This letter is 19 pages long, handwritten on 7\"x9\" paper. (About 1,800 words, so it would be about five or six pages in a printed book.) It\u2019s mostly about Peter\u2019s interest in bodily purification, and connecting that to Christian and other religious teachings.<\/p>\r\n
Content warning for lighthearted reference to addiction (in the context of sugar and alcohol and tobacco) and discussion of food restrictions. Also for detailed description of an enema.<\/p>\r\n
Also for ideas about religious history that may be annoying to Christians and\/or Hindus.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n12\/29\/69<\/p>\r\n
dear (grand) parents \u2013\u2013<\/p>\r\n
what a beautiful high-holiday season this continues to be! marcy & i join jed in delighted cheers & resounding \u201cthank you\u201d\u2019s for the bounteous & thoughtful gifts you have bestowed on us \u2014\u2014 it\u2019s all so good! \u2026 i\u2019m sitting in the kitchen eating yulekake (surely visions of sugar plums shall dance in our heads tonight\u2026) & fruitcake (i\u2019m so full, i couldn\u2019t eat another bite \u2026 well, maybe just one<\/u> more bite\u2026) \u2014\u2014 and getting re-addicted to sugar (i fell from grace two weeks ago, when i ate some fudge at a wedding party: since then it\u2019s been pumpkin pie & pecan pie & wassail bowl all made with white sugar, at a Christmas party in sauselito, and then eggnog & cake & cookies at another Christmas dinner in san anselmo \u2014\u2014 just because it all tasted so good \u2026 and today i really sated myself on the fantastic sweetnesses of pudding, cake, & bread, just like any shameless sugar-freak, o, what a backslider i\u2019ve been, well, as martin luther once said, to be forgiven our sins, we must first sin\u2026 so, when the sweet-breads are gone (as marcy said, \u201ci\u2019m eating it even if it does have any white sugar, \u2019cause it\u2019s just so full of good \u2018vibes\u2019\u2026\u201d\u2026), then i\u2019ll just have to shake the habit again \u2019til next Christmas \u2026 and while i\u2019m getting purified, i think i\u2019ll cut out alcohol too \u2014\u2014 i\u2019ve been drinking an average of a pint of beer a day for months, and, while i don\u2019t really feel any very bad effects from it, still it\u2019s probably not doing me any good \u2014\u2014 after that can start kicking tobacco \u2014\u2014 i smoke about four pipefuls a day \u2014\u2014 costs five cents a week, but healthwise it costs much more\u2026 pollution of both internal & external environments always costs more than is apparent\u2026<\/p>\r\n
In side margin:<\/span> \u201cWe\u2019re going to get it all<\/u> purified \u2026 or live trying\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n
i have come upon two extraordinary documents, both in a book called \u201cFrom Chrishna to Christ\u201d by Dr. Raymond Bernard, Ph.D. one of these purports to be \u201cthe original gospel of john,\u201d and tells what a man must do to be purified of his toxins (forgiven of his sins) \u2026 it starts with fasting & prayer\u2026<\/p>\r\n
\u201cFor I tell you truly, except you fast, you shall never be freed from the power of Satan and from all the diseases that come from Satan. Fast and pray fervently, seeking the power of God for your healing\u201d (of course joh-rei, as prayer in action, accelerates & facilitates the purification process\u2026)<\/p>\r\n
After the fasting, the gospel advises using the purificatory power of \u201cthe Angel of Air\u201d \u2014\u2014 by deeply breathing, and by \u201cair-bathing\u201d nude, letting the air purify the lungs & skin\u2026<\/p>\r\n
Next, we are told to cleanse ourselves by the power of \u201cthe Angel of Water\u201d \u2014\u2014 by swimming & bathing, and by self-administering enemas using an elongated gourd (hung from a tree) filled with sun-warmed stream-water, and in a kneeling position with head down (this is the \u201cyoga-mudra asana\u201d, the symbol-of-yoga position, a posture of humility) and letting the water enter one\u2019s \u201chinder parts\u201d\u2026<\/p>\r\n
after praying in this position that God will use the water to cleanse all impurities and parasites (\u201csins & devils\u201d) from the intestines, one lets the water flow out, & can then see<\/u> all what manner of putrefaction &\/or parasites infest one\u2019s own bowels \u2014\u2014 and remember, these are the \u201cgut-level\u201d of the Temple<\/u> \u2014\u2014 if we can get clean clear through, then we are making the Temple a purified, orderly, beautiful local environment \u2014\u2014 a reduced pollution zone\u2026<\/p>\r\n
this may have been an important part (or maybe a pre-requisite) of the original form of the sacrament of baptism\u2026<\/p>\r\n
then, the \u201cAngel of Sunlight\u201d shines on the nude sunbather and purifies this seeker\u2019s body-&-nervous-system-&-mind \u201ceven as the darkness of night fades before the brightness of the rising sun.\u201d and \u201cNone may come before the face of God, whom the Angels of Air & Water & Sunlight let not pass.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWhen the Earthly Mother\u2019s Angels enter into your bodies, in such wise that the lords of the Temple repossess it, and all sins & uncleanliness are gone from your body, your blood shall become as pure as our Earth Mother\u2019s blood, as the river\u2019s foam sporting in the sunlight. And your breath shall become as pure as the breath of beautifully-smelling flowers; your flesh as pure as the flesh of fruits reddening upon the leaves of trees; the light of your eyes as clear and bright as the brightness of the sun shining upon the blue sky. And now shall all the Angels of the Earthly Mother serve you. And your breath, your blood, your flesh shall be one with the breath, the blood, and the flesh of the Earthly Mother.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
this regime would have to be undertaken away from city-polluted air & water, perhaps near a mountain stream\u2026<\/p>\r\n
well, the author claims that there was a Therapeut Essene named Appolonius of Tyana who preached this technique to people & their practicing it led to \u201cmiracle\u201d cures (it really is a miracle, but a NATURAL miracle, not a supernatural one\u2026)<\/p>\r\n
well, the other document purports to be the original gospel of Christ\u2019s message, of which the 4 gospels matthew mark luke & john are supposed to be 4 different bowdlerizations \u2014\u2014 because this original gospel has \u201cthe Master\u201d saying \u2014\u2014<\/p>\r\n
\u201cYe shall not take away the life of any creature for thy pleasure, nor for your profit, nor yet torment it. Ye shall not steal the goods of any, nor gather lands and riches to yourself, beyond your need & use. Ye shall not eat the flesh nor drink the blood of any slaughtered creature; nor yet anything which bringeth disorder to your health & senses\u2026\u201d \u2026 he\u2019s saying, don\u2019t eat meat, and don\u2019t take alcohol or drugs \u2026 so Constantine, the Emperor in 325 A.D., changed<\/u> these teachings of Chrishna, the Christ of Ancient India, through the Council of Nicea\u2026 before the council he persecuted the Chrishna-ists\/ins, but after the Roman Churchmen deleted all references to kindness to animals, vegetarianism, & sobriety \u2026 then he embraced the new (distorted) \u201creligion\u201d that he had (through the Council) created \u2026 this way, he had Jesus (from Iesus, a Phoenician sun-god) Christ (Christos, from Greek for Chrishna) as a vicarious<\/u> atonement<\/u> for his \u201csins\u201d of meat, wine, orgies\u2026<\/p>\r\n
In side margin:<\/span> \u2026\u201cwas humbly born in a stable rude, and the friendly beasts around Him stood\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n
so I am reminded of an idea of Gurdjieff \u2014\u2014 he wished God had given us an ENEMA instead of an UMBRELLA \u2014\u2014 and if there\u2019s any truth to the allegations of this book, God did<\/u> give us (mankind) Appolonius or Jesus, Christ or Chrishna, whatever His name was, or names were, who came with a message of ENEMA: GET CLEAN CLEAR THROUGH, GET CLEAR CLEAN THROUGH, GET CLEAR OF ALL THE
CRAP<\/strike> CRUD-AND-CORRUPTION! MAKE THE TEMPLE(W)HOLLY<\/strike> HOLY\u2026 and of course those people who hated their bodies and wanted them tobe<\/strike> remain impure, transformed the message into UMBRELLA: I CAN ABUSE MY BODY HOWEVER MUCH, AND I\u2019LL BE FORGIVEN, BECAUSE SUPERNATURAL MESSIAH HAS ALREADY (vicariously) ATONED FOR IT\u2026<\/p>\r\nso, i\u2019m hoping to be able soon to undertake a real thorough-going \u201cmountain-spring-cleaning\u201d \u2014\u2014 \u201cthe Master\u201d is supposed to have said that God will forgive 7 years\u2019 sins (toxins) in 7 days (and 7x7 years\u2019 in 7x7 days) (and \u201chappy is he that perseveres to the end (of this purification), for he shall inherit the earth\u201d) so maybe in a month\u2019s time I could get CLEAN\u2026 but i\u2019ll have to work up to it \u2014\u2014 one- & two-day fasts, yoga exercise, & joh-rei should help in preparation\u2026<\/p>\r\n
then after such a Purification, the reader is advised to eat only living<\/u> plants<\/u> \u2014\u2014 raw fresh vegetables, nuts, seeds, fresh fruit, alfalfa sprouts, herbs, etc. (plus honey, and pollen, as the essences of flowers\u2026) \u2014\u2014 because living food makes our bodies more & more alive, & dead food makes them more & more dead\u2026<\/p>\r\n
well, i\u2019m not<\/u> trying to tell you that the non-living goodies you sent us made us more dead when we ate them \u2014\u2014 on the contrary, we ate with joy, & were nourished & filled with joy, PEACE, GOODWILL TO ALL MEN, (there\u2019s a rock-group called \u201call men joy\u201d) because the real, beautiful, true gift was the care<\/u> \u2014\u2014 the thoughtful giving (jed\u2019s picking up the color-names so fast, playing with the tower of tori (toruses?), the peg-bench, & the crayons (i haven\u2019t seen him draw with them yet, but he sure likes putting them into & taking them out from the box\u2026)), the perserverance of shopping in Christmas crowds, the art & craft of the baking, the orderly use of energy & materials, the packing & packaging into such useful containers \u2014\u2014 all this evidences LOVING CARE, and i want you to know that your care (continuing back to when your caring love, God willing, gave me life, a living Earth-man-body-mind, some mud that got to sit up & look around; thank you, God\u2026 thank you, parents.) continues to nurture the seed of Christ-consciousness that is in each of us \u2014\u2014 like Paul (Pol? Apol<\/u>lonius?) saying, \u201cnot I, but Christ in me\u2026\u201d well, i feel it quickening, this state of clean grace is being born in many heart chakras now, what is potential in all is beginning more & more to manifest in many\u2026 \u201cseek ye first the kingdom of heaven\u201d \u201cunless a man is born<\/u> again<\/u> of the water<\/u> & the spirit<\/u> he can in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven\u201d \u2014\u2014 so we must prepare the Temple, clean up the manger. (i made enough money shovelling cow-pies in modesto to pay our joh-rei church dues \u2014\u2014 & then you cared enough to lend us the money besides\u2026), & purify our bodies, minds, & hearts so that the King of Peace may truly be born in us! \u2014\u2014 and the more people there are who experience this \u201cpeace that passeth understanding\u201d and who really know real peace (at-one-ment, atonement) with body-mind integrated, peace with self, fellowmen, Nature, God\u2026 the sooner & faster we can start to clean up the pigsty we have made of the planet, spaceship-Earth \u2026 as above, so below, as below so above\u2026 cleaning my polluted body inside & out<\/u> is part of the same anti-entropic process, of the same patterns of ordered nearness called care<\/u>, as beginning to clean up the pollution of the air, the water, the soil, the natural environment, outside & in\u2026<\/p>\r\n
so, i will try to care as well as you have & do\u2026 thank you for everything, i\u2019m writing to paul & linda next, we sent 1 book to dave, wrote to both, rec\u2019d letter from j. today \u2014\u2014 they\u2019re having a beautiful time (under the circumstances)<\/p>\r\n
\u2026 love, peter, marcy, & gentle jed<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
Interesting that after a dozen letters over the course of a year and a half, this is the first mention of Peter and Marcy avoiding processed sugar. I was not allowed to eat anything with processed sugar in it until I was ten years old, but I had vaguely thought that their opposition to sugar started later than this, whereas in this letter it sounds like it was already well-established by late 1969.<\/p>\r\n
Also interesting: the discussion of alcohol and tobacco. I\u2019m guessing he was also thinking about taking a break from marijuana; marijuana and alcohol were his main addictions for most of the years I knew him. After I left for college, I gather that he occasionally went back to tobacco and other drugs for a while, but I don\u2019t remember him ever smoking tobacco when I was a kid; I think he must have given it up sometime around 1970 and stayed off of it for the next 15+ years.<\/p>\r\n
\u2026Also, it would not surprise me if he was a bit stoned when he wrote this letter; some of the flights of words near the end in particular read to me like his altered-consciousness mode.<\/p>\r\n
More notes:<\/p>\r\n
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- yulekake<\/dt>\r\n
- Norwegian Christmas bread<\/a>. Helen was of Norwegian descent, and occasionally made Norwegian food like lefse<\/a>. But I don\u2019t remember her making yulekake; I wonder if she stopped at some point, or maybe just stopped sending it to us.<\/dd>\r\n
- From Christ to Chrishna<\/cite><\/dt>\r\n
- See this Hare Krishna web page about the book<\/a>. The author<\/a> of the book appears to have also been a Hollow Earth proponent.<\/dd>\r\n
- Apollonius of Tyana<\/dt>\r\n
- Greek philosopher and miracle-worker who has been compared with Jesus; for details, see Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/dd>\r\n
- etymology of Jesus<\/i> and Christ<\/i><\/dt>\r\n
- Peter seems to have gotten these supposed etymologies from From Christ to Chrishna<\/cite>, which apparently says that \u201cHierocles\u201d (presumably Hierocles of Alexandria) claimed that the Christian priesthood had made up the name Jesus Christ<\/i> by combining Iesus<\/i> and Krishna<\/i>. I have no idea whether Hierocles said that, but even if he did, I see no reason to believe him. My dictionary, which I trust in matters of etymology, says that Jesus<\/i> comes ultimately \u201cfrom Hebrew Y\u0113sh\u016ba<\/i>,\u201d and Christ<\/i> comes \u201cfrom Greek Christos<\/i>, [meaning] anointed.\u201d<\/dd>\r\n
- Gurdjieff<\/dt>\r\n
- G. I. Gurdjieff<\/a>, \u201cRussian philosopher, mystic, spiritual teacher, and composer.\u201d Peter was a big fan of his.<\/dd>\r\n
- tower of tori<\/dt>\r\n
- I assume this was a Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack<\/a>, or something similar.<\/dd>\r\n
- pigsty<\/dt>\r\n
- This word struck me because Peter\u2019s main use for it in later years was to say, when the mess in the house occasionally got to be too much for him, \u201cThis place is a pigsty!\u201d<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n\r\n
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