The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [76]
By the end of three weeks, Leon, now with a full beard, bore a remarkable resemblance to pictures of Christ.
[1]Since the events in the several sections of this chapter, and in Chapters IX and X, are concurrent, and broken into separate sequences for topical presentation, a brief chronology of key events in the period covered—January 14 to August 1, 1960—follows:
Leon’s change of name January 14
Interest in meetings begins to wane January 29
Resumption of identity confrontations Feb. 18, 25; June 21, 30; July 18
“Squelch eye” controversy February 29–July 28
Increasing conflict between Joseph and Leon March—August
Leon describes his new wife March 29, 31
Ground cards issued May 5, 6
Flora and Fauna Commission May 25–June 27
Leon relents toward his mother June 23
Carnival Day June 27
Leon grows a beard June 27 ff
Acute loss of interest in meetings July
Joseph returns from hospital July 28
Leon henceforth sits alone in sitting room July 28 ff
Men fail to show up for voluntary meeting August 1
[2] Luke 13:6–9. “He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: an if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”
[3]At my request Leon later gave us in writing the following definition of a Cosmic squelch eye: “a center eye of light near the top of the forehead of a, potentially, hollowed out—stigmatized—,person, creature, ect. A cosmic squelch eye can be uncrossed, crossed; uncrossed squelch eye can help form other cosmic eyes on the forehead, ect., if the person, ect., has cut such squelch eye into its brain, ect.; A crossed squelch eye can help form smaller ones; some instances larger one,’s: a cut crossed squelch eye can help smooth out a larger one, depending on the capabilities of that person. If that person, ect., mis-uses such squelch, cosmic eye,’s,; Devine Providence can have such taken away from that person, ect.,; through—Righteous Idealed cosmic Robot Governor-Governess, image, at the right side of such person, ect. . . .”
CHAPTER IX
PROTECTING THE STRONGHOLD
“The man wants to … and yet he does not … because he is away from the world; because of a rest.” (From Joseph’s report, April 5, 1960)
WITH THE establishment of the rotating chairmanship in August of 1959, we had called a moratorium on any direct confrontations among the three Christs on the question of their identity. After a few months, the time came to determine whether or not, if the identity confrontations were experimentally renewed, the men would try to preserve the relative peace that had then ensued. What would be the consequences to each of the three, and especially to Leon, who had maneuvered himself, or had been maneuvered, into a position where he could no longer lay open claim to being the Christ reincarnate?
These new experimental conditions were not, however, to be the same as those that had prevailed before. When first we brought the men together, each had to face the conflicts that arose when both of the others claimed the same identity as he did. Each one, therefore, had to measure his situation against the touchstone of the reality of his own beliefs. The new touchstone involved a very different order of “reality,” the authority of a third party or arbitrator—the perspective, as it were, of