Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2024 January 1

= January 1 =

Dates of readings by Edgar Cayce
I'm hoping to get Hall of Records to GA status. It's about a pseudoarchaeological concept that originated in the 1930s, in psychic "readings" by Edgar Cayce. I want to know the dates of the key pronouncements about the Hall of Records. Some of the secondary sources that I used in the article give dates for the earliest appearance of a particular idea in Cayce's readings, but I'm not sure they actually represent the earliest occurrences of those ideas.

There are compilations of Cayce's claims about the Hall of Records (including one I have on hand, written by Mark Lehner before he became a mainstream archaeologist), but the maddening thing is that they all refer to specific readings without any dates. They use reference numbers from some kind of indexing system devised by Cayce's organization, the ARE. I've been looking for a source to correlate these index numbers with the dates of the readings in question, but so far I've had no luck. Does anyone have suggestions? A. Parrot (talk) 04:28, 1 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Have you tried contacting the ARE via their website? I am sure they would be keen to help. Shantavira|feed me 09:24, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I'm not eager to do it, given that I'm effectively out to debunk them (though of course I wouldn't have to tell them that). I suppose I may have to. A. Parrot (talk) 20:00, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

How was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet selected?
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the collective head of state of the USSR, according to the 1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitution. But how was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet selected? Was the chairman of the supreme soviet also the chairman of the presidium of the supreme soviet? Regards, Thinker78  (talk) 05:15, 1 January 2024 (UTC)


 * The function of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was only instituted as part of the perestroika reforms in 1989, which abolished the function of Chairman of the Presidium. The Chairman of the Supreme Soviet was elected by the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, which was also formed in 1989. I think the choice for the Chairman of the Presidium before perestroika was effectively made by whoever was at the time the paramount leader of the Soviet Union, which was usually the General Secretary of the Communist Party and often the same person. --Lambiam 11:29, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I agree that the choice was de facto made by the paramount leader. But typical Soviet practice was to have a de jure procedure as well. Both the 1936 and 1977 constitutions state that the Chairman of the Presidium was to be elected by a joint sitting of the Supreme Soviet (see Article 48 and Article 120 respectively). If the Wikisource copy of the 1988 constitution is correct (it's unsourced and in userspace, so it might not be), then Article 119 has a detailed procedure for the election of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet. Matt's talk 16:55, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
 * The 1977 constitution was amended in 1988 as part of the perestroika reforms, and the office for which the new Article 119 describes the election procedure is that of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet. The earlier Article 120 does not describe the actual procedure; it is consistent with a procedure in which there is a single slate of candidates, with one name for the candidate for Chairman of the Presidium, and the votes of the deputies (in favour / against / abstain) are cast in public. --Lambiam 20:02, 1 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Stalin de-emphasized the idea of an individual Soviet state leader because he didn't care to assume such a position himself (Stalin was almost totally unconcerned about fancy-sounding titles and offices, as long as he had the reality of despotic power) and any other person holding such a position would almost inevitably become a rival to himself, in some respects. Stalin really didn't want another Alexei Rykov, who was chosen as state leader before Stalin consolidated his personal power; it took Stalin 5 or 6 years to get rid of Rykov... AnonMoos (talk) 19:35, 1 January 2024 (UTC)