Jack Gariss (; October 19, 1920 – January 19, 1985) was an American spiritual teacher and meditation instructor, and a radio personality on

KPFK KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commerci ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

from the 1960s until his death in Los Angeles in 1985. He was born in Nebraska. As a young man, in the 1950s, Jack Gariss attended

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

and worked for

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

. Most notably, he has a co-writing credit on DeMille's ''

The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

''. In the late 1960s, Gariss began teaching meditation and started recording radio shows for

about meditation and spiritual topics. Over the years, the shows were variously titled ''The Mystic Circle'', then ''The Wayless Way'', then ''Bio Meditation'', then ''Bio-Cosmology'', but are now routinely rebroadcast as ''Bio Meditation'' on Roy of Hollywood's

show, on most Thursday nights / Friday mornings. Jack, assisted by his wife Janette, lovingly taught people how to identify and control and produce alpha brain waves (the "energy signature of the serene mind"—Maslow) at his home in the San Fernando Valley. He had a substantial library and was the perennial student of religion and spirituality. He seemed to gravitate to Eastern religions, particularly Taoism.

Quotes

:"Every note is heard in silence.... for that silence is the birth of every note." :"This is the map, not the territory. The territory is when you stop listening. The territory is when you turn it all off, and tune in. Then the reality comes." :"Perhaps the biggest test of our intelligence and compassion, the most crucial watershed of human development since the inception of agriculture, even more important than the founding of cities, is the present issue of war and peace. Yes, this is a tremendous burden and responsibility, but if we fail this may well become another dead planet like

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

and

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, rather unimportant planets circling around a rather unimportant star, in an unimportant part of the galaxy. If we can find a solution, through understanding, co-operation, compassion, a new form of morality which takes into account the sacredness of every life form, then this will be a period remembered very far into the future, as a legendary time of giants. It is up to us. I think that research has put to rest the idea that aggression arose because of an aggressive gene that exists within us, that we are the Naked Apes who killed, as in some currently prevailing theories."

External links

* American radio personalities 1920 births 1985 deaths {{US-radio-bio-stub