Beaver Memos Date: 2017
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Author: Tom Beaver Category: Beaver Memos Date: 2017 The Life and Legacy of John E. Fetzer A Series of Memos Researched and Compiled By Tom Beaver John E. Fetzer Memorial Trustee © 2018 The John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust, Inc. 2 Preface Brian C. Wilson Professor of American Religious History Department of Comparative Religion Western Michigan University I am pleased to have been asked to write a brief introduction to Tom Beaver’s collected memos on the spiritual legacy of John E. Fetzer. During my own research into the life, times, and spiritual development of John Fetzer, I have found Tom’s memos to contain a wealth of information and insights, all of which have considerably deepened my appreciation for this complex and fascinating figure. John Fetzer and the Institute he founded were the products of many influences, several of which were esoteric in origin; but given Fetzer’s private nature, few suspected the breadth of his spiritual explorations or were in a position to recognize the various strands from which Fetzer wove his metaphysical worldview. One who did, however, was Tom Beaver, who from personal study and experience, not to mention his close friendship with the man, understood very well where Fetzer was coming from, and where he wished to go in his spiritual journey. Tom was born in 1951 in Grand Haven, Michigan. Being raised a Christian Scientist among staunchly evangelical Dutch Reformed neighbors made Tom something of an outsider in his small west Michigan community. This, along with some notable psychic experiences as a child, led to an interest in metaphysical matters, which in turn inspired him to take initiation in the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), said to be the oldest such Rosicrucian order in the United States. From 1969 to 1973, Tom studied aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. This led to a job at the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California, which providentially also allowed him to expand his metaphysical studies, as he found southern California a “metaphysical paradise.” Here he “joined 15 or 20 metaphysical groups” in and around Los Angeles, including, ultimately, the Sant Mat tradition, also known as Radhasoami. Originating in India in the 19th century and tracing its tradition back to medieval Persian Sufism, Radhasoami emphasizes personal devotion to a master (guru) who, after initiation, guides the disciple in daily meditation to access higher states of consciousness. Tom felt especially comfortable with this tradition since it harmonized with some of the psychic experiences he had during his youth; in time, it would become the bedrock of his practice. Returning to west Michigan in the late 1970s, Tom earned a teaching certificate and an MA in education, again from the University of Michigan, and taught in Muskegon public schools. Among the subjects he taught were economics, government, math, and computers. School schedules allowed Tom to continue his metaphysical explorations, as well as to travel to India on a regular basis to stay in the Sant Mat ashram. In 1984, through the good offices of another Kalamazoo Sant Mat practitioner, Tom was introduced to the Austin, Texas, psychic and channeler, Jim Gordon, who since 1980 had been advising John Fetzer on the reorganization of the Fetzer Foundation. By the time Tom met Gordon, Fetzer’s wife, Rhea, had gone into a nursing home, and the psychic was concerned that the 84-year-old Fetzer was now living alone at his Clovelly Road residence. He therefore suggested to Fetzer that, given Tom’s metaphysical interests and background, he might make an excellent live-in companion. Fetzer at first was not keen on the arrangement, but after several interviews (and not a few © 2018 The John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust, Inc. 3 psychic tests), the older man invited Tom to move in. As Tom recalls, there was no particular job description for his position; his task, as he saw it, was to be Fetzer’s spiritual conversation partner and coach in his practice of Sant Mat, which Fetzer had recently been initiated into through its American variant, MSIA. From then on, even after Fetzer had made the move from Michigan to Hawaii, Tom stayed at his side and was present when Fetzer died at the age of 89 in a Honolulu hospital in 1991. Although relatively brief, just four and a half years, the relationship between Tom Beaver and John Fetzer was a true meeting of minds, for, according to Tom, John “was just one of greatest seekers I’ve ever met.” It was fitting, therefore, that Tom was named one of the founding trustees of the John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust, set up by Fetzer to protect and preserve his vision and legacy. To that end, Tom has worked assiduously to document through both memos and videos Fetzer’s spiritual search from his boyhood until his death. The memos do an excellent job highlighting important aspects of Fetzer’s spiritual search, especially his engagement with Spiritualism at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana; his belief in reincarnation; and his life-long involvement with Freemasonry. This last is a part of his life that is often glossed over as simply part of his social and business life, and not the source of the esoteric knowledge and practice that Tom has revealed it to be. Indeed, Tom’s knowledge of Freemasonry, and other mystery schools such as Rosicrucianism, informs his brilliant unpacking of the symbolism embedded in the Fetzer Institute’s Administration Building, including the Hall of Records, the Hologram, and the iconic Fetzer Institute logo. Furthermore, the memos on Fetzer’s long-standing desire to encourage the development of a spiritualized science accurately record a key element of Fetzer’s long-term vision, one that has become controversial among those charged with implementing that vision after his death. And finally, the last two memos on Fetzer’s 1989 “Final Principles” statement call for renewed reflection on Fetzer’s own summing up of his life’s journey and vision for the future. As Tom writes in his last memo, such continued reflection is crucial for all who are and will be involved in the Fetzer Institute, in order “to remember John’s legacy, to keep it fresh, and to hold to it.” In my opinion, it is altogether appropriate that Tom Beaver’s memos have now been collected and archived in this volume. Given that the Fetzer Institute envisions a mission that will stretch over half a millennium, Tom’s memos will provide for decades to come an invaluable window into the mind of John Fetzer by one who knew him well. As such, they will long serve as an inspirational resource for those wishing periodically to get back to the source of the Institute’s mission, so that they stay true to the original Fetzer vision. © 2018 The John E. Fetzer Memorial Trust, Inc. 4 Foreword Throughout his lifetime (1901-1991), John E. Fetzer’s pursued what is commonly referred to as the journey of a “spiritual seeker.” His spiritual journey was serious and intentional, it spanned nearly his whole life, and over the course of his long life, this journey kept changing and progressing—generally from more “outer forms” of searching to more “inner forms” involving meditation practice—right up until he took his last breath just short of his 90th birthday. This “journey of searching” led him down a myriad of metaphysical and esoteric trails, including major efforts involving: • 55 years of regularly sitting before fortunetellers, mediums, psychics and channelers who he believed were able to communicate on his behalf with “the other side.” • 55 years as a Freemason, culminating in his earning the Masonic Scottish Rite’s highest degree, the 33rd. • a multi-decade study of the various books of Theosophy, with emphasis on the writings of Alice Bailey and the Theosophically-inspired series, Life and Teaching of The Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spalding. • a ten-year study of A Course in Miracles beginning in the mid-1970’s. • initiation into meditation practices beginning in his mid-70s: Transcendental Meditation in the mid 1970s and, as his culminating practice, initiation into the Surat Shad yoga meditation practice in 1985 (via the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness or MSIA). John Fetzer’s personal beliefs were not imposed upon his Fetzer Institute Trustees or employees, but he exhorted his Trustees regarding spiritual practice in the 1980s, and his spiritual notions certainly became the underpinnings of the spiritual principles upon which the Institute’s philosophy has been based. Twenty years after John’s passing, in 2011, in order to make John’s personal spiritual journey more explicitly known to his Trustees, I was asked by the Fetzer Memorial Trust to delve into John Fetzer’s personal archives and “mine” all the treasured details of his lifelong search that I could uncover. My own personal life’s journey had covered most of the same metaphysical “bases” that John’s had, and I had known John closely as his personal assistant from 1986-91, so I found my research to be fascinating, instructive, and personally fulfilling. As part of this effort, I wrote a series of memos to the Memorial Trust about various aspect of John’s journey that I felt were highly germane to the Institute in the 2011-16 time period. I wrote thirty such memos, organized roughly by theme (not chronology) as follows: • three memos pertaining the Societal Context of John Fetzer’s Spiritual Journey • six memos on Fetzer and Science, including his 1967 “This I Believe” essay • three memos on Masonic influences on John • two memos on John’s belief in reincarnation • two memos on John’s many visits to Spiritualist Camp Chesterfield • a memo on John and his early-1980s “Monday Night Group” © 2018 The John E.