United States Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations
June 26, 1967
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
772 Clementina Street
San Francisco, California
Dear Mr. Lewis:
I was glad to hear from you again and I have read your comments on various matters with interest. As I wrote you, I always appreciate having your views.
I think it very important that the underlying problems in the Middle East be considered and great efforts made toward their solution in the United Nations.
Please write to me at any time.
With kind regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
John Sherman Cooper
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
July 12, 1967
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper,
Your letter of the 6th received and gives some hope. We have had recently two presidents who, with all good will have given us some the most remarkable verbalisms every recorded, but when it comes to the world affairs, we seem going from one confusion to another. And it is awkward to find in opposition, Ambassador-Professor Galbraith. For the way matters are handled today there are only three classes of Americans in foreign affairs: (a) bureaucrats, (b) newsman, (c) subjects.
We have a CIA but we have no central intelligence agency. And as matters stand I may have to contact former ambassador Malalasekera of Ceylon who earned our enmity by saying (and it is true): “How can you trust a Nation that does not trust its own citizens.” I have documentary proof of this and some day, when we want to get out of “realism” into Reality the material may be released. But if it is to be released injudiciously it can give aid and comfort to the enemies of the Nation.
Yesterday some time was spent on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley. Assent has been granted to have meetings in September at which we hope to have some of the professors who have lived in the Near East present and especially Paul Keim, who has done so much both in theoretical research and actual accomplishments in Desert Reclamation. I do not wish to go into detail here but am half in fear that Russia may be having Israelis and Arabs sit down together, as they have had Indians and Pakistanis sit down together while the White House utters platitudes.
We are hoping to promote the work of alumni, both Americans and Asians and to use the Alumni Association to further international good-will. Both Yale and Princeton have done something along that line (the State Department does not take suggestions or even reports!)
In the course of conversation both the President of the Alumni Association (Richard Erickson and I) mentioned the good-will coming from the Medical Mission to Indonesia which played not a little part in reversing the trends in that land. He gave me some further tips which I shall investing and report to the senior senator from this state, Mr. Thomas Kuchel.
It is significant that no letters have been received from those most vociferous in demanding Israelis and Arabs sit down together. Unless “experts” set the examples nothing will happen, and they will not. And it may be whimsy or serious that somebody has suggested the Nobel Peace Award winners step in. Then we shall see the meeting or “reality” versus “realism.”
Senator, I was accorded honors in Japan extended neither to the present nor previous Vice-President. My country has ignored this and other exploits. But now I have received a mass of Buddhist material, all sorts of things. The natural step will be to contact the compilers of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism. This means the aforementioned Dr. Malalasekera.
There is no question today on the world scene that there is a great deal of ill-will against Israel because while we do have (and very rightly so) an Anti- Defamation League in this country, this has never prevented the members from taking part in the defamation of other faiths. They have never assented to universal anti-defamation.
This country has proclaimed forms of teachings called “Zen” which are affronts to the people of the Orient. Even our best friend, Princess Poon Diskul, president of the World Buddhist Federation, has proclaimed against this—to no end. We have not paid the slightest attention to the Buddhism of Vietnam.
And in the pursuit of research connected with both books and manuscripts placed in these hands I shall have to write to Dr. Malalasekera. If I send him copy of the letter to President Johnson it will start a chain of unfavorable reactions. There seems be no other way out. It will not be done in a hurry. But now your Chamber is dismayed by recent actions in parts of Africa and the out- and-out “imperialistic” ventures. So far the real imperialists have been accusing us of this fault but now we seem to have gone down the highway which both Candidates and McKinley and Bryan opposed at the beginning of the century.
I have in the last two weeks, Senator, made three new friends from India, very easily and simply because one meets them from the heart out and not from diplomatic mannerisms in. I am hoping to teach some Americans some of the real philosophies of real Asia without it costing them huge sums or having to go through academic examinations.
I appreciate your showing interest. We need real “people-to-people” activities. Many of these have succeeded without recognition from either the bureaucrats or press.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc-Kuchel
October 5, 1967
Hon. John Sherman Cooper,
Senate Office Building.
Washington. D. C.
Our Campaign Against Asian Cultures (cont.)
Dear Senator Cooper:
There is nothing that illustrates better the contention that there are only three groups of people in regard to Asian matters: (a) bureaucrats, (b) newsmen, (c) subjects, than the attention given to a book on India by a newswoman, Mrs. Hobbs, as against the non-attention given to that country in not reviewing
“A Psychiatrist Discovers India”
—Medard Boss
This gentleman is a highly trained scientist who uses modern methods. Visited clinics, hospitals and universities and did that thing impossible for people of the Fourth Estate and far beyond possibility for diplomats: mingle with the people.
It happens incidentally that some of the persons met by the writer were also met by me, at least one being a good friend and now the top Vedantist.
We have failed to see that we cannot win the hearts of Asians by ignoring their humanity and their culture. There may be arguments in favor of various schemes for Vietnam but they hardly are based on the possibility that Vietnamese have the qualities, let us say, of Shylock. They are treated as if animated guinea pigs. The same applies to the Arabs; we can be pro-Israel but that is no excuse for our refusals to have candid cultural exchange with these people and our selection of Englishman as chief mentors in Islamics, etc. etc.
Next week I begin my own lectures in the religions of the world, based on deep studies, participations in worship, and all the qualifications required in the scientific disciplines, but indeed regarded as liabilities in “social disciplines.” I am recommending “A psychologist Discovers India.” It is a tragedy that to us Europeans are human beings, Asians are thought-forms. There will be no peace in Vietnam until we change this attitude.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc-Embassy of India
United States Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations
November 13, 1967
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Mr. Lewis:
Thank you for your latest letter enclosing a paper on Vietnamese Buddhism. I found the paper most informative and the information that it contains has already proven useful to me. I appreciate your continuing kindness in keeping me informed on these matters about Asia which you know so well.
With kind regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
John Sherman Cooper
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
May 12, 1969
Hon. J. Sherman Cooper,
Senate Office Building
Washington, D. C.
Asian Studies, “Ugly Americans” and Peace
Dear Senator Cooper:
This is the same subject on which I have been harping in former letters and the theme is the same. But as one meets more and more “Ugly Americans” one is no longer aghast about the refusals of the extreme dialecticians who make all the noises, the so-called “left” and the so-called “right,” but one is meeting more and more Americans with more knowledge and no voice in their government, in the press or before the public.
Recently I met Dr. Richard J. Kozicki on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley and already he has annotated literature which if better known would go far to help in the understanding, if not solution, of many of the present day complexes known as “problems” and made into problems by what Lord Snow calls the ‘literary-humanist” culture.
I was one of the few Americans attending the services for the late President Dr. Zukair Hossein who was my spiritual brother but our common viewpoint, though held by millions, has been barred from the conferences and many of the universities dedicated to Asian studies, and by all the American universities I know of where the “important” people in charge are neither Americans nor Asians! And by the East-West gatherings in Hawaii; we simply cannot get in and I am not going to try any more.
As Americans take over the study of Asian cultures the doors gradually open to at least conversations if not understandings.
The other day I received a beautiful letter by an old pal. He is now retired General Edward Lansdale. I tried many times to reach him, but the letters from the front were returned! It opens the door to peace through understanding, and occasionally I am minded to visit Columbia University at my own expense, for we might conceivably have peace through understanding by having Americans who know Asians, understand Asians and are understood by Asians, to help in this direction.
Since then one of my secretaries has received both a beautiful letter and a publication from the Buddhists of South Vietnam who are ignored almost as much as the viewpoint common to the late president Hossein and myself is ignored. It happens that the Thich in charge is a close friend of my closest Buddhist friend who himself was the companion and secretary of the late Dr. Robert Clifton, the Venerable Phra Sumangalo.
When objective history is written it will have been found that this whole terrible war came about from the adamant refusal of authorities and press to interview Clifton on his two visits to the United States. We not only have an endless war, we still bar the presentation of certain a aspects of Asian culture, and these aspects are far, from being anywhere near Marxist in their outlooks.
Senator, we are fighting two wars and until we get down to one war, (or conceivably no wars) we are not going to succeed.
I shall have sent to you copies of The Oracle just published which has material by or concerning this person with emphasis on the teaching of Dervish Dancing. This has two purposes: “Joy without Drugs” and “American-Asian Understanding.” What began as “Dance of Universal Peace” dedicated in part to The Temple Of Understanding has now grown into a whole array of “spiritual” dances on Asian themes and is attracting more and more young people and gradually more interviews with a new type of editor, too. These are based on a knowledge of the real religions of the real Orient and not on derivatives and dialectics of important western writers who have never gone through the devotions and disciplines.
Fortunately today I have colleagues in Europe (Schon, Pallis, etc.) and more in this land. I shall in fact soon visit the state of New Mexico in pursuit of this general theme and have not forgotten for one instance the theme, “How California can Help Asia.” The aforesaid Prof. Kozicki has done a lot of pioneer work here.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc-Kozicki
cc-P. Burton
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
June 2, 1969
Hon. J. Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building.
Washington. D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
Peace and Understanding in Asia
The other day I was very pleased to learn that Mrs. Cooper is on the Board of Directions of Asia Foundation of this city, which organization has been, for the most part honest, direct and objective and has, in some instances also been quite successful.
If this policy of honesty, objectivity and impersonality were followed we could find highways to peace, a real peace with and through understanding. And in pursuit thereof I have placed two copies of Encyclopedia of Buddhism in libraries of the University of California.
I am also enclosing copy of a letter of The Temple of Understanding. I hope later to get them also these copies, which are quite expensive. But when the time comes I may bring them in person due to my re-contact General Edward Lansdale who has played a considerable role in Southeast Asia.
The Encyclopedia has been largely the result of Dr. G. Malalasekera whom we opposed at the U.N. for saying, “How can you trust a Nation that does not trust its own citizens.” And it is a tragic mark on this country and its foreign policies that the small person does not count and the eyewitness who reports anything contrary to policy is not permitted to file his experiences.
It is conceivable that we could have a foreign office that would at least record reports (not opinions and suggestions but eyewitness reports,) that this might lead to better understanding.
Now in my private life I am succeeding more and more with the young and at least two budding editors are consulting me largely because of the impossibility of getting interviews, more even than on the truthfulness of experiences. This also is awkward but it is to be expected.
I am finding more and more professors who have lived in Asia or who have conducted researches in Asia who are hors de combat so far as our press and foreign offices are concerned. The word “democracy” is often very far from democracy itself.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
December 14, 1969
Senator John Sherman Cooper
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
Toward real peace in the real Near East
I am sending you herewith a carbon of a letter to an operative organization, and am also sending a copy of it to The Temple of Understanding.
As long as we are concerned with words, more words, and with process, we are never going to have anything like “just and lasting peace.” A very close friend of mine, one Mr. Bryn Beorse, is publishing a work based on his own almost fantastic adventures, very real, very objective, and totally out of line with anything emanating from either the current Vice-President or the Fourth Estate which he is excoriating. I am only hoping it is time at last to get out of realism into reality.
Mr. Beorse has given a whole chapter to me. I have seen this thing coming in the Near East all my life, and having neither funds nor political following, it is almost impossible, or rather it has been almost impossible to get anything accepted. I went into the Near East both with ideas, and then in person, feeling if we did not promote peace the Russians could and would. I was snubbed by the State Dept. for bringing peace feelers from Pakistan to India. Soon these nations called in the Russians, or rather went to Tashkent. I foresee further Tashkents because a so-called “democratic” nation does not permit its citizens to make any proposals to the foreign office; or if so the foreign office snubs them.
I remember only too well the verbal attention given to men like Boak Carter and Ely Culbertson the bridge master, prior to World War II. So long as ideas of important persons are considered important and so long as factual backgrounds from un-importants are ignored we can only add to confusion.
Well here we are getting Christians, and Jews, and Muslims, to dance together and eat together. Not news of course. But if this Sufi teacher from Palestine comes this way, as I understand he will, we are in a deplorable position of having to inform the foreign press because so called left-wingers and right-wingers alike ignore anything that comes out of Asia which is not dialectic.
We have been practicing by joining in with Islamic, Jewish, and Christian festivities at their seasons.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
January 26,1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
In re: Reality versus “Realism” in foreign affairs
The other day I attended the annual Indian Independence Day celebration in this region. It seems after long years the Indian students themselves, and others of their nationals with them, have taken over the festivities. In previous years these were often in the hands of “experts,” men with quite undeserved fame who generally limited speeches to themselves and their particular cronies. Often they were all from the staff of a single educational institution, and they were often replaced by others from a single educational institution. These proceedings were relished by a certain type of America who finds entertainment in colored orations, but they added very little to the betterment of foreign relations. Now I must say it is quite different and I have written a letter to our good friend, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, in regard thereto.
The knowledge of the religions, folklore, and ethos of other peoples, can do very much to promote better good will between peoples, although the press and foreign office do not seem to have discovered that. But there are today more and more young American professors in our universities who have lived abroad and mingled with exotic nationals. They are gradually replacing or displacing the old type of “expert” often educated (if one wants to call it that) in some British or European institution. It is certain that the Americans who spoke the other day know what they were talking about, and gave us Facts, often remarkable facts, facts of types quite unwelcome by the press; indeed unwelcome to every dialectical outlook from our so-called extreme left to our so-called extreme right.
I myself had the satisfaction of receiving several invitations to speak henceforth to the Indian students. Since writing you last, excellent relations have been established with a number of professors both of local institutions and those of several other states. My program of “Eating, Dancing, and Praying” with nationals of other countries does impress those nationals, and does impress our young more and more and more. If this is a generation gap you can make the most of it. Unfortunately, it is a generation gap, but it is more a gap between what I call “realists” and reality-ists.
The largest group of people ignored by our culture are the Sufis or Dervishes. Indeed there have been even Presidents and Prime Ministers (eg. the late President Zukair Hussein) who belong to this group. But we will have none of it. The nearest was the appearance of Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Teheran University at Harvard for a short while. I have met multitudes of Sufis in various lands and have received some as guests in this city.
The latest has been one who is a citizen of Israel. He understands all three prevailing religions; speaks Arabic, Hebrew and English; and has lived in Mecca and Jerusalem. He is now attending a college in another state, but is being transferred to this city at the end of the semester. We intend to have a meeting of those Arabs in this vicinity who are Israelis in nationality, but Muslims in faith. They belong to what I have sarcastically called “the silenced majority.”
I have materials collected over the years anent salt-water conversion, desert reclamation, dry land agriculture, and the reconciliation of religions. I am now awaiting word from The Temple of Understanding in Washington as to my future movements.
The situation is slightly complicated by the growing demand by our young in many parts and here also to learn about aspects of religion which are not presented in our educational institutions, and even less by our churches. This goes for Christianity as well as for Asian faiths. One would suppose that the foreign office would be interested in a citizen with such backgrounds, but the state department has long since ignored all communication.
The situation is further compounded by the fact that a friend of mine, Mr. Shamcher Bryn Beorse, is publishing a work in which he compares me, an unknown, to some of the most famous personalities of the century. Added to that is the possibility of receiving additional legacies to those which I now have, which would make it possible to travel anywhere, and also bear the expense of publication.
There is no doubt in my mind that sooner or later we have to get rid of mock phrases like “Peace with Justice,” and mock treaties like the Kellogg-Briand pact, etc., and do something to bring human beings closer to each other. It is not only the State Department, but the Rabbis and the Imams who equally ignore all efforts toward promoting good will, that is good will, and not and empty phrase.
I am writing this because I know you are both an informed man and one working for real peace and real justice in a real world.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc-AFME
cc-Philip Burton
United States Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations
February 12, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Mr. Lewis:
It was thoughtful of you to send me a copy of the letter you wrote to Congressman McClosky. I am flattered that you are willing to regard me as one of your spokesmen in the Senate.
With kind regards, I am
Yours sincerely,
John Sherman Cooper
February 16, 1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
Your cordial note has been received just after writing another letter to Congressman
McCloskey, copy enclosed.
My basic difficulty, and one which I am having with a whole culture, is that I was educated at a time when the influences of New England Transcendentalism and Columbia University Pragmatism were great. This has produced a great generation gap between me and the older people who in turn are facing a generation gap with the youth of today.
I am no theoretician nor dialectician of any camp whatsoever. You will see what is being done and what we hope to do. With a new neighbor here, an Arab exile from Jerusalem because he did not take sides; with Jewish friends pro-Israel, anti-Israel and otherwise; with a large sector of followers of partially Jewish blood who found themselves standing alone, we seem to agree that youth should stand together and stand together for peace, and not any more misleading phrases like any Kellogg-Briand Pact or totally ineffectual “peace with justice”.
I am sending a copy of this also to the American Friends of the Middle East.
Plans are now to prepare to go to Geneva to the conference of the world’s religions under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding. It is even possible that either the writer or one of his disciples may attend another conference in Japan next year for “Peace Through Religion.” Yes, I have worked my whole life to this end only to be snubbed by practically all extant organization excepting the Friends.
But I still believe in God and country. I am not particularly asking anything from anybody, but wish to perform rather than to seek funds from others in order to perform. With God’s help it is not necessary to go around begging.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
Written in London,
April 15th, 1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
In re: Conference of The Temple of Understanding
One does not know how much news has appeared in the American press of the convocation of all the world’s faiths which took place at Geneva on March 31-April 5. It is glorious that the delegates of the religions met, and met with a cordiality not possible among diplomats and newsmen, who have so many private protocols that communication is always blocked. It seems part of their respective professions to avoid candor at all costs. But it seems that the clericals have learned what these two dominant professions refuse to examine—that there can be communication, humanism, and humanitarianism; that there can be, and must. So it is.
The emphasis was on religious devotion, and peace. There were, of course, the usual emotional harangues which always consume time, but they no longer affect the majority. And the presentation of fourteen prayers in a ceremony at the great Cathedral must be regarded as an historical event.
There were a number of noticeable personalities there. I do not know what has been presented by the press, but we leave shortly for Boston, and hope to obtain periodicals there. It is certain that European papers mentioned the proceedings in a fair-minded objective manner, characteristic of scientific reports, but not the usual fourth estate subjectivisms. (London papers are even more subjective at times than the American press.)
One had the decided advantage of knowing all the world’s faiths, and so had objective communication with practically all groups and delegates. Thus with Count Otani from Japan. We met the papal delegates the very first day, and began to present our program for Palestine, which anybody not diplomat or newsman could readily understand. We had the repetition of Jew, Christian, and Muslim all showing open-mindedness, cordiality, and real interest. There are ways in which humanity can deal with humanity, and generally does, in the absence of newsmen and diplomats. (Vide Clemenceau)
Although “Peace” was the main subject, there was no mention of Southeast Asia, and this facilitated the quiet efforts for the Near East. When one can gain the hearts of Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims, something can be done and will be followed up.
The main obstacle to the United States remains our strange and stubborn attitude toward Islamic, and especially Arabic, culture. Before God, there is absolutely no reason why there should not be an Arabian Secretariat. Here is a large bloc of nations using the same language, corresponding to English, French, and Spanish, which are organized, and not to Chinese and Russian, which nevertheless have secretariats.
The second is the practical exclusion of cultured representatives of especially the Arabian peoples in our land. This is the largest segment of history and culture to be so treated. We even have fairly organized Russian-American groups. If we treated the Arabs on any sort of equal basis, we might be able to help in the present complex.
I had the pleasure of sitting next to an Egyptian who is a pacifist. Not recognizing Arabs, we do not know about the groups among them. Fortunately, this man, who is a leading scientist in his own land, was selected, and I think wisely selected, to represent Islam in the directing board.
Incidentally, there were quite a few scientists present, and they did much to contribute to the proceedings and understanding.
I met the papal delegates the first day, and the Indians the next. I am pleased to report that on the third day, the senior Birlay sought me out. I believe I know considerable about Indian cultures and the Indians believe this; most of all Swami Ranganathananda of the Ramakrishna Mission. He was the Vivekananda of the conference, and my dearest friend.
The hard fact remains that if you try to follow the late President Kennedy: “It is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” you will have hard sledding—from Americans.
Fortunately, I have youth with me, more and more and more and more. They comprehend the Indian psychologies, but they also wish to pursue the blending of New England Transcendentalism and Columbia University philosophies, very American, and very much under cover, but I believe this will triumph in the end.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
May 1, 1970
Hon, John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper :
One realizes this is a very delicate period, a period in which it is so easy to find fault, so difficult to propose effective remedies. My own life has been entangled with the complexities in many parts of Asia. One had to choose between working incessantly for peace in the Near East, or peace in Southeast Asia. Circumstances suggested the former course, concentrating on the matter of peace in the Near East.
I am enclosing copy of a letter to a group with whom I agree in all principles and details, but like other organizations which posit the so-called Judeo-Christian ethic, they have ignored all my letters (which may not matter much) and all my reports, which are very factual. My files are filled with material that could be of use if we really wanted peace, and now circumstances make it possible for me to devote myself to just that.
Our next campaign, and we are not the least hit optimistic, includes contacting all persons worthy or unworthy who have received peace prizes from important sources. They accept the peace awards and then run to cover when real trouble emerges.
As my program depends upon achievement and not more letter writing, I realize even the dangers of correspondence.
I have already reported a little about contacts with top Indians at Geneva. I am pleased to say that the Indian students at the Universities here have accepted my background. So it has become a matter of extreme indifference whether organizations and persons important or self-important do so, or not. But I must say that relations with the universities and colleges are becoming more and more cordial, and even now I am awaiting the appearance of one of the professors in the fields covered by this correspondence.
I have also written our old friend Dr. Radhakrishnan. A summer school is now awaiting me where I can teach the deeper aspects of Asian wisdoms which are only slowly penetrating into our universities. But that is something, that is a glorious something for which I think we should be thankful.
I am still an American pragmatist and neither a dialectician nor an existentialist. And my recent visit to Boston shows a wonderful revival in the studies of Transcendentalism.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Lama Foundation
P. O. Box 444,
San Cristobal, New Mexico 87564
June 10,1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper,
Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper :
I am enclosing copy of a letter to my own Congressman, Hon. P. Burton of San Francisco. On the whole I support all his programs but the main issue with the young today is the war—not unemployment, not housing, not “ecology” but there is a feeling that this is now a militaristic country, much more clever than others (Including the Germans) and therefore more insidious.
It is not more a matter of clichés and aphorisms and I am beginning to be afraid that non-inflammatory speeches are now becoming inflammatory. Thus the late President Kennedy’s “It is not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
You can’t go to the state Department with anything. And it was so easy at the summit meeting of all the religions of the world at Geneva, not only to receive and communicate but to get apologies from the top clerics of several important faiths, which is still in process.
At Geneva the Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj gave me a send-off, placing this person in the highest echelons concerning knowledge of the deepest Asian philosophies and I could add endlessly to this. Now the young want to know more about Asia and ask why we do not give them Asian-Asian cultures.
This involves some Gandhiism but even more Jesus Christ. Our rejection seriatim of the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ are going to inflame the young more than violence. We seem to be able to cope with violence but not with truth.
I may be in Washington this Autumn and if I come I can assure you that all my themes will be well documented. I am now working for a scholarship toward peace in the Near East—my own resources.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc-Burton
United States Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations
Washington, D.C. 20510
June 22, 1970
Mr. Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, California 94110
Dear Mr. Lewis:
It was thoughtful of you to send me a copy of the letter you wrote to Senator Margaret Chase Smith on June 13. Your discussion of the problems which confront us is most perceptive. I appreciate Your reference to me.
With kind regards, I am
Yours sincerely,
John Sherman Cooper
July 3, 1970
Senator John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper :
One feels very satisfied that your efforts have now been crowned with some success. To me it has been utterly ridiculous that the one Senator who has lived in Asia, and has mingled with many Asians of various sorts, should be kept in the background by those in charge of channels of communication and so-called “wars.” I have not had too much empathy with the Foreign Office since the passage of the Kellogg-Briand pact a number of years ago where unsubstantiated verbalisms were raised to great heights through emotional pressures. We still have these emotional pressures and the only result to me of the Kellogg-Briand pact has been to abolish the word war. Indeed the press does not refer to “war” but to “cooperative endeavors with our allies.” These words are never explained.
The year has been one full of grand activities. I attended an international religions conference at Geneva under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding, an American institution about which a have written before and about which I am sure you know some things, some wiseacre at the conference has urged that communists be invited at later sessions; then the American press will cover. But without either communists or the American Press, I can assure you that the leaders of the world religions are getting closer together.
I can equally assure you that the youths of the world are getting closer together. There is a remarkable absence of any kind of hostility among them. On my way back from Europe I spent some time in Massachusetts, a State which regards the present conflict as illegal. As Americans are not encouraged to study American history, and as all evidences that the top commentators of the large national hookups are actually very ignorant men, we do not realize that many years back this same state of Massachusetts spoke of “Mr. Madison’s War.” That was for all practical purposes a real legal undertaking, and yet a number of states demurred. To me, and to millions of others, the present conflict is not a legal one, but only Massachusetts has followed in the path of its forebears.
As matters stand I may be called to Washington sometime before and may be speaking or at least meeting persons of too great importance to mention them at this writing. But the world cannot be half dialectic and half free, and my years of battling to get out of “realism” into Reality, are now getting excellent responses on all hands.
My program to bring east and west closer together through music and dancing has become a great social success, and at this writing the possibilities are very great that it will be a financial success also. We are sending a television group to India in a short while. Mostly to record the activities of the great Sufi Orders, whose very existence is proscribed in our culture. This will not continue long because reports will be made to my friend Dr. Huston Smith of M.I.T. whom I also hope to see in the not distant future.
It is to me utterly incomprehensible that we can spend billions of dollars purportedly to prevent the spread of Communism in this world, while we have full cultural exchange with Russia and Palestine (that is to say, Israel) which uphold the existence of communist institutions, and we do not have anything of the same type of cultural exchange with any non-Communist Asian land!
When you combine this utterly fantastic attitude with our full acceptance and full rejection at the same time, of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and the emotional attitudes connected therewith you may be able to comprehend that the younger people cannot accept such policies as same, and I don’t believe they are. As long as this national schizophrenia exists at the top we cannot help but have it underneath.
Hoping to meet you someday and appreciating your efforts on behalf of peace and humanity.
Faithfully,
Samuel l. Lewis
August 16, 1970
Sen. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper :
Working For the Actuality of Peace
All my life I had a dream of establishing peace in the Holy Land, mostly based on actual history or on the Three Rings of Boccaccio or its later sequel “Nathan the wise.” I came to Washington in 1960 at a time fixed by officials of the State department. I had ideas for establishing peace in the Near East along these lines, with the added hope that this would shut the Communists out. The State department fixed a date and an hour and on my arrival in Washington, confirmed this. But when I arrived in the office there was not a person there and nobody knew anything. In addition to that I had come at a time when it was impossible to get further hotel booking.
I am a single individual who had at that time neither wealth nor following. And since then on no occasion has any member of the State Department answered any letter from me, including requests to get into the Peace Corps.
I stayed in Egypt a long time and had a plan which was accepted by the Israelis, the Egyptians, and the Saudis. But there was one man who was downright enthusiastic and said this program was the best he had ever heard. His name was Gunnar Jarring. I did not think much of it then, for your foreign office was cool, the American Friends of the Middle East were cool, and the peace societies actually hostile.
I will skip the rest. We out here are trying to bring Jews and Muslims; Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs together. It has been very successful so far. It is all done by the young. You can call them “hippies” if you want to. They are not working to destroy anything or anybody. They believe; they positively believe in Peace, Good Will to Men. We haven’t a chance with the newspapers. The magazines ignore all letters, but a very wealthy publisher is returning to this country soon, and is going to help us, help us while we are doing.
I am even getting support from the young, and with a little more effort will be able to leave here for Washington this fall. These young people want to work for The Temple of Understanding. They don’t want any money from the temple. Indeed real religions of the world, finally took this person seriously when be said he was “an incarnation of Nathan the Wise.”
It is characteristic that the last persons to consider our approaches are so-called peace groups, and especially those individuals who have had pence awards and then run to cover before the realities of Southeast Asia and the Near East. I do not wish to name some of my contacts here, but after coming to Washington will naturally disclose the names of those I shall be seeing, will see.
I am absolutely and positively opposed to “Peace With Justice”. I am positively in favor of “Peace With the Concessions I Will Make.” Indeed in a few days there will be a joint dinner of young people here. If there were a single sign of sex or pornography or Communism or psychedelics it would be a “world event.” But when we can get Muslims to repeat the Shemah and Jews the Kalama….
While this is going on, others of my disciples are preparing to go to Asia and film present institutions, especially of young people, working for peace and spirituality. Oh, we have already raised the money; that is not a problem. We are doing what the present day culture calls impossible, or inconceivable, but we are doing. The groups will assemble later on at the Durgah of Nizam-ud-din Auliya in New Delhi, which you may know. One of the present spiritual leaders is Hasan Sani Nizam. He is one of the best of our friends, and his father was close to the Gradys, especially to the still lives Mrs, Lucretia Delvalle Grady who is still living in this city.
We do not, and cannot understand, how this nation can be spending billions of dollars in wars presumably to stop Communism, have culture exchange with Russia and none with the Asian civilizations far more profound than perhaps anything in Europe. We have written this before, but today we are supported by thousands of young people, and possibly more than thousands. Also money is being collected to have cultural exchanges with non-communist civilizations. And locally the American Friends Society for Eastern Arts has recognized what we are doing. Reports will also be sent to the departments of Ethno-musicology at the University of California in Los Angeles and Washington (Seattle), and Chicago University.
At Geneva a number of Asians were amazed to find that this person had been barred at intercultural and interreligious gatherings in the United States by European, chiefly German, professors. The same holds for the Hawaiian University in Honolulu, with its huge East-West center , quite selective as to which groups are allowed to present their teachings. I do not believe, Senator, we are going to have peace on earth and good will, until we recognize the humanity, whether we agree with their particular religions and philosophies.
I used to say the two things I was most proud of, were my invitation to be a guest of honor at the Imperial Grounds in Tokyo and a free dinner from Armenians. Now I add to it the thirty-three rejections I had of a paper on Vietnamese Buddhism. And the young today seem to think the last was the greatest.
The telephone and doorbell are constantly ringing. Young people are coming hundreds of miles to see “Dances of Universal Peace” first inspired by the late Ruth St. Denis. I am exceedingly honored by Indian travel organizations and more and more now by the Universities. This is especially true of the University of California. They are taking seriously my theme “How California can help Asia.” They realize that my complaint is generic, not personal. What has happened to me has happened to others who have been successful in earning the friendships of Asian peoples and even more of accomplishing something in those lands. I myself saw great things done by Americans, and not a word in the press, which constantly prints endless articles about the Aswan Dam but never about the great achievements of Americans.
We appreciate very much what you are trying to do. I tell people you are the only member of the upper house who has lived in Asia and that it is conceivable you just might know something about its peoples. At this writing there is nothing negative to report. I agree with Clemenceau that “War and Peace are two things too serious to entrust to diplomats and Generals.” But I realize I live in an age which does not accept Clemenceau at all.
Lots more is going on now and everything points to success. The war of Reality Versus “Realism” can only have one end, and I am sure you understand it.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
August 30, 1970
Son. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington D. C.
Dear Senator Cooper :
The next month will be spent in preparation to visit especially New York and Washington.
You will find enclosed a copy of a letter to Mrs. Henry Grady, widow of one of your predecessors as Ambassador to India. Our colleagues have already left to visit that land and others, to help promote cultural exchange at human levels with consideration of humanity, spirituality, and history in contradiction to the dominant methods of both ourselves and those nations which we distrust, all of whom demand a “realism” without regard to humanity, history, or spirituality.
Only three men ever were courteous enough to give any consideration to my program for the Near East. Two of them were Californians, one a retired official and the other a Professor of the University of California who has worked in many foreign lands. The other person was Mr. Gunnar Jarring. We had a four hour conversation and he told me that he thought my program was the most sensible and all-encompassing he had ever encountered.
Evidently some young people think the same. We have already put on a successful Israeli-Arab dinner. The next one, which the Arabs will host for the Jews, including Israelis, and Christians, is already over-subscribed. I am sending a copy of this to Congressman Millard because these meetings will be held in his district. But I regret that although we are both of very long standing San Francisco families and he is a member of the House Committee on International Affairs, that he has previously ignored all attempts on my part to see him. I hope this will be different now, for I am working for world peace amid the humanity.
The efforts at the Geneva Conference of the world’s real religions have been followed by more and more acceptance of actual research, actual study, actual traveling, and actual living with Asians and Arabs. Now the University of California is accepting this and I am also working for a Peace Scholarship, first with my own monies, and then I hope others will join.
At this writing there is every sign that the radio stations will begin publicizing what previously they a priori rejected. The world cannot persist half-free, half-dialectic.
Hope to see you when I reach Washington.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc: Congressman Maillard
cc: Congressman Burton
September 14, 1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
There is a question whether this land will come to realities or that I may be compelled to write a book which would make Zola’s “J’ Accuse” look elementary. While the newspapers are printing headlines over-exaggerating every form of excitement stemming from the Near East, we have been totally successful in putting on joint Israeli-Arab-Christian dinners, with prayers and dances, both in San Francisco and in Jerusalem of all places. This just isn’t news. I have written you in the past about being the only outsider present at the Papa Tara Singh-Nehru reconciliation. Forty gentlemen of the press present and not one reported most of the proceedings: warm embraces between Muslims and Sikhs and Hindus.
I think I also wrote you previously that at the world peace conference in Geneva, not reported by the press—no Communists there, I received profound apologies from the top Rabbis and Protestant clerics, and they are cooperating fully in our two projects :
A. Peace in Palestine by eating, dancing, and praying together.
B. Filming and tape recording present day operations of spiritual forces of all religions with and around the young especially.
It seems today that we are getting full cooperation among religious leaders, but we have to send out teams to get radio stations and TV people and the press even to recognize our existence.
Last week we saw the latest issue of National Geographic Magazine with a two-page picture of Lama Foundation in New Mexico, of which I am the top-Guru so to speak. This institution was given at least 10 snaps on a national broadcasting program last Tuesday. We agree in accepting all religions, and in operative brotherhood. This goes a little further than most of the inter-religious groups, because it includes all aspects of Amer-Indian faiths. It is operative; it is going on now, and it is shunned by the press more than any cleric shuns sin. But I think this is going to be changed. The young are going to change it, and I have an editor-publisher who will accept facts. Facts. Facts. Facts.
We had planned to go to New York City where also we may contact Father Haughey, Editor of “America,” one of my colleagues. But now it may be possible also to see Gunner Jarring. Gunner Jarring gave me four hours and said my plan was the best he had ever heard of for the Near East.
Excepting for some slight cooperation from “The American Friends of the Middle East” the only time I was ever permitted to talk was at the Roman Catholic University of San Francisco when there was a Seminar on the water problems of the Near East. When I sat down the chair declared “The meeting is adjourned; every problem has been answered.” That was the only time I have ever been permitted to talk in a land that verbalizes liberty, democracy, and humanity.
But don’t get any idea this is an egocentric report. For years I have been working on the theme “How California Can Help Asia”. The work of my fellow alumni of the University of California is almost beyond concept. I won’t detail it here. A riot at Sather Gate is world news; a solution of a mighty problem takes two years to get before the public.
The other day I received a book on the Indus River, and I guess I lost my temper. The introduction gave high praise to the University of California and especially Dr. Milton Fireman. You never read about him. If the Russians, or maybe the Chinese, plan something it is a headline. If an American does something it is not ever news. The successful operative Mangla Dam in Pakistan was completed by a local corporation, Guy Atkinson Company-it was not news here. To the local press Aswan is always news. American engineering successes not newsworthy.
I do not know much about Mr. Nader. Salesmen generally know something of the virtues of their products. The so-called Anti-Communist American press, ignores the virtues of this country. They are trying to sell sex, mini-skirts, and hard liquor, and the people of Chile have already indicated in a poll that that is not the kind of protection they want from Communism.
I am no Pollyanna. Far From it. But something has to be done, and it can be done without hypocrisy, to tell the world what Americans have accomplished; not planned but accomplished. I even understand by the grapevine that a man may be visiting me soon who has seen President Nixon in regard to the Palestinian impasse. We are getting more and more Arabs-Christians-and Jews together, and I believe we will get more and more. It is only a question whether it will be necessary to publish a tremendous expose’, or whether some leaders will jump out of their private psychedelic “realism” into reality.
I shall be leaving in a week for New York, thence to Washington, thence to Boston, unless there are changes in plans.
The teams we have sent to India have already received the highest form of cooperation from Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. This is wonderful, but not news—Yet. The local American Society for Eastern Arts has expressed willingness to cooperate when this is done.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc: Sen. Percy
cc: Cong. Phil Burton
cc: Admiral Evenson
cc: Dept. of South Asian Studies
September 15, 1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
There has been nothing but success in my private life, all aspects of it.
It is a horrible thing to live in a country of which the Ceylonese Buddhist Dr. Malalasekera Said, “How can you trust a country which will not trust its own citizens.” It is not that bad. I understand somebody close to President Nixon may investigate.
There has been nothing but favorable news in my private life, from Jerusalem, from Teheran, from my local friends, and now from one of the chief Rabbis of the land, Lehrman of Miami Beach. We are going to make some effort this week to see if some radio station will grant some sort of interview about real events in this real world which might lead toward real peace and not toward mad emotionalism or anti-semantic misusage of words. My own efforts to introduce teachings of the Sufis have been very successful, with the young. My own knowledge of the Oriental philosophies of Asians—not of pompous Englishman and Germans is now being recognized more and more by the local universities.
We talk about “peace and justice” and practically forbid objective studies of Islamic and Arabic cultures, e.g. the University of Hawaii with its celebrated East-West Center.
This has nothing to do with the Near East politics. The greatest authority on Arabic culture here a few years ago was the Zionist leader. We could do a great deal toward promoting peace and understanding in this world if we had an Arabic section at the UN. We have a Russian section—how many countries speak Russian? (I don’t know about the Chinese.) If we really believed in peace and justice we could established this with the Arabs without any change whatsoever toward our policies on Israel. Indeed it is a mockery that so many Israelis whom I have met are far more objective toward Arabic culture than the “good people” of the United States with their totally meaningless “peace with justice.”
Now I am getting good news from Arabs and from Rabbis and hope from God I don’t have to write an explosive book. Everywhere I went Asians would ask me “Why aren’t you with your State Department?” I answered, “That is why.”
Our present State Department seems to be only concerned with the efforts of the Russians, not their successes but their efforts, and atrocities, and not anything to bring peace and good will among humankind. I have been very successful in reaching even many Israelis here in the explanation of Sufi Philosophy. Next week we have a joint-session with Yogis in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
I must give a warning senator, a terrible warning: If no attention is paid to our efforts toward peace among and between human beings, when I return from the East I will have an open and public marijuana session, and advertise it. I hope to God I will not have to do that. I have not smoked in my life—anything.
Sincerely,
Samuel L. Lewis
October 10,1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
My dear Senator Cooper :
I am in New York city on two errands which, somehow or other, have crisscrossed, though the subject matters may seem to be quite different.
We came to this city primarily to promote efforts to bring Israelis and Arabs together. We have been successful in California beyond our original plans and intentions. We cannot, of course, compel others to accept God as reality, but the way affairs are progressing, so magically and far beyond our own mentalities and faculties, it would seem that this is so.
Our immediate efforts do involve our contacting Jewish leaders and also publications which have in the past kept their doors closed against us poor mortals who have unwittingly been eye-witnesses of historical events. It seems that the real generation gap is simply between those who want knowledge and those who want interpretation. It is not necessary to go into that, except it would appear at this writing that the people of knowledge are beginning to express themselves more fully and effectively than the people of opinion.
We had nothing but encouragement at Columbia University (e.g. our interview with former Ambassador Badeau), and then learned that there was a movement on that campus towards the same end. Its leader is an Indian named Karmakar. We had no difficulty in our preliminary efforts to join forces. But Mr. Karmakar invited us to attend the meeting of the Indian students Association where we were warmly welcomed.
It seems at this time one is being called upon to join forces with certain Indian leaders presumably “spiritual,” whatever that means. But the team we have sent to India to televise and tape record sacred dances, ceremonies, and shrines, had been entirely successful; and it is possible that something more will come of this than mere pragmatic cultural exchange.
At this writing, there has been some success in promoting both the spiritual-cultural exchange and the peace program for the Near East, but these two programs, while seemingly separate, involve the same personalities.
It is necessary to go into New England shortly, and then some time after our return to New York we hope to visit Washington and also to have more news on both these enterprises.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
c/o Lonnie Less
27 West 71st St.,
New York, N.Y.
October 22, 1970
Hon, John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
This is written in Charleston, Mass. where I have brought two of my assistants, and whither we shall be departing soon to go back to New York by stages. The most favorable news is the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to a farmer engaged in research very close to my own efforts, and to what I have been calling “reality” in contrast to the dominant superficialities known as “realism.” I have already both traveled and had serious discussions to top agronomists and horticulturalists in what has most unfortunately become esoteric and specialized in the culture unfortunately dominated by the literati.
Our own special efforts to peace in the Near East, publicized by our “Dances of Universal Peace” have more than caught on with the young, and especially around the universities. We were not quite prepared and as the news from the West indicated successes both in promoting joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners and social gatherings; and as the efforts to raise funds therefor have been most encouraging, we may be able to send persons or teams across this land.
So far we have not been very successful with the press but fairly so with the radio-and TV people. Our latest snub is characteristic of the dominant “realism” of the Fourth Estate. We were refused on the ground that the public is not interested in anything but the election campaign by a famous newspaper which is filled with laments on the small turn out at elections! I have never seen such a dull period in New York City and so far as people met here there are no signs of an election going on at all. This has unfortunately given more impetus to write some scathing articles which have been assured of publication.
And if you look at the leading newspapers here today you could hardly believe they were published in the same region—the contexts are extremely different. Anyhow we may be able to get an article in the Christian Science Monitor because the Oakland Tribune is giving us coverage in California.
After returning to New York we hope to visit Washington but cannot tell whether this will be before or after election date. There are so many signs of young people working for peace on bases not discussed by the press and further from the strange type of human beings whom our Vice President loathes than from Mr. Agnew. It is a terrible thing when so much weight is given to certain personalities whose views on every subject is artificially made the center of attention. Readers may be impressed but the young and the university students are not impressed.
There was a time in the august Senate when day after day the leading Republic, Mr. Smooth, used to debate with the leading Democrat, Mr. Simmons. This went on year in and year out, regardless of other issues. And we now see the same thing done by non-elected, non-representatives of the public, with such emphasis and stress we are really in a dream world with insoluble problems.
So far we have had nothing but wonderful receptions from the young and from the departments contacted at Harvard and the Massachusetts School of Technology (M.I.T). But this was also true in New York. The young do not see war as solution. And we understand that Mr. Nixon is more astute and even more wise than is always reported of him. For he has not closed his doors or his ears to various delegations of young people who are sincerely working for peace—I mean peace in the sense that it used to mean— the ending of armed conflicts.
We shall probably have more news when we get our mail in New York.
We shall no doubt stop at Greenwich, Conn. to inquire whether our good friend, Mrs. Judith Hollister, is back from Japan. Our young are working very closely with and in a sense for the Temple of Understanding. And if the staff of the Temple so provides we believe we can get the backing of millions of young Americans, and, sufficient funds along with such backing.
The one prediction that Jean Dixon has made which is coming true is the increased interest in Indian Philosophies and practices—call them “Yoga” or otherwise. They are rapidly gaining while the more sober Christian endeavors are lagging. Yet the dominant figures in the peace endeavors both here and abroad are Christian and if the Indians are more clever in rhetoric, most conservative (from our point of view) devotees are more successful in building actual good-will between antagonistic groups.
When we return to New York City we shall go ahead to contact some of the top persons involved in the Near East imbroglios. I think I have written that Mr. Gunnar Jarring at least examined, and in detail, my “plan” for the Near East years ago and said it was the best thing he had ever encountered. So far it has been exceedingly easy to answer all questions put by audiences, university people and radio questioners. Some day we may get to “Blessed are the peace-makers.”
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc-Phil Burton
November 3, 1970
Hon. John Sherman Cooper
Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Dear Senator Cooper:
It is with some regret that I have had to call off our planned visit to your city. There is simply too much to do, and success rather than failure has kept me exceedingly busy here. I return on the 19th to San Francisco, but it is possible that my secretary and N.Y. representative will be coming to Washington in the not-too-distant future.
War and peace: I see no way out of the present impasse so long as the people of the United Stated are presumed to be led by the rival camps of the Vice President and super-encyclopedic commentators, because they have prowess in one or two directions assume they have prowess in everything. There is a mental pollution which is so terrible that many of our scientists have remarked that the dangers of present mental pollution are greater than those of physical pollution (if you read some of the books on pollution by non-scientists, this will give you the key). Fame and notoriety play greater roles than knowledge.
It is remarkable that in all the discussion on Vietnam the people of that unhappy land are hardly heard from at all. We may even have Arabic-Palestinians in our midst who will be listened to. But nobody listens to any kind of Vietnamese person.
In the case of the Near East there is plenty of publicity of rabbis and imams coming together in public, generally with Christians both Protestant and Catholic, and pretending friendship and understanding! They then return to their own places and continue their diatribes. Then they are invited to speak in public by various groups who regard themselves as broadminded and continue their diatribes.
Add to this the fact that I have found anti-black hatreds and prejudices in this city far greater than I ever encountered in the South, and I have lived in the South, makes one wonder how long this nation can pretend to be both Christian and dedicated to “excitement.” I go further, and say that this quest for excitement, supported by millions and millions of certain interests, is itself a basic cause of crime today. And it is going to be some time before a nation, misled by Vice Presidents and super-encyclopedists, is going to get out of the cosmos and settle on the earth and face its problems.
Hallelujah! The Three Rings: For the sake of what I might call spiritual economy, all efforts are being devoted toward bringing various groups together to help establish some sort of peace in the Holy Land. I have already told you that my paper on Vietnamese Buddhism was rejected thirty-three times. Nobody wanted it. I was only permitted once to speak on the Near East which so satisfied the chair that the meeting was concluded. This was on the water resources of that region. But since Mr. Gunnar Jarring has become a public figure and since he once told me that me that my program for the Near East was the best he had ever encountered, our new age, our generation gap young are now endeavoring to promote joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners and social engagements and have been surprisingly successful. They have been so successful that we have even gotten two of the national broadcasting companies interested, and for the first time in my life, I was given serious consideration by a gentleman of the press, a representative of the AP. Oh yes, once there was a TV representative who gave me seven interviews and never accepted a single fact. And in the past there have been multiples of interviews and never a fact accepted. And only one of a multitude of persons who have been where history has occurred but has never been news. It is only excitement that is news. Excitement, excitement, excitement.
You should not be surprised, then, that now several of our Latin neighbors do not go along with our excitement and headaches. And one can expect more lands in this universe to go against excitement and headaches without necessarily adopting Marxism.
I think I have already told you my associates have been very successful with joint Israeli-Sufi gatherings and with the filming and recording of the ceremonies and musics of the Sufis in Iran and India. They have gone further in recording and taping other aspects of Asian Asian cultures bypassed by our people.
But last night one encountered a Dr. Backster, friend of Dr. Huston Smith of M.I.T, who is doing research in plant psychology. It is noteworthy that many of the real sages of the real Orient have declared that the spiritual future of the word lies in America. And this man went right on beyond where Sir Jagadis Bose of India had worked so long. Bose was ignored, partly as a scientist and partly as an Indian, but his researches in metallic psychology have been accepted by the airplane industry. Here is a real meeting of East and West.
All of these coalesce in the efforts of The Temple of Understanding, whose headquarters are in the American city of Washington. This is bringing East and West together; this is bringing Negro and white together; this is bringing young and old together. And I believe, in many senses, it is bringing God and man together. I have written to you of this before, and I understand some of your colleagues, not many, have shown some interest. But to me it means that the United States may take over, both in spiritual and scientific leadership; and I believe it will when it drops excitement and war as its national programs.
Written in hope that the advent may be the advent.
Sincerely,
Samuel L. Lewis