BUCK ROGERS

1946 BUCK ROGERS U-235 ATOMIC PISTOL. ONE OF THE FEW THINGS FROM
MY CHILDHOOD.-- TEN YEARS LATER IT WAS D. T. SUZUKI'S ZEN BUDDHISM.
(for info on the ray gun click HERE. For D.T. Suzuki click HERE)

IN THE 25TH CENTURY

the Wanderling

BUCK ROGERS: HIS HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

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FLYING CAPTAIN MARVEL ZEN AND THE ART OF FLYING MEN

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BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES, 1942.-- 800 FOOT ZEPPELIN-SIZE UFO
FLEW DIRECTLY OVER THE TOP OF THE WANDERLING'S HOUSE.
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L.A. UFO? WHAT WHAT ONE MAN DESCRIBED SEEING FACE-ON
AT LOW ALTITUDE AND OUT OF THE GLARE OF SEARCHLIGHTS
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AS A KID I ALWAYS PICTURED THE ROSWELL OBJECT LOOKING
LIKE FLASH GORDON'S ROCKETSHIP DISSIPATING A STRING OF
QUICKLY- EXTINGUISHING GLOWING PARTICLES IN- IT'S- WAKE.
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LOUIS L'AMOUR: STAGE WEST
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BATMAN: HIS REAL ORIGIN

.44 CALIBER 1847 COLT WALKER: THE DISINTEGRATOR OF IT'S DAY
THE LARGEST, HEAVIEST, MOST POWERFUL BLACK-POWDER REVOLVER COLT EVER PRODUCED

COLT WALKER

BUCK ROGERS DISINTEGRATOR

When I was a kid living with my Stepmother she owned a Colt Walker. Even though the pistol was nearly as big as I was, I used to run around day-after-day playing cowboys with it, sometimes even mixing genres by wielding the colt in one hand and a Buck Rogers disintegrator in the other. Now days a Colt Walkers are known to be rare and expensive weapons. In 2008 a fully documented one that was known to have been issued to and owned by a Mexican War veteran sold at auction for $920,000.

THE- ONLY OTHER THINGS- FROM- MY CHILDHOOD
A COLLECTION OF CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT DECODERS
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AND THE DEED FOR ONE SQUARE INCH OF LAND FROM THE BIG INCH LAND COMPANY

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ROSWELL UFO

ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL

SO, DID THE WANDERLING FLY?

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1942-1944 CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT Photo-Matic Code-O-Graph

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The Captain Midnight Code-O-Graph called the Photo-Matic Code-O-Graph was distributed during the war years 1942-1944, the second in a series of decoders that would eventually count out to a total of seven, all manufactured and distributed as part of Captain Midnight Radio Premium Offers.

Even though war restrictions on the use of metal was quickly imposed across the board on nearly all non-essential items, the Photo-Matic Code-O-Graph was somehow produced with sufficient numbers early on so the same design could continually be issued throughout the war without the necessity of a new design created yearly as initially intended. The Photo-Matic design allowed the owner to insert a photo of themself in a small open square at the top of the badge, replacing the photo of Captain Midnight that came with it. The idea for doing so was to create a personalized identification badge like those used in defense plants of the era. Once the picture of Captain Midnight was removed and the owner substituted it with a picture of their own, they were supposed to push down the four metal tabs at each of the corners so it could not be removed.

The Photo-Matic Code-O-Graph played an ever larger continuing role throughout my life, from childhood right on into adulthood, especially so after my brother inadvertently sent the one I owned as a kid to me while I was in the Army. See:

THE CODE MAKER, THE ZEN MAKER

SHANGRI-LA, SHAMBHALA, GYANGANJ, BUDDHISM AND ZEN

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NAVAJO CODE TALKERS

Several years ago my younger brother, while cleaning out his attic one day, discovered a long forgotten cardboard box of stuff stashed away that at one time belonged to me. Among the contents of the box was a beat up copy of ZEN BUDDHISM: Selected Writings of D.T Suzuki (New York: Anchor Books, 1956), a book that had not seen the light of day in at least 20 years. The pages were faded and worn. Corner after corner of pages folded down. Pencil notes all over the margins and inside the covers. Sentences were underlined in ink. Whole paragraphs were highlighted in a now barely discernible yellow.(see)

The reason the book ended up in such a weather beaten and worn state was because the last year of high school and several years afterward I barely let it out of my hands. I carried it around like a preacher with a bible. Anytime anybody said anything about anything, and much to the chagrin and distress of almost everybody around, out would come my book...always ready with a 'Zen answer.' Then one day, like the ancient classic Zen master Te Shan who out of the blue threw ALL of his commentaries and books on Zen into a pile and set them afire, reducing them to nothing but ashes, something was different. Somehow I just didn't need Zen books much any more.(see)

As I turned those crumbling pages for the first time in over 20 years, the notes, the underlining, the highlights, all at one time seemingly so important, all seemed so odd. Going back I remembered how I met my Mentor. He had studied under the venerated Indian holy man the Baghavan Sri Ramana Maharshi at his ashram between the wars. When I saw him the first time I was set aback by the calm serenity he seemed to abide in. I begged him to 'make me like him.' Time after time he brushed me off.

Finally, I guess, thinking he would never get rid of me he began making a few suggestions. He told me about Vihangam Marg, The Bird's Way, gently coaching me through its finer subtleties; it was he who gave me and urged me to read Suzuki's book originally, hoping for the results that ultimately transpired;(see) it was he who sent me to study under the Japanese Zen master Yasutani Hakuun Roshi.

As I gained insight into some of the teachings afforded me by my mentor, in addition to his recommendations, and not always with his blessings, I began to widen my search for answers on my own. Sometimes the search came to pass by my own volition, other times by powers beyond my control. I spent months and months half a world away nearly on the roof of the world Doing Hard Time in a Zen monastery as well as the Mahasi Meditation Center in Rangoon, Burma --- of which staying there for meditators to this day is still free, including room and board.(see)

After returning to the states my mentor, rather than showing distain for my antics, seeing instead the intense seriousness of my drive towards things spiritual, once again took me again under his wing. So said, thinking of the best of two worlds in the oneness of it all, he arranged for me to study-practice under the mysterious and anonymous American Zen master Alfred Pulyan. Close, very close, but still not the breakthrough he expected. Then, one day what happened as recorded in the link below transpired:

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself.

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ZEN BUDDHISM: SELECTED WRITINGS OF D.T. SUZUKI

UPAKA ASCETIC'S EXCERPTS ON D.T. SUZUKI

A SOLDIER'S STORY

There is a continuing discrepancy lodged against me on a seemingly regular basis by what I call the number crunching nay saying sect when it comes to the timeline regarding my use (or possible not being able to use) Suzuki's book while in high school. The implication being my senior year and the book's publication date don't coincide, Suzuki's book not being published until the same month I graduated.

It becomes grist for the mill because of having written that my brother reminded me of how I used to carry the book around with me like a bible my last year of high school and several years afterward. Anytime anybody said anything about anything out would come my book...always ready with a 'Zen answer.' Of course, in writing what I did I am repeating what my brother said, how accurate or how well he was able to remember or recall what actually transpired relative to the time period we are talking about here, that is, me being in high school, is another question.

Many people cite that the book was not published until June 1, 1956 giving me absolutely no time to carry the book around like a bible in high school, thus me doing so just couldn't be so. Disregarding any possible error in my younger brother's ability to remember accurately what I did or didn't do in high school, an edition of the book WAS published and made available January 1, 1956 (see) to the general public --- giving me at least half a school year to carry the book around with me 'to always be ready with a Zen answer.'

I wrote what I did about my brother saying what he did because, in the fact that I had a copy of the book, there was no need to question his accuracy. However, for the number crunching nay saying sect, even though copies were available from January 1, 1956 onward, my mentor received a complimentary copy from the publisher well in advance of any official publication date, be it either January or June of '56. It was his advanced copy, of which he gave me, that I carried around with me all those months prior to graduation from high school and for so many years afterwards.

"The Buddha's Teaching was recorded in the Tipitaka several hundred years after the Buddha passed away, and this text was then copied and recopied over a period of thousands of years. The teachings were probably recorded very well, but it is possible to doubt that the reader will now understand what those who recorded the teachings meant. For me to refer merely to the texts all the time would be like guaranteeing the truth of the claims of another, claims of which I am not certain. But the things that I tell you I am able to guarantee, because I speak from my own direct experience." (source)

Te-shan burning the Sutras in a rant of liberated ecstasy is the image of Te-shan in the moment of having appropriated and internalized the Sutras. Once internalized the physical properties on which the words were exhibited were no longer necessary.

His destroying of his Buddhist texts and Zen commentaries, in essence subverting their authority, was not because his Realization was in conflict with what was projected by them, but because in an instantaneous flash it became clear that HIS Realization was an actualization of the same 'way' that gave rise to the Buddha's Realization --- an attempt of which toward understanding and coming to internalize the Way for all, at least the reasoning behind it, had been put down by the followers of the Buddha in Sutra after Sutra after Sutra in hope of that someone, somewhere at sometime, their mind would become ripe and for them, the veil of the Samsara world would dissipate.

In The Code Maker, the Zen Maker, cited as the source at the end of the quote below, I add a little bit more insight into the positive impact the Suzuki book made on me during my early years as well as make it a little clearer as to what the actual contents inside the "box of stuff" was made up of that was stored along with it in the box. To wit:

"That book, once so sacred and heralded by me, after languishing unread nor seeing the light of day for 20 years or more, was found in a taped up box with a ton of other books stashed away in a darkened cobweb infested corner of my younger brother's attic."(source)

As you can see from what I have written, the other stuff in the box was a "ton of other books," actually more specifically, Zen books --- all of which along with Suzuki's book I read at one time or the other throughout my early years, some several times. Most of the same books from "those days" and what they offered within their content are still pretty much valid today, especially so for those early on the path or seriously seeking.

Like me, a whole generation of Zen-folk were impacted by Suzuki's book. Fifteen years later, in 1971, there was a whole new book on the scene that created even a larger stir to a much wider and more informed audience, causing another whole new generation to seek out eastern style spirituality, with many trekking off to India --- albeit a little late in the scheme of things for me personally however because of the events as found in Dark Luminosity had already washed across me. That book was Be Here Now by Ram Dass, AKA Dr. Richard Alpert.

In 1967, Dr. Richard Alpert, a university professor and cohort of Dr. Timothy Leary, who had been formally dismissed from his academic position at Harvard in 1963 for a number of so-called violations, including the mishandling of research LSD and civilian-based psychedelics, traveled to India and Nepal. During his travels he met a young American called Bhagavan Das, who was by then fully and deeply ingrained into the spiritual culture of India. Bhagavan Das, a follower of the venerated Indian saint Neem Karoli Baba, after becoming cognizant of Albert's spiritual quest --- or just wanting to get rid of him depending on who you listen to --- took Alpert to see him. Neem Karoli Baba, following closely Alpert's struggle, dedication, and advancement along the Path, gave him the name Ram Dass, which means 'servant of God.'

After a year and a half in India Alpert returned to the United States and fully immersed as Ram Dass eventually wrote Be Here Now, published in 1971. The book, an unqualified success, became a wildly popular best seller and almost a bible in the counter-culture. The success of the Ram Dass book sent thousands of hippie-era wanderers, including for example even Apple computer genius Steve Jobs, to India in the quest for gurus and spiritual Enlightenment. It also escalated the existence of an unknown Indian holy man Neem Karoli Baba, who died in 1973, into the stratosphere, with the unintended consequence, but karma related, inundation by hundreds and hundreds of spiritual seekers.

When it comes to reading, my page Zen Enlightenment in a Nutshell offers several suggestions, otherwise most if not all of the books that had been found in the box, including a few others, can be found graphically presented on the following list:

BOOK LIST: ZEN BUDDISM

ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL

COMMENTARY ON THE TEACHINGS OF RAMANA MAHARSHI

The Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator, or more rightly so, it's lookalike post war U-235 Atomic Pistol, wasn't really my first ray gun, just my favorite. Actually, in a close call, my first ray gun fell under the auspices of the then growing Superman marketing machine. Most people don't know it, but in the early 1940s just prior to the war and before metal couldn't be used for toys, Superman actually had a metal ray gun. Like the Buck Rogers disintegrator it was made by the Daisy Manufacturing Company. To wit, the following:

On one of the last family Christmases together I can remember, while my family was still intact and my mother was still alive, my older brother received a Daisy Red Ryder lever-action carbine BB gun as one of his gifts. To ensure a certain sibling equality between the two of us my parents gave me a Daisy-built gun as well. But, in that I was three years younger than my older brother, the gun they gave me didn't shoot BBs or anything else for that matter. Unlike my brother's carbine rifle, what I received was a hand-held pistol called a Superman Krypto-Raygun and, although it didn't shoot BBs, for me and what I liked, it was way much better. The perfect gift. The gun as it was called, was actually a film projector of sorts. Put a film strip in it, pull the trigger and, as the instructions below will show, a battery powered light would shine the story one frame at a time on a wall or wherever you pointed it. However, not that it matters much a whole heck of a lot in the overall scheme of things, for the Krypto-Raygun actually being my FIRST, FIRST ray gun, again, as mentioned above, it is a close call.(see)

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The above notwithstanding, in the Superman stories, even though he typically goes to almost any extreme to avoid Kryptonite in any form, as Superboy (issue #103 March 1963), he goes out of his way to find Red Kryptonite, traveling thousands of years into the past on an extended journey through time. The following link will take you to a condensed version of the original story, or more specifically part three of a three part segment titled The Three Ages of Superboy. The over-arcing story has the Earth being hit by Red Kryptonite with the following results:

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ANALOGIES IN TIME AND PLACE

In an attempt to clarify which ray gun was the FIRST, I offer the following quote from the source so cited. The neighbor so mentioned was the grandfather of the girl next door that used to babysit my two brothers and myself. The grandfather was a sort of Rube Goldberg inventor type guy that seemed like he could fix or build anything. He had a junk filled workshop in the detached dirt floor single-car garage on the back of the babysitter's property and was always collecting, working on, and making all kinds of stuff he said was to thwart the "impending invasion," meaning by the Japanese. Electric stuff, vacuum tubes, gears. He was heavy into cereal box top offers and radio premiums, sending for and getting almost anything of interest to him, hence the Tom Mix Telegraph Set so mentioned and besides for me, a Little Orphan Annie Miracle Compass Sun-Watch. For more regarding the grandfather and how he and his granddaughter impacted my life with all sorts of send for offers and stuff, including me learning Morse code at a very young age, please access the link at the bottom of the quote:

"As a young boy, other than learning Morse code on my neighbor's Tom Mix Telegraph Set he eventually gave me and that at first I eventually lost, the only real possessions I dragged about with me in a continuing fashion throughout my childhood and in good order was a Buck Rogers U-235 Atomic Pistol and my growing collection of very highly code related Captain Midnight decoders. The Buck Rogers pistol came and went several times in my life only to resurface, disappear and resurface. The so-called 'U-235 Atomic Pistol' was a post war version, the initial version, a pre-war model being a Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol, so more accurately it was a XZ-38 the man next door gave me. The one I ended up with in later years was a U-235. They looked the same. How or when the two were changed in my life I have no idea. My favorite decoder, the aforementioned Photo-Matic Code-O-Graph, as depicted above, ended up for reasons unknown to me at the time, mysteriously missing from the rest of my collection by the time I reached high school."

WESTERN UNION STANDARD RADIO TELEGRAPH SIGNAL SET

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ORPHAN ANNIE MIRACLE COMPASS SUN-WATCH
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CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT' RADIO PREMIUMS: 1938 - 1949

AMAZING STORIES, FATE, THE TEXAS RANGERS,
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION

"My father seemed to spend an extraordinary amount of free time or late into the night reading pulp science fiction books like Amazing Stories or paperback novels of the old west, of which the ones about the old west were almost exclusively by L'Amour or Luke Short. I had perused lightly through books by both authors from time to time out of piles of books my dad had strewn around his place, and because he had insisted --- saying it related to my own experiences lost in the Mojave desert as a young boy --- I even read 'Mojave Crossing.'"

LOUIS L'AMOUR

LOUIS L'AMOUR
THE PACKSADDLE AFFAIR TEXAS RANGERS, JUNE 1952, VOL. 47 NO. 1 (please click image)

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THE DESERT SHIP: A LEGEND, OR TWO

THE BOOTSTRAP PARADOX------------------------1942 UFO OVER LOS ANGELES
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BUCK ROGERS: HIS ORIGIN

A MATTER OF MINUTES (YESTEDAY WAS MONDAY)

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I was sitting in a chair beside my now pretty much bed-ridden uncle as he was inching towards the end of his days. Out of the blue and completely out of context he asked if I remembered the toy ray gun or disintegrator pistol I used to have as a kid. First thing I thought of was my Buck Rogers U-235 Atomic Pistol which I told him I still had and that it was still in fairly good shape except the red flasher up in the little windows didn't work so hot any more. He looked puzzled as if he didn't know what I was talking about telling me the ray gun he was making reference to didn't have little red windows. Picking up a scrap of paper I sketched out what the gun looked like. He inturn, after seeing my sketch, drew his own picture of what he remembered the pistol looked like. Right away I knew what he was talking about. It wasn't the Buck Rogers U-235 Atomic Pistol but another toy gun I had as a kid called the Hiller Silver Atom Ray Gun.

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THE ROSWELL RAY GUN

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