This wonderful photograph of the Sound Barrier being broken was an inspiration for entitling this month's Exploration: "Breaking Barriers." When I was a kid, the Sound Barrier was an awesome thing to break! The speed of Sound! Imagine breaking the Sound Barrier. What could be next? In our short lives there have been many such milestones that quickly became part of the everyday landscape. "Been there! Done that," we say. As important and as exhilarating as those many barrier-breaking events were, 20, 40, 60 years ago, the accomplishments seem passe, today. We Humans are curiously eager; always getting ready to break through into some previously forbidden or uncharted territory; take on new roles; dream new dreams; do the impossible; prove the un-provable; and create New Paradigms. "What's next?" We ask.

In this issue we deal directly with What's Next; we also deal with what IS; and we'll even deal with what WAS - as we break-into-the-Past to re-think some 'history' and perhaps shatter some barriers of Ignorance resulting from erroneous age-old conditionings and superstitions. We'll investigate the animal mind; we'll break into our own mind; catch a glimpse of the Divine Mind; we'll see what it is Mankind's Mind hath wrought and might well wright by 2020. We'll get a view of what it is like when sentient beings from different dimensions and life-energy levels learn to coexist; even investigate the possible integration of humanoid and artificially intelligent life-forms into our Social Strata. But the barriers we hope most to help break and conquer are the barriers of bigotry. Thanks for your help. And thanks to all our contributors to this month's Exploration: "Breaking Barriers."    -Angus Bowen, managing editor.