Word: iowa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...write his column, "The Presidency," for TIME. His replacement as bureau chief is Robert Ajemian, most recently the magazine's national political correspondent. In addition to his column, Sidey will doubtless take on other assignments. Writing, after all, is in his blood. Born to a family of Iowa journalists, he was cleaning presses at the age of ten for the Adair County Free Press, a newspaper his great-grandfather founded and passed along to his father and brother. Recalls Hugh: "I've wiped down more ink than I care to remember...
...believes in astrology, E.S.P. and other psychic manifestations. Such beliefs might seem suitable for a guru holding forth in the Himalayas. But should they be taught in a class by a tenured faculty member at a major state university? That is the question that is stirring the campus of Iowa...
Weltha, an associate professor in the family environment department at Iowa State, is teaching a seminar listed as University Studies 313G, otherwise known as "Your Former Lives." Its purpose, says a university brochure, is "to explore the meaning of life through the reincarnation theory." In addition, Weltha in other courses tosses in discussions of astrology, astral projections, E.S.P., auras, psychokinesis and other psychic phenomena that he espouses...
Weltha's troubles began when the campus newspaper, the Iowa State Daily, wrote about his ability to see auras, which he described as the "visible field of color around people." That caught the eye of another faculty member, Professor John Patterson, who teaches materials science and engineering. Incensed at what he considered to be blatant nonsense, Patterson wrote a letter to the Daily challenging Weltha to put his aura-detecting ability to a scientifically rigorous test. Weltha responded with a letter that avoided the challenge, and the debate has gathered velocity ever since: in private faculty discussions...
Weltha, 49, is a bearded former music teacher who joined the Iowa State faculty twelve years ago, likes to bicycle to class, and eats health food at his desk for lunch. In 1970 he began dabbling in parapsychology and attended lectures and seminars on the subject. Soon he was bringing local psychics to his classes and trading ghostly tales with them. By 1975 he had become so immersed in the otherworldly that he was elected president of the newly formed Iowa Federation of Astrologers. Finally, he got permission from a faculty committee to teach his bizarre course. As Weltha explained...