Psychiana No. 10 [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:04:24 Unknown Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to hear the voice of a man who.

00:00:04:24 - 00:00:06:01 Frank Bruce Robinson: Startled the world.

00:00:06:04 - 00:00:30:23 Unknown Speaker: A man whose message has flashed around the globe has found its way into every civilized country under the sun. Yet this message was not preceded by any great fanfare and a blur of trumpets, nor sponsored by any worldwide organization. On the contrary, it came out of a rather obscure little town in northern Idaho, the town of Moscow. Why, then, has it produced such a tremendous effect upon thinking people?

00:00:30:26 - 00:00:55:21 Unknown Speaker: Why has it made thousands upon thousands of converts? Why is it that there is scarcely an auditorium large enough to hold the crowd which assembles when this man fixed? I’ll tell you, because that message contains the truth. Because that man does not ask anyone to accept his teachings on faith. He simply says, try them, test them. See for yourself whether or not they work in your own life.

00:00:55:24 - 00:01:13:26 Unknown Speaker: And thousands of people have found out that they do work. The message to which I refer is called psyche. Anna and its originator, the man who gave it to the world is doctor Frank Robinson. Let’s visit him in his study. Here is our guide, ready to show us the way.

00:01:13:29 - 00:01:36:03 Unknown Speaker: As we approach Doctor Robinson’s house at this hour of the day, we usually hear the strains of music. But now the Magnificent Five Organ and Doctor Robinson study in Silence. Through the window we see that Doctor Robinson is not seated at the console, but in a chair, his gaze resting on a letter which he holds in his hand.

00:01:36:05 - 00:01:42:15 Unknown Speaker: We are a trifle apprehensive as we knock that his door.

00:01:42:17 - 00:01:45:25 Frank Bruce Robinson: Yes. Come in.

00:01:45:27 - 00:01:47:26 Unknown Speaker: Are you there? Doctor Robinson.

00:01:47:28 - 00:01:52:14 Frank Bruce Robinson: Oh, hello. Come in. I’ve been waiting for you.

00:01:52:16 - 00:01:56:08 Unknown Speaker: I didn’t hear any music. I thought for a moment something had happened.

00:01:56:10 - 00:02:00:08 Frank Bruce Robinson: No, I was just reading a letter. Won’t you sit down?

00:02:00:11 - 00:02:07:29 Unknown Speaker: I hope you haven’t given up the practice of opening a little talk with some music. You know, you’ve spoiled me. I’ve come to expect it.

00:02:08:02 - 00:02:17:15 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, you certainly shall have it. just a moment. Let’s switch on the organ. Now, then, what would you like to hear?

00:02:17:17 - 00:02:19:18 Unknown Speaker: Do you play Castle of Dreams?

00:02:19:21 - 00:03:11:13 Frank Bruce Robinson: I surely do. In fact, it’s one of my favorite.

00:03:11:15 - 00:03:16:07 Unknown Movies.

00:03:16:09 - 00:03:27:20 Unknown Of.

00:03:27:22 - 00:03:36:16 Unknown This.

00:03:36:18 - 00:03:38:15 Frank Bruce Robinson: There. How is that?

00:03:38:17 - 00:03:42:27 Unknown Speaker: Very beautiful. Doctor. I wish you would keep right on playing.

00:03:42:29 - 00:03:45:27 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, maybe we’ll have another selection after a while.

00:03:45:29 - 00:03:47:17 Unknown Speaker: You’re not tired, are you?

00:03:47:20 - 00:04:02:05 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, not too tired. Although this has been an exceedingly busy week. The mail has been very, very heavy, and several important business deals have come up. And in addition to that, I have finished my last book, which I sent to our presses yesterday.

00:04:02:08 - 00:04:04:21 Unknown Speaker: How many books is that you’ve written, doctor?

00:04:04:24 - 00:04:07:27 Frank Bruce Robinson: Now that makes seven. And I am working on another one now.

00:04:07:29 - 00:04:10:02 Unknown Speaker: Well, what’s the title of your last book?

00:04:10:04 - 00:04:13:16 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, its title is The Number of the beast.

00:04:13:18 - 00:04:18:15 Unknown Speaker: The number of a beast. Well, that certainly is a strange title.

00:04:18:18 - 00:04:37:21 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, this is a very strange book, but I will give you a copy of it as soon as Mr. Marinho has the first edition printed. You know, this is a very interesting and happy work I’m doing. But every once in a while, I receive a letter that I don’t like. these letters come from people who utterly misunderstand me.

00:04:37:23 - 00:04:47:25 Frank Bruce Robinson: Usually there are people who are not able to think very much, and instead of using their brains, they have just accepted the orthodox religious story hook, line and sinker.

00:04:47:27 - 00:04:50:12 Unknown Speaker: Are there many like that left, doctor?

00:04:50:14 - 00:05:12:07 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, there are quite a few. And usually I don’t pay any attention to the letters I receive from these people because for the most part, they are only religious fanatics. And religious fanaticism has been the cause of a lot of trouble in this world. This letter here, though, is one of the types which seems to stop me dead in my tracks every once in a while.

00:05:12:09 - 00:05:25:29 Frank Bruce Robinson: And when I receive a letter like this, I respect the seriousness of the message I am preaching. This letter states that while I cannot do any harm to grown up people, yes, I might hurt the faith of a child.

00:05:26:01 - 00:05:34:04 Unknown Speaker: Well, Doctor Robinson, knowing you as I do, I do not believe you would knowingly hurt a fly, let alone children.

00:05:34:06 - 00:05:37:26 Frank Bruce Robinson: You saw those two beautiful children playing in the living room there?

00:05:37:28 - 00:05:40:24 Unknown Speaker: I certainly did, and they are marvelous children, too.

00:05:40:26 - 00:05:53:10 Frank Bruce Robinson: And you can depend upon it that I would not write or say a thing that could hurt one of those beautiful kids. And if I would not hurt my own children, you may be sure I wouldn’t hurt anyone else’s.

00:05:53:12 - 00:05:56:03 Unknown Speaker: I can readily believe that, Doctor Robinson.

00:05:56:05 - 00:06:17:28 Frank Bruce Robinson: I wish it were possible to give the world this illuminating message without hurting anyone’s religious feelings. But manifestly, that is not possible. For religious superstition is a terrible thing. However, all I am doing is submitting the evidence of the truth as I see it and letting thinking reasoning Americans form their own conclusion.

00:06:18:00 - 00:06:26:07 Unknown Speaker: And that’s more than most religious systems do. They ask you to accept on faith. If you don’t, they tell you you are. Damn.

00:06:26:14 - 00:06:42:12 Frank Bruce Robinson: Yes I know. And while it is necessary, of course, that I expose the falsity of many so-called fundamentals of the religious systems prevailing in our land today, yet these criticisms of mine are neither irreverent nor unjust.

00:06:42:15 - 00:06:55:07 Unknown Speaker: It seems to me, doctor, that in exposing the fallacy of what has been handed down to us as supernaturally revealed religion and giving people a truth, you are really doing them a great service.

00:06:55:10 - 00:07:22:11 Frank Bruce Robinson: That is what I’d like everyone to feel and more. I’d like them to know that I would gladly pay the most profound respect and reverence to those who, in the interest of immortal truth, sacrificed their lives. Listen to me, Jesus of Nazareth, the pathetic story of whose humble life and tragic death has awakened the sympathy of millions, was a man and probably existed.

00:07:22:13 - 00:07:44:24 Frank Bruce Robinson: But the Jesus of the Bible, the Christ of Christianity, is an impossible character and does not exist and never did exist. He was born without a natural father. His ministry is supposed to have been a succession of miracles. He walked for miles upon the waters of the sea. He commanded a raging tempest to seize, and it obeyed him.

00:07:44:27 - 00:08:24:18 Frank Bruce Robinson: He withered a barren fig tree for not bringing forth fruit out of season. He cast out devils and cured incurable. He restored life to a widow’s only son, and called back from the tomb the decaying corpse of Lazarus at his crucifixion. Nature was convulsed, and after his death he arose from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven. These and hundreds of other miracles make up, to a great extent, this so-called gospel history of Christ, and to disprove the existence of these miracles is to disprove the existence of Christ as a God.

00:08:24:20 - 00:08:30:07 Unknown Speaker: You mean that if these miracles are not true, Christianity is not true?

00:08:30:09 - 00:08:36:21 Frank Bruce Robinson: That’s precisely what I mean. If Christ wrought no miracles, then the Gospels are untruthful.

00:08:36:23 - 00:08:40:07 Unknown Speaker: And you believe that these miracles are not true?

00:08:40:10 - 00:09:08:05 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, what do you believe? What can thinking people anywhere believe? God’s immutable laws are written upon every page of nature, and that no time through, no man, not even through himself. Has God ever violate these immutable laws? If a single law of God was suspended for one instance, this single suspension would prove the mutability of every law in the whole category of God.

00:09:08:08 - 00:09:27:04 Frank Bruce Robinson: And instead of him being a divine creation, he would be a very fallible, experimental. Never did the great creative intellect behind this universe suspend for one moment his own natural laws. And every story teaching that he did is a self-evident false story.

00:09:27:06 - 00:09:29:14 Unknown Speaker: Yes, I see your point.

00:09:29:16 - 00:10:04:14 Frank Bruce Robinson: That God should break his own laws is absurd on the face of it. And another thing, if Jesus Christ were God to the exclusion of the rest of us, then he needed no miracles to herald his birth and prove his Godhead. The words of immutable truth, which must have fallen from the lips of God, would, in themselves have seared the souls of every listener with their inviolate truth, and to attempt to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ by a miracle is to prostitute not only God Himself, but everyone who listens to the story.

00:10:04:16 - 00:10:10:06 Unknown Speaker: Your logic cannot be overthrown. That doctor, I follow you very closely and understand you.

00:10:10:09 - 00:10:38:14 Frank Bruce Robinson: All right? Now, if this crucifixion story, this virgin birth story, this immaculate conception story, and this resurrection story had never been told before, then there might be some grounds for believing it. But when the world prior to the time of this presumed God, Jesus had known at least a score of other crucified saviors who has a right to say that the most recent of these stories is true, while the rest are false.

00:10:38:17 - 00:10:41:11 Unknown Speaker: No reasoning man could deny that. Doctor Robinson.

00:10:41:17 - 00:11:02:01 Frank Bruce Robinson: Of course he could not. And I think that I can say that the vast majority of thinking Americans, whether they belong to a church or not, do not believe this story. You will find people who have been church members for 40 or 50 years wondering these days whether their faith is securely grounded or not.

00:11:02:04 - 00:11:11:25 Unknown Speaker: Yes. You know, none of us feel that we know God. Yet all of us feel that if we did know God, all of life’s problems would be answered.

00:11:11:28 - 00:11:29:18 Frank Bruce Robinson: that is just the point. When a human being believes in and knows the existence of God as he really is far removed from this Bible story, then the life begins to break. I would like to tell you an actual incident of this, but I’m afraid we have no time for it now.

00:11:29:21 - 00:11:39:23 Unknown Speaker: Yes, this quarter hour has a along, hasn’t it? But there’s one thing we do have time for. And that’s the organ selection you promised to play. Remember?

00:11:39:26 - 00:13:06:09 Frank Bruce Robinson: Yes, I remember. I did promise to play another number. Well, this time I’m going to choose the number myself. Evening star.

00:13:06:11 - 00:13:39:18 Unknown Speaker: You.

00:13:39:21 - 00:14:09:10 Unknown Speaker: Doesn’t the crystal clear logic. The sound. Common sense of Doctor Robinson’s message appeal to you? Wouldn’t you like to have a complete outline of Scheana? You can without. It’s costing you $0.01. Simply write to him and say please send me without cost or obligation on my part. A complete outline of psyche. Ana. Address your letter or postcard to doctor Frank Robinson Carroll of the station to which you are listening, or to doctor Frank Robinson.

00:14:09:10 - 00:14:36:10 Unknown Speaker: Moscow, Idaho. If you send your letter to Moscow, Idaho, be sure to include in the address the words Radio Department. We return you now to your local announcer.