as well as gastronomical banquet.
M. Costes graciously adopted the Essene Gospel o f Peace, though
he was swift to point out several passages o f the Zend Avesta in which
the Essene traditions could be traced from the avestic culture o f ancient
Persia. We spent several hours in the library that afternoon poring over
a great many volumes, and he proved to me unmistakably that the
F.ssenes had their roots in ancient Persia and Sumeria. And we both
admitted that probably the avestic traditions themselves went back
much farther than that. We became very good friends, and M. Costes,
his grandchildren and their spouses all enthusiastically embraced the
Hssene Gospel o f Peace. O f course, it was basically the same philosophy

36
they were following anyway, but they liked very much the spiritual
atmosphere o f the Essene Gospel. They formed a little nucleus which
became a center for the Essene teachings.
A footnote: When I finally gave to Jean Pierre a report on all that
had happened, he beamed and exclaimed, “You see! I told you he is
an eccentric!”And his tone o f voice implied that it was not such a bad
thing to be, after all.
 I MEET THE FOUNDER OF FUTURISM

THE GHOST OF CORNARO, THE VENETIAN NOBLEMAN

One morning I was visiting my friend Jean Pierre at his home at
Tourette Sur Loup, and I was telling him about some plans I had for
certain lectures, as he was opening the day’ s mail. Our conversations
took rather longer than usual ones, as I had to write down everything
I wanted to say to him because o f his hearing problem. So as I finished
writing my note and handed it to him, I noticed he was very intent on a
letter he had just opened with an impressive wax seal. He read it all,
then handed it to me to look at, saying it was something I might be
interested in. I read the beautiful gothic script, inviting Jean Pierre to
be one o f the honored speakers at the fiftieth anniversary o f the Cin­
quenale de Milano, a famous international fair given under the auspices
o f the Italian government. I had indeed heard about the Cinquenale
and had always intended to go to one, though I never had. The letter
went on to say that since this was the very special celebration o f the
fiftieth anniversary, the theme would be special too, and Jean Pierre
was requested to lecture about some great Italian, whether philosopher,
artist, author, or whatever. When I finished reading the letter, Jean
Pierre said that apparently they did not know about the condition o f
his hearing, nor that he had a disagreeable high-pitched voice unsuitable
for giving lectures. And he went on to ask me if I would like to give the
lecture in his place? Well, I thought about it, and since I had never
been to a Cinquenale, it seemed to me a good idea, especially as it was
several weeks away and I didn’ t have to prepare a lecture immediately.
Jean Pierre asked me which great Italian I would talk about. I con­
sidered that also, and suddenly a name came to my mind—that o f a
most unusual Italian nobleman o f the fifteenth century who introduced
a very interesting philosophy and way o f living, and I told him I was
sure that 99% o f the Italians living today had never heard o f him: Luigi
Cornaro, and the Salerno School o f Medicine.* After Jean Pierre read
my note with this statement, he gave a whoop and said that he was
surely not one o f those 99% because he was the proud owner o f a very
important book by the same Luigi Cornaro! I went with him to one o f
his hundreds o f book shelves and sure enough, there was an ancient
edition, very rare, o f Cornaro’ s book Discourse on Sobriety, complete
with a beautiful picture o f Cornaro himself on the title page, looking
extremely impressive in his ornate outfit. He said that this was probably
tire book I wanted to talk about. I told him it was, and mentioned
4I wrote ;it length about Cornaro in my book The Essene Science o f Fasting and the Art o f
Solnicly Guide to Regeneration in Health and Disease,

38
some o f the things I would bring out at the lecture, connecting the
Salernian School o f Medicine with the Benedictine monastery o f Monte
Cassino. Looking at Cornaro’ s picture, Jean Pierre said it reminded him
that all the speakers at the Cinquenale were supposed to wear evening
dress and I should not forget to get mine out o f the mothballs, as he
knew well how I disliked getting dressed up. I assured him I would be
the best-dressed man at the celebration, and there we left the subject
for the time being, Jean Pierre telling me before I left that he would
notify the committee that in view o f his hearing condition he had asked
me, as an author and archeologist, to deliver the lecture in his place.

THE MOTORCYCLE AND I - DESTRUCTION OF AN ICE CREAM CART

One lovely morning several weeks later, I was trying out my new
motorcycle, riding up and down outside my home at Aspremont, just
outside o f Nice. The agent had given it to me on a 24-hour trial basis
and was waiting now while I rode up and down to hear my opinion. I
have to add that it was not what we know o f today as a motorcycle.
Though we gave it that name, it was really just a sturdy bicycle with
a small motor attached to it, what might be called today a motorbike.
It seemed to me very practical for my needs, as it was able to traverse
the little winding roads where a car could not go, used extremely small
amounts o f gasoline, was not smelly, and was easy to handle. So as
I braked to a stop, the agent asked me if I was interested to buy it, or
not. He wanted to know because in case I decided not to, he wanted to
take it for a week to the Cinquenale which was starting that very day
in Milan, and he was sure after he demonstrated it there he could sell at
least a few dozen of them. After he uttered “Cinquenale” I hardly
heard another word because I realized, horror-struck, that today was
the day o f my lecture, and that very evening I was supposed to be in
Milan at the Cinquenale on the dais in evening dress expounding on
Luigi Cornaro! My mind went quickly over the different possibilities
of transportation, first rejecting my own car—it was at my home in Paris
and impossible to get in time—then eliminating the autobus, as it was
too slow. Suddenly I realized that providence had put the little m otor­
cycle in my hands for just this purpose. So I bought the machine,
donned my best evening suit and rode o ff on the highway to Milan. It
was still morning and I calculated that since I was not scheduled until
early evening, I would be able to make it beautifully.
I was riding along, enjoying the fresh air and beautiful scenery cu
route and congratulating myself for both remembering the lecture on
time and discovering such a pleasant mode o f transportation, when just
before reaching the Italian border, disaster struck. An ice cream vendor

39
materialized suddenly in the middle o f the road, right at the end o f a
curve, and there was no way to avoid him. We had a rather spectacular
collision, but fortunately, neither one o f us was hurt. However, his little
ice cream cart was demolished and I had not one minute to lose by
staying to settle the matter. I gave him my name and I took his, told
him I would see him in two days in Nice, hopped back on my cycle,
which I was relieved to see still functioned, and continued on my way
to Milan. I finished the rest o f the journey at a rather slower pace,
because after that experience I rode with much greater care.
MY TEMPESTUOUS ENTRY TO THE FAMOUS CINQUENALE
I arrived just twenty minutes before my lecture to the great hall
where the celebration o f the Cinquenale was taking place. I parked
my cycle and ran up the stairs to the second story, passing guests on
the way, all attired resplendently, and all, I noticed with a sudden
premonition, staring at me very curiously. And for the first time since
the accident, I looked down at my evening jacket and pants, which to
my horror were covered with ice cream stains in every color o f the
rainbow! Fortunately, I have never been one to panic in a serious situa­
tion, so I thought a moment and, looking around, caught by the arm
the first gentleman to come along who looked about my size. “Excuse
me,” I said to him, “could you tell me where is the m en’ s room ?”
He said o f course, and offered to show me the way. When we arrived
at the door, I addressed him again. “Excuse me, but could you come
in with me for just a few minutes, as I need your help and I will explain
everything!” Now he looked at me not only with curiosity but with
suspicion as well, so I went quickly on to explain that I was scheduled
to give a lecture in a few minutes, but I certainly could not go up on
the speaker’ s dais in this multi-colored suit which was the result o f a
collision with an ice cream vendor on the highway, and if he would be
so kind as to change his suit for mine just for the lecture, I would be
eternally grateful! Well, after this amazing speech he began to laugh as
if he had heard a wonderful joke, and with a courteous bow motioned
me to go ahead o f him into the men’ s room, where we changed suits.
His was immaculate and just my size, and I rushed o ff to deliver my
lecture, after assuring him I would be back in half an hour. I arrived
to the lecture hall only three or four minutes before I was due to speak.
My lecture was a great success. I extolled the inestimable value o f
Italian literature, arts and philosophy, and introduced a great Italian,
l.uigi Cornaro, whom 99% o f my audience had never heard of, just as I
had suspected. I received a loud ovation and many congratulations,
which I acknowledged gracefully but rather rapidly, because I was in

40
a hurry to get back to my good Samaritan who was waiting in the
men’s room in my ice cream covered suit.

THE GREAT ITALIAN POET IN THE CATABOLIC SANCTUARY

When I arrived there, my new friend was sitting at a little table

quietly reading a book by Benedetto Croce, an author I was familiar
with, who wrote about aesthetics and art. Well, I had to admire the
presence d ’ esprit o f this gentleman, to pass the time reading such a
literary work in the men’ s room, while a total stranger ran away with
his evening clothes! He looked up from his book and smiled, saying
that he was glad I did not have the nature o f a practical joker, in which
case I might have gone back to Nice and left him eternally in the men’ s
room. “But,” he went on, “I see you are a conscientious person, and
I thank you.” I protested, saying that on the contrary it was I who
must thank him, for saving my life. Then he suggested that instead o f
using the men’ s room as a dressing room, which was very small and
uncomfortable, that we go up to his hotel, which was the same hotel
where I had planned to stay, and there we could dress in more civilized
surroundings. I agreed, we left the building, and entered his waiting car.
During our drive to the hotel I introduced myself, thinking it was
about time, and asked him with whom I had the pleasure o f sharing
these handsome evening clothes. He laughed and said he was Marinetti.
I stared at him. “The Marinetti?”I asked, “the founder o f Futurism?”
He was very pleased that I knew o f him and asked if I had read his
poems. I told him that I had indeed read several, and we began a long
and fascinating discussion ranging over a great many subjects, including
different trends in poetry, literature and the general political situation
in the world, and we were still talking long after we had changed clothes
and had dinner together in the hotel.
Finally, when I was ready the next day to go back to Nice, I told
him the only way I could express my gratitude was to invite him to
come and spend some time as my guest at my literary spa. He was
intrigued, and when I told him some o f the names o f frequent guests,
such as Bernard Shaw, Maeterlinck, Andre Gide, etc., he was very in­
terested to meet them and graciously accepted my invitation. As I have
already related, Marinetti not only contributed to the intellectual life
at the spa, but also provided some o f its most amusing moments. He
was an eccentric, true, and his genius took on some strange manifesta­
tions—but he was also a highly original thinker and excellent poet, and
through his role as president o f the Italian Academy o f Arts, influenced
profoundly the modern course o f literature in that country.

41
 MEETING MY VICTIM AT THE POLICE STATION - A HAPPY ENDING
When I arrived to Nice, I lost no time in going to see the Chief of
Police, who was a friend o f mine, to tell him about my ice cream adven­
ture and to offer reparations to settle the matter of the accident in a
friendly way. He asked me how the collision occurred, and I gave him
the details. He nodded, and said there was someone who had already
been several times to see him and was even now sitting in the corridor.
He told his secretary to call the person in, and in a few moments the
ice cream vendor appeared in the doorway, accompanied by a police­
man. The Chief o f Police asked him to sit down, and told him rather
sternly that now he knew everything about the accident and that the
whole thing was his fault, as I had been on the right side o f the highway
and he had been on the wrong side. And not only was he not entitled
to any indemnization, but as he had broken the traffic laws there was a
good possibility that he would have to pay a fine if I should decide to
bring the case to court, and he could even spend a week or two in
prison. Well, the poor devil was very upset, and began to complain that
prison or no prison, he had no money and what would he do to make
a living if he could not get at least a few francs to repair his cart and
replace his merchandise. So I thought it was time to intervene in the
matter. I told him that it really didn’
t matter whose fault it was, as long
as he had learned to observe the traffic laws in the future, and I gave
him five hundred francs. The poor bedraggled fellow ’ s eyes lit up and
he took the five hundred francs, dashing out o f the room before I
would change my mind. He closed the door with a bang and then a
second later opened it again and beamed at us. “Monsieur, if any time
in the future you want to destroy my ice cream cart and pay me five
hundred francs, you will be very welcome to do so!” The Chief o f
Police was laughing behind his moustache, and I was too, and we con­
sidered the matter closed.
So this was how I met Marinetti, the founder o f the Futurist
School o f Poetry in Europe, and one o f the most famous modern poets
o f our time. And though I was always grateful to the ice cream vendor
for introducing us, from then on I kept my little m otorcycle on the
winding, narrow roads around Nice and did not tempt fate again by
any long-distance cycling.

42
My Childhood Memories
of the South of France
 THE LITTLE ESSENE BROTHERHOOD
IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

OUR NOSTALGIC STRING QUARTET

One beautiful summer afternoon I was visiting my friends, the
de Yelskis, in their Riviera villa overlooking the Mediterranean. The
Count and Countess de Yelski were descendants o f two ancient Polish
families o f nobility, and had bought this villa on the Riviera many
years before, to have a pleasant change from the cold Polish winters.
But when the Communist revolution came, the villa became a refuge
for their very lives. They escaped to France with some family jewels
which they were able to sell, giving them a comfortable income. From
a material standpoint, considering that they had a lovely home and
enough money, they were very fortunate; but these charming people,
small and dainty like ivory cameos o f another era, lived only in the
physical sense in France. Their hearts and souls were in their native
Poland, living and reliving that lost and magical time o f castles and
white horses. They felt a kind o f affinity with me, as my father’ s estates
in Transylvania were gone too (although it did not bother me in the
least), and for hours they would reminisce, speaking in soft and sad
voices o f the wonderful scent o f hay before the autumn harvest, the
colts frisking and pasturing in the green fields, the peasants harvesting
the wheat, the delicious Polish and Russian foods, which did not taste
the same in France even when the recipes were followed faithfully,
the gathering o f fruits from their abundant orchards accompanied by
the singing o f the old songs, their melodies floating through the late
summer air, and the glistening white winters o f muffled sleigh bells
and troikas.
They were also talented musicians, and we formed an impromptu
string quartet: Count de Yelski playing cello, I playing violin, Countess
de Yelski as second violin, and the viola played by a Russian emigre
friend o f theirs called Korilenko. He was not quite as well-off financially
as the de Yelskis, but had a good job somewhere in Nice, and I enjoyed
tremendously the humorous sight o f him as we played together, for he
was very tall and skinny, making a charming contrast with the miniature
Count and Countess as he hunched over his viola with Russian abandon
while the de Yelskis played their instruments with aristocratic precision.
And in point o f fact, we made some very excellent music together!
On this particular afternoon, we were just playing the closing
measures o f one o f Beethoven’ s late quartets on the balcony, at the
same time enjoying the sunset over the Mediterranean, when their
housekeeper, a very nice elderly lady who had come with them from

44
Poland, entered rather disturbed, saying she didn’ t like to incorrupt us
but there were some visitors she didn’ t feel equipped to deal with. She
went on to say it was some kind o f delegation whose members were
asking to talk with me, and they had just come from Tourette Sur Loup
where Jean Pierre had told them where they could find me. We all
looked at each other a bit puzzled, for the last thing in the world I was
expecting was a delegation o f any kind. Finally Count de Yelski asked
his housekeeper to go back and ask them who they were and what they
wanted. So she left, and in a moment returned with the astounding
information that they were a group o f anarchists. Now this was not a
word to bring joy into the hearts o f the Russian and Polish aristocracy,
and looks o f great consternation came over the faces o f my friends.
Korilenko got very emotional and, waving his bow around, said that
they had had enough problems with these people in Russia, and he
thought they had finally escaped completely from them and now they
turned up like ghosts in this peaceful part o f beautiful free France!

THE ANARCHISTS OF THE RIVIERA

This started to get interesting, so I calmed him down somewhat
and asked the housekeeper if she would please ask them what they
wanted to discuss with me. After she left, my friends cautioned me to
be careful, that they had all been through very bad experiences with
these terrorists in Russia and Poland, and one never knew what they
were up to. They were still going on in this way when the housekeeper
returned with a very interesting story. It seemed that they had heard
one o f my lectures at the Societe Naturiste de Culture Hurricane in Nice,
and they were very anxious to have my ideas and suggestions about es­
tablishing a few creative subsistent homesteads in the outlying country
area. Upon hearing this, the Count and Countess relaxed somewhat, but
our friend Korilenko was still not satisfied. He asked the housekeeper
to go back one more time and ask them if they were followers o f
Bukharin or Prince Kropotkin. We all looked at him in some surprise
as the good housekeeper made yet another trip and came back with the
information that they were followers o f Prince Kropotkin. Now Kori­
lenko looked happier, saying that the disciples o f Prince Kropotkin
were definitely more peaceful people than the followers o f Bukharin,
who wanted to make a tabula rasa o f Western civilization. I told him
he was right, but not to forget that even Bukharin, when he heard the
Ninth Symphony o f Beethoven, said that when they destroyed all o f
civilization, they would somehow manage to preserve that glorious
piece o f music. Then Count de Yelski said that though he and his wife
would enjoy at any time this discussion o f the various aspects o f anar-

45
chist philosophy, did we not think it would be a good idea to let these
people in and finally get the whole story from them, now that we had
determined they did not come with evil intentions.
So the housekeeper went again to the door and this time returned
with three young people, all in their early twenties. They shook hands
solemnly with each of us, introducing themselves as Marcel, a husky
young man with dark hair; Andre, blonde and lanky with dreamy eyes
behind his glasses; and Renee, a vivacious young lady with cropped
hair and modern forthrightness. Marcel seemed to be their spokesman,
and he apologized for giving the appearance o f being suspicious, but
they could not lie about their beliefs, and they really were followers o f
Prince Kropotkin’ s anarchist philosophy, believing not in destruction
but in mutual aid. I apologized in turn for being suspicious o f them, but
went on to explain that my three friends were emigres who had very
bad experiences with anarchists. The three young people were glad that
everything was finally clarified and we all relaxed and exchanged a few
pleasantries. Then Countess de Yelski graciously asked them to sit down
and they began to tell me their story, which went more or less like this:
“We represent an anarchist organization o f about three dozen
young people. Our dream is to be completely independent from society,
associated together but each o f us living an independent life, as we
consider that the highest value in life is freedom, and we don ’ t want to
be restricted by rules, regulations and laws which would hamper our
free individual evolution. We heard the lecture you gave last Sunday,
and we were very impressed by several of your statements—first, when
you quoted the Greek philosopher who said that the only real freedom
consists in the minimum o f needs—and second, when you said that the
only path leading toward real freedom is simplicity o f living, and that
when we follow the path o f reason then everything will turn out all
right in our lives. We also appreciated your statement that we can make
two mistakes with material things: one is to have too much, as then we
become slaves o f our material possessions, and the other is not to have
enough to satisfy our basic needs. And most o f all, we were impressed
by what you said at the end o f your lecture, that the organization of
our individual lives must have this point o f departure: to know what are
our real needs, and not to sacrifice real values such as our health, peace
of mind, and free time, in order to acquire superfluous harmful things,
which you called self-exploitation. And you also quoted Zarathustra
as saying that the most noble o f all professions is that o f the gardener
o f the earth, and that it is possible to produce everything one would
ever need on an extremely small piece o f land. Well, we have discovered
s o m e available land, about two hectares, some thirty kilometers north

46
from Tourette Sur Loup where your friend Jean Pierre lives, and we
want to distribute it among ourselves and try to put into practice the
ideas you explained in your lecture!”
I was very moved by this declaration, and the de Yelskis were
apparently so impressed by the sincerity o f the three youths that to my
great surprise they invited them to share our dinner, Korilenko even
seconding the motion. They accepted happily, and we sat down to
share a wholesome and delicious Polish meal. When we finished our
dinner, they told me different aspects o f their plans, and I agreed to go
over with them the following week to look at their land and make all
the practical suggestions I could for a successful organization o f their
plan. Andre spoke up at this point and said that with all due respect
they would like to avoid any organization, as Romain Rolland had said
that “organization is the death o f the idea.”I was laughing, and told
them I knew Rolland personally, and though the Nobel prizewinning
novelist was a delightful person and a deep philosopher, nevertheless
a subsistent homestead could never get started without a little organiza­
tion. Once it was established, I pointed out, then if they wished, they
could eliminate the rules and the organization because their homestead
would have a solid structure and foundation. They thanked me enthu­
siastically and made their farewells with thanks to the de Yelskis and to
Korilenko, who remarked after they had gone that he never knew
anarchists could be such charming and (no doubt thinking o f Renee)
good-looking people!

THE ANARCHISTS BECOME ESSENES

I did not forget my promise, and the next week I followed their
little map out to their property. Two hectares is about five acres o f
land, and it was level with good soil, seemingly very appropriate for
their purposes, with some trees, a good well, and space for gardens and
future orchards. We divided the land by hammering little sticks down
into 20 x 25 ft. squares, then we numbered the squares and raffled o ff
pieces o f land to the participants, all o f whom were there that day.
When it was over, each member o f their community had his or her own
little plot o f land, and it was quite a thrilling moment. There was an old
abandoned house on the land, and I suggested they use half o f it for a
small communal library, and the other half for a communal workshop,
so whenever they needed a little money they would be able to create
something, sell it, and use that income to satisfy their simple needs.
For example, I suggested they should buy a radio, to know what was
going on in the world, and perhaps a gramophone and some records
to enjoy good music. I warned them not to exclude eight thousand

47
years o f culture from their community, as by now culture was a part of
human nature, and good books, art and music were just as important
as good food, sun, water and air. I also suggested they make a wall
newspaper where everyone could write out their ideas and experiences
based on mutual aid, as Kropotkin outlined so beautifully in his book,
and to gather together regularly to exchange thoughts and ideas and
enjoy each other’ s company, as the ancient Essenes did. I explained to
them that since they would not be able to eat anything produced from
their land during the first season, they would have to use some unortho­
dox methods, and I showed them the technique o f germinating seeds
and making sprouts. By sprouting and germinating they would be able
to harvest every four or five days. I also showed them how to grow
baby greens in small boxes, tender little vegetables which would grow
to a height o f three inches in a matter o f a week or two, and by cutting
them with a scissors, they would grow again and again. They saw that
by intelligent use o f sprouts, germination and tender greens in portable
boxes, they would be able to survive for the first month or six weeks
until their gardens would begin to give forth enough produce.* I told
them there was always a way to have a healthy, well-balanced diet
without being-dependent on society. (The word “dependent”was like
a red flag to them, and they would do anything to avoid dependence on
anyone or anything.) I told them further that if they always followed
the Essene principles in thinking, living and eating, they would be inde­
pendent from physicians and outside health services, and they would
always be able to produce everything themselves for their own simple
needs. They were very grateful for my advice, and when we said good­
bye, I agreed to try and visit them every three months, when I would
see what they had accomplished, point out what could be improved,
and make constructive suggestions.
PLINIUS RE 'VIVUS
And I did visit them at least twice a year, watching their steady
and healthy growth for a long time. Andre, Marcel and Renee remained
the triumvirate spokesmen, handling beautifully the inevitable prob­
lems besetting any new community, particularly such an unorthodox
one. Sometimes these three would come to see me at my home and we
became very good friends. Jean Pierre was really an angel, asking me to
select from his library those one hundred greatest books o f universal
literature which I was always recommending to my students to read
Mti the third volume o f this series, The Chemistry o f Youth, complete instructions are given
as to the germination and sprouting o f seeds, the creation o f miniature portable gardens o f
Iwhy greens, and many other useful and unorthodox ways to recreate the vital, life-prolonging
nutrition o f the ancient Essenes, in the twentieth century.

48
(that list later appeared in my book Books, Our Eternal Companions).
When I picked them out, we took them over to the community and
started the foundation o f a fine communal library, presided over by
the book-loving Andre.
With great enthusiasm they built their little cabins, each about
three by four yards, based on the description o f Plinius, the Roman
natural historian, o f the cabins where the ancient Essenes lived at the
Dead Sea. They seemed to be perfectly ample for their life style. Each
cabin had a door and two windows in front, and a slanted roof which
allowed the water during the rainy season to collect in a cistern on the
lowest point o f the roof. Each had a wooden bed, a wooden table, a
chair, and on the back wall some storage shelves to keep their simple
garden tools, and for germinating wheat and storing reserves. It was
amazing to see how well these ancient ideas o f the Essenes as described
by Plinius worked out with this group o f young people, most o f whom
had grown up in the French middle and upper-middle classes. It was the
originality and simplicity o f the idea which held them together, not
rules and regulations. It was not really a community at all, but a group
of absolutely and completely independent and subsistent individuals,
a group o f good neighbors, who in case o f necessity were always glad
to help each other, based on the principle o f mutual aid o f Kropotkin.
Not only did they live in absolute freedom, which was their anar­
chist ideal, but their health was perfect as well, because they worked
outside in their miniature vegetable gardens and fruit orchards, eating
the most wholesome food, and breathing the fresh air o f the country.
It was always a delight to visit them, and from time to time I brought
the de Yelskis and Korilenko, who really were smitten with these young
people and their idealism which they had translated with hard work into
reality. When I could not visit, they wrote long letters, telling me how
grateful they were for my initial assistance and counsel in establishing
their symbiosis, and that it was certainly a pity that Prince Kropotkin
had not visualized such a practical way, based on the laws o f nature,
to realize freedom.
Their little paradise was brutally interrupted by the holocaust of
the Second World War. As happened with many ideal visions, the cruel
boots o f the Nazis trampled the little brotherhood beneath its heels.
I had already left Europe when the whirlwind o f war uprooted all o f
France, and the bits and pieces o f news I received were heartbreaking.
Andre joined the underground and was shot by the Nazis, Marcel was
deported to an Eastern European labor camp, and Renee managed to
escape to some island o f the West Indies. It was a beautiful dream,

49
brilliantly realized, but finally destroyed on the ocean o f violence, in­
tolerance, hatred and destruction.
But I will never forget the deep sincerity o f those wholesome
youths—Marcel, with his quick temper and hearty laugh, always the one
who scrambled to the top o f the apple tree to shake down the first
fruits o f the season—Andre, with his dreams and visions, most often
with his blonde head buried in a book for hours at a time in the little
library—and Renee, with her determination and optimism, undeterred
by obstacles, one day scolding the little robin who came to steal the
germinating wheat from her garden, the next day feeding him from her
hand. They had not only the dream, but the capacity for hard work,
love and humor as well, and I often wonder if I shall ever meet their
like again.
I feel this is an appropriate place, at the end o f a chapter about an
idealistic trio o f young pacifists, to say a few words about my dear
friend and virtual symbol o f pacifism o f the early twentieth century,
Romain Rolland.
Rolland created a storm o f protest in both France and Germany
when he urged both countries in 1915 to respect truth and humanity
throughout their fight, in a series o f articles collected in Au-dessus de la
Melee. But his voice continued to be heard, and eventually, for the
publication of these articles, and for his epic novel Jean Christophe,
Rolland won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Jean Christophe —(or how many young people has this exceptional
novel been an awakening to adulthood, an invitation to a life led in
the heroic ideal o f brotherhood and fealty to artistic truth! Translated
in about thirty languages, it has induced young people everywhere
to think about life and its problems, and has given them, through the
very failure o f its heroes, courage to live nobly. To Rolland, the develop­
ment in it of the friendship between a young German and a young
Frenchman symbolized that “harmony o f opposites”which man should
strive to establish first within himself, then between individuals and,
finally, between nations.
No one who has read Jean Christophe can ever forget the memor­
able scene toward the end o f the book when the composer, Christophe,
after having lost everything which was dear to him, including for a long
time his musical inspiration, hears the voice o f G od within him as the
sudden warm wind of spring rushes through his open window. He feels
the power o f life flooding his empty soul—life which he had shut out
through his grief. In the most beautiful sentences o f the book, God
speaks to him:

50
 “I am not all that is. I am Life fighting nothingness -I am not
nothingness. Ia m the Fire which burns in the night—I am not the night.
I am the Eternal Light; I am not an eternal destiny soaring above
the fight. 1 am Free Will which struggles eternally. Struggle and burn
with me!”
Romain Rolland was one who struggled his life long to promote
brotherhood between men and peace among nations. That he did so
through such exquisite works o f literary art is something all o f his
countless friends will always be grateful for.

Romain Rolland

51
 WITH THE HUNZAS AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

“In giving the spiritual treasures o f his rich life to millions,

He can never die,
Even when his days have reached their end.
Shedding his earthly remains,
He becomes a life-giving spirit.
And even as he fades away in time and space
He survives:
Pure Light, Eternal and Endless... ”
—Vorosmarty: Ode to Alexander C. de K otos

I believe it was during the summer o f 1928 or 1929 when I re­

ceived in the mail a letter from the Royal Asiatic Society, inviting me
to participate in the centennial celebration o f my ancestor, Alexander
Csoma de Koros, who one hundred years ago had been the Librarian
o f the Royal Asiatic Society. It was to be held in Calcutta, and enclosed
in the letter was a ticket from France to India and traveling expenses.
The reason they wanted me to speak was to have a representative o f his
family to describe him as a person, apart from his scientific achieve­
ments. I was quite surprised and pleased about the whole idea and
made plans to accept the invitation.
TRIBUTE TO MY ANCESTOR, THE PILGRIM OF THE HIMALAYAS
Surely there was no one in the history o f the Royal Asiatic Society
so deserving o f honors as Alexander Csoma de Koros. He was born in
Transylvania in 1784, and spent the first thirty-five years o f his life
preparing for his life’ s dream: to penetrate Central Asia in search o f the
origin o f his nation. Though always poor in material things, he achieved
a brilliant education, and when he returned to his native land from
the University o f Gottingen, a finished academician, honors and emolu­
ments awaited him. A tutorship in an aristocrat’ s family, a professorship
in a university, the assurance o f a first-class chair in the college where he
had passed his youth, to all these tempting offers Csoma turned a deaf
ear. Instead, amid the snows o f February 1819, he left Transylvania on
foot, with a stick and a small bundle in his hand, his face set toward the
East and his life’ s journey through Asia. But instead o f taking him to
the cradle o f his nation, that journey, due to life’ s inexplicable turns
o f fortune, took him to the high Himalayas, and the next twenty-
three years o f his life were spent in laying down the foundation for
a new department o f human knowledge: no fewer than 339 volumes,
representing the heart o f the teachings o f Tibetan Buddhism, hitherto
unknown in the west, copied by Csoma in the frozen world o f the
lamaseries o f the high Himalayas, translated by him, bearing his lucid

52
commentaries, and now residing in the Royal Asiatic Society, assuredly
the classics o f Tibetan literature. He amassed and wrote a Tibetan
grammar, a Tibetan-English dictionary o f over 40,000 words, and an
account o f Tibetan literature, with specimen o f its books, and a succinct
history o f the country. And he did it all without a penny o f support
from anyone, struggling alone against enormous odds with a strange
language in a strange country, penetrating the unknown land o f Tibet
armed only with courage, determination and the ability to live with
intense privation and solitude. During winters o f indescribable cold,
when he had no fire and only the hard ground to sleep on, somehow
he managed to produce more invaluable material than all the well-fed,
well-paid scholars before him were unable to do. Csoma was one o f
those rare natures whose whole existence is centered in the achievement
o f a great work, and to whom it is a mere accident whether they accom ­
plish it amid wealth and comfort, or in isolation and want. He based
his great work on no one else’ s half-hearted endeavors; he explored
for himself the vast storehouses o f classical Tibetan, reduced the lan­
guage to a Dictionary and Grammar, and made it the common property
of the world. No one yet has improved on what he accomplished—his
achievement still stands alone. When he died in 1842, he had at last
begun to be appreciated by the Royal Asiatic Society, who, like so
many other organizations and countries, only begin to value a great
genius when it is too late. But they buried him on a mighty slope o f the
Himalayas and raised a pillar over his grave with a noble epitaph. The
monument is now entered in the list o f tombs o f Great Men, which the
British Government maintains forever at the public charge.

The epitaph reads:

H ere’s the top peak; the multitude below
Live, fo r they can, there:
This man decided not to Live but Know—
Bury this man there ?
Here—here’ s his place, where meteors shoot,
Clouds form, lightnings are loosened, .
Stars com e and go! Let joy break with the storm!
Peace let the dew send!
Lofty designs must close in like effects:
Loftily lying,
Leave him—still loftier than the world suspects,
Living and dying.

53
 And on the monument erected in his honor at Darjeeling, are
these words:
From, the Szekely mountains,
To faraway Asia,
He journeyed to his ancestral home.
Above his head is the
Ancient Holy Himalaya,
As Eternal as Time itself.

MY UNUSUAL LECTURE TO THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY

So I arrived to Calcutta and proceeded to the imposing lecture
hall o f the Royal Asiatic Society. I was thinking about my ancestor and
was in a very harmonious state o f mind, full o f brotherly love for my
fellow man in general and the Royal Asiatic Society in particular, for
bringing about this opportunity to celebrate the unity and friendship
o f scholars everywhere, joined in the common pursuit o f peace and
knowledge. And so my shock was even more acute when I entered
the large lecture hall to see the front rows o f comfortable armchairs
occupied by philologists, ethnologists and scientists o f all kinds from
England, France, Germany, etc., while in the upper balconies, packed
like sardines with standing room only, were the Hindus, citizens o f the
host nation. I felt very uncomfortable, as the descendant o f one whose
hundredth anniversary o f association with an organization supposed to
stand for enlightenment, to see such a blatant instance o f thoughtless
discrimination. Mine was the first lecture, and after I had spoken for
several minutes about my ancestor as a human being, I discarded the
rest o f my prepared text and told instead the following legend:
One day G od decided to summon the representatives o f all the
great nations, asking ivhat each had accomplished so far in history, how
they had used the time He had given them on this planet. So first came
the representative from England, telling G od that they had carried
culture toward the four corners o f the earth, they had given to the
primitive continents a common, civilized language, and mentioned the
great system o f British justice, etc. Then the representative from France
came, and told G od they had brought the idea o f freedom to all nations
with the French Revolution, and had made the words Liberte, Egalite,
Fraternite, known throughout the world. The German representative
talked about their contribution to science and music, and the Italian
representative talked proudly about the Renaissance and the genius o f
Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. And o f course the American
representative extolled the inventive genius and industrial pow er and
the opportunities for people o f all nations and creeds to rise to the top

55
in that promised land And the list went on and on. Finally, at the very
end o f the line, there appeared a little brown man, naked except for a
loincloth. He looked up sadly at G od and said, “Oh Lord, I am afraid
that my nation, India, has not accomplished any o f the great things
described by my eminent colleagues. Please forgive us, but we were
just too busy trying to represent you, oh Lord, on this planet!”And
then G od reached down and took the hand o f the little Hindu, and
placed him by his side on the Heavenly Throne.
When I finished, I had a tremendous applause from the balcony!
I cannot say the same for the occupants o f the armchairs in the front
rows, but mixed with the disapproving looks were many embarrassed
expressions. After the meeting was over, I went out o f the lecture hall,
and was engulfed by waiting Hindus who came to shake my hand and
invite me to their homes. I had a wonderful time talking with them, and
in the end accepted the invitation o f a schoolteacher to have lunch at
his house in a peaceful area on the outskirts o f the city.
And it was there, at his home, that my introduction to the Hunzas
came about. After our fine meal, we were discussing my work and
adventures and the many places to which I had traveled. Suddenly he
got up, went to a book shelf and brought what seemed to be just a piece
of paper folded in two. “Here is something I’ ll wager you don’ t know
about,” he smiled. “But with your interest in ancient and primitive
civilizations, I can imagine you will before long.”I took the paper with
interest and saw that it was a primitive dictionary—not more than 150
simple words—in the Hunzukut language. I certainly was intrigued, and
asked my host to tell me something about these people, called Hunzu-
kuts in their own language, and Hunzas by outsiders. He told me they
lived very high up in the mountains surrounding the plateau o f Pamir,
not far from Tibet, in an almost inaccessible region. They claimed to be
the descendants o f the invading Macedonian army under Alexander the
Great. According to their history, a detachment o f that army got lost
trying to return, so they kidnapped some women o f the region and
went high into the mountains and settled there. He went on to say that
reports o f those who visited them described a race totally different from
any o f their Asian neighbors, and also a very healthy people without
disease o f any kind and an almost unbelievable longevity.

MY HAZARDOUS JOURNEY THROUGH PRECIPITOUS HEIGHTS

My Hindu friend was right—after that description I had to go and
see them for myself. So I contacted the authorities and obtained a
permit to visit them, though not without some difficulty. At first they

56
thought I might be some sort o f spy, as the area was a very sensitive
and little-known one near the borders o f Russia, China and India. And
when I finally convinced them my interest was purely scientific, I
received all kinds o f dire warnings about the dangers I might encounter
on the journey, but these I brushed aside, remembering all my perilous
journeys o f the past and how successful I had been in surviving them.
So with the help o f my Hindu friends I got a mule, equipped myself
with food, a guide and provisions and started my journey from the
last British outpost.
It was not long before I realized the validity o f the warning from
the authorities. As we climbed to dizzying heights in those inhospitable
and desolate mountains o f rock, I passed through varying stages o f
irritation, alarm and then horror as we attempted to traverse a non­
existent path. For there really was no path at all, simply wide, flat rocks
hammered into the side o f the mountain, with thousands o f feet o f
sheer nothingness on one side and space for little more than our small
traveling party and the mule, if we went in careful single file. These
rocks were placed in such a way that they overlapped, like a salient,
and it often happened that one or two o f them would suddenly be
missing, especially after one o f those sudden and violent rainstorms
which happen so often in the mountains. Then there was no one to ask
for help and we had to fix them ourselves if we wanted to continue.
And sometimes the mule simply refused to budge, which considering
the 10,000 ft. precipice which was always before our eyes and under
our feet, was in fact nothing but good judgment. In fact, as we neared
the end o f our journey, there were many times when I seriously con­
sidered the possibility o f staying with the Hunzas for the rest o f my
life, just to avoid the return trip!
But, in good biblical style, at the end o f the desolate mountains
and all the dangers o f the precarious journey, the land o f the Hunzas
finally spread out before our eyes in green and flowered glory. Do not
imagine they lived in a hidden valley, like the imaginary Shangri-La.
In fact, the area they occupied was a plateau fully as cold and inhospi­
table as the mountains we had just ascended. But through generations
o f hard work they had created fertile areas with ingeniously constructed
terraces, and though I would have imagined us to be above the tree line,
still I saw a great number o f small fruit trees, especially apricot, and
many flowers and vegetables, as we were fortunate enough to be there
in summer. Every available spot was utilized to grow something because
o f the shortage o f soil, and with their method o f intensive gardening
an unbelievable amount o f food was produced in a very small place.

57
 ARRIVAL TO THE LAND OF THE CENTENARIANS

When I arrived, I was greeted with great warmth and hospitality,

and my first impression o f the Hunza people was that o f central Euro­
pean peasants, a strange sight in this Asian land. They were much taller
than Hindus, had fair complexions, and I even saw some blue eyes.
There were no face veils on the women, nor any other signs o f inferior
status as I had seen in some Asian societies. They dressed simply, accor­
ding to the cold climate, and looked extremely healthy. As I lived with
them, I noticed more and more their excellent condition, incredible
stamina and muscular physique. It was not unusual to see people o f
eighty, ninety, even one hundred years o f age, running up and down the
sides o f the mountains like goats, carrying heavy loads o f kindling-
small branches o f bushes—which weighed up to eighty pounds. My
friends had been correct—there seemed to be no disease at all, and a
social structure which had no word for crime, because there wasn’ t
any. Their society was governed very loosely by a head man, called the
Mir, and his judgment was subject to a group o f elders, who reached
their position through age and experience. They seemed to be very
well-adjusted, happy people, content to breathe the rarefied air o f their
15,000 ft. mountain aerie, letting the rest of the world rush around in
futile pursuits far below.
THE MIRACULOUS MIR, RULER OF THE HUNZAS:
ESPERANTO AND A VIENNESE GRAND PIANO
At first, they all flocked around and asked me questions, which
was hopeless because in spite o f the fact that I had studied thoroughly
the little “dictionary”, I did not understand a single word they said.
So amid gesticulations and much friendly laughter, they took me to the
house o f the Mir. All of the Hunza houses were made o f stone, and the
M ir’s house was like the others, only much larger. The main decoration
inside, as in all their houses, was a window so placed as to look out on
an absolutely breathtaking view from the top o f the world. No painting
o f any old master, no matter how exquisite, could have matched the
beauty o f that panorama o f snow-covered peaks and clouds which,
unlike from any other vantage point in the world, lay beneath our feet
instead o f above our heads.
The Mir was a jovial bear of a man with a huge moustache turned
up slightly at the ends. He wore the same high, round hat as the other
men, covered with multi-colored embroidery, and the same beautifully
woven wool clothes. There were sheepskin rugs on the stone floor, and
we sat down on them and tried to find a common language. I could tell
lie was an educated man, for he began to reel o ff at least a half-dozen
different languages, and o f course I did too, but to our dismay we still

58
could not communicate because the ones I knew, he didn’ t, and vice
versa. Finally in desperation, I asked him in Esperanto, “Cu vi pamla.s
Esperanto?”(Do you speak Esperanto?)
His eyes lit up and he said, “Jes, Samideano!”(Yes, brother!)
And we embraced each other and began to talk a blue streak, he
asking me all about my adventures and experiences in the world below,
I discovering more about their history and life style. I asked him at one
point how he ever learned Esperanto in this isolated place. He told me
that one day the British mail service had brought to him a small book­
let, about two by three inches on thin onionskin paper, called Esperanto
Key. It contained an Esperanto dictionary o f about a thousand words
and a two-page grammar, which he enthusiastically mastered within a
few days. After that, he acquired a new hobby o f corresponding with
people all over the world, as there were (and are) Esperanto associations
in practically every country.
Then, during a lull in our conversation, my eyes wandered around
the room and fell upon something which at first they did not believe.
I actually rubbed my eyes to make sure I was not dreaming, because
there in the corner o f that stone room at the top o f the world stood
a beautiful, twelve-foot long Viennese grand piano! I asked the Mir
in astonishment how that piano had gotten up the tortuously narrow
path alongside the mountain, remembering there had hardly been room
just for ourselves and the mule! He answered that he honestly didn’ t
know, that the piano had been there in his living room when he grew
up, and that his father and even his grandfather had had it. I considered
it as one o f the wonders o f the world, greater than the Pyramids o f
Egypt or the Tower o f Pisa, and it is still a mystery to me how that
grand piano came to rest so serenely in the palace o f the Mir, 15,000
feet above its place o f origin in faraway Vienna.

HUNZA DWELLINGS AND NATURAL REFRIGERATION

Every family in the Hunza community wanted me to stay with
them, so I pleased them all by staying with each for a few days. The
houses were massively constructed o f two stories, with stone walls at
least four feet thick. During the summer they lived in the upper story,
and in the winter in the lower story. Beneath each house was a cellar,
fully the size o f the whole house. In the cellar was a well, o f unusual
design. There was a standing post, with another horizontal post con­
tacting it in the middle but freely able to move up and down. On one
end o f this free post was a stone tied with rope and on the other end
a bucket which went down into the well. When they wanted water,
they simply let the bucket down into the well and when it was full o f

59
water it rose o f its own accord, as the weight o f the stone was the same
as the weight o f the water. It was very ingenious, and since it required
no physical effort they could, and did, send a child down to bring up
water. And what delicious, cold and pure water that was! In the winter,
the water was naturally cold, and in the summer the well was full o f ice
they had collected during the winter, and due to the semi-arctic climate
in that cellar, the ice remained through the whole summer, also pro­
viding refrigeration for any foods they wanted to preserve. Another
custom with water which impressed me was the way they trapped the
melting snows with the border stones o f the little terraces, believing
this snow-water contained water-soluble minerals, silt and other valuable
substances for their garden soil.

HUNZA FOODS: SIMPLE, WHOLE AND NATURAL

The Hunza foods were very simple but very delicious. Like many
isolated people, they relied heavily on their sheep for food and clothing.
They made a fermented milk product wlrich was unlike any I had ever
tasted, not like yogurt, or kefir, or buttermilk. It was rather like a milk-
champagne, because they kept it in a large earthenware container, al­
ways adding leftover milk to it so it was in a constant state o f healthy
fermentation. It had a wonderful, subtle flavor, not strong at all. They
were able to grow a little wheat in their terraced gardens, and from it
they made little flat cakes, like tortillas, grinding a small amount o f
wheat with stones at each meal and toasting the cakes on the fire as
they needed them. And then o f course there were the apricots, the
fruit which ever after I associated with the Hunzas. They were by far
the best apricots I had ever tasted, small, deep orange, full o f rich
flavor. They ate them profusely in the short summer, and saved the
apricot pits in their cellars. Then at each and every meal they had
apricot seeds. The first time I tasted this food I was a little surprised
because a child simply came up and gave me a large handful o f apricot
pits and two small stones. I was expected to break open the pits with
the stones, and this I did, after watching my hosts’example. Inside the
pit was the apricot seed, and I had never realized how tasty and nutri­
tious was this little almond-like nut. The only thing I didn’ t like was a
curious bitter butter, which was extremely strong. T o be courteous I
always pretended to eat a teaspoon, but I never developed a taste for it.

HUNZA ECOLOGY AND GARDENING

Aside from sharing their meals, I followed many o f them about
their daily tasks, and grew quite agile myself, clambering after them up
and down the mountains. I learned a great deal about gardening from

60
them, techniques I later adapted to lower altitude conditions in my
book The Ecological Health Garden and the Book o f Survival.
I enjoyed very much their simple and natural way o f living and the
apparent ease and comfort in which they lived, in spite o f the fact that
it took daily hard work just to survive in that inhospitable environment.
Incidentally, they were vegetarians, not perhaps by choice, but because
their sheep were too precious to them as a source o f w ool and dairy
products. I attended a few o f their festivals which they celebrated from
time to time, and enjoyed their singing and dancing, also very remini­
scent o f the songs and dances o f central Europe, with minor variations.
I had no doubt their legends were true, that they were indeed the
descendants o f the army o f Alexander the Great, and the irony was
that o f all his futile attempts to create a lasting empire o f his own, one
little civilization o f his had been created by accident, and its treasures
o f health and happiness were far greater than any o f the worldly king­
doms Alexander had in vain tried to conquer.
From the perspective o f the present day, I am glad I discovered
the Hunzas in 1928, long before sensation-seeking “scientists” took
advantage o f the later improved traveling conditions to go there and
write superficial reports and books on these wonderful people. By now,
their peaceful aerie has been invaded by helicopters bringing the refined
and mediocre foods which are the forerunners o f the destruction o f a
natural, simple life style, possible only outside o f the chemical and
technological pollution o f the twentieth century.
But to end my adventure... It took nearly the whole summer be­
fore I had gathered up enough courage to descend the mountains, but
I finally did it, not wishing to spend the winter at 15,000 feet, in spite
o f the disappointment o f my Hunza hosts. This time I was at least
prepared for the hardships I encountered on our return trip, and I
arrived at last back to Paris after an extremely eventful and exciting
summer, all occasioned by a little legend I told about G od and the
Hindus at the lecture hall o f the Royal Asiatic Society.

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 THE SYMPHONY OF THE CARPATHIANS

IN SEARCH OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE LEGIONS OF TRAJANUS

My adventure began on a beautiful day in June at the University
of Paris. I was walking through the corridors, thinking about my forth­
coming summer vacation and what I was going to do, when I passed
by a bulletin board which caught my attention. Posted there were all
kinds o f miscellaneous communications which the secretary of our
administration thought would be o f interest to students: offers o f jobs,
notices for graduating students, and different correspondence from all
over the world which was not important enough to be presented at
a board meeting, but had sufficient interest to be posted for public
perusal. It was among this correspondence that I spied the letter which
was to signal the beginning o f my memorable summer adventure. It was
from the University o f Bucharest in Rumania, signed by Dr. Fischer-
Galati, asking the University o f Paris to participate in an ethnological
project by sending a representative or research group to take part in
an effort to prove that the Rumanians had inhabited Transylvania long
before other migrations, particularly those o f the Hungarians, arrived
to central Europe.
I read the letter with great interest because I was familiar with the
background o f their project. The official thesis o f Rumanian ethnology
was that when Caesar Trajanus decided to abandon Transylvania, which
was called Dacia Trajana by ancient Rome, a good number o f the rank
and file o f the Roman Legions chose to remain in the forest land they
had come to love, and married native Dacian women. After the majority
o f the Roman Legions left, this remnant retired to the higher regions
of the Carpathian mountains in order to protect themselves from the
invasions of the different migrations inundating central Europe, and
those who inhabit present day Transylvania are their descendants.
The official Hungarian version is quite different. According to the
Hungarian ethnological thesis, after the death of Attila the Hun, the
Huns returned to Asia from central Europe but left groups o f settlers
in Transylvania. According to them, when the Hungarians appeared
later in the central basin o f Europe, they already found there ancestral
relatives settled in Transylvania.
This battle o f ethnological theories went on for many years until
finally Dr. Galati, o f the University o f Bucharest, an objective scientist
with a desire only for the truth, decided to try and organize a group o f
ethnologists to make the difficult journey to the higher regions o f the
Carpathian mountains, for in order to establish the validity o f the find­
ings, it was essential to study groups o f people living as far from the

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populated areas as possible. Certain small groups o f shepherds were
said to exist high up in the almost totally inaccessible forest regions of
the Carpathians, and these were the people Dr. Galati wanted to send a
research team to observe: to collect words o f their language, study
their living habits, their dress, their physical appearance, in short, to
observe completely their way o f life to either prove or disprove once
and for all the validity o f the Rumanian concept. However, he soon
discovered that to find even two or three impartial ethnologists in
Transylvania was next to impossible, and the physical demands o f such
a journey made his task even harder. There were not many ethnologists,
even impartial ones, who had the physical stamina to ascend into that
almost legendary forest vastness called the High Carpathians. And this
was why he was appealing to the University o f Paris, knowing the long
tradition o f scholarship and impartial scientific excellence at the Sor-
bonne, making one last effort before giving up on the project.
The letter interested me also for personal reasons. My ancestor,
Alexander Csoma de Koros, was born in Transylvania, and the great
dream o f his life was to discover the origin o f his people. In this pursuit
o f truth, he left Transylvania in 1819 on foot, determined to discover
his distant kinsmen o f Asia and the common home o f the race. His
search for the home o f his people in Asia was predestined to failure,
but in his incredible journey on foot to Tibet, and the many long
years o f self-denying labor he spent there, he laid the foundation o f a
new department o f human knowledge, writing the first Tibetan-English
dictionary and Tibetan grammar, and giving for the first time to the
western world the teachings o f Tibetan Buddhism. But although the
world regarded him as a scholar-saint and one o f the greatest philologi­
cal explorers o f all time, I knew, as his descendant, that his dream o f
unraveling the mystery of Transylvania was unrealized. I remembered
the last lines o f a letter he had written to my family: “I have set off,
and must search for the origin o f my nation, avoiding neither dangers
which may occur, nor the distance I may have to travel.”
I related this story to the secretary o f the administration, and told
him that though a journey to the High Carpathians would be only a
miniature exploration in comparison to my ancestor’ s far more ambi­
tious Asian undertaking, still I felt I would be successful in it, having as
other advantages a knowledge o f Hungarian and Rumanian and knowing
the general topography o f the region, as I spent many summers on my
father’ s Transylvanian estate as a boy. Most important o f all, I knew
Latin perfectly and would be able to recognize instantly any evidence o f
Roman origin in the inhabitants o f the High Carpathians. The secretary
was very pleased by my offer, not having answered the letter as yet. He

63
realized that the main purpose o f Dr. Galati in making his request was
to find an impartial research team in France; but the fact was that to
find such a team to meet all the intellectual and physical requirements
would be next to impossible. So he gave me a letter o f recommendation
and wished me luck.
MY COLLABORATORS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ

I arrived to Bucharest the middle o f June, and when I contacted

the office o f Dr. Galati, I was directed to a rather unusual place to
conduct official business. It was a kind o f coffee house, called Capsa,
imitating the Viennese and Parisian originals, where a great variety o f
intellectuals, artists, writers, politicians, in short, a whole kaleidoscope
o f colorful people, met in noisy confusion. But it was a charming and
picturesque confusion, and I understood after some minutes o f obser­
vation why it was such a landmark in the city. By some miracle I found
Dr. Galati there and we liked each other instantly. In spite o f the rather
unscholarly atmosphere o f the coffee house, I immediately recognized
in him that pure spirit o f science which is not satisfied with anything
less than the truth. When we discussed the project he also seemed
wistful, as if wishing he could undertake the task himself. But in addi­
tion to the intellectual requirements, which he certainly had, youth and
physical stamina were vitally necessary if the expedition was to be
successful, and Dr. Galati was not a young man anymore.
After a delightful lunch, we went together to Cluj, the capital
of Transylvania, known in Hungarian as Kolozsvar, and in German as
Klausenburg. At the beautiful King Ferdinand University, one o f the
oldest in the world, Dr. Galati introduced me to three professors, all
very much involved in the project: Dr. Virgil Barbat, professor o f Socio­
logy and Ethnology, Dr. Stefanescu Goanga, professor o f Psychology,
and Dr. Stefanescu Marin, professor o f Philology and Philosophy. All
three were unforgettable personalities. Dr. Barbat was rotund and jovial,
with a round moon-face which was always smiling. He was very warm
and enthusiastic about the project, and I could understand why all his
students loved him. Dr. Goanga was his physical opposite—tall, with an
elegant moustache and a somewhat pompous air. He was also a fashion
plate, which led his students to call him “the peacock”in private. But
all respected deeply his highly scientific mind and love o f precision in
all things. The oldest o f the three, Dr. Marin, was a great admirer o f
French culture, and at the same time a fervent nationalist. He was also
a true idealist, and held the project in almost mystic reverence for what
it would mean to the advancement o f ethnological knowledge in Ruma­
nia. He had one other habit which endeared him to me—he spoke almost
entirely in Latin proverbs.

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 But I did not learn all this right away. At our first meeting, our
most important topic was the project, and in answer to their questions,
I told them about my fluency in Latin and that I would be able to
detect the Latin roots o f whatever words I would be able to collect.
I also told them I had acquired in Germany the best camping equipment
available, consisting o f insulated tents, three pairs o f stout mountain
climbing shoes, hiking sticks with pointed ends and different attach-
ments, as well as certain special ropes and lightweight anchors, and
three knapsacks especially designed for mountain climbing, where the
even distribution o f weight was necessary to insure that the maximum
could be carried with the minimum o f effort. In answer to their ques­
tion as to when I would be ready to leave, I told them the sooner the
better, as winter came early to those high regions o f the Carpathians,
and once it began, that area would be impenetrable. When they asked
me if I would require anything from them, I did ask for one thing, or
rather two: I wanted the assistance o f two intelligent and dedicated
students in perfect physical condition, and they were most cooperative
in making this possible.
The next day they arranged for me to meet a good number of
candidates, among them their best students. We spent half the day
interviewing them, and finally I decided on two brothers, Victor Moldo-
veanu, 21, and his younger brother, Liviu, 20. They were starry-eyed
young men who were fascinated by the project, and they assured me
o f their absolute loyalty and cooperation. They were also highly intelli­
gent and excellent athletes in top physical condition.
After several conferences with the professors, and some time spent
acquiring the necessary additional things we thought we would need
for the journey, we finally set out for our great adventure, headed in a
northeasterly direction with high spirits and unbounded optimism.

THE BUCOLIC FOOTHILLS OF THE CARPATHIANS

As soon as we left the last civilized railroad station, we were walk­
ing and hiking for days and days. When we reached the foothills o f the
Carpathians, nature was at the peak o f her abundance. We feasted on all
kinds o f wild berries, hazel nuts, wild pears and wild apples. We saw
grotesquely moving squirrels jumping from tree to tree, timid rabbits
which ran from us, here and there small groups o f deer running grace­
fully on the horizon, and from a respectable distance we saw sometimes
a slow-moving bear, often a rather menacing sight. However, we noticed
that as the forest grew wilder, the bears seemed less o f a danger, not
having been threatened so much by man. We even saw a few times one
of the strangest spectacles the forest had to offer: small village children

65
eating berries from one side o f a bush while a bear cub munched berries
from the other side. Both children and bear seemed to find it the most
natural thing in the world and trusted each other completely. Hawks
and eagles circled above our heads and from time to time would dive
with awesome speed to snatch up a hapless little creature they had
noticed from above. At night, we often heard the eerie cries o f wolves
from somewhere higher up in the mountains. We made extensive use of
the maps we had obtained from the university, always looking for
little paths to avoid steep areas and extremely dense parts o f the forest.
I knew we would need all our strength for later, when the maps would
be useless and we would have to use our wits and our luck.
During one rather precipitous climb, we met by accident a govern­
ment forest ranger who greeted us warmly and told us that not too far
ahead was a very small village, and we should be prepared that the
people living there were not too well disposed to outside intruders.
But he went on to say that if we were discreet and respectful, we would
probably not be unwelcome, especially as they were very pious people.
Well, this certainly aroused my curiosity and, sure enough, in a few
miles we were able to see from a distance a tiny, well-hidden village,
com posed o f perhaps a few dozen houses. There was something about
the aspect o f that little community which struck me even from far
away—some other-worldly aura that held great attraction for me. I deci­
ded to follow my intuition, and set up my assistants in an improvised
camp beside a beautiful creek where hazel nut trees and wild fruits were
growing. I told them to wait there for me, even if I should not return
for one or two days. I promised them I would get information about
how to find the best paths northward and meanwhile they should have
a nice rest. They were obediently cheerful and waved goodbye as I set
o ff for the mysterious little settlement.

I ENTER A HASIDIC COMMUNITY

The first person I met was a little boy, and though we did not
understand each other too well, we communicated on the universal
level o f the eternally young, and soon we -were good friends. I asked
him in a mixture o f languages if he would take me to som ebody who
could tell me about their village, some adult in a position o f importance.
When he finally understood me, he took my hand solemnly and led me
off on a little journey through all the hidden places o f a village that
children love—between and behind houses, side paths, tops o f walls,
over dead tree trunks, until we reached a house, wooden like the others,
with a shingled wooden roof turned up slightly at the corners. He
knocked on the door and a very imposing-looking gentleman opened

66
it, wearing a long black caftan, black pants that stopped at the knee,
heavy black boots, and a strange hat made o f fur. He had an impressive
beard and two long curls o f hair that came down in front o f his ears.
He looked rather taken aback when his eyes met mine as the door
opened, but then they fell to the level o f the little boy who was holding
my hand, and his expression softened. He began talking to the boy in a
very strange kind of German and apparently my little escort vouched
for my character because the fur-hatted gentleman began to smile and
shake my hand, wishing me welcome. The little boy ran off, and we
began conversing, I in a mixture o f Hungarian, Rumanian and German,
and he in that curious language which resembled German but was softer
and more melodic. In answer to my questions, he told me that this was
a little community o f Hasidim, unorthodox Jews who had separated
from the surrounding Jewish communities o f the foothills o f the Car­
pathians in order to pursue their simple, joyous faith and way o f living.

MYSTIC FOLLOWERS OF BAAL SHEM

The Hasidim considered the Baal Shem Tov as their founder, and
he performed a role in history not unlike that o f St. Francis. Both the
Baal Shem and St. Francis made efforts to strip away dogma, ritual and
over-complicated formulae from religion, and return it to direct com ­
munication between man and the Creator. Hasidism stressed man’ s
awareness o f God, communal brotherhood, ecstatic prayer and joyous
singing and dancing. To the Hasid, as to the Franciscan, everything
created was holy, because everything created was o f God. The Baal
Shem said, “There is nothing in the world in which there is not life,
and each has received from his life the form in which it stands before
your eyes. And lo, this life is the life o f God.”
I eventually discovered during our conversation that my new friend
was the shames o f the village, or assistant to the rabbi, a very important
post indeed in the community. I asked him if it would be possible for
me to see the rabbi. A look o f great reverence came to his face, and he
said that Rabbi Teitelbaum is not only a rabbi, but also a great zaddik
(holy man) and he did not know if I could have an appointment or not,
but he would try. He told me with elaborate modesty that while he was
not competent to explain all the details o f their theology and beliefs, a
visit with the rabbi would make me understand everything about the
purpose and way o f life o f the little group. Then he led me to another
house, which I noticed was a little larger than the rest, and on our way
we heard respectful murmurs o f “shames, shames,” and curious but
friendly stares at me. When we entered the house, he told me to sit
down, and after the rabbi had finished his bath and prayers he would

67
see him and try to obtain an appointment. He pointed out a bench
in what looked like a waiting room, and I did as he said and patiently
waited. I enjoyed taking in all the details o f the simple, rustic room,
the white-washed walls and rough-hewn benches, filled with an almost
palpable peace and serenity. Little by little, the room began to fill with
men and women, all very sturdy, healthy-looking people dressed very
simply. Though I was probably the first stranger they had seen in a long
time, they seemed to take my presence for granted; in the rabbi’ s house
everything is possible. After about an hour, the shames reappeared and
told me that the rabbi had to see these people first who had come about
various problems, but if I had the patience to wait, as soon as he was
finished with their appointments, he would see me. So I waited, and
one by one those waiting with me went through the door to see Rabbi
Teitelbaum, and after a time each would emerge, face radiant with joy.
And I began to feel a real anticipation and eagerness to meet this man
whom so many good people revered as a holy man.

MY FIRST MEETING WITH A GREAT ZADDIK

Finally the shames appeared as the waiting room held only myself,
and with great ceremony led me through the door and into another
part o f the house which he approached as if it were the holy o f holies.
“Please remember to be brief,”he whispered, “the rabbi is a very busy
man and spends most o f his time in contemplation, meditation and
prayer.”I thanked him very much for his kindness and entered the door
to a rather large room I immediately recognized as a library, but con­
taining books the likes o f which I had never seen before. Most o f them
were huge volumes bound in animal skin, and they looked extremely
old. There were tables in the room with some books open on them, and
sitting behind one table in a large chair was Rabbi Teitelbaum, who
smiled at me, his eyes sparkling and benevolent, and politely asked me,
in perfect German, to please sit down. Then we just enjoyed the silence
for a few moments, each recognizing in the other a fraternal bond which
went beyond words. He was indeed a holy man, but not by any means a
monkish recluse, as the shames would have me believe. I knew at once
that he was totally absorbed in the life o f his little community, sharing
their joys and sorrows, comforting and sustaining them, eating with
them, singing songs o f praise with them, and lifting each person as much
as possible to his own level o f holiness.
Finally the rabbi spoke, asking me the purpose o f my journey and
how I had happened to find their little village. I gave him a brief des­
cription o f the different ethnological theories and what we were trying
to achieve and where we were eventually headed. He became very

68
interested, and soon we were discussing a whole range o f different
subjects. I discovered to my great surprise that, in addition to his
Hebraic erudition, he knew a great many Roman authors, and that led
to my recounting my research in the archives o f the Vatican and my
interest in the Essenes. His eyes suddenly glowed with great intensity
when I mentioned the Essenes. He asked me if I would be interested
to know about the Essenes from a completely different source, that o f
the Talmud and o f other long-forgotten Hebrew scholars. In what was
certainly an understatement, I told him I would be delighted, and he
told me to come back the next day when he would have selected those
books which had interesting passages about the Essenes. Then he called
the shames, who looked at me with greater respect after my unprece­
dented long audience with the rabbi, and asked him to accommodate
me with one o f the families in the community where I could spend the
night until the next day’s appointment.

I MEET A LITTLE “HOLY FAMILY”

The shames led me to a little house set back from the road and
introduced me to the family, a man and his wife and two children, one
o f whom I saw, to my great pleasure, was my first acquaintance in the
village, the little boy. They welcomed me warmly and made me sit
down while last-minute preparations went on for dinner. I let my eyes
roam over the one-room living and eating area, so utterly simple and
unpretentious. The furniture was thick and rough, not a bit more than
just what was needed. There were no curtains, no rugs, no ornaments
of any kind. But the room was warm and clean, with a window that
looked out on the most beautiful ornament o f all: a magnificent view
o f the tall trees o f the surrounding forest. The man had a little orchard
and a garden where mainly garlic and onion plants were growing, a few
chickens, and his most treasured possession, a cow. These good people
were totally self-sufficient, getting everything they needed in the way
o f food, clothing and basic necessities through their own efforts. They
were happy people, both individually and as a family, obviously loving
and caring for each other at all times. The young daughter helped her
mother with the dinner while the little boy talked earnestly about
something with his father, and when we all sat down at the long table,
I felt as if I had been part o f their family for years.
And I must mention the food that was served at that meal, for
though it was some fifty years ago, I can still taste how good it was. The
main dish was some kind o f baked beans, mixed and baked together
with a bread-like ground cereal which I couldn’ t identify, and though
containing only two or three ingredients, it had a wonderful, subtle

69
flavor and a succulent brown crust. They told me that this fond was
put into the oven on Friday afternoon where it slowly baked, and then
during the Sabbath from time to time they ate it, as the Sabbath was
dedicated to contemplation, worship and union with the Creator, and
they did not do any work on that day. They explained that this was
the leftover from the Sabbath, and they apologized that they could
not offer anything more elaborate. I tried to assure them I had never
eaten anything so delicious, and it was the truth. I asked my hostess
what the dish was called, and she said something that sounded like
sholent, and it seemed to be one o f their staple foods. After we all had
a big bowl o f it, the man brought in some apples from the orchard and
this was the sum total o f our banquet, which I considered extremely
satisfactory.
They offered me a small bedroom which apparently belonged to
the little boy, who cheerfully moved to another place for the night, and
I slept a wonderful, dreamless sleep, breathing in the fragrant air from
the little window which opened onto the garden.
In the morning I sat with them at breakfast, which consisted of
freshly laid eggs and a few slices o f home-baked bread. After the meal,
my host kindly offered to go to see the shames and find out when my
appointment was. They all seemed very impressed that I had a second
appointment to see the rabbi, as they too said he was a holy man and
rarely saw passing visitors, and never twice. In about half an hour lie
returned to give me the good news that Rabbi Teitelbaum was ready
to see me.

UNEXPECTED ESSENE REFERENCES IN AN UNUSUAL LIBRARY

This time I found the house myself, and when I entered the rabbi’ s
library I saw about half a dozen large books on the table which he had
previously removed from the bookshelf. I opened one and stared a( a
marvelous sight: on each giant page were very large letters at the top,
then many different squares with other sizes o f type inside, and finally
on the bottom, letters o f very small size. All the different sizes o f type
were illuminated with medieval flourishes and I found them very pic­
turesque as well as typographically impressive. Then the rabbi entered
and greeted me, enjoying my reaction to the books. He told me that
the large letters represented the main text, then in the boxes were the
different interpretations which had appeared through the centuries and
probably for thousands o f years, and the footnotes consisted of the
views o f different great Hebrew scholars concerning the above comm en­
taries. He graciously let me have some paper and a bottle o f ink with an
old-fashioned goose-quill pen, and pointed out to me in all the six or

71
seven large volumes the different passages relating to the Essenes. He
said I could stay as long as I liked and take all the notes I wanted, and
then he left for his other occupations. The day flew by as I sat in his
library in that scholarly ecstasy known to an archeologist who uncovers
the corner o f a long-buried ruin, or a musician who finds in an attic
trunk a supposedly lost manuscript o f a great master—I had that same
exalted sense o f wonder and inevitability as I explored those ancient
books and encountered a completely different approach to the Essenes
than that o f the manuscripts I had seen in the Vatican archives and the
Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino. There was a great deal about
the mysterious science of Angelology, which stemmed from the Essene
use o f the word “Angel”to describe a natural or spiritual force. It also
became clear to me the definite correlation between the Essene Tree o f
Life and the later Sefirot Tree o f the Cabala, the great mystical encyclo­
pedia o f the middle ages. I saw that virtually everything o f higher
philosophical and mystical value in the present Cabalistic and Masonic
traditions could be traced directly back to the Essenes.
HASIDIC PURITY AND ECSTASY - LATE ECHO OF THE ANCIENT ESSENES

I passed not only that day in his library, but the next as well, and
when all my notes were completed, I met again with the rabbi. He told
me that to a very great extent there was affinity between the way o f
living and thinking o f his people, and that o f the ancient Essenes. The
Hasidim believed that rituals were much less important than the inner
purity o f our lives, our thoughts, our feelings, and according to this
concept, the way to contact the Creator, or as the rabbi called him, the
Lord o f the Universe, was not through empty forms but through joy
and ecstasy. This is why the Hasidim gathered from time to time to
dance and sing together in an attempt to establish this intimate connec­
tion between themselves and the Creator through the ecstasy o f joy.
I humbly asked the rabbi if I might be permitted to be present at one
o f these meetings, and he kindly assented, telling me to return there
in the evening.
The meeting was held in a rather large, bare room, and I was really
unprepared for the intensity o f the mystical experience that followed.
I never will forget those simple, peasant-like people so united in song
and dance, seeking and longing for union with the Creator. The melo­
dies were hauntingly beautiful, unlike any I had ever heard before.
Their songs had no words, and no beginning or end. They were like
fragments o f melodies fallen from heaven and cherished for a time by
these simple singers o f joy, and then returned to the unknown realms
from whence they came. I found myself singing with them, tears in
my eyes and unaccountable longing in my heart.

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 The next morning I said goodbye to the family who had been so
kind to me, to the shames who shook my hand heartily, and to Rabbi
Teitelbaum, which farewell was the most difficult o f all. He embraced
me and looked deep into my eyes as he said, “Remember, my son, the
words o f the Baal Shem Tov: ‘ the only real sin is when you forget that
you are the son o f a King!’”My heart was so full I could not speak, but
he assured me with his eyes that when souls are united there can be no
real separation. Then I was escorted to the end o f the village by the
same little boy who had been the first to welcome me, and he hugged
me fiercely and looked after me until I had disappeared around the
first turning in the road.

OUR UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY OF A TOLSTOYAN COMMUNITY

Victor and Liviu had spent a wonderful time camping by the
creek, but were beginning to get a little worried that something had
happened to me. However, they proved to be good Roman soldiers,
following my instructions and waiting patiently. I told them the travel­
ing advice the shames had given me, to follow a path which would lead
higher and higher in an east-northeast direction and eventually take us
to a little Russian village where we would be able to get further instruc­
tions about how to continue our journey. In that largely uncharted
region o f the High Carpathians, it was necessary to rely on the good will
o f the natives for topographical advice. So we followed the counsel o f
the shames, and after three days o f fairly strenuous hiking, climbing
higher and higher from the Carpathian foothills, we finally saw the
contours o f the little Russian village.
This time, we all approached the village together, as I did not want
to cause Victor and Liviu any more anxiety. I had not really thought
o f what the shames meant when he said we would come to a Russian
village, but now I realized that it really was a village o f Russians! All the
people we saw in the road, walking, talking, going about their business,
were dressed exactly like Russian peasants, with the typical loose blouse
worn outside o f the pants and held with a wide belt, the knee high
pants with Russian boots, and beards and moustaches o f a distinctly
Russian variety. One o f these very robust men came up to us, seeming­
ly surprised by our arrival but very cordial and friendly, offering to take
us to their meeting-house to have a rest. We gladly went with him, and
entered into a large, bare room which did not at all resemble a church.
In fact, to my great surprise, I saw on the back wall opposite the door
a large portrait o f Tolstoy! Our guide saw the surprise on my face and
smiled, saying, “Yes, we are a Tolstoyan material and spiritual commu­
nity.”I thought to myself that this was really a journey full o f surprises.

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He went on to tell me that this uninhabited zone o f the Carpathians
lay between two bureaucracies and two governments, the Russian and
the Rumanian—and that this little community was out o f the western
reach o f the Russian military and out o f the eastern reach o f the Ruma­
nian bureaucracy. Hidden here, out o f reach o f both, they pursued their
simple way o f life in the spirit o f T olstoy’s beautiful writings about
Christianity. I asked him which Russia he had escaped from —the Czarist
regime, or the communists who were now in power? He answered that
there was no difference whatsoever—that they were both militarist,
both regimented, both suppressive o f individual freedom. I told him
with a smile that he spoke like an anarchist. He smiled too, but then
said with great conviction, “No, my friend, we are Tolstoyans, not
anarchists. We follow in our way of living the Commentaries o f the
Four Gospels written by our master, Lev Tolstoy, and his book On
Life. We are trying to live the life o f true Christians, without dogma
and without ritual, and we try to follow the real meaning o f Christianity
every minute o f every day.”

THE INCARNATED DREAM OF TOLSTOY IN THE CARPATHIANS

As we stood in that little meeting-house, so full o f the shared love
and creative endeavors o f the little community, I felt that Tolstoy
would have rejoiced to see his vision o f an ideal life so well exemplified
here in this isolated spot in the Carpathians. Tolstoy himself was never
able to escape entirely the wheel o f responsibilities that encircled him
until his death, and his greatest desire was to one day live in just such
a community. I expressed these thoughts to my guide, who was very
moved, and told us we would be welcome to stay as long as we liked,
to rest from our journey and become acquainted with them. He asked
only that when we left we would not talk about them to anyone, nor
mention their location. O f course, we readily agreed.
In the days that followed, we met a great number o f the members
of the community, and I was quite surprised to see that they were from
all parts o f Russia, and even from different time zones. That is, some
had come here many years ago as refugees from the Czarist regime,
others only rather recently, fleeing from the communists. They were
hard working people, growing everything they needed for food. Their
gardens were full o f potatoes, beets, carrots, and all kinds o f root vege­
tables, even some I had never heard of. During the summer they had
tomatoes and cucumbers, and o f course they had cellars where they
stored a large amount o f cabbage to last through the winter. They also
made sauerkraut in large earthenware pots and wooden barrels, and in
fact at our first meal with them they served beet soup and cabbage

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soup, both of which they called borscht. With that meal we ate also
cooked vegetables and a delicious black bread, which they told us with
great pride was the same bread which the Russian peasants ate from
time immemorial, and also the same bread Tolstoy had eaten with his
borscht. There was also a type o f summer sauerkraut they made without
salt, and it was very delicious and refreshing, as well as healthy, being
one o f the very few vegetable sources o f beneficial lactic acid fermen­
tation. Many years later, I reproduced the recipe in my book The Book
o f Living Foods.
There was a timeless quality to that Tolstoyan community, a kind
o f suspension in time and space, enhanced by their childlike innocence
and beautiful, fraternal attitude toward each other and us. We entered
into their simple, natural life style as if we had always been there, and
we particularly enjoyed their evening meetings, when they read from
the philosophical writings o f Tolstoy. We somehow did not want to
leave, but after almost a week, we knew that we could not postpone
our departure any longer if we wanted to succeed in our mission, which
still lay ahead o f us. So we made preparations to leave, and on our last
day we received the greatest surprise of all.

WE LOSE OUR LIVIU

Liviu, twenty years old, raised in the city o f Cluj, involved in

university life, popular with his friends, in short, a very typical young
college boy, came to me with tears in his eyes and asked my permission
to let him join the Tolstoyan brotherhood. He told me that when we
had entered the village, he felt that he had been away for a long time
and was just coming home—that he truly belonged there and wanted to
stay for the rest o f his life. His brother, Victor, tried every argument to
dissuade him, but he was humbly inflexible. He had already obtained
the permission o f the head o f the brotherhood, but as he had given me
his promise o f loyalty and cooperation throughout our expedition, he
had to have my permission too. Well, looking at the love and longing in
his eyes, I could not refuse him. There is an old saying that the heart
has its reasons, and though I knew we would miss him greatly, I could
not do otherwise but to give him my blessing. Victor was very sad at
first, but when we looked back from the road and saw young Liviu
waving and smiling, his arms entwined with the Tolstoyan brothers, we
both felt the inevitability o f his decision.
Two o f the Tolstoyan brothers had given us important topographi­
cal directions, having once come through the area toward which we
were now going. They explained to us the shortest possible way to
reach the first settlement o f the highland shepherds, and warned us that

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if we were to lose the path, which might be obstructed at several points,
we could get lost in the mountains and in the dense forest we would
never be able to find our way out. So we put the thoughts o f parting
out o f our minds and concentrated on survival as we proceeded to the
highest altitudes o f the Carpathians, the main purpose o f our journey.

IMPENETRABLE PRIMEVAL FORESTS - BEARS AND WILD BOARS

Now we had to go through forests far more dense than before.
Those narrow paths described by our Tolstoyan friends had been over­
grown a long time before, and we had to use our axes to cut our way
through. At some points our way was completely blocked by old trees
which had fallen across the path, their trunks rotted through. It was
very hard work, and the days seemed to be a never-ending succession of
trees and overgrowth and obstacles. However, we were not unmindful
of the beauty around us, and we noticed that the creatures o f the forest
had become far more numerous. We saw many bears, and we were very
heedful o f the instructions our Tolstoyan friends had given us concer­
ning them. They told us never to antagonize a bear and never make any
gestures they might interpret as aggressive. They told us never to run
from a bear, as it is absolutely hopeless to outrun one. They told us
that if we were surprised by a bear while we were resting, the best thing
was just to stay immobile, as if asleep. And if we were to come upon
one by accident while traveling, then we should just slowly change our
direction, not going backward, but moving quietly and slowly to the
right or to the left. Other animals we did not want to avoid, but they
avoided us. The deer were so beautiful and graceful, and we wanted to
be friends with them. But they just looked at us for a few amazed
seconds with their huge eyes, then ran like the wind through the forest,
twigs crackling under their hooves. At night, as we slept by our fire, we
heard the mournful cries o f wolves, but they never came too close to us.
The one animal we had to be extremely careful of, according to our
friends, was the wild boar. They told us these animals could cut through
trees with their hard tusks when they became angry, and there was
practically no defense against them. Fortunately, we had no encounter
with them. I think all the animals o f the forest sensed that we were two
peaceful vegetarian ethnologists who wished them no harm. The one
ever-present problem we did have, however, was to keep ourselves on
that narrow path while avoiding to step into decaying tree trunks which
lay across it so much o f the time, as these dead tree-hollows were
favorite hiding places o f poisonous snakes and scorpions. But we perse­
vered, and as we continued to climb higher and higher into seemingly
endless and eternal forest, we began to wonder if it was all a dream

77
The author, during his Carpathian odyssey.

78
that people could live somewhere beyond this primeval wilderness. It
seemed as if we were the first humans who had ever fought their way
through this jungle o f green leaves and tree branches. Sometimes even
in the middle o f the day we could hardly see the sun, the giant trees
were so dense. This perilous journey continued for at least a week, and
it seemed like an eternity.

PEACEFUL SHEEP, FEROCIOUS DOGS

AND A SHEPHERD FROM ANCIENT ROME
Then one morning we heard a sound which gladdened our hearts
and made us want to shout for joy: it was the plaintive bleat o f sheep,
and we ran toward the sound, entering a little cleared area between
two forests. Before our eyes was a lovely flock o f white sheep, and we
knew that where there are sheep, the shepherd cannot be far behind.
However, it was our bad luck to meet the shepherd’ s dogs first, and as
these huge, snarling, ferocious creatures descended on us with the speed
of lightning, the same thought was going through both our minds: had
we now successfully escaped bear country, w olf country and boar coun­
try, not to mention poisonous snakes, only to be devoured by sheep
dogs? Then our saviour appeared, and though we had been anticipating
this moment for a month, looking forward with such eagerness to meet
our first High Carpathian shepherd, never did we imagine just how
delighted we would be to see him! He called to the dogs, who obeyed
him instantly and went back to guarding the sheep. And there he stood
before us, a splendid specimen o f a High Carpathian shepherd, looking
at us with great amazement. He was very tall, well over six feet, and
had a large and shaggy moustache, but no beard. He was extremely
robust and muscular, and dressed all in white, white woolen thick pants
and jacket, and on his head a white fur hat. He waved his shepherd’ s
staff at us in a friendly way and we all walked toward each other. His
deep voice boom ed out a greeting, “Sanitate buna!” Without even
thinking, I answered back “Vale!”because his words had been so close
to Latin. I felt a tremendous thrill o f discovery as he asked us where we
were going and I actually understood him, not because o f my fluency
in Hungarian or German or even Rumanian, but through my knowledge
o f Latin, a language which was supposed to be extinct, surviving only
in classic literature and in the liturgy o f the church. But this laughing,
giant shepherd was not a fossil, and the language he was speaking came
from a time long before the Roman Church existed.
I snapped out o f my reverie and answered him in a mixture o f
Latin and Rumanian (a language which also has its roots in Latin) that
we had come from below to spend a little vacation with them, that we

79
wanted to know how they lived, what they ate, what language they
spoke, and to learn everything we could about them, as we thought this
knowledge would do us a lot o f good. I think he understood most o f
what I said, because with a smile and a benevolent gesture he waved for
us to follow him. He also made a sign indicating that we should not go
too close to the sheep or the dogs.
He guided us to a little hut which had been put together from the
branches o f trees. This was where he probably rested, as he apparently
had a little food in earthenware pots and a woolen blanket. He told
us that he was alone there with his flock o f sheep, and he could not
take us any farther for the moment until som ebody would come to
relieve him. So we sat down together and started to exchange words.
I pointed to a nearby brook and he said aqua, the Latin word for water.
I indicated his little hut and he said domu, a word very close to Latin.
He addressed Victor and me as dominu, which invoked in my mind the
Latin dominus, domine, etc. An hour passed very swiftly as I had my
first conversation with a real Carpathian shepherd o f the high moun­
tains, and a very fruitful one it was, too. Every word he uttered brought
the same wonder and excitement an archeologist feels when he begins
to excavate and his hands suddenly touch the contours o f a statue
which no one has looked upon for two thousand years.
Then a young boy in his teens arrived, and he too looked amazed
to see us. Our shepherd friend, whose name was Lupu (very close to
another Latin word lupus meaning wolf) spoke to him in their language,
telling him about us, and the boy smiled with the same friendliness and
held out the earthenware pot he was carrying. Lupu explained that we
were welcome to have some food now, or if we would rather join the
main group at their headquarters higher up, he would be glad to take us
with him. We told him we would be very grateful to join his group, and
we said goodbye to the young boy who took over the flock of sheep,
sitting down happily by the brook to eat his provisions.

WE MEET URSU, THE HEAD OF THE SHEPHERDS

It was the same dense forest we had struggled through for a week,
but led by our new guide our path was easy and our steps were sure.
He wended his way expertly through the undergrowth as if he were
striding across a treeless plain, and all we had to do was follow in his
steps. After about an hour and a half o f steady climbing, we finally
came to a cleared area close to the top o f a mountain. We saw a handful
of little log cabins, plastered with hardened mud, perched on the spot
where the view was most breathtaking. Actually, the first thing that
caught our eye was a huge iron kettle hanging from a horizontal branch

80
of a tree, resting on two forked sticks. Aside from Lupu, we couldn’ t,
see anyone, but I had the uncanny feeling that the news of our anival
had been transmitted to the whole group o f shepherds, wherever they
were, and best o f all, that we were welcome. We sat down nor h,r
from the kettle, and soon we were joined by two more shepherds, just
as tall and robust as Lupu. After we greeted each other, a white haired
shepherd appeared, who seemed to be their elder, or leader. 1 had no
idea o f his age, however, because the white hair was the only indication
that he was older than the rest. His voice was also basso profunda
as he greeted us with a hearty “Bine venit!”, which was hardly dis­
tinguishable from the Latin words for “welcome.”He was also o f very
imposing size, and his welcoming embrace nearly knocked us down.
His eyes twinkled with warmth and good humor, and unmistakable
intelligence and wisdom. I felt in him very strongly the presence o f
one whose knowledge o f the universe was direct and intuitive, one who
had no need of the collected book-learning o f men in the cities far
below. His name was Ursu, and since he was evidently the leader o f the
shepherds, his embrace made our welcome official.

URSU BORROWS HONEY FROM A BEAR

Then a very interesting thing happened. Ursu turned to one o f the
shepherds, gave him a jar, and the shepherd nodded and disappeared
into one o f the cabins. Ursu turned to us and explained that a gift o f
honey was in their tradition an expression o f friendship, and he had
sent the shepherd to bring some, in celebration o f our arrival. But in
a few minutes the shepherd returned empty-handed, telling the elder
there was not enough honey in their stores to fill a jar. Ursu thought
for a moment, then said to the shepherd, “G o then to the forest and
borrow some from the bear.”The shepherd went o ff toward the forest
with the jar, while I decided I had not translated the elder’ s words
correctly. I asked him if he had said “borrow from the bear?”He said
he had. I asked him to please tell me what he meant. He explained that
in the forest there was a large tree where a lot o f honey was stored by
two bears who lived close by. When it happened that they ran out o f
honey, they often went to the tree and borrowed some from the bears,
always returning it later when their supply was replenished. He talked
about it as casually as if one would go next door to borrow a cup of
flour from a neighbor, and Victor and I looked at each other in amaze­
ment, wondering at this strange symbiosis which existed between these
people and the forest creatures, especially the bear, which is one animal
we had great respect for and had earnestly tried to avoid meeting. Sure
enough, in about twenty minutes the shepherd reappeared, bearing the

81
jar full o f delicious honey mixed with the comb, fresh from a primitive
bear-storehouse in the forest.
Thinking about this experience later, I wondered if the elder’ s
name o f Ursu (like the Latin ursus meaning bear) had anything to do
with his almost mystical ability to communicate with the undisputed
king o f the forest.

OUR FASCINATING CARPATHIAN ROMANS - A SHEPHERD COMMUNITY

During this time, three or four more shepherds had arrived, and we
all sat down and shared the honey in a kind o f welcoming ceremony
which I sensed was a very ancient tradition. Victor and I were given half
o f the honey, and they all shared the other half. While we ate in friendly
silence, I had a chance to observe my new friends. I noticed that the
ones who were not wearing their thick wool jacket had on underneath
something o f white linen that was very close to a Roman toga. They
also wore soft shoes which were a virtual recreation o f the shoes worn
by the ancient Romans. They could have been brothers, each face was
so similar to the other: strong features, powerful chin, high forehead,
and a classic Roman nose. I was most fascinated by their profiles,
so unmistakably Roman were they.
We finished our honey and began to chat. Apparently, they never
had any visitors from below, and they asked us a lot o f questions
about what was happening below and where we had come from, below.
“Below”was their way o f describing everything in the world outside o f
their little empire, and it was an apt description. For we certainly felt
we were at the top o f the world, high above all the struggle, confusion
and aimlessness which prevailed in the teeming civilization below. These
shepherds were even completely unaware that just a few years before
the most destructive war in history had been fought by the great nations
of the world. They did not know what war was, nor nations, nor who
was the Kaiser or the Emperor, and least of all would they have under­
stood the “reasons” for so many millions going to their deaths. Here,
instead o f war and strife we felt peace, purpose and an intimate connec­
tion with life, in all its reality and splendor. We were to feel this in
ever-increasing intensity the longer we stayed with these people: that
here on these isolated mountain-tops, it was possible for man to live
in simple and direct contact with the Creator.
Then we noticed the sun was going down quickly, and the air
suddenly became very cold. Ursu looked at us starting to shiver and
said something to a young boy, who quickly went to one o f the cabins
and returned with two o f the white woolen jackets which we gratefully
put on. They fitted loosely and were extremely warm. Another young

82
boy brought us two pairs o f pants o f the same thick wool, which we put
on over our regular pants. The shepherds regarded us with great satis­
faction and smiled broadly, telling us that now we really were one o f
them. Then Ursu said that one thing was missing, and sent the first
boy away again. This time he returned with two o f the white fur hats,
and when we put them on, we really felt we were now part o f that
happy band o f Roman shepherds.

A ROYAL SHEPHERD BANQUET:

PRIMEVAL CORN MAMALIGA AND BRINZA SHEEP CHEESE

Then we saw that the population had grown around us to include

several women we had not noticed before, very tall and robust women,
dressed in exactly the same outfits as the men. We would learn, as the
weeks went by, that they enjoyed absolute equality with the men in
their little society-tasks were shouldered by those who could do them
best and were not apportioned by reason o f sex. Sometimes the women
tended sheep, and sometimes men prepared the foods, because we soon
learned that both tasks required great physical stamina. For example,
we saw now that two men were bringing buckets o f water for the
kettle, two women were crushing corn from a large sack with two
heavy stones, and two other men were making a fire under the kettle
with fallen tree branches. When the water started to boil, the women
added the crushed corn to it, stirring it with a tree branch which was
almost the size o f an oar. It must have taken tremendous physical
strength to stir the mixture with that huge branch, but the women
were laughing and talking with the men all the while they did it. They
called this strange mixture mamaliga, which was the first word I heard
which did not come from Latin, but it enriched my vocabulary and also
proved very delicious. In about an hour the mamaliga was ready, and
they poured water over the cooking fire under the kettle. Then two
shepherds came with large earthenware pots, each full o f fresh sheep
cheese called brinza, another non-Latin name. The elder brought a
strange tool, like a long bow with a sharp string attached on the ends.
The men took out large pieces o f the mamaliga, which had been cooked
to rocklike hardness, and put them on a flat rock. Then, using the bow
like a knife, the elder cut big chunks in the shape o f cubes, each cube
weighing at least several pounds. Then one o f the women made a hole
in each cube with a large wooden spoon, and another woman filled each
o f the holes with sheep cheese. Then they were distributed, and Victor
and I sat with the others in the glowing light o f a small fire, holding in
our hands this huge cube o f strange cooked corn filled inside with a
tremendous portion o f sheep cheese. We watched the shepherds, and as

83
they started to eat, we followed their example. The technique was to
bite around the edge o f the hard-cooked corn meal so that with the
same bite we got a certain amount o f sheep cheese. The cheese was very
strong but delicious. We had looked at each other before starting, each
o f us wondering if we could finish the whole thing, and if we could not,
that it might be an offense to shepherd etiquette, but we need not have
worried. It took us a good half hour o f concentrated eating in silence,
but we had not realized the stimulating effect on our appetites from
the cold mountain air, and we successfully finished the whole cube,
every last tasty crumb. The shepherds were very pleased, as if we had
passed the final initiation, and several o f them came over and patted us
on the shoulder. It had the same effect as the elder’ s embrace, a cross
between being hugged by a bear and falling off a horse. And the women
were no less strong than the men. O f course they did it with the best
intentions, but it took a good while before Victor and I recovered
completely from their friendly pats, and we realized that when you
have a Carpathian shepherd as a friend, you don ’ t need an enemy)
THE GIANT CARPATHIAN SHEPHERD HORN
I thought with that superb banquet our evening activities were
over, but in fact they were just beginning. While two boys removed the
kettle and the horizontal branch that had held the kettle on two forks,
two other shepherds suddenly appeared carrying what looked like an
immensely long horn, about the length o f three men, end to end. They
placed the horn on the two forks where the kettle had been, and at the
same time another fire was begun, a huge pile o f branches which had
apparently been prepared earlier in the day. Now a flood o f golden
light illuminated our mountain-top, casting strange shadows on the giant
horn, and Victor and I glanced at each other, wondering what would
happen next. What did happen surpassed all our imaginings. Just as the
stars appeared in the night sky, one by one, so there began to appear
bonfires similar to ours, one after another on the surrounding moun­
tain-tops, until it was as if a giant-size cosmic amphitheatre o f fire was
encircling us in every direction. It seemed as if the brilliant stars were
only pale reflections o f those earthly fires, which spread on the tops
of the mountains as far as the eye could see.
AN UNFORGETTABLE COSMIC SYMPHONY OF HORNS, FIRES AND STARS
Then a shepherd we had not seen before, with a powerful chest as
wide across as Victor and I put together, stepped up to the horn, put
his lips at one end o f it, and began to sound the horn, a feat I would not
have thought physically possible. And then the sound came forth from
that huge instrument, the first note long, long, unutterably long and

84
hauntingly sad. A simple melody formed in the night air and hovered
over the flames, a melody ancient and beautiful, seeming to come from
the mountain itself, as it reached toward the heavens in eternal longing
for the infinite. When the song o f the horn ended, I listened to the
magic silence o f the night, afraid to breathe so as not to break the spell.
And then, like an echo from heaven, another horn answered from
somewhere across the mountains with a similarly lovely melody, and
like some unbelievable cosmic symphony, other horns from all different
directions joined in, and the music was o f some incredible choir from
space, all playing in harmony. Then I realized there were a great number
of these little groups o f shepherds all over the High Carpathians, all
united through spiritual affinity, and through the blazing fires and the
music of the horns they were communicating with each other across
enormous distances, using the language o f gods and stars. In all my
travels over the world, in all the years to come, I would never have
another experience to compare with what took place that night. Nor
are my words adequate to describe it. That mystic cosmic symphony
of the Carpathians was perhaps as close to Nirvana as any human being
living in the world could attain.
SLEEP IN THE HIGH CARPATHIANS
Finally the horns grew silent, one by one, fading into the star-filled
silence, and one by one the fires went out on the mountain-tops and
the Carpathian night enveloped all in utter stillness. It was time to go to
sleep. Victor and I were shown to one o f the log cabins, and I under­
stood the reason why they were all plastered with mud when I realized
how bitter the cold had become. But we did not freeze, for our hard
but comfortable bed o f straw covered with two thick woolen blankets
kept us warm from below, and we covered ourselves with two other
heavy woolen blankets, these in addition to the thick woolen jacket and
pants we were already wearing. I drifted o ff to sleep thinking that this
must have been the same kind o f cold that my ancestor, Alexander
Csoma de Koros, suffered in the unheated cells of the Tibetan lama­
series while he struggled to keep his hands from freezing so he could
hold his pen and continue to write. But the quality o f the air in those
high Carpathians was indescribable, and compensated for the cold. The
air was almost a tangible substance, like food, filled with the scent and
taste o f the surrounding plants, flowers and tall pines, and it created
a kind o f heady elation which was different from anything else I had
ever experienced.
CARPATHIAN DELICACIES

The sun was already up the next morning when we awoke, and we
stepped out into a little world o f busy activity quite different from the

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mystical atmosphere o f the night before. We saw some women cleaning
the corn from husks and others crushing it with stones into the same
kind o f very coarse corn meal we had eaten for dinner. Still others were
toasting the corn meal, which was still more delicious, as I soon dis­
covered. This toasted corn meal was called pirga, and when they served
it with the sheep cheese it became mamaliga de pirga. Some o f the men
were carrying large bags o f hazel nuts from the forest to store them
in the attics which occupied all of the upper space in the little cabins.
In these high mountains, one could only survive winter by intelligent
storage in the summer, and these attics, under sharply slanted roofs
to sustain the heavy snowfall, were the source o f life to the whole
community during those months when the forest and meadows slept
under a waist-high blanket o f snow. Wild pears and apples were also
stored in layers o f straw in the .attics, delicious little fruits which I
found very delicious, with an unusual, sour-sweet taste.

ETHNOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CARPATHIAN SHEPHERDS

Watching the activity, we decided we had better get to work too.
So began our period o f systematic study, and though I did not want to
interfere with any part o f the daily lives o f the shepherds, I did seek
every opportunity to ask questions, to listen, to observe, and little by
little I collected a comprehensive inventory o f words and meanings.
And by now the reader has surely deduced that it was the Rumanian
thesis which was correct about the origin o f these shepherds, for they
were without a doubt the descendants o f Roman Legionnaires who
stayed in these mountains although ordered home by the Emperor
Trajanus. Their intermarriage with the Dacian women had been very
fortunate from a genetic standpoint, seeming to blend all that was best
o f both races. While the Dacian men had been violent warriors, their
women had a spiritual side which was enhanced in the children o f their
Roman husbands. As for the Roman soldiers, all that was noble, intelli­
gent and courageous seemed to be perpetuated in their descendants,
who spent several generations at first to stave o ff invasions o f various
barbarian tribes, such as the Avars, the Visigoths, and the Longobards.
Fortunately, again from a genetic standpoint, these invasions forced the
Roman-Dacians to move higher and ever higher up into the mountains,
and it was this simple, natural, difficult but exhilarating life which gave
them their awesome physical strength. They existed in an harmonious
atmosphere, and we never saw any disputes between them, never any
fights. Like a breath o f ancient Rome at the height o f its glory was the
aura o f great dignity which always surrounded them and illumined
their way o f walking, moving and speaking.

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 PHILOLOGY OF THE HIGH CARPATHIANS
I divided my little dictionary into three groups: in the first, 1
listed those words which were pure Latin; in the second, those words
which were very similar to Latin; and in the third, those words which
had no connection with Latin roots and were o f unmistakable Dacian
origin. Here is part o f a sample page:
Carpathian Latin
Group I iupu^ lupus (wolf)
Dominu Dominus (lord)
ursu ursus (bear)
viata vita (life)
morte mors - mortis (death)
somnu somnum (dream)
do mu domus (house)
veni veni (I came)
aqua aqua (water)
bine bene (well, good)
Group II mare magnus (great)
nopte nox - noctis (night)
sorte sors (luck)
Group III mere [(go)
padura silva (forest)

THE WAY OF LIVING OF THE HIGH CARPATHIAN SHEPHERDS

I also wrote my observations concerning their way o f living, which
impressed me greatly. It would have been enough o f an accomplishment
just to survive in those isolated mountain regions; but to live as they
did, with such vigor and grace, illustrated the depth of their character
and intelligence. How simply, how beautifully they adapted themselves
to their harsh environment and created the preconditions o f their lives!
The foods they ate were all o f superior quality: seeds, grains, honey,
different wild fruits o f the forest, such as pears, apples and berries, the
sheep milk, which they also fermented to make a kind o f sour milk,
the excellent cheese and resultant whey, the corn they grew during
the short summer months which served as their main bread, all these
were foods o f the highest nutritional value. During the summer I was
with them, I did not see anyone eat meat or kill any animal. On the
contrary, there was an uncanny symbiosis and communion with the
wild creatures o f the forest, from the smallest bird to the largest bear,
from the circling hawks to the earthworms which enriched the soil
beneath their growing corn. They were completely and totally self-
sufficient. They built their cabins from the woods o f the forest, and
incidentally, even in that area so thick with trees, they never cut one

87
down except through necessity. They wove themselves the half-inch
thick white cloth which came from the wool o f their sheep, and sewed
their own soft shoes, so like the ancient Roman footwear. They had
none o f the complex and stultifying rituals so often found in primitive
societies, and even the elder, Ursu, did not actually rule them in the
usual sense o f a leader. Rather, he was like a father who was looked to
for advice; but he never gave arbitrary orders or interfered in anyone’ s
personal life. It seemed to be a completely unstructured society, func­
tioning in perfect order not through rules and regulations, but through
each person’ s individual maturity. Children were loved but not coddled,
and as soon as they were physically able, they joined the adult commu­
nity with all equal rights and responsibilities. In fact, it reminded me
in an uncanny way o f the lives o f the ancient Essenes at the Dead
Sea, though the comparison may seem strange to some because o f the
great difference in time, climate and life style. Yet there was something
in their unspoken brotherhood, the equality o f all before their name­
less Creator, their healthy, simple and natural way o f living, and their
unfailing courtesy and kindness, which reminded me very much o f
the Essene Brotherhood.

SIGNS OF APPROACHING WINTER - SORROWFUL FAREWELL

The summer seemed to fly by, and Victor and I noticed also that
our health and general physical condition had improved tremendously,
though we were certainly healthy to start with. We felt an almost super­
abundance o f energy, an unusual state o f vigor and vitality. We were so
content, in fact, that we did not notice that certain leaves in the forest
were turning to brilliant shades of yellow and red, that certain little
insects had disappeared, and that we needed an extra woolen blanket
at night. But one day the elder, Ursu, approached me and asked if we
would like to spend a winter with them—that he thought we could
learn even more by doing so. In reply, I did not try to explain our
work at the university, and all the abstract things which would have
had no meaning to him, but I simply said that though we would very
much like to stay, we could not because we had given our word to those
below that we would return before winter came. This he understood
perfectly. The Roman Code o f Honor which had as its mainstay the
given word was still very much a part of his phylogenetic memory.
Having accepted this, he then told me that if we were not going to
stay, he suggested strongly that we leave within the next few days,
because winter would be upon them very soon, and once it began, we
would never be able to descend the mountain.

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 And then I looked around and saw those unmistakable signs o f
winter’ s approach I had not noticed before—perhaps because I did not
want to. Both Victor and I understood a little better the reasons why
Liviu had wanted to stay with the Tolstoyan Brotherhood, for we were
feeling the same attraction toward these shepherds and the lives they
led, so incomparably superior to the mad and aimless wheel o f material
greed and pursuit o f power going on below. They might as well have
lived on another planet, so radically different were these splendid men,
women and children from their weak and sickly cousins below. They
were one with the forest, harming no living thing, taking from nature
all they needed and sharing in her fruitful abundance. They lived in
harmony with some hidden music which was not for our ears, but was
echoed in the haunting melodies o f their ancient horns, melodies we felt
inexpressibly grateful for having heard and shared.
It took more courage than I had thought possible to pack our
belongings in our knapsacks and say our farewells. They all brought
foods for us to take along, telling us that it would be more and more
difficult to find what we needed in the forest during our downward
journey, and we accepted these gratefully. Then each o f them came to
embrace us, and we asked timidly if they would please moderate the
intensity o f their hugs, because we were not used to their strength.
They all smiled at this, and our little joking helped to lessen the sorrow
we were feeling at having to leave these good people. Their tender hugs
were still strong enough to bring tears to our eyes, and they were
genuine tears o f sadness and longing, for these silent embraces expressed
their love in a way no words could have done. And in a final gesture of
affection, which moved us profoundly, those same large dogs who had
wanted to tear us apart when we first arrived, gave us each their cold
muzzles in our hands and said goodbye with their dark, expressive eyes.

THE ARDUOUS RETURN TO CIVILIZATION

We were grateful for the difficulties of the return journey, for it
kept us from thinking too much. Even though the elder had given us
explicit instructions about how to get back, and how to avoid the
steep areas o f the mountains where we could run into trouble, still the
return trip was arduous and required that we keep all our wits about us.
We encountered the same thick undergrowth, the same half-rotten tree
trunks, the same howling o f the wolves at night. The shepherds had
been right—we could find no food this time in the forest, as the hazel
nuts had already been stored by the squirrels, and the wild berries had
been stripped from the bushes long weeks before. So we were very

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grateful for their foresight in providing us with food, as we needed all
our strength for the precarious and difficult homeward journey.
Eventually we reached a little outpost o f the forestry service which
consisted o f three little cabins with a few forest rangers who were
extremely surprised to see us descending from a path which led only to
inaccessible, uncharted, high mountain forests. They thought we had
gotten lost, and we let them think so. It was much easier than trying to
explain that we had just come from another world. They kindly showed
us how to reach the nearest village where someone was able to guide us
to a small railroad station, and soon we were on a train bound for Cluj.
That first contact with the world o f the twentieth century was a
tremendous shock. We felt like visitors from another planet, and it took
several weeks before we became accustomed again to ordinary air, ordi­
nary food and life as it was lived “below.” I knew in my mind o f a
scientist that paradise on earth was still many milennia in the future,
and that my tasks on earth must be fulfilled; but in my heart I could
not forget those Carpathian shepherds and wondered sometimes, when
the evils o f violence, persecution and ignorance threatened to engulf
the world in darkness, why I had ever left that mountain-top o f peace
and light.

BACK TO THE UNIVERSITY

Because I was a scientist, these subjective, personal thoughts did
not enter into my detailed, eighty-page report concerning our ethnolo­
gical and philological experiences, and in due time I presented it to the
University o f Cluj, where Dr. Barbat, Dr. Goanga and Dr. Marin gave
us a very warm reception. When we had our first reunion with them,
Victor and I were chuckling over a reversal o f roles: this time it was the
turn o f those professors to shiver under the intensity o f our bear hugs,
for they noticed immediately how our physical strength had increased.
They were sad and rather bewildered, o f course, about the absence o f
Liviu, but they congratulated Victor for his perseverance and assured
him o f a brilliant future in ethnology at the university. They immediate­
ly phoned Dr. Galati at the University o f Bucharest, giving him the
joyful news that we finally had the proof o f the correctness o f the
Rumanian theory: that the Rumanians o f upper Transylvania were the
descendants o f the surviving Roman Legionnaires and native Dacian
women. And to celebrate, an elaborate banquet was held in our honor,
which we enjoyed very much.
The morning after the banquet, they all accompanied me to the
railroad station where the train would take me to Budapest, and from
there to Paris. I said emotional farewells to all the professors, but for

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Victor I had no words. We only shared a long, deep and sad look into
each other’s eyes. Even if the shifting tides o f our lives would prevent
us from returning one day to that hidden world o f the high mountains
o f the Carpathians, the adventures we had shared would remain in
our memories forever.

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 AFRICAN INTERLUDE: A COMPLETE FAILURE

PREPARATIONS FOR EQUATORIAL AFRICA

It was at the beginning o f one o f my summer vacations from my
studies at the University o f Paris, when it came to my attention that
our colonial office had decided to send a small medical expedition to
French Equatorial Africa to try and find a workable treatment for an
epidemic fever which was baffling our tropical specialists. I decided to
volunteer and offered my services to the medical department o f the
colonial office. They accepted, as it was the custom to allow medical
students in their senior year to undertake projects o f this kind as useful
experience, and I was glad because it would be counted as study credit
when I returned to the university in the fall.
But from my very first meeting with the three physicians and their
assistants who would make up the expedition, I felt that things would
not go well. The general lack o f organization was only one factor,
another being the attitude o f the three physicians. When I explained
to them that my main purpose for going was to try out certain methods
o f healing practiced by an ancient Essene group o f healers at Lake
Mareotis and the Dead Sea, and when they understood that my very
unorthodox points o f departure would come from Plinius, the Roman
natural scientist; from Josephus, the Roman historian; and from Philo,
the Alexandrian philosopher, in addition to an obscure and as yet un­
known manuscript I had discovered in the Archives o f the Vatican,
they began to look at me with suspicion, to put it mildly. With barely
civil courtesy they made it clear that I would not be able to count on
their cooperation, but that since I had already been chosen I could
have my freedom to do independently whatever I wished, once we
reached our destination. This was not exactly the kind o f fraternal
atmosphere necessary to the launching o f such an expedition, but I
suppose I couldn’ t blame them, considering their dogmatic education
and one-sided training.
It took about ten days for everyone to prepare their equipment,
and we then proceeded to equatorial Africa, having an uneventful
journey. My provisions were so light that everyone thought I had left
my baggage at home. In addition to my few personal things, I carried
only a container o f almonds, a lot o f different seeds for germinating
purposes, a small bag o f dried garlic, and a very small apparatus to distill
water. In contrast, my illustrious colleagues had trank after trunk loa­
ded on board ship, a huge supply o f canned foods, cartons and cartons
o f bottled drinks, and an entire portable laboratory well-stocked with
drugs and medicines o f all kinds. They looked rather contemptuously

93
at my meager baggage, but I just shrugged and lent a helping hand to
get all their provisions on board.

MY ADAPTATIONS OF THE ANCIENT ESSENE METHODS OF HEALING

We arrived to equatorial Africa and set up our headquarters in a
small village where the mysterious fever had already claimed a great
number o f victims. We settled in and independently organized our re­
spective activities. The three physicians and their assistants set up their
portable laboratory and began all kinds o f medical tests, trying out
different drugs in varying doses with groups o f natives, and performing
autopsies on some o f the numerous corpses as yet unburied. For my
part, I was not interested in the dead, nor was I particularly concerned
with discovering the exact microbe which had caused the disease; rather,
I was anxious to empirically cure the ill, and as quickly as possible.
After some initial difficulties, I was successful in securing the
cooperation o f a small group o f natives, all with very high fevers, whose
families were willing to let me try my methods o f healing on them.
First, I distilled water and let them drink small amounts at frequent
intervals. Then I submerged my patients several times a day in cold
water for the purpose o f deconducting heat from the body. I forbade
them to eat anything, only to drink the water which I had distilled
myself. This was the most difficult rule to enforce, particularly when
their families began to worry they would starve to death before the
fever claimed them. These well-meaning relatives were also surprised
when I threw all the windows open in their little huts to have the
maximum o f fresh air, and they were most uneasy when they saw their
sick loved-ones being submerged in cold water when they were burning
with fever. However, they seemed to have a faint suspicion that I might
know what I was doing, and thought that probably I had not come from
so far away if I did not have something useful to offer in the way o f a
cure. So at least they did not interfere with my treatments, and little by
little the results started to show. After five or six days their fevers went
down gradually and then I let my patients take in very small amounts
of fresh fruits frequently through the day. But I took utmost care in
selecting those fruits myself and used only those whose skins were
intact and not split at any point. (Needless to say, regarding my own
health, I ate only from those foods I had brought with me, being careful
to distill all the water I drank and take the same care in selecting local
fruits.) After a few days o f this fruit diet, my patients were getting a
good night’ s sleep, and in a few more days they were able to leave their
beds, starting with frequent small walks. And in two weeks they were
perfectly cured and able to return to their work.

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 I felt a tremendous satisfaction that the ancient Essene methods
o f treatment worked as well in the twentieth century as they had two
thousand years before, and my opinion o f Plinius, the Roman natural
scientist who described these treatments in the manuscripts I found at
the monastery at Monte Cassino, became even more respectful when
1actually saw these cures taking place.
THE SAD FATE OF MY COLLEAGUES

I had become so involved with curing my patients that I had

almost forgotten about my three colleagues, and now I decided to see
how they were doing before continuing with my work. They were not
doing very well. Apparently, the drugs they used were only temporarily
effective and their patients usually died. Autopsies had not uncovered
any answers, and worst o f all, two o f the physicians contracted the
disease themselves and within a few days they were dead. The third
physician began to show beginning symptoms and fever, and the two
assistants were getting badly demoralized. Very worried and helpless
in the face o f these calamities, they asked if I would talk to the natives
and ask them to bury the dead physicians. I did, and became a kind o f
liaison officer between themselves and the village people, an easy task
in view o f the popularity I had achieved by curing those families I had
attended. I wanted also to help the third physician, but he refused my
help utterly and continued to give instructions to the two assistants
about different drugs and medications. For my part, I felt fine, doing
very well by eating my almonds, drinking my distilled water and care­
fully selecting those local fruits which had no opening in the skin. Even
the hot, humid climate and inevitable tropical hardships did not affect
me too much.
THE UNCOMFORTABLE SIGHT OF MY OWN GRAVE
My third surviving colleague, in spite o f his own efforts, became
more and more delirious and finally he died also. That was the final
straw for the assistants, and in near panic they took the next little boat
which appeared on the river and departed for France, convinced they
would die too if they stayed one more day. I have to confess I was also
rather disoriented by these events, suddenly being left alone with all the
medical equipment and all three colleagues dead, one o f them unburied.
So the first thing I did was to ask my native friends to dig another
grave, thinking meanwhile what course o f action I would take. When
they called me to inspect their work, I found to my great surprise they
had dug two graves instead o f one! I asked them why they had made
two graves? One o f the natives looked at me and said, with angelic
innocence, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “Well, the

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second one is for you! Since all o f you will die here, we thought it was
best to make your grave at the same time so we would not have to work
twice!”Now those were not exactly comforting words, and in spite o f
my apparent well-being and satisfactory almond diet, I felt a certain
amount o f insecurity, especially as I officiated at the interment o f my
third colleague, standing at the brink o f a fourth open grave. It was
definitely not a tempting prospect to be buried in equatorial Africa!
So I went to sleep that night thinking that in the morning I would
concentrate and take the right decision.

THE APOCALYPSE: FIERY HOLOCAUST AND A SEA OF KILLER ANTS

I never had the chance, because just before dawn the right decision
was taken for me. I was roughly shaken awake in the half-darkness by
my native friends who were gesticulating and shouting in their broken
French that I must leave everything and run with them immediately.
I looked out o f my tent and saw that everyone was indeed running
in one direction from the village. Not only people, but all kinds o f
wild creatures were running with them, and I saw what looked like a
forest fire in the distance and smelled the acrid smoke which added to
the apocalyptic early morning vision. Thinking that they probably all
knew what they were doing, I paused only long enough to grab my
sturdy boots and ran out with them, wearing only my nightgown and
a hat. While we were running, one o f my friends suddenly grabbed my
arm and told me to look back. I did, and saw with horror what it was
that the natives were really running away from. The forest fire was only
a small danger in comparison with a gigantic ocean o f vicious red ants
which were advancing with incredible speed, one on top o f the other to
form a moving wall o f killer insects, devouring and destroying every­
thing in their path. I realized then that we were running for our very
lives and I doubled my efforts. It would have been fatal to slow down,
as the distance between us and the ants stayed about the same. I don’ t
know what would have happened if we had not finally reached the river
which suddenly appeared, flowing before us like a magic carpet to the
promised land. We threw ourselves into the water, swam to the other
side and practically collapsed from fatigue. From the exhausted relief
on the faces o f my friends, I understood that we were now safe from
both the forest fire and the ants. And I was very relieved to see that the
women and children had been evacuated first and were already safe
there on the bank. Apparently, this hideous combination o f forest fire
and ant invasion was not infrequent in that part o f the world, and I
wondered at the courage it must have taken just to survive there, year
in and year out. I still think o f it sometimes when a young, idealistic

96
future homesteader comes to tell me o f his dream o f escaping one day
to live happily ever after in a tropical “paradise.”
I lost count o f the hours, but it seemed an endless time that we
were immobilized on that side o f the river, watching the fiery holocaust
consume the village in the distance. Finally, my friends told me it would
be safe to return and we did, finding a very sad spectacle. Everything
which had not been burned to a crisp had been destroyed by the ants.
All the sophisticated medical supplies, which had proved so tragically
useless to my colleagues, were now just shreds o f metal and glass. Every
rubber part was gone, eaten by the ants. I was very lucky just to be able
to fashion a somewhat normal-looking traveling outfit, and I left as
soon as possible, saying a grateful farewell to those who had saved my
life. They replied that since I had saved some o f their own people, it
was the least they could do.
SORROWFUL RETURN TO PARIS
When I arrived back to France, I wrote a brief report o f everything
that had happened and took it to the medical department o f our colo­
nial office in Paris. They were very unhappy about the sad end of our
mission and understandably had little enthusiasm for my report, the
success o f my efforts being overshadowed by the death o f three o f their
best men. The expedition received very little publicity, in fact, it was
purposely hushed up and forgotten. However, I did receive a nice little
letter after about ten days from the colonial office, thanking me for my
efforts and services, saying they realized there was nothing further I
could have done against such overwhelming odds.
At the time, it seemed simply the end o f a wasted vacation which
almost ended with my becoming a meal for giant red ants. However,
thinking back on it, I see now another valuable proof o f the validity o f
the Essene teachings, and the fact that through these simple and natural
healing methods, there are still some natives in that little village in what
was French Equatorial Africa, who are the descendants o f victims o f a
supposedly incurable epidemic tropical fever, but who survived thanks
to my Essene-inspired efforts.

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 TAHITI AND THE SOUTH SEAS

IN SEARCH OF A LEPER COLONY IN POLYNESIA

It may seem strange, but my unforgettable expedition to Tahiti
and the South Seas was born out o f my interest in the most dreaded
disease o f antiquity: leprosy. I had been studying the disease, and also
the methods the Essenes had used for curing it. Their success with this
most difficult o f all diseases to cure, and with many others as well, was
the reason they were also known as Therapeutae, or healers. They used
fasting, sun, air, water, food, herbs, etc., alone and in combination.
My abortive experience in equatorial Africa had only whetted my desire
to try out these methods on something more difficult than an unknown
tropical fever. I had no doubts at all that the Essene methods would
work on leprosy. My only problem was to find a leper colony where I
would have the freedom to put my ideas into practice.
After some investigation, I discovered there was a leper colony
in Orofara on the island o f Tahiti, in French Polynesia. It seemed ideal
for my purpose, except for one thing: it was under the administration
o f the French Navy, completely controlled by French Naval physicians,
and I suspected they would not be too happy to admit methods of
treatment other than their own. My suspicions were confirmed when
I visited the Department o f the Navy in Paris. They told me in no
uncertain terms that one cannot apply philosophical ideas in the treat­
ment o f human disease, and that under no condition would I be allowed
to interfere with established procedures at the leper colony at Orofara.
Coming to this impasse, I did what I should have done in the first
place: visit my friend, Jean Pierre. As usual, he had an excellent idea.
“Mon cher Edmond,”he said, “what you should do is to go to Tahiti
for some other purpose, authorized by some government agency so you
will have complete freedom. Then, once_ you are in Tahiti, knowing
your creative imagination, I am sure you can smuggle yourself into the
leper colony!”To implement this fine idea, Jean Pierre (naturally) had
a good friend who was in charge o f the Trocadero Museum, and before
long we had concluded an agreement in which they would cover my ex­
penses for the trip, if I could bring back some o f the famous “speaking
timbers”for their museum.
THE SPEAKING TIMBERS: MY TICKET TO POLYNESIA
It will be worthwhile to digress for a moment to explain what are
the speaking timbers. (They are not pieces o f w ood which have the gift
o f speech!) The migrations o f the Maoris from New Zealand began
when, under pressure from more numerous and more belligerent tribes,

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they had to make a choice: to fight these more powerful enemies, or to
get into their canoes and escape from them into the unknown ocean,
and they chose the ocean. They had long canoes made o f wood, and
in each canoe was a kind o f priest, a leader o f his people. All during
the long, long voyage they watched the life o f the ocean—the different
kinds o f birds, fish, plants, and the movements o f the stars. All these
things were inscribed on the timbers o f the canoes, and also the human
drama which was taking place—the births, the deaths, the songs and
poetry o f the struggle for survival which went on for many, many years
as they searched for places to settle. The Maoris were geniuses o f navi­
gation, and their star charts were also inscribed on the timbers o f their
canoes. Whenever they reached an island, they looked for fresh water,
and if none was to be found, they continued their voyage. When they
did find fresh water on an island, then they dismantled their canoes and
with the timbers, inscribed with the story o f their voyage and pictures
o f all they had seen and charts they had navigated by, they built a little
sanctuary, which became the spiritual center o f their new home. All
the islands they populated, the Tuamotu Islands, the Marquesas Islands,
Tahiti, Tubuai, Hawaii, etc., were dotted with these little sanctuaries
made o f the speaking timbers. But as civilization penetrated the islands,
the sanctuaries fell into disuse, the speaking timbers became scattered,
and by the time historians realized their value, most o f them were lost.
So I had my first job in French Polynesia, to recover some o f these
speaking timbers o f the Maoris for the Trocadero Museum.

MY SECOND ASSIGNMENT: PSYCHOMETRY IN THE FRENCH ISLANDS

Then I went to see another good friend o f Jean Pierre, the Ministre
de l’Interieur (Minister o f the Interior). After discussing my background
with him, he told me that his department was very much interested to
introduce some small industries to French Polynesia. He reminded me
there were some three hundred French Islands in the Pacific, many o f
them quite populated, and the introduction o f small industries would
benefit both France and the native populations. However, he went on,
this project could not be carried out until more was known about the
abilities o f the natives: their intelligence quotients, memory capacity,
association o f ideas, imagination, and many other factors. When these
things were known, then it would also be known what kinds o f small
industries would be most successful and profitable. Then he went on
to suggest that I should go to several o f these islands and apply the
Binet system o f psychometry, testing groups o f natives in regard to
their intelligence, memory, fantasy, association o f ideas, etc. He men­
tioned that Jean Pierre had told him I was eminently qualified to carry

99
out this work, and he ended by saying that his department would be
willing to subsidize my journey. O f course I accepted immediately,
delighted to have a second official entry into the neighborhood o f that
leper colony (though I did not mention that to the Minister), but I did
make a few suggestions to him regarding his most worthwhile psycho-
metrical project. I told him that the same Binet method o f psychometry
we used in France would be useless in Polynesia, in fact, ridiculous. All
the notions we had in France, all our points o f reference, so to say,
would be unknown on those strange and distant islands where there was
a totally different culture and environment. He agreed with me that this
was so, and asked what solution I could suggest. I replied that if he
would give me a little time, I would translate the Binet system into a
Polynesian medium. Instead o f showing pictures o f apples and pears
and plums, we would use coconuts, papayas and mangoes, and so on.
Not only these obvious substitutions would have to be made, but also
more subtle ones concerning patterns o f activity and frames o f reference
concerning the family and society. The Ministre de 1’ Interieur was very
happy with my suggestions, we signed a contract, and voila! I had
my second assignment.
Jean Pierre had still another good friend on tap, so I contacted
the Institute o f Anthropology, which was interested in the migration
o f the Maoris. They told me if I could obtain evidence to prove the
actual line o f migration followed by the Maoris, they would be glad to
subsidize my journey. So I sketched out a system which I presented to
them in the form o f a proposal, I recommended the use o f test groups
o f about one hundred on each island, making psychological charts o f
their aptitudes and dispositions. Based on these actual ontogenetic ex­
periences, we could then extrapolate the phylogenetic experiences of
many generations, and graphs based on this information should be o f
substantial help in reconstructing the exact routes o f the ancient Maori
migrations. They liked my ideas very much, and I had yet a third
assignment in French Polynesia.

MY SHIP AND SHIPMATES

Now that the financing o f the journey and my credentials were

taken care of, it was time to look for a means o f transportation, in
other words, to find the right ship. After much investigation and discus­
sion, I finally settled on a beautiful New Zealand ship, sixty-eight feet
long, called White Heather. One reason for the choice was that it was
constructed mainly o f caori wood, which has the interesting characteris­
tic that the longer it stays in water, the stronger it becomes. Then began
our preparations, all the usual exhaustive and necessary preliminaries

100
The Marihini
to sea voyage, and finally we sailed on a Messagerie Maritimes boat to
Tahiti, where our ship awaited us, newly christened with the Maori
name o f Marihini, which meant “the stranger.”Thanks to her strength
and graceful efficiency, neither she nor I would be strangers for very
long in the enchanting, timeless world o f Polynesia.
I collected a talented crew for the expedition, all expert in their
various fields and all enthusiastic about the different projects to be
undertaken. There was only one problem with them, and it stemmed
from the fact that they had come to the Marihini from all parts o f the
world: none o f them could understand each other! The Captain o f the
ship was Herr Weber from the naval academy at Den Helder in the
Netherlands, the ship’ s radio operator was Italian, I had several French
collaborators, a few Spanish experts, in short, it was like an ocean-going
Tower o f Babel, and no one understood anyone. O f course, I could
speak with everyone, as I knew their various languages, but there cannot
be much harmony on a ship if no one can speak to their fellow crew
members. So, inspired by my friend Mr. Yelland, I gave everyone an
intensive two-week Esperanto course, and by the end o f that time
Esperanto was our official language, and future difficulties caused by
lack o f communication were avoided.
I will not yet go into details o f our expedition to the surrounding
islands, as my three assignments were carried out with efficiency and
precision, and though o f course very rewarding from a scientific and
ethnological standpoint, my most fervent interest still lay in the chal­
lenge offered by the leper colony, and I considered them but a tool
to gain access to that bastion o f French naval authority.

TAHITI, THE ISLAND OF DREAMS

MY FIRST TAHITIAN FRIENDS
When we set anchor on the beautiful island o f Tahiti, I first set
out to make some good friends, having learned from Jean Pierre the
advantages o f knowing everybody. And as it happened, the friendships
I made were lasting ones, with genuine feelings on both sides. My first
acquaintance was with the mayor o f Papeete, the capital o f Tahiti,
M. Georges Bambridge, a descendant o f British colonists. He and his
brother, Tony, later adopted the Essene diet and way o f life with such
enthusiasm that the m ayor’ s son and many grandchildren continue it
to this day. Then there was M. Henri Bodin, the head o f the Oceano­
graphic Institute in Tahiti, and many others who will appear as my
story unfolds.
After I gained their confidence, I told them about my problem.
They were fascinated by my ideas and all ventured the unanimous

102
opinion that if I wanted to get into the leper colony to try tlu-ni out
it was no use to deal with the Navy. All o f them had had experiences
which indicated the absolute intransigence o f that governing body.
Instead, my friends suggested a very direct approach, in the best
French empirical tradition. They knew that Dr. Morin, the French Navy
physician in charge o f the leper colony, visited there only once a month,
and the rest o f the time left the entire operation in the hands o f a very
intelligent Swiss-French head nurse named Mile. Ablitzer. They recom­
mended that I go directly to her and explain my ideas, which they were
sure she would approve of. They also remembered two other nurses,
her assistant and one other, who would probably also like my methods.
As a precaution, they suggested that before I contact her, I should write
to the Ministre de l’ Interieur for a note o f authorization guaranteeing
that neither she nor her assistants would lose their jobs if anything
should happen. I applauded the whole idea as worthy o f my friend Jean
Pierre, and sent o ff a letter right away to the Ministre de l ’ Interieur.
To my surprise, I got an answer back after only a few weeks, and
in spite o f the fact that the leper colony belonged to the French Navy,
the Ministre de l’ lnterieur provided me with authorization to carry out
my research at the leper colony at Orofara.
My new friends were absolutely right: Mile. Ablitzer was very
enthusiastic about my ideas, in fact, she had always believed in natural
methods. Equally eager to cooperate were her two assistants, as well as
one o f the native nurses. So my career as secret physician to the lepers
o f Tahiti was launched.

I START MY WORK IN THE LEPER COLONY

When I began to investigate conditions at the leper colony, I found
a truly horrifying situation. Though Tahiti has the most tropical of
climates, and the north o f France has snow in winter, those poor lepers
were being treated according to text books published in the north o f
France. This meant a diet o f exclusively canned foods, and I found vast
quantities o f them. So one o f the first things I did was to organize a
can-throwing brigade, and we spent the whole o f one beautiful day
tossing each and every can into the ocean! Then I had a talk with the
relatives o f the lepers who came to visit them regularly, and asked them
to bring fresh fruits and vegetables when they came to visit. The families
were delighted, feeling at last a measure o f participation in the treat­
ment, and more important, for the first time, hope. There was no
problem finding the needed foods—nothing was more abundant on that
lush green island than a myriad variety o f fruits and vegetables.

103
 Mile. Ablitzer, the (left to right)
head nurse o f Orofara Captain Weber, the Mayor’ s wife, and the author

The author (standing in river) with his Tahitian patients.

 The method o f treatment was as outdated as the canned foods.
They were still using chaulmoogra oil and methylene blue injections
which, o f course, didn’ t do any good. So I introduced fasting, sun
bathing, exercises in water and a completely raw diet, applying exactly
the methods which the ancient Essenes used in ancient times.
My patients adjusted to the new regime without incident, with
one exception. An obstacle arose when I tried to get them to exercise.
Leprosy causes a terrible lethargy which overcomes the body com ­
pletely, and the nurses complained that in no way could they persuade
the lepers to do the exercises I had prescribed. All I had to do to
find the answer was to look out the window at the beautiful creek at
Orofara. I rounded up some muscular helpers, and we literally threw
all the patients into the creek! O f course they sputtered and protested—
the water in that creek was very cold—but as I told my helpers not to
let them get out, there was nothing left for them but to move their
arms and legs, and the faster they moved them, the less disagreeable
the temperature o f the water became. After a few days o f this compul­
sory water ballet, I was able to organize systematic exercises, and by
that time they were used to moving and actually enjoyed exercising
for the first time in many years.
It was not long before my adaptation o f the Essene methods began
to make a marked improvement in the condition o f the lepers. O f
course, where mutilation had already taken place, the disease could
only be arrested. But in the great majority o f cases in which mutilation
had not yet occurred, we were spectacularly successful in improving
the condition and even curing it. I made the acquaintance o f an excel­
lent photographer on the island and we took a great number o f photos
marking the different stages o f gradual improvement. I still have about
two dozen o f them, and they illustrate most graphically the wonderful
results achieved by the Essene methods o f natural healing.
I gave my original French translation o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace
to Mile. Ablitzer and the other nurses, and little by little we had the
nucleus o f an Essene Center there within the leper colony. In fact, we
were able to do anything and everything we liked, as long as we were
discreet about it. We always were informed a little in advance when Dr.
Morin, the head physician o f the French Navy, was about to make his
monthly visit, and I was able to disappear, returning again when lie left.
During the days I was working at the leper colony, and in the evening
I went home to a place at the edge o f a creek called Titioro, not far
from Papeete. It was a very beautiful and peaceful setting, and how I
came to acquire it is an interesting story.

105
Titioro
 MY TITIORO: MECCA FOR THE ISLAND’
S SICK

One day, a very voluminous half-French, half-Maori gentleman

came to see me, by the name o f M, Charles Maraetefau. He said he had
heard o f my success in curing difficult cases, and confided that lie had
serious troubles. “Well,”I asked him, “what are these serious troubles?”
“I have rheumatism,”he said.
“Rheumatism? Here in the tropics? Are you not ashamed?”
He did not have much o f a sense o f humor, but just shook his
head. “No, I am not ashamed,”he said, “I just have rheumatism. Also,
my digestion is terrible and I weigh 250 pounds, which makes it hard
for me to move around. Can you help me?”
I told him that I could indeed help him. Then I asked him what
was his profession. He said he was a butcher. I told him I was very sorry,
but the first thing I must eliminate from his diet was meat! His face fell,
but he was determined to get better, so he agreed and asked me wliai
he should eat instead. I told him to eat from the abundance o f papayas,
mangoes, and other tropical fruits which literally fell o ff the trees on
the island. I gave him other instructions too and wished him good luck.
Very soon he was making excellent progress. By following my
instructions to the letter he lost seven or eight pounds a week, Ids
digestion improved and his rheumatism became a thing o f the past.
Finally, one week he came to see me with a very different request
from the one he had made at his first visit. “You know,”he mused, “I
am a simple man—but I would like to help my countrymen the way you
have helped me. I have a beautiful place beside a creek, named T itioro.
I will put it at your disposal for as long as you want to stay there. Could
you use it as a treatment-place for poor Maoris?”
I was very moved by his proposal, not only because it appealed
to me as a doctor, but also because it was another wonderful oppoi
tunity to put into practice my Essene methods.
Very soon Titioro became a center o f pilgrimage. There is an old
saying that good news travels on the wind, and that must have been i In­
case, because in a short time they were even coming in little ca n o e s
from the islands o f Borabora, Raiatea, Uturoa and Moorea. T h o u g h I
had not one piece o f medical equipment there, I got excellent results
from the Essene methods. I trained two o f my people to give enemas,
a prerequisite to the treatments which followed. Then I prescribed
diets o f juicy fruits, then fasting, exercising in water, sunbathing, etc.
Always the patient was improved, very often cured. I felt very h o n o r e d
when I heard I had been given a Tahitian name: Te fa ora lie w h o
gives life.

107
 It occurs to me that the reader may be wondering why, on this
legendary island o f Eden-like perfection, there existed disease at all.
To answer this question, I will reproduce here an excerpt from one
o f my books published in England after my return from Polynesia.
PARADISE LOST

New explorers appeared and civilisation slowly planted

itself in this island paradise. Next traders arrived and
brought alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, opium, and other
high values of our civilisation, and thus little by little the
people of the islands grew accustomed to eating our foods
and practising our habits. They had to pay for these
products with coconuts which were transported to Europe
and there sold.
When our ethnopsychometric, therapeutic expedition
came to these Islands some years before World War II we
did not find at all the same natives as those found by
Captain Cook and Bougainville. The size of the population
a hundred and seventy years ago in the time of Bougainville
and Cook was two hundred and forty thousand, calculated
by the number of their canoes. Now after three or four
generations there are only ten thousand inhabitants in
Tahiti instead of two hundred and forty thousand. So we
can see that changing their natural life to our own artificial
ways of life has resulted in the virtual extinction of this
magnificent race in less than two hundred years. And of
the present ten thousand inhabitants one-third are immi­
grant Chinese; there are also many white people, so the
real number of the natives is even less than ten thousand.
But they have not diminished only from the point of view
of quantity. Let us now examine the quality of their
vitality.
We had occasion during a year and a half to study the
diseases among the peoples of these Islands. We treated
approximately two thousand natives and came to the
conclusion that relatively they were suffering from more
diseases than the European. First, they had tropical
diseases: leprosy, elephantiasis, malaria, etc., and then
on top of them diseases imported from Europe, like
tuberculosis, syphilis, and various diseases of the diges­
tive system, which have decimated the natives of these
Islands.
What is the cause of this great change in a hundred and
seventy years? If we examine the foods they eat, we see,
first, that all of them eat white bread baked by Chinese

108
 bakers, instead of eating their own breadfruit which grows
on a tree and is an ideal form of starch, superior to any
white bread whatever.
Secondly, they buy various tinned meats packed in
America. Though they have fat in ideal form in the coco­
nut and in a variety of nuts which abound on the island,
they eat tinned meats. They take tea or coffee every day,
while the consumption of alcoholic drinks imported from
America and Europe is habitual. So we can see how the
consumption of chemicals, toxins and poisons can destroy
the strength and vitality of a magnificent race which
formerly enjoyed long life and permanent health. And this
has been lost in three generations. The example of these
Islands and their inhabitants is a very clear and good
example, for the Polynesians represent the last natural­
living race and we can see well the consequences of contact
between them and civilisation. We can see all these facts
not in ancient historical periods, but in our own age and
time. So the facts are indisputable.
Naturally, they have altered not only in the matter of
food, but also in their mode of living. Now they live in
the town of Papeete in houses made of corrugated iron
instead of living in houses made of coconut and pandanus
leaves, which make them a cool and ideal house from the
point of view of hygiene. Then they have almost forgotten
how to walk with their feet, for now they walk with bicycles
and motor cars. And they no longer swim and climb the
mountains like their ancestors, but work in the factories
of the various commercial enterprises. So we can see that
their simple and natural life has been completely trans­
formed. Instead of wearing the pareu or loincloth, they are
clothed up to the neck, and so suffer great discomfort in a
tropical climate. So we see that the bad influence of the
instinct of imitation has led to the complete transformation
of their life and to the complete degeneration of the race.
The history of these Islands shows us in miniature the
whole history of the human race. For the same transforma­
tion has occurred in the human race during the last few
thousands of years, represented in evolution from the time
of H om o Sapien s Sylvanus to that of present H om o Sapien s
Faber.

MORE FRIENDS—AND THE ADVENT OF MONSIEUR MARCHAL

Not all my patients were natives. I met a homeopathic physician

from England, Dr. Walker, who had a flourishing practice in Tahiti, and

109
also a serious case o f elephantiasis. I cured him, and we became very
good friends.
Between my successful use o f the Essene methods and the great
interest aroused by the few copies o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace I had
given to friends which were circulating all over, within two months
there was a serious Essene movement in Tahiti. One who read the
Essene Gospel was the left-wing head o f a local union in Papeete, named
M. Davio. He was so impressed by the message o f the Essene Gospel
that he sent me several workers from his union who were very ill. And
on the other side o f the political spectrum, I was visited another time
by a gentleman who was the manager o f the Papeete branch o f the
Banque de l’ lndochine, the largest bank in French Polynesia. He first
came to see me with a health problem, which was cured. Then he read
the Essene Gospel and came to see me again with a proposal. “Pro-
fesseur,”he said, with emotion, “I have decided to give up my work at
the bank! I am independent, I am healthy—thanks to you—and if you
will accept me, I am at your disposal, to help in your work any way
I can!” It was really a remarkable speech, spoken with remarkable
sincerity, and M. Frederic Marchal became my good friend and devoted
helper for many years, later even accompanying me on one o f my
expeditions to Mexico. Fred was the most important factor in the
establishment o f an Essene church in Tahiti, and helped me in innu­
merable ways. He was an extremely active point in the universe, and it
was not long before there was a native Maori church with hundreds
o f members.

PERILS OF A BACK-SEAT PASSENGER

I cannot resist the temptation to digress a moment to relate a most
humorous incident involving Fred, whose enthusiasm to help me was
sometimes greater than his discretion. Fred drove a car, a very com for­
table one with no roof, allowing one to ride in constant contact with
the sun and tropical breezes which were always fragrant with flowers.
I have never driven a car, as I am always thinking about the next chapter
o f the book I am writing and I would surely be a traffic hazard behind
the wheel. So it happened several times that Fred was kind enough to
take me somewhere in his open car when I had to be somewhere in
a hurry, something which did not happen often on that relaxed and
easy-going island. On this particular occasion, we were driving along
a road which was rather hilly, though affording some lovely views, and
I was sitting in the back seat meditating and enjoying the scenery while
Fred drove with his usual Gallic intensity. Suddenly we came to a
jolting halt as Fred threw on the brakes and hopped out o f the car.

110
saying he had taken a wrong turn and he had to find someone who
could give him directions. I just closed my eyes and waited for him to
return, happy and peaceful with the early morning sun on my face.
After a few minutes, I felt a curious movement in the car, like a tiny
earth tremor. It continued, and I opened my eyes. I saw to my distress
that we were moving, and when I turned and looked behind me, distress
turned to horror as I saw that the car was headed inexorably for a
precipice—perhaps not as deep as some I had seen in the land o f the
Hunzas, but deadly enough for a person in a car plummeting over its
edge! By this time, Fred realized that he had forgotten to put a stone
under the wheel (the brakes were not so good) and was running back
with great speed, trying desperately to catch up with the car. But it was
too late. I had no time even to try and get the car door open (the doors
did not work too well, either) but at the last moment, I made a spec­
tacular leap upward and caught with all my strength at a tree branch,
like the final scene o f a silent movie comedy. But what happened to
poor Fred’ s car was no joke. It exploded in a fiery holocaust at the
bottom o f the precipice, and I was dangling from the tree branch as
Fred finally caught up to me, his face deathly pale. I tried to comfort
him on the way back to Papeete (we were offered rides by many o f the
awestruck onlookers who thronged around), but it took a long time
before he came back to his normal, ebullient self. The next day I was
a celebrity for a totally different reason than my work in the leper
colony, everyone pointing me out as the one who had escaped death
so miraculously. Fred eventually got another car, and I noticed he
always checked the brakes with almost fanatical care before offering
to take me anywhere!
MONSIEUR LE GOUVERNEUR DECLARES WAR
Being a realist, I had always suspected that sooner or later our
clandestine Essene operations would be discovered, and sure enough,
the good news finally traveled on the wrong breeze and reached the ears
o f Dr. Morin and the Governor o f French Polynesia, his close friend.
They investigated affairs at the leper colony and right away discovered
the incredible fact that we had thrown all the canned foods into the
ocean! (They paid absolutely no attention to the tremendous improve­
ment in the condition o f the lepers.) Later, I found out the reason why
Dr. Morin was so furious about the canned foods—it seems he had been
enjoying a 20% kickback from all those canning companies in France
who sent their products to the leper colony. Suddenly, new orders were
not forthcoming and his pocketbook was unfavorably affected. This
fact, in addition to the rumors, was probably what touched o ff the
investigation.

Ill
 What happened next was inevitable. I was visited one beautiful
morning by a group o f French naval officers who handed me an order
o f expulsion from Tahiti. After glancing at it, I told them simply that
I was a French citizen and Tahiti belonged to France. Therefore, I did
not think anyone could legally order me o ff the island. The officer who
had handed me the note spoke to me in great earnest. “Listen to me,
Dr. Bordeaux,” he said, “I like you personally. I have nothing against
you. But I recommend highly that you get off the island, because Tahiti
is very far from France and your friend, the Ministre de 1’ Interieur. But
the Governor is very close! A word to the wise is sufficient.”And with
that bit o f philosophy they left, probably taking the message to the
Governor that the matter had been taken care of.
Well, the matter was not taken care of, and the “word to the wise”
was not at all sufficient. I had no intention o f letting myself be deported
by a colonial dictator who was furthermore involved in fraud. So I
mobilized all my friends for support: M. Bambridge, the mayor o f
Papeete, M. Bodin, the director o f the Oceanographic Institute (who
later published in his bulletin a series o f articles about my findings
regarding the migrations o f the Maoris), M. Davio, Fred Marchal, vir­
tually the entire staff o f the leper colony, including Mile. Ablitzer,
the lepers themselves, their families, and all the sick persons I had cured
with the Essene methods, and their families. I felt extremely heartened
by their support and loyalty, but while I was making plans about what
to do, they unfortunately expressed their support in a most unexpected
and violent way.
One day while I was quietly going about my business at Titioro,
hundreds o f my supporters stormed the Governor’ s palace, throwing
stones, breaking windows, and demonstrating with such vigor that the
Governor was forced to escape through a back door. He immediately
mobilized the Navy and the gendarmes and they were able, after quite
a bit o f effort, to restore order and send the crowds home. But a great
deal o f damage had been done, and the Governor would never be con­
vinced that I had nothing to do with the demonstration—that, in fact,
I did not know anything about it until some hours after it was over.
Now the Governor was apoplectic with rage. He sent with the
same naval officer an ultimatum that if our ship did not lift anchor
by six o ’clock the next evening, he would apply the full rigor o f the law
and there would be extremely serious consequences; namely, that if our
ship was not gone by that time, he would turn the guns o f his French
battleship on it and blast it out o f the harbor!
Well, that message set me to meditating: after all, I thought, we
are peaceful Essenes. We have no guns, no ammunition, no army. On

112
the level o f violence we cannot cope with the situation, and anyway,
it is against our principles. So I thought and meditated, and finally came
up with a diabolical idea.

CONFRONTATION AND BRINKMANSHIP: AN UNFORGETTABLE TEA PARTY

I sent my friend M. Bodin to the Embassies o f Great Britain,
Belgium, Holland, and half a dozen others, and invited all the Foreign
Consuls and Honorary Consuls to a five o ’ clock tea the next afternoon
on board the Marihini. Without exception, they all sent back word they
would be delighted, in spite o f the short notice. I had already had over­
tures from a number o f them, indicating they would like to discuss my
work with me, some interested in archeology, some in psychometry,
some in the migrations o f the Maoris, and some, I suspect, because
they had health problems.
So my crew set to work heroically, and by five o ’ clock the next
afternoon had mustered a truly elegant high tea on board ship. All my
guests arrived, and I really did enjoy meeting them. The atmosphere
was lively as our discussions ranged from the speaking timbers and
treatment o f leprosy, to the musical ability o f the natives and the
arthritis o f the Belgian Consul. So occupied, a whole hour flew by.
And then it was six o ’ clock. Our conversation suddenly ended in
deathly silence as first one, then another, and finally all o f us noticed
that the turrets o f two huge guns on the French battleship nearby had
just been raised into position and were pointing directly at us!
The British Consul turned pale and stammered, “Dr. Bordeaux!
What is the meaning o f this?”
“Oh,”I said, “I forgot to mention to all o f you—the Governor is
angry that I discovered Dr. Morin’ s fraudulent escapades at the leper
colony and has threatened to shoot at our ship unless I pull up anchor
and leave immediately.”
The reaction to my quiet statement was all I could ask for.
“They cannot shoot at this ship!” sputtered the British Consul.
“This is His Majesty’ s ship! This is against the law! This is piracy!”
The exclamations o f indignation from the others followed the
same line. The British Consul, true to his heritage, most quickly re­
covered his poise and asked for a pencil and paper. He wrote a hasty
but explicit note to the Governor, telling him in no uncertain terms
what would happen to him, in terms o f diplomatic, national, inter­
national and maritime law, if so much as one sliver o f the caori wood
o f the Marihini was scratched, and immediately sent the note, signed
by all the Consular officers on board, with one o f the crew to the
French ship.

113
 Then we waited. Everyone was extremely nervous; after all, when
one is invited to five o ’
clock tea, one usually does not expect to be shot
at by a battleship! Everyone seemed to be talking at once, and all the
anger was directed at the Governor. A few moments later came the
high point o f the afternoon. We all looked up to see movement on the
battleship, followed by a charging o f the guns! The courageous British
Consul fumed that the Governor was a madman. Well, we all agreed,
but the charged guns were still pointing at us. Finally, after a few more
minutes which seemed like an eternity, the Governor apparently had
an attack o f reason and, not wanting to start a war with all those coun­
tries represented on board my ship, reluctantly ordered the guns to be
lowered. Not surprisingly, my guests took their leave shortly thereafter,
smiling gamely as they shook my hand, and thanking me “for a most
interesting and unusual afternoon!”
So, for the moment it was a stalemate: the Governor, all o f the
official agencies at his disposal, and Dr. Morin—against myself, all the
Foreign Consuls, the Mayor, the Oceanographic Museum, the labor
union headed by M. Davio, the intellectuals (who had long despised the
Governor anyway), and all my many, many Maori and French friends.
I was quite content with this stalemated position and was able to go
on with my work as if nothing had happened. I was even able to con­
tinue with my work at the leper colony; apparently, Dr. Morin was
afraid to challenge me directly, because he still showed up there but
once a month.
LE SCANDALE INTERNATIONALE DU PACIFIQUE
MY COMPLETE VICTORY

However, my troubles were not yet over. Now that the Governor
had lost face, he went underground with his anger, so to speak, and
began a more subtle and irritating form o f harassment. He gave orders
to the Postmaster to intercept all my mail and bring it to him instead.
Totally ignorant o f the situation, I sent o ff letters for two months to
my friends in Paris, to the Ministre de l ’ Interieur, to the Trocadero
Museum, etc. etc. At first I did not notice the sudden silence o f all my
contacts in Paris because I was very busy. But when it dawned on me
that for more than a month I had not had word from anyone in Paris,
not even Jean Pierre, I concluded that either Paris had suddenly been
destroyed by a secret earthquake, or that someone was tampering with
my mail. And it did not take much imagination to figure out who that
someone might be.
My suspicions were confirmed when I had a nocturnal visit in great
secrecy from one o f the postal employees. He had a relative whom I had
cured, and evidently his family ties were stronger than his loyalty to the

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Governor. He told me that for a long time the Postmaster had been
confiscating all my mail—not only all the letters I had been sending, but
also every single one o f the letters coming to me. Well, even a peaceful
philosopher has an end o f patience, and this had just gone too far.
Knowing there was a British ship in the harbor at that time, and that
the Captain would be happy to smuggle out mail for me, I wrote a
long, long report to all the organizations sponsoring me in Paris, and
also to Jean Pierre, describing in minute detail exactly all that had
taken place in Tahiti. At the same time, I wrote an extensive article
about the same subject addressed to a large-circulation French news­
paper in San Francisco, Le Courier du Pacifique. The British ship sailed
with my reports, and I quietly returned to work.
And the Governor continued to confiscate my mail. But not for
long. Jean Pierre later told me what happened when my reports reached
their destinations. First, the newspaper in San Francisco, Le Courier du
Pacifique, printed my article in a three-page spread, entitled “Le Scan-
dale Internationale du Pacifique,”and it caused a sensation. After the
Senator from French Polynesia read the article aloud in the Senate, the
Ministre de l’ Interieur took charge o f the matter personally and pressed
charges against the Governor, the Postmaster, and Dr. Morin, bringing
against them several charges o f fraud, conspiracy, and even assault. The
first I knew o f all this was when a ship arrived from France one day
carrying the new Governor, the new Postmaster, and the new Chief
Naval Physician, and returned to France with the three culprits aboard
as prisoners. The last I heard was that they had been quickly brought to
trial in Paris, and convicted.
While I had been working quietly and awaiting an end to all the
machinations o f the Governor and his friends, M. Henri Bodin came to
me one day with a very interesting suggestion. I had usually discussed
with him things pertaining to my research on the Maori migrations, in
connection with his position as director o f the Oceanographic Institute,
but this day he brought up an entirely different subject. He said he had
been thinking about the thousands o f people there who were following
the Essene diet (himself included), and doing everything according to
the Essene Gospel o f Peace. And he wanted to know why I didn’ t write
a textbook in simple style about basic health which they could print in
the Maori language and distribute free? He said if I would dictate it in
French, he would be glad to find someone to translate it into Maori.
I think he was a little surprised when I told him it was an excellent
idea! In fact, I had been mulling over something along the same lines
myself for some time. We both agreed that when I returned to France
it would not be so easy to forget the Essene knowledge if there was a

115
book, readily available for everyone, containing all the important facts
and information. So I immediately got to work on my new project,
happy in the security that my writing would no longer be interrupted
by the Governor, the Postmaster, or Dr. Morin.

THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF PURCELL WEAVER

Around the time I was having all these adventures in Tahiti, it

happened that a very sick young man left England in search o f someone
who could cure him o f his illness which had been pronounced incurable.
His name was Purcell Weaver—he was an attorney, and the adopted son
o f Sir Stafford Cripps, later Chancellor o f the Exchequer. Purcell had
been to all the best physicians in Vienna, in Switzerland, in Germany,
etc., as well as some surgeons and even some doctors with less than
orthodox credentials, but it was all to no avail. Finally, he decided to
take a trip to the South Seas, without much hope o f finding a cure, but
eager to see this beautiful part o f the world before it might be too late.
After ten weeks in Samoa, Purcell was due to sail on the eighth o f
May, but on the seventh he was struck with a bout o f fever. Then an
extremely lucky thing occurred: a strike in Sydney, Australia, which
prevented him from sailing to San Francisco, and set o ff a chain o f
events which stranded him in Tahiti. In the hotel where he stayed
until the disruption o f service caused by the strikes would be over,
he happened to run into a countrywoman o f his by the name o f Lady
Hatfield. He hardly recognized her, though, because she looked about
fifteen years younger—very tanned, with exuberant vitality. He noticed
that she ate nothing but a little sour milk and a small piece o f papaya,
and afterwards, as she explained to the bewildered Purcell, she spent
two or three hours bathing in a stream and in the sun. When pressed
for the reason behind all these strange activities which had resulted in
her splendid condition, she told him she had been seeing a certain
foreign doctor who was treating the natives o f the island.
Purcell thought about all this and came to the conclusion he had
nothing to lose. He asked Lady Hatfield if he could go to see this doctor
too. She said she didn’ t think so, because there was some conflict with
the local government, and all his friends were worried that perhaps the
Governor might send an agent provocateur to harm him; therefore, they
were extremely reluctant to let foreigners see him now.
Well, that news did not deter Purcell when there was so much at
stake. He managed to find out that one o f my closest friends there was
M. Bodin, and he visited the Oceanographic Museum and managed to
get a letter o f introduction from him. Armed with that, and uncertain
directions as to how to reach my little house by the creek (my native

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 friends were deliberatively secretive about where I lived), he set o ff
to find me.
His bad luck was that as a means o f protection, my friend Mayor
Bambridge had given me two very ferocious Alsatian dogs, and unfor­
tunately Purcell encountered these canine bodyguards as he approached
my house, as well as a large sign which proclaimed that “The Professor
Sees No One.”O f course it was not true, and all the natives knew they
were welcome at any time; but foreign visitors, because o f the possible
connection with the Governor, were at the time extremely suspect.
So poor Purcell, though he managed to get past my canine Scylla and
Charybdis and even inside my house by waving his letter o f introduction
like a flag o f surrender, was not getting very far in our conversation,
which I purposely kept to neutral subjects like the climate. Finally in
desperation he uttered the names o f Karl Marx and Jesus Christ. I knew
immediately that those two names in improbable combination could
never be part o f the vocabulary o f one o f the Governor’
s cronies, and I
made my visitor warmly welcome. I recognized him as a very well-
meaning idealist and we discussed a great range o f subjects including,
most importantly, his physical condition. I gave him a copy o f my.
French translation o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace (which one day he
would translate into English) and I sent him away to fast for three days
on oranges and then come back for instructions.
And Purcell did as I told him, not for three days but for more
than three months. He fasted, he gave up breakfast, he ate nothing but
raw fruits and vegetables, sour milk, and a little whole wheat bread
which I made myself from a recipe found in the Zend Avesta o f Zara-
thustra, circa 6000 B.C. (to prove to my good friend M. Jules Costes
that I was doing something about it!) He also bathed every day in the
sun and in the creek, and performed a great number o f exercises daily.
He was thin to start with, and in the process he grew even thinner,
looking so much like a skeleton that when he came for treatment on his
bicycle, the Tahitian children ran after him, shouting “Tu papan! Tu
papau!”(Ghost! Ghost!) But after two weeks he felt better than he had
for many years, and was well on the road to recovery.

THE BIRTH OF COSMOS, MAN AND SOCIETY

On one o f his weekly visits, Purcell found me busy dictating in

French what appeared to him to be a book. He asked me about it, and
I explained about the little health handbook I was writing for the
natives. He became very interested and said he would like to translate
it also into English. I agreed, and after that he came to see me every
evening when I returned from the leper colony. As I dictated to him

117
in French, he often interrupted me to ask questions, and he wrote down
the answers to these questions also. One thing led to another, ideas took
root and flourished, and the simple little pocketbook about health for
the natives began to grow, and grow—and grow.
By the time it was finished it contained 850 pages and had been
transformed from a basic textbook o f health to a kind o f all-sided,
omnilateral synthesis o f everything concerning man and his cosmic and
natural environment. This was the monumental work which became
Cosmos, Man and Society. Now out o f print, it had several editions
and was widely acclaimed all over the Commonwealth. It appeared with
a message o f sanity and light just when the world was about to be
engulfed in the holocaust o f World War Two. Purcell’ s contribution
to the publication o f this, one o f my most important books, was in­
calculable. He was my collaborator, as well as translator, and if it were
not for him, those more than eight hundred pages would probably still
be in manuscript form.
And that is how they were on the morning o f Purcell’ s departure
from Tahiti. I had been dictating to him through the night so he could
sail in the morning to England, where he had arranged for publication
by the C.W. Daniel Co. But when his ship came into the harbor and
emitted the loud blast to summon passengers, Cosmos, Man and Society
was still in the dismembered form o f sheets and sheets o f manuscripts in
every part o f the room, covering the floor, the chairs, the table, even
the bed. But as I finished dictating the last paragraph, Purcell managed
to gather up all the loose sheets in a frantic burst o f energy, made a dash
for the harbor with the speed o f an Olympic champion and just made
it to the ship as the gangplank was about to be raised!
We met again in England and continued a friendship and colla­
boration which remains to this day. His exquisitely beautiful English
translation o f my French Essene Gospel o f Peace has been read by
hundreds o f thousands all over the world, as well as many other o f my
works in French which he translated. I gave to Purcell the very apt name
o f the Phoenix, the bird which rose from its own ashes. By following
the Essene way with such determination and perseverance, Purcell did
indeed find a new life, and I will always be grateful to that long ago
dock-worker’ s strike which brought him to me in Tahiti.

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 A REVIEW OF COSMOS, MAN AND SOCIETY

To convey the scope o f Purcell’ s English translation from my

French texts o f this encyclopedic work, I will reproduce here the essay
by the British writer Dion Byngham on Cosmos, Man and Society,
which appeared in the monthly journal Health and Life in London,
July 1936.
AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE

If the contents of a book could save our contemporary

world, which is eddying and crashing to ruin, that book, I be­
lieve, has been written. If the contents of a book could redeem
us as individuals from a common destiny of disease and death,
that same book has appeared. If between the covers of a book
might be found the sure path to creative peace, to superb health
and beauty, to an optimal abundance of J o y in L ife , let us open
and read. For if, while reading, we should perchance resolve to
try and live what we read, all these seeming miracles might
assuredly happen.
How and where shall one begin? As a re a d er, certainly, at
the beginning, meditating and mastering every word to the end.
But as a reviewer, the significance of some 800-odd pages to
compress within four or five ... ! For nothing less than C osm os,
Man and S o c ie ty is the theme.* And the author, Professor Ed­
mond Szekely, is a philosopher, a sage and a scientist of im­
mense erudition who— albeit with perfect lucidity and simpli­
city—has well-nigh taken the reins of infinity within his grasp.
Primarily a research-ethnologist, he has been directed in all his
researches by the light of one dominant motive: to discover and
formulate for himself and his fellowman the laws of an optimal
life, to focus the entire forces of Eternal Life for the ultimate
conquest of death.
As a pre-eminently realistic and practical outcome, Pro­
fessor Szekely has arrived at a comprehensive re-statement of
Natural Therapy which excels in completeness, applicability
and precision anything so far achieved. And so, as promised
in his preface, his book becomes virtually “the encyclopaedia
of a new science—Paneubiotics or Omnilateral Aristology—
whose purpose is to realize the best and optimal form of omni­
lateral life based on the totality of the natural and cosmic
laws and their manifestations in the individual and society
(cosmic, solar, terrestrial and human radiations).”

COSMIC RADIATIONS
In the word “ radiations”is really the core and gist of the
matter. We live as witnesses to the dawn of the radioactive era.
*COSMOS, MAN AND SOCIETY, by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, translated by L. Purcell
Weaver, drawings by Arthur Wragg. The C.W. Daniel Co., London.

119
It is therefore essentially in tune with the times that natural
therapy itself should be synthesized around the conception of
radiations, cosmic, solar, terrestrial and human. This, in the
first place, is what Professor Szekely hag accomplished— not,
however, as a merely metaphysical theorist discoursing vaguely
on “vibrations,” but with all the authority of a realistic re­
search-scientist whose findings have been tested and confirmed
in every detail by his therapeutic practice and experience in
many parts of the world.
It will unquestionably be. of supreme interest to the prac­
tical reader, whether lay or professional, to find in this book
the whole rationale of sun, air, water and earth therapies and
hygiene, as well as the properties of properly grown living
foods like uncooked fruit and vegetables, re-interpreted and
applied in a new light as accumulators and transmitters of
cosmic radiations for the healing, health and optimal vitality
of man. The entire technique of hydrotherapy (baths, packs,
compresses, the internal douche and so forth) is incidentally
restated and brought up to date. This makes a valuable sec­
tion for all who wish for a working knowledge of water treat­
ment, which, in many respects, was the original basis of nature
cure.
Dietetic science is likewise fully re-formulated with special
reference to the organic salts, vitamins and aromatics as basic
constituents and stimulants of the life-processes, as transmit­
ters of vital vibrations to glands and organs and to all the liv­
ing cells of the body and brain. Fifty foods, “accumulators of
cosmic energies,” are detailed, together with specimen daily
menus for each season of the year. Of several particulars that
impressed me about these menus I must mention their extreme
simplicity and frugality—yet it is obviously the frugality of a
man who enjoys every mouthful he masticates with unpervert­
ed taste and unspoiled piquancy o f appetite. And the stress
laid on aromatics: onions, garlic, chervil, chives, shallot, mint,
parsley, thyme, celery and the rest.
These aromatics are undoubtedly nature’ s own aperitifs.
Through both taste and smell and by virtue of their volatile
essences they stimulate digestion, in addition to their valuable,
antiseptic and blood-cleansing properties. Professor Szekely,
who everywhere insists upon the importance of keen healthy
senses, practically identifies such imponderable neural excita­
tions from our food—transmitted through sight or through
taste and smell—with the vitalising vibrations which are the
vitamins themselves. Many a person, probably, remains obsessed
by the blandishments of cunning cookery and dependent upon
the condimental savour of flesh foods, solely through ignorance
of these superlatively natural flavourings which would minister
to his instinctive craving for appetising aromas and palatable
meals. The raw diet regimen would never be dull were this under­
stood, and no one can be a true initiate of Professor Szekely’ s
“ natural optimal dietetics”by whom it is not understood.

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 To trophotherapy and dietetics is added a section describ­
ing fifty medicinal plants and herbs with their properties and
remedial uses, so that the gist of botanical therapy is also in­
cluded. The regenerative role of fasting fills a fundamental
place, as also does deep rhythmic breathing, since Professor
Szekely regards sun-irradiated air as the medium for direct
transmission of solar and cosmic vital forces through the lungs
to the body and mind. From this point of view the yoga doc­
trine of pranayama receives corroborative evidence. A practical
chapter on the Art of Breathing, included in the section on
“Individual Harmony,”is a revelation in itself. Air, as well as
water, must, for instance, have been recently sun-irradiated to
be of any living value at all. “Man’
s roots are his lungs.”

CELL-REGENERATION IN SEVEN MONTHS

All of these practical measures and many others are com­
bined in a complete system of what Professor Szekely calls
“omnilateral cosmotherapy.” This term “ omnilateral,”connot­
ing as it does extension along, and convergence from, all sid e s
and a ll fr o n ts as correlated to the central objective of optimal
healing, health and life, is what distinguishes Professor Szeke-
ly’ s truly “cosmic”conception from all limited, “ unilateral”or
one-sided methods hitherto applied. As a therapeutic system,
competently administered and with the faithful collaboration
of the patient, he has proved that it will not only cure specific
and chronic diseases but will actually regenerate the individual
entirely, through intensive cell-renewal, in from three to seven
months. Adopted thereafter as a way of life, anthropocentric
“cosmovitalism”becomes the basis of Paneubiotics, the art and
science of optimal vitality and integral wellbeing which, Pro­
fessor Szekely believes, will lead to maximal longevity and even
to the ultimate conquest of physical death.
Having said so much I am barely at the beginning of any
adequate disclosure of the wealth that this book contains. In
fact I have left ou t the beginning, plunged into the middle, and
thereby postponed all reference to what for me personally, along
with the end, form the most fascinating features. To those who,
like myself, arrived at “ naturism”and natural therapy not pri­
marily through concern with illness but as the practical out­
come of a sifting of cultural values and intuitive philosophy of
life, by far the most interesting aspects will relate to how Pro­
fessor Szekely reaches his conclusions and the logical conse­
quences to which he carries them.

ATOMS AND STARS

To the whole vast sidereal, astrophysical and astrochemical
purview, the correlative etheric and ultra-etheric, ultra-atomic
and intra-atomic vibratory m ilieu x through which Professor
Szekely traces life in evolution from nebulae to man, I can make

121
but a passing and meaningless reference here. That man is one
with the cosmos, a microcosm with a macrocosm, has been
taught by the seers through immemorial ages and notably by
Edward Carpenter and D. H. Lawrence among poet-philosophers
of recent times. It has remained for Professor Szekely to give
scientific formulation to that “ eternal ocean of cosmic radia­
tions”whereby solar systems and atoms are reciprocally relat­
ed and the cells of man’ s body and the thoughts of his brain
vibrate in tune with the furthest stars.
“The most elementary dynamic formations are those of
matter (matter being merely an aggregate of the movement of
atoms), while the highest dynamic formations are those of cur­
rents of thought.” So the long history of this vertiginous dyna­
mism of thought itself is reviewed by Professor Szekely in terse
summaries of nearly a hundred philosophers from Thales down
to date. For as part of his omnilateral system is included “ the
entirely new and original application for therapeutic purposes
of the masterpieces of universal literature, philosophy and the
arts based on psychotechnical diagnosis of individual natures.”
To Professor Szekely’ s own philosophic formula of “ dialectical
correlativism,”in which is woven really the whole fabric of this
thesis, I cannot do justice in this outline.

MAN AND TREES

There remains still to be noted the ethnological and ethno­
graphical backbone of the book. This—more than the others
—has been Profesor Szekely's especial line of research, in which
he has made some original and significant discoveries. As a
pragmatic consequence he is able to correlate all that is best in
the most recent scientific and cultural developments with a
modernistic renaissance of the heliolithic culture of homo sapiens
sylvanus, the original fructivorous man of the forests and trees.
It was from this dominant species, characterised by maximal
longevity and endowed with a cerebral capacity for unlimited
intelligence, that subsequent culture and civilization took its
source. Identifiable with the Cro Magnon family, with the pre-
diluvian patriarchs of the Old Testament, and with other legen­
dary figures of the earliest folklore, this great race received
its first severe set-back from that planetary and climatic disaster
recorded as “ the Flood.” This destroyed its first optimally
favourable natural milieu and caused its scattered survivors to
become m ore pyrolithic (fire-using and food-cooking) and
omnivorous (flesh-eating) in their habits—and much shorter-
lived. It might almost be said that, dating from that event, a
progressive series of enforced adaptations, complicated by human
follies, has brought us down to “ the present pessimal milieu of
homo sapiens faber”— the office and factory age of treeless
cities and towns we exist in to-day.
Trees and forests, declares Professor Szekely, “ are accumu­
lators of the cosmic forces and radiations and are the generative

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sou rce o f cere b ra l e n e r g i e s (Italics mine.) Reflecting that it
was the forest sages of India who wrote the profound and un­
surpassable Vedas and Upanishads, one can well believe that
this is so. Forests, moreover, afford the best protection against
storms, floods, droughts, extremes of heat and cold, by acting
as natural regulators and distributors of the moisture and tem­
perature of the air. Modern man, in his commercial, money-
maniac blindness, has devastated and laid waste the green earth.
It is a ruin compared with what it used to be, and man him­
self—“ is a veritable bundle of rags and bones compared with
the perfect, statue-like forms of his paleolithic sylvan ances­
tors” . The more human beings have destroyed the forests and
cut down the giant trees, the more frequent and terrible have
been the calamities, storms, hurricanes and cyclones that have
descended upon them, raging in recent years with unparalleled
violence. It is cause and effect. Yet still must walnut trees be
felled to make rifle butts, and miles of forests be sacrificed to
provide paper for the D a ily Mail!
Those of us who have always loved trees will be whole-
heartedly with Professor Szekely in his campaign to combat
every plan for destroying and cutting them down, to promote
re-forestation over the whole earth and restore “the Holy
Alliance between Men and Trees.” Our “ mere sentiments”on
the matter are, after all, radically justified, just as they are
when along with Professor Szekely we deplore the “ senseless
stupid men who relentlessly hunt down little birds, slaying them
without pity and without remorse” —with the result that
crops are ravaged by vermin and men themselves are plagued
by mosquitos and flies. (News now comes to hand of a modifi­
ed death-ray soon to be commercialized for the destruction of
vermin and insects and, doubtless, of m o re little birds. The
pious hope is expressed that it may never be amplified and turn­
ed on the human insect himself!)

WORLD CHAOS AND CALAMITY

Yet it would be futile to denounce the w orld’ s evils—alas!
as so many s till d o —with no clear recognition of their root
causes in the world-wide economic crisis and crashing chaos of
which they are all merely symptoms. It would be equally point­
less to evolve grandiose and utopian conceptions of “omnilateral
aristology,”“paneubiotics”and optimal wellbeing without fac­
ing the fact of a corrupt financial system that can only spell
their frustration. Professor Szekely is undoubtedly a man of
great vision, but he is much too penetrating and uncompromis­
ing a realist—and much too good a natural therapist—to be
guilty of either defect. His is no idealistic flight into phantasy.
He sees through to causes. His analysis of the present world
situation is among the most masterly I have read. Multiplying
unemployment, poverty amidst plenty, the unprecedented crisis
of “ over-production,”the impending fearful collapse of finance,

123
the false foundations and futility of the League of Nations- the
pell-mell preparations for war (which is only held off for the
moment by the very complexity of imperialist antagonisms),
slave-mentality everywhere, confusion, jobbery, and antagonism
among the ruling classes (themselves but slaves who lord it
over slaves), the desperate attempts through dictatorships to
bolster the bourgeoisie, the whole piled up impossible impasse
—all this is but “the prelude to the frightful disaster which is
soon going to overwhelm humanity in all its intensity.” Only,
it would seem, after terrible catastrophe, can come the “Great
Renaissance,”for which, however, in the name of humanity we
must even now prepare.
THE GREATEST RENAISSANCE
We must, in the words of Romain Rolland, “ unite all the
spiritual forces of Life against the forces of Death.” In that
spirit, too, we must utter “ an unqualified 'No' to war.” We
must vow our devotion to “ the Optimal and Omnilateral Res­
toration of All Things.”By extending into Society and social
behaviour the paneubiotic law of the healthy body, whereby
every organ functions for the wellbeing of every other organ
as bound up with its own, we must combine to build the king­
dom of active love upon earth. Professor Szekely’ s remedy is,
again, no regress into “ back to nature”primitivism. For him
“ naturism” and individualism are necessarily correlated with
all that is truly valuable in community and technological achie­
vement. He believes in the future, yet his motto is “always every­
where, Here and Now.”
And so when, in conclusion, Professor Szekely outlines his
plan for the new order of self-supporting, co-operative, paneu­
biotic garden-communes it is an eminently .realistic and prac­
tical plan, and, as far as I can see, about the on ly w a y out. None
the less, on that account, will these communes be devoted to
realization of optimal individual and social wellbeing through
the practice of active love, the omnilateral pursuit of knowl­
edge, unison and harmony with the eternal currents of cosmic
life. Professor Szekely has followed his cosmotherapeutic pre­
mises to their logical conclusion, not even faltering before the
menace of a world-disease, imbecility and impending disaster
which may soon reduce all personal aches and pains to pitiful
insignificance. Because of that alone his book would tower like
a giant above all the smug little panderings to hypochondria
which are too often described as “ health”literature!
This book, as he says at its beginning, will surely “ start a
great selection of individuals” —the fittest to survive in the
new paneubiocracy that is to be. Which of us in our present
state dare fancy himself among them? Only by their fruits
shall they be known!
The colossal task of translation has been nobly accomplish­
ed by Mr. L. Purcell Weaver, but for whom, declares the author,
this book would still be lying in manuscript form in French
a m on g th e records of his various scientific expeditions.

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 THE EERIE WORLD OF THE SOUTH SEAS

SPROUTS, PSYCHOMETRY AND MIGRATIONS

Though my fondest desire in Polynesia, most satisfactorily realized,

was to utilize Essene methods o f healing in the treatment o f leprosy,
our expedition had also other purposes, which I outlined earlier. I
would like now to go into greater detail about those projects which,
among other things, afforded us the opportunity to explore in detail
those beautiful south sea islands, the dream o f all Frenchmen, and we
may say all Europeans, since the time o f Gaugin.
Most o f the time the ocean was peaceful, clear and placid under
a flawless blue sky and unbroken horizon. Our sailing at times seemed
unbelievably unreal, as if we had been transported to the strange beauty
o f an unknown planet. Everything we had known in France, all our
so-called civilized points o f reference, were submerged in this exotic
and alien wonderland.
When we stopped at an island, we were able to feast on a fantastic
variety o f fresh fruits and other native delicacies. But in between, we
were sometimes sailing for weeks and weeks, and to provide a source o f
fresh vitamins and enzymes at sea, to balance our nutrition, I depended
heavily on my system o f sprouting grains which was based on Essene
methods. I had constructed a series o f small shelves, stacked in layers
with a small space between each one. The bottom o f each shelf was a
fine screen, and on the screen was spread one thin layer o f whole grains.
Water was sprinkled from above, so that every shelf was kept moist
from the same, single sprinkling. Since fresh water was at a premium
on board ship, the water was collected at the bottom and used again
and again. The grains, kept in this way constantly moist, began to
germinate and then sprout, and through this gradual process these few
shelves kept us supplied with fresh sprouts, a fine vitamin, enzyme and
plant-hormone supplement, especially on those days when the supply
o f fresh fruit ran out. During our entire voyage, no one working on
our ship ever had any nutritional deficiency symptom.
As mentioned earlier, our expedition had several purposes, the first
being the application o f our psychometric tests which I had adapted to
the cultural environment o f Polynesia. Wherever we stopped, at any o f
the hundreds o f French islands in the South Pacific, we gathered a
group o f about one hundred natives and applied our psychometric tests
to measure their intelligence, association o f ideas, memory, imagination,
and other psychological qualities. I was able to put into practice my
theory that it is possible to invoke the phylogenetic experiences o f
primitive people through the ontogenetic experiences o f their descen-

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dants, because according to my concept, the phylogenetic experiences
o f the ancestors are dormant and manifest in the ontogenetic experien­
ces o f later generations.
My second purpose was to make a map o f isometric points, a
so-called psycho-isometric map, on which I marked with the same num­
ber those points on the map where the psychometric data were very
similar. Then I connected these points with a graph, and wherever there
were some empty spaces connected those with a straight line, and this
gave us the approximate direction and line o f the migrations o f the
ancient Maoris. These great migrations, which started from New Zealand
and ended in Polynesia, eclipsed even the maritime journeys o f the
Vikings, in view o f the greater distances and far more primitive canoes.
Finally, my third purpose was to test the basic, unexplored abili­
ties o f the natives, and try to find a global view and evaluation o f all
these factors.
I think it will be very helpful in understanding the background o f
our ethnological work if I reproduce at this point an excerpt from one
o f my books published in England shortly after my return from French
Polynesia, describing in detail the results o f our expedition.

BOUGAINVILLE AND CAPTAIN COOK DESCRIBE THE POLYNESIANS

My experience in Polynesia proves that when the great

navigators of the Pacific Ocean, like Bougainville and
Captain Cook, discovered the Polynesian Islands, they
found there a magnificent human race, the Maori race,
which belonged to the Caucasian race. In appearance the
Caucasian race is generally not black, but brown, with the
colour we acquire after much sun-bathing in the summer.
They saw with great astonishment this people’ s athletic
forms, the extraordinary muscular strength of the men and
the beauty of the women. Bougainville and Captain Cook
both describe how when they saw their men talking with
the natives, they could not help noting that the Europeans
were like pygmies and pale, sickly weaklings compared
with the natives of the Islands.
When at Tahiti, Bougainville wished to carry some boxes
weighing 400 lbs. or more from one part of the island to
another, and he saw with the greatest surprise that cases
which needed four white men to carry them, were easily
lifted by a single native and carried some hundreds of
yards.
Both Bougainville and Cook describe the life and
appearance of these Polynesians. They say that their teeth

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were more perfect than any to be found in Europe, and in
general the various physiological qualities of the natives
awakened the interest of the scientists accompanying the
expeditions of Bougainville and Cook. The natives lived in
houses, but very simple houses made of leaves and vegeta­
tion. There were some tribes who lived on the sea coast and
others who lived among the mountains in the interior of
the island. The majority, living in the mountains, ate
exclusively fruits and various native vegetables grown in
the island. Those who lived by the sea caught and ate fish
as well, but Bougainville observes that those who lived
among the mountains were taller and stronger than those
who lived by the sea.
Meat-eating was the privilege of the tribal chiefs, but
was taboo for the people, which meant that they could not
eat meat at all. And it is interesting to note that whereas
they found various diseases among the chiefs, they found
none among the people.

Bougainville had difficulty in establishing their ages, for

there were no registrars of births. But he got over it by
finding out how many generations of descendants an indi­
vidual had living and so establishing their minimum possible
age. He found that the mountain people’ s age varied from
one hundred to one hundred and thirty years, while those
by the sea and eating fish lived from eighty to one hundred
years.
These observations were of great value to the science of
macrobiotics, for the reason that not long afterwards these
native and untouched populations came into contact with
civilisation and all its disadvantages. Until Europeans
came among them they went almost naked, wearing a
simple pareu made of vegetable cloth, and were thus
always in contact with fresh air and with the rays of the
sun. Bougainville noticed that they never ate until the sun
reached its zenith; that whenever they crossed rivers and
streams they always bathed and swam in them; and,
incidentally, that they ate only once or at most twice a day.
And when the sailors offered them alcoholic drinks they
refused them with repulsion, as they did tea, coffee and all
other artificial foods. They knew nothing of money or
working for a living, as the fruits growing in the woods
were at the disposal of all, as were trees for building their
houses. They lived a carefree life.

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 CHILDREN OF PARADISE: SPIRITUAL TREASURES AND PHYSICAL PERFECTION

Our arrival to an island was always a delightful event because o f

the hospitality, warmth and friendliness o f the Maoris. The Chief always
appeared leading a group o f natives, and they immediately started to
build for us houses o f pandanus leaves. The first time this happened
we were a little skeptical, having the usual European distrust o f any
shelter which did not have four solid walls and a sturdy roof. But after
one day o f living in one, we were totally convinced o f the superiority
o f such a pandanus-leaf hut. It was absolutely adequate to the island
environment, being cool, comfortable and practical, as it was possible
to construct the whole thing in less than forty-eight hours.
I remember well what happened the first time such a little leaf-hut
was built for us. Still guided by the patterns o f civilized behavior, I
offered to the Chief a thousand-franc note, to express our appreciation.
He looked a little surprised, then smiled, put the paper note on his palm
and blew it into the air, enjoying the graceful movements as the paper
floated to the ground. As he repeated the blowing-floating game with
the thousand-franc note, I realized shamefacedly that he had no idea
what money was, but cheerfully found a pleasant use for the paper.
I was later very glad he had not known on that occasion what it was
that was being offered to him, for I soon discovered what a great role
hospitality played in their lives, and these gentle people would have
been seriously offended if they thought we wanted to give them some­
thing in return for their kindness. They were always bringing us deli­
cious fruits o f all kinds, depositing them inside o f our pandanus palace.
They also were extremely cooperative in undergoing all the strange tests
we asked them to perform. They did not understand any o f it, but their
attitude was that if it made us happy, they were glad to do it.
There were a few fascinating things about the natives that our tests
were not prepared to calculate. For example, when we finished our
work at the end o f the day, we usually relaxed on the beach, enjoying
the indescribably beautiful sunsets. Then we brought out our little por­
table phonograph, a very primitive box which had to be cranked up by
hand, and we had a few records with us, mostly Beethoven and Mozart.
We played them as we watched the sun go down in flaming majesty into
a red-gold sea, glorying in the combination o f immortal music and the
miracle o f nature. Once the natives came down and sat with us, watch­
ing and listening, completely enthralled but making not a sound. The
next day it was our turn to be enthralled, because the natives we met
coming and going on the beach or carrying fruits were singing, with
almost perfect accuracy, the melodies of Beethoven and Mozart! The

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Maoris were undeniably blessed with fantastic musical memory and
musical sense.
Once I watched at sunset as a Maori went to fish. I looked on,
fascinated, as he stood in his small canoe and effortlessly caught a large
fish with his harpoon, a fish which appeared for only a second above
the water and was constantly moving in and out o f the surf. It was a
matchless example o f harmony, precision and coordination. The fish
was in motion, the canoe where he was standing was in motion, his arm
holding the harpoon was moving, and the harpoon itself was moving in
flight. And o f course the fish was moving very fast. And what was most
astonishing was that when he threw the harpoon, he threw it not where
the fish was at that moment, but to the exact point where the fish
would arrive in another second. And he never missed. It was a perfor­
mance which no Olympic athlete could ever hope to surpass.
Then there was a most interesting occurrence when I once showed
a Maori one o f the speaking timbers. As I mentioned, these speaking
timbers were the dismantled canoes in which their ancestors had arrived
to their island, and they were covered with all kinds o f strange markings
and hieroglyphics which told the story o f their experiences during the
long voyage—they were carved with drawings o f different fishes, sea
plants, birds, celestial constellations, and depictions o f all their ocean
adventures. As I showed it to the native, removed so many generations
from his origin, his eyes took on an eerie glow and he began to speak
very strangely in a tone that went higher and higher, and little by little
he fell into a kind o f ecstasy, dancing, shouting, reciting, until finally he
collapsed in complete exhaustion. Some ancient phylogenetic message
had touched his present consciousness, bridging the centuries between.
As I have already indicated, the physical health o f the natives
seemed to depend entirely on how much o f the eating, thinking and
living habits o f the civilized world they had absorbed. On the island o f
Tahiti, where there was the most lively communication with Europe,
the diseases o f civilization were most rampant. The farther one sailed
from the capital o f French Polynesia, the closer one came to that pris­
tine paradise found by the first explorers. Where the natives had never
heard o f the white man, they had also not heard o f disease. And the
same was true o f the spiritual realm. As I gradually became acquainted
with the natives o f different islands, I noticed that their spirituality was
in direct proportion with their isolation. The farther away they were
from the various lines o f communication, the greater degree there was
o f spiritual content which radiated from them. They had a kind o f
primeval dignity which was impossible to understand or describe, and a

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keen sensitivity, an uncanny, intuitive knowledge of n a t u r e ami tin-
elements which surrounded them.

OUR MAORI FRIENDS SAVE US FROM SHIPWRECK

Once this intuition was used together with superior practical know­
ledge to save our ship and the lives o f all aboard her. On one of out
inter-island trips we took with us several young Maoris. Their Chief had
been so cooperative and eager to help us that he offered these young
boys as assistants for that particular trip, as they knew the area very
well. They were so enthusiastic and excited to be on such a ship for the
first time in their lives, among all the interesting and strange people
from distant lands, that I had not the heart to refuse them.
Our voyage was at first uneventful, but then we encountered one
o f those sudden and violent squalls which can appear in the Pacific. We
were very soon in an extremely precarious situation, as the winds blew
stronger and the waves grew in size and strength. We were successful in
removing the sails and we used our diesel motor which we had in reserve
for emergencies—nevertheless, the elements raged even more fiercely
and we lost control o f the ship. The Marihini was being carried inexor­
ably closer and closer to the atolls o f a nearby island. These atolls o f
coral, the nightmare o f every South Pacific navigator, have tremendous
strength and are razor-sharp. I realized the gravity o f our position when
Captain Weber, an ingenious navigator who had been at the top o f his
class at one of the finest naval academies o f Europe, now came to tell
me, pale as a sheet and in a trembling voice, that he was unable to
guarantee the safety o f the ship. Coming from him, one o f the best
ship’ s captains that Europe could produce, this statement had a power­
ful impact, to say the least. Together, we were desperately trying to
find a solution when we were approached by one o f the Maori boys.
“Excuse me,”he said, rather timidly, “do you want us to help you?”
In spite o f the fact that we were about to be impaled on sharp coral
reefs and probably drown in a violent tempest, I almost began to laugh,
though o f course not unkindly. It was just that an offer o f help from
a few teenage boys when our experienced Captain was admitting defeat
was a bit humorous, to say the least. Nevertheless, I looked questioning-
ly at Captain Weber and he nodded, saying to let them go ahead and do
what they could because he could do no more.
When I told the boys they could have a free hand, they suddenly
seemed to appear at once in every part o f the ship, taking things under
control as if they had been at the helm for years. They turned o ff the
motor and adjusted the sails, changing direction every few minutes.
They handled the anchor, ran here and there, and did many highly

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unorthodox and unusual things which I didn’ t pretend to understand.
And after about an hour o f hard work, they finally had the ship solidly
anchored in a protected place. They came to us still full o f energy,
very elated and dripping with perspiration, to tell us that the ship was
safe! We were all stunned and amazed and filled with an even more
profound respect for the native intelligence o f these Maoris. For here
had been an example, not just o f graceful instinct inherited from count­
less generations gone before, but a thorough knowledge o f the elements
and topography as well, and the ability to learn and benefit from ex­
perience. I was very glad I had allowed them on board out o f respect
for the Chief, for they certainly turned out to be our most valuable
passengers, saving a ship which we, with our European education and
the most sophisticated instruments which technology could produce,
were unable to do.
So we continued our voyages, and week after week we enjoyed
the radiant sunrises, the brilliant sunsets, the play o f colors on the
ever-changing face o f the sea. The ocean breeze and the incredibly vital
air caused a tremendous improvement in our physical condition. It was
as if we had stepped into a different world, and we ourselves became
different too. Our muscle tone became stronger, our skin became elastic
and acquired a velvety texture, our eyes were shining and radiant. We
found ourselves looking at each other, each o f us thinking, why shall
we go back to Europe? We never quite got up the courage to express
this thought out loud—we were rather ashamed to. But we all knew
what the other was thinking.

CAPTURED BY THE CHESS AUTOCRAT OF MANGAREVA

O f all the adventures we had on our voyages through the South
Seas, two stand out indelibly in my mind. The first took place on
Mangareva, an island south o f Tahiti, far away from lines o f communi­
cation and very seldom visited. We anchored our ship and made ready
for the customs examination which we had to go through at each large
island. For us it was only a routine glance at our papers, because our
credentials from the Ministre de l’ lnterieur exempted us from paying
duty on the equipment which was essential for our psychometric work
and other testing. So when an official-looking gentleman started up
the gangplank o f the Marihini we were expecting the usual refrain, “Do
you have anything to declare?”But instead o f that, came these words,
which at first we thought we were all imagining: “Is there anyone here
who plays chess?”
We looked at each other in astonishment and I carelessly said,
“Oui, Monsieur, c ’ est moi!”

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 Words cannot describe the look o f ecstatic jo y which came over
the face o f our visitor. He said proudly, “ Je suis l’
Administrateur de
cette lie!” (I am the Administrator o f this island!), grabbed my arm
and literally dragged me away.
My crew had the good sense not to interfere, as they knew as well
as I that the Administrator o f an island had the same powers as the
Governor o f a whole archipelago, and this unique person who had
escorted me so enthusiastically o ff the Marihini was the sole and all-
powerful representative o f the government. So for the moment, they
stayed behind and waited, though certainly not without misgivings,
to see what would happen.
I was already fervently regretting my spontaneous affirmation that
I could play chess as M. l’ Administrateur marched me along, his hand
firmly under my elbow to keep me from escaping. We finally reached
our destination, a splendid baronial mansion on a beautiful lagoon,
which turned out to be his residence..We entered, and he ushered me
into a room which, for a moment, reminded me o f Jean Pierre. For
there was not one square inch o f wall space which was not covered with
books, and it was a very large room. But while Jean Pierre’ s immense
library reflected his all-sided interests, these books were totally and
exclusively concerned with only one subject: chess. Then there were
.sixteen tables in the middle o f the room, each with two chairs, and
on each table a chess board and figures ready for action. It was a mar­
velous array. There were standard European chess sets, an Arabic chess
set, medieval chess sets, ancient Persian chess sets, chess from ancient
India—the Chaturaji which I recognized immediately—Chinese chess,
Tibetan chess, and every imaginable kind o f chess set from every age
and country.
My host walked over to one o f the chess sets, o f standard type
but beautifully wrought o f heavy ivory, m otioned to me to be seated
and said, simply, “Commencez!” (Begin!) Well, I didn’ t see any alter­
native, and I also remembered the words o f my old friend Horatius
who said nil admirari—never be surprised—so^I began to play chess.
I saw at once he was an excellent player, so I had to concentrate
all my experience and attention on the game. Something told me, very
wisely, not to mention that I wrote a book about the archeological
evolution and history o f chess and that I was myself a very good chess
player. We played on and on, and finally our game ended in a draw.
I thought that now I would be excused, but he just set up the figures
again and this time it was his turn to play with the white figures. So we
played again, and this game ended also in a draw. Now, I thought,
lie surely will let me go. But he only set up the figures again and I again

133
had the white figures. This third game went on for a very long time,
and although I was used to fasting and not much bothered by missing
two meals, I wondered at the stamina o f my host, who was not a young
man. This game ended with my winning, and, to my dismay, he actually
began to set up the figures for yet another game! I realized that my
only salvation lay in the fact o f the late hour, and sure enough, around
the middle o f the game, I noticed with great relief that he was growing
sleepy. His long moustache drooped lower and lower, and from time to
time his eyelids closed. Then at long last he became motionless and
started to snore. I got up as quietly as a mouse from that table and
escaped from the house as fast as I could.
All the members o f the crew were in a frantic state when I got
back to the ship, worrying that I had been abducted for some unknown
infraction and imagining the very worst. I heard as if from a chorus the
question, “What happened to you?” After I quieted them down and
assured them that everything was all right, I answered their question by
saying simply that we were just playing chess. I saw them all looking at
each other in bewilderment, wondering what could have happened to
transform someone as logical as myself into an incoherent person. But
I laughed and told them the whole story, offering as well my diagnosis
o f the situation, which they could not help agreeing with. I told them
that M. 1’ Administrates was, to put it bluntly, a chess maniac. I des­
cribed the gigantic room filled with thousands o f chess books, the
dozens o f chess sets from all ages and civilizations, and his insatiable
thirst to play chess at the expense o f eating and sleeping. We were all
a little nervous as, in spite o f his mania, he was still the omnipotent
administrator o f the island. However, after a good dinner, the whole
experience began to take on a more humorous aspect, and after a good
night’ s sleep we had almost dismissed it from our minds.

M. L’
ADMINISTRATEUR WANTS TO BEQUEATH HIS ISLAND TO ME!

We arose bright and early and as we had done on so many islands

before, I began to give instructions to everyone on how to proceed with
their work. I had just finished when we heard some com m otion outside.
M. l’ Administrateur was striding up the gangplank just like the day
before! Without even saying good morning to anyone, he grabbed my
arm and dragged me again after him, exclaiming as we went, “Allons
a jouer!”(Let’ s go and play!) Again my horrified crew looked on, help­
less, and again they had to wait in suspense until 1 returned, again very
late at night. And this routine went on for three days! Fortunately, I
was able to get up early enough each morning to give instructions to
everyone so we would not lose a day’ s work. But I was getting a little

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tired, both mentally and physically, and we were all very nervous won­
dering where it would all lead to.
On the fourth day I got my answer. Instead o f leading me directly
to the chess table, this time my host took me for a tour o f the island,
which in spite o f everything I enjoyed very much. Mangareva is perhaps
the strangest o f all the islands in the Pacific, for it is divided in the
middle by a mountain, and this contributes to the existence o f two
totally different climates on the two ends o f the island. He showed me
first his vegetable gardens and fruit orchards on the southern end which
had a temperate climate, and I saw growing there, incredibly, all the
vegetables grown in France: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, parsley, etc.
In his orchards were pear and apple trees, and all the different fruits
usually found in the north o f France. Then, on the northern end o f the
island it was tropical. There were beautiful papayas, mangoes, coconuts,
and all the other delicious tropical fruits. He asked me how I liked the
island and I told him truthfully that I liked it very much. I really had
never imagined such an island could exist where one could have both
tropical and temperate trees and fruits and vegetables, and I compli­
mented him on how wonderfully he had organized his orchards, his
gardens and his home. “Yes, yes,” he nodded, “I live here in a real
paradise. I own a considerable part o f this island, and I have everything
I could want here. Except one thing.”And he went on to tell me what
was that one thing: someone to play chess with. I felt a chill going up
my spine as he continued, knowing exactly what he was going to say.
He told me that he was alone in the world and now that he was getting
old, he had started to think seriously about certain things. He said that
if I would stay on Mangareva and play chess with him every day, he
would will to me all his possessions on the island, including his orchards,
his gardens, his many hectares o f land, his huge mansion, his entire chess
library, his priceless chess sets, in short, everything he owned.
Two thoughts went through my mind as I listened to his proposal.
First, I really had to admire the way he had organized himself on this
island, completely at the end o f the world, in such a well-ordered para­
dise. Second, I realized that the man was not normal, and to refuse his
proposition outright would be very dangerous. He commanded a consi­
derable number o f people on the island and we were completely in his
hands. And France was very far away. I knew that if he decided to hold
me on the island by force it might take many years until the Ministre de
lTnterieur would discover what happened to me. So I told him that this
was a very unexpected proposal, that I was greatly honored and I was
seriously thinking about accepting it. But I asked him to please give me
twenty-four hours to think it over, and this time would also give me a

135
chance to leave instructions for all my assistants on the ship so they
could carry on the expedition without me.
He was delighted and kept repeating, “Wonderful! Wonderful!”
Then he clapped me on the back and said, “Let’ s go have a game to
celebrate!” I groaned inwardly, but went with him back to his library
and started our usual four or five games. The day ended as usual, when
he finally fell asleep over the chess board. I slipped out very quietly and
returned to the ship as fast as I could. I quickly got everyone rounded
up, we moved all our equipment back to the ship, and we lifted anchor
and sailed as swiftly as possible from the beautiful island o f Mangareva.
Sometimes, looking back on my adventure, I feel a pang o f pity
for the poor, chess-mad Administrator who lost his favorite opponent
so mysteriously. But I certainly did not want to spend the rest o f my
life hunched over a chess table, no matter how appealing were the lovely
temperate and tropical zones o f Mangareva.

SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF THE MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS OF EASTER ISLAND

The other strange adventure I had took place on an island which

was totally unlike any o f the others we visited. After we left Mangareva
we dropped anchor on a practically uninhabited island called Elizabeth
Island. We stayed only one day, as we had nothing to do there, and
sailed further on until we eventually arrived to Easter Island. From the
very first moment we knew something was wrong. While on the other
islands we invariably found Maoris singing, dancing, in wonderfully
good humor as they showered us with gifts o f fruit and hospitality, on
Easter Island we encountered an austere and even sinister atmosphere.
Instead o f blue skies there were dark and angry clouds. The natives
were sullen and uncommunicative, and showed very little interest in our
work. We all felt unaccountably depressed, and more and more we felt
the reason to be the presence o f dozens o f huge, monolithic stone
carvings, their heads shaped into fantastic, grotesque shapes o f birds,
animals, and what looked like supernatural monsters. They were not
only huge but tremendously heavy, each one weighing at least several
tons. They were like figments o f a terrible nightmare, pages o f science
fiction come to life, and even with our pragmatic common sense we
felt that these megalithic monsters were exerting a sinister influence
over the whole island and its inhabitants.
My scientific curiosity was aroused, however, and I freely confess
that for the time being I set aside the instructions o f the Ministre de
l’Interieur concerning psychometric testing o f the natives, and concen­
trated on solving the enigma o f the stone giants. The first question was,
how did they get there? Considering their mammoth size and weight, no

136
human beings could ever have set them in place—even the machines o f
twentieth century technology would have a hard time doing it, let alone
the natives o f this desolate island. I devoted several days o f intensive
effort to the problem, and finally discovered that the stones were o f
meteoric origin. They had fallen on the island as part o f a meteor storm
and much, much later, perhaps hundreds o f thousands o f years later,
they were sculpted and carved by the natives into fantastic shapes, the
meaning o f which was long forgotten. Furthermore, the present native
population were not the descendants o f those who carved the stone
figures. Those original inhabitants o f the island who alone could tell us
the story o f the stone figures must have been a far more ancient migra­
tion. So it was not surprising that the present-day natives felt oppressed
by the presence o f the stone giants, living daily with their forbidding,
even evil appearance, and having no phylogenetic affinity with them.
I wrote up a report and sent it to my friend M. Bodin, the director o f
the Oceanographic Institute in Tahiti, explaining my theory regarding
the megalithic giants o f Easter Island. My study appeared in the Bulletin
de Societe d ’Etudes Oceaniennes, as well as in several French archeolo­
gical magazines, and was very well received and accepted as the plausible
explanation for the presence o f the monuments.

THE EXILED CHILEAN GOVERNMENT AND DANGER OF MUTINY

We eventually became accustomed to the strangeness o f the island,

and settled down to our usual work, finding this time a unique challenge
in the psychometric measurements and migratory graphs.
From time to time, I noticed that small groups o f non-natives
gathered to watch our work, look at our ship, and chat with our crew.
I did not pay much attention to them, attributing their presence to
curiosity (Easter Island was even less frequented than Mangareva). Then
one day, one o f my assistants came to tell me there was a delegation o f
local citizens who were very anxious to talk with me. I said I would be
glad to see them, and I recognized among them some who had been
watching us o ff and on. They began to speak in a rudimentary French,
supplemented by a strangely-accented Spanish, and I suddenly realized
that they were Chileans, remembering that this island, unlike the others
we had visited, was not a French island but a possession o f the Republic
o f Chile.
This Chilean delegation finally explained why they were so anxious
to see me, and 1have to admit it was quite a story. It seemed they were
members o f the cabinet o f the previous government o f Chile, they had
been overthrown in a coup, and now their opponents governed Chile
after having exiled them to Easter Island. (We suddenly realized another

137
reason for the dark m ood o f the island: it appeared to be the Siberia o f
the South Pacific!) O f course they were not very happy about this,
and ever since their exile had been planning to find a way to return
from Easter Island to Chile, foment a counter-revolution, take over
again the government o f Chile, and send in turn their opponents to
exile on Easter Island. They told me they had already organized a very
fine underground revolutionary organization, and only their presence
was needed to stage a successful coup. This was where I came in. They
wanted me to transport them in our ship to Chile, and in exchange,
they were willing to give me lifetime government concessions o f several
rich and productive silver mines in Chile.
When they finished their astounding proposition, they were all
smiling confidently, wise in the ways o f human greed, sure they had
made me an offer I could not refuse. Their smiles froze on their faces
when I patiently explained to them that my expedition was o f an
official nature, conducted under the auspices o f the French govern­
ment, and I was sure the French government would not be very happy
if I were to get involved in the internal politics o f Chile and becom e an
instrument in the overthrowing o f the Chilean government. Therefore,
I told them, as much as I sympathized with their problems I had no
choice but to refuse this tempting proposition because the decision was
entirely out o f my hands and I had no authority to make it. O f course
they were very unhappy with my attitude, but they finally left when
they saw I could not be budged from my position.
I soon forgot about the whole incident, as in spite o f the unusual
aspect o f the island, we were progressing well with our work. Then one
day, one o f my most trusted assistants came to see me. He spoke to me
in great confidence, informing me that the Chileans had been talking to
several members o f the crew, offering the gold and silver mine conces­
sions to them if they would take over the ship and transport them to
Chile, leaving me on the island! He told me that these members o f my
crew were basically good and loyal people, but that some o f them were
enormously tempted to obtain those tremendous treasures o f gold and
silver and return to France as millionaires. Though they were still re­
fusing, the Chileans were a persistent bunch and he didn’ t know how
long it would be before their resistance would wear down.
Well, after successfully escaping the chess maniac on Mangareva,
I had no intention o f spending the rest o f my days in exile among the
stone monsters o f Easter Island! Even though those o f my crew who
were tempted were only a small minority, nevertheless Captain Weber
thought that “was ist sicher, ist sicher!” (What is sure, is sure!), and it
was no good to lead my people into further temptation. So for the rest

138
of that day we just continued our work as usual, but the next morning
at dawn I gave the order to raise anchor and sail away from the island.
And we did, taking with us the memory o f another strange adventure
on desolate and haunted Easter Island.

139
 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:
THE ESSENE BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA

After winding up all the details o f our Polynesian expedition and

saying an emotional farewell to the Marihini and all her crew who had
become such good friends, we sailed from Tahiti to the beautiful city
of San Francisco. I was accompanied by my secretary, Fred Marchal,
who had abandoned his job as manager o f the Tahiti branch o f the
Banque de l’ lndochine to follow me to unknown and mysterious coun­
tries. Fred got very excited as we approached the shores o f California,
which he knew about only from novels o f the wild west and ancient
cowboy movies which were very popular in Tahiti. When he questioned
me nervously, I assured him that it was extremely improbable that we
would be attacked by wild Indians or outlaws or be arrested by gun-
toting sheriffs, and he finally calmed down and accepted the fact that
he might survive in that barbaric country.
Purcell Weaver was waiting for us at the harbor, and we all greeted
each other effusively. He told us that he had arrived from England just
a few days before with a group o f followers who had come with him
to participate in a kind o f intimate summer seminar we had already
planned before he left Tahiti. The seminar was to be held at Lake
Elsinore, supposedly a very lovely spot (I had never been there) some
seventy miles from Los Angeles.
INDULGING IN THE DELIGHTS OF A POST OFFICE IN A FREE COUNTRY

The first day in California I spent with Purcell dictating letters o f

thanks to all those people who through their moral support and inter­
vention helped us to overcome the schemes o f the corrupt colonial
administrations in French Polynesia. It was such a pleasure to finally
have access to a civilized post office where we didn’ t have to worry
about our letters going astray or being confiscated, that I utilized the
opportunity to dictate about a dozen letters to poor Purcell, who was
really exhausted when we finished.
First, I sent a letter to His Majesty Carol II o f Rumania, for his
kindness in sending us the Royal Rumanian Flag which I was authorized
to use in all our journeys on the high seas as a protection against pos­
sible intrigues, in appreciation o f my previous work regarding the origin
o f the ancestors o f the present Rumanians in the High Carpathians.
I also sent a long letter to Jean Pierre, although it would have
taken a volume to even begin to convey my endless gratitude to him
for all his moral and political support in our struggles with the corrupt
administration in French Polynesia.

140
 I also sent a letter o f thanks to M. elemental, Sanaim ,md i... . i
Minister o f the Colonies, for his support in my different (onlli. t i t u f
to the Vicomte de Poncin for his weighty support and eneigcin ims i
vention on behalf o f my leper patients.
To Mile. Ablitzer, my indispensable head nurse at the Oiolar.i
leper colony, I sent a very special letter o f thanks for the selfless devo
tion and wonderful courage she displayed in tending the lepers who
were following my treatment.
Another letter went to my friend M. Georges Bambridge, Mayor
o f Papeete, Tahiti, for protecting me so efficiently against the intrigues
and agents provocateurs o f the administration, and still another to his
brother, M. Antoine Bambridge, better known to everyone as Tony,
for the publication and distribution o f the therapeutic textbook I wrote
for the natives.
I sent a long and affectionate letter to my good friend Henri
Bodin, curator o f the Oceanographic Museum in Tahiti, the home o f
the Societe des Etudes Oceaniennes, thanking him for all his support
during our difficult times, and also for his collaboration in the French
edition o f the book.
O f course, I wrote to all the European and Oceanian collaborators
in the expedition, including the most able Captain Weber, who piloted
the Marihini so faithfully during our voyages.
I thanked my friend, M. Charles Maraetefau, for so generously
putting at my disposal his lovely property by the creek o f Titioro for
the free medical treatment o f the natives.
I sent a letter to all the directors o f the Trait d ’
Union in Tahiti
who elected me as their Founder-President to guide them in their fight
to save the Tahitian race.
And last, but far from least, I sent a letter o f heartfelt thanks to
Dr. Charles Witt o f Los Angeles, the delegate o f the Universal Esperanto
Association, who practically saved our lives by sending us the m eteoro­
logical charts so essential for our navigation in the South Pacific, which
we would not have been able to obtain anywhere else.

WE SAIL TOWARD LAKE ELSINORE

After a good night’ s rest, which Purcell needed after writing so

many letters, the three o f us began our journey southward toward Lake
Elsinore, where Purcell’ s followers from England would join us. We
were fortunate to have the use o f a sturdy Ford in good condition, left
in the States by Purcell’s brother during a previous visit. We were also
armed with road maps to try and locate a river or creek here and there
to take a swim, being good amphibians. We were not prepared for the

141
vast expanse o f the American southwest, nor for the fact that wherever
a beautiful blue line indicated a river on the map, we found only dry
rocks and sand. It was a serious shock to us as we were not acquainted
with the dryness o f a California summer. Finally, after half a dozen
disappointments, Purcell said with great indignation, “Well! I always
heard that Californians like to bluff, but to such a degree! To put rivers
everywhere they are not!”I could not help laughing, but at the same
time I was wondering, as were Fred and Purcell, about the famous Lake
Elsinore: what if that body o f water, which we knew about only from
correspondence, also turned out to be just a dry, sandy spot!
But our worries were soon dissipated when we reached Los Angeles
and were greeted warmly by Dr. Witt. He assured us that he had just
seen Lake Elsinore a few weeks before, there was plenty o f water in it
and we would be able to swim every day.

MY FIRST LECTURES IN LOS ANGELES

Dr. Witt proved himself a wonderful friend. He was one o f the
leaders o f the Baha’ i movement in Southern California, and whenever
he invited us to have dinner with him we always found people o f all
nationalities in the most friendly and fraternal atmosphere. It was he
who organized my first lectures on the American continent in Los
Angeles. As I mentioned, he was also a delegate o f the Universal Es­
peranto Association, and he thought that a lecture given by a renowned
scientist just returning from Polynesia with a lot o f new discoveries
would be a wonderful promotion for the Esperanto movement. So the
initial lecture was held in the auditorium o f a large Los Angeles hotel,
and it was very successful. I spoke in Esperanto, and Purcell and Dr.
Witt translated alternately my lecture into English. Members o f the
press were there in good attendance, and the L.A. Times published a
series o f articles about my discoveries. This series, which they gave the
dramatic title o f “The Solution o f the Last Mysteries o f Polynesia,”
covered the different heliolithic migrations, with particular emphasis
on the migration o f the Maoris.
After several more very well-received lectures in Los Angeles, Dr.
Witt finally guided us to the promised land o f Lake Elsinore, where we
looked forward to having a peaceful and fruitful summer and seminar,
producing a lot o f new material to be published later in England. At
that time, Lake Elsinore was a very quiet and lovely place, exemplifying
all that was so magical about Southern California before the onslaught
o f the population explosion, freeways and pollution. There were still
thousands o f acres o f orange groves between Los Angeles and Lake
Elsinore, cows grazed on pastureland not far away, mountains with

142
snow-covered peaks towered majestically over palm trees, ami iIn sun
was shining practically every day, unobscured by smog, an mil u., , n
word at that time in the mid-thirties. For those who loved ...... and
the outdoors, it was indeed a paradise, and we enjoyed tremrndou-.ly
the fresh air, warm sun and delicious local fruits and vegetables nl
that tiny lakeside community.
WE SETTLE IN FOR A FRUITFUL SUMMER VACATION AT LAKE ELSINt >IU!
We rented a house at the shore o f the lake and settled thru-,
evoking a somewhat startled reaction from our neighbors, who wat c he d
curiously as I conducted lectures, supervised exercises on the beach,
joined my students in all kinds o f strange movements in the water, and
feasted enthusiastically at banquets o f raw fruits and vegetables. They
saw visitors from England, from the South Pacific, from the east o f the
United States, in fact, people from all over the world o f all shapes and
sizes touching their toes at dawn, consuming huge quantities o f water
melon and oranges, and gathering in rapt attention at sunset as a strange
French doctor lectured in Esperanto. But we had such a good time
doing all these things that our neighbors soon came to be good friends
and even wanted to join in, especially when they noticed how healthy
and strong we became from participating in all these activities.
Our nearest neighbors were Virginia and Bert Rovere. She was a
talented soprano who had performed at La Scala, and she became in
terested in our work after coming to one o f my lectures on Beethoven,
which later appeared in my book entitled Ludwig van Beethoven, Pro-
metheus o f the Modern World. She was a very warm and wonderful
person and she took us under her wing and introduced us officially to
our other neighbors. Her husband, Bert, introduced us to Sheriff Eugene
Bizcailuz of Los Angeles, and he kindly assured us of his cooperation in
any o f our undertakings where he might be helpful.
Among the followers who came from England to participate in our
summer seminar was Mrs. Florence Mahon, who later became resident
manager o f the International Health and Education Centre in Leather-
head, England, where later I would hold a memorable summer seminar
organized by Purcell under the auspices o f his adoptive father, Sir
Stafford Cripps, later Chancellor o f the Exchequer.
THE AMERICAN ESSENE GOSPEL OF PEACE
AND THE FIRST ESSENE CHURCH IN THE U.S.A.
Meanwhile, the Essene Gospel o f Peace appeared in San Francisco,
and we began to receive visits from a good number o f people interested
in joining the Essene movement in some way. The First Essene Church
was established in San Francisco, and soon a branch appeared in Los

143
 (left to right) The author with Bert Rovere (right)
Purcell Weaver, Fred Marchal,
and the author

The author (front row, center) with Los Angeles students

Angeles headed by Dr. Garry White. Another branch soon appeared at
Cresta Solana, very close to Lake Elsinore, conducted by Rev. Victor
Lord. The memberships o f these churches grew by leaps and bounds as
the teachings o f the Essenes attracted more and more people. It seemed
that the dry air o f Southern California was very good for transmitting
messages, because the number o f people who either wrote or visited us,
interested in the Essene movement, grew in almost geometric propor­
tion from week to week.

MY COOPERATION WITH THE ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION

Around that time, I was invited to give a lecture at the Los Angeles
headquarters o f the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was
created by President Roosevelt to try to ease the terrible unemployment
during the depression. The WPA created all kinds o f public works and
through it more than two million people found work. The Los Angeles
leader o f the WPA, Mr. Rubin, had been to see me in Lake Elsinore, and
was very impressed by the fact that all o f my followers were eating and
living extremely well, inexpensively in spite o f the depression. I told
him that wealth consists not o f having a great deal o f money, but in the
minimum o f needs, and it was this statement which led him to invite me
to lecture to his group. I told them how it was possible to live in a very
healthy way for very little money, depression or no depression, and
my lecture was heartily applauded and well-received. They even asked
me to write a little booklet for them, which I gladly did, finishing it in
three weeks. It was published in Los Angeles under the title How to Eat
in a Healthy Way for $1.00 a Week. They were delighted with it, Mr.
Rubin telling me that although some new Social Security legislation
was about to be passed, he still felt it would not do as much good as
this simple, basic knowledge. I included in the booklet a lot o f whole
grains, which were very inexpensive at that time, germinated grains,
sprouts, and simple fast-growing greens which were possible to harvest
every ten days while they were still tender. I proved in the booklet that
the ancient Essene diet o f raw fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc., was
adequate to supply all the vitamins, minerals, plant hormones, enzymes,
calories, unsaturated fats and proteins to satisfy all the requirements o f
growth, energy and well-being. It was interesting to note that many o f
the readers started to follow the diet by econom ic necessity rather than
enthusiasm, some even making a sport o f it and proving they could do
it on 85 cents a week instead o f $1.00. But soon they discovered that
all kinds o f different ailments which had been bothering them were
considerably improved, especially when they followed my instructions
concerning daily exercise, relaxation, plenty o f fresh air and a good diet

145
 <3 f t r ai (EIj r 1011a tt a’ [|i a a e it e] (Eljitrcfy
GREAT BRITAIN - FR A NCE - U N IT E D STATES - MEXICO

FOUNDED 1930
INCORPORATED 59

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MAI N C H U R C H
L O S A N G E L E S , CALI F.
SUNDAY SERVICES* E V E R Y 1 S T ft 3 R D S U N D A Y . 8 P . M.
E M B A S S Y A U D I T O R I U M , S T U D I O H A L L . 9 T H $T. A G R A N D A V 8
M l N I K T f - R t R E V . H U B E R T H A R I S I N D . D.
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sa n Fr a n c is c o b r a n ch
ELSINORE BRANCH
CH A IR M A N AND M IN ISTE R
CHAIRMAN
R E V . B I L T O N B R U N l N G S , D. D: V I C T O R C,lo r d
8 8 8 M A R K E T ST,
T h e s u b j e c t o f th o r e g u l a r S u n d a y VI LLA C R E S T A S O L A N A
0 0 *35 1 7
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s e r v i c e o f t h e F ir s t C h r is t ia n s ch u r c h
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a n d E v o lu t io n o f L i f e a n d M a n ." T h e
s e r m o n w a s d e liv e r e d b y R ev . L ord .
B e g in n in g S u n d a y , D ec. 15, s e r v i c e s
w ill s t a r t a t 10 a.m. in s t e a d o f 9:30.
Sunday, D e c. 29 is th e d a t e o f th e
A n n iv e r s a r y C h r is t m a s d in n e r a n d

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FIRST CHRISTIAN ISSiN I

FIRST CHRISTIANS’ (ESSENE) CHURCH'

Sunday Servlotn Every l i t and 3rd Sunday 8 P.M.
EMBASSY AUDITORIUM. STUDI O HALL, 9th St. and Grand Ava,
Minister, REV. HUBERT HARISIN, D.D. Everyone Welcome
Quest Speaker, Deo. 3 and IT, REV. EDMOND SZEKELY, D.D., Ph.D.
Sub).I ‘
‘THE FIRST CHRISTIANS’TEACHING ABOUT THE STERNAL L IF E"
_ _ _ _ . H e a d Office and Secretary, 3018 La Pal Drlva. NO. 7121 _ _ _ _ _ _ _

. < v 4. Dr. E d m o n d S z e k e l y w ill b e f%

,-v g u e s t sp e a k e r to m o r ro w n ig h t a t *cv 'W- r>
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d i t o r i u m S t u d i o H all. H i s su b , I
Jeot w ill b e “L if e a n d T e a c h i n g s • j
o f th e F i r s t C h r is t ia n s - E s s e n e s . ” ^ i
S e r v ic e s a r e h e ld e a c h f i r s t a n d ' <hf A A j
th ir d S u n d a y , a n n o u n c e s th e min- <? w-,1
^ 0^ ister. D r. H u b e r t H a r isin .

*>N S T B S T C H B IS 'H A N —E S S E N E
Tj1 %-
-FIRST CHRISTIANS' (ESSENE) CHURCH-
Saaday S tn le tu (vary IN tmi 3rd Saadoy i t I F. M.
Eakitty Aaditarla* Stadia Hall, 9th Strait and Grand Ava.
Mlalrfar, Rev. HUEERT HARISIN, D. 0. Ivaryaaa Welcome
t n d Spedkar. Dw. 17, REV. EDMOND SZtKtir. 0. 0.. to.O.
S tb ltci: " l i f t AND TtAGHINOt O f THE FIRST CHRISTIANS-ESSENES**
Head Offica ® sd Jeeratary. SOlt La F«t Oriva. HO. 7130

Beginning o f the Essene Church in the United States, 1936

in thoughts and emotions, all o f which I discussed in the second part
o f the book. I received a great number o f letters telling me they never
felt so well in their lives, and it was a great satisfaction to me that
Essene principles could solve even nutritional, health and economic
problems in the twentieth century. O f course, looking back after forty
years o f progressive inflation and devaluations, I only wish it were as
easy to solve the health problems o f the dollar!

THE MEMORABLE VEGETARIAN-VERSUS-CARNIVORE EATING CONTEST

Every now and then, our hard work was alleviated by humorous
intermezzos. At one o f the lectures I gave in Los Angeles for the L.A.
Vegetarian Association, an extremely voluminous and robust gentleman,
who happened to be a butcher, stood up and exclaimed, “Well, that’ s
all very beautiful what the doctor says about the virtues o f a vegetarian
diet—but the fact is that the vegetarians have to eat fruits and vegetables
because they are all sick and can’ t eat good, substantial food! Therefore,
I hereby challenge our eminent doctor to an eating contest! Let’ s have
a public competition and see which o f us can eat the most plain, old-
fashioned, ordinary food!” And he sat down to a round o f applause.
Well, I was inclined to take the whole thing as a joke, but the secretary
o f the organization, sitting on my left, looked very uncomfortable and
whispered to me to please accept the challenge, because membership
had been going down lately and unless I agreed to take part in the con­
test, foolish as it seemed, the public would take it seriously and their
movement would decline even further. So I agreed to participate in an
eating contest, to the delight o f my opponent, who certainly looked as
if he could w olf down twelve hamburgers as a between-meal snack.
We organized one committee which selected the auditorium o f a
large hotel as the site o f our contest, and another committee to choose
the foods, weigh them, check the time, etc. The press and public were
invited, and both turned out in large numbers. When we finally began
our first course, a whole collection o f different soups, I was amazed at
what an instant American-style spectacular event it had turned into.
We progressed past the soups into all kinds o f cooked vegetables, then
several roasts, some broiled meats, different kinds o f casseroles and a
few chickens. At this point I noticed a strange look on my opponent’ s
face, but 1 just continued eating. When we passed our second loaf o f
bread, I saw that my opponent had turned a delicate shade o f green;
and finally, as we were finishing our desserts, which consisted o f five
or six pieces o f pies and cakes o f different varieties, my opponent said,
in a very weak voice, “L ook—everyone can see that we could go on
eating forever—why don’ t we just call it a draw!”I told him no, that I

147
felt fine and wanted to continue. He looked at the empty dishes with
sudden hope and said, “How can we continue? We have exhausted our
whole menu!” I dashed his hopes. I told him that up to that point I
had patiently consumed all the junk food which he called good, plain
and substantial. But now I would like to eat some healthy food so I
could have some vitamins and minerals! I told the assistants to bring
us two large vegetable salads, some fresh fruits, some dried fruits and
nuts and some whole-grain bread. They did, and I began to eat with
gusto. But my opponent was no more than a third o f the way through
the salad when he quietly fainted.
After he was taken to a hospital, I finished my banquet o f healthy
foods, and then asked a few o f the members, who were already celebra­
ting my victory, if there was a swimming pool nearby, so I could work
o ff my gargantuan meal. They found one still open despite the late
hour, called the Bimini Plunge, and I swam and exercised for two or
three hours. In the morning, I went with my vegetarian friends to visit
my opponent in the hospital and wish him safe recovery. The morning
papers gave the affair a great deal o f excellent publicity, and within the
next two weeks the membership o f the Los Angeles Vegetarian Asso­
ciation grew by eight hundred per cent. Not only did that group get a
new lease on life, becoming a very vigorous organization, but the adven­
ture also resulted in a valuable lesson learned by my opponent: never to
challenge another vegetarian to an eating contest!

MY LECTURES AT THE BAHA’

I SUMMER SEMINAR IN GEYSERVILLE
One day while we were hard at work accumulating my Seminar
material to be published later in England, Dr. Witt visited us at the Lake
with two friends o f his, very eminent leaders in the Baha’ i movement.
One was Dr. Orcella Rexford, author o f several books, one o f them very
popular, the title o f which was Mental Radio, and the other was Dr.
Gregory, a rotund gentleman with a very kind smile. They told me that
the annual Baha’ i Summer School was about to begin at Geyserville,
in northern California, and that since their founder, Baha‘ u‘llah, had
recommended highly the study and propagation o f an international
language, they would be extremely grateful if I would come to Geyser­
ville and give them an Esperanto course so they could all learn this
universal language in the spirit o f their great founder. They offered
their hospitality to myself, to Purcell, to Fred Marchal, and to all our
entourage. They said they would be greatly honored if I would accept
their invitation, that it would be a vital contribution to their summer
school and they would always remember it. Well, after that there was
really nothing I could do but accept, especially when Orcella Rexford

148
Z 'vS^V^VUr-..

SAUSACV-

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D A LY C IT Y
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S SA N F R A N C IS C I
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(left to right)
Fred Marchal, the author, and Or. Gregory
on their way to the Baha’ i summer school in Geyserville
pointed out that I should get to know the northern part o f California
also before I left the United States. And o f course I was always delighted
to speak about Esperanto, one o f my enthusiasms for many years, and
I approved very much o f the fraternal ideals o f the Baha’ i movement.
So we again climbed into Purcell’ s Ford and set out for Geyser-
ville, leaving in the early morning and arriving the same evening, a
tribute to Purcell’ s excellent driving. We went through some really
beautiful country, green hills and valleys, vineyards, and here and there
some redwoods (though the greatest number were north o f Geyserville).
The greatest miracle o f northern California was that some blue lines on
the map really turned out to be running rivers!
The Baha’ i Summer School was a group o f simple wooden houses
on a lovely piece o f land, the focal point o f which was a tremendously
large tree, almost as big as the plane tree o f Hippocrates on the Island
o f Cos. This was the favorite gathering place o f the students to listen to
the lectures, and I enjoyed very much talking to them about Esperanto
under the cool shade o f those magnificent branches.
The chairman was an unforgettable patriarch from Switzerland
with an angelic white beard and wise, benevolent eyes. His name was
Mr. Bosch. His wife was a charming old lady who took wonderful care
o f us, never forgetting to bring every morning a big bowl o f delicious
fresh fruits and all kinds o f other foods for us. We noticed that the
dairy products were much better in the north o f California, due to the
better pasture, and the peaches, plums, cherries and apricots o f that
region were superb. Mr. and Mrs. Bosch were among that small group o f
older Baha’ is who had personally known ‘Abdu-l-Baha’ , the grandson o f
Baha‘ u‘
llah, and exemplary leader o f the movement until his death in
1921. ‘ Abdu-l-Baha’had told them that fruits, herbs and vegetables
were the nutrition o f the future, and the Boschs followed his example
and ate only these things. Most o f the modern Baha’ is, however, inter­
preted his statement to mean that while fruits and herbs were the food
o f the future, they were living in the present and could go on eating
cooked foods, meat, etc. But as it happened, lively question-and-answer
sessions always followed my Esperanto lectures, and we exchanged
ideas and discussed different matters, among them nutrition and health.
The result was that toward the end o f the Esperanto course, the great
majority o f the students made the spirit o f ‘
Abdu-l-Baha’(and Mr. and
Mrs. Bosch) very happy and adopted the food o f the future.
It was a fruitful and creative summer, and we made a lot o f lasting
friendships. When the summer school was over, they took me all over
the area, one o f the most beautiful I have ever seen, with the steaming

150
geysers (hence the name Geyserville), the Russian River, and the abun­
dance o f creeks and green hills.
WINDING UP OUR SUMMER VACATION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Back at Lake Elsinore, we continued our seminar, producing more
and more material. I found time once a week to indulge in my favorite
sport and swim across the lake and back. And once in a while our whole
group would descend on a nearby resort called Murietta Hot Springs.
We had limitless energy with our improved health, and when we invaded
their swimming pool with our unique collection o f exercises, our pre­
sence was felt, to put it mildly. We became known there as “the wild
geese,”probably as much for the noise we made as for the fact o f our
aquatic exercises, and after several successive visits to that resort, the
name stuck with us.
We also went to San Diego for the California-Pacific exposition
and the opening o f the new Globe Theatre in Balboa Park, an exact
replica o f the famous Globe in England, where Shakespeare’ s plays were
performed. Our English friends were dubious that any good Shakespeare
performance could take place in the thin air o f Southern California, but
after we saw an excellent production, authentic down to the last detail,
they admitted being very impressed. We were also present at the speech
given by President Roosevelt, who officially opened the exposition.
When he arrived in a simple open car, led by a few policemen on motor-
cycles, our English friends were again shaking their heads, saying it was
a very inglorious entrance for the head o f such a great country as the
United States. They said that when their King went somewhere on a
state visit, his arrival was heralded by far more pomp and circumstance.
(I thought to myself that President Roosevelt would have been surprised
to find himself compared to the King instead o f to the Prime Minister!)
But when Roosevelt started to speak, they began to see that there is a
royalty o f spirit far more impressive than a crown and scepter. His fiery
eloquence made a great impression on them, and they admitted that
neither their King nor their Prime Minister could have given such a
stirring speech.
PREPARATIONS FOR OUR WINTER SEMINAR AT RIO CORONA, MEXICO
Meanwhile, the Essene Gospel o f Peace had a second and even a
third edition in San Francisco, and Cosmos, Man and Society, the book
o f over 850 pages which was the result o f my marathon dictation to
Purcell in Tahiti, also was selling extremely well in England. As reaction
to these books grew, so did my correspondence. I was receiving so many
letters each day I had to have two more secretaries from my group o f
followers to handle it, and I noticed that I was particularly getting a lot

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o f mail from young medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors and
naturopaths. They all asked the same question: when and where can we
meet you for a seminar about the Essene teachings, especially regarding
the health aspects? They seemed to be inflamed with a desire to trans­
late my charts, graphs and revolutionary ideas into practical methods
they could take back with them, methods they could use immediately
in their healing arts, to cure the ill effectively, and then teach them
how to stay cured, something physicians always talk about but rarely
do. As I read letter after letter, I became slowly convinced that I should
indeed give such a seminar; in fact, I had a duty to these gifted young
men and women who were so ablaze with purpose and dedication. So
Purcell and I got out the maps once again and looked for beautiful blue
lines representing rivers in countries where the winter was warm. I felt
intuitively, as soon as I saw the words “Rio Corona”on a blue line in
the state o f Tamaulipas in Mexico, that it would be a beautiful and
appropriate place for our seminar. I answered my correspondents, telling
them I was leaving the United States soon for Mexico, as I had plans to
conduct archeological research there concerning the Toltecs. And if
they did not mind living in tents or small huts made from tree branches,
they were very welcome to join me on the shore o f the Rio Corona,
where I would be glad to give them a seminar. Ninety per cent o f them
enthusiastically seconded the motion, and before we knew it, summer
was over, the wild geese—the group o f followers from England—had left
for home, and Purcell, Fred Marchal and I left Lake Elsinore behind as
a beautiful memory and headed south in Purcell's trusty Ford.

O n e last p ic n ic o n th e b a n k s o f L a k e E ls in o re .

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 IN THE MAHOGANY FOREST OF RIO CORONA

OUR FRANCO-BRITISH DRIVE TO RIO CORONA

It was a memorable journey, mainly because o f the different styles
o f driving I had to survive (I don ’t drive myself). When Purcell drove,
I never worried—he always drove conservatively and with caution. How­
ever, when Fred took over it was another story. His French-Maori
temperament behind the wheel led to some rather breathtaking situa­
tions, though none as hair-raising as my cliff-hanger episode in Tahiti.
But we finally arrived to Mexico, entering the country at Laredo, Texas,
where we discovered that the brand-new Laredo-Mexico City highway
had just opened. We had visions o f a gleaming, four-lane asphalt ribbon,
the latest triumph o f modern technology. What we got instead were
cattle. The new road had been carved through what was and had been
cattle country from time immemorial, and no one had thought to put
up one foot o f fencing along the entire highway. So the cattle continued
to graze over their territory, hardly noticing that there was now a road
there, and every few miles we had to stop the car and with a few sticks
and a lot o f noise try to stimulate our vegetarian friends to move away
from the road. They were not very impressed by our apparently aggres­
sive attentions, and when they finally did move it was with a maddening
slowness. O f course, this stop-and-go procedure did have the one advan­
tage o f slowing down Fred’ s speed, as we had no desire to collide with
an angry-looking bull, knowing Purcell’ s Ford would be the worse for it.

ARRIVAL AND SETTLEMENT IN THE MAHOGANY FOREST

AT THE EDGE OF THE MAJESTIC RIO CORONA
We finally arrived to the beautiful Rio Corona, a wide river flowing
through a picturesque, semi-tropical region. We turned o ff onto a little
road to the right and tried to find a spot not too far from the highway,
but far enough to be completely secluded. We found at last a perfect
place, a forest o f magnificent mahogany trees on the shore o f the peace­
fully flowing river. To add to our good fortune, we also found a little
adobe house, completely abandoned, which would make an excellent
spot for our headquarters. We disembarked our things from the car and
the little baggage trailer we carried with us, had a good swim in the river
to refresh ourselves, and started to look around for the owner o f the
adobe house so we could make arrangements to lease it.
We explored the forest area and finally found a herd o f goats, and
following the goats, we met the goatherd, whose name was Ramon. He
was living in a similarly small adobe house with his wife, children and
about fifty or sixty goats. I explained to him that we would like to lease

153
The beautiful Rio Corona

My headquarters
the little abandoned house for the winter, and he told me in turn that
he was not the owner, but that he would be glad to take me to the home
o f Sr. Teofilo Joche, who in fact owned the adobe house and most o f
the mahogany forest. I mentioned that it did not sound much like a
Mexican name. He told me that it was a Sirio-Lebanese name, and that
el dueno lived in a big house at the corner o f the highway where it met
the river. And in a long, unbroken sentence he also informed us that
Sr. Joche would very likely lease the adobe hut as he was very busy
because he was a friend o f General Almazan who was running against
General Avila Camacho for President in the coming elections, and he
was so busy he didn’ t even have time to supervise his goat herd, but
half o f them belonged to Ramon and Sr. Joche was so wrapped up in
the elections he would not notice if we stayed there for two whole
winters. Encouraged by this rather confused speech, we set o ff for the
house o f Sr. Joche. He turned out to be a stocky gentleman with a
moon face and a huge black moustache. He generously invited us in,
introduced us to his wife, and assured us we would be very welcome to
use the adobe house and stay on his ranch for the summer for the tre­
mendous sum o f five hundred pesos. O f course we were delighted, and
after a pleasant chat which left us thoroughly knowledgeable about
local politics, we parted. Don Teofilo Joche left the next day for Mexico
City and we never met again, though I often wondered how he fared
after his friend lost the election to Gen. Avila Camacho.

ABUNDANCE OF LOCAL FOODS AND FRUITS

The goatherd, Ramon, and his family, proved extremely useful to
us in the organization o f our little winter community. His wife, Antonia,
said we could buy fresh raw goat’ s milk every day from her, as well as
fresh eggs from her two dozen chickens. Ramon had access to a coarse
yellow corn meal o f excellent quality and gave us a mouth-watering
description o f the atole his wife made from it. She also made delicious
goat cheese, and could send her children every day to collect all kinds o f
local fruit, such as juicy pitayas and thirst-quenching tunas, the fruit o f
the cactus plant. Our diet for the winter looked very promising, and
Fred said to me with a happy sigh, “Monsieur le Professeur, I do not
think we will starve here!”
The rest o f our needs were met just as satisfactorily. We took sun
baths on the shore and we bathed in the river, where it was most invi­
gorating to swim at night, especially under a bright moon. Sometimes
it was chilly when we came out from the river after those nocturnal
swims, and then we did an unforgivable thing. In order to build a
campfire, we collected all the fallen branches from the mahogany trees!

155
Dr. Gregory before... Dr. Gregory aftei—
Night after night we built glorious bonfires with those branches, as it
was the only fuel around, and never thought about the fact that we
were burning up thousands o f dollars o f one o f the costliest woods in
the world. Everything is relative, and in our simple, natural life style,
the fallen branches were more valuable to us as a source o f warmth
than o f income.

THE GRADUAL ARRIVAL OF STUDENTS FROM EVERYWHERE

Little by little our seminar participants from all over the globe
began to arrive. They came with tents and sleeping bags, in their knap­
sacks a copy o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace or Cosmos, Man and Society,
and they all had fire in their eyes. There was Julius Montes, from Spain,
who became the secretary o f our seminar, translated all my lectures
from Esperanto, and condensed them into final book form to be pub­
lished later in Los Angeles, a monumental work. Mrs. Leone Dodson,
from California, was co-secretary, sharing with Julius that whole great
task. O f course, Purcell also translated a large part o f the material, as
usual, and published it later in England under different titles. The
director o f the Works Progress Administration from Los Angeles was
there, and he later on obtained the necessary financial resources to
publish the complete material from the seminar. There was Prof. Chester
Davison o f Miami, who collaborated with Fred Marchal in the prepara­
tion o f hundreds o f illustrations for the future volume; and Sidney
White, a young medical student who proved his devotion in unselfish
service on many occasions. Wanda Lusschen, Mr. and Mrs. Myron Ander­
son, and Mrs. Axel Simonsen, all carried on the difficult task o f proof­
reading, both during the summer and later in Los Angeles. Mr. Port and
Mr. Samols were leaders o f the vegetarian movement in New York,
and Mr. Rosenbloom published The Health Clarion, a health magazine
in New York. There came also Dr. Sidney French, who became a fervent
propagator o f the Essene healing arts in New York; and Dr. Nelson
Oakley, President o f Western University in San Diego, whom I met at
Lake Elsinore and who gave considerable help in the publication o f the
seminar material in the United States. And my friend o f the Baha’ i
Summer School, Dr. Orcella Rexford, came to study and prepared a
valuable glossary to the book, which eventually amounted to over a
thousand pages. Dr. Gregory, another Baha’ i friend, also came with a
personal as well as scientific interest: he wanted to lose fifty pounds
over the winter—a rather ambitious project, but he was successful, as
my photos showing him before and after proved. Dr. Novotny, a very
excellent M.D. from Los Angeles, came to learn all the practical aspects
o f the Essene science o f health and incorporate it into his medical

157
practice. The list went on and on. I wish I could remember all o f the
names o f the dozens o f participants. They were young and old, men and
women, established physicians in different fields, business men and
housewives, young students—including a few from England—all intelli­
gent, all alert and seeking—all eager to learn and apply the medicine
o f the future to health problems o f the present day.
OUR LOCAL FOLLOWERS: THE MAYOR AND TWO PROFESSORS
THE ESSENE GOSPEL OF PEACE IN SPANISH

Eventually, there also appeared some local followers on the hori­

zon. One was Prof. Lacalle, a Spanish refugee who had fought against
Franco and was now professor o f history in the high school o f Ciudad
Victoria, just a few miles from us. Prof. Lacalle became one o f my most
ardent followers, and I fear he seriously neglected his duties at the high
school that winter, because he joined our classes practically every day.
Another convert was the mayor o f Ciudad Victoria, Don Meliton Rodri­
guez, who had heard through the grapevine that there was a group o f
American doctors spending their vacation on the shore o f Rio Corona.
He came to ask my help, as he was so ill his physicians had given up on
him. He was a very fine person, sincere and conscientious, and according
to my Mexican friends, the best mayor Ciudad Victoria ever had. Within
two months o f faithful adherence to my instructions, he regained his
health and claimed he felt better than he ever had in his youth. Then
there was a remarkable young woman, Profesora Rita de Vargas, who
taught Spanish literature in the high school. She was so impressed by
the Essene Gospel o f Peace that she translated the entire text into
Spanish, and together with her colleague, Prof. Lacalle, had it printed,
using the rather archaic but adequate resources o f a little printing press
in Ciudad Victoria. Her beautiful translation has now reached thousands
o f readers all over the Spanish-speaking world under the name o f El
Evangelio Esenio de la Paz.
HUMOROUS EPISODES OF THE SEMINAR
The winter months we all spent together were filled with the most
intensive and thorough study o f the Essene healing arts. I gave several
lectures every day, and these were o f an extremely analytical and tech­
nical nature. Since the participants came already well-grounded in the
basic tenets o f the Essene science o f health, our studies were able to
penetrate more profoundly into details o f treatment than ever before
in one o f my seminars. But we had our light moments, too. I will never
forget the sight o f Prof. Lacalle, wielding a broom like a bayonet, fero­
ciously attacking an army o f red ants as he exclaimed, “I am General
Miaja! Take that, you wicked Falangists! Down with Franco!”

158
 And I also remember my dear secretary and companion <d tin'
South Seas, Fred Marchal, and the jokes that went around comximing
Fred’ s use o f garlic. It seemed that Fred, who had watched me cal a lew
cloves o f garlic with every meal in Tahiti, was convinced that: tins was
one o f the secrets o f my stamina and indefatigable energy. So he imita­
ted this practice, to the extent that wherever he walked along the Rio
Corona, everyone gave him a very wide berth, not exactly enjoying the
pungent aroma he exuded. What made the whole thing really humorous
was that while I had eaten the garlic during the time I worked in the
leper colony in Tahiti, as a protection against leprosy (the leprosy
causing Bacillus Hansen cannot live in the same environment with the
oleum allii which is present in garlic), I gladly moderated my use o f that
fragrant herb when we left Polynesia.
Another memorable episode concerned my beautiful, huge and
multi-colored parrot, a gift from the wife o f Don Meliton Rodrigue/.,
whom I had cured o f his “incurable”condition. He was a particularly
intelligent bird who picked up very quickly whatever words were spoken
around him. Now, as the number o f local peasants and townspeople
came to see me with their health problems, I adopted the same methods
I had used at Titioro in Tahiti, and had my assistants frequently give
them enemas. So the parrot heard me giving instructions and soon was
able to repeat them, word for word. One can imagine the reaction o f
our American and British visitors when they entered my little tent to
see me and were greeted by a huge tropical parrot who perched above
their heads and seriously advised them, before I could utter a word, to
“take an enema! Take an enema!”
Then there was the comic and almost tragic adventure o f Mr.
Samols, from New York. He had a serious condition which I was trea­
ting successfully with, among other things, geotherapy—special mud
baths which he always took in a coffin-like box which was constructed
according to my instructions. Well, one night there was a heavy rain in
the mountains, and at dawn the waters o f the Rio Corona began to rise.
Ignorant o f this fact, Mr. Samols arose early and went down to the shore
to take his daily mud bath. It took a good deal o f courage on his part,
really, for he must have suspected what a figure o f admiration he was
in the eyes o f our delighted Mexican neighbors who peered through the
trees at the tall, skinny and absolutely naked gentleman, covered from
head to toe in black mud, lying in a coffin! But that morning they
really had a spectacle, because as he lay quietly in his box covered with
mud, the rising waters o f the river suddenly turned his box into a canoe
and the current began taking him downstream at an ever-accelerating
speed. I had been writing very late the night before, and now I was

159
Mr. Samols celebrates his escape from the flood
(author fourth from left)

My oldest native follower

(and the river in a more peaceful mood)
awakened by shouts and screams, both from Mr. Samols, gesticulating
wildly from his box, which seemed inexorably headed for some wicked­
looking rocks farther down, and from his Mexican spectators on both
sides o f the river, all o f whom were yelling advice but not taking any
action. So I jumped into the river and swam past Mr. Samols, who
looked at me in desperation, thinking I had abandoned him, and I
calculated how the current was acting on the coffin-canoe. Then, at the
next opportunity, when the current turned the box to the left, close to
the bank, I grabbed it with all my strength and swam with it until I
reached waiting hands on the shore. Mr. Samols jumped out o f his box,
which had almost turned into a real coffin, and there was tremendous
cheering from the spectators all up and down both sides o f the river,
who never in their lives had seen such a spectacle as a tall, skinny,
black-mud-covered naked creature, jumping up and down and dancing
happily, hugging everyone with joyous enthusiasm, especially me. He
told me tearfully that I had certainly saved him from an inglorious end,
because one o f the things he had never learned in the city o f New York
was how to swim!
I also will never forget little Joseph Shainman, youngest member
o f a New York family who had met me in Tahiti where they went to
live during the depression, and later followed me to Mexico. His job in
our community was to fetch the mail each morning and this he proudly
did, riding a little donkey. He and the donkey were inseparable; so
much so, that I gave him the name o f “little donkey,”which he was
very proud of. He also showed a stoicism remarkable in one so young
when the donkey, frightened by a rabbit, came to a sudden stop once
and threw poor Joseph into a cactus bed, and he shed not a tear as his
mother pulled out the needles, one by one. Following that incident, he
did not ride his donkey for several days; but youth recovers quickly,
and our little postman was soon on the job again.

PREPARATIONS FOR A SUMMER SEMINAR IN ENGLAND

All too quickly the winter was over, the lectures were ended, the
material was gathered, sifted and organized by those I mentioned before
into a publication which would be published in Los Angeles and have
the title Medicine o f the Future.
Around this time, I began to get reports from Purcell, who had
already left for England, that the movement had grown to such an ex­
tent that he was imploring me to come there and conduct a seminar for
the British and European followers. He added that his adoptive father,
Sir Stafford Cripps, later Chancellor o f the Exchequer, had expressed
great interest to help us. Purcell was a fine attorney, and he presented

161
 iiiMig Wjt

My office hours begin for my native students

Ram on’
s wife made mouth-watering tortillas
an irresistible case. I decided to postpone my archeological work and
leave for England.
I said hasta la vista to all my wonderful students and M exican
friends and left the beautiful mahogany forest on the shores of the Rio
Corona, filled with unforgettable memories o f a winter spent in spiri­
tual, intellectual and physical improvement, and friendships made which
would last always.

The last supper before departure from Rio Corona

 MY ARCHEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK

At certain places in this book, references are made to my archeo­

logical fieldwork in different parts o f the world. I think I should give
a kind o f composite picture o f the nature o f this work.
MY SPECIAL FIELD IN ARCHEOLOGY

My field in archeology is a very specialized one: the comparative

study o f cosm ogony and cosm ology o f ancient civilizations. Cosmogony
deals with the different theories o f the ancients concerning the origin
o f the universe, while cosm ology explores the different ideas o f the
Sumerians, Babylonians, Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs, etc., concerning the
structure and function o f the universe. When I graduated from the
University o f Paris at the Sorbonne, my professor o f descriptive archeo­
logy disapproved o f my selection o f this highly specialized field. He
patiently tried to explain to me that I would have definite problems in
obtaining a good Chair in any university’ s department o f philosophy,
and he was convinced I would not be able to work for any scientific
institutions or corporations with such a limited specialty. I told him he
was absolutely right, but that I had no intention to get immobilized
on any faculty at any university, and I surely did not intend to work
for any institution or corporation. I told him my main purpose was to
do more or less independent fieldwork and then to condense my find­
ings into books. My old professor shook his head, musing sadly about
the eternal difficulty o f making young people listen to reason, but o f
course he wished me good luck.
MY METHODS OF WORKING AND ORGANIZATION
And though my dream o f always being independent in my very
specialized field o f archeology was a difficult one, I made it a reality
through perseverance and determination. Over the years I developed
an excellent blueprint for action, based on experience and research.
Concerning the area where I intended to go, I first tried to find,
read and study all the old history books and maps I could. Descriptions
o f historical battles were always important, no matter how limited in
scope or how provincial they were. Even if it had not greatly influenced
the course o f history, every battle had casualties, and as a result, a lot
o f burial places filled with artifacts. According to my reasoning, these
artifacts should reveal drawings, symbols and small pictographs with cos
mogonical and cosmological meaning. When I had thoroughly researched
the area, I made arrangements with the local authorities interested in
my project, sometimes a nearby university, or a provincial museum.
We usually reached an agreement, o f my own making, that if any large,

165
Our connection with civilization

: j f ' 1 fi
A » i -v

' ' v "'

My university assistants

My student assistants
heavy constructions were to be found, they would remain in place with
the idea o f using them in the form o f a centerpiece for a little national
park. In this way, all the results o f my work would be accessible for
future archeologists as well as for the general public. Smaller items
would be dispatched to the provincial museum which would then de­
cide which ones to send on to the national museum and which ones
to keep for local exhibition. My arrangement was that every finding
would remain the property o f the local authorities and the government,
but that I would have the copyright o f all the archeological material:
pictographs, photographs o f the findings, etc., which I could use uncon­
ditionally in my books. The best example o f this is one o f my books
which had a good many editions in both English and Spanish, in English
The Soul o f Ancient Mexico, and in Spanish La Filosofia del Mexico
Antiguo. In these volumes I related everything in larger correlations,
comparing the Mayan civilization with the Egyptian, the Toltec with
the classic Greek, and the Aztec with the Roman. I also brought into
parallel the ancient concept comparing the battle o f Quetzalcoatl and
Tezcatlipoca in the form o f the Sacred Toltec Ball Game (which I repro­
duced in miniatures to be used in schools in southern Mexico) with
the Cosmic Battle between Ormuzd and Ahriman in the cosm ology o f
ancient Persia (which I also reproduced in miniatures to be used at
college level).* I gave special emphasis to the minds o f those people
who created the pyramids, the sanctuaries, the monuments, the statues,
the smaller artifacts, the hieroglyphics, the pictographs, and all the
remaining things which gave us guidance to understand their daily lives,
their view o f the universe, their beliefs and their philosophy o f life.
The village nearest to my projected digging site always provided
me with a number o f willing workers, all eager to see what kind o f role
in history their little part o f the world once played, and the nearest
university was an excellent source o f a few bright students to work
under my wing, at the same time getting points o f credit for their work.
When I found an area which interested me, I usually divided it
with an X and Y axis coordinata system into a hundred squares, eacli
square receiving the definition o f a letter and a number, similar to the
algebraic connotation o f a chessboard. Then I began to spot-check the
different squares. A large archeological expedition usually spends an
enormous amount o f time, labor and money by starting at one certain
point and continuing with the excavations, sometimes spending years
without finding anything. But in view o f my limited time and resources,

*This is the ancient Game o f Asha, a distant ancestor o f modern chess, but with far more*
profound spiritual and philosophical meaning. It is fully described in my book Tlte l-ssrne
Book o f Asha: Journey to the Cosmic Ocean.

167
A refreshing, palm-top banquet
I could not afford this luxury. So, with my small-scale spot-checking of
a square here, a square there, I was usually able to find a promising spot
which I then had enlarged. I had to be very careful to outline a good
method o f working, especially the distribution o f work between my
students and the expedition foremen. We had to keep an eye on the
village workers, so that in the excitement o f discovery, they would
not mutilate with pick and shovel any small artifacts. When we made
small findings, I tried to establish their age, commented as to their use
and function, interpreted the drawings and pictographs, and put them in
my record into larger connotations and correlations with other ancient
cultures with similar findings. Then, after being photographed from
every angle, the small objects were packed carefully into small wooden
boxes or gallon jars, or simply into five-gallon tin cans, each artifact
defined with the number o f the square where it was found, according
to my coordinata system, so that further research in the future would
be facilitated.

WILD FOREST CREATURES IN THE TROPICAL JUNGLES

Some o f my most vivid memories o f archeological fieldwork relate
to the kind o f uneasy coexistence we shared between ourselves and
the wild animals o f the jungles and forests where we set up our camps.
We always tried to establish our headquarters close to a river or creek,
if one was close to the excavation site, for evident reasons. After a day
o f hard work in a hot tropical climate, it was an absolute necessity for
us to take a refreshing bath. And the water was also needed to prepare
foods, to clean things, and for many other uses. But for similar reasons,
especially for drinking, the wild animals o f the jungle also liked to be
close to the river and, therefore, also close to us. Therein lay the conflict
o f interest; though never, not even in moments o f real danger, did I ever
consider them as enemies to be vanquished. On the contrary, we humans
were the intruders into their jungle domain. I always found deep enjoy­
ment watching the wild creatures o f the jungle in their infinite variety
o f behavior, appearance, size and color.
We never had trouble with most o f the birds, although in areas
where man’ s presence was unknown and the birds had no fear, they
would often approach us when we were eating, swooping down to share'
our food if we were not alert. Some o f them were o f indescribable'
beauty, with irridescent feathers o f exotic colors, and wild cries quite
unlike what I had always thought o f as birdsong. Large eagles and hawks
gave us some moments o f uneasiness, especially in some remote areas e>f
central Mexico, where huge eagles had the habit o f diving down from
incredible heights to pounce on a hapless coyote, or even larger prey.

169
But although this execution from on high took place at times uncom­
fortably close, we were never the target.
We always enjoyed the smaller animals o f the forest—the squirrels
and rabbits, and especially the armadillos, whose prehistorical appear­
ance and movements I always found amusing. I remember at Rio Corona
I actually made a pet o f an armadillo who set up housekeeping right
outside my tent. He became quite tame and well known to everyone,
and seemingly enjoyed all the unaccustomed attention.
Our main problems were with wild cats and jaguars, and o f course
our most dangerous jungle companions, the poisonous snakes.
A NIGHT WITH A HUGE SNAKE UNDER MY BED
I never will forget the adventure I had which began with my getting
up very early in my tent and starting my usual morning exercises. First
I did some movements standing up, and then I put down my petate,
a woven straw mat, on the dirt floor beside my bed so I could stretch
out and do some leg movements in the air. As I lay down, I happened
to turn my head to the left and found myself face to face with a large
poisonous snake, coiled up under my bed and looking at me with great
interest. In a horrified flash I realized I had spent the whole night with
that snake under my bed who only now was awakened by my strange
movements. I never moved so fast in my entire life, and my workers
were astonished to see me running from my tent completely naked,
shouting, “Machete! Machete!”, my idea being to get a machete quickly
to dispatch my uninvited guest. But when they understood what had
happened, they said the machete was not the way. Two o f the workers
each grabbed a large hoe and disappeared into the tent. Meanwhile,
another worker covered me with an old blanket, repeating the word,
“resfrio, resfrio,”by which I understood he didn’ t want me to catch
cold. Sounds o f battle came from the tent for a few minutes, after
which the two workers triumphantly reappeared with the dead snake
between them, one holding the head, the other the tail. Then they
ceremoniously built a fire and burned the body o f the snake, and when
I asked them why, they said that if they left out the corpse it would
attract other snakes. I rather think it was a kind o f superstition, as they
could have achieved the same purpose by burying it. But then perhaps
it was less effort to burn it than to bury it. At any rate, from then on
I was much more careful and looked under my bed every evening before
I went to sleep!
AN AGGRESSIVE JAGUAR
Another adventure I had was more serious. Once I was called to
inspect the site where a finding had been partially excavated, when I

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suddenly heard a noise above my head, and the next moment a large
jaguar dropped gracefully to the ground just one foot beside me! At
that instant, my majordomo, who had been walking several feet behind
me, drew his pistol with speed a cowboy o f the west might envy, and
shot into the air. The jaguar turned from me to the direction o f the
shot, a split-second which saved my life—because the next shot o f the
majordomo was not in the air but straight through the heart, followed
by a finishing shot to the head. My majordomo, to whom I owed my
life, was more shaken than I was. He told me that the jaguar had slipped
on a branch, otherwise it would have dropped directly on my back, and
not on the ground. He also explained that the reason he shot first into
the air was because the big cat was uncomfortably close to me, and
he didn’ t want to risk hitting me. Also, the fact that the jaguar turned
toward him in surprise made him a much better target, and it was
obvious he had only one chance to shoot the jaguar at that close proxi­
mity. If he had missed, we both would have ended our careers then and
there as an afternoon snack for the jaguar.

MY CANINE ASSISTANTS

Although I was naturally grateful to have survived this incident,

I was nevertheless disturbed about killing the jaguar, doubtless one
of the most beautiful o f all wild creatures. I had often watched them
through field glasses as they ran, jumped and played with the most
graceful and sinuous movements; and it was undeniably true that the
jungle was their home and we, as intruders, should find a way to avoid
encounters which would only end in tragedy, either for them or for us.
And o f course, in order to complete my archeological work and finish
writing my books, it was also necessary to survive.
So I decided that in the future our entourage would include two
powerful dogs. I reasoned that as dogs are the natural enemies o f cats,
the jaguars would not be so eager to attack them (they had no such fear
o f humans), especially as two large, well-trained dogs will almost always
be able to overcome one jaguar. It worked out exactly as I planned. I
chose with care the right dogs, trained to be gentle with their human
masters, but aggressive to intruders o f any kind. And with these dogs
around my tent the jaguars, as well as other wild animals, always kept
their distance. The dogs liked to hunt, so we never had to provide food,
and by hunting they made their presence in the jungle very conspicuous.
I had a great number o f canine protectors through my life, and
two o f them, Ollin the Kuvasz (from Hungary) and Asha the Anatolian
Shepherd (from Asia Minor) were so remarkable they inspired a book

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which I wrote together with Norma* called Messengers from Ancient
Civilizations. (Ollin and Asha are also profiled in The Uncommon Dog
Breeds, a book by our good friend, Kathryn Braund.) Ollin gave his
life in the call o f duty, having a fatal encounter with a large and very
poisonous tropical scorpion; but Asha still lives in baronial splendor on
my mirador atop my library overlooking Lake Chapala in Mexico, and
joins us enthusiastically whenever we venture to the jungles in the south.
I have always had dogs and loved them, from my charming Fox
Terrier, Bonbonnier, whom I had when I lived in Paris, to my gentle
giant St. Bernards who lived with me in Aspremont. They would not
let me swim in the ocean, but always insisted on swimming out to
rescue me, their jaws closing tenderly on each o f my arms and dragging
me back to shore. And when I went hiking in the Alps, one o f them
always carried my tent on his back, the other my knapsack. I was
owned once by a comical Bull Terrier named Szikra, and an enchanting
Irish Setter called Penny, who was my auburn shadow everywhere I
went at Rancho La Puerta. I also had an unforgettable Beagle with
a gargantuan appetite, Socrates, who was immortalized, along with
his master, in Peter Wyden’ s charming book The Overweight Society—
a book from which I quote in volume two o f this series, Search for the
Ageless: The Great Experiment: the Conquest o f Death.
Even now, as I write, I can see through the window my Rottweiler,
Credo, sleeping as always in a strategic place near the door so he can
deal with the imaginary enemy who may come anytime, from anywhere.
But o f all my dogs over the years, I think I will remember most
vividly those jungle companions who so courageously watched over my
tent as I slept and kept away the very real dangers o f the jungle. Alert
and faithful, their large brown eyes shone with a kind o f steadfast
devotion I shall never forget.
THE ENIGMA OF THE ORIGIN OF THE TARASCAN INDIANS

There is not enough space here to go into all the details o f my

archeological work spanning so many years, especially when the reader
may find them easily in my different books written about the results o f
that research. But I will relate two little adventures, both o f interest
from a human standpoint as well as from an archeological one.
Once in my travels around Mexico, I became interested in the
mystery surrounding the origin o f the Tarascan Indians, who comprised
an independent nation at the time o f the Spanish conquest. One o f the
reasons for the mystery was their language, called Purepecha, which

*Norma’ s story is told in Volume Two o f this trilogy: Search for the Ageless: The Great
Experiment: The Conquest o f Death.

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constitutes a linguistic family with no known relatives. My intensive
study o f the theories about their origins left me no wiser. According to
the work o f Dr. Leon Mendieta entitled Los Tarascos, the Tarascan
Indians definitely came from the north, and he had several authorities
supporting his theory, one o f them Plancarte, the Archbishop o f Tin-
axes, who wrote a monumental work on precolumbian Mexico.
But then I read a beautiful book by Eduardo Ruiz called Las
Leyendas de Michoacan, in which he explained his theory that the
Tarascans came from the south and represented a southern migration.
His scientific presentation was accompanied by a poetic chapter in
which he gave the words to several Tarascan songs about four stars o f a
constellation they had never seen but knew were present in an unknown
southern sky. They were the Canciones de las Cuatro Estrellas S o n g s o f
the Four Stars—and it was evident that the four stars were the Southern
Cross. Ruiz reasoned that if the ancient Tarascans had not migrated
from the south from where the Southern Cross is visible, then how was
it possible for them to have songs about the Southern Cross? Being so
familiar with the South Seas after my expedition there, I must admit
his ideas intrigued me, especially after a momentous discovery o f my
own. I had been in Morelia, the capital o f Michoacan, some months
earlier, and through a combination o f detective work and intuition
had found in an old attic one o f the very few surviving copies o f the
Florentine Codex, a virtual encyclopedia o f precolumbian life in ancient
Mexico, with hundreds o f pictographs executed by natives o f the fif­
teenth and sixteenth centuries. In the same attic I found as well a very
old Tarascan dictionary o f the Purepecha language, and to my great
surprise I discovered a considerable number o f Purepecha words which
were practically identical to the language o f the ancient Maoris, which I
became well acquainted with during my voyages to French Polynesia.
As I could not discuss this increasingly complex and interesting problem
with the author, I resolved to visit his private library in Michoacan to
try and solve the mystery.
Sefiora Ruiz very graciously welcomed me to her home and gave
me permission to look through her husband’ s manuscripts and books,
take notes and in general utilize any reference material I wished. My
acquaintance with her was one o f my most memorable experiences in
Mexico, as she represented all the intelligence, grace and dignity o f the
cultured Mexican woman o f her generation.

MY ACQUAINTANCE WITH PRESIDENT CARDENAS

One day, as I sat at a table in her library taking notes, I noticed a

tall, impressive-looking gentleman enter wearing the wide-brimmed hat

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Some o f my Tarascan friends
and tall boots o f a ranch owner. He was greeted with great wanni.li by
Senora Ruiz, and it was impossible not to overhear their animated
conversation about old times over coffee brought to them by a servant.
I heard snatches o f well-informed references to the Tarascan,s, so I
gathered he must have been a colleague o f her husband. Then 1 heard
him ask her who was that gentleman who was writing so studiously at
the other end o f the library? She replied with a few words that I came
to do research about the origin and migrations o f the Tarascans, in
light o f the fact that I was an authority regarding the Maori language
and migrations. I continued my note-taking, and in a little while this
same gentleman came and sat down by me, apologizing for the interrup­
tion and telling me that he was a Tarascan himself, and if there were any
way he could be o f help to me he gladly offered his services. He said he
was well acquainted with all the places o f archeological interest, as well
as different ruins and sites o f precolumbian settlements, and he was
extremely interested in any attempt to discover the origin o f his people.
I was most pleasantly surprised by this offer, and began to tell him in
greater detail the nature o f the research I had done until then. This led
to a spirited discussion o f archeology in general and my South Seas
expedition in particular, until finally I remembered my manners and
introduced myself. He shook hands with me warmly and introduced
himself in turn, telling me in a casual way that he was “Lazaro Cardenas,
su servidor.”At this, I nearly fell o ff the chair, because this hospitable
Michoacan ranchero just happened to be the President o f Mexico!
With the possible exception o f the legendary Benito Juarez, Don
Lazaro Cardenas was the most colorful figure in modern Mexican his­
tory, and one o f its greatest leaders. He was an interesting combination
o f a fervent Mexican patriot and a liberal progressive, with a brilliant
and unorthodox mind. It was he who organized the ejido system in
Mexico, where he distributed large areas o f vast estates among landless
farmers. Between 1934 and 1940 Cardenas placed about forty million
acres in peasant hands. In this ejido system, each peasant had a small
piece o f land for himself, and a large area was reserved for communal
cooperative works, maybe the one and only time in history that an
Essene-like system was practiced through government legislation. He
refused to live in Chapultepec castle, the palace o f Mexican chief execu­
tives since the days o f Maximilian, and turned it into a museum. He was
the best friend the Mexican peasant ever had, and no one knew more
their problems and aspirations than Don Lazaro, as he was affectionate­
ly called. He crossed and recrossed the country by train, popping up in
village after village from one end o f the republic to the other, tirelessly
traveling and talking with people, trying to solve their problems on a

175
practical, immediate level. He piped drinking water into tiny pueblos,
built bridges and established hospitals and schools where none had ever
existed. Even after his term as President, he never ceased his struggle
for the rights o f M exico’ s rural population, and Mexico would have
become a vastly different country without his influence.
And this was the self-proclaimed Tarascan who was offering me
his help in discovering the origin o f his people! I was overwhelmed,
and o f course I gratefully accepted. He put a truck at my disposal with
a few o f his workers from his ranch in Jiquilpan, and he sometimes went
with me himself to show me the different areas o f interest. From his
workers, who were a small but extremely efficient group o f people, all
interested to know the origin o f their ancestors, I learned a great deal
about the Tarascans, the only tribe which the Aztecs were never able to
conquer. The question o f whether they originally came from the north
or the south may never be entirely resolved, but I did publish the results
o f my findings, and as an expression o f gratitude to the unforgettable
Don Lazaro, I dedicated my most important work on precolumbian
Mexico, La Filosofia del Mexico Antiguo, to him, with these words:
I dedicate this book to Don Lazaro Cardenas.
Not to the General and ex-President,
But to the benefactor o f the indigenous people o f Mexico,
Trying to make a bridge
Between an ancient culture, now dead,
And a future one, yet unborn.

THE “AZTEC”MISSION OF SAN IGNACIO

Another interesting archeological adventure occurred when I made

a journey to the south o f Baja California to try and solve another great
puzzle. In his monumental work, Archbishop Plancarte maintained the
theory that the Toltecs migrated from the north through the Baja
California peninsula, from where they entered the mainland. Since I
could not find any information from any other source to confirm or
disprove this theory, I decided to investigate the matter myself.
Not far from the mountain o f San Pedro Martir, deep in the wilder­
ness o f Baja California, I found some strange hieroglyphics carved in the
rocks which seemed to be very ancient. They definitely bore witness
to an ancient migration, but I did not find them to be Toltec in charac­
ter, nor did they have any affinity with the Toltecs. And as far as I
know, the mystery o f these petroglyphs is still unsolved.
So I proceeded farther south, and stumbled upon perhaps the
strangest mission in all o f M exico—the mission o f San Ignacio. The
exterior was not too unusual, though surrounded as it was by date

176
gardens it looked rather like something transplanted from the north o f
Africa. But as I approached the door I really thought I was entering
another world. It was a huge double door o f heavy oak, and carved all
over both sides were two giant figures representing the god o f wind,
blowing with open mouths streams o f powerful wind. I entered the
mission and thought perhaps I had by accident found an ancient To)tec
temple. Covering the entire ceiling, from one end o f the building to
the other, was a giant, undulating feathered snake, the ancient symbol
o f Quetzalcoatl, but with the head o f a Christian monk! The baptister-
ium consisted o f a large stone statue o f Tlaloc, the god o f rain and
water, holding the baptismal font in his cupped hands. To add to the
mystery, above the altar was a magnificent representation o f Tonatiuh,
the sun god, his golden rays radiating out from the center and propaga­
ting all around the cupola o f the main altar.
O f course I realized this fantastic art work was not so ancient,
but I was extremely puzzled by this mixture o f precolumbian and
Christian art. I made a little sidetrack from my original purpose to do
some research to unravel the mystery, which I eventually did. It seemed
the mission was built originally by two Franciscan fathers, Padre Luyen-
do and Padre Piccolo, a Spaniard and an Italian, both adventurers with
liberal ideas, together with a Jesuit, Padre Baegert. They wanted their
mission to be memorable as well as beautiful, and since they considered
the local Indians inadequate in skill and experience to undertake such a
task, they imported from the vicinity o f Mexico City a dozen workers,
all o f Aztec origin. The Padres supervised the construction o f the ex­
terior, but they decided to leave the interior decoration completely
to the imagination o f the Aztec workers, enjoying the idea that they
should have complete freedom to express their own ideas. And here
were the startling results—an amazing montage o f Aztec mythology
interspersed with Christian art—but a Christianity as understood and
interpreted by those Aztec minds.

THE MEEK COCHIMIS DID NOT INHERIT THE EARTH

After exploring the whole length o f the Baja California peninsula,
I realized that I was not going to find any solid evidence to either prove
or disprove the thesis o f Archbishop Plancarte, so I made my way north
again. And when I was least expecting it, in the mountains northeast o f
Cuchuma, I found a handful o f descendants o f a most unusual and
interesting tribe: the Cochimis, who represented a completely forgotten
lateral branch o f the great Toltec migrations toward the south. They
once occupied a large territory comprising much o f what is now north­
ern Baja California and the southern part o f San Diego County.

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I unearth an ancient volume... ... and an even more ancient volume ...

... and greet an old friend on a not-so-ancient calendar!

J ffftf-
The mysterious mission o f San Ignacio
 They were very advanced from a cultural and spiritual standpoint,
and their holy mountain still bears the name they gave to it—Mount
Cuchuma. When their young men reached the age o f maturity, they
were sent to the top o f this mountain to enact a kind o f coming-of-'age
ritual. The youths stayed on top o f Mt. Cuchuma for three days and
three nights, fasting in solitude and invoking their gods to achieve a
kind o f inner spiritual experience which made them adult, full-fledged
members o f their community.
Another beautiful custom they followed was their worship of
the sunset, which took place on the highest points o f their mountains,
particularly in the area somewhere between the present Boulevard and
Campo—part o f it is the Mountain o f a Thousand Meditations o f which
I will write about in the second volume o f this series.* The Cochimis
sat every evening in a half-circle, contemplating the forms and colors o f
the sunset, and the shapes and movements o f the clouds. They believed
that the Great Spirit and the spirits o f their ancestors spoke to them
through the colors, clouds and forms o f the sunset.
In addition to the sunset, they also worshipped large rocks, espe­
cially those having the contours o f eagles and bears. They considered
the eagle to be the messenger o f heaven, and they believed that when
they died, their souls would be carried by an eagle toward the Great
Spirit to unite with the spirits o f their ancestors. The bear was thought
of as the earthly manifestation o f power.
They never attacked neighboring tribes, nor any traveler crossing
their country. This was why their territory gradually diminished, for the
surrounding San Dieguito Indians were not so peaceful, and liquidated
the Cochimis long before the white man had a chance to do so.
Many years later, when I came to the Mountain o f a Thousand
Meditations, I found some Cochimi artifacts, including a large, graceful
urn in perfect condition. I thought since everyone had forgotten them,
I would dedicate a beautiful rock to their memory, perhaps one o f the
very rocks they sat on to watch the flaming sunsets, and I erected
at the rock a dedication with these words: “The peaceful Cochimis,
living in harmony with the forces o f nature, contemplating the mystic
sunsets over Cuchuma, their holy mountain, finally lost their land to
their belligerent neighbors. They were too meek to inherit the earth.”

^Search for the Ageless, Volume Two: The Great Experiment: Tlte Conquest o f Death.

180
 MIDSUMMER NIGHT’ S DREAM
IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE
UNEVENTFUL BUT ARTISTIC JOURNEY TO ENGLAND
I sailed to England from Tampico on a Dutch passenger liner called
De Leerdam, which first made a short stop in New Orleans, a city I
enjoyed for its old world flavor, especially walking through the old
French Quarter. The voyage was pleasant and uneventful. I played chess
occasionally with the Captain who was a charming gentleman, but not
a very good player.
One thing did happen on board, however, and it was an interesting
interlude. I had a habit o f sitting on the deck, which was the best place
to enjoy the breeze, the sound o f the waves, and the colors o f the
clouds. I used the time to good advantage by concentrating on the three
most essential techniques o f meditation o f the ancient Essenes: immer­
sion in the Cosmic Ocean o f Life, immersion in the Cosmic Ocean o f
Sound, and immersion in the Cosmic Ocean o f Light.
One day I had been completely absorbed in these ancient medita­
tion techniques, when I opened my eyes to see a very serious young
lady sketching my portrait about twenty feet from where I was sitting
in my deck chair. She came over to me and apologized for making a
drawing o f me without my permission, but since I made such an excel­
lent subject, coming every day to sit on the deck in utter stillness and
never moving, she could not resist. I realized then that she had been
sketching me for several days and I had never noticed! I asked to see
her drawing and she showed it to me, offering to give it to me if I liked
it. I liked it very much and told her so, expressing the opinion that
she was very talented. We began to talk, and she asked me what I had
been thinking about all that time to make me virtually immobile while
she was sketching me. I told her in a few words about the ancient
Essenes and she became very interested. She asked why I was going to
England, and I mentioned the planned seminar at Leatherhead, Surrey.
She asked if it would be possible for her to attend and participate in
the courses o f study. I assured her she would be most welcome and gave
her the address. And she did come, and stayed through practically the
whole seminar. The little portrait also had a happy ending. My publisher
in England liked it very much and used it as a frontispiece for one o f my
books published there. In fact, my American publisher is using it today
on the cover o f its catalogue o f my books.
A SHATTERING LINGUISTIC EXPERIENCE
When we disembarked, I was conscious o f the value o f my two
suitcases with all my manuscripts and books and as usual was extremely

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Original drawing o f the author, sketched en route to England
cautious with them. When we arrived to the Customs office, a porter
came and offered to carry my bags. I told him I would prefer to carry
them myself, and he smiled at me and said, in French, “Monsieur, you
do not have to worry any more about the safety o f your luggage: you
are in England!”
Well, that was a heartening introduction, and it put me in a fine
m ood to try out my first words in English.That opportunity came right
away because it seemed there was no one to meet me, and I had for­
gotten the address o f Sir Stafford Cripps’country residence, called
Goodfellow. So I approached a policeman, a London bobby, and told
him I had just arrived and apparently my friend forgot to meet me, and
I wanted to know how to find Goodfellow but I could not give him the
exact address. It really was a magnificent English sentence, and after
concentrating on getting all the words out in their right order, I waited
expectantly for the policeman to answer. He did, in atrocious French:
“Excusez-moi, Monsieur, mais je ne comprends pas Franqais!”(Excuse
me, sir, but I don ’
t understand French!) Well, this was a serious blow.
I was not going to get far in communicating, if my best attempts at
English were interpreted as French! But just then I saw Purcell waving
and hurrying to meet me, and we had a good laugh together about
my linguistic mishaps.

MY ACQUAINTANCE WITH SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS

O ff we went to Goodfellow, and I spent my first night in England

in a very unique guest cabin which was a specialty o f Sir Stafford
Cripps. Probably inspired by the insufficient sunshine in England, the
entire little cabin was movable around a central axis, so that from what­
ever direction the sun appeared for a while, it was possible to turn it
so the windows would face in that direction. It was an ingenious idea,
and the first manifestation o f an intelligence not only exceptional but
also unorthodox. When I met him later, I tremendously appreciated his
extremely articulate ways to convey ideas in a quintessential way. His
sponsorship o f the International Health and Education Centre was indi­
cative o f his willingness to embrace new ideas and directions, and I
think it appropriate to sketch a few lines o f background here about this
remarkable man, to whom the Essene movement owes so much.
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps was born in 1889 in London, fourth
son o f a distinguished ecclesiastical lawyer. He studied law and took the
bar, and in 1927 became the youngest king’ s counsel o f his day. During
this time, his interest in world problems only found religious expression,
but in 1929 he joined the Labour party. In 1930, although not a mem­
ber o f the house o f commons, he was appointed solicitor general by

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J. Ramsay McDonald and received the knighthood which is customary
for law officers. In 1931 he was elected member o f parliament. With
unerring foresight, in 1938 he advocated a popular front and coopera­
tion with anyone “from Churchill to Pollitt”who would stand up to
Hitler. In May 1940 Churchill made Cripps ambassador to the U.S.S.R.
When he returned in 1942, he became a member o f the small war
cabinet, lord privy seal and leader o f the house o f commons. At the end
o f the war, he joined C.R. A ttlee’s cabinet as president o f the board of
trade. In this capacity he launched Great Britain’ s postwar export drive,
but he was also greatly occupied with the task o f negotiating a settle­
ment with India. In November o f 1947 he became Chancellor o f the
Exchequer, and for the next three years he dominated the home policy
o f the Labour Government. He concentrated on the balance o f pay­
ments and investment, and he pursued a strict fiscal policy aimed at
checking inflation by means o f large budget surpluses. Some called him
“austerity Cripps,” but he gave moral leadership o f unusual force to
the country, and achieved a rapid rate o f econom ic growth and sub­
stantial improvement in Great Britain’ s trading position.
But most o f that was far in the future. Now we were in England
in that lovely breath o f peace before Europe would be rent apart by the
war, and our main thoughts were o f the coming seminar at Leatherhead,
under the auspices o f Sir Stafford Cripps.
I will always remember Sir Stafford’ s classic remark about my
strange use o f the English language. I did have an unusual approach,
which consisted o f this: in view that a good sixty per cent o f English
words derive from Latin, I simply decided to use only those English
words which came from Latin, a language I knew very well. So one day
during a conversation, Sir Stafford remarked, “Professor seems to know
all those words in the English language which an Englishman doesn’ t
know—but I really doubt if he could go to a market and successfully
buy what he needs!”We always laughed over his down-to-earth state­
ment because, o f course, it was absolutely true.

MY LECTURES AT THE INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND EDUCATION CENTRE

The International Health and Education Centre was centralized in
the Lawrence Weaver house in Leatherhead, Surrey, a magnificent estate
erected to the memory o f Sir Lawrence Weaver, the architect, Purcell’ s
late father. The grounds were beautifully landscaped and divided in the
middle by a river in the center o f which was a lovely little island. It was
a delight to give my lectures in such an environment o f natural beauty
o f the English countryside in summer.

184
 We organized the seminar in our usual way. I spoke in Esperanto
or French and Purcell translated it literally, after each sentence, into
English. (I decided to spare the participants the unique experience o f
my Latinized English.) All my lectures were taken down in shorthand
and later published by the C.W. Daniel Co., who published the British
edition o f the Essene Gospel o f Peace, as well as Cosmos, Man and
Society. Later, the material from my lectures also appeared in books
with the titles Medicine Tomorrow, The Living Buddha, The Future o f
Humanity, and several others, all published by the Daniel Co. Three
other books were published by Geoffrey L. Rudd: Cottage Economy,
Sermon on the Mount, and Genesis—an Essene Interpretation.
Though the setting was certainly different from the mahogany
forest at Rio Corona, the spirit, intelligence and enthusiasm o f the
seminar participants were the same. I had the privilege to meet Tom
Mann from the old guard o f the British Labour Party and one o f its
leaders, along with Lansbury, the Labour leader, and several others who
represented the difficult period o f the Labour movement in England.
It was fascinating to watch the whole scale o f British minds from Tom
Mann to Sir Stafford Cripps and to understand the immense transfor­
mation which was beginning to take place in England.

THE DISCIPLE OF TOLSTOY - MY BRITISH PUBLISHER

Another who attended the seminar was Mr. Charles W. Daniel, the
founder and owner o f the Daniel Co., well-known publishers o f books
on philosophy, art and health. He was a charming old gentleman who
had been a disciple o f Tolstoy, and he showed me with great pride a
few photos o f him sitting at the feet o f his master at T olstoy’ s estate
in Russia, Yasnaya Polyana. What he learned from Tolstoy illumined
his whole life, and when he discovered the Essene Gospel o f Peace it
was a shining affirmation o f his lifelong dedication to pacifism. He was
not the usual sort o f publisher who looks on his work as a commercial
enterprise; his was rather a religious mission in life—to make available
to everyone those books which could best lead them to a more simple
and harmonious natural life. He had an unusually open and unorthodox
mind, and he delighted in the discovery o f new authors who wrote
about natural life styles and life reform. The authors whose books he
published were not looked upon as commercial clients, but rather as
comrades-in-arms, brothers with whom he walked in a pilgrimage o f
peace through an increasingly troubled world.
Peace in all things, and simplicity o f living—these were the values
he had learned from Tolstoy which in his later years he found affirmed
so eloquently in the Essene Gospel o f Peace. Glowing with happiness

186
to be at the seminar with other kindred souls, he told me that the great
journey o f his youth to visit his master, Tolstoy, had been reborn in
him when he discovered the Essene Gospel o f Peace.
It was the beginning o f a long relationship through which he pub­
lished a good number o f my books—a relationship which was always
between good friends instead o f merely business partners. In fact, I
never found such a friendship with any o f my other publishers.
There were many other men and women who came to the seminar
from all walks o f life, including the young artist who had sketched my
portrait on board the Dutch ship, all seeking to learn, all striving to
strengthen that which represented the best part o f themselves.
I MEET HIS MAJESTY’
S SWANMASTER

One day I had a break from the lectures and I was walking along
the river, enjoying the silence and beauty o f nature. Suddenly, a very
respectable-looking gentleman in an elegant uniform approached me and
asked my permission to stamp the swans which were floating so grace­
fully on the surface o f the water. I gaped at him in astonishment, as I
was convinced that with my rather timid grasp o f English I had not
heard correctly—I thought he had said he wanted to “stamp the swans.”
As it turned out, that was exactly what he wanted to do. He went on to
explain, with great pride, that he was “His Majesty’s Swanmaster.”Well,
by this time I was repeating to myself the admonition o f my old friend
Horatius who said nil admirari (never be surprised), and I listened with
respectful attention as he explained to me that all the swans o f England
were the property o f the Crown for hundreds o f years, and from time
to time the swans were “stamped”to keep track o f their numbers. So I
made a courteous gesture and graciously authorized him to stamp all
our swans. Purcell doubled up with laughter when I told him later o f
my adventure, and enjoyed tremendously my encounter with a rather
unusual aspect o f British tradition.
HOW I PREVENTED A HAZARDOUS HIMALAYAN JOURNEY
FOR A DISTINGUISHED OLD LADY
Another incident I will not forget had to do with a very nice old
lady from Scotland who caught me after one o f my lectures on Buddha,
telling me she was so impressed by the teachings o f Buddha that she had
decided to leave the very next week for Tibet and visit all those places
where my ancestor Alexander Csoma de Koros had written the first
Tibetan-English dictionary and Tibetan Researches, and asked me for
exact information on how to get there. I quickly discovered the stub­
bornness o f the Scottish people, as it took a very great effort on my
part to persuade her not to go there. I told her that to travel to Tibet

187
 kS
The author The author (left) discusses a point
t the International Health & Education Centre with his translator, Purcell (right)

One o f Sir Stafford Cripps’portable cabins Purcell (left) and the author (right)
perform Essene breathing exercises
today in search o f Buddha would be | i i m as luoh-.ii ,j> hi iih |u iis.b * in
search o f him. If we would be living at iIk .... ..I lin.jj AfiuliiH limit I
would definitely recommend that she navel i Iku. to f. , p «
glimpse o f Buddha—but at the present time sin- wmil.l iiever ft*w
glory o f ancient India which did not exist anymore. She \v,r> wr i di-wp
pointed but I finally prevailed, promising in exchange ilmi wlnuievet
I would have my next seminar I would personally write to Iiei mid lei
her know. I secretly felt a certain admiration for her courage, being so
determined to pursue truth at whatever cost, and we indeed met again
a few years later and shared some unforgettable adventures. Her name
was Edith Lydall.
SAD FAREWELL TO ENGLAND, AND TO AN ERA OF PEACE
Inevitably, the summer drew to a close, and as the year was 1937,
it was not only the end o f the seminar, but the end o f a whole way o f
life for England. In retrospect, the coming holocaust gave an unutterable
poignancy and beauty to that summer at Surrey.
A great deal o f material was produced during the seminar, material
that had to be edited into book form. But for this purpose, I needed
undisturbed quiet in a warm climate—and the rains had already started
in England. So Purcell and I got out the maps and after some discussion
decided that the island o f Jamaica would fit my purpose exactly. I be­
came the proud owner o f a new-fangled contraption, a pre-fabricated
house that could be put together in two or three hours. I had this
packed into boxes and I embarked for Jamaica.
All during my voyage, I thought with affection about my students
with their starry-eyed enthusiasm, the Swanmaster in his resplendent
uniform, and an elderly Scottish lady who was not afraid to tackle
the Himalayas in her search for truth.

His Majesty’ s swans

at the International Health & Education Centre
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 JAMAICAN INTERLUDE

After an uneventful sea voyage, still thinking about those last few
weeks o f cold weather and long rains in England, I sailed again into the
waters o f the Caribbean, clear and warm under a cloudless blue sky.
And soon the contours o f the beautiful island o f Jamaica appeared on
the horizon, a very welcome sight. My understanding with Purcell was
that he would join me later when I had enough material ready for him
to translate from French to English.
I disembarked successfully and began a little exploration o f the
island to find a secluded place to settle in and do some serious writing
for at least five or six months. Although I enjoyed the Blue Mountains
and the picturesque beauty o f Montego Bay, these more well-known
places were not primitive enough and there seemed to be too many
tourists. Finally, after exploring the region around old Spanish Town,
I discovered an acre o f very lovely and untouched land, far away from
everything, which seemed to fit my purpose perfectly. I bought the
property, and with the help o f a few native neighbors, erected the pre­
fabricated house I had brought from England. I improvised a fence from
tree branches, made a path through the land for walking, and settled
down in expectation o f a quiet writing-vacation.

MY NEIGHBOR, FRANCIS THE PATRIARCH

My only neighbors were a small group o f natives not too far away
on the opposite side o f the little road. This group was actually a family
community, perhaps two or three dozen men, women and children,
all sons, daughters, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren o f one
extraordinary man whose name was Francis. Francis, in his late seven­
ties but with the strength o f a much younger man, governed his family
community like a patriarch o f the Old Testament, and was apparently
respected as the Wise Man o f that little region. He was very tall, at least
six feet six inches, and always carried himself very erect. We immediate­
ly became good friends and he soon made himself indispensable to me.
If there was any work to be done, any small improvements to make life
more comfortable, it was Francis who did them. Sometimes he worked
alone, sometimes he reached into his plentiful supply o f children or
grandchildren to help him. When I would ask him to do something, his
reply was invariably an enthusiastic, “Voy a buscar mi burro!”(I will
look for my donkey!), because Francis spoke perfect Spanish! At my
initial surprise, he explained that in his youth he had worked several
years on the Panama Canal when it was being built, and the Spanish
he learned there he never forgot. He was very proud o f his linguistic

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Francis
accomplishment, and whenever we were speaking together in Spanish
in the company o f a few o f his community he seemed to be very pleased
at how much he impressed them with his knowledge o f such a wonder­
ful foreign language.
So several times a week he looked for his burro and went off,
returning with excellent fruits, vegetables and other edibles I needed.
Then he began to come over even when there was nothing he could do
for me, and particularly later when different groups o f followers o f the
Essene teachings from the United States began to appear on the island
to visit me to discuss health, philosophy and practical matters concer­
ning the organization o f the movement in the eastern part o f that
country. On those occasions Francis was always somewhere close in
the background, apparently doing little things as a pretext to listen
to our conversations.

THE BLACK ESSENES OF JAMAICA

Then one Sunday morning, Francis came over dressed in his most
valuable possession, a black suit, which he wore with .great dignity. He
said he wanted to speak seriously with me, and asked my permission to
start a little church so he could teach those wonderful ideas he had
heard me discussing to his sons and daughters and grandchildren, in
other words, to his whole community. I was deeply moved by his
sincerity and o f course gave my wholehearted benediction.
We had a few talks about it so I could give him some advice, and it
was amazing to see how much knowledge he had picked up just by
listening to me talk with other people. He had an instinctive love for
the Essene way and an intuitive talent for communicating the simple,
powerful message o f the Essenes to his followers.
And he soon had a great number o f followers! I watched and
listened when they gathered together and Francis always spoke to his
congregation with wisdom and authority. And how they were singing!
That is the part I will always remember—the very moving songs they
sang practically the whole o f every Sunday. I don’ t know what they
were singing about, because I couldn’ t understand a word, but the
melodies were very beautiful and unique. They resembled not at all
the American Negro spirituals I was familiar with. There were perhaps
a dozen different songs, and I soon found myself humming along with
those melodies which came so much from the heart.
And so Francis, whom I will never forget riding his beloved don­
key—his feet trailing the ground because o f his great height, but his
back straight like a ramrod—Francis became an Essene minister.

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 JOE LOUIS ELECTRIFIES THE ESSENE CONGREGATION
Not all o f Francis’enthusiasms were o f a philosophical ...... .
One day he came to see me with his entire community in low, asking il
they could please listen to the heavyweight championship boxing in.iich
between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling on my little shortwave radio,
I was very amused, thinking that boxing was not exactly an L nsciic
sport, but I kept a serious face and assured them they would be very
welcome to listen to the fight on my radio. Actually, their intense
interest in the match was based on more than just a liking for the sport.
They did not know too much o f world affairs, but they did understand
what was going on in Germany, and that Hitler intended to build a race
o f supermen which did not include such people as Negroes. Living under
liberal British rule, Francis had never encountered racial prejudice, and
he took the Nazi dogma as a personal insult. Since Schmeling was the
pride o f Germany and Hitler’ s personal choice to eliminate Louis once
and for all, and since Schmeling had already won one fight from him,
this particular championship bout was a matter o f vindication—not only
for Louis, but for Negroes everywhere.
So we all gathered in my house around the radio, and Francis and
his family were visibly worried about the outcome. I reassured them
that Louis would win, not because I knew anything about boxing, but
just to make them feel better. They took heart from my prediction but
still looked nervous as the fight began. Well, anyone who remembers
that historic fight will remember that thirty seconds into the first round
the announcer uttered an amazed, “It’ s all over!”Francis and his family
looked at each other in consternation—was it all over for Joe Louis?
Then the announcer went on to shout the incredible news that Max
Schmeling, Nazi superstar, was knocked out by Joe Louis in the first
seconds o f the first round!
Jubilation and glee overtook my Essene boxing fans, and they
laughed and sang and hugged each other, and me, and it was a day of
great celebration. I acquired a reputation for prophetic knowledge, as
I had predicted the outcome, and I am sure that the jo y around the
outskirts o f Spanish Town was fully as intense as the depression around
Hitler’ s inner circle.

A LONELY, FORSAKEN SYNAGOGUE IN THE WILDERNESS

My days on the island were peaceful and uneventful —I rose early
and was walking, thinking and writing most o f the time. Only once I
made an excursion to the surrounding little hills and valleys, taking
along a machete I had borrowed from Francis to cut away undergrowth
if necessary. And I found something which was not perhaps an earth-

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shaking discovery, but from an archeological viewpoint certainly strange
and interesting.
There in the tall grass o f a Jamaican valley stood a very ancient
and long-abandoned synagogue. Its wooden walls were half-rotten, and
cobwebs brushed my face as I entered. Inside was utter stillness. Only
the sound o f the wind could be heard as it moved a few hanging shreds
o f silk. I saw the remains o f an old seven-branched candlestick and a
mouse scurried out from what was once a Torah. I wanted to go up to
a little gallery but didn’ t dare in view o f the precarious condition o f the
w ood and the sagging ceiling. It was a very strange feeling to find an
ancient, disintegrating synagogue in the wilderness o f an island in the
West Indies, completely isolated, abandoned and forgotten. It was pro­
bably built by a small settlement o f Sephardic Jews who took refuge in
Jamaica after their expulsion from Spain, and I tried to imagine how
it must have looked when the w ood was still fresh and the candles were
blazing on the walls. Now the Hebrew letters were hardly legible. I
could almost hear the melancholy chanting o f the Cantor, lamenting
the fate o f his people—but it was only the wind. I learned later that the
reason it was so intact and untouched was that the natives had a super­
stitious fear o f it and did not dare to enter.
It was an impressive experience, although it didn’ t contribute any
positive knowledge to my archeological endeavors. But I surely took
an unforgettable memory away with me.

SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS’VISIT AND THE GATHERING STORM

At that time, the political conditions in Jamaica were somewhat

turbulent. Fortunately, it did not affect the region where I settled, and
even my neighbors only heard a few words here and there to know what
was going on. It seemed there were two political parties, one which was
led by a fiery speaker named Bustamante, the other a more moderate
party led by the Oxford-educated Manley. Both were natives o f Jamaica,
but Bustamante aroused the emotions o f his followers, whereas Manley
appealed more to reason and common sense. Eventually the situation
became so precarious that the Highlander Regiment from the Blue
Mountains had to come down to enforce law and order, which seemed
to be the British policy on the island.
Finally, Purcell gave me the great news that Sir Stafford Cripps
was on his way from England to make peace between the warring
factions. I knew he had handled successfully many similar situations
involving diplomatic negotiations, but I still did not envy him his task.
However, he was successful in establishing peace between the two par­
ties, and he did it with his usual supreme tact and diplomacy, although

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My portable palace
I knew that in his heart he was much closer to the Oxford-educated
attorney, Manley, than to the colorful Bustamante.
Up to that time, Francis had no idea who Sir Stafford Cripps was,
but listening to our conversation he gathered that he was one o f the
most influential statesmen in England, and he trusted implicitly my
judgment about all things. So one day he came to ask me if it would be
all right for him to greet Sir Stafford and present him with a bouquet
o f flowers at his arrival. I told him it was a wonderful idea.
When the great moment arrived, there went Francis in his black
suit in all his splendor, and the next day all the newspapers carried the
picture o f Francis presenting a bouquet o f flowers to Miss Diana Cripps,
daughter o f Sir Stafford. If it was possible, Francis stood even taller
than usual, almost bursting with pride and happiness.
I finally finished my book, translated by Purcell, which was pub­
lished by the Daniel Co. in England under the title Man, Art and World
Conceptions (now known in the U.S. as Toward the Conquest o f the
Inner Cosmos). At the same time, they published a few others in a series
called the Pan Pamphlets, with a beautiful dancing Pan playing his flute
on the cover. As the last chapter came to an end, I felt it was time to
leave Jamaica and proceed to my next project: the intensive study o f
the Toltec and Aztec traditions o f the Sacred Cosmic Ball Game o f
precolumbian Mexico, traditions which were full o f cosmogonical and
cosmological meaning.
I gave my little house to my faithful majordomo, Francis, as a
going-away present, and in turn I was given a beautiful farewell party
on behalf o f the whole Franciscan (if I may be excused the pun) Essene
community. I collected my things and sailed away for Belize in great
expectation o f important archeological discoveries in Mexico.
Unfortunately, the year was 1938, and the terrible events taking
place in Europe would have a drastic influence on my journey, turning
it into quite a different expedition than the previous one to Mexico,
where our only problem had been to shoo the cattle from the highway!

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 SHIPWRECK AND SURVIVAL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

It was Lucretius who said cognoscere est cognoxcere ctiusas to

know is to know the origins—and this story about my tempestuous
entry into Mexico will add a further dimension to my later archeological
studies there and the many books I wrote about them.

MY INTRUSION INTO A BUREAUCRATIC SANCTUARY

As I mentioned, the year was 1938, and the situation in E u r o p e

was very tense. When I arrived from Jamaica to Belize (British Mon
duras), I was told in no uncertain terms that it was hopeless to try to
enter Mexico—that because o f fears o f the quinta columna, or fifth
column spies infiltrating from Europe, Mexico City had given strict
orders to their Consul in Belize not to let anyone enter Mexico until
further notice.
This was certainly unexpected as well as bad news. I had been so
occupied by my preparations to explore the cosmological significances
o f archeological discoveries in Mexico, it had not occurred to me that
I might be prevented from going there! Sometimes archeologists become
so engrossed by the past they are studying, that they can forget about
the present, even when there may be a war in progress.
But I have always been an incorrigible optimist, so I decided to
visit the Mexican Consulate and try to obtain a visa anyway, in spite
o f the warning I had received.
The office o f the Consul o f Mexico was a wonderful prototype o f
bureaucracy, circa forty years ago. Shelves o f dusty papers and docu­
ments lined the walls, there was an old table with two shaky chairs, one
on each side o f the table, and in one corner a moth-eaten sofa whose
occupant, a rather stout gentleman with a very large moustache, was
snoring loudly. It did not take me long to realize that my sleeping friend
was the only human being in sight, and he did not look like an easy
person to awaken. My polite coughs were ignored, and I got no response
when I moved the chair back and forth. The snoring continued. Finally,
in desperation, I lifted the table a few inches and dropped it down in
a cloud o f dust. Sneezing, he awoke, and seeing me, exclaimed, “What
are you doing here?”Trying to keep a straight face, I explained to him
that I was an archeologist and that it was necessary to go to Mexico to
continue my work—therefore, I needed a visa. He shook his head. “No
es posible.” (That is impossible.) I asked him why it was impossible.
He replied that he had orders from “el Seiior Consul”not to give visas
to anyone without further instructions from Mexico City. ! asked him
if I could talk with el Senor Consul? My friend yawned as he looked

197
toward the closed door. “No es posible,”he repeated, “el Senor Consul
no esta.” (The Consul is not here.) I patiently asked him where the
Consul was. He said that the Consul was having a siesta. I said I would
wait for him. My friend yawned again and told me I could wait if I
wanted to, but that there was not much hope to get a visa, even if I
was successful to see the Consul. And with that he went back to sleep.
So I sat, alone in the dusty office, with no other choice but to wait
until the elusive Consul would appear. Since I had nothing else to do,
and somewhat inspired by the atmosphere and the snoring, I also fell
asleep.

ENTER MY SAVIOR-THE MEXICAN CONSUL,

MY CLASSMATE FROM THE SORBONNE

I had just dozed o ff when I felt someone shaking me awake. I

opened my eyes to see before me a respectable-looking gentleman who
was asking me the same question: “What are you doing here?”This
time I sat up, fully awake and very surprised, because this same gentle­
man who had awakened me was none other than an old friend and
former classmate o f mine at the University o f Paris! I remembered him
well—he had sat only two chairs away from me. We gave each other
a big abrazo (hug), and after asking me again “what the hell I was doing
there,”he asked me to come into his office so we could talk.
We had a wonderful time reminiscing and remembering good old
times at the university. The time flew by until finally he said, “Come,
old friend, let us go to dinner at the Chez Gaston and continue our
talk. It is the best French restaurant in Belize.”
I said, “Now wait a moment, my friend—before you take me any­
where, I must tell you why I am here, especially since you asked me so
many times. The fact is, I am very anxious to get a visa to travel to
Mexico.”
He laughed, clapped me on the shoulder, and said, “Oh, that is
no problem!” He called to the snoring gentleman with the big mous­
tache, “Make up a Forma 14 right away for Dr. Bordeaux!”
Well, it seemed my troubles were over and we went to Chez Gaston
and had a delicious French dinner, continuing to exchange all kinds o f
memories o f our college days at the Sorbonne. In the course o f our
conversation he asked me if I had transportation to Mexico. I told him
frankly that I had not thought about it. He went on to say that while
it was relatively easy to get to Chetumal, a Mexican city just across the
border, after that there was no way to cross what at that time was (and
still is, for the most part) uncharted jungle territory. If I wanted to get
to Central Mexico, he went on, I would have to go by boat. I asked him

198
if he had any ideas on how I could find one. He assured me that he
knew the owner o f a boat which left every twenty days from Chetumal
to Tampico and he would be happy to introduce me through a letter
o f recommendation, guaranteeing my passage. He finished by stating
that once I was in Tampico, I would find it easy to go anywhere I
wished in Mexico. And on that happy note, we finished our dinner and
resumed our reminiscences.
OUR JOVIAL BOAT DISINTEGRATES IN THE STORM
After a warm farewell, I proceeded to Chetumal with the blessing
o f my friend and his letter o f recommendation in my pocket. Chetumal,
at that time, was a very small, sleepy, but charming and relaxed town.
Typical o f a tropical climate, it was steaming during the day, but night­
time brought ocean breezes and a delightful coolness. I visited the
owner o f the boat, gave him the letter o f recommendation, and without
further ado he informed me the ship would sail the next day, carrying
a cargo o f tons o f chicle—that strange substance used to make chewing
gum—and its destination was Tampico.
It was a rather large boat with a friendly crew who made me
welcome right away. Shortly after we embarked, everyone started to
sing a song from his native land, and I sang Au Clair de la Lune and
Alouette and a few other French songs with great success. We all became
good friends and for some time our voyage was without incident.
But not for long. Someone forgot to pay close enough attention
to the meteorological announcements on the radio and all o f a sudden,
a few hours after sunset, the stars were blocked from view by heavy
clouds and a wind came up which got stronger and stronger. The boat
began to pitch wildly, and I realized the age o f the craft as I heard all
kinds o f strange cracking noises from every direction.
The crew worked frantically to save the situation but their efforts
could not change the fact that the boat was simply coming apart under
the enormous strain and pressures generated by the storm. The Captain
finally approached me with a very somber face and asked me, “Senor
Doctor, sabe usted nadar?” (Can you swim?) I told him that I could.
“Well,” he said, “in that case I suggest you jump into the ocean and
swim—because very soon the boat will be in pieces!”
SWIMMING FOR MY LIFE
So we jumped into the ocean! It was certainly not what I had
expected when I boarded the friendly freighter in Chetumal. The month
was December and the water was like ice. The huge waves which were
breaking up the boat were even worse now that I was in their midst, and
every time I wanted to breathe, a mountain o f freezing water fell over

199
me. In desperation I soon developed a kind o f rhythmic breathing to
coincide with the cycle o f the waves, breathing every time between two
o f them. I was extremely grateful for my previous training in France
in long-distance swimming which came to my aid now in a struggle for
life. Long-distance swimming was one o f my specialties, but I never
swam with such motivation as I did then! I surely would have won first
prize if I had used so much energy in a game or competition.
But at the moment there were no thoughts in my head at all about
anything save the determination to survive. I swam and swam in a haze
o f numbness—on and on and on for I don ’ t know how many hours.
An eternity passed—an eternity o f freezing ocean and pounding waves.
Sometime during that endless night the waves stopped, though the
water was still as cold. My body desperately wanted to stop swimming,
but I mused that it was a very inglorious way to end my terrestrial
career—after surviving the perilous journey to the Hunzas, the killer
ants and tropical fever in equatorial Africa, and Fred Marchal’ s driving,
was I now going to be liquidated (literally) just because an elderly boat
had fallen apart in a storm? The answer was no! And I gathered up the
last remaining dregs o f my strength and continued to swim.
THREE SURVIVORS ON A ROCKY ISLAND:
THE COOK, THE CAPTAIN, AND ME

After hours and hours, finally my perseverance paid off. Under my

foot I suddenly felt a rock! At first, I thought it was my imagination.
But it was a rock, and as I moved forward, I felt another, and then
another, and at last a much larger rock which I was able to pull myself
up to and sit on. What a welcome and beautiful rock that was! It was
just starting to get light and I looked around, trying to spot any other
sign o f life. Something stirred on a rock nearby, and to my profound
delight and surprise it turned out to be the ship’ s cook! We stumbled
toward each other and embraced with emotion, still in a suspended
state o f disbelief that we had somehow, miraculously survived. How­
ever, we were still in danger o f freezing to death. Our limbs were com ­
pletely without feeling, paralyzed from the cold, and when the sun
finally came up, the temperature seemed to plummet still further. In
spite o f our numbness, we tried to move around a bit to achieve a little
warmth, and we even made attempts to massage each other in order to
stimulate our circulation.
Suddenly, our attention was drawn to another form struggling up
to the rock—it was the Captain o f the ship! Apparently the same current
had drawn all three o f us to these rocks. He did not see us as we drew
near, and even in our miserable condition my sense o f humor refused to
be daunted and I asked him, “Can you swim?”

200
 He looked up as if he had seen a ghost. “What?”he stammered.
“You, here?”
“Yes, yes,”I said, “and look who is also here—the cook.”
So we shivered together, trying to keep each other warm with
what little body heat remained to us, waiting for salvation until the
sun would burn o ff the dreadful cold.

HUNGER AND THIRST ON THE ROCKS

After two endless hours, a tropical morning sun thawed our weary
bones and our temperatures returned to somewhere near normal. Then
we were faced with another crisis: we were ravenously and desperately
hungry! All that exercise o f swimming in an icy ocean had created
enormous appetites with very little prospect o f being assuaged. We had
already established the fact that our rocks were the outer fringe o f an
uninhabited island where there was absolutely nothing to eat. Never­
theless, we began to look around, as it was better than doing nothing.
It was the cook who suddenly spotted a huge turtle and decided to
go after it. I warned him not to, but he was already tasting turtle soup
and ran o ff to tackle the creature. But he slipped on some seaweed
and somehow the turtle wound up on top o f him. He yelled at us for
help, and it took a lot o f effort on our part to push the turtle o ff him.
The huge creature lumbered off, no doubt quite taken aback at this
unusual interruption o f his morning routine, and we helped the poor
cook to his feet, shaken and bruised but otherwise unhurt. However,
we still had our enormous hunger, and that was a problem not so
easily solved.
But I intended to solve it. I did not intend to die o f hunger after
escaping thus far the wrecked ship and the freezing ocean. Looking
around, I noticed some sea birds, large birds which the Mexicans call
pajaros bobos. I noticed also that in a certain area there were more sea
birds than in others. So I called to the others to follow me, and we
walked toward the place where a great many o f them were congregating.
It was there we discovered the eggs! They were large, about the size o f
my fist, and no gourmet banquet could ever have looked tastier to us
at that moment. We each picked up some eggs which looked fresh and
consumed as many as we could. We ate swiftly, silently, and with great
intensity, and soon we felt almost human again. We knew that we had
averted the danger o f starving. But now another obstacle loom ed before
us: we were all terribly thirsty from eating the eggs, and we knew that
small islands such as these have no source o f water readily available.
We faced yet another threat o f death, and it was ironic that we might
die o f thirst while surrounded by an ocean o f water!

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 GOOD OLD PLINIUS COMES TO MY RESCUE: WE LICK THE GRASS

I went o ff by myself to think, because I knew the problem of

water was more serious than a lack o f food. I also knew that searching
for water would be fruitless and only expend our small store o f energy
to no avail; so I began to concentrate, walking up and down. And soon
the answer came to me.
I remembered a scroll I had read at the Benedictine monastery at
Monte Cassino by the great Roman naturalist, Plinius, in which he
described the habits o f the Essenes at the Dead Sea, another area of
the world where there is virtually no water. Plinius told o f how in the
early years on the desert, before their oasis was established, the Essenes
would awaken at dawn, participate in their morning communions with
the forces o f nature (which they called Angels), and then “partake o f
the morning dew from the desert flowers and plants,”which meant that
they spent perhaps half an hour licking dew from plants—dew which
was prolific in those early morning hours before the sun began to burn
high in the sky. This was how the Essenes managed to survive in the
desert without water.
I quickly looked around—sure enough, there was still a lot o f dew
on the sea plants and grass at that early morning hour—and I immediate­
ly got down on all fours and began to lick the moisture from the plants.
My friends came over hurriedly, thinking I had fallen down, and when
they saw me on my hands and knees licking the plants they exchanged
looks as if to say, “What a pity! With all these experiences he has gone
completely mad!”But still I continued to lick the dew, and after awhile
it dawned on them what I was doing. They saw that I was beginning to
satisfy my thirst, and that was enough motivation for them to try it,
too. Soon all three o f us were on all fours, going from plant to plant,
searching for dew which had to be licked o ff laboriously. It may sound
simple but it was, in fact, very difficult work, and it took more than an
hour o f effort before we had more or less satisfied our thirst. But at
least I had found a way, thanks to Plinius and the Essenes, to keep us
from dying o f thirst.
For the next eleven or twelve days we followed the same program:
eggs from the pajaros bobos, followed by the life-saving dew which we
licked o ff the plants. It was a strange diet, to say the least, but it saved
our lives. I was thankful that the pajaros bobos were not more aggressive
birds, but allowed us to share their eggs. It may not have been so
romantic as the legend o f the raven who fed St. Benedict—but those
large sea birds will always have my eternal gratitude for coming to our
rescue, and a permanent place in my heart.

202
 Around the thirteenth day, we saw a most w e l c o m e sight; a f i sher
man in a boat who rescued us and took us, not to Tampico, w h i c h was
our destination, but to Vera Cruz. Needless to say, we were very h a p p y
to leave our island, which was definitely not the tropical paradise m o s t
people think o f when they envision remote, deserted islands.
HAUNTED BY EGGS IN VERA CRUZ
My friends and fellow survivors, the cook and the Captain, wanted
to celebrate when we reached civilization again, so the Captain acted
as our host for dinner at the best restaurant in Vera Cruz. We were trea­
ted as heroes after our ordeal—a good thing, because in our bedraggled
state we otherwise would not have gotten past the front door.
The waiter approached and very courteously asked for our order.
I asked him if he had anything other than meat, as I was a vegetarian.
He beamed and nodded, “Oh yes, Senor, we have eggs!”
“NO!” I shouted, at the top o f my lungs. The poor man jumped
back several feet, probably thinking I had lost my reason as a result o f
the shipwreck. The Captain came to his rescue and explained that we
had been living on eggs for twelve days and could not be blamed for
having an aversion to them. Somewhat mollified, the waiter retreated
to the kitchen, returning after a few minutes with delicious frijoles
(beans), tortillas, and other delicious dishes. We all agreed it was the
best meal o f our lives, and we also came to the unanimous conclusion
that we never wanted to see eggs again.
Once on land, the Captain and the cook were soon in touch with
their families and resumed their normal lives. I was not so lucky. All my
possessions were at the bottom o f the ocean, and I was completely
without funds, clothes or even identification. Fortunately, however,
I had managed to get to Mexico, I spoke Spanish, and the good Captain
lent me a hundred pesos which would take me to Mexico City and
the French Consul. I thanked him gratefully, embraced my two friends
again with emotion, and set o ff for the capital.

203
 CROSSING AND AGONY IN THE SONORA DESERT

MY FATE IS DECIDED BY THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE

When I arrived to Mexico City, the first place I went to was the
Secretaria de Relaciones (State Department) as I was extremely anxious
to legalize my stay in Mexico. I was all too aware that the beautiful visa
I had obtained from my classmate, the Mexican Consul in Belize, had
by now disintegrated into pulp on the ocean floor.
When I entered the offices on Bucareli Street, I was greeted by
open-mouthed stares and undisguised hostility and suspicion. Remem­
bering the physical state I was in, it was no wonder. Not only had I lost
at least fifteen pounds during my ordeal, but the sun had burned me
almost black, so that I looked as if I were coming from equatorial
Africa. But that was nothing compared to what I was wearing. For the
very good reason that I had nothing else, I still had on the same suit
I had been wearing when I jumped into the ocean, and it does not take
much imagination to visualize what I looked like—a rather dilapidated
version o f Charlie Chaplin, without the hat and stick. With a plucky
attempt at humor, I smiled and said, “It is all right, gentlemen—I am not
a fifth column!” For some reason, this statement only made things
worse instead o f better. So I tried to explain to them about the ship­
wreck, about archeology, why I wanted to stay in Mexico, that I really
was a respectable person but had lost all my possessions, including my
visa, in the accident, etc. etc. They did not believe one word. From
what they said I gathered they considered me to be a kind o f combina­
tion o f madman and Nazi spy. I told them I understood they were at
war with Nazi Germany but that I was a Frenchman, and therefore
could not be a Nazi. Oh n o—they told me there were plenty o f French
Nazis, too! Then they began to argue vehemently about who I was and
what to do about me, and there was nothing I could do but stand there
and wait while they discussed my fate at great length. Finally, after
what seemed an interminable period, they told me they had decided to
take me to their Jefe, or Chief.
DEUS EX MACHINA - DR. GAMIO TAKES ME UNDER HIS WING
My questioners seemed relieved as they ushered me into their
Chief’s office, as if they had successfully pushed upstairs a rather too
demanding problem. The Chief asked me courteously to sit down, and
then, surprisingly, began to bombard me with all kinds o f questions
about archeology. It was not the kind o f interrogation I expected as
a prime fifth column suspect, but I was certainly glad to get away from
the subject o f war, and my answers to his unusually well-informed

204
archeological questions were lengiliy and >1 i.nl, ,| ;\i l i t socmin!'
satisfied, he got up from his desk, came <>vvi 111 me ami dn ».1. mv ii m.l
warmly, saying, “I am Dr. Gamio.”
With that unexpected introduction, I suddenly so-pp. <1 toais
hostile environment into one o f scholarly comradeship, (oi I m.
well who Dr. Gamio was. He had written three large v o l u m e s on ih<
Poblaciones de Teotihuacan, mammoth works on the Tulin Culinn ,
o f the Teotihuacan region. I understood then why he had asked me all
those questions about archeology.
After enjoying my delighted surprise, he told me, “I suspected
immediately who you were, as soon as you started to talk with me. In
fact, I have read your treatise on the Sacred- Toltec Ball Game* and I
would be honored if you would come to my home this evening to meet:
my wife and autograph some o f your books which I have in my library.
But first, I hope I can persuade you to go to a tailor and get a presen­
table suit.”
“My dear Dr. Gamio,”I said, “I will be delighted to com e to your
home this evening, and I certainly look forward to many pleasurable
hours discussing archeology with such an esteemed colleague as your­
self. But as to getting a presentable suit, I am afraid that with all my
luggage at the bottom o f the ocean, I am left with only forty-seven
pesos—all that was left when I bought my train ticket to com e here!”
He asked me in what bank I had an account, and I told him the
Banque de Credite Lyonnaise. He said that was fine—he didn’ t expect
a check because he knew I did not have a checkbook—but with this
understood, he loaned me five hundred pesos and beseeched me to
go and buy a suit and then come back.
I did just that, having first to cope with suspicious looks from the
tailor, as members o f that profession tend to judge a man by what he
wears. But soon I was wearing a presentable suit, feeling and looking
much more civilized. I left my tattered shipwreck-suit with the tailor
and returned to Dr. Gamio, who by that time was ready to take me
to his home.
It was the beginning o f a very long and fruitful friendship. In
fact, I have often felt that the shipwreck was worth it as it led me to
Dr. Gamio. I spent a great deal o f time in his beautiful, ten-thousand
volume library, and his help was invaluable to me in my succeeding
investigations. In due time, this research led to several books o f mine,
among them The Soul o f Ancient Mexico and its Spanish version La
Filosofia del Mexico Antiguo, both o f which had several editions. I also

*This was the title o f my thesis for the degree o f Doctor o f Philosophy at the Sorbonne.

205
wrote Death o f the New World, The Game o f Gods, Ancient America:
Paradise Lost, The New Fire, both in English and Spanish, and many
more, all results o f these investigations. My dream o f exploring the
cosm ogony and cosm ology o f ancient precolumbian Mexico was more
than fulfilled, in spite o f my unorthodox entrance into Mexico!
THE NAZI CONQUEST OF FRANCE SEALS MY DECISION TO STAY IN MEXICO
MY GOAL: BAJA CALIFORNIA
Just as my entry to Mexico had been (literally) tempestuous, so
indeed was my departure.
When I completed all my research and it was time to return to
France, events transpired in Europe which made me not want to return
there. The Germans had just broken through the Maginot line and were
advancing toward Paris, and I definitely did not feel good about going
back to France to live under German occupation. I also felt that the war
would last for several more years—which it did—and that it would be
a good long while before I would be able to return to Europe. So I
thought I would settle somewhere to digest and elaborate all my notes
and material which I had collected.
Being accustomed to the fine Mediterranean climate o f the Riviera,
where I had lived near Nice for many years, I decided to go to the
meteorological observatory at Tacubaya to try and find a location as
similar in climate as possible. After studying all the charts o f maximum
and minimum rainfall, hygrometric data, weather statistics, etc., my
search centered on the area around a little town in the north o f Baja
California called Tecate. According to all the data I could find, Tecate
had a perfect Mediterranean climate.
So, armed with the charts which proved Tecate to be an ideal
place to live, though I had never seen it, I traveled to the border town
o f Nogales, intending to enter the United States and travel from there
to Tecate, which was right on the border.
MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE U.S. IMMIGRATION
So began my first encounter with the United States Department
o f Immigration. I was stopped and asked what papers I had. I told the
immigration official that I had all my papers, in fact, I had a Mexican
visa. (I said this rather proudly, considering all the trouble I had gone
to, to get it.) He was unimpressed. He said I could not enter the United
States with just a Mexican visa—I had to have this paper and that paper,
this notarized and that attested to, and I would have to write to France
for a police certificate and a certificate o f good conduct and a birth
certificate, and on and on—he reeled o ff at least ten documents I had
to have in order to cross the border.

206
 I told him, “But, sir—the Germans have just invaded my home­
land-how am I supposed to get these things?”
“I am sorry,”he said, not sounding sorry at all, “but you must
have these papers before we can let you enter the U.S. We don ’ t: know
anything about you—why, you might even be a fifth column!”
There was that fifth column again. But 1 did not waste time by
asking him why it was that people were always identifying a peaceful
archeologist as a fifth column. Instead, I asked him if there was any
other way I could get to Tecate. He smiled rather sarcastically and said,
“Oh, sure, you can go through the Sonora desert.”
I ignored his sarcasm and thanked him politely, saying I wo u l d
rather tackle the desert than the bureaucracy, and took my leave o f
the American border.
THE FORBIDDING SONORA DESERT: THE SAHARA OF MEXICO
Now, in fact, I had never heard o f the Sonora desert, and did not
know that what the U.S. Immigration official suggested was virtually
impossible. But when I reached the town o f Santa Ana, in the state o f
Sonora, and talked to different people, I realized it all too clearly.
When I asked how one could get to the Gulf o f California and from
there to Tecate, without exception I was told that I must go to the
Nogales border to enter the U.S. for the simple reason that only on the
American side was there a road—on the Mexican side was nothing but
the uninhabited Sonora desert. (Although a road does exist today, at
that time it was not even in the planning stage.) However, I persisted
with my questions—for example, didn’ t anyone ever cross the desert on
the Mexican side? I was told that once in a great while, somebody
would try, but very seldom. The only way was by horseback through
hundreds o f miles o f burning desert with no water from one end to the
other. They finished by saying I should go to Nogales.
But I had already been to Nogales, and I knew that route was
impossible. And furthermore, after considerable meditation, I decided
that the desert was a less formidable adversary than the United States
bureaucracy. So I found an elderly gentleman who sold me a good,
strong horse, I bought some food and several gourds which I emptied
and filled with water, a large straw hat and a saddle, all o f which used
up about two-thirds o f my capital. So equipped, I began my supposedly
impossible journey through the Sonora desert.
AGONY IN THE DESERT - MY TWO GUARDIAN ANGELS
ARRIVAL TO THE PROMISED LAND
It did not take much traveling before I realized that the bureau­
cracy was indeed the best way, even if it would take years, because it

207
was obvious I would not leave the desert alive. The first day was a
nightmare o f hot wind and hot sand, an interminable horizon stretching
endlessly before me o f eternal hot wind and sand. When night fell at
last, I decided to keep on traveling and change my strategy, traveling
after that only at night. But o f course it was very difficult i<> sleep
during the day because there was no shade, just here and there some
small, stunted brush. Somehow, though, we continued. My water supply
went down lower and lower, and I had to give two-thirds of it to my
horse, as he was my transportation. And still we went on. My horse got
very tired and thirsty—I was not so tired, but I certainly was thirsty.
And still we went on amidst the endless hot wind and sand. Again my
mind was racing with thoughts similar to those I experienced when 1
struggled to stay afloat in the icy ocean—would I now end my days
ingloriously here in the Sonora desert and waste all the months o f
invaluable investigations into ancient Mexico, not to mention all my
plans for the future? My musings were interrupted by what I thought
was a mirage: I saw in a cloudy haze some trees, the contours o f a
house, and then I mercifully blacked out.
When I awoke two or three hours later I found myself in a bed,
under wet towels, and there were two peasant women putting more wet
towels over me. When I opened my eyes they were delighted to see me
alive—they were probably worrying about having to dig a hole in the
sand and bury me there. It gradually came to me that it was not a
mirage I had seen just before passing out, but a miraculous oasis in the
desert which it had been my good fortune to stumble across.
The two women were sisters whose husbands had perished in the
desert. On their oasis they had a little ranch, with a spring, and some­
how they managed to subsist there on that tiny green island in an ocean
of hot sand. They took it for granted that I would stay there forever,
as they were convinced I would never be able to get as far as the Gulf
o f California. Their logic was excellent, but it was not a very tempting
proposition to end my life in the middle o f the Sonora desert, without
books, without good music, without being able to do anything, not even
to find a publisher for all my research on ancient Mexico.
So, after a few days, during which I got my strength back thanks
to the wet towels and tasty huevos rancheros (by that time I had lost
my aversion to eggs), I informed my two kind rescuers that I had to
try it again, regardless o f the odds against me. They said goodbye as if
they would never see me again alive, but were kind enough to exchange
my horse for theirs so I once again had a good, strong horse—filled my
empty gourds with water, and made sure I had plenty o f food.
 And so again I proceeded westward. I tried my very best to outwit
the desert, sleeping by day, traveling by night, husbanding every ounce
of water and food and conserving to the utmost both my energy and
that o f the horse. But it was no use. The desert was a formidable enemy.
My water supply again went down alarmingly, and though I gave more
than three-fourths o f it to the horse, one day that good and faithful
friend could go no longer, and he died. There I remained with empty
gourds, very little food, and no horse. I threw away everything that
was not absolutely essential and started to walk.
I have no idea how long I struggled through that infernal, blinding,
sand-filled heat on foot, but it seemed like an eternity. I don ’ t know
how I even managed to stay pointed in the right direction, for my entire
body was numb. The only thing that kept me from sharing the fate o f
the horse was sheer will power and stubbornness.
At last, by some miracle, I reached the sea. If there had been any
moisture left in my mouth I would have exclaimed, like Xenophon’ s
Greeks when they saw the sea, “Thalatta! Thalatta!” But I simply
walked into the Gulf o f California and let the cool waters wash over my
parched and burning body.
After that glorious bath, I crept into the shade o f a large sagebrush
and went to sleep, trying to forget about my thirst, having no idea
where I was and caring less.
It was the next morning when I awoke, and the sound which
awakened me was the sputtering o f a prehistoric automobile, probably
circa 1910, which turned out to be the Mexican mail truck, carrying
mail from somewhere in the south to Puerto Penasco. I summoned the
strength to flag it down, and it was to the mailman’ s credit that he
stopped for me, as I resembled again that post-shipwreck apparition,
only this time worse. But he was very kind, giving me water and listen­
ing sympathetically to my story, though I know he did not believe I
had crossed the desert. How good that water tasted, and what a wonder­
ful mail truck that was!
He took me as far as Mexicali, and there I was able to have some­
thing to eat and drink. I also found an autobus which would take me
to Tijuana, and it turned out I had just enough pesos to buy a ticket.
I fell asleep on the bus and when I woke up, we were passing
through a charming little village with a beautiful mountain backdrop.
In the distance I could see vineyards, the sky was blue, and the air
coming through the window was balmy and sage-scented, reminding
me vividly o f the Mediterranean. I turned to an old man sitting next
to me and asked him, “Please, Senor, what is the name o f this place?”
“This place?”he replied, “why, this is Tecate.”

210
 My search was over, and yet it was just beginning. When I got
out o f the bus and stood alone looking over the La Puerta valley, the
towering mountain called Cuchuma filling the horizon, I did not know
I would spend there a full third o f a century. I did not know that soon
I would embark on the Great Experiment—the most important project
o f my life. Very soon I would discover that I had found a new home—
and, over the next third o f a century, a new life for more than one
hundred twenty thousand people.

The End, o f Volume One o f

SEARCH FOR THE AGELESS

SEARCH FOR THE AGELESS, VOLUME TWO:

The Great Experiment: the Conquest o f Death

SEARCH FOR THE AGELESS, VOLUME THREE:

The Chemistry o f Youth

211
 EDMOND BORDEAUX SZEKELY
“In giving the spiritual treasures o f his rich life to
He can never die,
Even when his days have reached their end.
Shedding his earthly remains,
He becomes a life-giving spirit.
And even as he fades away in time and space
He survives:
Pure Light, Eternal and Endless. . .’ ’
 CREDO
o f the International Biogenic Society
We believe that our most precious possession is?Life.
We believe we shall mobilize all the forces o f Life against the forces
o f death.
We believe that mutual understanding leads toward mutual cooperation;
that mutual cooperation leads toward Peace; and that Peace is the only
way o f survival for mankind.
We believe that we shall preserve instead o f waste our natural resources,
which are the heritage o f our children.
We believe that we shall avoid the pollution o f our air, water, and soil,
the basic preconditions o f Life.
We believe we shall preserve the vegetation o f our planet; the humble
grass which came fifty million years ago, and the majestic trees which
came twenty million years ago, to prepare our planet for mankind.
We believe we shall eat only fresh, natural, pure, whole foods, without
chemicals and artificial processing.
We believe we shall live a simple, natural, creative life, absorbing all the
sources o f energy, harmony and knowledge, in and around us.
We believe that the improvement o f life and mankind on our planet
must start with individual efforts, as the whole depends on the atoms
com posing it.
We believe in the Fatherhood o f God, the Motherhood o f Nature,
and the Brotherhood o f Man.
—com posed in Paris in 1928 by Remain Rolland
and Edm ond Bordeaux Szekely
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INTERNATIONAL BIOGENIC SOCIETY

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Some Books by EDMOND BORDEAUX SZEKELY on the EsseneWay of Biogenic Living
T H E ESSENE W A Y - B I O G E N I C L I V I N G . T h e Essene-Biogenic E ncy clope dia. US $ 8 .8 0
T H E ESSENE G O S P E L OF PEA C E , B O O K O N E . 1 M i l l i o n Copies, 23 Languages. 1.00
ESSENE G O S P E L OF PEACE, B O O K 2: T h e U n k n o w n B ooks o f th e Essenes. 5.80
ESSENE G O S P E L O F PEACE, B O O K 3: Lo st Scrolls o f t h e Essene B r o th e rh o o d . 5.60
ESSENE G O S P E L OF PEACE, B O O K 4: T h e Teachings o f t h e Elect. 4. 5 0
D I S C O V E R Y OF T H E ESSENE G O S P E L OF PEA C E . T h e Essenes & th e Vatic an . 4. 8 0
S E A R C H FO R T H E A G E L E S S , I: M y Unusual A d ve n tu re s o n Five C ontin ents. 7.8 0
S E A R C H FO R T H E A G E L E S S , I I : T h e Gre at E xp e rim e n t. 8 .8 0
S E A R C H FOR T H E A G E L E S S , I I I : T h e C h e m istr y o f Y o u th . 7.5 0
T H E G R E A T N E S S IN T H E S M A L L N E S S . T h e O n l y Way Out. 7.5 0
T H E T E N D E R T O U C H : Bio ge nic F u l f i ll m e n t . 5.5 0
T H E B I O G E N I C R E V O L U T I O N . T h e 19 77 In te rn a ti o n a l Essene-Biogenic Seminar. 9 .5 0
T H E F I R S T ESSENE. T h e J u l y 19 79 In te rn a ti o n a l Essene-Biogenic Seminar. 9.5 0
B I O G E N I C R E D U C I N G : T h e W o n d e r Week. 3.8 0
T H E ESSENE B O O K OF C R E A T I O N . L i g h t on th e M y s te ry o f Mysteries. 4 .5 0
T H E O R I G I N OF L IF E . A Pano ramic H is to ry o f th e K n o w n and th e U n k n o w n . 7.5 0
T E A C H I N G S OF T H E ESSENES F R O M E N O C H T O T H E D E A D S E A S C RO LLS. 4.8 0
T H E ESSENE JESUS. Reva lu ation o f th e Latest Essene Master and his Teachings. 4.5 0
T H E ESSENE B O O K O F A S H A : J O U R N E Y TO T H E C O S M IC O C E A N . 7.5 0
T H E Z E N D A V E S T A OF Z A R A T H U S T R A . P ow erfu l Universal Masterpiece. 4.8 0
A R C H E O S O P H Y , A NEW S C IE N C E . Beginning o f t h e Beginnings. 4.8 0
T H E ESSENE O R I G I N S OF C H R I S T I A N I T Y . 100 Facts and 2 0 0 Fallacies. 8 .5 0
T H E ESSENES, B Y JOSEPH U S A N D HIS C O N T E M P O R A R I E S . 2.95
T H E ESSENE T E A C H I N G S OF Z A R A T H U S T R A . Im m o rta l Legend o f th e Wheat. 2.95
T H E ESSENE S C IE N C E OF L IF E . C o m p a n io n B o o k t o th e EsseneGospel o f Peace. 3.5 0
T H E ESSENE C O D E OF L IF E . T h e Natu ra l and Cosmic Laws. 3.5 0
ESSENE C O M M U N I O N S W I T H T H E I N F I N I T E . H o ly Life, S ou nd, and Light. 3.95
T H E ESSENE S C IE N C E OF F A S T I N G A N D T H E A R T OF S O B R I E T Y . 3.5 0
C O S M O T H E R A P Y OF T H E ESSENES. U n i t y o f Man, Natu re and th e Universe. 3.5 0
T H E L I V I N G B U D D H A . A C om p ara tive S t u d y o f B udd ha and Yoga. 4.5 0
T O W A R D T H E C O N Q U E S T O F T H E IN N E R COSMOS. 6.8 0
J O U R N E Y T H R O U G H A T H O U S A N D M E D I T A T I O N S . 8 0 0 0 Years o f W is dom . 9 .5 0
F A T H E R , G I V E US A N O T H E R C H A N C E . Survival T h ro u g h Creative S i m p l i c i t y . 6.80
TH E E C O L O G IC A L H E A L T H G A R D E N , TH E BOOK OF S U R V IV A L . 4 .5 0
T H E D I A L E C T I C A L M E T H O D OF T H I N K I N G . K ey t o S o l u t i o n o f A l l Problems. 2.95
T H E E V O L U T I O N OF H U M A N T H O U G H T . 87 Gre at Philosophers, 38 Schools. 2.5 0
M A N IN T H E C O S M IC O C E A N . Whe re N o Man Has Ever Gone. 3.5 0
T H E S O U L OF A N C I E N T M E X IC O . H und reds o f A n c i e n t Pictographs. 7.50
T H E N E W F I R E . Renewal o f L ife in a Pre co lu m bia n S p iri tu a l Rhapsody. 4.8 0
D E A T H O F T H E NEW W OR LD. C hildren o f Paradise. 2 0 0 Illustrations. 4.8 0
A N C I E N T A M E R I C A : P A R A D I S E LOST. Pictorial E ncyc lo pe dia o f a Lo st W orl d. 4.8 0
PI LG R IM OF T H E HI M A L A Y AS . D iscovery o f T ib e ta n Budd hism. 2.95
M E S S E N G E R S F R O M A N C I E N T C I V I L I Z A T I O N S . A n c i e n t Migrations. 3.5 0
S E X U A L H A R M O N Y . A Lucid, C ommon- Sense A p proac h. 3.5 0
L U D W IG V A N B E E T H O V E N , P R O M E T H E U S OF T H E M O D E R N W O R L D . 2.95
B O O K S, O U R E T E R N A L C O M P A N IO N S . Culture , Freedom, Tolerance. 3.50
T H E F I E R Y C H A R I O T S . T h e M yste ri ous B ro th e rh o o d o f th e Dead Sea. 4 .8 0
C R E A T I V E W O R K : K A R M A Y O G A . A n c i e n t , M ysti c Role o f Creative W ork . 2.95
T H E A R T OF S T U D Y : T H E S O R B O N N E M E T H O D . T h e J o y o f Learning. 3.5 0
COSMOS, M A N A N D S O C IE T Y . G u id e t o Me an ingful Liv ing in th e 2 0 th C e ntury . 5 ;8 0
I C A M E B A C K T O M O R R O W . 2 0 t h C e n t u ry N ig htm are and th e Essene Dream. 3.5 0
B R O T H E R T R E E . C har ming E cological Parable f o r C hildren o f A l l Ages. 3.5 0
T H E B O O K O F L I V I N G FO ODS. A Gas tr o-A rc h eolo g ic al Banquet. 3.5 0
SCI E N T IF 1C V E G E T A R IA N ISM. N u t r i t i o n a l , E co no m ic al, S p iritu a l Guide. 2.95
T R E A S U R Y OF R A W FOOD S. Menus, Meals, Recipes. 2.95
T H E C O N Q U E S T OF D E A T H . L o n g e v ity E xplored. T h e D ream o f I m m o r t a l i t y . 2.95
H E A L I N G W A T E R S . F i f t y E uro pean Spa T r e a tm e n ts a t Home. 3 .5 0
B O O K OF H E RB S, B O O K OF V I T A M I N S , B O O K OF M I N E R A L S . Each V o l u m e : 2.95
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