A GRAD COURSE IN 1970s CAREFREE, ANYTHING-WENT WEST COAST HUMAN POTENTIAL MOVEMENT
After hearing 1000-plus Pop Songs, Selecting Only One. This one's for you.
My most cherished short fiction of all time is Henry James novella, The Turn of the Screw, an engaging, engrossing, horror classic which originally appeared in “Collier’s Weekly,” 1808. Even more cool to me, the title became an integral, useful part of our vernacular.
I bring it up since that’s how I’ve been feeling these days — I bump into many, many realities and need a firm “turn of the screw” of them, for them to become clear to me.
An example, when I was young and carefree I took most of my vacations in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s where I became seeped in what was going on out there, smack dab in the middle of a blooming, soon out-of-control Human Potential Movement. Everything was New, New, New. New Thought. New Wave. Newly Hatched — or so I thought.
I admit I was fascinated.
There was *Louise L Hay (1926-2017) and her free, weekly, filled-to-the rafters “Hayrides” — evenings at the West Ho Community Center. Louise L. Hay had been a high profile, high-fashion model in NYC, (1954). A younger woman, from a prominent name family, Sharman Douglas, stole her husband. Then Louise Hay became a Religious Scientist Minister and ran away from it all to Los Angeles. During the early AIDS crisis she was the only person who went into hospital rooms and rubbed the feet of dying gay men. The orderlies were afraid to go in, and threw their food near the bed. After appearing on Oprah, Hay had a New York Times best seller, You Can Heal Your Life. Next, Louise Lunney Hay founded a prominent publishing firm called HAY HOUSE and THE HAY FOUNDATION, both of which exist today, that made her millions. She deserved it.
And there were hip services at The Church of Religious Science with a rousing, savvy, mature pastor — not full of fire and brimstone — but filled with piss and vinegar. His Sunday morning services were a treat. Then there was overpowering est get-togethers (Erhard Standard Training), too complicated to explain in a sweep, that eventual popped up everywhere. Werner Erhard never goes away. Recently, Erhard was mentioned in Sunday, April 28, 2024 obit of Capitalist Michael C. Jenson’s, which read, “Werner Erhard, the controversial self-help guru, founded the Erhard-Jensen Ontological Phenomenological Initiative.” (What the hay is that?)
And let’s not leave out dangerous Scientology. I’d heard horrible high jinks about Scientology — and kept my distance. (i.e., They put Snakes left in enemies’ mailboxes and even more frightening, unsavory tactics, at least back then, they did.)
Of course, there was author, speaker, politician, Miss Marianne Williamson’s (born in 1972) overflowing Hollywood Boulevard gatherings that attracted devotees in droves where you could get your fill of charismatic Williamson, (she was beautiful, articulate, stylish, young) and New Wave, New Thought, Off-beat Spirituality that leaned heavy on “A Course in Miracles” — another out-of-this world breakout — and 100% fascinating. (In front of the rented auditorium, wide tables sprawled with M.A.W.’s for sale paraphernalia and books.) And now you may have heard M. A. W. wants to be president of the United States. Why, not?
Finally, it’s imperative to include Escalen. To this day, I admit I didn’t know, nor understand what Escalen is, or was. The Institute was formed years before most the others and headquartered way up in San Francisco, out of reach for me. And, a hint of, and inspiration for, what was to come.
Here’s what Wikipedia tells us, paraphrased, Esalen is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. Beginning in the 1960s, the institute played a key role in the Human Potential Movement. Its innovative use of encounter groups, a focus on the mind-body connection, and their ongoing experimentation in personal awareness introduced a plethora of ideas that later became mainstream. There you have it.
So right now, this moment, in my May SUBSTACK “Jim Fragale’s Newsletter,” I’m waxing un-poetic about New Thought-Thinking that I was under the misconception was being born on the Coast in the mid-1970s. Ill-informed and once more shocked, I was surprised to learn that the movement was hundreds of years old — old, old, old — and I didn’t know it.
Apropos of something, I’m a sucker for personal improvement and self-help books. I read a variety of work in print every day — all kinds — and invariably make room for a self-help book or two when a new release interests me.
Know that I was under the assumption that New Thought and self-help books were “old,” you see, from way back in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.
Recently, shockproof Jim Fragale was surprised to discover that self-help gave birth in the (gulp!) 19th century. A little-known yet popular (oxymoron?) American religious tradition (religion?) and was called “New Thought”-"Mind Cure.”
Before taking one more step further, it is imperative that I share something in the back of my mind, nagging me. I’m reminded and need to include that we here in the U.S.A. are a capitalist country/society. Hence, whatever form any burgeoning system, or any undertaking was/were/is to emerge, Money would be essential. (Let Europeans take the high road.) We are capitalists and that particular permeates venues, avenues, and detours Americano. (Hang in, I could be wrong,)
Succinctly, in the 1800s, there was “fail healer” Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) and Christian Science founder, innovator Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), and not long after that William Walker Atkinsons (1862-1932)—aha! a book: (Thought-Force in Business and Everyday Life); next, a slim volume, still relevant, that has followed me from teenage-hood years to this day, James Allen’s (1864-1912) As a Man Thinketh. Oversimplified, James Allen believed that “the universe’s mysterious energies could be mastered by the human will.” The crux of his slim but weighty volume, “A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses.” Simple enough.
Coincidentally and aside, the concept of the “mind cure” was rearing its heady head alongside two emerging discoveries — huge ones — electricity and Darwinian Evolution both of which supported the theory of the human minds’ dominance over nature.
So, hi-ho, ergo, and here we go, gents, by the 19th Century, “The Gilded Age’s,” New Thought’s influence had seeped into (Of course!) economic theory. It would be enter through a wide window through which making some sense not only of sickness but also poverty (poverty: read lack of capital), my Capitalist Friends! That’s when then-new-New Wave early books claimed: nobody who truly wanted to be rich would end up poor. What a concept! And we hear it today as if it were dreamed up last night.
Moving wrongly or rightly along, in 1897, Author Charles Benjamin Newcomb (1845-1922) published a book called All’s Right With the World that flat out told us that those of us who wanted to be in on the feast needed a mantra, several mantras, in fact, (familiar sounding?) such as: “I have everything. I do right, I am well, I am rich, I am… (insert X)…”
*QUICK QUESTION: Did Louise L. Hay appropriate this approach, those words, with her hundreds, thousands of “affirmations,” available for a donation that made her a wealthy author-publisher-speaker? (See Hay House.) Just Asking.
This so-called fresh approach, “the capitalist pursuit of profit was swiftly recast with only one universal truth: “simple desire.” Yep. All ya’ have to do is want to.
Re-framing an Entire Century with a wave of my hand: back to the 1800s… soon, thought-writer Charles Fillmore (1854-1948) was telling his sold-out audiences it’s easy: “If we lack anything, it is because we have not used our mind in make the right contact with the Super-mind.” The Super-mind? God? Lord? Father? Nature? The Universe? Higher Power? Jehovah? Supreme Being? Braham? Allah? Jesus? -– with the same bottom line for every one of Them: They want us to become rich, and healthy, and famous —"simply by wanting it.” Why friggin’ not? And prayer never hurts anyway.
FODDER: Right now, screaming in the background here for attention is one of my revered, present-day Prosperity Gospel Preacher, world-renown Joel Scott Osteen (born in 1963) an American pastor, televangelist, businessman, and author based in Houston, Texas — known for his widely-watched, weekly televised services and multiple best-selling books (26 by my count!). Osteen is one of the more prominent modern figures associated with “prosperity theology” and the Word of Faith movement.
He is not alone.
There is Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins, and not long before that Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (whose The Power of Positive Thinking, published Fall 1952, is still selling copies today.) Worth an entire section, Esther (wife, inspirational speaker, author, and — channeler) and by her side, husband Jerry Hicks and Esther published sometimes riveting, though offbeat, popular books The Art of Manifesting and The Law of Attraction. The couple gladly helped Rhoda Byrne give birth to her “Secrets” phenomenon. (I read somewhere along the way the three had a falling out. It’s usually. the almighty dollar, but I can’t recall the reason. Who knows, by this time, they could be buddies again.)
And now back to beginning of this talk that world-famous novella The Turn of the Screw, a spooky work of both Gothic and horror fiction. Spoiler Alert — the haunting story by Henry James follows a governess who, caring for two children at a remote country house, becomes convinced that they are haunted.
In the century following Screw’s publication, critical analysis of the novella underwent multiple transformations. Initial reviews regarded the tale merely as a frightening ghost story, but in the 1930s, some wag said the supernatural elements were figments of the governess character's imagination. Then, in the early 1970s, the influence of structuralism resulted in yet another school of thought: the text's ambiguity was its key feature. Oh, there’s more…Then later other schools of thought incorporated Marxist and Feminist thinking. Good writing will make one think,
So, it might appear other readers liked the story as much as I did: the tale was to be adapted several times: a Broadway play (1950), a chamber opera (1954), two films (in 1961 and 2020), not to mention a miniseries (2020). Enough, already, this place just may be haunted. I AM glad “Turn of the Screw” is part of the language and I use the phrase all that time.
NEXT HUMONGOUS SUBJECT
Since my last effort, I ran across a sentence, noted it to pursue, and then forgot where I heard/read it. Maybe it’s for the best I did: you’re spared my take, diatribe, questions on, and rantings of: trumpets sound — “Everyone is afraid of Dying.” Is that true? I didn’t know, but the words stopped me in my tracks. I was willing to research the theory and ruminate here but mercifully (for you, perhaps) gave up after losing my original source. Perhaps, it wasn’t meant to be; I was not meant to research the subject. It wouldn’t lead to anywhere any fun anyway.
BEFORE MOVING ON TO MY BELOVED SUBJECT, MUSIC, HERE ARE THREE KNOCKOUT QUOTES.
“TEARS WATER OUR GROWTH,” a sentiment often attributed to Shakespeare, but now dubbed “Author Unknown.” Those four words are used in a new book by a hero, former football player Steve Gleason, who types with his eyes, in his new non-fiction, A Life Impossible. I whine about mild carpal tunnel (CTS). This man types with his eyes.
GREAT WORDS, GREAT PERSON: Beautiful, articulate, Christiane Amanpour, British-Iranian journalist, TV Host, and International Anchor shared on CNN, April 23, she’s the daughter of Iranian-Muslim father; her British mother was Roman Catholic and they got along well--why can’t the world? Love Christian Amanpour.
P. T. BARNUM, once said, “People enjoy being cheated. It’s a form of entertainment.” If you’ve ever wondered what the P. T. stood for, it’s Phineas Taylor.
MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC — A big hit song from 1950, a Number One-Million Seller by Miss Teresa Brewer and it goes like this:
Put another nickel in
In the nickelodeon
All I want is having you
And music, music, music…
Those who know me, know popular music is my most adored pastime on the planet. I spend every spare moment listening to American Popular Standards wafting in the background, foreground, underground. (I once even got a job for my expertise on the subject, so I know my onions here.)
Since my April 2024 outing on SUBSTACK, “No Longer Shock-proof,” I’ve heard hundred (thousands) of songs. One nagged me, a rousing Paul Anka-1959 humongous hit that was later given romantic treatment, first by Chris Connor. I’ve been a fan of jazz singer Chris Connor since teenage days. But Connor does a terrific straight un-jazzy forward rendition of “I Miss You So,” a song by Jimmy Henderson and Bertha Scott. Connor’s version sounds as if she is backed by full choir, but they don’t step on her toes—they add to her take.
Before I could make note of Chris Connor, and her rendition of “I Miss You So,” my computer outlet, Accu-Radio, hit me with even another one: “I Miss You So” -- by a current, contemporary favorite, Miss Diana Krall. Also, fantastic! I never tire of all three versions and worth a listen or three.
BTW, I get Accu-Radio on my computer, free and easy, that’s my style, Lyrics:
I MISS YOU SO
Those happy hours I spent with you
That lovely afterglow
Most of all, I miss you so
Your sweet caresses, each rendezvous
Your voice, so soft and low
Most of all, I miss you soYou once filled my heart with no regrets, with no fears
Now you'll find my heart filled to the top with tears
I'll always love you
And want you too
How much, you'll never know
Most of all, I miss you soI'll always love you
And want you too
How much, how much you'll never know
Most of all, I miss you so
I'll always love you
Most of all, I miss you so.
I Miss You So lyrics © Universal Music Corp.
Songwriters: Jimmy Henderson / Bertha Scott
A GRAD COURSE IN 1970s CAREFREE, ANYTHING-WENT WEST COAST HUMAN POTENTIAL MOVEMENT