WARNING!
DO NOT BUILD THIS!

(Telaugs in Theory & Practice)

© 2006 Richard Toronto



Diagram of the Bliss "Pringles Mech"in progress

One Dero mech feared above all others was the Telaug (well, there was that really painful torture ray, too). The telaug is a classic "1984 -- put thoughts in your head" kind of device that any politican would give his left pinkie for.

It was a linchpin of Dero technology -- a machine that made the Dero's world happen. Without the telaug, Dero would not be free to implant mean-spirited, even dangerous thoughts into earthlings' heads, and hence, drive the world nuts with madness and mayhem.

Therefore, our question in 2006 is...what exactly is the telaug? That very same question was pondered in 1945, when the device appeared in the pages of Amazing Stories' epic Shaver Mystery saga.

It's attributes were discussed widely in the Palmer publications, alternating between Shaver's personal experiences, and Palmer's proofs.

Though references to the Telaug can be found throughout Shaver Mystery literature, one tends to find exhaustive definitions of the Dero much more frequently. In a letter to Ray Palmer describing some historic roots of the "augmentors," Shaver pointed out some easier to find examples from our own distant past.

"I refer you to a picture printed in many high school books on ancient history...from the 'Book of the Dead,' Shaver writes in The Hidden World #1, pg. 98. "This shows a picture of the Gods, and is in two sections...it shows a teacher seated before an instrument, and before the teacher, facing him, is a group of students each holding a smaller instrument. This is an actual pictographic representation of the thought augmentor and the focusing device used to pick up its waves.

"Still another instrument pictured in ancient Egyptian glyphs is the crook the Pharaohs always carry. Notice the bottom end has a clevis--with holes. I have seen such handles protruding from the ancient weapon-beam apparatus. It acts as a beam director, like the stick of an airplane...

"Certainly the use of this apparatus was very general in ancient times among rulers for it gave them control of men's minds and its use was always secret among them."

Shaver gives us a more modern explanation on page 171 of the same issue of THW. He is arguing the reality of the caves as opposed to astral caves: "For those who wish to argue with me on the basis of molten rock, and place the caves somewhere else, I will make a certain amount of concession, because it is a reasonable possibility. But I will stick to one thing, they are caves and tunnels! I have seen them with my own eyes, (or should I say with my mind's eye, because what is seen or sensed over Telaug (augmented telepathy) is not exactly seen with the eye, but one cannot tell the difference, so it is legitimately "seen"--just as you see TV, yet nothing is actually there to see, only an image. Telaug is the same (it can be sound alone, or sound and picture) except that it is far more vivid and real. Thus, I have seen that they are caves."

So -- the Telaug is the All Purpose Insidious Spying Device, able to listen in AND place thoughts from afar. Making things even more complicated was the fact that the Dero knew Shaver and Palmer were writing about them (they learned this by using the Telaug, natch). So the Dero threw up subterfuge by telaugmenting disinformation (and veiled threats) to various other sources.

AMAZING STORIES, June 1946: Ray Palmer:

"The mystery deepens. During the past two months, a new trend in "warnings" sent to us has become apparent...

"To mention only one, with the specification that it is typical, we quote the latest issue of The Round Robin, edited by N. Meade Layne, M.A., of San Diego, California...
'...from our present knowledge, it (the Shaver Mystery) is probably undesirable and even dangerous. We say this with all possible seriousness and emphasis. Let the Deros alone. Above all, do not try to reproduce any type of apparatus or 'machine'.

"The italicized portion is what interests us most. That warning has been repeated almost verbatim from at least a dozen isolated sources, but ALL of them are from so-called "psychic" people or organizations."

Of course these warnings only got RAP more hopped up, and his hyperactive brain went into warp drive. When the voices told him "Pay no atttention to the Dero. Stop publishing stories about the mech. Don't even THINK about them," RAP charged head on into the face of evil.

"Let's analyze this situation," he mused in the same June '46 ish. "First, the "spirits" tell us Shaver is right. Then they tell us to cease paying any attention to the Dero whatsoever... This is like saying: "Yes, there is an atom bomb; and to defend yourself against it, turn your back." We say, humbly suggestive, that even if you do turn your back, the atom bomb will blow hell out of you!"

This was the kind of feisty incitement-to-riot that prodded avid followers of the Mystery to begin their own experiments with a telaug-like device. Naturally, the mediums roundly said "don't do this," because this was all part of an evil master plan from the Other Side. If we are to believe the accounts of some who actually made these things "work," the mediums may have been right.

And who was the first to step up to the plate with a telaug knock-off? San Francisco's own, Ed John! Yes, the mysterious Ed John of Mendocino County fame (read "The House at 475 Fell Street" in this ish).

EJ stirred things up when John Hatfield Hart acquired one of his "telaug" designs (dubbed the "Star Mech") and RAP subsequently published Hart's findings in "The Hidden World" Issue 12. EJ was cranking out these babies at a heady pace in his Fell Street machine shop-slash-apartment, and several found their way into the hands of researchers. Hart said that he knew of "several" of these truth seekers who acquired them. We only know of a handful: Hart himself, Lewis Johannes of Seattle and a Mr. Jan Gardner, General Delivery, Rio Piedras, Purerto Rico, who told RAP in a Jan. 1956 letter to "Mystic Magazine":
"I have good material on Edward John's Star Mech, which I had in my possession..." Last but not least, Shaver himself fooled around with one, but couldn't make sense of it, as he stated in a 1969 interview with Lucius Farish in Summit, Arkansas.

"Johns (sic) used to send out telaugs, you know, if you'd beg him enough, he'd send you one...I got one out of him," Shaver explained. "You remember Johns? And I had it tested and they couldn't do a damn thing with it...I couldn't get anything either. It was just like a little one tube radio.

"But that doesn't mean anything," Shaver explained, "cause they can short your tape recorder or anything else and they're going to short your telaug if you do have one that works..."

John Hart echoed Shaver's observations, though Hart was careful not to call the "Star Mech" a Telaug.

"It is best for me to explain here, this set does not operate at all times," Hart warned.

Shaver's statements about Dero tamper with these things came home to roost with Hart, or so he claimed: "Before moving recently, I packed the set carefully away in a black metal trunk. Upon completing moving, I opened the trunk and found the set missing."

Another diagram for a "something or other" came into RAP's possession from a reader named Rowland. The device was alleged to have come to Rowland through a dream. However, RAP later uncovered the letter writer as just another haoxer.

Texas researcher Vic Johnston knew of the Star Mech as well. In a 1984 letter to Jim Pobst, he told of plans to improve on it.

"The Ed Johns (sic) device is given in full in THE HIDDEN WORLD 12," Johnston said. "Unfortunately, some components are getting scarce, [because] it's 20 year-old specifications. So I'm re-designing it for solid state parts easier to get. Preliminary analysis shows it to pick up on the frequencies that sub-atomic reactions radiate on. Also, the radionics (fancy dowsers) devices claim reception of 'life fields' on this wave length. More to come as work progresses."

Unhappily, there's no record of Vic's progress.

Shavertron's resident inventor, W.G. Bliss, has been pondering the Telaug, and we've included some of his notes here, along with a scan of his Pringles Mech, shown above. Things are progressing pretty well, at Shavertron's usual warp speed.

January, 2006...
"Have shelved the telaug project for awhile. But I have my subconscious noodling it. Basic problem...what is the nature of the signals?????? In researching basic physics, I have determined that with electromagnetic waves, it is a transfer of impulse only...which means that there is aether. There ar several places it could have showed up--messages from below, and ??

"Guitar and movie projector amps have very high amplification factors--very low output of the pick-up coils and photocells. In the USN, the Victor 40 that I operated got radar interference when it was barely on the screens. An annoying loud buzz."

February, 2006...
"The Telaug experiment is still gathering dust. Will get back to it soon, but the take on it so far: Since it is a weak signal (but of what kind???) amplification at the pick-up is the first thing to try. A carbon mike (I know they hiss a little and have poor tone) and a resonator. Poor fidelity, but like with a lot of original R&D, you have to get something operational first. Otherwise, high gain amplifiers have a set of problems.

"The cavity resonance of the can (a Pringles can in the above diagram--Ed) increases the apparent volume. A voltage output increase from the transformer is three times or more. Unless it's very well shielded, they are very sensitive to hum pick-up."

Well, kids, that's about it for now. Not much to go on yet, but we'll keep checking back with WG every now and then. In the meantime...

HERE'S MORE RESEARCH ON THE DERO'S TELAUG:

Telaug Basics

The Hidden World Receiver

Ed John's Hidden World Receiver (Part Deux)

Many thanks go to Jim Pobst and The Shaver Archive for research that went into this article.


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