TAARP - Appendix E - Introduction

E 1.0 Introduction

      This appendix will cover a wide variety of topics. Some of it is written in the first person by Fred E. Howard III because I think it is important for future investigators to understand the process of my "fall" into the study of astrology, and astrology is the background for the 60-Item Perdurabo/TAARP Data Base. Readers who are not interested in my "fall from grace" are invited to skip this introduction and go directly to Section E 2.0.

      My Father introduced me to science. He has been my primary teacher in life. He is the most phenomenal person I have ever known. His intellectual, creative, and physical capabilities are profound. He has a breadth and depth of knowledge of the universe that is astounding. His one great shortcoming is that he is bigotedly biased against anything that smacks of the mystical. This is true even though he is himself very mystical in terms of his sincere appreciation of the enormity of the universe and his sincere respect for and interest in all life forms.

      My Mother is also a very phenomenal person of exceptional creativity, intelligence, and love. The many students of hers that rain praise and thanksgiving upon her years after the fact for what she gave to them in her 36 years as a college English professor is critical proof of her exceptional nature. She introduced me to mythology, comparative religion, and mysticism.

      I received a B.S. Degree in Physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1968. Thereafter, I spent 22 years in the aerospace business working on pattern recognition and monopulse electronic countermeasures. In 1970 I met Mr. Cecil Gwinn. I was a young Second Lieutenant in the Air Force working in the Air Force Avionics Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Mr. Gwinn was at that time a civil servant in the Avionics Lab. He is now retired. He was one of the most creative mathematical physicists ever employed by the Avionics Laboratory. He played a key role in the early development of Bionics. He was responsible for acquiring Air Force funding for a significant part of the early research and development conducted by Adaptronics, Inc. The current AbTech AIM STATNET software that is discussed in Addendum 3 had its origin with Cecil Gwinn and Adaptronics, Inc. My approach to pattern recognition is a result of the synthesis of things I learned from Cecil Gwinn, and Dr. Mat Kabrisky and Dr. Joe Carl from 1969 to 1975. Dr. Mat Kabrisky and Dr. Joe Carl (then Captain Joe Carl) were professors in the electrical engineering department of the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Mr. Gwinn taught me about self-organizing, adaptive processes as applied to pattern recognition. Dr. Kabrisky and Dr. Carl taught me about Fourier analysis as applied to pattern recognition. My approach to pattern recognition is a particular methodology of using Fourier analysis in a self-organizing, adaptive process that is designed to synergistically evolve a set of classification features and a corresponding classifier (see Appendix D). Mr. Gwinn introduced me to the idea that the next significant step in self-organizing computer algorithms would involve the automatic creation of classification features by the software itself. All that I have done is to propose one specific method for doing this.

      In addition to the enormous influence Mr. Gwinn had on me vis-a-vis pattern recognition, he also has been and is my Magickal/Mystical mentor. He introduced me to Carl Jung, Aleister Crowley, and many other authors of an esoteric nature. (In Mr. Gwinn's defense, let me say that he does not particularly care for Aleister Crowley.) I studied closely with Mr. Gwinn for six years from 1969 to 1975. From about 1975 until 1993 I delved very deeply into Magick, Mysticism, Jungian psychology, comparative religion, and mythology. Aleister Crowley influenced me the most, and I claim that if indeed such a thing as initiated revelation of the mysteries of nature exists, then Crowley is the prime example of initiated knowledge. For all of this time from 1969 to 1993, I was not the least interested in astrology even though I delved very deeply into all of the mythology upon which astrology is based. My weak brain could not conceive of a physical cause and effect explanation for astrology, so I discounted it. Then for some reason, in the 1994 time frame things started changing for me. By the end of 1994, the following had happened:

  1. A nervous breakdown left me unemployed.
  2. Jung's concept of synchronicity began to strike me more and more as a reasonable explanation, albeit not causal, for astrology. This feeling had been with me for many years, but it started to really take hold.
  3. It occurred to me that of the five people that I held in the highest esteem, two thought that astrology was very important, two thought that there may be something to it, and one thought it was a silly waste of time. The breakdown is: Being of a very democratic nature, I of course found this worth paying attention to.
  4. The Great Mother Goddess, in her role as the Spiritual Isis, came to me in several very powerful dreams and in no uncertain terms told me to study astrology. Some form of a masculine deity also did the same in a few dreams. I figured "what the hell", the great Hindu number-theory genius, Srinivaska Ramanujan, claimed that he was given all of his good ideas by the Goddess Kali while he was dreaming, so I better follow my natural inclination and pay serious attention to these instructions I was given in my dreams.
  5. I either stumbled onto, or Mr. Gwinn introduced me to, the work of Michel Gauquelin. I know that at some point Mr. Gwinn gave me several of Gauquelin's books, but I may first have heard about him in John Anthony West's "The Case For Astrology". Gauquelin is now dead. He was French. He was a psychologist and maybe also a statistician. His research demonstrates with very interesting statistical details, that out of thousands of natal horoscopes that he studied, if a person was a world class athlete (e.g., Olympic medal winner or national champion), then there is a much higher probability for that person than a person from the general population that at the moment of birth, the planet Mars was just above the eastern horizon or just past the zenith. He found similar trends for world class scientists, but instead of Mars, Saturn is the planet of influence. For world class actors it is Jupiter, and for world class writers it is the Moon. This little summary of Gauquelin's massive multi-year investigation is of course very sparse and very incomplete, but it should demonstrate why I was impressed. If Gauquelin's work, with its serious use of statistical measures such as the chi-square test, is valid, then there must be something to astrology.
  6. Based on the very little knowledge I had about astrology, I was amazed at how well I fit my natal horoscope.

      Pursuant to the above considerations, let me just say that by the end of 1994 I was engaged in a serious study of astrology, Crowley's writings on the subject were my focus of attention, and Cecil Gwinn was serving as my astrological advisor. Cecil was piling astrology books on me, casting natal horoscopes for me, and answering numerous questions for me. His help was and continues to be absolutely critical to my astrological studies. I was most impressed by books he gave me by Liz Green, Alan Leo, Dane Rudyar, Michel Gauquelin, and John Addey.

      In March 1995, Glenn Johnson joined me in my astrological investigations. His knowledge and interest in astronomy has been very helpful. All of the quantitative analysis conducted thus far by TAARP is due to the computer programming skills of Mr. Johnson and his dedication to the project. He continually contributes significant ideas and is very aggressive in pursuing them to practical conclusions. He is a very good data analyst. His mind is quick and clever, but he also has a natural capacity for deep thought, which is often alien to the quick, clever mind.

      To our great delight, Glenn and I discovered that through the internet we could download onto TAARP's Macintosh Performa 6115 computer the entire contents of two of the three essential astrology books written by Aleister Crowley. These are Astrology, Your Place in the Sun and Astrology, Your Place Among the Stars. (Thanks to the very hard work of Mr. Bill Heidrick, the Grand Treasurer of the Ordo Templi Orients, these two and other of Crowley's works are available on the internet.) Having these two astrology texts on our computer has permitted us to initiate a serious study of Crowley's astrological ideas.

      The Alpha Astrophysical Research Project was "officially" founded in January 1996. Its precursor was The Alpha Astrological Research Project, which I "unofficially" founded in January 1995. It turns out that it is impossible to pursue a scientific study of astrology without getting intimately involved with astronomy. One of my primary objectives is to find out for myself if there is anything to astrology, and if there is, then exactly what the "anything" is.

      I have had very bad experiences with three professional astrologers: Nancy Koons (513-252-9754), Shirley Horn (513-434-6433), and Lin McCown (513-767-1402, 513-767-1684).

Webmaster's Note: The area code for Dayton, OH has changed to 937 since the original publication of this document. Please note that the phone numbers published here may have also changed.

      Section E 2.5 presents a letter I wrote in July 1995, as the result of a very repulsive experience I had with Nancy Koons, who is one of the best known professional astrologers in the Dayton, Ohio area. She charges $50 per hour. Lin McCown is an even more well known astrologer in the Dayton, Ohio area. She lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and charges $95 per hour. She tells me that Aleister Crowley has nothing to offer vis-a-vis astrology, and that his only purpose in his books is to shock people. She tells me that she has not studied any of his books. Nancy Koons has two of Crowley's books The Book of Thoth and 777, but tells me that they are too complicated for her to understand. Shirley Horn is a professional astrologer with 25 years experience. She charges $35 per hour. She tells me that because of the lack of action in my 9th House, I have no interest in religion, science, or philosophy. Next to abstract art and sex, these three things are the very passions of my life. She will not let me do her chart. She never lets anyone do her chart because then they will know too much about her. I wanted to do her chart so that as I studied the audio recording of her analysis of my chart, I could take her biases (or more properly, my perception of what her biases are) into account. She arrogantly informed me that she had no biases.

      These women clearly represent what is bad about professional astrologers. In general, they have no interest in self criticism. They are only interested in collecting money from patrons and exercising their arrogant claim to astrological authority. I relish the opportunity of a public forum within which to expose their true nature.

      Section E 2.6 presents a letter I wrote in November 1994 as the result of a very repulsive experience I had with one of the best known university astronomy professors in the Dayton, Ohio area.

      As is evident in these two letters, bigotry in one form or another is well and alive in the Dayton, Ohio area.

      Section E 2.7 presents a letter I wrote to the Ordo Templi Orientis, which is a very ancient Magickal organization that was modernized and greatly energized by Aleister Crowley.