The East-West Center for Self-Exploration
January 14th, ‘70
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad-Chisti
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
Dear Brother Samuel,
I hope this letter reaches you in the course of your itineraries. I simply want to extend to you an open invitation to stay with us at our center prior to your departure to Turkey.
If it would be possible for you to give me some notice as to when we could expect you to arrive it would be possible to arrange a public lecture with people of high aspiration. We could also make a video tape.
It may interest you to know that we are offering now a training program in creative interpersonal problem solving for people interested in the forming of spiritual communes on a firm foundation. It would therefore seem especially relevant that you pay us a visit if this is at all feasible within the framework of your present plans. Michael Katz, who is a close friend and who managers the bookstore apparently has met you, and knows Phillip Davenport. He thinks very highly of you both, and so naturally I am eager to make your acquaintance. I remain
Faithfully,
Richard P. Harvey
Director of the East-West-Center
P.S. My wife and I are in the process of editing a series of books for Collier Macmillan entitled The Inner Teachings of the World. Because of your extensive research into the nature of spiritual communes, both as they have existed among the ancients, and as they are emerging into manifestation in America at this time we would like to ask you to consider the possibility of writing a book on the subject.
Jan. 18, 1970
Richard P. Harvey
Director, The East-West Center For Self-Exploration
105 Marlborough St.
Boston, Mass. 02116
My dear Richard:
This may be a long, but not needlessly long letter, on account of certain complexities. The convention which was to have been held in Istanbul has been changed to Geneva, with an unsettled date. In the meanwhile I have been asked to visit at least Cornell and the Universities in Philosophies. The dates ware left open, but naturally I should have to visit them before the and of the semester. And if I use the term “Complexities,” I also want to explain them:
a. Sufi Pir Vilayat Khan has been here both on and off schedule. Our immodest programs had to be dropped, but I must say, the meetings were overwhelmingly successful. This necessitated my writing considerably on spiritual dancing, dropping all the rest of my programs, at a time when exigencies in the weather necessitated considerable attention to quite ordinary problems.
Pir Vilayat is trying to get a national hook-up for these dances and this also require them being written up in a literary form.
b. I met a young man at one of these meetings who represents the communes of New Mexico. He is acting as an agent for Baba Ram Dass (Dr. Alpert) who will be here shortly. Fortunately his lecture is on my one free night. But as I am a beneficiary of his effort it is only natural that I give what attention I can to this visit.
c. I also met at one of Pir Vilayat’s Meetings an Arab who is an Israeli citizen and who has a plan or approach so far quite ignored, which just may lead in the direction of peace and understanding.
You will understand that both Phillip Davenport and myself have our separate and joint careers, and they are not always smooth-sailing. But at least he has successfully launched a new carrier. My own problems are not financial, but the difficulties of available time and not suitable assistance in a career which is advancing on many fronts at the same time.
It is not quite clear to me whether you wish me to write or speak on:
1. Spiritual communes
2. The New Age
3. Practical spiritual exercises for the young
4. Spiritual dancing
5. The integration of East and West
6. Other matters
This besides any subject matter I could supply on The Inner Teachings of the World. I have had real training, and perhaps real awakening, along several paths of endeavors. Our inane and insane ethos proclaims that a person who has had such experiences must keep quiet. This has left the doors open to every sort of pretender and charlatan. But with the appearance of Kaplan’s The Three Pillars of Zen it is now permissible for a mystic to speak or write on mysticism.
One of the most bizarre but characteristic experiences of my life is in regard to the later Upanishads. This semi-sacred literature is filled with all sorts of spiritual exercises, published spiritual exercises. I went in vain to effort the original texts to one group of “experts” after another. But for them to have accepted it would have meant to recognize my personality, and that is just what the various cult leaders will not do.
We have made many typewritten copies of these teachings. I think they are too complicated and abstruse, fit only for those who wish to spend their lives in retirement. But they were sacred literature, they did and do exist, and we have derived some of our ides and techniques therefrom.
There also appears at the present time a large number of books on Sufism, just as previously there appeared a large number of books on “Zen,” most of them having nothing to do with real Zen Buddhism. But this very situation introduces another factor in one’s private life which cannot be bypassed. Nevertheless, one did quote from one of the Sufi books written by a Sufi (despite all the renowned professors, Sufis met being illiterate sometimes write their own works: I draw a theme from one of them:)
“God Is Not Your Jailer, He Is Your Lover.”
love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
January 20th, 1970
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Christi
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
Dear Brother Lewis,
I have just come from N.Y. where I discussed with Mr. Howard Sandum, Chief Editor of Collier-MacMillan a book which Mr. J.G. Bennett is doing and books which my life and myself are doing. I took the liberty at this time of giving him a copy of the San Francisco Oracle which had in it a segment of your serial on the Phenomenon of Spiritual Communes.
In our communications J.G. Bennett and I have discussed a theme that runs like a violet thread through Gurdjieff’s first published literary manifestation entitled the Herald of the Coming Good in which he discusses the advent of interconnected circles of individuals who gather together to explore and to eliminate the obstructions to right feeling, right thought, and right action which leads to the unification of the forces of humanity and a gathering together in the name of our common father. Mr. Bennett’s book will explore the roots of the schools, largely Sufi, from which Gurdjieff derived most of his teaching.
In regard to your question about what I would wish you to write I can only say that I would wish you to write what you feel you must write. You seem to me to be in a better, by which I mean a more objective, station to understand the phenomenon of Spiritual Communes in this country than anyone I have met to date because you stand in teaching that antecedes our culture’s dire needs and compulsions. What I would suggest is a work which combines the ideas of Spiritual communes, the New Age, Spiritual exercises, and dancing, and the integration of Eastern and Western ways of thinking and modes of being. These ideas are inseparable. Is the life Style of the Maulavi Dervish understandable apart from his dancing? Would the Maulavi esoteric Society be so far reaching were it not for the trade that formed the veins and arteries between East and West? The analogies between the past and the present are not few and far between but far reaching and frequent.
I think that your article serialized in the Oracle, if it is extensive enough, would serve a very useful function if it were made available in book form. If it is not sufficiently extensive for a book in itself there are two possibilities: A. it could be included in an anthology which I would consider compiling.
An anthology which would explore Spiritual communities as they have existed in many parts of the world, and in many epochs. The different selections would be tied together with a commentary. Probable your article at its present state of development would be about the right length for inclusion in such a work. B. In its developed version Spiritual Communes could be published as an autonomous work. In either case I would appreciate it if you would send me this work of yours.
We look forward to meeting you in Boston in the near future. And are hopeful that this visit may facilitate the “national hook-up for sacred dancing” which you mentioned in conjunction with Pir Vilayat Khan. I think that your talk or talks here could encompass the subject matter we mentioned in reference to the books.
The spiritual exercises which you mention as having been derived from the later Upanishads are of interest to me also. We are at a time in the history of the planet when the adage ”synthesize or die” goes hand in hand with “God Is Not Your Jailer, He Is Your Lover.” I remain
Yours in good faith,
Richard P. Harvey
Feb. 2, 1970
Richard Harvey
The East-West Center for Self-Exploration
105 Marlborough St.
Boston, Mass. 02116
My dear Richard:
I have your two letters, January 14 and 20, and feel very much as if I were writing to a mirror-self. I have taken matters up with Phillip Davenport of the now defunct The Oracle, and he had placed copies in my hands. We shall check these to see if there is the complete material on my work on potential spiritual communes. If there is not we shall see that you get a full copy, properly typed. In any case this material will be sent to you under separate cover as soon as possible.
I am also taking this matter up with my esoteric secretary Mr. Otis Mansur Johnson. I think I have mentioned that he has been friend and pupil of Dr. Huston Smith of M.I.T. (now away on leave). This may become more important, because I have been invited to go to Lama Foundation, stay at Lama and work at Lama as I please. It is only complexities in family matters which prevent an early decision.
I have been admitted into a number of Sufi Orders and also into a number of non-Islamic schools of spiritual training. My main differences with Gurdjieff, and I cannot necessarily justify myself for these differentiations, seem to be the lack of high moral ideals and human consideration in his methods. Sufis have a saying, “One single brotherhood in the fatherhood of God.” And the way I have been taught is to make human consideration the highest of all morals.
Although on paper we may seem to be quite in agreement with a number of ancient or modern potential or real spiritual movements, we refuse to stop at any verbal state of stage. Our codes must be actualities not theories.
Besides the real or incidental work on spiritual communes I am at the moment overwhelmed by the new adventure of spiritual dancing. The trend of the age is that the communes want the spiritual dancing, and the spiritual dances want communes. This, I believe, is because the young people of the day have the outlooks inferred by the Sanskrit words, Vijnanavada and Anandavada. Too many new movements either verbalize or ignore; they do no actualize.
My spiritual dance class grew out of some in spiritual Walk. I now have one class intense on spiritual dancing plus mystical practices, and the other on spiritual dancing cum Walk. Both are now crowded, and may make necessary my opening up still further dance groups.
I shall have copied certain articles of Hazrat Inayat Khan which appeared in the earlier of his published writings. You may read them and say they are only theory, and you would be right. But the reason for sending them is that one can go much further and delineate the methods by which his words become realities.
I do not know how much Mr. Bennett knows of actual methods of actual spiritual schools. There is now worldwide contention between the dialectical arbitrary writings of the extremely self-centered super-educated Arthur Asbury and his colleagues and friends, on one side; and the actual devotees and disciples of Sufism and their friends on the other side.
The first break came when Phillip Kapleau had published Three Pillars of Zen. While there is not a necessary companion work, one may find in the White collection of the Cleveland Public Library, Efleki’s Lives of the Adepts in French. I do not know how much has been translated, but I do know how much has been concealed by self-centered “experts” who, not having been able to enter the place of understanding, strive to conceal the realities of mysticism. I shall also make note either to have copied, or if already copied, have sent to you, some things from the later Upanishads.
An exceedingly full program has been shut tight, but joyfully shut tight, by the presence of Baba Ram Dass in this vicinity. While on one hand he seems to be against everything and everybody, it is that he is a champion of reality against our phony realism. Certainly his talk last week showed a greater grasp of Indian cosmic psychology than I have heard from any other Western man. We have met him with joy and understanding, and are looking forward to this next lectures.
If I may be personal for a moment, the determination of exactly what I may be writing next may come out of his public or private remarks, so you should be hearing from me further after his closing lecture on February 10.
Cordially and faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Feb. 21, 1970
My dear Richard
You will please excuse me if life is full of uncertainties. The conference for The Temple of Understanding was transferred from Istanbul to Geneva, Switzerland. In the meanwhile, my brother has been hovering between life and death here, making an early departure rather awkward.
Our latest plans therefore are to go direct to Switzerland and therefore stop where, when and as convenient after reaching New York, which should be about the middle of April.
There is another quite different factor here also. Mr. W.D. Begg of Ajmir in India, the most holy place of the Chishtis, has been trying to arrange a meeting between one of his closest friends and myself. As this man is going to a university in your general vicinity, I have written, and enclose copy. One trusts you will find this satisfactory.
There is another factor here too. Any success at this conference—indeed my very appearance—would make a visit to your headquarters more dramatic if not more important. I may have still some living relatives in your area but do not know as time servers family connections. My last visit to Boston was in 1960, just before going to Asia the second time.
In the meanwhile there has been a lot of interesting drama going on. For instance Dr. Richard Alpert has been here, presumably to raise funds for a project in the same general direction as you presumably are working for. His meetings were not very advertised but drew thousands of young people, mostly, and thousands of dollars actually. But this also brought the feeling that I personally must extend my efforts as a spiritual teacher, and I am expected to conduct a summer school in the southwest, Lama foundation, early un June if this can be arranged, However, I hope to see you before that.
Cordially,
Samuel L. Lewis
Feb. 21, 1970
Mr. P.K. Gupta
11-A Academy St.
Arlington, Mass. 02174
Beloved One of Allah:
This person is an American who is also a Chishtia Sufi, who also has the full qualifications of a Murshid in the direct Chishtia chain, and the qualifications of Khalif in fusion chains, and in other schools. The title of one Chishti was bestowed in 1956 when one visited Ajmir and proved his efficiency in Shadud, etc.
During the course of years friendship has been established with your good friend W.D. Begg, whom we also regard with full trust as a brother in tarik, and otherwise. As your name is Gupta, I must tell you also that I have been trained in many schools of Indian wisdom and count among my friends your now retired President Dr. Radhakrishnan. I hope you like this country which in many respects is very different from you own. But I have lived in India and also many parts of Asia.
Brother Beg tells me you may be traveling through this country. San Francisco is very far away, but you would be welcome here, and we also could provide housing for you. In the meanwhile, may I advise you of my schedule:
Toward the and of next month my esoteric secretary Mansur Johnson and I shall be leaving to attend a conference of all the world’s faiths at Geneva, Switzerland. After a week’s stay there I hope to go to London and remain there until the middle of April, then return to the States.
As my schedule has been subject to change many times and may so be again, one can only lay dawn a provisional program. This would mean that on arrival back in the States I would come through Boston as soon as possible to visit the East-West Center For Self-Exploration, 105 Marlborough St, Boston. We have been corresponding with this group for some time. From what I understand they would welcome any Indian who has a mystical background, and especially one in Sufism, and especially one in Chishti methods. I hope therefore it would be possible for you to contact Mr. Richard Harvey of this group at your earliest convenience.
At the present time we are going through many changes here all of them externally in directions of beneficence. We have been attracting many people with Dervish dancing and singing. The dances have been derived from many schools. But we also perform other types of sacred and mystical dances. There is every sign that the American people will enjoy these. They are certainly coming to this home in greater members all the time. Contrary to what many people might expect, the young Americans really believe in the omnipresent Merciful Allah, and in these methods which raise the consciousness to higher levels, bringing love, peaces, tranquility, joy, and exaltation. Perhaps it is for that reason that there has been some progress. As Al-Ghazzali taught, “Tasawwuf is based on experiences, and not on promises.”
I hope you are doing well and we may meet soon, inshallah, either in New England or out here.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Richard Harvey
The East-West Center for Self-Exploration
March 3, 1970
Dear Samuel,
I quite understand the uncertainties inherent in life on the planet earth, and I wish your brother well whether it is his time to leave, or whether it is required of him that he stay with us awhile longer.
The high altitude, pure mountain air, and easy access to cosmic radiations would seem to make Switzerland the ideal location for your conference. I am confident of its use in integrating different paths of spiritual actualization, and hope that the conference will take place at that point where the required communion is possible.
I would like to thank you for the written materials which you send, and look forward to discussing with you in person the manuscript, as well as any ideas which you might have regarding the phenomenon of spiritual communities as they have existed, and as they exist new in this and other countries. What do you know of Auroville?
Perhaps when you arrive in Boston Mr. W.D. Begg can get together with us as well. Thank you also for your kind mention to Mr. P.K. Gupta and I anticipate any communication from him. I remain
Yours in Good Faith,
Richard P. Harvey
March 10, 1970
Richard P. Harvey
The East-West Center for Self-Exploration
105 Marlborough St.
Boston, Mass. 02116
Beloved One of God:
Thank You for your letter of March 3. We are now ready for what might well be a most serious venture. We leave here on the 28th with a short stopover in New York and then direct to Geneva. We expect to stay in Geneva about a week, and then go on to London for another week, dates uncertain; and then return to this country. I am not sure at this writing whether the travel agent has arranged for us to go from London to Boston, or whether we must change in New York City, but will let you know as early as possible. At this writing we are not planning to stop at any other cities on or near the East Coast, in part due to the fact that we must be back in San Francisco not later than April 28.
The one project in Switzerland is that of attending the conference of the world’s religions under the auspices of The Temple of Understanding. In England our presumable business covers a group of intellectual mystics who publish what is called “Studies in Comparative Religion”—very high grade both spiritually and intellectually; the Royal Asiatic Society; Kew Gardens; and last but most important what is known as Gandalf’s Garden, the center of and for the New Age young. Their writings and philosophy sound very Californiaish though they are thousands of miles away.
We are assuming at the moment that you will arrange quarters for us, although at this writing we may also have other proffers. This is not to say we wish to burden you with expense, but we wish to be as close as possible to persons and groups with whom we shall be working henceforth, especially on spiritual and related levels.
At this writing everything looks very auspicious and propitious, but we will reserve details for later.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
March 13, 1970
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Avenue
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
Dear Brother Samuel.
As down the ladder entering into the sacred inner sanctum of a Hopi kiva we too enter also into inner earth where masks and pretence dissolve, and where the 12 tribes can come again as in mythical space to a place of atonement.
I thus await as the wave the pebbled shore your arrival here at East-West, and assure you of a bed in a room in a hospitable and electric household.
My thoughts seem to be aggregating sanskaras around the though form of an East- Coast Lama foundation. Please put this into your Peace pipe and inhale as I would appreciate your thoughts on this matter when our expected conversations transpire.
There is some considerable possibility that Chogma Trungpa Rimpoche may be a guest of ours simultaneous with your visit. If this is destined to be the case and it may be as there appear to be synchronistic delays our meeting at East-West “Kiva” will be even more eventful. I believe that Tibetan Buddhism is to be spliced, if that is the right word, into the spiritual matrix of New Age North America or whatever the crumbling union called these United State comes to be called. The Rimpoche is the abbot of the Sam ye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monetary in Lanholm Scotland. I remain
Yours under the auspices of
Our Common Father
Richard P. Harvey
March 25, 1970
Mr. Richard Harvey
The East West Center For Self Exploration
105 Marlborough St.
Boston, Mass. 02116
Beloved One of God:
I feel very happy over your letter of the 13th. I do know much about the Hopi rites or cosmic teachings, but I do believe that all the Southwestern part of this country was once a sort of holy land, where masters have appeared. There are enough remnants of engineering and agriculture to support this belief along with more evident information known to others. As it is of the moment we are booked to leave London on April 16 to arrive in New York shortly after noon. I should like to arrive in Boston the same night, which would give us full advantage of the week and immediately following. We do have some private or semiprivate affairs with friends and relatives. I am also anxious to go to Arnold arboretum. This is a professional matter.
My backgrounds have been in horticulture. Today there is a rapid rush toward organic gardening, and the use of health foods. I am not imposing this on anybody, but the first year’s efforts have been eminently successful. Not only that, but a large portion of the health food business in this part of the country is in the hands of friends, and where it has not been, it is rapidly becoming so.
I should be back in San Francisco not later than the 26th of April. This is not only called for by my ticket, but there are very pressing legal and family matters which must be attended to.
I do not know very much about Tibetan Buddhism. Yes, I have been initiated into it. Yes, I have read all of Talbot Mandy. I have a colleagues here who is a Rimpoche—he is half European, half Asian, and his father was in the same initiatory group as the marvelous Alexandria Davida-Neal. While I have not much knowledge of Tantra, I have performed the Mahamudra, and at times feel like an incarnation of Saint Marpa. (I was also connected with the belated Roerich Museum of New York.) I do not like to write too much at this time because anything may happen now at Geneva which could greatly affect the importance or non-importance of my appearance in Boston. I do not intend to visit the rest of the East Coast at this time. Plans are to fly directly non-stop if possible from Boston to San Francisco. The only course at the moment seems to be to telephone to you immediately upon my arrival in the Bay city. (It has just been suggested that I phone you from New York when I learn the time of my arrival at the Boston airport.) I am a very small man with a Santa Claus like beard and should be accompanied by my esoteric secretary Mansur Johnson, who is young, tall, handsome, and of a blond van-Dykish appearance.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
P.S. I do not want any mail sent to Switzerland After a week there I shall be going to London and might be contacted at Gandalf’s Garden, a group with which you might well become acquainted: 1 Dartrey Terrace, King’s Road, Chelsea S.W. 10, England.
April 4, 1970
Geneva Suisse
Richard Harvey
105 Marlborough Boston
East-West Center for self exportation
Dear Richard:
We are writing you sending a copy to the Center of Religious Studies at Harvard. I have known intuitively that in a certain sense coming here was the opening of the lotus so to speak. The breaking out of nothingness to full bloom. An unknown, the part played has been equal in some places to that to the most renown persons in the whole world. I had two cards, positive and negative, and both have been played very successfully.
1. I know or had introductions to persons of all religious delegations. I am at home with everybody, and not symbolically but actually, and this is easily proven by the social life.
2. The non-acknowledgement of letters by persons important and unimportant has brought a rapid succession of apologies. I shall mention just two here: 40 years research for the world church peace union brought nothing but rebuffs and now apologies from the very top people. The second, not a single Rabbi has acknowledged in any way any letter written to him in the last five years any letter written to him about peace in the holy land. The Rabbis here were over effusive and most apologetic in all humility for this manifestation of a so-called Judeo-Christian ethic.
The way to doing something about peace in Palestine, and I mean doing something, came at two levels: the Lebanese of all faiths have entirely supported the program I have and on which so much research has been done. This from the theoretical point of view. But all men are very responsive to my summoning of a meeting of real Palestinian Arabs who live near me in San Francisco; plus some Israelis who live in my city; plus some impartial people of Jewish ancestry; plus the prelates of a least one important Christian church.
I made immediate and successful contact with the papal representative, and we become excellent friends. The same applies to the chief Jesuit here.
I met my old friends Princess Poon, President of the World Buddhist Federation and Swami Maharaj Ranganathananda. On the second day I was sought out, not the seeker but the sought by the members of the very important Birla family of India, and no nonsense. Later I was sought equally by the Chinese and Japanese and why not? I have not only studied the religions of the world, but submitted both to devotions and disciplines.
My two best new contacts have been the leader of the Druzes and my very dear spiritual brother Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who I had never met before in the flesh. Next to them, the two most important contacts and friendships have been with Dr. Jurji of Princeton and the German Dr. Benz whose books I have read and know and intend to purchase.
The Temple of Understanding is and attempt to bring together the leaders of the world’s religions. Geneva is an excellent place for such a meeting. Even the officials of this city know more about the wise men of Asia than many proclaimed “experts,” a subject into which there is no longer any need to go.
My picture has been taken so many times and no doubt will appear in the publications in other parts of the world. No doubt my beard and robes are attracting. I am known as the sage who writes the longest letters and makes the shortest speeches—straight to the point. Real Zen training, not booky book speculation, disciplines the ego, so my speeches are like Herigel’s swordsmanship.
The conference has expressed extreme sympathy to our national reaction against super-Aryanism, and next year they hope to meet in some part of Africa.
Next to omitting Africa and to some extent South America, there is the strange subjectivity about youth, as if youth were a species, part animal, part ethereal, who become human beings when they reach a certain age. I purposely introduced myself as a spiritual teacher of the hippies, and this is recognized, but Swami Ranganathananda has accepted that America is being invaded by denizens of a higher order who have been Hindus in past incarnations.
I now go to England and should be back in the States on the 16th or 17th; on account of the airfield situation. We are not sure of our exact mode of travel to Boston nor the hour of our arrival, so may try to reach you by phone or wire when we get to New York and/or when we shall leave it etc.
Please telephone my cousins Joseph and Gertrude Matz if you can find them in the telephone book. They had been living in Brooklyn when I was living in your city 10 years ago. Actually there is no bad news whatsoever, only flows of enthusiasm and an inner optimism, which we hope may become justifiable.
Cordially,
Samuel L. Lewis
May 10, 1970
Mr. Richard Harvey
East-West Center for Self-Exploration
105 Marlborough St.
Boston, Mass. 02116
My dear Richard:
Our return home was one of joyful and loving greeting. It also has meant, however, certain natural human problems such as that of my family and relatives arising out of the death of my brother; and also of some other complexities caused by other deaths, which is only natural.
Our present program is to go to the Lama Foundation. In addition to that we shall probably visit the University of New Mexico and examine the communes, health food stores, and organic gardening in that region. We may also become involved with other spiritual groups, as well as the Amer-Indians of Taos, etc. Everywhere doors are opening.
Most of my disciples are planning to go to a summer camp. There they may be learning or producing new dances, new chants, and new dramatic presentations. One assumes that these additions may be integrated into my portfolio for our return.
As matters stand, though no date is set, Mansur and I would fly to Washington and hire a rent-a-car, go to Boston and later go westward toward Cleveland, and back to Washington. Details are uncertain due to invitations from Eastern Tennessee and western part of Virginia. At this writing we certainly do have “heavy” business in the Washington and Boston areas. The Washington business of course in being affected by the events of the day. We already have proper invitations of many sorts, but do not wish to have these businesses, no matter how seemingly important, impede our coming to Boston and Cambridge, where we feel such strong affiliation both to yourself and to those who come to your house and the Sphinx. That I believe before God, rather than before man, this is of prime importance.
After all, our Washington contacts, even though they include world leaders, and mighty mighty people, stress the prominence of prominence, which may be out molded and out-dated.
At the moment I am concentrating so much on New Mexico, but after the 1st of July should pay more attention to what your may request of us. We have been particularly impressed also by Karmu, to whom we also send love and blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis