Summer Conferences
Zip Dobyns
In July, 1989, over 1000 astrologers came together in New Orleans for a week of intellectual stimulation and fun. UAC (United Astrology Congress) was a joint effort by ISAR, NCGR, and AFAN, and was voted a great success by almost everyone. I mostly attended the financial track, the lectures and panels on the application of astrology to economics, since I am still trying to figure out what is going on in that area of life. I did also get to hear Claude Weiss of Switzerland, Peter Niehenke of Germany, and Farida Asadullina of Russia, and enjoyed all of them.
Farida had come to the U.S. to study Psychosynthesis, a relatively new form of humanistic psychotherapy developed by Roberto Assagioli of Italy. She is a professor of psychology in the university in Moscow, teaching psychology to secondary school teachers and in private practice as a psychotherapist. But she is also an astrologer, doing horoscopes on her clients for further understanding. UAC was her first astrology conference and she found it very exciting. She has returned to Russia with the hope of sponsoring an astrology conference in Moscow, possibly next fall.
Farida participated in a panel discussion on the use of astrology as a tool in psychotherapy, and also gave a talk on the current status of astrology in Russia. Before Gorbachev, it was not safe to talk about religion or occult interests, but now astrologers can advertise their profession and practice it safely. Mostly, group practice is encouraged for all kinds of small enterprises, to stay closer to the socialist ideals, rather than having individuals function alone as entrepreneurs. The government is now encouraging such small cooperatives though it also levies a high tax on the profits.
ISAR provided a scholarship to cover the expenses of Farida’s hotel and food while the Psychosynthesis group which brought her to the U.S. paid for her airfare. Russia, like many countries, does not permit its citizens to bring much money out of the country. Farida returned to Moscow with a variety of astrology books, and her psychology sponsors are hoping to provide her with a computer. My son, Mark, gave her a copy of our CCRS computer program for astrology.
I hope that through Farida we can be in touch with a group of students of mundane astrology who are meeting in Moscow. We had read about the group in the Los Angeles Times and had written a letter to the newspaper reporter, but never had any response. Farida knows the people in the group but does not attend it. They are mostly men, mathematicians, engineers, computer programmers, etc. I am eager to exchange data with them. Though Farida has done almost nothing with mundane astrology, she was able to clarify some of the details of the Russian revolution and to tell me the time that most astrologers there are using for the horoscope of the revolution. She said that the time promoted in the movie about the revolution which was supposed to be the moment when the government leaders were arrested and the Bolsheviks came to power (2:10 A.M. on November 8) was actually made up by Eisenstein, the director of the movie. The struggle in Leningrad was over by the evening of November 7, and Lenin had already announced the triumph of the Bolsheviks in the afternoon. The government officials had just quietly gone home by the time the Bolshevik Congress met in the Winter Palace on the evening of November 7, 1917. The Russian astrologers use the time of 9:40 P.M. on November 7 when a ship in the river by the Winter Palace shot off a cannon as a signal that the revolution was accomplished and the Bolsheviks in power. I am still looking for time in my schedule to do more checking of the variety of possible charts for the beginning of Bolshevik power, testing them against the events in the history of the country. I also hope to find out what time the Moscow mundane group is using for the beginning of their Constitution. If I hear from Moscow and am able to work more on the charts, I would like to devote much of the Fall 1989 Asteroid-World to the U.S.S.R.
The other summer conference which I attended was the Global Sciences Congress held in Denver in August 1989. It has been an annual event for about the last five years but this was the first one I had attended. It was great fun, with some fascinating speakers and videos. One of the latter showed a man named Trevor James Constable using devices which apparently produced rain. Tom Brown, director of the Borderland Sciences organization, brought the video and has an article by Constable in the latest issue of the Borderland Journal. Constable is working with his own refinements of theories advanced by Wilhelm Reich, a psychoanalyst who developed theories about “orgone” energy including techniques to help people accumulate it to improve their physical and mental well-being. His energy theories were considered “quackery” by the U.S. government, and he was put in jail for selling orgone devices and actually died in jail. A number of individuals have carried on his work, including the rain-making. Friends of mine in Kansas tried their own version of the “cloud-buster” during the drought in the summer of 1988, and it rained each of the three times they used the device. The video showed Constable on a ship traveling between California and Hawaii and repeatedly producing first clouds and then rain in relatively clear skies. The article is even more impressive since Constable claims to have repeatedly produced rain in the dry season in Singapore.
Another of the interesting videos described the theories of a 19th century German named Dr. Julius Hensel who claimed that stone meal (literally stone that has been ground to a powder) was the best fertilizer for plants. He believed that plants could get nitrogen from the air since his trees and vegetables were healthy and remained pest-free even when grown in very poor soil as long as they had water, air, sunshine and the powdered rock. Hensel was opposed to both chemical fertilizer and to manure from animals. His theories mesh with Hamaker’s theories about the reasons for the past glacial ages. Hamaker has suggested that as soils became depleted, forests became unhealthy bringing on carbon dioxide imbalances and climate changes which led to the ice ages. Movement of the glaciers theoretically ground up rock and remineralized the soil to again permit healthy forests. Hamaker thinks that another ice age may be imminent, in contrast to the popular greenhouse theory which suggests that the weather is getting warmer, since human use of fossil fuels and destruction of forests is speeding up the natural process that produces intermittent glaciers.
Whether or not the ice age ideas are accurate, the video showed farmers in several countries who were actually using rock dust as their only fertilizer. Their plants were so healthy, they did not need any other fertilizer or pesticides since insects only attacked the less healthy plants. One dramatic scene showed two tomato plants in pots so close that the vines of the plants were intertwined. One pot received normal chemical fertilizer and the other rock dust, and the insects only attacked the plant getting the chemicals. Hamaker claimed that the chemical fertilizer did not provide many needed trace minerals which are present in rocks. Granite is preferred, but limestone is also good. We are certainly going to try rock dust on our garden, including our fruit trees.
One of the speakers at the Congress was named Edward Sopcak (pronounced Sopchek) who is working with a mysterious fluid that changes the electrical activity in plants and animals. Another man developed the material which is claimed to have cured cancer and other illnesses, but he was hassled by the government and decided it wasn’t worth fighting the system. He taught Ed to produce the material, and he is the sole source today. Ed calls it “cancell” and says that it takes about eight hours to produce a batch of 25 bottles. To remain out of jail, Ed gives the material away, not even accepting anything for postage. It is registered with the U.S. government as a experimental substance. Ed said that it has been tested by several universities and doctors, including Johns Hopkins Medical Center. They have found it to be effective but have not been able to analyze what it really is or how it works in the body, so the government does not know what to do with it.
If the U.S. government continues to block the legalization of cancell for human use, Ed has two options. He could let a drug company in Germany or Switzerland manufacture and sell it to the rest of the world. He has sent it to people in many other countries, and several would love to have it. Or, Ed could easily get it licensed as a product for plants since there are less rigid requirements for horticultural products. Ed said that when a couple of teaspoons of cancell were mixed with water and it was sprayed on plants, they were able to survive in the dark, apparently carrying on photosynthesis without light. He acknowledged that he does not really understand what the cancell does to improve the functioning of plants and animals except that it has an electric effect. If I understood him, he thinks that cancell changes the angle of the bond between hydrogen and oxygen in water from 105 degrees to 20 or 30 other angles depending on the environment: whether or not it is in the sun, the temperature, the state and needs of the body, etc. There is evidence that the cancell interrupts the electrical activity of primitive cells like cancer cells. The cancer cells then disintegrate so the immune system has to carry off and dispose of the debris. It may take time, and repeated small doses until the immune system of the body is able to get rid of the disintegrated cancer cells. The ill person needs to work to strengthen the immune system. Ed says that cancell has been used successfully for a variety of illnesses, but that it has been used most often to cure cancer. Of course I thought about astrological aspects when Ed mentioned changing the angle of the hydrogen bond. 105 degrees is not used as an aspect by many astrologers, but it is a multiple of 15 degrees and could be significant.
People who want to try cancell for a serious personal illness are invited to telephone Ed between 7:30 and 9:30 P.M. eastern time, to explain their problem and ask him to send them a bottle. His phone is (517) 546-2414 in Howell, MI. He answers his phone during that period in the evening and you might have to try several times to get past a busy signal. He likes people to discuss it with their doctor and to get the doctor’s cooperation, but that is not required. The Global Sciences Congress was the first time Ed had ever talked in public about cancell, and he may be swamped with requests after 400+ people went home and told their friends.
Cancell was the most exciting piece of information from Ed, but he also talked about amber sunglasses which shield our eyes from ultraviolet light and from much of the blue light in the atmosphere. He said that as the ozone is depleted in the upper atmosphere, more people will be getting cataracts from harmful radiation. Regular dark sunglasses actually make you more subject to harm since they encourage the pupils to dilate and be more exposed to the ultraviolet. On the strength of his advice, I bought a pair of amber sunglasses while en route home to L.A. and it turned out to be an amazing experience. I bought them at a gas station in eastern Utah, and first wore them while driving through the mountains on I 70. It is the blue light in the atmosphere which produces the blue color in the sky and in bodies of water. Blocking most of it turned the sky a kind of yellow-green which felt sort of eerie. But blue light also tends to scatter in the eye, so an additional effect was to sharpen edges and intensify a three dimensional effect. The mountains stood out sharply so the landscape felt like driving on the moon with the eerie light and sharp, three dimensional peaks and cliffs. The colors made it a little like driving underwater, but edges are blurred rather than sharpened by water. It was definitely a surreal experience; a kind of high without drugs. If any of our readers habitually wear sunglasses, I recommend trying the amber ones. I only paid $6 for them and have seen them for as little as $5, so they are a modest investment for a fun experience and potential protection for your eyes.
I was more skeptical of some of Ed Sopcak’s other theories. He joins the crowd expecting huge earthquakes in the near future along with some kind of pole shifting: 30 degrees on the magnetic poles and 20 degrees on the geographic poles. He thinks that North America will split up the middle along the Mississippi river and that there will be big tidal waves. Geological evidence shows that earth’s magnetic poles do reverse from time to time though it is not clear whether this is a relatively fast occurrence or whether it occurs over centuries of time. I have not seen any convincing evidence for major changes in the geographic poles. I am much more concerned about humanity’s inhumanity to their fellow humans than I am about big changes in the earth or the climate. Maybe I read too many economic newsletters which all pander to greed and fear. I would not be surprised to see more climate extremes and more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the next few years, but I think the U.S. is in more danger of sliding more or less slowly toward the continued concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small minority while increasing numbers struggle to maintain their accustomed standard of living and fall farther behind. If we hope to keep our freedom, we had better get out and vote!
There were many other speakers at the Denver conference which is organized each year by Dean Stonier. I had very mixed reactions to many of them. One was almost certainly a con artist and another may well have been personally sincere but working for a con. When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I would have been much more skeptical of Ed Sopcak if he had not been giving his cancell away. One speaker at the conference thinks he has discovered Noah’s arc in Turkey and the local government is sufficiently impressed to have built a museum at the site and a road to get tourists there. Many speakers were selling radionics devices which supposedly help you diagnose and treat illness at a distance. There were flying saucer contactees and channelers and healers and pyramidologists etc. Since I am convinced that most of the power is in the (unconscious) mind, I usually do not become excited over people who think the power is in physical devices. But I listen to everyone, and never completely close the door. The world is bigger and stranger than we realize, and human beings and their beliefs are endlessly fascinating.