MYTH AND MEN IN INDONESIA

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Although Western visitors now travel

there by the millions, the East still offers

rewards of mystery to the adventuresome.

In 1972 Lawrence Blair and his brother Lorne

left England to film the greater bird of paradise,

long an Asian symbol of transformation and

immortality. They found an elusive specimen,

like the one above, high in a Javanese forest.

But it was certainly not their most

exotic discovery.

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In their Indonesian travels they came upon

a world of myths, rites, and beliefs that had

existed unchanged since before recorded

time. In Bali, a newborn is thought to remain

close to the heavenly Upper World for its

first 105 days and thus is not allowed to

touch the earth; after this period the baby's

foot is ritually placed on the ground.

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The ancient belief of the Toraja people

is almost futuristic; that their ancestors

arrived in starships from the star cluster

Pleiades. The swamp-dwelling Asmat have

a pre-Stone Age culture. They believe their

creator carved their bodies from trees and

drummed them into life. Cannibals as well

as headhunters, the Asmat drum the spirits

of their slain kinfolk into wooden totems;

there the spirits await the release that

comes when someone from the enemy tribe

is killed, beheaded, and eaten.

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The Blairs claimed they encountered

phenomena not easily explainable in

Western terms. On an island in the

Banda Sea, they saw a man in a trance

they described as an "example of pure

animist possession." A boulder was

slammed into his back but left neither

blemish nor injury.

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From Eastern Mysteries

A volume from the Time-Life Series

Mysteries of the Unknown

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From THE URANTIA BOOK, Part III, 101, 9
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When you presume to sit in

critical judgement on the primitive religion

of man (or on the religion of primitive man),

you should remember to judge such savages

and to evaluate their religious experience

in accordance with their enlightenment

and status of conscience. Do not make the

mistake of judging another's religion by

your own standards of knowledge

and truth. .

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