
Marcel Griaule's Conversation With The Ogotemmeli introduced the Religious ideas of the Dogon of the West African Republic of Mali. In the Pale Fox, the renowned anthropologists, Griaule and Dieterlen journey deeper and touch the core of the the Dogon's most sacred knowledge revealing an enigma rivalling that of the Great Pyramid in the controvesy it has aroused. They report that the Dogon know the 'secrets of the dark stars' - the invisible white dwarf and dwarf nova companions of Sirius. Moreover, they point out, the Dogon know a host of astronomical facts (some of which cannot be discovered by the naked eye}, possess an extensive astronomical and psychological knowledge, a wide-ranging pharmacopoeia, a 266 symbol written language and know the nature and purpose of human existence.
How the Dogon could have known all this is for some a ''serious mystery.'' But if we go beyond "left brain"modalities, as they did and explore the borderlands of science where myth becomes reality and reality myth, where the dance of the unseen becomes illumined by the rhythyms of the seem, and where the spiritual realm is an integral part of material being - who knows what we might not discover! - Hunter Havelin Adams lll, Argonne National Laboratory