(DIR) Main menu
 (DIR) Previous page
 (DIR) Next page
 (QRY) Go to page
       
                                         -7-
       
       
       
       THE BIRTH OF THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT:      10.  The Earth quakes and the
       THE REVELATION                          Heavens rattle; the beasts of
                                               nature flock together and the
                                               beasts of men flock apart;
                                               volcanoes usher up heat while
                                               elsewhere water becomes ice and
                                               melts; and then on other days 
                                               it just rains.
                                               11.  Indeed to many things come
                                               to pass.
       
       Just prior to the decade of the nineteen-sixties, when Sputnik was 
       alone and new, and about the time that Ken Kesey took his first acid 
       trip as a medical volunteer; before underground newspapers, Viet Nam, 
       and talk of a second American Revolution; in the comparative quiet of 
       the late nineteen-fifties, just before the idea of RENAISSANCE became 
       relevant . . . 
       
           Two young Californians, known later as Omar Ravenhurst and 
       Malaclypse the Younger, were indulging in their habit of sipping 
       coffee at an all-night bowling alley and generally solving the world's 
       problems.  This particular evening the main subject of discussion was 
       discord and they were complaining to each other of the personal 
       confusion they felt in their respective lives.  "Solve the problem of 
       discord," said one, "and all other problems will vanish."  "Indeed," 
       said the other, "chaos and strife are the roots of all confusion."
       
                            ...First I must sprinkle you
                                 with fairy dust...
       
           SUDDENLY THE PLACE BECAME DEVOID OF LIGHT.  THEN AN UTTER SILENCE 
       ENVELOPED THEM, AND A GREAT STILLNESS WAS FELT.  THEN CAME A BLINDING 
       FLASH OF INTENSE LIGHT, AS THOUGH THEIR VERY PSYCHES HAD GONE NOVA.  
       THEN VISION RETURNED.
       
           The two were dazed and neither moved nor spoke for several 
       minutes.  They looked around and saw that the bowlers were frozen like 
       statues in a variety of comic positions, and that a bowling ball was 
       steadfastly anchored to the floor only inches from the pins that it 
       had been sent to scatter.  The two looked at each other, totally 
       unable to account for the phenomenon.  The condition was one of 
       suspension, and one noticed that the clock had stopped.
       
                              ...NEW STORY OF CHAOS...