Mental Telepathy: Ost is another captivating story pertaining to mental projection. Since the yarn centers on eastern mysticism it is only fitting that the city be named Ost, which means "east" in German. The first person we meet is poor Ben Brasken. Ben is a simple soul and not very bright. But he is smart enough to know that spiritualism and associated topics are pure hokum. Author Lester Dent plainly explains Ben beliefs that spiritualism and folks associated with it are frauds and fakes.
But Ben becomes the vehicle to prove that all is not bogus. His adamant disbelief only emphasizes how wrong he was from the truth.
Ben Brasken comes under the influence of a mental projection so strong that he literally falls into a weeks-long trance. Exploring the S. S. Benny Boston, Doc Savage finds the lonely compartment where Ben secluded himself during his metaphysical journey. The mental trance imposed on Ben was so complete that he apparently never left that compartment during the period covering his entire disappearance. There were certain other signs to indicate whoever this was had been completely a hermit, had not left the place at all. Well, this surely doesn't conjure up a very pleasant image if one considers the functionality of the human body. Powerful forces are at work here.
More interesting things happen when Doc locates the
iron key Ben had made. It turns out to be some kind of reservoir or conduit of psychic energy. Doc and his crew ultimately find their way to
the South Pacific where they too witness the spooky image of a mystical city in
the sky. Landing on the rugged
Martin Space clarifies matters by revealing that these
intense thought exercises have been going on for over two thousand years
resulting in the astonishing mental abilities witnessed in the story. The basic idea is the brain is a giant muscle
and that a lot of thinking over time could enhance mental abilities.
Edgar Cayce was a popular American psychic during the time this story was written. Cayce would go into a deep sleeping trance in order to deliver his messages.
Mysticism: Kenneth Robeson adds a footnote of interest dealing with Hindu fakirs and feats of levitation. He tells us that experts have long explained these away as simple hypnotic feats whereby the audience only sees what the hypnotist wishes them to "see". But Robeson dispels this notion by revealing that photographs have been published in the Illustrated London News with subsequent reprinting in American magazines depicting these amazing feats. The person performing this amazing feat was Yogi Pullavar.
For years, skeptics have laughed off these impossible feats of the yogis by saying that it was hypnotism since a camera photograph showed nothing. But the above instance definitely refutes this contention. That statement makes this an official part of the Doc Savage Universe.
Magnetism is also on the forefront in this story as the city's upside down temple is built of magnetic lodestone. Popular myths during the time the story was written attributed special healing powers to magnetism. The idea of having an upside down temple may have been a subtle statement about turning conventional theories on their head.
We also encounter the color blue again. The Ostians bath in water tinted blue from berries and their skin becomes dyed from doing so. Lester Dent is reputed to have strongly disliked the color green. Well either he or someone at Street & Smith really liked the color blue as it frequent appears as an adjective.
Speaking of blue people, there is actually such a group. The Tuareg people are often called the blue people of the Sahara. Their clothes are dyed with indigo which also rubs off onto their skin.
Another situation also exists that causes people to have blue skin. A medical condition known as Methemoglobinemia gives a person’s blood properties that result in their skin having a blue tint.
Finally there is the Hindu deity, Krishna who is often depicted as having blue skin.
Incidentally, Goa is also the name of a former Portuguese colony located on the southwestern coast of India.
Religion: There are two references to Christ.
