New Weekly Email Newsletter

Here at the Shamcher Archives we are always looking for new ways to introduce people to his life and work. The latest is the Shamcher Bulletin, a free weekly newsletter.

Welcome to the email newsletter from the Archives of Shamcher Bryn Beorse.

It’s just like getting a letter from Shamcher!

Get to know Shamcher through this weekly newsletter, sharing his views, ideas and approach to life – all sent directly into your inbox.

Sign up HERE and don’t miss an issue.

Shamcher was a pupil of the great Sufi, Inayat Khan. His own life as a 20th century mystic took him to over 65 countries, and into the fields of economics and energy, bringing the French OTEC to the US in the 1950s. He was a friend and supporter of many of the significant Sufis of the day, including Murshid Samuel Lewis, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and Pir Hidayat Inayat Khan, among others. He was a friend to many of the Sufis who are now currently involved in carrying on the various traditions of Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Murshid SAM and Shamcher (photo ©2020 Mansur Johnson)

All Shamcher’s books

All books by Shamcher are collected here at Shamcher Bryn Beorse.

 

Retirement from Keyport in ’76

Shamcher was the oldest civil servant in the US, when he finally retired at 80 to work on OTEC, returning to the U of California Richmond Field Station as emeritus.

Below is the article written at the time of his retirement.

Not the Retiring Type: The Story of Bryn Beorse

You wouldn’t have known he was 80 by looking at him, but that was his age when he finally retired from Keyport on December 22, 1976.

The slightly white-haired man who spoke with a bit of a Norwegian accent was well-thought-of by his coworkers who would remember him as one who had the incredible ability and initiative to pursue more than a dozen different fields of study in his lifetime.

Born in Norway in 1896, Bryn earned his masters degree in civil engineering there. Before coming to the U.S. in 1938, he traveled to more than 65 different countries and worked all over the world.

Bryn was a pioneer in the field of thermal energy, with ideas thought to be ahead of his time. Preferring thermal to atomic, he believed that a system of thermal energy plants in the earth’s warm oceans could provide 200 times as much energy as needed in this country.

Before coming to Keyport in 1961, he worked at the University of California, Boeing, and North American Aviation.He was 65 when he first passed through the Station’s gates, an age at which most have already retired. Bryn believed that age had nothing to do with limitation, “when you run into a barrier one place, then you should look elsewhere,” he said.

Bryn spent 15 years as an engineer in the Quality Assurance Program. He enjoyed his work at Keyport because he held an appreciation for U.S. weapons and the role they played in World War II.

At the age of 80, Bryn was faced with a mandatory retirement regulation by which he abided with some regret, but with even more hope for a new career field to pursue.

As he left Keyport, he affirmed that keeping active would keep him young. “I don’t think long life is a sign of a man being very wise. But keeping the mind bubbling with ideas all the time helps a man to live fully.”

Bryn Beorse upon retiring from Keyport

(from Maritime Park Association)

From a Historian of the Dunes

Norm Hammond, Historian of the Oceano Dunes, and author of “The Dunites” among other publications, sent the following reference to the archives:

BRYNJOLF BJORSET: (Bryn Bjorset, Bryn Beorse, Shamcher Beorse)

Bjorset, Brynjolf. Distribute or Destroy! A Survey of the World’s Glut of Goods with a Description of Various Proposals and Practical Experiments for its Distribution. (translated from Norwegian) Stanley Nott Ltd, London, 1936. Hardbound with blue cloth; 188 pp. The handwritten name inside the front cover identifies it as belonging to “Archie H. Mitchell, Rm 609 – House of Commons”.

From, THE POUGHKEEPSIE EAGLE NEWS, page seven. November 28, 1940.

PEACE- Just arrived from Oslo is Brynjolf Bjorset, Norwegian civil engineer, reserve officer and writer, who fought in Norway; didn’t surrender as a good boy when the others did. He crossed Hitler’s lines five times with four British officers, and with a secret report escaped to Sweden.

When on his way to the U.S. he was recaptured in the Arctic Ocean and fell into the hands of the Gestapo. They put him through the mill of trial and questioning, his adventures making him liable to the death sentence at that time. But knowing the German trend of mind from long experience in world traveling, he intrigued his questioners into heated arguments and outbursts of humor- and how he loves New York!

“I can’t really explain why I was let out,” says Mr. Bjorset. “I could give many explanations, but I am not really sure which of them is correct. One thing I discussed very ardently with my German questioners was the problem of peace. The start was Hitler’s talk of July 20—the day I was captured. “This peace proposal has no conditions in it,” I said. “What do you think Hitler really wants? Because I think a peace feeler now is very sensible. The war has come to a deadlock. Neither England nor Germany can win a quick definite victory…”
“What are you telling us? they roared, hotly, and the argument was on. When in September it had been proved that I was pretty much right they were more friendly. I even got my visa to leave the country, and finally was let out in October. I have a strong feeling that the Germans are dead tired of this killing business they have been carrying on and that they are yearning for friendship and understanding again. Maybe they don’t dare to ask for it!”

Books from the Shamcher Archives

Link through each title for more info:

• Interview with Shamcher Bryn Beorse
• Letters: Shamcher Beorse and Carol Sill
• Planet Earth Demands
• Every Willing Hand
• Fairy Tales are True
• Distribute or Destroy
• Man and This Mysterious Universe

Shamcher’s First Book: Distribute or Destroy

This English translation of Shamcher’s first book, Distribute or Destroy, was first released in 1936, after the success of the Norwegian version. Now republished in paperback and kindle, the book is an overview of the economic theories popular in the Depression, as the western world looked for answers to the dire economic problems. For more info go to the Book Website.

DISTRIBUTE OR DESTROY

Experimental Economic Theories: An Energy Theory of Wealth, Technocracy, Social Credit, Stable Money and Barter Systems

by Shamcher Bryn Beorse (Brynjolf Bjorset)

Now, almost 100 years since some of these theories were first drafted, we can look with fresh eyes at the ideas that were emerging in those tumultuous times after the first World War.

Rapidly increasing production power, expanding industrial output and the revolution in electric power met both left- and right-wing political ideologies in an arena of war debt and post-war shock.

The Great Depression caused economists the world over to re-examine the economic cycles of the century past. New fermenting ideas were everywhere.

Combining the work of various “heretical” economists into one accessible volume, this book by Brynjolf Bjorset (aka Bryn Beorse) leads up to a tested Scandinavian economic experiment: Nordic Clearing, which was established during the Depression as a bridge to a new applied economy. Behind it was a radical overview dedicated to rethinking the nature of money, particularly in the climate after WWI.

When asked to outline the basic work of the best known new economists of the day who offered an assessment of the situation of poverty in the midst of plenty, Beorse produced Efter Oss Kommer Overfloden (After Us the Glut), his world economic survey (published by Aschehoug in Norway in 1934.) It was immediately translated into English, and released in Britain and the US as Distribute or Destroy, subtitled A Survey of the World’s Glut of Goods with a Description of Various Proposals and Practical Experiments for its Distribution.

This is the book that brought the young civil engineer, Brynjolf Bjorset, on to the world stage as a firebrand economic thinker who applied radical theories for the greater good.

ISBN: 978-0-9783485-6-4

Page Count: 170
Binding Type: Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Alpha Glyph Publications

New Publication: Man and This Mysterious Universe

An earlier book by Brynjolf Bjorset (Shamcher Bryn Beorse) is now available in paperback and kindle. More info HERE at the book’s official website.

MAN AND THIS MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE: the authorized edition

A SYNTHESIS OF MODERN LIFE:
A VISIONARY OVERVIEW OF THE EFFORT AND MISSION OF HUMANITY

by Shamcher Bryn Beorse (Brynjolf Bjorset)

The book Man and this Mysterious Universe was originally described as a synthesis of the many aspects of modern civilization, bringing within its scope the contribution of the East as well as of the West, showing how it has grown from the civilization of the past and how it will probably develop into the civilization of the future. Or as the author put it more simply: a survey of Western and Eastern Sciences.

Ranging through various disciplines from Everyday Life, Art, Education, World Events and Mysticism, Beorse describes the evolution of humanity and the responsibilities of each of us in this process. Seen all together, they convey an image of the totality of the human endeavour: occurring both outside of time and in time, on schedule, as a great play.

“This comprehensive and refreshing picture is sorely needed at this time of narrow outlook and overspecialization,” wrote the distinguished psychologist, educator and author, Dr. Philip B. Ballard.

Inspired to write by the great sage, Inayat Khan, Beorse combined three former works into one for Man and This Mysterious Universe. Written during WWII, then added to with new information, the book was first published in 1949.

His previous work, Distribute or Destroy, had been in the field of economics. Beorse further widened his scope in this publication, whose title refers to the popular physics book by James Jeans, This Mysterious Universe. Here Beorse inserts humanity into this assessment of a universe of vibrations and events, creating Man and This Mysterious Universe.

“There is no great difference between rock, a tree, a man or a loving thought carving its way through the universe like a ray of the sun.”

ISBN: 978-0-9783485-7-1

Page Count: 160
Binding Type: Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Alpha Glyph Publications

Now Available: Fairy Tales are True!

Fairy Tales are True: Silent Reach from the Dunes to the Kumbha Mela

by Shamcher Bryn Beorse

Welcome to the world in which fairy tales are true, where the prominent scientists of the day join together to seek wisdom from a great sage of the Himalayas at the fabled Kumbha Mela. Guided by a trusted myth-spinning storyteller, their journey and its preparation are peppered with tales of metaphysical adventures.

From the bohemian Shangri-La of the Oceano Dunes to the ancient Ganges flowing from Himalayan heights, the group travels and discovers the realm of “silent reach”.

In the tradition of metaphysical fiction that was popular in the 1920’s and 30s, Fairy Tales are True sweeps the reader into a vortex of yogis, scientists, spies and fools. Unlike most of those forgotten novels of secret universal Buddhist brotherhoods and mystical Tibetan quests, this book is more than partly true.

Bryn Beorse, who was known to the Sufis as Shamcher, was the real deal: an actual world-travelling yogi-sufi who also was an esteemed economist and engineer.

Here he has created a fantastical autobiographical allegory in a book that defies categorization.

ISBN/EAN13:0978348559 / 9780978348557

Page Count: 108
Binding Type: Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Alpha Glyph Publications

Available on Amazon – Find out more at the book website.

20th Century Elder

Link to Carol Sill’s article on Medium: Shamcher Bryn Beorse, 20th Century Elder

Every Willing Hand: Community, Economy and Employment

Shamcher’s book, Every Willing Hand, is now released and available at amazon!  Find it at  http://every-willing-hand.shamcher.com

Authored by Shamcher Bryn Beorse
Introduction by Carol Sill 

Through Every Willing Hand we glimpse an extraordinary worldview, a simultaneous multiverse of intimate interconnection. A contemporary mystic, Shamcher Beorse views this vast scene through a lens of economics and full employment.

He reveals artfully interwoven themes that all work together to show a complex picture of the forces and influences at play, including visualization, intuition and meditation. Shamcher had great compassion for those who are “half awake in the body of humanity,” and he worked tirelessly to expand horizons for all individuals and communities. 

In one glance the book reflects innumerable facets of our social communities and individual aspirations, all in the context of the need for social reform. Where does he suggest this reform comes from? Not from a revolution in the streets to restore or establish fair and equal opportunity, but from an implemented program ensuring full employment for all who want it.

ISBN/EAN13:0978348540 / 9780978348540
Page Count:168
Binding Type:US Trade Paper
Trim Size:6″ x 9″
Color:Black and White