Life, 1912-12-05 · page 70 of 116
Life — December 5, 1912 — page 70: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine satire mocks early 20th-century American fascination with spiritualism, New Thought mysticism, and mail-order occultism. The fake advertisement for "Swami Baa Baa's Psychic Christmas" parodies these movements by offering absurd "solutions" to Christmas's material hassles: telepathic gift-ordering, astral children and Santa Clauses, mentally willing away unwanted relatives, and celebrating Christmas any week via one's "astral body." The cartoon below—showing children admiring store window displays—ironically illustrates the material consumerism the ad claims to transcend. The satire targets both gullible spiritualism believers and the commercialization that made Christmas increasingly burdensome. Life's joke: spiritual seekers ironically embrace the same escapism they claim to reject through mystical means rather than honest confrontation with Christmas's real tensions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Order Your Psychic Christmas Early All Those Who are Desirous of Having an Ideal Christmas Should Consult Immediately With T the request of a great number of our customers, Swami Baa Baa, the most potent and all-seeing yogi in the world, has devised a new psychic Christmas for all those who have entered the first harmonic plane. Up to the present time the American people have been under the thrall of a materialistic Christmas spirit which has become exceedingly uncomfortable. All those, how- ever, who desire to avail themselves of Swami Baa Baa's offer should vibrate their names at once. Concentrate, and call for our Psychic Christmas, By going into the silence (according to the formula provided) you can prevent any friend from sending you a Christmas present that you don’t want. You can receive by ordi- nary (mental) telepathy a list of the presents that your friends want; these can be | ordered through our men- j tal shopping department; you do nothing but sit still and concentrate. Have you any children? If not, we will be very glad to supply sets of astral children, who will stay with you over the holi- days and make the house reverberate with joy. You do nothing but sit back and have a good time. We furnish astral Santa Clauses to go down the chimney at any hour of the feat day or night in plain view of the family. Please state whether you desire to have your Santa Claus come by old-fashioned reindeer, au- . tomobile or biplane. It is quite possible for the Baa Baa to do every- thing from this office; but our experience has been that it is the personal touch that counts. We therefore advise you to have your astral body trained to trim the Christmas tree and hang up the stockings. You do nothing yourself. For a small extra sum TALC “THATS THE PLACE DOWN THERE, wami Baa Baa—You Can Have It at Any Time of the Year—Order Early we positively guarantee you against the presence of any relative at Christmas dinner. You have but to look in a crystal ball provided by us and you can will away any per- son you want to; this gives you a feeling of ease and security that, to be appreciated, must be felt. It must be remembered that the Christmas spirit which all of us feel is a mental thing and that up to the present time this has been sadly encroached upon by the irritating ks of providing materialistic presents, making trips, ete. All this Swami Baa Baa has done away with. The inner spirit of exhilarating vibratory power is greatly in- tensified on every plane of tattvic thought. At the same time all the physical objections are removed. In case you do not care . to go through your Christ- mas at the season of the year usually assigned to it, we should be glad to fur- nish you with one at any time during the year. If, for example, you wish to spend December at the seashore, we will give you our formula so that you can send your astral body and subliminal self in bathing twice a day, with the thermometer anywhere below zero. What you must get rid of is the belief that the things you see are real. Those who have entered the first harmonic plane and are struggling up the chromatic scale to the eigh- ' teenth realm of bliss, know perfectly that all things are possible to one who has united with Swami Baa Baa, and is under his su- preme guidance. The idea that Christmas comes but once a_ year, therefore, is entirely erron- cous, so far as we are concerned. You can have your Christmas every week, FER US, JIMMY. OUR or not at all. Write for WINTER OVERCOATS'D BE JEST ABOUT THE THING terms. Life’s Vibration Parlors. comicbooks Merl