What Claude Degler called the male fans who joined his Cosmic Circle, presumably short for COSmic MEN. No telling what women were supposed to be called, for all that they had a Significant Role to play in Claude's proposed scheme, since they would be inseminated in his "love camps" in the Ozarks to produce the slan-like race that would rule the sevagram. All fans were slans, in Claude’s view, but it was unclear whether they or only Cosmen would be called upon to perform that duty. (See SLAN.) Most fans felt themselves to be part of a minority, subject to minority persecution, so they felt empathy for the slans in the A.E. van Vogt novel of that name. But they did not believe themselves to be super beings, so the overwhelming response to Degler was laughter. A line of Jack Speer’s that demonstrates this popular view is still often quoted: “I have a Cosmic Mind – now what do I do?”

Contributors: Dr. Gafia