One of the most exciting parts of my role as a researcher for the Science of Mind Archives, is when we discover something, be it a document or recording, whose existence was previously unknown (as far as known). This has happened many times, usually when I am listening to a newly found recording of spiritual teacher Ernest Holmes. Here I wish to tell you about our new finding of a previously unknown audio recording of the famous philosopher Aldous Huxley along with several others made in 1954. First, a bit of context.
Background on Research
For the past three plus years, I have been heavily involved (along with others) in the process of digitizing all the older audio recordings in the Archives holdings and bringing them out on our website if appropriate.
The usual route is for our recording guru, Park Peters, to take the old tapes (most frequently reel to reel ones) and lovingly process them into digital files. The files are usually given a name based on some markings on the old reels. Frequently these labels are cryptic and incomplete.
I generally take these files, listen to them and try to identify what they are. This is how we have discovered to date over 200 audio recordings of Holmes, from radio and TV shows to audio for phonograph records to Sunday lectures and more. Although the process of identifying the recordings can be tedious at times, when something “new” and unexpected is unearthed, it can be exhilarating.
For those of you who are interested, all recordings and writings of Holmes are listed on our active inventory spreadsheet available for all to review online HERE.
This inventory will give you information on anything related to Ernest Holmes that we have located and if it has been posted on the website yet. We have a smaller database on our audio recordings made by teacher Raymond Charles Barker that you can find HERE.
Sometimes this whole process turns out something totally unexpected. I have listened to the recordings of weddings and music and other fun things that don’t make the cut to be shared on the Archives website (at least yet!).
The “New Discovery”
Recently, when Park turned over some newly digitized recordings, he stated that one of them contained an interview with philosopher Aldous Huxley. This has to be one of the most unusual things to turn up. At this point, how this recording made its way to our physical collection is totally unknown!
After listening to the audio and researching its background, I have been unable to find any reference to this recording online. Therefore, I believe that this is a “new” and previously unknown Huxley audio. [If anyone has details on its prior existence, please post a comment and let me know where it was already available!]
So, what is this recording?
It was made on January 30, 1954, by KNX Radio in Los Angeles, California. It sounds like a studio recording rather than one made off an over the air broadcast. The format is a panel interview with Dave Showalter of the radio station serving as moderator. Showalter was their public affairs director and the recording appears to have been made for possibly a non-commercial radio broadcast as there are no commercial breaks. Showalter mentions that this program was produced by the station’s public affairs program in the “public interest”.
There are three guests on the show: Aldous Huxley, Gustaf Stromberg and James Crenshaw. The topic being discussed is “Psychic Phenomenon”. The program runs about 30 minutes.
Huxley is, of course, the well-known philosopher and author of many books including Brave New World, The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception.
Stromberg was an astronomer who served on the staff of the Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles for many years. He is the author of numerous books including The Soul of the Universe and The Searchers. Of note is the fact that Stromberg during this time was a frequent contributor to Science of Mind Magazine and his involvement may relate to how the archives ended up with this recording.
Crenshaw was a news reporter in Southern California and penned the book Telephone Between Worlds on the topic of after death communication.
An Interesting Excerpt
To whet your interest in listening to the recording, here is an excerpt with a lively discussion on the topic of “Mind”.
Strongberg: “Well, of course my interest ordinarily has been in astronomy and physics and related phenomena that is natural science, but I was interested in philosophy as a young man and in later years I have been studying different aspects of psychical research. Not making any experiments myself, but following the general investigations which are going on and I’ve come to the conclusion that in the human brain we have an organ which makes it possible for us to contact certain activities in the world’s soul. Which is an old idea introduced by Plato, perhaps not originally. And the idea is that our brain is not a machine by which we think, it’s an instrument by which we make contact with a cosmic ocean of consciousness. It’s a receiving set tuned, which can be tuned or is tuned, to certain activities in a Universal Mind.”
Showalter: “Let me interrupt you just at this point, Dr. Stromberg, if you will, please, Mr. Huxley, how do you feel about this particular statement that Doctor Stromberg has just made here, sir?”
Huxley: Well, I’m in substantial agreement with it. I feel very strongly that mind is not completely explicable in terms of physical phenomena as the currently fashionable hypothesis supposes. I’m quite convinced, as Jung for example, if anybody chooses to read that very valuable book of Jung’s Modern Man in Search of a Soul has made so very clear that we must regard mind as something independent, as a real substantial existence. And this conception, after all, has been held by a number of very eminent modern philosophers, take William James who expresses himself in phrases very like those which Doctor Stromberg has just used, where James was convinced that the brain does not produce thought, it is the instrument of thought. It is the veil of, so to speak, through which what he calls a continuum of cosmic consciousness enters the individual life. And the French philosopher Bergson felt exactly the same thing. He regarded mind as being potentially omniscient, aware of everything everywhere and the brain being, so to speak, the reducing valve, which made this universal mind available for individuals on the surface of the planet, made it possible for us to survive as biological creatures on the planet. And this goes back, of course, to very ancient times and we have the same idea in religion. After all, what is the phrase of Saint Paul? God, in whom we live and move and have our being. This is simply another expression of this basic conception, which I personally regard as true.
Conclusion and Link to Audio
What do you think? Sound interesting? Want to hear the audio? Well, you can!
The Archives has turned this into a video with a slide presentation scrolling by and posted the whole thing on their YouTube channel for the world to hear!
Here’s the LINK FOR THE VIDEO containing the newly discovered audio.
While you’re there, be sure to subscribe to the Archive’s YouTube channel!
Mark Gilbert