Word: mysticism
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Gordon G. Johnson hung up his dentist's drill, got a bite to eat and headed for Medinah Temple, Chicago headquarters of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Doc made a beeline for the third floor where the Temple's Oriental band was gathering...
Week after week, in thousands of halls, in darkened rooms over Main Street drugstores, men meet, exchange mystic signs and complicated handgrips. New members are sent upon symbolic journeys through wildernesses of sawhorses and overturned chairs. Old members toll bells and simulate the groans of lost souls, solemnly chant and portentously listen as the initiate promises to keep the secrets of the order or have his throat cut and his tongue pulled out by the roots...
Floating Cloud. The Order of the Mystic Shrine, sometimes called Masonry's "playground,"† is a kind of detached and whimsical cloud floating somewhere above Masonry's topmost branches. Its members must all be 32nd degree Masons or Knights Templar. It was started about 1870 by William Florence who was fascinated by some Oriental rites he saw in Marseille. Florence was a well-known American comedian of his day. Harold Lloyd, the new Imperial Potentate, therefore follows in a noble tradition...
...that way-to make sure that exactly the balance and quality she wanted to hear would come off the wax. In her weekly sessions, she had worked 42 hours, making retake after retake, to record 45 minutes of music. At 70 (her birthday is actually July 5), the somewhat mystic, sometimes earthy little Polish-born woman is the acknowledged high priestess of the harpsichord, the sweet-sounding, twangy-bangy instrument she rescued from oblivion 50 years ago. She did not need much preparation before sitting down to record...
...with repugnance on the autocratic ecclesiastical system imposed upon the people by the priests," he might gain valuable insight into the more important non-political motives of the Church. As it is, his disdain for the hierarchy blinds the balance of his insight so that he never separates the mystic from the mystigogue, or the sacrament from the sacrilege. The result is a book on an important topic which will contribute little but flame to any genuine controversy of abuses that may exist. Lawrence F. O'Dennell