Category Archives: THE OZ FACTORS

“The Oz Factors” is a book which reveals the 12 common denominators of civilization that prevent mankind for discovering workable solutions to the problems of life. The Oz Factors was written by Lawrence R. Spencer and published in 1999.

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LISTEN CAREFULLY

May 8, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I love to listen to audio books! It allows me to “read” a book while doing other things, like driving, walking, shopping, washing dishes, vacuuming the floor, doing the laundry, feeding the cat, working out at the gym, sitting outside on the patio, and other “mindless” activities that require very little attention. I listen to one audio book every week, or more. You can get a very affordable monthly subscription from www.Audible.com. Every month you can download one or more books and listen to them on your phone, iPod, iPad, computer, or MP3 player.

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MY PERSONAL READING LIST

April 24, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Decline and Fall of Rome

Here is a list books I read (I usually listen to the audiobook version) during the last two years (in no particular order). There may have been others, but these are most worthy of mention. I have read many of these books more than once, as I consider them to be seminal works of English literature, or fundamental to an understanding of Life, Universes and Other Stuff.

I have discovered that not all “spiritual” books are necessarily spiritual. Likewise, I find that some books in the science fiction and history genre reveal a profound

understanding of the nature andbehavior of humans. For example, there is no doubt in my mind that foibles and follies described in The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon reveal in painfully absurd detail the reality that the humans who populate modern Western civilization of Europe and the United States are the very same beings who built and destroyed the civilizations of Rome and it’s immediate predecessor, Greece. And, we are the very same spiritual beings who build and destroy every civilization, life after life, again and again, in the Eternal Now.

The more things change, the more humans remain the same. If you have read the book Alien Interview, you will understand the cyclical nature of human insanity and the wicked wizards and witches
behind the “curtain of lies” that perpetuate our stupidity, brutal depravity and the inability to confront the evil beings who perpetuate our pain. Factually, the serpentine parasites who enslave the “untouchables of Earth” are terrified that innocent and honest inquiries of children and small dogs will expose and depose them from their brutal thrones of power, control and possession of the physical universe, without which they would perish in the frigid, eternal dark from which they were spawned! Likewise, The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine and the books of E.E. Doc Smith and Robert Heinlein reveal profound understandings of philosophy and spirituality that are forbidden, and unknown, in religious texts on Earth. Reading the autobiographies of Yogananda, and Gandhi, and Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain exposed me to “Spiritual Skyscrapers” who tower with magnificent wisdom and courage above the barren landscape of human inhumanity.

Such beings, who demonstrate the most powerful empathy for their fellow beings, are magnified in contrast to a race of spiritual monstrosities (the “Edorians” of The Lensman Series, for example) as elucidated with demonic eloquence by Hitler in Mein Kampf. Although the “bad guys” are just as powerful and “intelligent” as any “good guy” they are utterly and irreversibly antipathetic to every spiritual entity in every universe, including themselves! I suspect that the game of “good guys” versus “bad guys” is simply an eternal, intergalactic struggle for survival between two equally opposed races of spiritual beings who originated in different times and places, but who now coexist in the space / time continuum of the physical universe.

Alien Interview cover Personally, I have grown weary of mortal games. I write books that suggest alternatives to the physical universe logic of dichotomies: life /death, good /bad, black / white, life / death, up /down, in / out, etc.,. I prefer the “illogic” of immortal spirits, infinite possibilities and unlimited imagination! Life, and Universes, and Other

Stuff are created from and sustained by the “no-thing” of Eternal Spiritual Beings. However, I have read that the spiritually ignorant physicists of western universities are finally beginning to “grok” that Quantum Mechanics has been known and understood by the Vedic sages and gurus of India for more than 10,000 years. Light, energy, matter, forms and spaces are contrivances of our own imaginations.

In spite of all the books I’ve read, I have, as yet, not discovered the solution to escaping the “Wheel of Life”, or the Cycle of Birth and Death. I hope that the books I am planning to read during the next year will provide me with some real answers, as I’m not getting any younger. Religious lies and rhetoric notwithstanding, not a single author of a book I’ve read has died and returned to tell us how to “escape from Earth”. If you have read a book that verifiably solves this problem, please let me know. I will add it to my list of “must read” books.

— Lawrence R. Spencer. October, 2013.

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The History of The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire (Unabridged), by Edward Gibbon

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein

Strangers in A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, by Virginia Morell

The Art of Happiness, by Howard C.Cutler, with the Dalai Lama

Mein Kampf, by Aldolph Hitler

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime, by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Skylark of Space: Skylark Series #1, by E.E. Doc Smith

Skylark Two, by E.E. Doc Smith

Skylark of Valeron (#3), by E.E. Doc Smith

Skylark DuQuesne: Skylark Series #4, by E.E. Doc Smith

The Lensman Series, (6 books) by E.E. Doc Smith

Triplanetary

First Lensman

Galactic Patrol

Gray Lensman

Second Stage Lensman

Children of The Lens

The Spacehounds of IPC, by E.E. Doc Smith

The Oz Factors, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Valis, by Philip K. Dick

Alien Interview, Edited by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Dying Earth, by Jack Vance

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, by Mohandas (Mahatma) K. Gandhi

1,001 Things to Do While You’re Dead: A Dead Persons Guide to Living, by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Bhagavad Gita, by Phoenix Books , Barbara Stoler-Miller (translator)

The Big Bleep: Mystery of A Different Universe, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius, by Marc J. Seifer

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda

Our Occulted History: Do the Global Elite Conceal Ancient Aliens?, by Jim Marrs

My Inventions, by Nikola Tesla

Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott

Sherlock Holmes: My Life, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Ubik, by Phillip K. Dick

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime, by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel, by Steven Sherrill

Winter of the World: The Century Trilogy, Book 2, by Ken Follett (partial)

Coming of Conan The Cimmerian, by Robert E. Howard

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1, by George R. Martin

The Dispossessed: A Novel, by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: The millennium Trilogy, Book 1, by Steig Larsson

The Vortex Blaster, by E.E. “Doc” Smith

The Republic, by Plato

Fall of Giants: The Century Trilogy, Book 1, by Ken Follett

The Confession: A Novel, by John Grisham

Sherlock Holmes: My Life, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman

Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card

Autobiography of Mark Twin (Unabridged), by Mark Twain

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, by Loa Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell

The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers, by Will Durant

You See But You Do Not Observe, by Robert J. Sawyer

The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine

The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 and 2, by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle

His Last Bow, by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Under the Dome, by Stephen King

The Rape of The Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing, by Joost A. M. Meerloo, M.D.

The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, by Frances Stonor Saunders

The Magus of Strovolos: The Extraordinary World of a Spiritual Healer, by Kyriacos C. Markides,

1984, by George Orwell

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

The Rise of The Fourth Reich, by Jim Marrs

The Face, by Dean Koontz (and, about a dozen of his other books in years past! )

Meditation on Living, Dying and Loss, by Graham Coleman with the Dalai Lama

Tick Tock, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

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YOU’VE ALWAYS HAD THE POWER

April 13, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas”–Glinda

“Oh Dear! That’s too wonderful to be true!”–Dorothy

“Now those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds. Just close your eyes and think to yourself, ‘There’s no place like home’.”–Glinda

“Then why didn’t you tell her before”?–The Scarecrow

“Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.”–Glinda

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard, because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”–Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz”

Like Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ we are creatures of our own design. We live in universes created by our own agreements and imagination. We are inside the Physical Universe looking out to find the origin of our being. We long for a place we feel certain must exist; a place where there is no trouble. We wait for wizards and witches to show us the way home. Yet we fear to close our eyes and click our heels to see the Universe Within.

Our journey home begins at the source of the rainbow; shining light upon our own eternal, ethereal selves.

The history of mankind seems blanketed in a simultaneous state of amnesia and deja vu. The ruins of ancient civilizations whisper a reminder that we have forgotten everything we knew.

A multitude of gods have shown themselves like shadows in the halls of history. We know not yet, except by our own observation and decision, which of them is real. We are betrayed by those who teach us that we must trust the Wizards of the West. While pretentious politicians defend the castles of the Witch, the media monkeys swarm to spin perverted lies to cover up their covert tricks.

The voiceless bones of wonderful wizards have dissolved to mortal dust once more. Their words have vanished in the smoke of sacred libraries, searing our souls with the stupefying stench of wisdom lost forever in their flames. From day to day the timeworn treadmill of survival forces us to worship at the soulless bankers’ shrine. Gold is still the god of the great and powerful Oz.

We have crash-landed in a twisted alien landscape of pain and mortality, far away from our home Universe. As a race we have amnesia. We are repeatedly bumped on the head by the recurring cataclysmic upheavals of a planet whirling in space like a farmhouse in a tornado.

The future is an extension of the present. We must live our lives in the present in a manner which will create the greatest good for the greatest number of beings in the future. If we are aware of our own past lives, we must also be aware that we are creating our own future by our present actions. We will inherit our own legacy.

As Professor Marvel points out with simple eloquence, “There are no other wizards…”

We are apparently the only wizards there ever were and the only wizards that ever will be. We are each a part of a time track of the past, present and future of our own creation, individually and collectively.

If we let the Wicked Witches run the culture now, they will be in charge of the place when we come back. Just as we are the descendants of past generations, you and I may very well become, through reincarnation, the children of our children–we are the future generations who will inherit the environmental and cultural conditions of the future which we ourselves are creating today.

Man has apparently been searching the stars for a way to leave the Earth and go “over the rainbow” to a place where there is no trouble.

Since before the beginning of our own dim primordial prehistory, we have been looking into the depths of our own immortal selves for a way “over the rainbow” back to YOUR OWN UNIVERSE–our own identity, simplicity and power as spiritual beings. This has been the dream of many religious philosophers throughout the ages.

We still have not solved many of the mysteries of the physical universe. However, we can CHOOSE to see what’s in it. We can CHOOSE to disagree with what we see. We can CHOOSE to agree to the creation of a new and better universe.

Dorothy and her friends have taught us a valuable allegorical lesson: Dorothy got herself into the Land of Oz, and she got herself back to Kansas, but she would not have made it without the help of her friends. If ever there will be a Yellow Brick Road, if ever there will be an Emerald City of which we can be proud, we must build it ourselves. “

— Excerpt from THE OZ FACTORS, written by Lawrence R. Spencer

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VESTED INTERESTS

April 8, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“The river of human history is clogged with the putrid refuse of unworkable solutions to the mysteries and problems of Life: war, ruined civilizations, insanity, mental anguish, drugs, despair, murder, disease, criminality and starvation. We are victims of our individual and collective inability to find workable solutions to these unwanted conditions.

Our humanity has long since been exceeded by the power of the wicked witches of science and government to destroy all life with nuclear weapons, alter our DNA and control our minds with psychotropic drugs and our lives with media lies.

Our thoughts and conjectures about life and the universe are often based on assumptions, unproven theories, hearsay, rumors and misinformation. Decisions we make in life may be based on ancient attitudes and archaic practices. Marketing spin replaces honesty when the financial, political or religious vested interest of wizards and witches are more important than freedom, sanity and survival.

There are 12 common denominators that prevent observation, understanding, and workable solutions to problems of existence. How do each of these “Oz Factors” influence our history, science, philosophy, our lives and our future? We can chose our own Yellow Brick Road. We can pull back the curtain of rhetoric and dogma. We can build a better Emerald City for ourselves and our children.

Do you really want to go back to Kansas?”

Definition: Vested Interest–1/ a survival or non-survival plan or agenda which has been “clothed” to make it seem like something other than what it actually is; 2/ any person, group or entity which prevents or controls communication to serve their own purposes.

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Example: Governments control communication between the people of their country. You must get a passport to travel to another country. You must pass through a customs’ inspection in order to enter the country. You must pay taxes (money is a form of communication). You must get a license to get married or go into business.

Example: Religions prevent and control communication between people and the gods, saints and spirits. You have to pay the priest money for him to “bless” you or to “absolve” you of “sin” as a supposed representative of the god(s).

Example: A husband usually tries to prevent communication between his wife and other potential lovers.

What would happen if you could safely communicate with everything and everyone?

Political, religious and financial vested interests, typically, DO NOT want people to answer this question. The reason is simple: if you could safely communicate with anyone or anything, they would be out of business!

Such institutions very frequently determine what we are allowed to believe by feeding us their version of “the truth”. Our “belief” in their version of “the truth” is usually backed up by the threat of death, imprisonment, excommunication or bankruptcy.

All human beings have flesh bodies. Flesh bodies require food, shelter, clothing and as many other goods and creature comforts as one can buy, borrow or pillage. This seems to be a common denominator of survival. It is also a source of illogical thinking which has tended to clog the water mains of our minds with all manner of unspeakable refuse: namely, our vested interest in survival.

Survival requires stuff, and stuff costs money and money takes work. This often means that we must each pretend to “like” someone or “believe” in something–that we could actually care less about–for the sake of “earning a living”.

— Lawrence R. Spencer, from The Oz Factors

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OVER THE RAINBOW

March 28, 2026 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“Now, Dorothy, dear, stop imagining things. You always get yourself into a fret over nothing. Now, you just help us out today and find yourself a place where you won’t get into any trouble.”–Aunt Em

“Some place where there isn’t any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. Not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away–behind the moon–beyond the rain, somewhere over the rainbow…”–Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Most children enjoy playing games. Since Dorothy is trying to be helpful by staying out of the way of grownups, she makes a new game for herself called “finding a place where there isn’t any trouble”. However, every game contains problems. In fact, solving problems is a game. A problem is a barrier to reaching a goal. Every game has players. Each player has a purpose for playing a game. Every game has a goal and barriers to reaching the goal. The goal of the game is not necessarily known to the players.

Games may or may not have rules that are known to the players. Every game has a beginning, middle and end. Too many barriers make an unplayable game. A game without a goal or worthwhile purpose makes a game not worth playing.

Solving a problem or winning a game are similar actions. However, a Dorothy soon discovers, creating a new problem in order to solve an existing problem does not usually lead to the winning of a game or to a workable solution to the original problem.

A workable solution is solving a problem toward the attainment of a goal which serves the greatest good for the greatest number of those playing the game.

Example: Melting the Wicked Witch with water proved to be the greatest good for the greatest number of players in the Wizard of Oz Game.

Simply identifying the parts of a game or problem will often give us an external viewpoint from which to discover a workable solution to a problem.

Here are some of the goals, purposes, problems and solutions that Dorothy and Toto played in The Wizard of Oz:

Goal: no troubles.

Purpose: to live in a trouble-free environment.

Game: finding a place where there isn’t any trouble (namely, no miss gulch or wicked witches).

solution: flying “over the rainbow” to Munchkinland.

Dorothy solves the problem of miss gulch by hitching a ride in a farmhouse on a tornado which carries her out of Kansas into the land of oz. However, this proves not to be a workable solution to the problem when she crash-lands her farmhouse and kills the sister of the wicked witch. This gives Dorothy all kinds of new problems!

Solution to the new problem: get out of oz altogether to escape from the wicked witch by going back to Kansas.

all of this results in a totally new game with a new purpose and a new goal and new problems, namely:

New game: find out which is the way back to Kansas.

New goal: get back to Kansas.

New purpose: find another place where there isn’t any trouble (which is the same old problem all over again!).

Problem: solve the problems of a brainless scarecrow, a heartless tin man and a cowardly lion in addition to getting herself back to Kansas.

Problem: get the broomstick of the wicked witch for the wizard so he’ll tell her how to get back to Kansas.

Problem: avoid being killed by the wicked witch and her flying monkeys.

Problem: make the great and powerful oz keep his promise to her friends.

Problem: the wizard is a very good man, but not a very good wizard and a very inept balloonist who can’t get her back to Kansas after all.

Workable solution: Dorothy discovers that she always had the power to get back to Kansas.

As a result, Dorothy is able to end the game.

Games are a vast and complex subject. There are libraries full of books dedicated to the subject of games and solutions. Our entire existence is occupied in the playing of games, for survival or for pleasure, or just for the sake of having a game to play.

A game is ended when one reaches the goal or solves the problem posed by the game.

There are many types of games but in the physical universe there are two basic types of games:

1/ Survival Games

These are games that promote survival for the greatest number of beings.

2/ Non-survival Games

These are games that inhibit or prevent survival for the greatest number of beings.

Survival and non-survival are relative to what one conceives to be the highest attainable level of survival–infinite survival.

Like Dorothy, a game that many beings play is to find a place where there is no trouble. However, doesn’t it seem that beings sometimes CREATE TROUBLE for themselves in order to have a GAME to play?

Beings often play a non-survival game simply because they think there are no other games to play. Apparently, many beings think that ANY game is better than NO game, even non-survival games.

We can each create our own games to play in our own universe. These games can be above and beyond mere survival. One need only decide upon a goal and take on the purpose of solving the problems or overcoming the barriers to reach that goal.

Historically, Wicked Witches and the great and powerful Ozes of the world are very poor game makers or goal setters, as they often serve the vested interests of the few at the expense or pain of the many.

War, taxation, physical and spiritual enslavement are examples of non-survival games which have resulted from creating a NEW problem in order to solve an existing problem. These do NOT lead to workable solutions to the original problems.

Obviously, atomic bombs are not a workable solution to any problem. This is a game which no one can win.

Games are won with workable solutions.”