The World of Dick Shaver: Deros, Rockbooks, Mantong and Mind-Radios

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...

Continued

But maybe Shaver was cribbing off H.G. Wells?

You gotta admit, if you put a Dero and a Morlock in the same line-up, a recently rescued damsel would be hard put to finger the cavern-dwelling devolved humanoid who had attempted to eat her. (Or worse. Shaver was borderline pornographic in his descriptions of Dero/Human relations.)



My main focus here, I guess, is who has been cribbing off whom. So, let's get back to the UFOs.

In a 1985 Shavertron interview, John Keel, a longtime FATE columnist and author of such classics as The Mothman Prophesies and Why UFOs? had this to say about the Shaver Mystery:

"If Shaver and Palmer had not existed, there would be no ufology. It's that simple. Palmer started FATE magazine and he kept the subject alive during its darkest periods. The mystery had to be created before anyone could undertake to solve it."

Well, yep. That says it all. Creating a mystery. And then milking it.

Here's some footage of Ray Palmer giving us the lowdown on the Shaver Mystery.

Oh, found another one: Popular music as a tool of our Shadowy Overlords.

If it wasn't true you'd go back to snail-breaking and enjoying your morning coffee. But with the imminent collapse of all society into the ruin of degradation and utter zombi-ism there is no choice, one must find a way to warn them, however mad it seems.

From every radio there is emitted a vibration of quite paralyzing potency, disguised as the latest rock sound. It paralyzes their poor minds, and makes them willing suckers for every fool sales scheme designed to overcome their poor, staggering incomes.

You know you have always wondered what and why was rock music? All at once it strikes you...it's part of the enemy invasion, and in their tunnels underground they creep on and across the land...inserting their sound tentacles into every home.

GD, I love the way this man lies.

Then you remember...it all happened long ago and what the people and yourself are...is the residue, the aftermath of the take-over, the poor spineless recipients of the pottage left by those who took it all long ago.

It is pitiful and horrible, but you must not listen, there is still one sprout on the Tree of Ygdrasil and we must remove the worms from it and let it grow.

Ygdrasil was once, like the Chestnut, a great tree reaching everywhere through all space...the man-tree, with the fruits of all his genius flowering on every planet through all the long marches of sunlight and dark and emptiness and shadows and holes in the planetoids.

Oh well, Ygdrasil is long dead and man is but a remnant of diseased, ignorant flith on this one small ball of dung...what can it matter what one does or does not do?

lol anyone else laugh at dick shaver?

reply to post by camouflaged


Five or six times while composing this. In fact, between this guy, Peter Beter and a few others, I'm beginning to think that if this is a state-sponsored phenom, the code name would be "Project Dick Joke".

I am only halfway kidding there.

"There was even a fan who got a girl pregnant using my name...and she came to the AMAZING office looking for me...until Palmer showed her my picture and she realized she'd been had.
"I always wondered what I would have done if she hadn't been able to distinguish the difference...if the guy had looked like me too.

I bet this **** never happened to Heinlein.

Can a man be judged by the quality of his fans?

Shaver may have been exposed to the 1911, or 1925 edition of "Ralph 124C 41+" by Hugo Gernsback.


David Grouchy

one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time


Some successful predictions from this novel include television (and channel surfing), remote-control power transmission, the video phone, transcontinental air service, solar energy in practical use, sound movies, synthetic milk and foods, artificial cloth, voiceprinting, tape recorders, and [color=gold] spaceflight. It also contains "...the first accurate description of radar, complete with diagram..."

"A pulsating polarized ether wave, if directed on a metal object can be reflected in the same manner as a light-ray is reflected from a bright surface or from a mirror..."

wiki: Ralph 124C 41+

Even Heinlein mentioned this work.


David Grouchy

reply to post by mistermonculous


Man,

What an amazing thread, I was not prepared for what I found when I went to read shaver's material. One can see that there is a mystery right away; who wrote that stuff? I know it is supposed to be Shaver but the original letter seems like it was written by another.

here we go again, MM, in to the murky heart of cunningly purposed narrative. The guy reads like a cross between C. Fort and Hubbard; you nailed it.

In terms of Shaver's placement amongst the usual band of 'creative writers' that we have been looking at I would say that Shaver definitely seems to predate them all. He also seems to me to read a bit like Dunsany.

Awesome find, MM. I love where your mind is at 100% of the time.

Here we go again, MM, in to the murky heart of cunningly purposed narrative. The guy reads like a cross between C. Fort and Hubbard; you nailed it.

In terms of Shaver's placement amongst the usual band of 'creative writers' that we have been looking at I would say that Shaver definitely seems to predate them all. He also seems to me to read a bit like Dunsany.

Dude, I know, right? I'd really like to know exactly where this guy was for that eight year stretch of missing time. Was he, perhaps, being groomed? There are many authors who are reputed to have government ties. Some of those rumors can be substantiated enough to provide a precedent.

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Whoa! Thanks for that, man. I had never heard of this guy, and am really excited to look into this. Layers upon layers of stinky plagiarism: a pulp onion.

Muthaload:

www.softcom.net...

Shavertron online. More Shaver-related material than you can shake a rockbook at. I'm bedward bound ATM, but will post any tasty info I find when I mine this poo poo tomorrow.

It appears our boy was a reluctant Hubbard:

cannot say that out of the millions who have read Shaver there were a dozen who truly grasped what I was trying to say. Ray Palmer least of all. I am always aghast at people asking Palmer for details about me, as he never got anything quite straight in this regard since I knew him. I have, for instance, no time for the occult viewpoint: spiritualism and so forth -- and yet ³Warning to Future Man," the very first story he bought from me, was changed to "I Remember Lemuria," which appeared in the March, 1945 issue of Amazing Stories and was later published between hard covers by Venture Books. The whole slant of everything I had to say was switched from the factual to the misty umbrella of spiritualism and reincarnation -- utter hokum to me.

Deros and Teros and Shaver's alphabet are real, actual physical blood and stink and awful flesh and nightmare in fact, but when Palmer got through with it,, it was all turned around into the dream world of mystical and the real/unreal religious fol-de-rol which never sees a fact as relative to anything like another fact. Nothing I ever wrote suggested any such idea; Palmer was just that sort of editor and I have struggled with it from the first.

Further reading shall hopefully reveal whether Palmer's religious gilding of Shaver's pulp lily was an intentional marketing ploy. Palmer propping Shaver up to front some New World-style cultus.

Here's our Project Bluebeam trope circa 1986, from the Shavertron zine:

After w re careful consideration and a short search in my files, I came up with material that somewhat counterbalances my former assumption, and levels the odds so that either of the superpowers could be behind it. What can be the reasons for this experimenting? I don't know, perhaps it was the idea to create a 'cosmic religion' in which the gods of old were to be replaced by fake 'space brothers' that could manipulate the consciousness of the faithful, and turn them into willful co-workers, for whatever purpose. Nothing good can be expected from either the CIA or the KGB as we all know.

He is referring to Shaver's telaug machine, used by the Deros to beam thoughts into squishy human minds. Several people throughout the decades have attempted to design/assemble a telaug. Most intriguing of the lot, Mr. Ed John of Mendocino.

Mr. John wrote into Amazing Stories with accounts of having to defend his property and elderly mother from the nightly predations of aggressive Deros. He later began to kick out telaug machines in his home fabrication shop. He would send them to aficionados, gratis.

Mr. John's remote little patch of Cali dirt seemed to attract Bad Madness.

.In any case, the controversy over this remote area of Mendocino County did not end with Ed John. In 1983, the Hare Krishna sect announced plans to build a towering 445 foot temple on the very same road - Highway 175 -outside of Hopland. The clip appeared in Shavertron 17,
1983.

As an aside to the Krishna temple announcement,the San Francisco Chronicle reported..."In 1980, police raided the Krishna ranch in Mendocino County and confiscated 300,000 military-type bullets, gunpowder and bullet making equipment...and automatic weapons."Why would blissed-out Hare Krishnas need all that firepower? Ed John said he only needed 30,000 rounds.

Even more bizarre, the suicidal cult minister Jim Jones had a ranch 22 miles north of Hopland.The San Francisco Examiner's religion reporter, Les Kinsolving in 1972 broke the first stories about odd happenings at the Peoples Temple in Mendocino County's Redwood Valley. The stories recounted how Jones had brought more than 40 people "back from near death" during church services at the Mendocino Ranch.

Kinsolving exposed the violent nature of the cult after witnessing Temple guards armed with .357 magnum revolvers as they escorted dozens of Bay Area followers inside the church.It does, indeed appear that this Mendocino County area has had its share of sinister, often violent"phenomena"...

If Dawkins were a Schizoid outsider artist/Project Dick Joke Operator:

On GOD:
Nov schmoz ka pop isnt anything spelled backward...but DOG spelled bakward is a mad concept of everything in one. If you take a dog and spell it backward you have a cup into which you can pour all meaning and all space and infinity and you rub it on your wounds and feel better and you use it for a crutch and pretend you have faith in it and it will keep you from being sane and miserable.

Radar spelled backwards is radar..

reply to post by mistermonculous


Okay, for whoever starred the post in re: Mendocino County. I'd really be interested to know why. Thanks in advance.

Originally posted by mistermonculous
reply to post by mistermonculous

 

Okay, for whoever starred the post in re: Mendocino County. I'd really be interested to know why. Thanks in advance.

Cause it's a data rich post,
and I appreciate the collation of legend summaries.


David Grouchy

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Oh, right on.

My squirrelly brain immediately ran with the possibility that such an unusual concentration of hinky cult/High Weirdness activity indicated a Laurel Canyon situation, if you know what I mean.



I thought maybe someone else was going squirrelly in that direction as well.

I was in touch with him before he died and I learned things he did not publish. Did you ever see clouds forming pictures? We are old that this is just our imagination. But Shaver told me a different story. He said the sky is like a giant TV screen capturing images from TV signals across the galaxy. The clouds take the form of these transmissions.
So what about SETI, the attempt to find intelligent radio signals from space? It was a fraud and the government cut its funding after 30 years. They claim they never heard such signals.
Here is something else he told me: the continents have been shaped by the ancients. If you get a map of Europe, hold it so Spain is on top. Trace with your finger the 'boot' of Italy and see how it is joined with a body, France and a head, Spain, with Portugal the crown. The nose of this women is facing the nose of a man in the Straits of Gibraltar. The man 's sexual organ can be seen sticking out into the Med. near Tunis.

I would be interested in any more information you might be willing to share in regards to Mr. Shaver.
I find his "rock books" very intriguing.

a reply to: Mike215