There seems to be a trend lately on this board of looking into OG conspiracy theorists, and finding that many contemporary CT tropes appear to be
rehashed material from guys who were forgotten by the time the seventies rolled around.
Enter Richard S. Shaver.
Born in 1907, he worked as a welder in the 30's. During this period (although his accounts were never consistent), he claimed that the electromagnetic
field of the welder allowed him to telepathically pick up on the thoughts of his co-workers. Also? That he was the unwilling conduit for a vision of a
subterranean torture session.
Subsequent to this experience, he became a drifter. A full eight years of his life elapse with no full reckoning of how he passed them. Although his
editor (and perhaps co-conspirator, heavy on the con), Ray Palmer claimed that Shaver spent a majority of those lost years in an institution, no
record remains to corroborate this. At any rate, Shaver never owned up to a stint in the looney bin. How did he account for his whereabouts?
Why, he spent eight years in the underground. Literally.
In 1947, after his sojourn in the lightless reaches; Shaver began submitting reams of his literary efforts to "Amazing Stories" magazine. It all
started with a letter:
"Sirs, Am sending this in hope you will insert it in an issue to keep from dying with me. It would arouse a lot of discussion. Am sending you the
language so that some time you can have it looked at by some one in the college or a friend who is a student of antique times.
The language seems to me to be definite proof of the Atlantean legend. A great number of our English words have come down intact as romantic –ro man
tic-“science of man patterning by control,” Trocadero – t ro see a dero- “good one see a bad one”- applied now together.
It is an immensely important find, suggesting the god legends have a base in some wiser race than modern man; but to understand it takes a good head
as it contains multi-thoughts like many puns on the same subject. It is too deep for ordinary man – who thinks it is a mistake. A little study
reveals ancient words in English occurring many times. It should be saved and placed in wise hands. I can’t, will you? It really has an immense
significance, and will perhaps put me right in your thoughts again if you will really understand this.
I need a little encouragement."
Encouragement was not lacking. Mr. Palmer, the editor of many fine fringe publications, appeared to have grasped immediately that Shaver was a
thoroughbred of weirdness. Set that horse loose, and rake in the lucre. The only question that continues to tickle me: was Shaver in on the con?
It is now an open secret that there is a specialized niche for hucksters seeking to exploit the gap left in the wake of those displaced by American
secularism, and moreso for those who opt to fleece the mentally delicate (particularly if they be well-monied). There is even a tried and true
methodology that can be traced from Joseph Smith right through to Hubbard, in terms of Sci-Fi/fantasy authors adapting their fiction to a religious
template for profit.
I have to imagine these hucksters leave a bad taste in the mouths of the scrupulous:
s Bruce Lanier Wright notes, "The young Harlan Ellison, later a famously abrasive writer, allegedly badgered [Palmer] into admitting that the
Shaver Mystery was a 'publicity grabber'; when the story came out, Palmer angrily responded that this was hardly the same thing as calling it a
hoax."
Loves me some Ellison. Anyways. He wasn't the only one who thought the Shaver Mystery ought to be decommissioned. There were boycotts and
letter-campaigns by readers that led to a moratorium on
Deros, Teros, Amazons, Mermen and all
the rest of it. 1948 saw the last of Shaver's work to be published in "Amazing Stories".
Oh, here's the
proto-alphabet:
The Mantong Alphabet -
A - is for Animal
B - is to Be
C - means See
D - is the harmful energy generated by the Sun
E - is Energy
F - means Fecund
G - means to Generate
H - means Human
I - means I
J - is the same as G - generate
K - means Kinetic, as in motion or energy
L - is Life
M - means Man
N - means child, as in 'ninny'
O - means Orifice, a source
P - is Power
Q - means Quest
R - horror; signifies a large amount of D present
S - means the Sun, which emits D
T - is the beneficial force, the opposite of D
U - means You
V - Vital; in Shaver's words, 'the stuff Mesmer calls animal magnetism.'
W - Will
X - Conflict, sometimes meaning D and T in opposition
Y - means Why
Z - means Zero, or when T and D cancel one another out.
After the publication of his letter, Shaver churned out pulp Sci-Fi like a machine. His
bibliography is immense. He had a huge fan following, with many claiming to have had their own
run-ins with the denizens of the Underworld.
Ray Palmer may have had less to do with the end product as has been commonly reputed. I find a stylistic consistency to Shaver's work throughout the
decades which suggests minimal editing. After getting banned
, Shaver continued to self-publish his work for three decades.
Here are some thematic elements which regulars around these parts will find familiar (and do recall, Shaver threw this all out for public consumption
in the 1940's):
-Reptilian races living underground
-Flying ships that could travel in space (our horse sets a cracking pace, writing about UFO's before the sightings began)
-Mind radios (remote mind-control devices)
-Androids
-Animal-human hybrids
In the late sixties, Shaver's wife brought home some shiny rocks. She told her husband that there were pictures in the rocks, and he took that and ran
with it. Rockbooks. Or, in mantong, rogfogo.
Shaver asserted that the Earth had suffered seven catastrophic events which involved the Moon colliding with the Earth.
He believed that the races who perished in these cataclysms left behind records of their civilizations and cultures. Those records took the form of
three-dimensional images imbedded in rocks. He found them everywhere, and developed a really neat process for bringing the "pictures" out.
THIS IS A PAINTING MADE BY PROJECTING A SLICE OF A ROCK BOOK ON TO A SENSITIZED CANVAS. THEN I PAINT COLOR ON THE PICTURE. I PUT IT HERE TO
ACQUAINT YOU WITH THE STYLE OF ART,& THE HUMOR IN THE PICTURES THAT FILL ROCK BOOKS.
OK, for the record? I really enjoy reading Shaver. He has an excellent sense of humor, and a distinctive flavor. Here are some choice passages:
Since everything points to the moon having billiarded off earth at least seven times in the past, how is it they don't even know it fell once?
This door of escape stands open-mouthed, awaiting us...it is the way, the science, the methods and specifications of ships...by which many of those
elder races, at least before the first moon-fall, evacuated earth...
Well, its their funeral and its their loss. Its their choice of ignorance above wisdom, of sloth above industry and drowning before ship-building.
Like Noah, it saddens me but there really isnt much I can do about it, short of beating them over the head with a rock book...
Continuededit on 27-12-2011 by mistermonculous because: twerking it out.
