[1]  Dr. Lorenzo’s first choice for a quote to introduce his eleventh book. He wanted the Bible quoted because, as he said to Sammy Martinez: (1) ‘I grew up on it’ as the foundation of life’s meaning, and (2) it was, 'when considered as moral literature and holy writ', more essential to comprehending the mind and heart of Western civilization than Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey; and he chose the King James version to quote because of its 'antique sound', except that in each instance where the King James version said ‘garden’, the Dr. changed ‘garden’ to ‘gardened paradise’; since Judeo-Christian tradition had always understood the ‘Garden of Eden’ to have been a ‘paradise’ (even though Genesis did not use the word ‘paradise’).  The Dr. chose these verses about 'paradise' to introduce his book because of the way that Santisima Cruz in Colombia struck him, on first impression, he said, as a kind of paradise; and then, all too soon, as a kind of ‘cursed’ paradise; just as the original paradise of Eden so quickly became a cursed paradise; and also because the canal-side Bible reader in sub-section 54 of Hooked on Cocaland likewise saw his town as ‘cursed’. For anyone who felt this traditional Judeo-Christian view of life was too dark, he said, there might be some hope: traditional Calvinist interpretation of Scripture saw God’s curse upon Paradise in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3:17 (quoted here: “cursed is the earth”) as being undone in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 22:3, “and there shall be no more curse.” See Appendix B, the Bibliography, “Holy Bible,” for details regarding the exact Bible Dr. Lorenzo used in this case.

 

Also, said the Dr., he chose these verses to introduce his book because of the way the boys of Santisima Cruz reminded him of ‘angel-cherubs’ guarding access to paradise. Here (Genesis 3:24 above) he made his only other change in the King James English: he changed the King James ‘Cherubims’ to ‘angel-cherubs’ to remind a reader unfamiliar with Biblical lore that ‘cherubim’ were understood by most interpreters of scripture to be a kind of angel or heavenly being.   

 

[2]  Four years after writing his first Colombia diary, just before its publication as Hooked on Cocaland in 1998, Dr. Lorenzo told Sammy Martinez he had chosen to introduce his 11^th book to the world with – not only the verses quoted from Genesis in the Bible, but also – this quote from Carl Jung, about the potential danger to mankind of the craziness lurking in the human mind and heart, and the likelihood that the craziness of one person or a few could mushroom into a ‘psychic epidemic’ that could infect and damage millions or billions of humans: “...there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes,” taught Carl Jung. By first publication date, 1998, Dr. Lorenzo had calmed down considerably in the four years after his trip, and had returned to his usual ‘saner’, more reserved, thinking and reflecting self. And he was struck when he re-read his 1994 trip diary, he said, by his 'crazy psychological state' at the time of writing it, and was concerned that his ‘semi-psychotic state’ in the diary could infect others unpleasantly if they read it. He chose the Jung quote to help remind readers (and himself) that his hysteria, paranoia, nasty obsessing, grouchiness, depressed mood, negativity and so forth, in 1994, were not being presented to the world in 1998 as a model to copy, but as a bad example NOT to copy; just as the Old Testament preserved the story of David’s wily assassination of Bathsheba’s husband (in order to procure Bathsheba as his wife), as a model of behavior NOT to copy.

 

At that time (1998) chief editor Sammy Martinez felt that the Dr. was struggling to nail down a larger thought, and printed up a list of concerns, which he shared with the Dr. in the following format:

 

The Dr.’s first (Oct., 1994) Colombia trip diary, published as Hooked on Cocaland, if misunderstood, could conceivably trigger any number of worldwide ‘psychic epidemics’, given Dr. Lorenzo’s devoted worldwide readership and the last thirty years of his ongoing influence upon them and the rest of the planet. Following are a few of the possible ‘psychic epidemics’ or ‘mass psychoses’ that we trust will NOT be spawned by a wrong understanding of this book:

 

(a)  a mass paranoid psychotic delusion that Western civilization is presently coming to an end;

(b)  a mass grandiose psychotic delusion that the country of Colombia is a paradise for gringos;

(c)  a mass paranoid psychotic delusion that the country of Colombia is sheer hell for gringos;

(d)  a mass paranoid psychotic delusion that mj lorenzo has been crazy his entire life and cannot be taken seriously ever; or

(e)  a mass paranoid psychotic delusion that mj lorenzo is morally reprobate and depraved and can never be taken seriously for that reason

 

The Dr. thanked Sammy for helping him define better his feelings (and possibly, too, those of mj lorenzo admirers or vilifiers all over the world).

 

But by the time of the publication of the present work, 'a look at mj lorenzo's eleventh book, Hooked on Cocaland', Sammy had decided that too much was still left to explicate, on this 'deep and complex' subject so very critical to mankind’s future well-being. So he told the Dr. that he planned to add an appendix to the book with the aims of explaining the terms ‘psychic epidemic’ and ‘mass psychosis’, and of offering a few illustrations.

 

At the present website, the subject of  'mass psychosis' is discussed from different angles at two locations: (1.) See Appendix C of the present work (a look at mj lorenzo's eleventh book Hooked on Cocaland), "Related Topics," "Question 1. On the Phenomenon of 'Mass Psychosis'," for the editors' review of Dr. Lorenzo's thinking on this subject including how it developed and permutated over the years; and (2.) See Question 7 of Chapter 23 ("And Yet Another Kind of Propundity's..."), in a look at mj lorenzo's fourth book Exactly How Mrs. Nixon's Legs Saved the White House Christmas Concert, for a more basic summary of the Dr.'s views on the subject of ‘psychic epidemics’, i.e., ‘mass psychoses’.

[3]  This quotation from Jung's 1944 'Epilogue' to Cahen's Man in Search of his Soul (Geneva, 6th edn., 1962) may be found in Jung's Collected Works, Vol. 18: The Symbolic Life (1954), paragraphs 339f; and also in Jolande Jacobi's anthology of Jung quotes, C. G. Jung: Psychological Reflections, A New Anthology of His Writings 1905-1961 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970).