The Unitarian Universalist Psi Symposium celebrated its 30th anniversary at the UUA General Assembly in Salt Lake City, Utah, this past June. Our speaker for the occasion was the Rev. Dr. Randolph W.B. Becker, minister of the UU Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. Randy's talk was on "Spiritual Persistence And Encounters With The After Life." What was interesting about his presentation was the story of his journey from a UU humanist and scientific materialist to a kind of mystical theist with a belief in the after life. He became convinced of the reality of life after death based on communications with his deceased stepdaughter through the process of automatic writing. We are pleased to publish the text of his remarks and to share his thoughts and experiences with our readers.

The theme of our 30th anniversary issue of the Psi Journal is "Mysticism And Liberal Religion." Your Editor was the theme speaker at the Psi Symposium conference at Ferry Beach, Saco, Maine, this past July. The theme of that conference was Mysticism In Human Experience and I gave the opening address at our Annual Meeting on Sunday, July 18. The subtitle of my address was, "Are You A UU Mystic?" in which I make the case that mystical experiences are just as common among Unitarian Universalists as among others and that such experiences are perfectly natural.

Retired UU minister, William H. Houff, is well known for his excellent book, Infinity In Your Hand (A guide for the spiritually curious), which has been republished and is available from the UUA Bookstore in Boston. We were pleased to be able to publish a chapter from that book in 1990 and are delighted that Bill has given permission to publish yet another chapter. This one is called, "Mystical Experience And Brahman On The Elephant's Neck." Read and enjoy. Bill is an excellent writer and we highly recommend his book.

The Rev. Dr. Judith Campbell is the Associate Community Minister at First Parish in Norwell and Professor of Art and Religion at Lesley College in Cambridge. Her paper on "The Metaphor Is the Message--the Language of Mystics" was originally written for the Berkshire Group, a ministers study group which meets once a year at a site in the Berkshires. Judy was the Co-Coordinator with your Editor for the Psi Symposium Conference at Ferry Beach last July. This is the first time she has submitted a piece for the Psi Journal. We hope she will do so again.

Don Washburn's article on "Stalking The Wild Metaphor" was originally given as a theme talk during Psi week at Ferry Beach in July of 1989, and was published in the Psi Journal that same year. It makes a good companion piece to the previous article by Judy Campbell and marks the transition from new articles to previously published pieces. The articles which follow were all published in previous issues of the Journal and all tie in with our general theme of Mysticism And Liberal Religion. "Toward A Psychology of Wholeness" by Rosemary Carnarius was published in 1978. "The Mystical Paradigm and The Evolutionary Ethic" by John David Garcia was published in 1989. "The Mystical Perspective" by the Rev. David Phreaner was published in 1987. "Twenty First Century Oversoul" by Darrell Berger was published in 1981. "Illusions And Realities" by Richard Fewkes was published in 1985. "Toward The One" by the late Ronald Mangravite was published in 1983. The final piece by your Editor, "Science And Religion: Reflections on Paul Davies' God And The New Physics" was originally published in the 1989 Journal.
Richard M. Fewkes, Editor