Hippie spiritualists, serious musicians, artists of all types, lovers of our earthly ecosystem, peaceniks, progressive politicos, Donald Lehmkuhl. The album cover of TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS was painted by Roger Dean and inspired by the book The View Over Atlantis by John Mitchell, with added ideas by Jon Anderson and Alan White. The cover is said to depict sacred sites and the ley lines that connect them. Some believe that these sites have special psychic energy and thus are powerful places for meditation. Atlantis is believed (in new age circles) to be the source of ancient cultures throughout the world, and many trace their reincarnations back to it. (Scholars, however, believe that Atlantis was a fictional city created by Plato to depict the perfect civilization.) Images that appear in the painting include: Brimham rocks, Last Rocks of Land's End, the Logan rock at Treen in Scotland, single stones from Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, ground drawings from the plains of Nazca in Peru, a prehistoric species of fish (below the swimming salmon), and the Mayan temple of Chichen Itza with a sun behind it. Interconnecting the diverse locals of the objects in one painting mirrored the philosophical approach of the lyrics which tie together many cultures under a general concept of spirituality. Eclecticism is key to all aspects of TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS: the music, the lyrics, and the album cover imagery. This mirrors the counterculture's tendency toward shattering cultural boundaries and favoring universalist paradigms for everything from religion to history to art. Parallels to what YES and Dean were doing can be seen in the theology of Ramakrishna, the mythology of Joseph Campbell, the psychology of Carl Jung, the Perrenial Philosophy of Aldous Huxley, the interfaith nonviolence and social activism of Gandhi, the deep ecumenism of Matthew Fox, the incredible art of Alex Grey, Romanticism, and the hugging and charitable work of Ammachi. Indeed, TALES was one big hug from YES to spiritualists everywhere! The cover of TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS was included in the book, 100 Best Album Covers by Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell.