Music Before the Money

Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, born Cyril Henry Hoskin (1910-1981) was a essentially a Britsh writer who claimed that his body had been taken over by the spirit of a deceased Tibetan Lama. The name Tuesday relates to a claim in one of his books that all upper-class Tibetans were named after the day on which they were born.

My father was given a book called The Third Eye by a friend of his who was later asked to leave our church because, in effect, he began to ask too many questions about our western religion. In this book Rampa purports to have been born in Tibet and brought up in the monastery because he was chosen from birth to be a lama. A Tibetologist was unconvinced by Rampa’s claim and hired a private investigator to search out his true origins. This report led to the allegation that Rampa was a Brit named Clifford Hoskins who had never been to Tibet.

But for a man who was said to have been a phony Rampa had legions of followers who did their own study of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. By this time the communist Chinese had taken over Tibet so there was very little contact with its people. In the meantime Rampa died in Calgary, Alberta in 1981 with over 24 books on Tibetan culture and philosophy to his credit.

The Third Eye in Rampa’s book is said to be the pineal gland, the deepest endocrine gland in the brain. This discovery led to its being a “mystery” gland with myth, superstition and even metaphysical theories occasionally associated with the sixth chakra (also called Ajna or the third eye chakra in yoga). It is believed by some to be a dormant organ that can be awakened to enable “telepathic” communication. Even René Descartes , the great French philosopher recognized it importance and it is written about in Chinese Taoism.

Here is what Rampa wrote:

“The instrument penetrated the bone. A very hard, clean sliver of wood had been treated by fire and herbs and was slid down so that it just entered the hole in my head. I felt a stinging, tickling sensation apparently in the bridge of my nose. It subsided and I became aware of subtle scents which I could not identify. Suddenly there was a blinding flash. For a moment the pain was intense. It diminished, died and was replaced by spirals of colour. As the projecting sliver was being bound into place so that it could not move, the Lama Mingyar Dondup turned to me and said:” You are now one of us, Lobsang. For the rest of your life you will see people as they are and not as they pretend to be.” -Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, The Third Eye

For me The Third Eye, and the 12 that came after, opened up up my thirst for spiritualism far greater than the confines of the western churches. The philosophy behind it was uncanny, even the part about the young man who came from the West to study with the lamas who he claimed was Jesus Christ. For me, it was simple. Jesus was missing from the time he was 12 until he was 30 and had big price on his head. If he didn’t go east, where could he go? And when he came back, why was his philosophy so different from that of other Jewish men his own age?

Yes, there is ample proof that Tuesday Lobsang Rampa may not have been what he claimed. But for me, his books snapped me out of a long, post-adolescent period of of not believing in anything - even myself.

If you are an Alaskan one of the most desired dreams would be a land connection with the lower-48 without having to drive the 2000+ miles. Flying is fine, and you could take the ferry from Anchorage to Prince Rupert, B.C., but a rail line would transfer more passengers and cargo at a more economical rate.My novel, Polar Track, features a monorail with magnetic-levitation propulsion. Suspended below the reinforced-concrete track is a cluster of insulated pipelines which can convey oil, natural gas and - water America needs just as much - water from glacial melting.

The protagonist is, above all things, a music teachers whose family was killed in a collision with a fast-ferry owned by the same company building the “mag-lev’ line. Because he can’t get justice through regular means he intends to blow up a section of the Polar Trak to get the public’s attention. To accomplish this he recruits the help of a decorated Canadian sniper and, as a result, has special forces teams from both Canada and the U.S involved in a massive manhunt for the pair.

This was fun to write because it floats on a new technology (I love researching this stuff!) and it appears that magnetic levitation and hydogen technology are the wave of the future. The story isn’t as much on revenge as it is about how a little guy is frozen out of the legal system by money and perjured testimony. The way he sees it he has two choice: The first is that he can go through life and put it behind him (which works for a while) or, second, he can confront the company in a way that get everyones’ attention.

Too much time on my hands?

When I first began playing in a band I was 12 years old (the Kent bass, remember?) but then the good guitar player in the band left and we all fell apart. Sports and other things took over and I just learned the guitar on my own. At 17 I began again in a group called Quite Contrary, with two girls and my friend, Dixie, who was in a wheel chair. Dixie had Spina Bifida but could hold a mike and belt out the tunes. Our signature song was Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, a Crosby Stills and Nash tune that was over ten minutes long.

After a few successful gigs I realized that our sound was pretty thin so I bought a 12 string guitar. This was my first introduction to the 12 string and I immediately fell for the sound. Besides, Gordon Lighfoot used one for half his songs.

In short, a 12 string guitar fills up the room with harmonics and overtones. The top two strings, e & b, are in unison while the other four are doubled with a lighter string an octave higher. For one month I tried removing the higher octave from the two bass to play running bass lines. This still kept the extra treble strings for the full body. But then I went back to the regular tuning. Lightfoot used to tune his Gibson B45-12 lower and use a capo to reduce the stress on the neck.

(Ovation Balladeer 12 String)

My first 12-string was a Framus made in West Germany. With a contoured back (unusual for a dreadnought style) it looked rich and sounded great. The neck was a bolt-on, however, and I could never get the stings to flatten out so my fingers were always sore. I ended up trading it in for the 1971 Fender Stratocaster (see Flaming Strat).

However, since 1976 I have never been without a 12 string. I still own 3: a 1984 Ovation, a 1974 Gibson Blueridge and a 1975 Yamaki.