No. 127 Open Your Mind To New IdeasJuly-August 2011the-eye.eu/public/concen.org/New Dawn Magazine/NewDawnMagazi… · Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince go in search of the Hermetic origins

July-August 2011 ■ NEW DAWN 1 www.newdawnmagazine.com

the world’s most unusual magazine

NEW DAWNNo. 127 July-August 2011O pen You r Min d To New Ideas

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2012 End of the World Or Consciousness Revolution?

Ancient Egypt's Prehistoric Origins

OahspeProphecies for the Coming Age

India's Science of Light

Understanding the Ruling Elite

COSMIC CONNECTIONSKey to Your Destiny?

Search for the Mind of God


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The Metaphysical Origins of the Law of Attraction By Joe Camilleri

Basic Taoist Theory Made Simple By Pedram Shojai

What Exactly Do We Mean by Genes? By Pamela McDonald

The Classic Magick Book That Broke All the Rules By Jennifer Hoskins

The Anti-Oxidant, Anti-Inflammatory Super Spice By Paul Fassa

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contentsNEW DAWN 127 – JULY/AUGUST 2011

established 1991 the world’s most unusual magazine

mind & spiritbody

Mission Statement _______ 2World Watch ____________3Reviews _______________ 73

contentsancient wisdom, new thinking

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2012 & Human Destiny: End of the World Or Consciousness Revolution? Part 1

Robert Bauval & Thomas Brophy divulge compelling new information the ‘Star People’ of black Africa were the true founders of ancient Egyptian civilisation.

Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince go in search of the Hermetic origins of modern science and prove that not everything is as it seems.

Andy Thomas analyses the psychological motivation and thought processes of the proponents of a ‘One World Government’.

Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt

Cosmic Connections: The Key to Your Destiny?Do the movements of the planets cause events on earth, shape your personality, and influence human affairs? If so, how, asks Richard Smoley.

OAHSPE: Prophecies for the Coming AgeSusan Martinez examines the extraordinary prophecies and teachings given to humanity in the mysterious and massive tome OAHSPE.


Instead of predicting a physical destruction of the world, explains Stanislav Grof, the Mayan prophecy might refer to a mass inner transformation of humanity.

Biocentrism


59 Places of the Builder GodsFreddy Silva looks at evidence – scattered across the globe – for the existence of creator gods whose Golden Age ended in a catastrophic deluge.

How Life & Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Robert Lanza.

2 NEW DAWN ■ July-August 2011 www.newdawnmagazine.com

ISSUE #127 JULY/AUGUST 2011

Published byNew Gnosis Communications

International Pty Ltd ABN: 84094017642

Editor David Jones

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Contributors Andy Thomas, Robert Bauval, Thomas Brophy, Richard Smoley, Susan Martinez, Joe Camilleri,

Pedram Shojai, Pamela McDonald, Jennifer Hoskins, Paul Fassa, Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince,

Stanislav Grof, Freddy Silva, Robert Lanza

CoverMark J. Foster, Artifice Design,

www.artifice-design.co.uk

Printing Beaudesert Times, Queensland, Australia

DisclaimerAll articles are published on the basis that they are not to be regarded as expressing the opinion of the publisher or its servants or agents. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Warranty & IndemnityAdvertisers upon and by lodging material with the Publisher for publication or authorising or approving of the publication of any material INDEMNIFY the Publisher and its servants and agents against all liability claims or proceedings what-soever arising from the publication and without limiting the generality of the foregoing to indemnify each of them in relation to defamation, slander of title, breach of copyright, infringement of trademarks or names of publication titles, unfair competition or trade practices, royalties or violation of rights or privacy AND WARRANT that the material complies with all relevant laws and regulations and that its publication will not give rise to any rights against or liabilities in the Publisher, its servants or agents and in particular that nothing therein is capable of being misleading or deceptive. Editorial advice is not specific and readers are advised to seek professional help for individual problems.

New Dawn is published six times a year.

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© Copyright July 2011 by New Dawn magazineand the respective authors. ISSN: 1036-8035

mission statementwhat is New Dawn magazine?

The first issue of New Dawn magazine appeared in May 1991 in Melbourne, Australia. From humble beginnings New Dawn has expanded into a unique bi-monthly publication distributed

nationally throughout Australia and New Zealand, with a growing international readership. From lost civilisations and ancient wisdom, to secret societies and higher states of consciousness, New Dawn is a fascinating blend of mysteries, esotericism, spirituality and healing. Each thought-provoking issue examines the hidden dimensions of politics, history and religion in a non-dogmatic manner. New Dawn also offers cutting edge perspectives on world affairs and global trends, tackling issues and subjects the corporate controlled press often refuses to touch. New Dawn is not about telling readers what to believe, but is a forum where diverse alternative ideas are presented for our readers’ consideration, interest and inspiration. Today all Establishment media outlets are projections of the con-glomerates that own them. They propagate the consensus view. Every child is born into a crowd that is already conditioned. The parents are conditioned, the teachers are conditioned, the neighbours are conditioned, and the whole community is conditioned! Born into such a conditioned environment the child cannot envisage any other alternative. Awareness is sacrificed to conformity. Existence becomes a trap, a cog in the wheel of the great machine of modern society. William Blake described that machine as a ‘Dark Satanic Mill’. Philip K. Dick identified it as the Empire’s ‘Black Iron Prison’. “It is possible to get out of a trap,” wrote Dr. Wilhelm Reich. “However, in order to break out of prison, one must first confess to living in a prison.” It has often been observed that there are two ways of looking at the world. You can take the morning paper or nightly news at face value and believe everything you’re told by the corporate-controlled media and those in ‘positions of authority’. Or you can begin to ques-tion this mass hypnosis and awake to new perspectives and possibili-ties. New Dawn is a doorway to this new way of thinking and seeing the world around us. Enjoy the journey of discovery.

– New Dawn Magazine [email protected]


– Quote, Unquote –

Those who have enlarged their field of knowledge are no longer dependent on external evidences where past events are concerned.

They can see that which is not sensibly evident, yet which time cannot destroy. And so, from available sources of history we can

pass on to those which are imperishable. Such history as this is written in very different letters from those which record

the every-day events of past times, for this is Gnosis.– Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925)


Hard hitting American journal-ist Victor Thorn outlines 10 good reasons why you should

be wary of any news coming from the mainstream media or the US government about the death of “ter-ror mastermind” Osama bin Laden: 1) US Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) claimed, amid considerable con-troversy, that the bin Laden death photos shown to him were fakes. 2) Not a single independent source outside the Obama admin-istration verified the authenticity of bin Laden’s corpse prior to it being dumped in the Arabian Sea. 3) A Duke University professor, Bruce Lawrence, has testified that previous bin Laden videotapes were “outright fakes.” 4) Many of the residents in Ab-bottabad near the alleged bin Laden compound say it would have been impossible for bin Laden to live right next door to them without their knowledge. As 22-year-old Haris Rasheed said suspiciously: “I’m not ready to buy bin Laden was here. Why did they bury him so quickly? This is all fake – a drama, and a crude one.” 5) From The World Tribune, Oct. 26, 2002: “Israel and the United States assess that bin Laden proba-bly died in the US military campaign in Afghanistan in December 2001. They said the emergence of new messages by bin Laden are prob-ably fabrications. The sources said al Qaeda has already determined bin Laden’s heir.” 6) The former Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf, accidentally ad-mitted that bin Laden died of kidney failure because his dialysis machine had been rendered inoperable dur-ing an escape from Afghanistan.

7) Since photographic evidence proves that one of the two US heli-copters used in this operation either crashed or malfunctioned, how did 24 Navy Seals, a translator, a rescue dog, an apparent corpse and scores of pieces of equipment salvaged from the fallen craft all fit into a single Blackhawk chopper without being overloaded? 8) The public was told bin Laden’s mansion had no phone lines, TV or Internet access, yet photos show an obvious satellite dish in the yard. With such limited technological ca-pacity, where did the “treasure trove” of data on hard drives originate? 9) With bin Laden finally ex-punged again, why did the new No. 1 terror threat, Anwar al-Awlaki, meet with top Pentagon officials only months after Sept. 11, 2001? CBS News reported in October 2010, “Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical spiritual leader linked to several 9-11 Penta-gon attackers, the Fort Hood shoot-ing and the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airliner, was a guest at the Pentagon in the months after 9-11, a Pentagon official con-firmed.” 10) Why did the 9-11 Commission exclude testimony from FBI transla-tor Sibel Edmonds claiming that bin Laden was on the CIA payroll right up until the day of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001? Thorn points out that for anyone to accept the premise Osama bin Laden’s death was faked for politi-cal purposes, “they first must accept the premise that 9-11 was a staged false-flag terror attack executed by elements within the Israeli govern-ment and US neo-cons.” “The 19 Muslim ‘hijackers’ and al Qaeda served as nothing more than

convenient patsies, with bin Laden becoming the ultimate bogeyman,” says Thorn, the author of many books on 9-11 and the New World Order. While many celebrated bin Laden’s demise, most failed to com-prehend one vital fact: “America’s economy is being bankrupted by a military-industrial-banking machine that, at least in part, resulted from our continuing ‘war on terror’,” Thorn writes. “For nearly 10 years, bin Laden stood at the centre of this per-petual war – an enemy that could be everywhere, nowhere, or anyplace in between. But few realise that the CIA originally created this six-foot-five-inch 9-11 ‘mastermind’ in the late 1970s after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.” Bin Laden’s death in December 2001 “didn’t stop US and Israeli leaders and the controlled media from making him the poster boy for global terrorism, a role he held until he was finally killed off a second time in Pakistan,” notes Thorn.

(Sources: ‘Ten Reasons Not to Believe Bin Laden Mythmakers’; ‘The NWO’s Ultimate Bogeyman’ by Victor Thorn, American Free Press, www.american-freepress.net, May 9/16 & 23)

Ten Reasons Not to Believe Bin Laden Mythmakers


Bilderberg participants “are a pack of liars, and they will continue to lie through and

beyond,” an insider has told Ameri-can Free Press editor James Tucker, referring to the annual Bilderberg group meeting scheduled in Switzer-land June 9-12. “You must get the truth out and keep them backing up.” Increas-ing public awareness of the evil of Bilderberg has proven a huge barrier to their goals, the insider said. In recent years, due to the per-sistence of men like James Tucker and the alternative media, the elite Bilderberg group have faced in-creased scrutiny. This has led to an influential legislator from Switzerland’s larg-est political party issuing a strongly worded letter to the head of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police, saying that the globalist Bilderberg group’s planned meeting in Switzerland June 9-12 threatens the nation’s deep-seated traditions of populist rule and neutrality as well as bringing many disreputable par-ticipants, some of whom are accused war criminals, to the traditionally neutral country. The legislator, Dominique Baet-tig of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), writes: “I wish to draw your atten-tion to... the discreet but influential

Bilderberg group [meeting] in a hotel in St. Moritz [June 9-12].” The group is a “global elite of bankers, industrial-ists, diplomats, US and European NATO brass, crowned heads, media groups, their moguls and editors, as well as heads of state, whether retired or not, which coor-dinates, exchanges, organises and struc-tures, out of all democratic control, the major guidelines toward eco-nomic globalisation.” To convey the danger of Bilder-berg’s influence, his letter adds, “Independence, private property and the private sphere are reduced by the usage of electronic virtual money and by... the control of all individuals in a biometric global gulag.... Higher debts of the [world’s] countries are encouraged... and they become the debtors of supranational private banks. “Military and police tasks are privatised and military actions to dismantle independent states are planned and coordinated (Afghani-stan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Libya;

tomorrow Iran and Syria). The worst being the fact that they prepare the programmed end of traditional democracy, with a power shift from all states to the benefit of non-elected governance entities....” His letter also notes that this “discreet group develops an ultra-liberal, free-trade society model, with a... world currency and the IMF as treasurer.”

Baettig noted that he’s espe-cially troubled after “consulting the [Bilderberg] participants lists of [recent] years” and seeing “the un-desirable presence” in Switzerland of certain “personalities” including Hen-ry Kissinger, Dick Cheney and others implicated in war crimes, torture and those “who are under investigation by the courts in The Hague, etc.” Baettig asks the head of Swiss police: “Are your services informed of the participants’ identities? As NATO is actually engaged in war actions (Libya, Afghanistan, targeted assassinations), the participation of NATO brass... does represent a major risk of a terrorist action in St. Moritz and, therefore, a serious danger for its inhabitants and neighbours. Not mentioning the... image loss for a sovereign and democratic nation which stands for an armed and inte-gral neutrality....” He added that if “politicians, busi-nessmen and media group owners sharing [globalist] motivations repre-sents ‘crimes against the state,’ then that could undermine Swiss inde-pendence with ‘diplomatic treason’.”

(Sources: ‘Bilderbergers Dangerous’ by Mark Anderson, American Free Press, 23 May; ‘Obama Remains Bilderberg Pawn In Global Petroleum Chess Match’ by James Tucker, AFP, 23 May)

Bilderberg Facing Increased Scrutiny

American Free Press editor James Tucker


Ever since Mac Brazel heard the crash on his New Mexico ranch on July 2, 1947, later discovering

the flying saucer debris, and the lo-cal mortician telling of the weird lit-tle bodies that were hastily placed in child caskets and buried in a secret location, the US government’s official stand on the subject of unidentified flying objects has been strangely reticent – taking neither a “yea” nor “nay” stand. However, from the files of the FBI Vault, a 1950 letter has surfaced from Washington Bureau Special Agent in Charge, Guy Hottel, report-ing another agent’s interview with US Air Force personnel, presumably at Roswell Air Force Base. Hottel’s report confirmed what the government never has before: “An investigator for the Air Force stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New

Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centres, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed in metal-lic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots. “According to Mr. [name re-dacted], informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the control-ling mechanism of the saucers. No further evaluation was attempted by SA [name redacted] concerning the above.” The document confirms that both Washington and the military have long been aware of the details relat-

ing to the incident but have contin-ued for well over a half century to keep it from public view. A further file did claim the crafts were actually weather balloons.

(Source: ‘Memo On Mysterious Roswell Crash Turns Up In Released Files’ by Pat Shannan, American Free Press, 2 May, www.americanfreepress.net)

Memo Adds to Roswell ‘Flying Saucer’ Mystery

A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that not only do vivid

ads give us false memories related to what we’re shown in marketing images, but we are remarkably confi-dent that those memories are true. Long after you watch a commer-cial picturing a happy family enjoy-ing Nestle cookies around a fire, or laughing on a beach, you may begin to remember those events not as ads, but as real memories of your life. This ‘false experience effect’ may have profound effects not only on our purchasing habits, but on the very way we perceive ourselves and reality. Priyali Rajagopal of Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and Nicole Montgomery

of William & Mary worked to discover how real and false experiences can seem equally true. 100 volunteers were shown one of two ads for a fake product (Or-ville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Fresh Popcorn): either a text based description, or an image rich one. These cohorts were then either given a survey or a chance to taste the popcorn (actually a real Or-ville Redenbacher product disguised as the fake one). A week later, they were asked about their experiences. Those subjects that were given the text based ads recalled events

closely to as they occurred. Incredibly, those volunteers who were shown the image rich ad but only given the survey were just as likely to recall tasting the popcorn as the ones who had actually tried it, and they were also equally confident in their recollection. Rajagopal and Montgomery termed this the “false experience

effect.” Vivid images gave the volun-teers memories of tasting a product that didn’t exist. As our research into the human brain continues we find that our minds are far less secure than we think.

(Source: http://blog.smu.edu/re-search/2011/05/faking_it_can_ads_cre-ate_false.html)

Vivid Ads Implant False Memories


By Keith Johnson

In recent years, scientists around the world have been initiating costly projects to study the very

fabric that holds the universe to-gether. The question remains, however: By playing God, are these men and women in white lab coats further-ing man’s knowledge of the world around us, or are they bringing us ever closer to global disaster? At a cost of nearly $10 billion, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Ge-neva, Switzerland is the most ambi-tious scientific undertaking in human history. Located 570 feet beneath the Alpine foothills on the French-Swiss border, this circular 17-mile parti-cle accelerator has been smashing subatomic particles together at great speed in an attempt to recre-ate conditions that occurred when the universe began, according to the outlook of conventional science. The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) insists its projects are intended to revolution-ise “our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the universe.” Others question what toll these experiments might wreak upon hu-manity in pursuit of scientific largess. Doomsayers maintain that the LHC may create black holes, vacuum bub-bles or even destroy the Earth due to its extreme capabilities. Even more intriguing, a contro-versial rumour began circulating in late April suggesting that physicists working on the ATLAS project at CERN laboratories may have discov-ered the elusive “God particle.” This announcement initially provoked equal amounts of opti-mism and skepticism from within the scientific community. However, with each passing day, there are indica-tions this may very well be another false alarm.

More appropriately referred to as Higgs boson, this hypothetical particle is thought to be a significant part of the cohesive force that holds the universe together, giving other particles their mass. Such a discovery could help correct certain flaws in the standard model that physicists currently use to describe the laws of nature. Some scientists believe that if the Higgs boson particle does exist, it could explain why protons and electrons behave as they do, giving researchers access to a whole new landscape of physics. However, a spokesperson for the ATLAS project, Fabiola Gianotti, takes these assertions with a grain of salt because the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed. Casting even more doubt, Syed Afsar Abbas, a professor of physics at India’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), told the Indo-Asian News Service that he dismissed these reports. “The Higgs mechanism does not exist as a physical particle,” Abbas said. “My idea is well-known to par-ticle physicists. But they tend to play down its importance as they have been spending billions of dollars of

public money to look for this nonex-istent Higgs particle.” Still, many in the lay community fear some type of apocalyptic situ-ation associated with the LHC. To allay their fears, a group of scientists, scholars and students have created a nonprofit organisation intent on using legal action to prevent further operation of this high-energy parti-cle accelerator. As part of their mission state-ment, Citizens Against the Large Hadron Collider proclaim: “Some experts fear that the risk of oper-ating the LHC disproportionately outweighs anything science might gain from this experiment. It is not possible to know what the outcome of the experiment will be, but even CERN scientists concede that there is a real possibility of creating destruc-tive theoretical anomalies such as miniature black holes... and space transitions. These events have the potential to fundamentally alter mat-ter and destroy our planet.”

(Source: American Free Press, 23 May, www.americanfreepress.net)

Do Experiments Deep in Swiss Alps Present a Threat to Future of Earth?


NATO’s military aggression on Libya is neither a “humanitar-ian” war nor a knee-jerk reac-

tion to events that occurred in that African country, according to Belgian journalist-writer Michel Collon. “This war was planned and has ongoing major objectives that go far beyond the person of Muammar Qadhafi,” says Collon. Collon explains how a “spontane-ous” revolt was quickly hijacked and turned into a civil war as a pretext for military aggression. Speaking on French television, Collon pointed out that recent Western military interventions were “preceded by big media lies…” “When the United States attacked Vietnam they said it was because two Vietnamese warships attacked their fleet, they admitted later on it was false. When we attacked Iraq, it was because they had ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and many other claims that were later proven false. When we attacked Yugoslavia, it was because there was a ‘genocide’ in Kosovo… it was false again.” He said that we later find out the pretexts were lies, but “the damage is already done.” Evidence that Qadhafi was “at-tacking civilians” has not yet been produced in any shape, form or way with US Department of Defense’s Robert Gates and Admiral Mullen in fact, both admitting, “We’ve seen no confirmation whatsoever.” The main-stream media conveniently shafted the pretext into the memory hole because no evidence of major atroci-ties has been factually identified. The Russian government went as far as bringing forth evidence that suggests air strikes on the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi never even took place. Collon, who authored the books Hurricane Bush (2006) and The 7 Sins of Hugo Chavez (2009), said the secret services of Western countries, including France, the United States and Italy, played a role in preparing the current conflict.

He cites the revela-tions of Italian journalist Franco Bechis (Libero, 24 March), who states the French secret service prepared the Benghazi revolt by “turning” Qad-hafi’s former chief of protocol, Nuri Mesmari. He also mentions the dubious role of military operations chief of the Libyan National Transi-tional Council (CNT) in Benghazi, Khalifa Hifter. Hifter is a former colonel in the Libyan army who defected to the United States then rallied Benghazi on 24 March following instructions given by US President Barack Obama to the CIA to conduct operations in Libya, to overthrow the Libyan leader. To support his arguments, he cites The Wall Street Journal, which reported on 31 March that “CIA of-ficials acknowledge that they have been active in Libya for several weeks, like other Western intelli-gence services.” Collon identifies five major goals behind the West’s war on Libya: The first goal is to control Libyan oil which is higher quality, easy to extract and highly profitable because of its proximity to Italy, France and Germany. The second objective is to protect Israel. Preventing genuine freedom and self-determination of the Arab world is the third objective of the West. Collon says “the United States and its allies absolutely do not want an Arab de-mocracy, absolutely they do not want the Arabs to decide on the use of their own oil and their other wealth.” The fourth objective is to prevent African unity by allowing multination-als to plunder the continent’s raw materials and steal Africa’s resources. “By supporting the development of the African Monetary Fund (AMF), Qadhafi had also committed the crime of defying the International Monetary Fund (IMF), controlled by

the United States and Europe,” says Collon. According to an article written by Manlio Dinucci, “Financial Heist of the Century,” billions of dollars of Libya’s sovereign wealth fund have been frozen and effectively stolen by the US and EU. This money, according to Cam-eroonian writer Jean-Paul Pougala, was slated for Libya’s contribution to three flagship projects: “the African Investment Bank (BAI) in Sirte (Libya), the creation as of 2011 of the African Monetary Fund, with a capital of US$42 billion with Yaounde (Cam-eroon) as headquarters, the African Central Bank (BCA) with headquar-ters in Abuja (Nigeria).” “The first issue of African curren-cy will spell the end of the CFA franc with which Paris has had a strangle-hold on some African countries for 50 years,” Pougala said. The last and fifth goal, Collon says, is to install NATO as Africa’s watchdog to defend the economic interests of the West and occupy Libya which would become a strate-gic outpost for military intervention in Egypt if it ever defied US control.

(Sources: www.michelcollon.info; www.panapress.com/Understanding-the-war-in-Libya-(News-Feature)--12-771660-20-lang2-index.html; www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24479; www.you-tube.com/watch?v=gXFAsz6_W50)

Understanding the War in Libya


For over 100 days the Libyan Jama-hiriya under the leadership of Col. Muammar Qadhafi has resisted NATO attacks. As this issue of New Dawn goes to press, the Western military alliance has launched over 10,000 bombing raids on Libya. The editor of the website Mathaba.net offers the following insights into some of the reasons behind the West’s war on Qadhafi’s Libya.

We should ask this question because over the past dec-ade Libya was a friend of

the so-called West. As a stable and peaceful country with the highest liv-ing standard in Africa, Libya supplied uninterrupted oil in abundance at low prices. The undeclared war on Libya cannot be primarily about oil, even if Muammar Qadhafi recently called for the price to be raised. As someone who has followed the thoughts of Muammar Qadhafi for 30 years, the following summa-rises the main reasons I perceive are behind this war on Libya. First and foremost, it is about control and fear of losing control. Muammar has for the past decade been largely silent regarding the West, concentrating instead upon African development. The Western elites used the pe-riod to nurture relations with a small section of a new generation of Liby-ans, with an eye to a more neo-liberal economy and its so-called freedoms. Muammar was unable to remain silent as he observed many Libyans’ standard of living decline while cor-ruption increased, government minis-ters helping themselves to more than their fair share. He urged ministers to pay oil revenues directly into the bank accounts of each Libyan. At the outset of the demonstra-tions, Muammar had urged the Liby-ans to go out and take over whatever they consider to be theirs. However, these demonstrations were exploited and coincided with others with a very different agenda: an armed insur-

rection. As a compromise with the West, Libya had allowed the return of those who had been brought up in the West, the small number of exiled families who had lost privilege with the 1969 revolution. Weapons were seized, foreign intelligence agents gave assistance to the newly organised opposition groups, and paved the way for plan B: Operation Southland was planned by France and Britain to attack Libya on 20 March under the cover of a joint airforce exercise, signed in Paris in November 2010, after the defection of Muammar’s closest staff who brought informa-tion that led the French to believe he could be eliminated. Planning had started in earnest a year earlier, after his September 2009 speech to the United Nations in New York. Muammar Qadhafi had to be eliminated because if the world read his UN Speech in full, control over the world by the Western elites would be lost. He called for neces-sary reform of the UN and other in-ternational organisations, and a plan of action required to save the world from the disasters of nuclear war, poverty and terrorism. He called for democracy and freedom, worldwide. That speech and others, were available at algathafi.org – a website virtually unknown – which was shut down in March in order to censor it.

However, it reopened in Russia and everyone can learn for themselves what Muammar has been saying that is so dangerous to the global elites, and why they are afraid of being exposed and losing control. The Green Book, written by Muammar Qadhafi, calls on people to take responsibility and power via direct participatory democracy. The text is hosted at greencharter.com and received millions of hits after the attacks on Libya. The bankrupt NATO countries hope to gain control of the 2,000 km coastline of North Africa, Libya’s gateway between Europe and Africa, the most strategic base for complete control of the Middle East in support of Israel and access to all of Africa, lost as a base since 1969. Further, they want to obliterate direct “jamahiriya” democracy in Libya so that there is no example to the world. Other reasons include the African Central Bank, African Mon-etary Fund and African Investment Bank to be launched September 2011 in Libya, which would set Africa free of foreign and private capital control, advocating gold as currency, lack of a private central bank in Libya, oil, gas, water, and AFRICOM. I urge readers to search the web and conduct research to expand upon all of the above, as space here does not allow coverage of each subject.

Why the War on Libya?


© By Andy ThomAs

Intense speculation on the ‘ruling elite’ many believe is running the world from behind the scenes can lead to the presumption that it is all-powerful and infallible. But is it? Identifying the human foibles and underly-ing desires of those who may be planning centralised

domination could lead to a greater chance to offset their agendas. In my book The Truth Agenda, I explore a widely-held hypothesis in certain quarters: that the world might be controlled by a powerful ruling elite, which puts its own narrow interests and convictions above ours through ma-nipulation and engineered global crises to help bring about an Orwellian-style ‘One World Government’. The book also considers the possibil-ity that our planet is about to undergo a huge change, social, spiritual or cosmo-logical, something seemingly antici-pated by several ancient cultures around the world in the now renowned 2012 prophecies. The exploration of these ideas throws up disturbing possibilities and more pieces of evidence to support them than is entirely comfortable. However, if all that the most extreme speculation achieves is to help prevent such a grim picture from reach-ing full fruition, then it will have served a useful purpose. It is also crucial that a note of optimism is struck. An often valid criticism of conspiracy theorists, or ‘truthseekers’, is that their fevered investigations into humankind’s worst nightmares can leave some listeners feeling more fearful, and risks driving them into a state of disempowered paralysis, putting up the shutters when what is needed is engagement. Yet the unavoidable truth is that looking a potentially tough situation in the eye does mean facing up to disturbing realities that may have been swept under the carpet, for they might require urgent action. Lifting the blindfold even just a little means that we

might not run into the approaching wall at such a great velocity. If the idea of a secretive but all-pervading cabal running the world leaves some feeling shocked, the act of simply contemplating such an idea may in itself spark a new awakening of consciousness. What psychologically motivates this elite, however? What kind of minds are we really dealing with? How can we attempt to understand them, so that solutions and strategies for dealing with their actions may become clearer?

The Elite and its motivations

Something too often missed in all the conspiracy speculation is the realisa-tion that if we are being governed by a powerful cabal trying to twist the world to its own ends, then we are still essen-tially dealing with fellow human beings (putting ET/reptilian bloodline theories aside for a moment). Like every other person on the planet, they must have physical, social and emotional needs, even if the latter faculty may be too easily set aside in the kind of mind that would plan 9/11-type scenarios (an event widely suspected to have been deliberately staged by

Western sources as part of a march towards the ‘New World Order’). The personalities involved must have loved ones of their own, and experience thoughts, feelings and cares in at least some directions. They also, like most of us in our lives, probably think they are doing the right thing, however much we may see their schemes as misguided. This is an important point. We all have reasons for doing what we do, and can often justify actions to ourselves in the face of serious challenges from the outside. Hard though it may be to comprehend, the motivation of those who might think that wiping out their own people would be a posi-tive move, or who believe that planning wars and economic breakdowns to effect the creation of a unifying world government is an acceptable strategy, the fact is that many


What psychologically

motivates this elite, however? What

kind of minds are we really dealing

with?


seemingly well-intentioned visionaries throughout history have voiced the need for such approaches. This does not make them right, of course, but there is plainly a significant, if small, seam of humanity that believes a bigger picture should be put before the needs of the masses. Those who have expressed support for eugenics and depopulation strate-gies, for instance, often have deep-seated environmental concerns or feel strongly that we have lost our balance with nature and must put the planet’s future ahead of the require-ments of the common people. One of the most prominent promoters of the term ‘New World Order’ was the famous and much revered writer H G Wells, who believed passionately that the only answer to global strife would be the creation of the eponymous hierarchy, actively proposing it in his 1940 book The New World Order. This is clearly not a modern concept, and has roots going back even further than Wells’ idealistic vision of it. Some believe both World Wars were deliberately coor-dinated, or at least used, to help bring about a mandate for world government. As early as 1913, writing in his book The New Freedom, President Woodrow Wilson made clear that some formidable force already underpinned the commercial, and probably political, infrastructure of the USA:

Some of the biggest men in the US, in the field of com-merce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organised, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

What is striking in H G Wells’ writings, however, is his sense of excitement and enthusiasm for the idea of a domi-nating collective that would put all to rights and avert “the disastrous extinction of Mankind.” There is no sense of negative intention nor a Malthusian dislike for humanity. Yet at the same time Wells was an advocate of eugenics. Many find this concept entirely repugnant, but here is the paradox – the very kinds of people truth-seekers tend to single out as the enemies of humanity very likely see themselves as its saviours. It is all a matter of perspective and of where one chooses to draw the moral line. The philosopher Bertrand Russell openly accepted the inevitability of a controlling One World Government, found-ed on the basis of hard scientific values, and was disturb-ingly frank about the culture that would result. Writing in his 1953 book The Impact of Science on Society, he states:

Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will be-come psychologically impossible... ...Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organised insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mut-ton.

On the surface, Russell’s thoughts appear to encourage such a world, rather than condemn it, and such thinking seems outrageous, even if it does come close to identify-ing the very philosophy that may now be actively shaping our society. However, although it seems difficult, almost

H G Wells (1866–1946)

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970)


distasteful, for some to contemplate, there is a thought to be considered here: What if such thinking were definitively shown to be right? What if humankind’s very survival did rest on the notion of more control, not less? What if the choice were demonstrated to be be-tween total destruction through over-population, pollution and over-stretched resources, or a selectively-bred, closely-monitored world that regulated itself and continued on? What if an anarchy-ridden post-2012 apocalypse society could be shown to stand no real chance of survival, whereas a tightly-controlled disciplinarian civilisation would? Uncomfortably, in the light of the world’s current challenging issues, it can be seen, at least to a small extent, how arguments could be made in these directions when looked at from a certain viewpoint. The problem comes, as ever, with the massive issue of who gets to decide. Those in comfortable circum-stances looking down from on high must inevitably see things rather differently to those scraping an existence lower down the rungs, at their mercy. We already hold the power of genetic manipulation in our hands, and it will not be too long before required charac-

teristics of children will be able to be routinely selected and engineered. Also, with life spans ever increasing, and our understanding of tissue and brain cell regeneration growing by the year, how long will it be before life can be sustained

indefinitely? When that occurs, the population problem will clearly explode if unlimited access to such power is al-lowed (that is, if the majority of human-kind is permitted to survive in the first place – depopulation conspiracy theories are rife). A world of immortals would risk stagnation, but also domination from those who attained the status of immortality first. They would effectively decide who would be offered the gift from thereon. In the end, the gene pool would almost certainly be controlled by such authorities, the new eugenics having arrived through the back door. These issues are already reality, not dystopian fiction. The power of genetic engineering, which is currently changing

our food, both animal and vegetable – and thus our entire ecosystem, as spliced and altered genes make their way into nature through pollination and cross-breeding – means that humankind has already taken the entire planet’s evolution-ary destiny into its own hands, and there is no going back.

New Dawn Special Issue 16 (Winter 2011) Available for $8.95 from your newsagency

Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran looks at The Elite, the ‘Great Game’, & World War III. Adrian Salbuchi on the Twelve Triggers Driving Mankind Towards World Government. Uncovering The Globalist Web of Subversion by Dr. K.R. Bolton. World Government & The New World Order by Michael Howard. In Naming Names: Your Real Govern-ment, Tony Cartalucci exposes the organisations direct-ing government policies. David Icke tells us How the Bankers Engineered a Crisis And Made You Pay For It. Ellen Brown reveals the Secretive Plan to Create a Global Central Bank & Currency. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey examines the Western propaganda machine in Media Manipulation: The Factory of Consent. Plus much more...

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CONSPIRACIES, SECRET AGENDAS & THE NEW WORLD ORDER

Find out more at our websites www.newdawnmagazine.comwww.facebook.com/NewDawnMagazine

What if an anarchy-ridden post-2012

apocalypse society could be shown to

stand no real chance of survival, whereas a tightly-controlled

disciplinarian civilisation would?


Do those calling the shots have the moral compass to carry such a huge responsibility? Can they serve as the gods they are setting themselves up to be? In a society of angels, perhaps a charter of rigid regu-lation, surveillance and genetic population control could be applied with compassion and the wide agreement of a common consensus – but we are nowhere near such a state of being. With the motivation of those governing our world today clearly in question, it seems impossible that the kinds of agendas many feel the ruling elite is implementing could work in any way other than being a simple attack on the larger percentage of humankind. Without common consen-sus, whatever the supposedly good intentions that might exist somewhere behind the plans, any attempt to regulate the world by coercion and draconian measures remains an immoral one.

Inherent deception The problem with global cover-ups is that they arrive and build up – as deception does so often for all of us – through a lack of honesty largely sparked by the fear of what people might think or do if they were to perceive the true vulner-ability within. The elite appears to fear us and our reactions as much as we may fear it – otherwise it would not need to manipulate and control. Many disingenuous actions are borne of inner psychosis; a lack of trust that other people will understand. Our leaders appear to have got so used to playing deceptive games that they cannot now operate any other strategy. Everything from the banking system to Parliamentary administration appears to be based on subter-fuge. Right now we are clearly not trusted by those affecting our lives so strongly and as a result we do not trust them. Not that some of the elite would be remotely bothered about what any of us thinks of their actions. For those who may feel that caveats to explain such motivation is too generous to people who maim, kill and deceive to get their way, for whatever reason, it should be noted that there do also appear to be those pulling the strings who simply seek power for power’s sake. The lessons of history tell us that selfishness, greed and excited bloodlust cannot be ruled out as prime movers in some cases, at least. And, to acknowl-edge the not-insubstantial suspicion of a ‘reptilian agenda’, if

it were to turn out that this highly exclusive club was indeed the result of a dominating extra-terrestrial gene seeded ae-ons ago (as some believe, based on ancient myths) and being exploited and/or activated by celestial visitors today, then it admittedly might explain why concern for the needs of humanity appears to be as low down the list of its priorities as our general concern for the welfare of livestock is today. As for what kind of people may comprise the global elite, the well-intentioned and the not-so well-intentioned, most likely we are largely dealing with high-ranking politi-cians, academics, intellectuals (as with Wells and Russell), monarchies, and very rich and influential families – with a mixture of political, religious and occult undercurrents. In other words, all the obvious candidates. Numerous books and websites go into the detail, so there is little need to ex-plore it here. How much of the grand plan all of them know, however, and whether there are pyramids-within-pyramids amongst even the power structures near the top, is another matter.

Factions Within Factions The presumption is often made that the very existence of a ruling elite means that those involved must be all-powerful and of one mind, accurately manipulating domino events that hit the required spot every time, all to a predetermined agenda. But this may apportion them an unwarranted infal-libility. There is evidence to show that there are factions and disputes within the echelons of those with great influence over our lives. After all, the world is a big and complex place. Even with a general agreement on how it should move forward, the pressures of regional needs and personal biases are almost certain to blur the clarity of purpose from time to time. Going on the word that does sneak out from Bilderberg meetings and the suchlike, it seems that as many disagree-ments, compromises and negotiations arise there as within any supposedly democratic Parliament. If this weren’t the case, the meetings would not presumably need to take place, so pre-orchestrated would the scheming be. As with Masonic and other secret society structures, there is also a pecking order to consider. It is doubtful that all those ‘in’ on a global conspiracy seeking centralised control would be party to every machination, and certain players may themselves be manipulated from within without realising it. From the outside, for example, it appears that British ex-prime minister Gordon Brown, for all his many references to creating a ‘New World Order,’ seemed destined to be a fall-guy from the start, set up to come to power just as the world economy took a tumble. The question is, did Brown know the full plan? Was he someone faithfully play-ing a game with a known outcome of outward failure, while secretly ensuring success in an agenda of weakening the UK on the world stage to quicken a move towards One World Government? Or did he cling on in the genuine belief that all would come right and that he would one day be hailed as a political hero? Likewise, when Bill Clinton found himself under threat of impeachment following the Monica Lewinsky sex


scandal, was this all part of a contrived drama, or a sign of factions within factions very genuinely trying to remove him after an unplanned gaffe? And did Richard Nixon go rogue or was he just playing a pre-auditioned role? On a smaller level, when a man in the crowd died after being pushed to the ground by a policeman during the 2009 G20 protests in London, it took all the seemingly contrived focus away from images of a few people smashing a bank window, and suddenly all the headlines became howls about police brutality. Was this an ongoing twist to deliber-ately stir civil unrest or was it (as many suspect) something going unexpectedly wrong and changing the script? Does every war and false-flag terror attack really go to plan, or is there as much ‘cock-up’ involved as conspiracy? How organised, then, is this global elite, and is it really as united as some truth seekers give credit for? The evi-dence suggests that there are chinks in the armour and disagreements within, and weaknesses and unpredictable ele-ments always arise in any grand plan. This offers hope. The foibles of human nature and the sheer universality of chaos theory may ensure that unexpected events and peculiar side tracks undermine

the apparent solidity of the control agenda just when they are least expected. We could therefore be dealing with some-thing far less coordinated than feared – indeed, the wide truth seeker presumption of the elite’s potency may make it seem more of a problem than it really is. But can we take the chance of becoming complacent? It is clear that certain events and trends do seem to be

part of an unfolding pattern that sug-gests an attempt to engineer a mandate for centralised power. Whilst we must not become petrified into inaction by this, nor, however, should we take the opposite risk of assuming there is no real threat, even if the conspirators are found to be less competent than some believe. Either way, it is important at the very least to call attention to the appall-ing deeds committed by those at least trying to be an all-powerful force.

Consent by Apathy If plans for world domination are be-ing laid on any level, a simple fact needs to be recognised – that it only goes on

because we collectively allow it. Even with obvious govern-mental deceptions such as the weapons of mass destruction debacle in Iraq, such things only continue to occur as widely

It is clear that certain events and

trends do seem to be part of an

unfolding pattern that suggests an

attempt to engineer a mandate for

centralised power.


ANDy ThoMAS is a leading researcher into unexplained mysteries and is the author of the acclaimed The Truth Agenda (Vital Signs Publishing, 2009, revised 2011). His many other books include Vital Signs, described widely as the definitive guide to crop circles. Andy also edited Geoff Stray’s seminal Beyond 2012. Andy extensively writes and lectures, and has made numerous radio and TV appearances around the world. For further information, visit www.truthagenda.org.

as they do because too few people stand solidly against them or fully call their leaders to account. We have allowed apathy and the distractions of (apparent) comfort, trivia and entertainment to hold us in our armchairs in the hope that anything dark ‘out there’ will remedy itself in due course, without our input, energetically or even electorally (voter turnouts for Western elections, whatever they are worth, are generally perilously low). By having become so disconnected with what goes on around us in our names, we have not stood up in our collec-tive power – and are therefore as responsible as any global elite for having created the world we live in today. With the consent granted by our passivity, we have watched obvious lies and manipulations take away our strength, resolve and liberty, and have done little or nothing about it. As such, we have given away our personal responsibility. The energy spent complaining loudly but emptily in the pub or bus queue about the shortcomings of today’s society, if applied in more proactive and positive directions, could be used to offset the very things being complained about. The problem is that we have been trained to think that we cannot make a difference – when, in truth, we can, especially when we match the tangible power of the collective mind with the practical rewards of direct action, as I explore more in The Truth Agenda.

speaking out Much of the awakening process that HAS begun has come from the kind of people drawn to be part of the truth seeking community. Unfortunately, their often unseen ef-forts are generally rewarded by undeserved ridicule and sidelining by a culture that has shut its eyes and ears to anything but the skewed vision it is fed by those who prefer to keep us dumb. People who question the status quo are easily neutered in the mainstream by being branded with false ‘wacko’ stereotypes created by a media that is all too often either itself controlled, fearful or just lazily stupid. Truth seeker enthusiasm does allow things to spill over into fanaticism and lack of discernment sometimes, no doubt, but the fact is that there are also absolutely vital questions and observations being raised by very reasonable, normal people, which could make a real and positive difference to people’s lives – if ever given a chance. It doesn’t take long for the average person to see through manipulation once obvious anomalies are pointed out.

Assuming the masses will always be dumb may be an ar-rogant and huge mistake on the part of our masters. When discussed in an accessible and objective way, the concept of a ruling global elite, which believes that some kind of catastrophic cosmological or climatic change may be immi-nent and has thus been implementing a regime of draconian restrictions by nefarious means to ensure it retains control during and after the chaos, is nowhere near as far-fetched as it may at first seem. It can all be made to sound cred-ible when expressed in balanced tones, and when sensible evidence is presented. Tones are important. Extreme conspiracy dogma, pas-sionately but indiscriminately shouted, can repel poten-tial support and plays into the hands of the mainstream’s characterisation of all alternative thinkers as uneducated fanatics. Those with the power of insight who can rise above this have a responsibility to convey a user-friendly overview of the control agenda. Successful outreach requires initial moderation – and compassion. Newcomers can be confused by all the many complex sources of information out there, and may shrink from the at-first disturbing idea of a manipu-lative ruling elite if not properly approached. The uncertain era we live in now, with glimpses of the truth shining in through the cracks, provides a unique opportunity for those with the insights to offer another view of the world – while they can. There may be more than one reason why a world of cen-tralised control would be desired by a ruling elite, and we cannot fully presume to understand from the outside. But no strategy that imposes an undeclared agenda without trans-parency or choice can be right, and any regime of under-hand manipulation must be resisted. To resist successfully, however, those with awareness must hold on to optimism and strike an appropriate tone if they are to be listened to and people awakened so that a self-elected and questionable minority’s vision for the world is not allowed to ride rough-shod over the needs of everyday people. No elite, of any kind, can be infallible, and this offers true hope for the future – if enough people can rise above their fears and speak out, loudly and clearly.

s Adapted from The Truth Agenda by Andy Thomas (Vital Signs Publishing 2009, revised 2011)


© By RoBERT BAuvAl & ThomAs BRophy, ph.d.

Relegated to the realm of archaeological heresy, despite a wealth of hard scientific evidence, the theory that an advanced civilisation of black Africans settled in the Sahara long before Pharaonic Egypt existed has been dismissed and even condemned by conventional Egyptolo-gists, archaeologists, and the Egyptian government. Uncovering compelling new evi-dence, Egyptologist Robert Bauval and astrophysicist Thomas Brophy present the anthropological, climatological, archaeological, geological, and genetic research supporting this hugely debated theory of the black African origin of Egyptian civilisation. In their new book Black Genesis: The prehistoric origins of Ancient Egypt, published by Bear & Company, the authors show how the early black culture known as the Cattle People not only domesticated cattle but also had a sophisticated grasp of astronomy; created plentiful rock art at Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uwainat; had trade routes to the Mediter-ranean coast, central Africa, and the Sinai; held spiritual and occult ceremonies; and constructed a stone calendar circle and megaliths at the ceremonial site of Nabta Playa reminiscent of Stonehenge, yet much older. Revealing these “Star People” as the true founders of ancient Egyptian civilisation, their book threatens a rewriting of history, placing black Africa back in its rightful place as a centre of civilisational impulse. In cooperation with the authors and the publisher, new dawn is pleased to publish the following extracts from Black Genesis: The prehistoric origins of Ancient Egypt.

From the Introduction:

This book is the product of a deep and strong desire to use the best of our

intellect, knowledge, and abili-ties to put right an issue that has long beleaguered historians and prehistorians alike: the vexed question of the Black African origins of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. In spite of many clues that have been in place in the past few decades, which strongly favour a Black African origin for the pharaohs, many scholars and especially Egyp-tologists have either ignored them, confused them, or, worst of all, derided or scorned those who entertained them. It is not our business to know whether such an attitude is a form of academic racism or simply the blinkered way of looking at evidence to

which some modern Egyptology has become accustomed, but whatever the cause, this issue has remained largely unresolved. We first came across this inherent bias and prejudice against African origins of the Egyptian civilisation in the debate – more of an auto-dafé really – against the Black Af-rican professor Cheikh Anta Diop, who, in 1954, published his thesis Nation Négre et Culture, which argued a Black African origin for the Egyptian civilisation. Anta Diop was both an eminent anthropologist and a highly respected physicist, and as such, he was armed with an arsenal of cutting-edge science as well as the use of the latest technol-ogy in radiocarbon dating and biochemistry to determine the skin colour of ancient mummies and corpses by analys-ing their content of melanin, a natural polymer that regulates pigmentation in humans.

Black GenesisThe Prehistoric origins

of Ancient Egypt


Yet in spite of his careful scientific approach, the Egyp-tian authorities refused to provide Anta Diop with skin samples of royal mummies, even though only minute quanti-ties were required, and they pilloried and shunned him at a landmark symposium in Cairo in 1974 on the origins of ancient Egyptians. Diop died in 1986, his mission not fully accomplished. Fortunately, however, the debate on African origins was quickly taken up by Professor Martin Bernal, who, in 1987, published a three-volume opus, Black Athena, that flared even further the already-heated debate. Bernal, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at Cornell University, was the grandson of the eminent Egyptologist Sir Alan Gardiner, yet this did not prevent Egyptologists from attacking him with even more vehemence than they had his Black African predecessor Anta Diop. Even though there is still much controversy surrounding the origins of the ancient Egyptian civilisation, we can now say with much evidence driven conviction that its origins have their genesis with a Black Afri-can people who inhabited the Sahara thousands of years before the rise of the pharaonic civilisation. In this book we present hard scientific evidence and cogent argu-ments that have been culled from the latest findings and discoveries made in the Egyptian Sahara during the past four decades. We have consult-ed the publications of eminent an-thropologists, paleoanthropologists, paleoclimatologists, paleopatholo-gists, genetic scientists, archaeolo-gists, archaeoastronomers, geolo-gists, and even reports from daring desert explorers such as Mark Borda, Carlo Bergmann, and Mahmoud Marai, who have all contributed to showing that this specific region of the world was the crucible of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. In researching this book, we have used the best and latest research accredited to experts and scholars, and we have also provided extensive notes in order for the reader to trace this source material for further reading. In addition, we have specifically used our own tool kit and method, which entails the application of the science of astronomy to interpret the alignments of complex megalithic structures, pyramids, and temples, as well as extracting the astronomical content in an-cient Egyptian texts and tomb drawings. To phrase it another way, we have coaxed the silent, ancient stones to reveal their secrets with the universal language of the sky…

From Chapter I, section In Comes Archaeoastronomy:

In the past forty years or so there has been a growing interest in the new scientific field of archaeoastronomy, which, according to one school of thought, is defined as

the study of the astronomies, astrologies, and cosmologies, as well as the alignments of monuments and buildings of ancient cultures…. A sort of stillborn precursor of modern archaeoas-tronomy can be found in the turbulent intellectual milieu that swirled through the French intelligentsia at the turn of the nineteenth century after Napoleon, in 1799, took a cadre of top scientists and scholars along with his army on their adventurous military campaigns through Egypt. Napoleon also took along artists to record the journeys in sketches. One such artist, Vivant Denon, was fascinated by a zodiac sculpted onto the ceiling of a temple at Dendera. In Paris, Denon published as a book his sketch of the Dendera zodiac along with an account of his travels, and it became a huge

bestseller in both France and Eng-land. In the important scientific and scholarly societies of Paris there arose a protracted and very active debate focusing on attempts to date the Dendera zodiac. One camp was composed of scientific luminaries of the time, many of whose names are familiar to any student of sci-ence today. These scientists often gathered at the home of the Marquis de LaPlace. Particularly active in the Dendera zodiac debate were physicists Jean-Baptiste Biot and Joseph Fourier, astronomer Johan Karl Burckhardt, and his engineer partner Jean-Baptiste Coraboeuf. The approach that all in this camp followed in order to attempt to date the zodiac was to match calcula-tions of the astronomical precession of the equinoxes with the images of constellations on the Dendera zodiac. They followed the reasoning

of pre–French Revolutionary scholar Charles Dupuis, who had based his study of the origins of religion on interpreting religious mythologies in astronomical terms…. Stirring even more the turbulence of the debate was that many French intellectuals, such as Dupuis, had little use for biblical fundamentalism, while others believed all scholar-

Professor Cheikh Anta Diop (1923–86)

Photo captions for right page:

(Top left) The Dendera Zodiac

(Top right) Detail of domestic scene in the “Mark Borda Cave.”

(Middle) Thomas Brophy (left) and Robert Bauval at the Uwainat Inscriptions, April 2008.

(Bottom) Bauval and Marai examine newly discovered cave art in April 2008, near Jebel Uwainat, the “Mark Borda Cave.”

Note that the back wall of the cave appears to be constructed of megalithic blocks.

(Photos courtesy of the authors)

Continued on page 19...




ship should be firmly based on interpreting biblical Mosaic (emphasising the Books of Moses) chronology. One of these was the young Jean-Francois Champollion. Meanwhile, a French antiquities collector named Saulni-er had dispatched a master stonemason named Lelorrain on an expedition to Dendera to steal the zodiac. After using stone saws and chisels and finally dynamite, Lelorrain man-aged to cart the remains of the temple ceiling back to Paris. These remains, however, did not include the parts of the ceiling that ended up winning the Dendera zodiac debates. In September 1822, Champollion, after years of poverty-stricken excruciating efforts, finally cracked the code for how to decipher hieroglyphs. Champollion first deciphered the cartouches that contain royal names. (A cartouche is an oval enclosure in which the name of a pharaoh is inscribed. Only a king’s name can be written within a cartouche.) Among the first cartouches he deciphered were those next to the Dendera zodiac. There he read the ancient Greek word for “ruler,” thus dating the construction of the zodiac ceiling to the Ptolemaic period and winning the debate for the side of the philologists, who could happily boot the physicists and astronomers out of the circle of those consid-ered able to offer legitimate authority about antiquity. Yet in what must be one of the great ironies of history, in 1828, when Champollion had the resources finally to mount his own expedition and he arrived at Dendera to see his famous cartouches, he was horrified to find them empty. They never had contained any hieroglyphs, no royal names at all…

About the bombshell 2007 discovery at Jebel Uwainat, section Pharaonic Inscriptions! A Cartouche of a King!:

By November 27, Marai and Borda had already been walking and searching for nine days. On that day, just as they were about to arrive back at camp for

lunch, Borda scanned with his powerful binoculars the last remaining section of boulders that lay strewn on a slope. They were in a region at the southern rim of Jebel Uwainat – which is some 50 kilometres (about 31 miles) into Sudanese territory – an area into which it is dangerous to venture. (In September 2008 a group of Italian tourists was kidnapped at Jebel Uwainat by rebels, and they endured a two-week ordeal before they were freed after a gunfight between the rebels and the Egyptian military.) As Borda panned with his binoculars, he suddenly saw an unmistakable shape on the

surface of one of the larger boulders some 100 metres (about 328 feet) from where he stood. It was a shape that he had seen many times before – but only hundreds of kilometres from Jebel Uwainat. He exclaimed to Marai in disbelief, “There is a pharaon-ic cartouche on that boulder!” As he moved closer, focusing his eyepiece with growing excitement, he began to see hi-eroglyphic inscriptions inside and outside the cartouche (see plate 3 in Black Genesis). The two men could barely contain their excitement, for there it was, after decades of specula-tion, incontestable evidence that the ancient Egyptians man-aged to reach this remote place after all! The whole geogra-phy of ancient Egypt suddenly changed before their eyes…

From Chapter 4, Section Sirius, the Circumpolar Stars, and Orion:

We now felt that we were in a good position to integrate our and the CPE’s [Combined Prehistoric Expedition] field findings and derive from them the

most robust interpretation that fits the context of Nabta Playa. The findings that emerge from this integrated analysis are: 1. There are at least nine megaliths that form the three lines – A1, A2, and A3 – that point north. These track the star Dubhe in the Big Dipper over a considerable period of time. 2. There are at least six megaliths that form lines B1 and B2 pointing southeast. These track the bright star Sirius at two epochs. 3. Sirius also coordinated simultaneously with the star Dubhe in the Big Dipper so that their alignments formed an approximate 90-degree angle. (This curious connection also had been noted by Wendorf and Malville; they commented that the megalith builders of Nabta Playa had “a fascination with right angles.”) This possible simultaneous observation of Sirius in the east and the star Dubhe in the north was of particular inter-est, because we know from our studies of ancient Egypt that the very same simultaneous observation of Sirius and Dubhe was performed in the alignment rituals of pyramids and temples since the beginning of the pharaonic civilisation. This encouraged us to test for the simultaneous observa-tion of Sirius and Dubhe at Nabta Playa, where we found a remarkably accurate and consistent repetition of this pat-tern of observation. Indeed, an observer at Nabta Playa in about 4500 BCE would have noted immediately that the stars Dubhe and Sirius could be aligned simultaneously with megalith lines A1 and B1, for precisely when Sirius appeared to rise on the eastern horizon and was thus aligned with megalith line B1, the star Dubhe could be seen in the northern sky, directly above megalith line A1…

About our (first ever) look at the astronomy of the very remote “Bagnold’s Circle”, section Bagnold Circle:

We next headed southwest into the deep, open desert. Our destination was a mysterious stone circle discovered in 1930 by Ralph Alger Bag-

nold and thus known as Bagnold Circle. The stone circle was poorly documented and very little was known about it,

Photo captions for left page:

(Far left) Brophy and Bauval at Bagnold Circle, sunset (bottom), and sunrise (top).

(Left) Brophy with shaped megalith from “Complex Structure A” at Nabta Playa (inset) and satellite image of the detritus left after

excavation of the megalithic structure.

(Far left bottom) Thomas Brophy with aligned megalith AO, one of the few megaliths still standing in original position at Nabta

Playa, 2003.

(Bottom left) Discovery of an engraved, solstice-aligned arrow, together with possible prehistoric proto-writing, Jebel Uwainat.

(Photos courtesy of the authors)


but photographs encouraged us to suppose that it, too, like the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa, could be some sort of prehistoric astronomical device. It took us two days of gruelling travel in some of the most desolate places we had ever seen to reach Bagnold Circle. We wondered how Ralph Bagnold, in those days with vehicles that must have been very primitive by comparison, managed to come here through this testing terrain. Bagnold, who was a veteran of trench warfare in World War I, became a pioneer of deep desert exploration – especially, of the Sahara – throughout the 1930s. During World War II he was chosen to lead the British army’s Long Range Desert Group. He was also a physicist who contributed valuable knowledge of the physics of blown sand, which is still used in planetary science research today. He is credited with developing, for desert exploration, a sun compass that was not affected by magnetic anomalies. Bagnold’s early expeditions in the Egyptian Sahara were in search of the fabled lost city of Zarzoura… As we approached Bagnold Circle, we were keenly aware that no studies of its possible astronomical alignments had ever been conducted. As Wendorf, Schild, and Malville wrote in 2008, “...a well-known stone circle was discovered by Bagnold (1931 [sic]) in the Libyan Desert.... No evidence of astronomical orientations had been reported, and none is readily discernible in photographs of the circle.” Because of its incredible remoteness, few people have actually seen Bagnold Circle, let alone studied it in detail on location... Bagnold Circle lies in a shallow basin, probably an ancient seasonal lake similar to the one at Nabta Playa. The physical features we noted first were two prominent, upright, and elongated stones (very reminiscent of the gate stones of the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa) that defined an east-west alignment. One of these stones on the west side was white, and the stone on the eastern side was black, which may indicate a symbolic significance of some sort… [with] our GPS we took readings of this alignment as well as readings for the north-south alignment, which also had at each end a very dark-coloured stone, nearly black, and a very light-coloured stone, nearly white. The conditions of the stones suggest extreme age: they have been deeply scoured by millennia of wind erosion. Some of the stones have suffered such extreme erosion that their tops have fallen off and are still on the ground where they fell. Notwithstanding this erosion, the circle is remarkably well preserved, considering its vast age. The two alignments – east-west and north-south – strongly imply an astronomical function for the Bagnold Circle. Another clue are twenty-eight stones that form the circumference of the circle, which is not only implicit of the lunar phase cycle of 29.5 days but, more important for us, also brought to our attention a clear connection to the Calendar Circle at Nabta Playa, which also had twenty-eight stones around its cir-cumference. We also noted that north of the circle there was

an elongated low hill that suggests observation of the low northern sky, possibly for marking the passage of a circum-polar constellation or star. One of the most nagging questions that constantly comes to mind in this totally desolate and extremely remote place of the Egyptian Sahara is this: Why build anything here at all? What could have influenced the ancient people who roamed the deep desert to go to the trouble of constructing a stone circle in the middle of nowhere and, furthermore, to align it to the four cardinal directions? The answer, ironically enough, may actually be that they did so because of the location itself – or, to be more specific, of the latitude of the place. Today Bagnold Circle is approximately 23.5 degrees north and just a fraction north of the Tropic of Cancer. Using the circle’s precise latitude and checking the earth’s ancient obliquity at various epochs, we found out that from 13,110 BCE to 1490 BCE, the circle

was located just south of the Tropic of Cancer. This means that within that range of epochs the sun passed directly overhead exactly at the zenith a few days before and a few days after the summer solstice. This time of year was when the monsoon rains started drenching the desert and may be a reason – though perhaps not the only reason – for locating the stone circle here. We can recall from chapter 2 that in 1999 Carlo Bergmann discovered the Abu Ballas Trail, an ancient donkey trail that ran across the 500 kilometres (311 miles) of waterless desert between the Dakhla oasis and Gilf Kebir. Al-though anthropologists and Egyptolo-

gists have agreed that this trail was used by ancient Egyp-tians of the late Old Kingdom, Bergmann believes it was used as early as the Late Neolithic, about 5500–3400 BCE. Bagnold Circle is located a bit west of this trail, and it is quite possible that it served as a point for a shortcut route to Gilf Kebir, perhaps by the same Neolithic people who once populated Gilf Kebir and Jebel Uwainat…

From Chapter 5, section Ham, Son of Noah:

In Egyptology, we frequently come across the term Hamites in connection with the origins of the ancient Egyptians. As we attempt to understand why and how

the Hamites are associated with the ancient Egyptians, we are often led to the Bible and the story of Noah and his sons. In the Book of Genesis, Ham is one of the sons of Noah. Ham’s children are Mizraim, Cush, Put, and Canaan, but in the Bible the names of Ham’s children are also used to de-note geographical places: Egypt (Mizraim), Ethiopia (Cush), Libya (Put), and Palestine (Canaan). Many biblical scholars have proposed that the name Ham meant, in ancient Hebrew, “black” and “hot,” implying that the Land of Ham was a warm, tropical region populated by Black people. The Land of Ham is thus often said to be that part of the world we call Black Africa (what has been

It took us two days of gruelling travel in some of the most desolate

places we had ever seen to reach

Bagnold Circle.


thought of as sub-Saharan Africa). Naturally, as has always been the case with the etymology of Hebrew words in the Bible, there is a heated debate over whether this interpreta-tion is correct, because in Genesis 9:20-25 another story is told of how Noah, while tending his vineyard, became drunk and fell asleep naked in his tent, and then Ham did some-thing unspeakable to him, whereupon Noah cursed Ham through Ham’s youngest son, Canaan. This so-called Curse of Ham (also known as the Curse of Canaan) has generated, as we might expect, all sorts of debate and various interpre-tations among fundamentalists of the Bible as well as racists. To confound the issue even further, in the Bible the Land of Ham is also unequivocally associated with the land of the pharaohs – that is, Egypt, the traditional enemy of Israel: “Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham” (Psalm 105:23) and “They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, awesome things by the Red Sea” (Psalm 106:21). As we have just seen, in the Bible, the land of Egypt is also known as Mizraim, the name of one of Ham’s sons. By implication, then, we can see how biblical literalists might conclude that the Egyptians were the descendants of Ham. At any rate, we can see all these biblical interpretations as fuelling the never-ending conflict between Israel and Egypt – a conflict that supposedly started with the Jews in captiv-ity in Egypt at the time of Rameses II (ca. 1290 BCE) and ended in 1979 with the fragile peace treaty between Israel and Egypt – the so-called Heskem HaShalom Bein Yisrael Le Mizraim. We can note that even today Jews refer to Egypt as Mizraim. Indeed, the Egyptians themselves call Egypt Mizr, clearly a derivative of Mizraim. Of course, biblical stories are not scientific evidence…

From section, Consolidating the Evidence:

Other than the visual evidence of prehistoric rock art at Uwainat and Gilf Kebir, we will also see here and in chapter 6 that there is even more supporting

evidence of a Black African origin in further analysis of the astronomical alignments at Nabta Playa and other prehis-toric sites in the Egyptian Sahara…. Michal Kobusiewicz and Romuald Schild are both renowned anthropologists who have studied Nabta Playa under the aegis of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnol-ogy of the Polish Academy of Sciences. After pointing out that the ancient Egyptian pharaonic state was formed around 3300 BCE, they commented that “we already know that soon after this date, drought forced the [Nabta Playa] herds-men to abandon their lands... and so where might they have gone, if not to the relatively close Nile Valley? They brought with them the various achievements of their culture and their belief system. Perhaps it was indeed these people who provided the crucial stimulus towards the emergence of state organisation in ancient Egypt.” Schild and Kobusiewicz also call “these people” pre-historic herdsmen, prehistoric pastoralists, Neolithic cattle herders, and sub-Saharans. The term Black, however, is clearly avoided…

From Chapter 6 [Sections about Imhotep, the calendar, and Nabta Playa], The Cattle and the Star Goddesses:

We in the modern world consider the Year Zero of our calendar to be the presumed birth of Jesus, which, today, is thought to have been 2,010 years

ago. This, however, is purely an arbitrary date. Indeed many other people – such as the Muslims, the Jews, the Chinese, and the Japanese – had (and some still have) other Year Zeroes for their own calendars. Usually, years are num-bered from the date of a historical person, either an ancient person, as in the case of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian calendars, or a sequence of emperors, as in ancient China or modern Japan, where legal documents are dated “year Heisei 22.” When was the Year Zero of the ancient Egyp-tians? How can we calculate its date? This is where we can note an interesting issue regarding study of the drift of the civil calendar relative to the heliacal rising of Sirius…. At the reception area at Saqqara, Imhotep is given a

In 1994, Bauval published The Orion Mystery, which presented his theory to the general public. The book, which has been the subject of numerous television documentaries, caused quite a stir at the time of its

publication and is still the subject of much controversy. More recently, in his book The Egypt Code, Bauval puts forward the final conclusion that the Giza pyramids may

have been modeled on an image of Orion’s belt not at the time of their presumed construction in ca. 2500 BCE, but at a much earlier time, ca. 11,450 BCE. In other words, in deciphering the astronomy embedded in the design of the Giza pyramids, we can note the locking of two dates: 2500 BCE, which marks the time of construction, and ca. 11,500 BCE, which marks the significant time that might allude to the First Time – Zep Tepi. (From Black Genesis, 242-243)


Egyptian-born RoBERT BAUVAL began studying Egyptology in 1983. His first book, The Orion Mystery, was published in 1994, becoming a number-one bestseller translated into more than 25 languages. His research has been featured in documentaries throughout the world. He lives in Torremolinos, Spain. His website is www.robertbauval.co.uk.

ThoMAS BRoPhy, Ph.D., is an astrophysicist who has worked with NASA, including as a member of the Voyager II spacecraft instrument teams. The author of several books, including The Origin Map, and numerous published articles in scientific journals, he lives in Encinitas, California. His website is www.thomasgbrophy.com.

place of honour, and there are several statues represent-ing this Leonardo da Vinci of the ancient world. His name, titles, and functions are attested on the pedestal of a statue of King Djoser. As we have seen, it seems certain that a cal-endar based on the heliacal rising of Sirius was used since earliest time in Egypt and was referred to sometimes as the Sothic calendar. It also seems certain that this calendar was eventually formally adopted by the Heliopolitan priests, who pinned it to their own newly devised civil calendar, when a Sothic cycle was made to begin with the New Year’s Day of 1 Thoth. It is thus quite possible that it was Imhotep who introduced the Sothic calendar based on the cycles of Sirius, or, as we now strongly suspect, merely formalised it from an earlier calendar that was already in place with the prehis-toric star people of Nabta Playa. At any rate, much evidence supports the view that a Sothic calendar ran parallel to a civil calendar so that they both resynchronised every 1,460 years – that is, every Sothic cycle. According to the science historian Gerald J. Whitrow, “there is reason to associate this with the minister of king Djoser of the Third Dynasty known as Imhotep.” Bearing this in mind and also recalling that Imhotep was the architect of the very first pyramid complex in Egypt, we would expect to find some indication of the Sothic cycle in the design of his masterpiece, the step pyramid complex at Saqqara…

From Chapter 4, Section More Mysteries at Nabta Playa:[a footnote about our method and perspective]

When some important and new discovery such as Nabta Playa might put into serious question the established views about the origins of civilisa-

tion, there is a tendency to wait until a suitable theory can be developed before releasing any data about the discovery.

The problem with this is that sometimes the data that fits an established theory is regarded as more valuable than myste-rious new data that contradicts it.* Others, like us, take an opposing view. We see the mys-terious, unexplained data as more valuable, because if we try to understand the mystery, we might learn something new. To us that is what scientific research is – or ought to be – all about. In this frame of mind, then, we will look in more detail at some mysterious aspects of Nabta Playa in the hope that such an approach might shed even more light on this mysterious place…

* This attitude perhaps harks back to premodernity, which was characterised socio-culturally by often prerational and fused (or predifferentiated) notions of the dualities of theory versus meas-urement, mind versus matter, inner versus outer, religion versus science. Modernity is characterised by a radical differentiation of these dualities. That differentiation is the wonderful essence of the Scientific Revolution and the Renaissance. Postmodernity, which is only beginning to activate in our culture, is characterised by fully rational operation, a complete appreciation for the modern and Renaissance differentiation of the inner and the outer, the spiritual and the material – and an awareness of the value of both aspects of those dualities and a movement toward a reintegration, at a fully differentiated level, into a new, whole conception of those duali-ties. Scholarly argument must still operate generally in terms of modernity, because this is how the majority culture operates... on a good day, that is. Obviously, vast portions of our culture still oper-ate in the premodern and prerational modes.

s Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt is avail-able from all good bookstores or visit www.newdawnreviews.com.


By RIChARd smolEy

Soon after George W. Bush was inaugurated for the first time as president of the United States, I thought I would cast a horoscope for his admin-istration. (He was inaugurated in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2001, at around 12:06 p.m.)

The horoscope had some strange aspects, including what astrologers call an afflicted Mars. “It looks like we’re going to go to war,” I thought. “But that’s ridiculous! Who are we going to go to war with?” The US had been at peace for nearly a decade, and no threats were in sight. But the threats, and the war, soon manifested themselves. This was not the first time that astrology cast light on the presidency of the younger George Bush. In the fall of 2000 astrologers could see that the US elections were due to take place when the planet Mercury was moving retrograde. This usually indicates delay, confusion, and sometimes deceit, and few astrologers would advise anyone to make a major decision under its influence. The week before the election, I received e-mails from astrologers suggesting that there would be some sort of problem with the electoral results, even possibly fraud. The excruciating aftermath of the bal-lot, in which the entire fate of a nation hung on a few hun-dred dubious votes in the state of Florida, proved them right. Even more peculiarly, Mercury was due to station (that is, stand still in the skies from the earth’s point of view) and go direct around 9:45 p.m. on election day Eastern time in the US. Watching the returns on television, I was struck by the fact that the networks, which had previously called the state of Florida for Bush’s opponent Al Gore, took that crucial state out of Gore’s column at almost exactly that time. In the summer of 2001, Pluto – the planet (or nonplanet) that could be described as the astrological wrecking-ball of the solar system – opposed Saturn, the planet of established structure. Astrologers knew that some sort of upheaval was due to take place, although it was far from clear what. Then the 9/11 disaster took place, which, for all the sorrow it caused, gave perfect expression to this aspect – particularly since Saturn was in the sign of Gemini the Twins at the time. It was weirdly appropriate that it was twin towers that were destroyed.

Another, more recent example from the US presidency: Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 took place when Mer-cury was retrograde, indicating, as we have already seen, delays and difficulties in communication. The planet’s influ-ence made itself felt in the swearing-in ceremony; the chief justice of the United States, whose duty it was to administer the oath, said it wrong. Although the ceremony went through as planned, for the sake of technicalities the oath had to be administered correctly the next day. And Obama’s entire administration has been plagued by difficulties in communi-cating its message to the public. From these cases and from instances in my own life, I no longer have any serious doubts about whether astrology works; to me it is obvious that it does. But why and how it works is a much more vexing question. Do the passages of planets in the sky somehow cause events on earth? If so, how?

Cosmic Connections

The Key to your Destiny?


Constant Conjunction It would be hard to answer this question without looking at causation, which is one of the most philosophically per-plexing issues of all time. We take it as obvious that every-thing has to have a cause. But it turns out that this supposed relationship of cause and effect is much more problematic than we usually admit.

One of the most influential discussions of this issue ap-pears in A Treatise of Human Nature, published in 1739-40 by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Hume begins by saying that as he looks over the whole range of things that are called causes, he can find no one characteristic they have in common. There are millions of things that are causes, but there is no one quality that all of them share; being a cause is not a property like colour or size or shape. Similarly with effects. He then goes on to say that cause and effect must therefore involve a relation. Its nature is this:

We remember to have had frequent instances of the existence of one species of objects; and also remember, that the individuals of another species of objects have always attended them, and have existed in a regular order of contiguity and succession with regard to them. Thus we remember to have seen that species of object we call flame, and to have felt that species of sensation we call heat. Without any farther ceremony, we call the one cause and the other effect, and infer the existence of the one from that of the other.... Thus in advancing we have insensibly discover’d a new relation betwixt cause and effect.... This relation is their CONSTANT CONJUNCTION.

For Hume, then, causation consists of nothing but “con-tiguity,” “succession,” and “constant conjunction.” Philoso-phers have objected to Hume’s argument. They have argued that not every cause immediately precedes its effect and that we sometime infer cause-and-effect relationships from one occurrence rather than many. Such objections are legitimate but not fatal, and Hume’s theory can be refined in order to cope with them. The human mind is sophisticated enough to infer, for example, that smoking is “constantly conjoined”

with lung cancer even though you never see a person smok-ing a cigarette and then immediately coming down with cancer. Practically all of our sense of causation does seem to come from this “constant conjunction,” even if cause and effect are separated by other things and events between. If you read a scientific paper today, you will probably find that it tacitly admits as much. It rarely says that X

caused Y. It is more likely to say that in, say, 80 percent of cases, X was correlated with Y. This is just another way of speaking of “constant con-junction.” I’ve digressed for so long on such an appar-ently unrelated topic because it bears heavily on the question of whether astrology is true or not. Skeptics claim that astrology cannot be true because there is no causal mechanism to explain it: the variations in known forces such as light or gravity from the planets are not enough to exert any kind of influence on us – or so it is argued. But this is fallacious on two counts. In the first place, there have been many instances in science when a correlation between events was noted before anyone knew of a mechanism that could explain it. In the second place, if all causal rela-tions are merely instances of what Hume called “constant conjunction,” then we could see the correlation between events in the heavens and

events on earth as just another instance of this conjunction. (For further discussion of causation, see chapter 4 of my book The Dice Game of Shiva.)

Correspondences Occultists, for their part, have long insisted that there is a rationale behind the conjunction of heavenly and earthly events. One of the most influential accounts appears in the seminal treatise De occulta philosophia (“On the Occult Philosophy”) of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, first published in 1533. Following ancient tradition, Agrippa posits three worlds or realms of existence: the intellectual, the celestial, and the natural, in this order. “Each one below is ruled by and receives an influx of power from the one above it, just as the Prototype and the highest Maker [i.e., God], through an-gels, heavens, stars, elements, animals, plants, metals, stones, pours forth his powers upon us. Through these servants he established and created all things.” This is known as the doctrine of correspondences, and there are very few magical systems that do not, in one way or another, make use of it. Hence the “intellectual” world – which is not intellectual in the conventional sense but is a dimension of archetypes and angels, the world of Plato’s Forms – pours out its influ-ence upon the realm of the heavens, the sun and moon and planets of our solar system. These in turn pour forth their influences upon us. Their relative positions – harmonious, mutable, or adverse – give rise to the innate tendencies of individuals or the outcomes of events on earth. The initial moment – whether it is the time a baby takes its first breath



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or a president takes the oath of office – is particularly sig-nificant for imprinting its influences, and it is this moment that astrologers look at. Sometimes an event, such as a wed-ding, can be scheduled to take advantage of these influences, and world leaders have been known to pay attention to them. Former US president Ronald Reagan was known to use an astrologer’s advice in scheduling meetings and appearances. Then-Treasury Secretary Donald Regan chafed at this, complaining that he had to follow a colour-coded calendar indicating good, bad, and iffy days for the president. In his memoirs Regan even claimed that Reagan’s astrologer chose the date for the 1985 Geneva summit with the Soviet Union. All of this suggests how the cycles of the planets are conjoined with events on earth. Particularly in the days when a geocentric view of the universe was predominant, the intricate relations between the three worlds of which Ag-rippa spoke were envisioned as a descent from the heavenly realm (associated with the fixed stars) through the zones of the planets down to earth. Many of the evils that we suffer in this life were attributed to their influence, and it was be-lieved that these influences only extended to the “sublunary” world – that is, life on planet earth. If it were possible to pass through the zone of the moon and the planets beyond it, one would be progressively freed of limitations and hardships. The Poimandres, a text in the Corpus Hermeticum, a series of treatises that encapsulate the ancient wisdom of Egypt, describes the ascent of the soul through these spheres:

Then the human being rushes up through the cosmic

framework, at the first zone [the moon] surrendering the energy of increase and decrease; at the second [Mercury], evil machination, a device now inactive; at the third [Venus] the illusion of longing, now inactive; at the fourth [the sun] the ruler’s arrogance, now freed from excess; at the fifth [Mars] unholy presumption and dar-ing recklessness; at the sixth [Jupiter] the evils that come from wealth, now inactive; at the seventh zone [Saturn] the deceit that lies in ambush. And then, stripped of the effects of the cosmic framework, the human enters the region of the ogdoad; he has his own proper power, and along with the blessed, he hymns the father. (Translated by Brian P. Copenhaver)

This is the process of ascent, associated with gnosis or illumination. The planets are pictured in terms of their nega-tive characteristics because in this context they are qualities of which the soul must divest itself. Incarnation, the descent of the soul to Earth, would follow exactly the opposite pattern. As it descends through these spheres, it takes on their colouration, including the influences that they happen to be manifesting at the time of birth. If Venus, the planet of love, is afflicted by Saturn, the planet of limitation, the individual will have difficulties in love. If Jupiter, the planet of abundance, is harmoniously as-pected, the individual has a good chance of enjoying wealth and honour. Today it is difficult to hold to this geocentric concep-tion in quite the way our ancestors did. Even though no human being has yet gone physically beyond the sphere of the moon, we can no longer imagine this ascent in nakedly spiritual terms, unlike the author of the Poimandres or for that matter Dante, whose Paradiso portrays the zones of the planets as levels of heaven, each one representing a higher and purer vision of the divine. In this situation it is helpful to remember that the ancient view of the heavens was a model of reality. Like all models, it is useful to explicate certain things but is in the end only a model. It emphasises certain aspects of the issue it is trying to portray while obscuring others.

The planets Within That’s why I think it would be useful to see astrology in the light of another model, one that is in many ways a mirror image that I’ve just briefly described. It is inspired by a Kab-balistic text called the Sefer Yetzirah, or “Book of Forma-tion.” The Sefer Yetzirah is an extremely brief book (only 1,200 words long in some recensions) and an extremely enigmatic one. Traditionally attributed to the patriarch Abraham, it is today thought to have been written sometime between the third and sixth centuries CE. It portrays a geometric schema of manifestation that is based on the Hebrew letters. It would take more space than I have here to describe the whole system of the Sefer Yetzirah. The passage that I want to focus on goes as follows:

Twelve simple letters were founded, decreed, carved, purified, balanced, confined, and formed in the twelve

Zodiacal Man from Art and Symbols of the Occult by James Wasserman. Certain parts of the body are ruled by specific zodiacal signs. We can picture the

astrological forces operating within ourselves.



While most people in the Western world are aware

of astrology, comparatively few know that other cultures have other systems of astrol-ogy. There are Chinese and Tibetan horoscopes, with their cycles of twelve signs going through years rather than months, so that the key to your character is the year, not the month, you were born in: the Year of the Dog, Dragon, Tiger, and so on. But the nation that prob-ably has the oldest and rich-est astrological tradition is India. Indian astrology bears some strong resemblances to its Western counterpart: the signs of the zodiac are more or less the same, as is the significance of the planets. (Indian astrology, however, uses only the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as the Sun and the Moon, in its analysis.) In India, however, astrology is taken much more seri-ously than in the West. Few Indian parents would seek marriage partners for their children without having an astrologer evaluate their horoscopes; a wedding in India may take place at a strange hour of the night because the astrologer has chosen it as the most auspicious time; and some affluent Indian women are choosing to have childbirth by cesarean section so that they can time the births and their children can be born under auspicious stars. Indian astrology is often called Vedic astrol-ogy because it is rooted in the ancient sacred texts called the Vedas, the oldest of which are dated to c.1500 BCE by conventional academics and to 2000 or 3000 BCE by alternative scholars. A Sanskrit name for Vedic astrology is Jyotish or Jyotisha, meaning “science of light.” One of the most striking ways in which Vedic as-trology differs from its Western counterpart is that it is sidereal rather than tropical. The tropical signs remain fixed throughout the centuries, whereas the constellations revolve in a long cycle sometimes called a Platonic year, lasting nearly 26,000 ordinary years. In c.2000 BCE, when the current Western astrological system was first devised by the Babylo-nians, the constellation of Aries was in the tropical sign of Aries, and, moreover, the spring equinox took place when the Sun was at 0 degrees of Aries

(March 21 in our calendar). But because the cycle of the Platonic year produces a phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes, the spring equinox took place in the sign of Pisces for approximately the last 2,000 years and is now beginning to move into the sign of Aquarius – hence the coming of the Age of Aquarius. Vedic astrologers do not use this tropical system; their horoscopes are based on the actual current positions of the zodiac constellations in the sky. Hence there is a discrepancy between the Vedic and Western systems,

amounting to approximately 23 degrees. That is, if the Sun in your natal chart is at 24 degrees of Sagittarius in Western terms, it will be at 1 degree of Sagittarius in your Vedic chart; and so on. Because this is almost equivalent to the number of degrees that a whole sign occupies (30 degrees), chances are your astrological birth sign will be different in your Vedic chart. Say you have your Sun at 13 degrees of Virgo, Western style; in that case it will be at (ap-proximately) 20 degrees of Leo in the Vedic system. While this may sound complex, with a computer a Vedic chart is no more difficult to compute than a Western one. Interpretation is another story. Ve-dic astrology is not necessarily more complex than Western astrology, but it is probably fair to say that the typical Vedic astrologer feels the need to look at the extended implications of the chart than the typical Western practitioner, who usually focuses on the birth chart and the current position of the planets in regard to it. Vedic astrology, by contrast, has over twenty subcharts called amshas or vargas, which provide insights into the subject’s chances of marriage, likely career, and degree of success in life. One amsha indicates the subject’s spiritual inclina-tion and capacity, while another, particularly impor-tant one called the navamsha addresses marriage, general life themes, and the second half of life. Yet another amsha is said to cast light on past lives and incarnations. While the intricacies of Vedic astrology would be difficult to fit even into a substantial book, much less a short article, some key things about it are worth noting. One important feature of Jyotish is

India’s Science of Light


the system of nakshatras. This is a series of 27 lunar houses that, much like the Sun sign in Western as-trology, gives crucial indications about character and fate. If your nakshatra is Rohini, for example, it is said that you will have an affectionate and truthful dispo-sition as well as an affinity for the arts, beauty, and culture. Bharani, by contrast, is favourable for com-petition and for activities regarding bold or aggres-sive action. Each day is also governed by a nakshatra, making it favourable for certain types of activity (or inactivity). Birth nakshatras are also important because they form the basis for computing dashas, planetary cycles in life. The complete cycle of the dashas is 120 years; within this, there are individual dashas of varying length. Each of these is ruled by a planet or luminary: Venus, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury, as well as Rahu, the north node of the Moon, and Ketu, the south node of the Moon. (These last two are not planets, but have many of the same functions as planets in the Vedic system.) The particular dasha that you are running at a given period in your life is likely to give a strong clue of your key concerns at that time. If you are in a Ve-nus dasha, you may be occupied with relationships and marriage; a Saturn dasha may indicate a time of sober responsibility. Whether these are fortunate or unfortunate will depend on the place of the planets in your chart; for most people most of the time, the influence of a dasha is likely to be mixed. These emphases mark another difference be-tween Vedic and Western astrology. Particularly since the twentieth century, Western astrology

has become reluctant to speak in terms of fate or destiny, preferring to describe a chart in terms of character tendencies and hesitating to make firm predictions about what will or will not happen to the subject. Vedic astrology has no such inhibitions. It is focused on what will happen to you in your life in very specific terms, and it purports to tell you when these things will come about. As such it can sound extremely fatalistic to the typical Westerner, and in truth Jyotish probably is more deterministic than the types of astrology that are most in vogue in the English-speaking world. But Vedic astrology is not fatalistic in the most negative sense. It does not encourage people to sit back in quietude and allow events to happen to them. Because it is rooted in the Vedic tradition, which is a whole system of knowledge that encom-passes all fields, it also points toward remedies. Someone in a highly unfavourable dasha may, for example, be told to chant certain mantras as a way of counteracting its influence. Other remedies in-clude ayurvedic medicine as well as certain religious rituals. Subjects have reported uncanny reversals in fortune (including cures of life-threatening diseases) as a result of carrying out these instructions. Gemstones are another popular way of coun-tering unfavourable planetary influences. David Frawley, an American practitioner of Jyotish, advises strengthening a weak Sun in your chart by wearing a ruby. The remedy won’t be cheap, though: the ruby “should be a minimum of two carats in size, set in gold of fourteen carats or more.... As a substitute, a good-quality garnet can be used, but it should be of at least three carats in size, preferably five.” Gemstones for other planets include pearls for the Moon, red coral for Mars, emeralds for Mercury, and diamonds for Venus. As with most forms of divination, there are dangers associated with Jyotish, especially if it is practiced with impure motivation. Ammachi (pic-tured top left), one of contemporary India’s most beloved gurus, has said that the coming of Jyotish to the West, while generally a positive development, has a dark side. The American Vedic astrologer Linda Johnsen quotes Ammachi as saying, “When a power-ful predictive system falls into the hand of a materi-alistic culture, the potential for abuse is enormous.... Astrologers concerned only with making money or gaining fame will not succeed. This is because it is not possible to do Vedic astrology properly without tapas (spiritual self-discipline). Real astrology lies beyond the calculations.”

– Richard Smoley

SOURCESDavid Frawley, Astrology of the Seers: A Guide to Vedic/Hindu Astrology, Twin Lakes, Wisc., U.S.: Lotus Press, 2000.

Linda Johnsen, A Thousand Suns: Designing Your Future with Vedic Astrology, St. Paul, Minn., U.S.: Yes International, 2004.


Zodiacal signs in the cosmos, twelve months in the year and twelve organs in the psyche of male and female. The twelve signs are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Can-cer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. The twelve months in the cycle of the [Jewish] year are Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Chesvan, Kislev and Tevet, Shvat and Adar. The twelve organs of the psyche of male and female are two hands, two legs, two kidneys, gall, small intestine, liver, gullet, stomach, spleen. (From an unpublished transla-tion by W.G. Davies and Gila Zur.)

What is striking about this passage is that it correlates the organs of the body to the twelve zodiacal signs. One might picture this correlation in terms of invisible strings connecting the organs in the body to the signs of the zodiac in the sky. But what if, instead of imag-ining the signs of the zodiac “out there” or “up there” in the sky, we picture them within ourselves? Then the physical or-gans of the body are only the outermost shell and lead within to an astral world (as it is called by many esotericists) that goes deep into the human psyche. This is at least as legitimate a picture of the esoteric worldview as the more familiar one of a hierarchy or ladder stretching from earth to heaven. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus cryptically said, “The way up and the way down are one and the same.” Maybe this was what he meant. By this view the planets are not “out there,” tenuously connected to us by in-visible threads. They are within us; they form a layer of the “psyche of man and woman” beneath and within the physi-cal organs, which are only the outermost manifestation of these forces. Old occult illustrations depict this insight with anatomical charts showing symbols of the planets or zodia-cal signs on the inner organs of the body (see illustration on page 26). These systems do not all agree. Different ones associate different organs or parts of the body with each of the signs of the zodiac. Nevertheless, the principle is the same. Elisabeth Vreede, a disciple of the Austrian esotericist Rudolf Steiner, writes, “The whole human being is born out of the cosmos. He or she builds himself or herself up from the forces of sun, moon, planets, and stars. The planets be-stow as their contribution what human beings carry within them as the seven ‘organs of life’ – the spleen, liver, heart, and so on.” (Unlike the Sefer Yetzirah, Vreede is connecting the organs with the planets rather than with the signs of the zodiac.) If this is true, then astrology works because the very stuff of which we are made – the organs of the body – are themselves crystallisations of, or encrustations around, certain planetary forces that make themselves manifest on earth. As we have seen, the occult literature hints that this is the case. But if there are any who understand this process in a clear or complete fashion, they are carefully keeping their knowledge secret.

An Inner Journey How, then, can one have an organic sense of these cos-mic dimensions within us? Here is a visualisation practice that may be helpful. In order to give full attention to the practice, you may find it easiest to do this by having a friend read these instructions to you aloud, or record your own voice reading them. Find a place and time when you will be free from dis-turbances for twenty minutes or so. Sit quietly, in an erect but comfortable position, and allow your body to settle into stillness. Close your eyes and let your attention focus on the breath. Breathe naturally and comfortably. You may want to take two or three deep breaths as a way of relaxing and centring yourself.

Now bring your attention to the sensa-tions of the physical body. Feel your back against the seat and your feet on the flood. Most likely you will find that your attention moves spontaneously to feelings in different parts of the body. This is fine, as long as you continue to keep your attention on the sensations. Now imagine yourself going further within yourself. It is as if the body and all its experiences and processes are simply the outermost layer of what is you. You have the sense of going to a deeper layer of yourself. See if you can imagine the sky and the stars and the planets inside you, as if you were seated on the inside of an enormous hollow bowl. And you begin to journey into this

internal sky. You begin with the Moon; it is as if you can feel the moon somewhere inside yourself, in one part of your body or another; see if you can find where it is. In such exercises, it is always more important to note clearly and objectively what you experience rather than trying to have any particu-lar experience. Do the exercise patiently and attentively, without a sense of strain. You now proceed on this journey inside yourself, going past the realm of the moon and seeing the other planets: Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. It is as if there are vast realms of interplan-etary space within your own being that you are beginning to experience and explore. Take note of anything you see there. As you pass through each sphere, be particularly attentive to any parts of the body that bring themselves to your attention. After you have passed through the zones of the planets, you have reached the bounds of this solar system that is inside you, and you discover that you are on the bounds of interstellar space. It is a place that is immeasurably vast, dark, and alive – and it is within you. Go further now, into the realms of stars and galaxies, which you can see and encounter as if you were going by them in a spaceship. You may have the sense that these entities that you are passing are living and conscious beings.

...astrology works because the very stuff of which we are made

– the organs of the body – are themselves crystallisations of, or encrustations around,

certain planetary forces...


RIChARD SMoLEy has over thirty years of experience studying and practicing esoteric spirituality. His books include Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions (with Jay Kinney); The Essential Nostradamus; Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism; and Conscious Love: Insights from Mystical Christianity. He is editor of Quest Books and Quest magazine, both published by the Theosophical Society in America. His website is www.innerchristianity.com. Portions of this article have been adapted from his books The Dice Game of Shiva: How Consciousness Creates the Universe and Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition.

As you make this journey further and further, you may become aware that all this time you have been proceeding to the centre – to your own centre. And this centre is somehow beyond the confines even of this vast space inside yourself. The realm of the planets and the stars and the galaxies are all layers of yourself, and they all surround an inner core. So at this point permit yourself to go beyond this final bar-rier – the limits of time and space themselves, however you conceive them – and allow yourself to enter the realm of the divine. You may experience it as a realm of utter light, utter darkness, or something completely different. Quite possibly you will understand that is beyond all pictures and images you can make of it. At this point you may have a sense of the divine presence that is at the very centre of your own nature. It is the place where you, as you, meet God. Allow yourself to experience this as fully as you can. You may feel reverence, humility, joy, love, awe, even dread. But you also know that you have the right to be here and to engage in this most profound and most intimate of communications. At this point words will not be adequate to what you ex-perience. So for a few minutes allow yourself to dwell here in absolute silence. You will know what to do and where to go. At length you realise that it is time to return. You detach yourself from this divine presence, while recognising that it is always within you and that you can return here at any time. You go back by the way you came. You move away from this divine core. Now you are passing through the ex-panses of interstellar space, past the spirals of galaxies and nebulae. You continue to proceed outward until you find yourself encountering the borders of our solar system. You re-enter it. You find yourself moving at tremendous speed past the planets – Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon – until you reach the earth, the physical realm that is the outermost shell of your own nature. And as in your mind’s eye you proceed toward Earth, you become aware again of the sensations and processes of the body. You plant your consciousness again firmly in this exterior part of yourself. You feel your back against your seat and your feet on the floor. You are aware again of your breathing. Allow your ordinary consciousness to re-establish

itself, and after a minute or two, open your eyes and make contact again with the external world that you are familiar with. Often it’s helpful to take notes or record a journal entry of this journey. If you take this inner voyage for several times, you will begin to build up a body of experience that can tell you something about who and where you are. You will probably notice, for example, that you feel more com-fortable with certain planets than with others, or that the passage from a given sphere into another is easier or harder than it is for another. All of these give subtle but valuable pieces of information about how you relate to the solar sys-tem and galaxy within. Once you’ve accumulated this data, you may want to correlate it with your astrological chart, which you can cast yourself on a variety of websites (e.g., Astrodienst) or have a professional cast for you. If you are knowledgeable about astrology, you can compare the evidence from your natal chart with your meditative experience in order to see which planets have energies that are either blocked or enhanced within you. It can be comforting to know that inner block-ages have a cosmic – that is, an astrological – cause, and the insights you receive may help you to overcome personal problems that may have seemed intractable. I have known a number of people who have found that astrological readings have given them extremely useful insights into their own characters. Sometimes astrology also provides some valuable input on past or coming events. (Some systems, such as Jyotish, put more emphasis on this type of astrology; see accompanying article, “India’s Sci-ence of Light,” on page 27). In any event, astrology, when used with insight and discernment, does more than suggest some links between ourselves and remote planets in the sky. It shows in a very real sense what we are made of. And it shows that astrology works, not through tenuous connections of people and events with planets in the sky, but from the inside out, from the cosmic forces that make us up.


© By susAn B. mARTInEz, ph.d.

The light of danha is my timekeeper. – Vedic Scripture

I have to laugh – when I was a teenager, “New Dawn” was the brand name of the stuff I used to colour my hair. But for us, the name has other meanings, and I would like to take off on the “New” part: New Dawn. There is something implied here:

the return of light, after a long night, a metaphorical long night of darkness. Some of us do feel and understand this darkness and degeneracy of the passing Age. In the mother language each new era of light that comes to dispel the darkness was called a “dan,” and this is how the word “dawn” came into our language. This brings us to the cyclic view of his-tory – and the prophetic numbers: the past ages of humanity (and the future) can be reckoned according to certain laws or units of periodicity – 11 years (corresponding to the sunspot cycle), 33 years (corresponding to the meteor cycle), 66, 99, 200, 400, 600, 3,000 years, etc. In the tables of prophecy that I have been working with, dan (or more correctly, danha) denotes an “arc” of time which lasts for approximately 3,000 years. Most notably, our planet earth entered a new arc in the year 1848 AD. And this marks the New Dawn. Considered a History Cycle by the Persians, Hindus and Chinese, the 3,000-year period is also mentioned by Hero-dotus as well as the Rosicrucians. Cosmologically, danha is understood as a region of ethereal light in the firmament, located at intervals of three thousand years along the orbit of the solar system. Scientists are actually aware of this region, naming it “interstellar energy cloud,” which according to Russian research, will last for – yes, three thousand years. This fact alone, I might add, underscores the way in which Science and Spirit are ever inching closer together in this new dawn of enlightenment.

When our planet crosses one of these light bands, it signals the end of one Civilisation or Dispensation and the birth of a new one. As an example, in his research into ancient Mongolia, palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews (the real-life Indiana Jones) discovered that the rise and fall of Mongolian civilisation has occurred over three thousand year periods. At the inception of every new cycle or “arc,” great changes

transpire. Some are subtle, but some are quite the opposite – dramatic and traumatic in the extreme. It is not our imagination (or more efficient media coverage of disasters, as some think) that our planet is currently experiencing tremendous upheavals. But the ultimate result is that effete and dead systems, whether of social, religious or scientific nature, are swept away; new religions and philosophies arise in each new dawn.Danhas are the quickened times men-tioned by the prophets of old.– Oahspe, Book of Knowledge 4:4

Even special words come to the fore in this New Dawn of Light, words like “quickening.” Yet that term, in its full-ness, is not well understood, and I have

seen writers use it in a strictly material or worldly sense, in-dicating speed, the rapidity of change in the pulse of modern life. Alright, but the Quickening is so much more than that, more than measurable, temporal things.

Behold, I give unto thee a new sense, which will fulfil thy souls’ desire. Yea, thou shalt read the books in the librar-ies of heaven! Have I not said of old – All things shall be revealed!.... [Therefore] observe the unseen causes that play upon you, quickening your memory and your per-ception, for in this lies a great secret of acquiring spiritual knowledge. – Oahspe, Book of Knowledge 5:56

Mayan astronomers predicted that the “Fifth Sun” (now upon us), will introduce the fifth element – ether, which will dominate the Age, ushering in cosmic understanding.

oAhSPEProphecies for

the Coming Age

When our planet crosses one of these

light bands, it signals the end of one Civilisation or Dispensation and

the birth of a new one.


“Ether,” says a Mayan spokesman, Carlos Barrios, “will be added to the four original elements… enabling us to once again become like the first humans: with our sight encom-passing the whole of the earth; we will travel the universe in our thoughts and have the power to present ourselves to the Great Father.” Curiously, Oahspe prophecy (see below) closely echoes the Mayan:

Direct inspiration shall then come from the Father unto all men via the ethe abilities. – Oahspe, Book of Ouranothen

And this is the key to the Quickening: the long-awaited opening of the “sixth sense,” returning us to the all-embrac-ing powers of the Unseen. I say “returning” only because the etheric senses have been quashed and muffled and virtually destroyed by modern life; pre-civilised cultures (descendants of those “first humans” mentioned by Barrios) enjoyed the telepathic faculty, somewhat like South America’s Mayoruna Jaguar people with their “Amazon beaming,” or the Austral-ian aborigines, famous for their “psychic telegraph.” The etheric sense has indeed been second nature to most of the world’s tribal people.

Hear ye, my sons and daughter; O ye that search for the light of the past, but find not. I am the book of the past… – Oahspe, Book of Saphah, Prologue 12

But I have been asked to explain what Oahspe is. It is a book. No, it is a bible, a sacred book containing 36 books within its 900+ pages. It is not a revision of any existing

bible. Neither is it a collection of ancient mythological lore based on Tradition or oral transmission. It is a new bible, given from the spirit realms through a trained and prepared amanuensis (Dr. J.B. Newbrough), with plan and purpose from cover to cover. It is a stupendous revelation of the past history of this, our planetary home; of the dominion of Gods and Lords over the affairs of mortals; and of the interrela-tion of the worlds, material and celestial, and the parts they play in the purpose of the Most High, the Creator, whom it names Jehovih (the Great Spirit, the All Person). Its cover-age is staggeringly vast. Most Oahspens (called faithists – there are a few in Australia) read it and reread it. It takes a lifetime. Weaving in and out of the Seen and Unseen worlds with the swiftness of the shooting star, it is an encyclopaedia of the celestial realm and anthropology of the Universe. I can only try to summarise its contents here:

• the unseen worlds, including ghosts and other para-normal phenomena; what happens to us after death• extensive treatment of the present era called Kosmon: the New Dawn, the Quickening• portraits and chronology of the major prophets, with some startling corrections made to the orthodox versions• the mother language, Language Tree, word lists, pictographic tablets of the ancients, charts, diagrams, pictures, tables• Creation: genesis – i.e., the origin of man - without Evolution; prehistory and protohistory, the causes of wars, periods of progress and of retrogression• the system of earth, atmospherean hells, the resurrec-tions and etherea (Emancipa)*• the records of the race; ancient engineering; Meso-lithic cities; the lost continent of Pan (in the Pacific)• administration of the heavens, origin and influence of evil spirits (called drujas)• a new eye-opening science (vortexian)• history of the major religions, forms of worship, ora-cles, rites, passwords, persecutions – all exceeding any history of its kind extant in the world• preview of the future, how to prophesy• blueprint for utopia; the science of self-discipline, the (numeric) grades of man• the relationship of men and angels

The separate and enduring existence of spirit, though hidden from view, becomes the explanatory tool for a great variety of otherwise inexplicable human behaviour and events. Arguably the greatest contribution to Angelology of all time – whose constant theme is the link between mortal-

* Much of Oahspe is divided into Upper Book and Lower Book by a horizontal line across the middle of the page; the latter dealing with earthly events, and the former with celestial ones – the works and lives of the angels as well as the false gods and the part they played in the history of earth and its heavens, making havoc of governments on earth, falsifying spiritual revelations and cor-rupting religious teachings.

Dr. J.B. Newbrough (1828–91)


ity and immortality – the thrust of Oahspe hinges on the principle of Ethe (“it pervadeth the universe”), this concept (prefigured by Einstein’s “cosmological constant” and more recent constructs such as “dark matter”), allowing us to pen-etrate to the heart of man’s mysterious kinship with Infinity – and with the angels, who, in the main, are nothing more than former mortals…..

Nor shalt thou say: Man of himself progresses of a natural order. Wherein thou art quickened in spirit, behold, it is the heavens upon thee that stirreth thee up…. Through my holy angels I have spoken unto thee from thy youth up. – Oahspe, Book of Discipline 3:17

Here in America, our Capitol Rotunda is painted with ancient gods presenting our forefathers with advanced knowledge. And this is the story unfolded in Oahspe, for all nations have arisen under the guidance of a higher power.

Let a sign be given to the inhabitants of the earth that they may comprehend danha…. In the line of the orbit, at distances of three thousand years, are etherean lights, the which places, as the earth passeth through, angels from the second heaven come into its presence. – Oahspe, Book of Jehovih 7:2

Man I made to choose that which he will; but that he might not err, behold, I send My emancipated angels to explain these things beforehand. – Oahspe, Book of Sue 3:3

In my new book, Time of the Quickening, this danha, the 3,000 year unit of time and prophecy, is probed in depth. Based on the travel of the solar phalanx (Sun and her planets), Earth makes its relentless circuit of space, passing through a region of pure light every 3,000 years. For 50,000 years man struggled slowly upwards under an angelic guid-ance, often lapsing into degradation and bestiality, but ever in the aggregate making progress toward something more noble. And with the advent of Kosmon, the human race reaches its maturity. It is something like Graduation Day for the whole of humanity, with some sort of epiphany in store. This extraordinary book called Oahspe came into being in New York City (W. 34th Street) in the year 1882 through the instrumentality of Dr. John Ballou Newbrough, through his hands only, not his mind.

God said: My records come not up out of the earth, nor from the mouths of mortals. I open My heavenly libraries and find My living sons and daughters [angels] who once trod the earth. Their light I recast down again to mortals in a stream of fire, and lo, My words are re-written. – Oahspe , First Book of God 28:3

Considered by some the most astounding feat of automatic writing (typewriting) on record (“bands of light bathed my hands in such brilliance” – JBN), it came as the crowning achievement of the 19th century’s fervent quest for answers from the invisible realm. For, with Dawn, came the golden age of spirit rappers, trance-lectures, séances, levitations, materi-alisations, slate-writing, psychic touches by unseen hands, and a spectacular array of visitations from the Other Side. Observers could not decide – and indeed, still have not decided – if these wonders depend on some undefined mag-

netic principle, or if they in fact owe their existence to actual discarnate – or rather, excarnate – beings, the angels. While Science cried Fraud! and the Church cried Devil!, incontro-vertible demonstrations of otherworldly intelligence poured forth like a river, with the recurrent theme of immortality, compassion and instruction between the Two Worlds. And it almost seemed that the materialist’s stultified view of death (annihilation) had been conquered. Oahspe, though buried in the ensuing avalanche of specu-lation and unbelief, is now in its 16th printing and won’t go away. Within its pages, embedded in its far-flung histories – some in dramatic form, i.e., dialogue, like theatre – are count-less expositions of the ways in which spiritual powers were developed in the early races of men. To mention but a few examples: attaining the Voice (clairaudience); formation of the holy crescent (for communion); the ancient practice of cranial deformation (to “open” the sixth sense); the sand table, dark chamber and other early oracles; adeptship in India, ancient America, and Egypt; the “death cast” and other miracles.

I came to the earth to develop the soul of man chiefly….. [for] there is a central light within man seeing clearly, but the four dark corners of the world (ignorance, lust, self-ishness, and anger) beset him on all sides …. [Therefore] make him clean, and ye shall find a star in every soul. – Oahspe, Books of Aph and Fragapatti

America’s Wing Anderson, who kept Oahspe in print until Ray Palmer (founder of Fate magazine) took over, an-nounced the book in this way:

Title page of the original OAHSPE New Bible, 1882


“Oahspe contains detailed teachings regarding the Crea-tor and His relation to Man and the Universe; the history of the earth and its heavens for the past 24,000 years; the prin-ciples of cosmogony and cosmology, embracing a revolution-ary conception of physics; the nature of the angelic worlds; the origin of man and his path upwards and onwards during life-after-death towards spiritual emancipation; the lost keys to all the different religious doctrines and symbols in the world; the history of great teachers who have been sent to humanity in different cycles; the character of civilisation which will supersede that in which we are at present living; and a mass of remarkable teachings regarding metaphysics, ceremonies, prophecy and the like.” For those indoctrinated in state religion, Oahspe reads almost like Science Fiction. On one of our message boards, we heard from an Oahspe reader in Greece, who (afraid to offend his orthodox friends), tells them, if asked what he is reading, that it is science-fantasy! But it is not fantasy; au contraire, it is an open door, for those who long for under-standing, who are not satisfied with the half-truths we have been spoon-fed by selfish or ambitious masters. On a personal note, I’d like to end with this: Oahspe has become a driving force in my life. I have had Oahspe now for thirty years. For the first ten years, my interest, frankly, was casual. But then, child-rearing years passed, and I was able to return to my studies. I began to dive deeper into these revelations. Today the wide world of research and writing is filled with man’s speculations and searching, often home-spun opinions dressed up as theories (even as fact), and widely differing approaches to reality and life’s meaning. How does one choose from among this great welter of ideas and nos-trums? There is so much out there! Too much, really – this vast, unmanageable supermarket of ideas! – enlightenment is this, enlightenment is that – and it is hard to know what to believe. But enlightenment, as I have learned, is not a part-time pursuit; and it does not come without first hum-bling oneself – (which is pretty hard to do in our narcissistic culture; see chapter 3, “The United States of Amnesia,” in my new book). “The living,” say the Melanesians, “depend on the dead for their power over the unseen forces that rule their exist-ence…. Thus,” reported ethnographer John Layard, “ances-tors constantly appear in their dreams to advise or dissuade.” But it is not only the Melanesians; most traditional societies admit a similar dependence on the unseen beings, just as

SUSAN B. MARTINEz, Ph.D., is a writer, linguist, teacher, paranormal re-searcher, and recognised authority on the Oahspe Bible with a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University. The author of The Psychic Life of Abraham Lincoln and The Hidden Prophet, she is the book review editor for the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies. Her latest book is Time of the Quickening: Prophecies for the Coming Utopian Age (Bear & Company, 2011). She lives in Clayton, Georgia. Her blog is located at www.myspace.com/susanbmartinez/blog/483592677 and she can be contacted via email at [email protected].

the angels… talk to him [man] in his sleep, and show him what is for his own good. (Book of Sethantes 10:5).

…Thus my Lords have angels under them who are author-ised and ordained …to abide for times and seasons with mortals as guardians and inspirers; to provide dreams, thoughts and visions in the minds of mortals, and to otherwise labour in elevating them in purity, love and wisdom. – Oahspe, Book of Discipline 2:29

One of the most important things I learned from Oah-spe is the relationship between angels and mortals. This relationship allows us to understand the real meaning of spiritualism, and our true position and destiny in the three dwelling-places of man: Earth (Ah), Sky (O), and Heaven (Spe). It is from the libraries of heaven that these “O-Ah-Spe” scriptures have descended, as have the bibles of former ages: Because Kosmon is the quickening time, a new bible falls from heaven – Oahspe! – with new revelations, new commandments, and even new chosen people. But unlike other scriptures, this massive tome (3/4 million words) is a textbook as well. Where else can you find the records of the race? Accounts of life in the Palaeolithic? Solutions to Archaeology’s puzzles? Veridical chronicle of the Great Deluge? Ancient astronomers? History of the Moundbuild-ers? How the pyramids were built? Explanation of UFOs (starships), earthquakes, Bigfoot….?

In olden times wise angels came to men and informed them of what was to happen, and these men were called prophets. But I tell thee, such men were only instruments of revelation. In the time of Kosmon, men shall not be merely instruments of prophecy, but actual prophets themselves. – Oahspe, Book of Knowledge

And so I put this business of prophesying to the test, in my book, Time of the Quickening. Having studied Oahspe for thirty years and synthesised its findings with my other work (in psi research, earth science, history, comparative religion and anthropology), I set about “translating” for the reader the excellent method of prophesying by numbers, contained in Oahspe and first revealed to mankind as “the Winter Tables” 12,000 years ago.

s Time of the Quickening: Prophecies for the Coming Utopian Age (Bear & Company, 2011), is available from all good book-stores or visit www.newdawnbooks.com.


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© By JoE CAmIllERI

Metaphysics has been around almost from the beginning of human thought. Meta-

physics examines the true nature of reality, whether visible or invisible, and includes: religion, parapsychol-ogy, mysticism, yoga, extrasen-sory perception (ESP), philosophy, dreams, Jungian psychology, medita-tion, self-help studies, positive think-ing, life after death, reincarnation, the occult, healing arts, astrology, numerology and many other fields. It is the study of anything that is beyond the five senses. Before the progress of modern science, questions of a scientific nature were addressed as part of metaphysics known as “natural phi-losophy”; by the end of the eight-eenth century it had begun to be called “science” in order to distin-guish it from philosophy. Metaphysics is the study of the relation between mind and matter, material and quality, and fact and value. It is very strongly associated to spirituality; yet, it is not a religion. Metaphysics was not being taken seriously by the scientific commu-nity or even by the general public at large. This was due to it being de-pendent on the mental state and the invisible, and was not scientifically proved. However, there now seems to be a change in thinking amongst scientists who are starting to recon-sider their previously held beliefs of reality.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION The Law of Attraction originated from the nineteenth century meta-physical concept that the mind has a role to play in altering or creating reality. In the movie ‘The Secret’ which successfully introduced the “The Law of Attraction” to the greater public, Rhonda Byrne tells a story about a little green book given to her by her daughter to help her recover from a breakdown. The book was called The Science of Getting Rich and was written by Wallace D. Wattles in 1910. Throughout his book, Wattles repeats this statement: “There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, perme-ates, penetrates and fills the inner spaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. You can form things in your thought and by impressing your thought upon formless substance can cause the thing you think about to be created.” Although he experienced failure

in his early years, Wattles began studying various religious beliefs and philosophies of the world including those of Descartes, Spinoza, Hegel, Emerson and others. It was due to his study and experimentation that he discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life enabling him to acquire great wealth and good health.

THE NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT The New Thought movement had no single origin. The earliest identifi-able proponent of what came to be known as New Thought was Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-66), an American philosopher, mesmerist, healer and inventor. Quimby devel-oped a belief system that included the belief that illness originated in the mind and that we could over-come any illness with better thinking. The term “The Law of Attrac-tion” was referenced in a 1908 book titled Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World by another New Thought author William Walker Atkinson. Atkinson (1862-1932) was an attorney, merchant, publisher, and an author as well as an occultist. In the 1890s Atkinson became in-terested in Hinduism and put a great deal of effort into diffusing yoga and Oriental occultism in the West. Atkinson embraced a vaguely exotic “Orientalism” as a running theme in his writings and credited Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs with the posses-sion of special knowledge and secret teachings of clairvoyance, spiritual

The Metaphysical origins of the Law of Attraction


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development, sexual energy, health and longevity. In his book The Law of Attrac-tion in the Thought World, Atkinson explains that when we think, we send out vibrations of a fine ethereal substance and that we will reap the results of such thoughts. Not only do our thought waves influence ourselves and others, but they have a drawing power – they attract to us the thoughts of others, things, circumstances, people, and “luck” in accordance with the character of the thought uppermost in our minds. Another notable American New Thought author was Charles F. Haanel, best known for his contribu-tions to the New Thought Movement through his book The Master Key System. Written in 1912, The Master Key System sets out in twenty-four parts the fundamental principles of life and creative living as Haanel came to understand and apply them. Basic to his teaching is the correct development and use of mental power. By 1933 The Master Key System had sold over 200,000 copies and then disappeared. The Master Key System is one of the finest studies in self-improvement, mind-stuff and higher consciousness ever written, covering everything, from how to get wealthy to how to get healthy. The book was banned by the Church in 1933 and was hidden away for seventy years. Rumour has it that while he was attending Harvard University, Bill Gates read The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel. It was this book that encouraged Bill Gates to drop out of university and pur-sue his dream of “a computer on every desktop.” It is Silicon Valley’s best kept secret that almost every entrepreneur who made a fortune in recent years did so by studying the words Haanel had written over eighty years ago. Almost every mil-lionaire and billionaire in the valley read The Master Key System.

REREADING THE BIBLE In his book Haanel often quotes the writings of another English author Thomas Troward (1847-1916).

Troward greatly influenced the New Thought movement and mystic Christianity. Troward was a divisional Judge in British-administered India. His voca-tion was the study of comparative religion. He studied all of the bibles of the world, including the Koran, Hindu scriptures and books of Raja Yoga. His studies in original Hebrew provided the foundation for his book Bible Mystery and Bible Mean-ing (1913). In this book, Troward proposes that we reread the Bible on the supposition that Jesus and these other speakers really meant what they said. In his book Troward goes on to say that from the Bible’s first page to its last, we shall find two ideas continually recurring in a variety of different connections: the ONE-ness of the Divine Spirit and the Creative Power of man’s Thought, which the Bible expresses in its two grand statements – that ‘God is ONE’ and that Man is made ‘in the image and likeness of God’. He explains that a little reflection will show us that this likeness can-not be in the outward form for the universal spirit in which all things subsist cannot be limited by shape. It is a principle permeating all things as their innermost substance and vivify-ing energy. The Bible tells us that “in the beginning” there was nothing else. He continues to say that the one and only conception we can have of this universal life-principle is that of the creative power producing infinitely varied expressions of itself by thought, for we cannot ascribe any other initial mode of movement to spirit but that of thought. The likeness, therefore, between God and men must be a mental likeness, and as the Bible has told us (regarding the universal mind is its creative power) the resemblance in-dicated can only consist in the repro-duction of the same creative power in the mind of man. The whole Bible turns on this one fundamental fact. The creative power is inherent in our thought, and we can by no means divest ourselves of it. Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘go

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throw yourself into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, be-lieve you have received it and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24) If you were to take the words of Jesus, literally, then you would have to assume he was telling us that we have the power to move mountains through our belief and whatever we shall want all we need to do is ask, believe we have received it and it will come.

This idea of man’s creative power is not limited to the Bible; it also appears in the Kabbalah and many other belief systems, religions and secret organisations, including the Rosicrucian Order. Rosicrucianism is the theology of a secret society of mystics, said to have been founded in the late medieval Germany by Christian Rosenkreuz. Their beliefs hold the existence of a Universal Intelligence and encourage the development of the mental senses including intuition, visualisation and healing techniques.

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The common theme throughout the New Thought movement and religions is of a collective power or oneness which is an important com-ponent necessary for carrying out the function of “The Law of Attraction.”

For further information on the sub-jects discussed in this article, read Joseph Camilleri’s new book Law of Attraction: Metaphysical Myth to Sci-entific Fact, available from all good bookstores or visit www.essential-knowledgeinstitute.com.

JoSEPh CAMILLERI is a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Metaphysics from the University of Metaphysical Sciences. For many years he has carried out exten-sive research into the field of quantum physics, cellular biology, cosmology, philosophy, and the paranormal and supernatural. He utilises his knowledge and personal experiences to bring you his book Law of Attraction: Metaphysical Myth to Scientific Fact. His website is www.essentialknowledgeinstitute.com.


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© By pEdRAm shoJAI

When I speak with most people in the West, they are oftentimes both fasci-

nated and perplexed by Taoism and its theories. I’ve spent years learning how to communicate the essential principals in a way that can make sense for my patients. The less flow-ery I got it, the more it got across to people. The core message – Live a balanced life. Let’s take a look at this philosophy and de-mystify it for you. Taoism is the philosophy of syncing up with nature and doing that which comes naturally. It is very similar to the traditions of Naturism and Shamanism with a fundamen-tal distinction – it bases its primary understanding of Reality on the principle of balance. This balance is between the forces of Yin and Yang. These complementary opposites exist in an ever-changing and flow-ing dynamic state that constantly self-corrects and harmonises. The ancient philosophers of China used the term “Tao” for the Supreme Ulti-mate or the Universe as we know it. It is the All. In the beginning, there was Wu Wei or the Great Emptiness and from this came Yin and Yang.

YIN AND YANG Everything in the Universe has a

Yin and Yang component to it and all things have a balance point. For example, there is no meaning to the word “up” if the concept of “down” didn’t exist. There is no “hot” with-out “cold” and so on. This primor-dial distinction not only relates to everything around us, it is also what fundamentally drives the mo-tion within us. We, being an active functional aspect of nature, exem-plify the same polar balanc-ing and, with sustained attention to this subject matter, can find the Tao, or the bal-ance point in all things. Essentially, there was the original state of the Universe wherein all things were One. There was Unity conscious-ness and Eternal togetherness of all things and then, BOOM – Po-larisation. All things all at once are imbued with this elementary con-cept and perception of separation. This is the mark of polarity. Now, it is critical to remember that these poles are the seemingly opposite characteristics of the SAME objects or things. This is the polarity that gives us a Dualistic view of the same phenomena. Yin and Yang are con-stituent parts or mirror reflections of the same One which is simply split into two the same way a beam of light splits when hitting a prism. In the beginning and in the end, it is all Tao. Polarity is just the game we are playing. Let’s go through some basic examples of yin and yang so that we can better illustrate this concept. Yin and Yang represent the total-

ity of Creation from opposite sides of each-other and together they are whole and together there is balance. One cannot exist without the other and we cannot examine anything without a balanced frame of refer-ence which is looking at both sides and finding the middle. The polar-ity created by Yin and Yang can be compared to the Breath of Life in biblical texts.

At first, there is only Tao in this differentiation. Then, movement begins and the energy of Life starts to stir and revolve around itself, swirling the myriad things in the Universe into being. It is as if a cen-trifugal and centripetal force erupt-ed simultaneously both creating and destroying… rising and falling… growing and decaying. In balance, the Universe sustains itself and grows slowly in sentience and capacity. The early Taoists learned everything from observing nature, deep introspection, inner energy cultivation, and developing gnosis.

THE THREE TREASURES Once the Universe is split into the polarised binary system of Yin and Yang, then there arises a dis-tinction between the different levels of material manifestation. If Spirit and Matter, which at the level of the Tao are one and the same, are

Basic Taoist Theory Made Simple


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separated with the birth of Yin and Yang, then we start to see a scale of densification versus illumination. Remember, Yin and Yang are rela-tive to each-other always. There is no Absolute Yin to speak of… things are only Yin compared to something else. One can say “hot” when it’s 38 degrees out and one could say that is very “yang” but that’s assuming there’s an understanding that an average day is say 23 degrees. Then, a 38 degree day would certainly be more yang in this instance but what if we compared that to a 180 de-gree oven or the surface of the Sun? Then the 38 degree day is suddenly more yin compared to these. In regards the “gradient” from Spirit to Matter, we can illustrate it like so in the above top left graphic. Now if we are to take this gradi-ent as an example, then we can hold it as a frame of reference for the Taoist understanding of the “Three Treasures” – Jing, Qi, and Shen. Using a similar spectral differentia-tion as above, we can illustrate the relationship of these in the above graphic top right.

Jing – the densest manifestation of our material basis. This is the essential vitality we inherit from our parents and it is the underlying material source which feeds the life power.

Qi – the life force energy that runs off of the Jing and the food that we eat and the air that we breathe. This dynamic energy is always in flux and the cultivation and enhancement of this flow is of critical importance in Taoist Yoga.

Shen – the Spirit of our being. This is what the whole game is about. The richness of our experience and the lessons we learn are all a product of the life’s journey which is fuelled by the other two treasures and controlled by our Shen.

THE FIVE ELEMENTS Once the Tao splits into Yin and Yang, it also manifests in five distinct flavours of emanation which we call the Five Elements. The early Taoists were keen observers of their natural environment and under-

stood that there was no separation between man and the natural world into which he was born. Through personal connection with nature and detailed observation of the sea-sons and the movement of the stars through the sky, they understood all Reality to be represented by Five Elements. These elements related to mate-rial, emotional, and spiritual matters in that they represented the entirety of our experience on our planet. But it is always important to remember, that they are all aspects of the One – that pure realm of Consciousness that exists in an un-polarised state. Through differential emana-tion, the Five Elements create the flavour and richness of life and how it moves and expresses itself. Re-member, before the separation into Yin and Yang, there was the form-less and Unified Whole – the Tao. The split into Yin and Yang created movement. With Yin and Yang, there are two complementary and oppos-ing forces that dynamically flux into one another. They create the dance of life. All things move and exist through this dance as it is the very agent of the Life Force itself. Now, we have further differentiated into the Five Elements which give life its flavour and richness. This particular representation (see diagram to the left) shows the essential alignment of the elements but does not show the movement

Density Gradient From Spirit to Matter The Three Treasures Gradient

Basic Five Elements Diagram


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PEDRAM ShoJAI is a Taoist Minister, Qi Gong Master, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, and author of the new book RISE and SHINE – Awaken your Energy Body with Taoist Alchemy and Qi Gong. You can find out more at www.taoistpath.com.

of these energies until we introduce the principles of Yin and Yang to the equation. Once there is movement (through polarity), we begin to see the cycles of nature manifest and we then have the Four Seasons. Once polarity is introduced, the distinct flavours of the emanation of life show in the Five Elements. Each element is associated with various seasons, organs, emotions, and per-sonality types and this information helps physicians diagnose and heal their patients.

THE TEN THOUSAND THINGS From the emanation of the Tao we have Yin and Yang, the Three Treasures, and then the processes of the Five Elements. These lead to the fundamental spiritual, energetic, and material framework of all that exists in the Universe. It is the code, so to speak, of Creation and co-cre-ation through which all things come in and out of existence. In our day-to-day lives, most of us live in the world of the “ten thousand things.” We are drowning

in the minutia of the reflections of creation and we are sliding fur-ther and further from the natural world from whence we came. This is where we’ve lost the ability to see the underlying energy and spirit in the world and fallen asleep to the power we all come from and share. The Taoist Way is one of peace, harmony, and honesty. It entails being aware of the cycles and cur-rents of nature and living by those precepts. It demands that we bring balance within ourselves to every-thing we encounter and act sponta-neously out of the living, breathing moment.

This article is a partial excerpt from Pedram Shojai’s new book RISE and SHINE – Awaken your Energy Body with Taoist Alchemy and Qi Gong (Process Media, 2011), available from all good bookstores or visit www.newdawnreviews.com.

The Five Elements with Yin & Yang --> Movement


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© By pAmElA mCdonAld

When you want to build a house, you have an archi-tect draw blueprints. Your

builder then looks at the blueprints to know exactly what to build. The same process occurs with the body – only our genes are the blueprints for our body. And, unlike a house, the body is being rebuilt every second of every day. Besides the builder and the blue-print, another major factor in house building is the quality of the materials used. When built with poor-quality materials, buildings deteriorate rapidly. When built with high-quality materials, structures such as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London can stand for hundreds of years. Your body follows the same process – if you use high-quality ma-terials, it will last much longer.

WHAT IS THE APO E GENE? The human body has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each chromosome is made up of many genes.

We will look mainly at a particular gene on chromosome 19 – the Apo E gene (Apo is short for apolipopro-tein) which was discovered in the early 1970s. We single out this gene because certain variants of the specific pair of Apo E genes you inherited from your mother and father influence your predisposition to certain illnesses. There are three Apo E gene varia-tions, or genotypes, that occur natu-rally in humans: Apo E 2, Apo E 3, and Apo E 4. Since genes come in match-ing pairs – we each have two copies of every gene – one from each par-ent, there are six possible combina-tions of pairs. If you received an Apo E 2 from each parent, the shorthand description would be E 2/2. The other five combinations are E 2/3, E 3/3, E 4/2, E 4/3, and E 4/4.

WHAT DOES APO E MEAN? Our body has evolved a very complex biochemical method of moving fats around inside it. Why all this complexity? You already know

that oil and water don’t mix. That’s what our body (water-based) is up against when it must absorb and use fats (oil-based). Our blood is a water-based solution for transport-ing nutrients and oxygen to the cells. Any fats that need to travel in it wouldn’t dissolve; they would just clump up and clog the system. To get around this inconvenience, our body has created a wonderful method of packaging the fats and oils in molecular “suitcases” that keep the fats from coming in contact with the water of our blood. That’s where this strange word “Apo” with an “E” attached to it comes in. Apo is short for apolipoprotein. It has the letter “E” because it’s one of a whole series of apolipoproteins – A, B, C, D, etc. The Apo E gene gets its name from the fact that it’s the part of the blueprint in charge of synthesising apolipoprotein E, an important com-ponent of cholesterol metabolism. In a larger sense, the Apo E gene is involved in the energy system of the body – and energy is key to

What Exactly Do We Mean by Genes?


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every system in the body. Apo E can be found in many places: blood, spleen, liver, intestine, brain, kidney, and other peripheral parts.

MAkING CONNECTIONS: GENOTYPE, GENE-SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT, AND STATE OF HEALTH The Apo E gene can provide good health if the body is given the cor-rect foods and other gene-support-ive environment (GSE) factors for its Apo E type. On the other hand, the Apo E gene can impair good health if the body is given the wrong foods and other gene-unsupportive envi-ronmental (GUE) situations. The Apo E gene is the key to making the right match. Here’s where knowing your Apo E genotype can help determine the environment that will best support you in developing and maintaining a safe, optimal level of cholesterol in your system. Before we go any further, let

me clarify what I mean by “environ-ment.” Everything that surrounds or goes into your body or mind is an element in your environment and subsequently impacts your health. This means your thoughts become as much a part of you as the food you eat. So while your food intake is an important element in your environ-ment, you are much more than just the food you eat. Your environment, so defined, largely determines your health. More specifically, it consists of:

• what you eat• the way you move and exercise your body• the quality of your mental and emotional experiences (includ-ing how you deal with stress and emotional energy)• the strength and quality of your intention for what you want

• what you think others want from you• the physical environment that surrounds you – is it pleasing or stressful?• your spiritual beliefs

With today’s affordable technol-ogy for analysing people’s genotype, we can easily learn a person’s Apo E genetic recipe. While we have a lot to learn about what each of the thousands of genes we have in every cell actually does, we can make excellent use of the ones that we do understand – like the Apo E gene – to make recommendations for the ideal gene-supportive environment for any individual.

The above, printed with permission, is an edited extract from The Perfect Gene Diet by Pamela McDonald (Hay House, $19.95) available from all leading retailers.

A legal challenge to new EU legislation, implemented on May 1, which bans thousands

of traditional herbal medicines is “im-minent,” says a spokesperson for the UK-based Alliance for Natural Health. After donations of about £100,000, the alliance is making final preparations to its legal case for a judicial review of the EU’s Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Direc-tive (THMPD) at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. After an initial hearing in London, the case will be referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The new legislation requires that traditional herbal medicinal products, many of which have been used in Europe for decades, must be licensed or prescribed by a registered herbal practitioner in order to comply with a directive passed in 2004. In the Uk over-the-counter herbal medicine products require either a Traditional Herbal Medicines Registration (THR) or a full market-ing authorisation. To be eligible for

Thousands of herbal Remedies Now outlawed Across Europe & UK

a licence, products must have been on the market for 30 years, including 15 within the EU. So far, about 100 herbal products have been registered under the THR scheme, which is run by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It costs €50,000 to license one product. The alliance fears the law will have the effect of banning thousands of herbal medicines and drive consumers on line to buy unregulated products. “The main losers are those prod-ucts associated with world’s longest, most established and most evolved and holistic systems of healthcare, notably Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicines,” according to a Robert Verkerk, the alliance’s executive and scientific director. “Less familiar and less globalised traditions such as Tibetan, Korean, southern African and Amazonian traditions also fall victim.” Dr. Nicola Gale, academic lead for the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Birmingham Research Alli-ance, said: “The rationale behind the

EU directive is persuasive – there are some safety risks with herbs because of their strong action or potential interaction with conven-tional pharmaceutical drugs. “However, herbs are the ‘tradi-tional’ medicine of the West – they are part of our heritage and have been used for many centuries to manage everything from minor health complaints to serious illness. “The idea that people would have to consult their doctor to get access to these herbs or that there would be a dramatic restriction on the herbs available has caused widespread out-cry across Europe with accusations of promoting a nanny state, restricting individual choice and playing into the hands of pharmaceutical companies seeking profits from patenting herbal treatments.”

(Source: www.nutraingredients.com/Regulation/Legal-action-against-EU-s-herbal-medicines-ban-imminent)


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© By JEnnIFER hosKIns

THE COMPLETE MAGICk CURRICULUM OF THE SECRET ORDER OF G.B.G. Being the Entire Study, Curriculum, Magick Rituals, and Initiatory Practices of the G.B.G. (Great Brotherhood of God)By Louis T. Culling, Edited, Revised, and Expanded by Carl Llewellyn Weschke 2010, Llewellyn Publications, USA, 310 page large softcover, ISBN: 9780738719122

Regular New Dawn readers will be quite familiar with Llewellyn Worldwide and their

drive to present the best of historical documents on a variety of esoteric and New Age subjects. This is not an advertisement! The co-author/editor of this work is the Llewellyn of the publishing house. He has issued a new, timely edition of Louis T. Culling’s 1969 work, which breaks ground for those wishing to undergo magickal train-ing and initiation without all the frills and rituals. It is firstly a course of study and as such I will be reporting on the content as well as reviewing it. Secondly, it is a fine resource for the history and activity of the Western Hermetic tradition over the last century. For readers unfamiliar with magick, it is a relatively easy to understand manual which will either encourage or repel depending on the reader’s initiatory status and cur-rent belief system. In previous reviews I have criti-cised the quick-fix path to initiation and enlightenment. I stand by that. It does take many years to absorb the lessons of life and our lifespan is probably just right for that. Any shortcut will probably be exciting, disturbing and disrupting. This is to

be expected. As the wisdom texts say, “When the student is ready…” If this course appeals to you, give it a go, but expect some bumps. The shortcut to initiation will of necessity be far more intense that taking the slower road. In this work, the author states: “You are captain of your own ship!” The choice on how you approach the course is yours. You may work as a solitary or within a small group in your area. This is the same as in oth-er magickal groups such as Wicca. The whole approach is for efficiency and the time you take is a personal thing because the journey is an inner one. However, in the instance of join-ing or forming a group, the structure is absolutely hierarchical. This may be the start of an inner discipline for many who are not accustomed to the nature of hierarchical organisa-tions. I would question the strong need to work as a solitary. It may be to the solitary student’s benefit to join a group in order to learn the dynamics of groups and so add to awareness. The style of the course is acces-sible. It is arranged with Mr Culling’s original text in the beginning of each section. Mr Weschke’s Commentary follows, then Study and Discussion Points, both of which serve to ex-plain the terms used in that section in depth. There are three appendices at the back which are essential and deal with the Kabbalah, Tree of Life, Tarot, the Liber Yi king (I Ching), and Magickal postures, movements and gestures. There is a full glos-sary and a suggested reading and reference library. This is a wonderful resource for the student. One jarring note for me, which is common to all Western magickal traditions, is the constant use of initials or acronyms.

The reader will become familiar with these and they are explained in the glossary. I suggest that you keep an extra bookmark in the back for easy access to this invaluable asset. The course begins with an intro-duction to the work of Mr Culling and the Great Brotherhood of God (G.B.G.). The G.B.G. started as an American offshoot of several other magickal orders such as Aleister Crowley’s Order of the Silver Star (Argentum Astrum, or A.A.); Ordo Templi Astartes (O.T.A); Ordo Tem-pli Orientis (O. T. O.). There are too many of these orders to be listed here, but they all have their particu-lar emphasis. Many of the magickal steps and rituals are quite similar. The ultimate aim of the G.B.G. is to contact and have conversation with your Holy Guardian Angel (HGA). In other areas the reader might recognise this as the higher / true self or Holy Spirit. The names do seem quite confus-ing at times and much attention is required. The ideal outcome of study and initiation is integration of the whole person. As expected the course starts with achievable goals. The first sec-tion deals with dream recall and magickal identity. The instructions for the daily journaling of dreams are quite specific. Magickal Identity is the forging of the being you imagine becoming. What you will be rather than what you do. This also calls for daily recording. A section on Magickal Oaths explains that these are more like undertakings rather than simple af-firmations. This exercise is meant to lead to further self-examination and awareness on a particular subject. Further sections evolve to more and more complex rituals and

The Classic Magick Book That Broke All the Rules


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demands as the student becomes familiar and increasingly expert with the material. Rituals include group and solitary activities. Magickal writing and imagination are impor-tant and the elements of Kabbalah, I Ching, Indian Tattwa symbols are used in combination in this section. A substantial section of the course and book is devoted to Sex Magick. The degrees, rituals and procedures owe much to Aleister Crowley and his book Thelema – The Book of the Law, which contains profound occult knowledge. In his day, the symbolism and language in this work definitely got him into hot water with mainstream society. Here Mr Culling uses the Liber Al section of the book which makes up a third of the total Thelema. Sex magick is not licentious in any way, but three distinct degrees develop inner discipline from complete mindful abstinence through to ritual sexual intercourse with the ‘right partner’. Tantric practices are some of the exercises used. The complete text of Liber Al – Liber 31 is repro-duced in this section. I found the description of the practices rather cold. Although much is made of ‘love’ being the end all of everything (in my opinion, cor-rect), natural human affection seems totally absent. Here I depart radically from the practitioners of Sex Magick. As the advanced student moves through the stages of the curriculum, the approach to the HGA becomes imminent. After the rigour of the Sex Magick comes the necessity to select a Totem. This may be any kind of animal or bird, but the student has to remain mindful of the nature and attributes of the totem animal. Ego must not come into it. For instance,

to pick a lion because it is king of the beasts is probably ego talking. It might be more appropriate for any particular practitioner to choose a newt! It depends on the inner needs and learning of the student. After this selection is determined comes the choice of an appropriate God with which to engage in conversa-tion. Further to that end, this section

gives instructions on the proper and most effective words, forms and gestures. The voice needs to be used in a special manner. Gestures need to be precise. The Hymn to Pan by Aleister Crowley is used to illustrate this point. The last instructional chapter is The Great Lunar Trances. Trance is not used in the traditional mean-ing of losing self consciousness, but rather the hyper-consciousness of a particular subject. Take the trance of Beauty. Everything that the

student sees, hears and takes in by the senses will be seen in its aspect of beauty for the given time. It is a further discipline to cultivate mind-fulness and awareness of the student themselves and their surroundings. This practice will eventually lead to the student creating their own real-ity. No subject is off limits as long as the aim and purpose is to move toward personal integration and the much desired conversation with the HGA, or true self. This new edition, revised, edited and expanded by Mr Weschke is sure to be a good seller in metaphysi-cal, occult and new age circles. It is a perfect example of a complete curriculum in the Western Hermetic tradition. It is an intense, rigorous short-cut to initiation. I relate it to taking a bullet train instead of a car with the only goal to arrive quickly. My assessment is that you may well be able to do a lot of self-transforma-tion as a solitary, but it will come to a point that you need others, for affirmation, reflection, solidarity, re-inforcement of your learning. Group dynamics has a way of highlighting areas upon which you need to do more work. I recommend this work for metaphysicians, potential magicians and occultists. Bursting with occult wisdom and knowledge, it works as a course of study as well as a pre-cious resource.

The Complete Magick Curriculum of The Secret Order of G.B.G. by Louis Culling is available from all good bookstores or visit www.newdawn-reviews.com.

JENNIFER hoSKINS has a background in psychology. Her strong interests are comparative religion, mythology, folklore and spirituality of all kinds. You can visit her website – which has many of her reviews posted – and leave comments at www.jenniferhoskins.com.au.


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© By pAul FAssA

Curcumin’s anti-inflammatory properties have been known in Chinese and Ayurvedic

medicine for thousands of years. It is the active ingredient of turmeric, which is a component of the curry preparations used daily in Indian and other South Asian cuisines. Since those cuisines have infiltrated the West, modern science has also been investigating the health benefits of turmeric and curcumin. Don’t confuse curry powder with turmeric. Turmeric is the substance

that gives curry its yellowish colour, while curcumin is the active ingredi-ent of turmeric that offers the health benefits known in earlier medical traditions and that is being discov-

ered now in Western nutritional medicine. Curcumin comprises five percent of turmeric. Curcumin is both an anti-inflam-matory and anti-oxidant. Epidemio-logical studies of people who have a high dietary intake of turmeric show a lower incidence of cancer among them, as curcumin also helps create the master anti-oxidant glutathione. Dr. Russell Blaylock includes curcumin extract supplements in his post-vaccination first aid kit to mini-mise the possibility of inflammation and cytokine storm from a vaccina-tion. Curcumin has proven even bet-

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ter for relieving arthritis pains and stiffness than expensive pharmaceu-ticals, without side effects. It has also been proven to protect the liver and gallbladder. Many other tests with curcumin extracts have been documented with in vitro (petri dish/test tube) and in vivo (living organisms) tri-als that show how amyloid plaque, considered a cause of Alzheimer’s, is suppressed by curcumin. There have also been many trials, mostly in vitro, that indicate curcumin helps impede cancer cells’ growth. Curcumin extracts have been used as an adjunct with orthodox cancer treatments to reduce dosages of toxic cancer drugs. Curcumin is considered non-toxic. Up to six grams of curcumin daily for extreme cases, such as cancer, has shown no toxic side effects. Since only five percent of turmeric is curcumin, this allows for consuming a good deal of turmeric.

HOW TO TAkE CURCUMIN Curcumin as part of turmeric powder is very beneficial as a daily

regimen if taken properly. The prob-lem with curcumin is similar to that of resveratrol: The stomach won’t let it pass through to the small intestines enough to appear significantly in blood serum, where it has to be for cel-lular nourishment. That’s easily re-solved with turmeric by combining it with fats. Cold pressed

oils, coconut oil, organic butter, ghee, raw milk, and organic cottage cheese are optimum choices. It has also been discovered that heat helps absorption without decomposing the curcumin in turmeric. Some users mix turmeric in warm milk. After all, curry involves cooking with some sort of fat. The curcumin extract capsules, used for extreme conditions or by those who can afford the con-venience, pose the same absorption problems with a different set of solutions. This extract is usually in capsules. Enteric coating needs to be used to keep the capsule intact in the stomach yet to allow it to break down in the small intestines, allow-ing for immediate absorption into the blood. Enteric coatings are used com-monly by Big Pharma, but not by natural supplement providers. So you need to look for that on the label or you’re wasting your money and time. Some curcumin extract providers insert piperine, an extract of black pepper, to help absorb the curcumin.

But curcumin supplements using piperine can cause problems with pharmaceutical medications. So if you are on pharmaceuticals, avoid curcumin extracts with piperine. Unless your situation warrants higher supplementation, consum-ing turmeric at one to three tea-spoons full per day with fats to get the curcumin into your bloodstream provides an inexpensive, safe* and efficacious anti-inflammatory, anti-aging boost to your health.

* Those afflicted with hepatitis or gall-bladder stones need to use caution.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Ray Sahelian, M.D., Curcumin’s Role in Cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease and Inflammation, www.raysahelian.com/curcumin.html

The Benefits of Taking Curcumin Dailywww.articlesbase.com/medicine-arti-cles/the-benefits-of-taking-curcumin-daily-792147.html

The World’s Healthiest Foods – Tur-meric, www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78

Byron Richards, Curcumin Protects Against Liver and Gallbladder Damagewww.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/curcumin_protects_against_liv-er_and_gallbladder_damage/

Healthy Source – Consumers Guide to Turmeric – Curcumin, http://curcumin-turmeric.net/#composition

Margaret’s Personal Blog, RE: Curcum-in for Multiple Myeloma (Bone Marrow Cancer), http://margaret.healthblogs.org/life-with-myeloma/discovery-of-curcumin/

PAUL FASSA has managed to survive the Standard American Diet (SAD) and his youthful folly by deprogramming gradually from mainstream health ideology and studying holistic health matters informally with his wife while incorporating them into his lifestyle as a vegetarian. He also practices Chi-Lel Chi Gong, and he is trained as a polarity therapy practitioner. He is dedicated to warn-ing others of the corruption of food and medicine in our time, and guiding others toward a better direction for health. You can visit his blog at http://healthmaven.blogspot.com


By lynn pICKnETT & ClIvE pRInCE

Stephen Hawking famously ended his 1988 bestseller A Brief History of Time with the statement that, if and when physics finds its long-sought grand unified field theory “we would know the mind of God.”1 Although since then

he has reportedly regretted the phrase, and famously an-nounced in 2010 that “God did not create the universe,” his original statement was – knowingly or not – in fact simply a repetition of the underlying quest of the historical scien-tific revolution. All its great pioneers, from Coper-nicus to Newton, were motivated by the passionate belief that by discovering the way the universe works they were not only uncovering God’s design, but also taking humankind closer to the divine. Science was for them primarily a spiritual quest. And, given the evidence, that’s precisely what it should be now. Despite rather desperately cowering behind the wall of strident rational-ism most of them are famous for, the startling truth is that cosmologists and quantum physicists themselves have revealed that the mind of God may be much nearer than we think. Science itself has effectively proven that ours is not a random universe. Science itself has demonstrated it was literally designed for life, which implies a designer… But as science itself – in general – is rather backward in coming forward about this, permit us to explain. The sensational conclusion that the universe appears to be meant began to be formulated with the famous ‘anthropic principle’ brought to the attention of the scientific commu-nity at the end of the 1970s by the seminal Nature paper by British cosmologists Bernard Carr and Martin Rees. The latter, now Lord Rees – Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society until 2010 – recently attracted the disdain of many colleagues by accepting the annual million-pound Templeton Foundation prize awarded for an “outstanding

contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.” Quite something for a mainstream scientist – and of course hugely controversial.

The designer universe At its most basic, the anthropic principle states that all the cosmological data shows the laws of physics are, to an uncanny degree, exactly the ones needed for a bio-friendly universe. According to Paul Davies’ book The Goldilocks

Enigma (2006) conditions are, like her porridge, “just right” for organic life. It needs precisely our kind of universe: relatively stable, with galaxies and stars – and this was by no means inevitable: if things were even slightly different matter could never have coalesced, or the uni-verse would be riddled with black holes, preventing the formation of heavenly bodies. Life requires certain chemical elements, primarily carbon, which need stars to manufacture them and disperse them in their supernovae explosions. It also needs planets where the building blocks can be assembled for living be-ings to develop. All this requires not only funda-mental particles and energies to possess

particular values, but the relationships between them must be very precise. Carr and Rees noted that for almost every variation of the physical laws, a bio-friendly universe would be impossible. Yet as Hawking writes, “a series of startling coincidences” make the laws of physics “a system that is extremely fine-tuned” to produce conditions propitious for life.2 Freeman Dyson, the British-born American physi-cist, writes that there are “numerical accidents that seem to conspire to make the universe habitable,”3 while Paul Davies notes the “ingenious and seemingly contrived ways”4 the laws of physics allow the creation and dispersal of the elements necessary for life – and that we appear to live in a “designer universe.” More astoundingly, as all the values were ‘set’ by the big bang – if the conditions at the start of the universe had been


The sensational conclusion that

the universe appears to be

meant began to be formulated with the famous ‘anthropic

principle’...


say, bigger and bangier or smaller and less bangy (sorry for the technical terms), the physical laws would also be dif-ferent – then life seems to have been an integral part of the design from the very beginning. One of the first examples of the fine-tuning to be recog-nised, back in the 1950s, is the formation of carbon – quin-tessential to organic life – which like all except the simplest three elements is forged in the centre of stars. However, scientists had long realised that according to conventional wisdom, carbon shouldn’t exist at all (or if it did it should be extremely rare). Even the vast temperatures and pressure in stars shouldn’t produce enough energy for stable atoms to form. But we now know there is a lucky fluke – a quantum effect known as resonance – which produces a ‘spike’ that enormously amplifies the energy to exactly the right value. This only happens for carbon. The scientist who worked out the process, the maverick British astronomer and math-ematician Fred Hoyle, was so astonished by the coincidence that he famously described it as a “put-up job.” In a 1957 lecture he observed:

If this was a purely sci-entific problem and not one that touched on the religious problem, I do not believe that any sci-entist who examined the evidence would fail to draw the inference that the laws of nuclear phys-ics have been deliberately designed with regard to the consequences they produce inside the stars. If this is so, then my appar-ently random quirks have become part of a deep-laid scheme. If not then we are back again at a monstrous sequence of accidents.5

The most recently-discovered example of fine tuning is perhaps the most compelling. This relates to ‘vacuum energy,’ a force arising from ‘virtual particles’ that fill even empty interstellar space, and which has a profound effect on the universe, since it determines its rate of expansion and this in turn determines how life-friendly it is. If the universe was expanding too quickly, then gravity would be unable to build galaxies, planets and stars; if too slowly, then all mat-ter would be pulled back to the ‘big crunch’ before life had time to evolve. Obviously, our universe is expanding within that critically narrow range that allows it to be bio-friendly. But only recently has it been discovered how narrow – in-deed, wafer-thin – that range is. It all hangs on the rate of expansion, determined by the balance between the negative and positive energy of the vir-tual particles. In the mid-1990s, based on new improved data from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources, cosmol-ogists were finally able to calculate the balance. It turns out

that the negative energy cancels out all but an infinitesimal amount of the positive – all but 10120 (that’s 119 zeroes after the decimal point and before the 1). But the scary thing is that if this number was just one decimal place shorter – 10119 – then the universe would be expanding too quickly: there would be no stars and no planets. That tiny decimal place is the difference between life and no-life. The leading American theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind wrote: “This seems like an absurd ac-cident and we have no idea why it should happen. There is no fine-tuning quite like this in the rest of physics.”6 Nobel prize-winning theoretical physicist Steven Weinberg com-mented in 1993 that if the extraordinary balancing act of the vacuum energy was confirmed then, “it will be reasonable to infer that our own existence plays an important part in explaining why the universe is the way it is,” but went on,

“For what it is worth, I hope that this is not the case.”7 Unfortunately for Weinberg, it has since been confirmed. It is the case. It’s rather like winning the lottery (we assume). If our numbers come up we might think we’re clever or destined to win but of course it would be just chance. Not so long ago astrophysicists assumed that’s how it was with life: the right conditions just happened by accident. But the anthropic principle has shown that the game appears to have been fixed – as if only our num-bers went into the machine. We couldn’t lose. In fact, the ‘coincidences’ involved in the universal fine tuning are so vast it’s more like winning the lottery week after week

for several years. Of course this was unthinkable for most scientists – after all, design implies a designer – so they desperately searched for a get-out clause. Susskind duly came up with the now-ubiquitous multiverse as a way out of the anthropic conun-drum: the theory that there are really billions – perhaps an infinity – of universes, each with its own physical laws (since conditions at the big bang were different for each one). The vast majority don’t possess life, but because we live in one of the few that does, we are mistakenly over-impressed by the coincidence that it is spot on for us. The multiverse hypothesis turns the virtually improbable into the inevitable. This time it’s like entering our lottery numbers into several billion games simultaneously. We’re bound to scoop the jackpot at least once. The multiverse al-lowed scientists uncomfortable with the implications of the anthropic principle to breathe a sigh of relief.



• • •


There is, however, a major problem with the multiverse – and its exotic brother theories, string and M. There’s not a shred of evidence for any of it. Ironically it’s a fundamental aspect of the multiverse that there can never be any, since interaction between universes is by definition impossible. Which also conveniently makes the theory impossible to disprove. As Carr wrote in 2007, the multiverse “is highly speculative and… currently untestable. Indeed, it may al-ways remain so…”8

It gets worse. Being untestable means it violates one of science’s cardinal rules – that any hypotheses should be capable of being tested by experiment or observation. At best the multiverse is an interesting speculation, a possible but unprovable answer to the conundrum of the anthropic principle. But the majority of physicists take it as the answer to their prayers. If indeed they ever admit to praying. It’s easy to understand why. Hawking, for example, has acknowledged it’s a straight choice between intelligent de-sign (begging the awkward question of the designer) and the multiverse.9 Naturally he champions the latter, as do most of his colleagues, keen to look cool and cutting-edge, and beguiled by the seduction of endless equations – even if by definition they can never lead anywhere or prove anything.

The Anti-science of the multiverse One of the key principles of every other area of science is that it is contingent, the consensus at any time being based on the best data, but with the underlying acknowledgement that future discoveries may lead to major revisions. But here we have hard data pointing directly to a designer universe – and yet the overwhelming majority of scientists prefer to accept the entirely speculative and untestable multiverse, just because one day they might find a way of proving it. In other words, they accept it on faith, their belief in a non-designed universe blinding them to the overwhelming evidence for one that is obviously designed, and that science itself now points to. The anthropic principle has been conceptually divided between the ‘weak’ version (the universe appears to be designed for intelligent life, but this is an illusion) and the ‘strong’ version (the universe appears to be designed for us

because it is). Enter the American John Archibald Wheeler (1926-2008), one of the most eminent modern theoretical physicists, discoverer of black holes and originator of the concept of space-time wormholes, who came up with a new spin: the “participatory anthropic principle.” Wheeler developed the concept as the logical extrapola-tion of another weird aspect of quantum physics, the impli-cations of which few other physicists have dared explore. It is accepted that by observing events at the quantum level they will inevitably be changed by the act of observation. The outcome of a particular experiment often depends on how the experimenter chooses to make the observation – in effect they assign particular values to a subatomic particle. This is seen most famously in the ‘double slit experi-ment’, where the experimenter can ‘choose’ whether a beam of light behaves as a particle or a wave even when only a single photon is involved. Bizarre though it might seem, a fundamental principle of quantum theory is that the photon does not take a single path, but takes every possible path simultaneously. They exist as a series of probabilities (‘wave functions’), and only when an observation is made does the wave function ‘collapse’ and the photon take a specific position. As Wheeler declared (his emphasis): “Each photon is governed by laws of probability and behaves like a cloud until it is detected… The act of measurement is the trans-forming act that collapses uncertainty into certainty.”10 On a much wider scale, every particle in the universe exists as a wave function, ‘waiting’ to be given specific values by being observed. Wheeler showed that it wasn’t just a question of the ex-perimenter determining through observation how a particle behaves now. In the double-slit experiment choosing how the photon is observed after it has passed through the slit pro-duces the same effect. The observer effectively chooses how the particle behaved in the past – maybe only microseconds ago, but in the past nevertheless (‘backward causation’). Initially Wheeler’s proposal could only be a thought ex-periment as the technology allowing a choice to be made in

John Archibald Wheeler (1926–2008)


the infinitesimally small period while a photon is in ‘flight’ wasn’t available. But in 2006 a French team devised a method of experimenting for real. Wheeler was proved right. He then realised the same effect could be obtained if light from a distant star was involved, but the observer on Earth would be ‘choosing’ how a photon behaved when it set out on its journey thousands, maybe millions, of light years ago. The observer effect must be truly cosmic in scale. He then developed the notion of the “participatory universe” – by observing the universe, we are actually creating it, not just now but in the past. In short, we are determining the initial conditions set by the big bang. Physicists aren’t dis-covering the laws of physics – they are creating them. As he noted: “The past history of the universe has no more validity then is assigned by the measurements we make – now!”11 And in a somewhat Star Trekky soundbite he declared: “We are participators in bringing into being not only the near and here but the far away and long ago.”12

In Wheeler’s vision, human con-sciousness (and that of any other sentient beings out there) is an integral part of cosmic evolution. The big bang creates the subatomic particles from which galaxies, stars and planets are built. Life forms on planets and evolves to pro-duce intelligent, conscious beings, who through their active observation actually manifest the big bang itself, “the mecha-nism of genesis.”13 (Wheeler pointed out that this disposes of the multiverse: if consciousness is needed to make the universe, then only a universe such as ours, with its conscious living beings, can exist.) In other words, there is a circular relationship between mind and the universe – human consciousness is in some way necessary for its completion: the universe is evolving from a starting point towards some end, and mind plays a key part in that process. As Bernard Carr commented: “Wheeler has suggested a more radical interpretation [of the anthropic principle] in which the universe does not even come into being in a well-defined way until an observer is produced who can perceive it. In this case, the very exist-ence of the universe depends on life.”14

Although to the casual reader this might seem some-what off the wall, Wheeler’s logic holds up – and, unlike the multiverse, its predictions have been tested experimen-tally – winning acceptance from other prominent physicists. Among them is Stephen Hawking, who writes in The Grand Design: “We create history by our observation, rather than history creating us.”15 If Wheeler is right, then we play a part in the grand design implied by the anthropic principle. And if for ‘designer’ we read ‘God’, then we are, at least in part, God, or have a share in God’s mind.

Back to the Future Perhaps the oddest – and most satisfying – aspect of this is how Wheeler’s participatory universe dovetails with the beliefs of the ancients, as Austrian astrophysicist Erich

Jantsch (1929-80) noted. Based on the mass of evidence for cosmic purpose, he developed the concept of the ‘self-organising universe’, very similar to Wheeler’s. To him, the universe, through its components – including conscious beings – determines its own evolution. He wrote, “God is not the creator, but the mind of the universe.”16 But although acknowledging that the self-organising universe was prefig-ured in many mystical religious systems, Jantsch singled out one in particular: “the oldest recorded world view, Hermetic philosophy.”17

Bingo! In fact we had pinpointed the very same tradition while researching our latest book, The Forbidden Universe, as the inspiration for all the great heroes of the scientific revolution: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, William Harvey, William Gilbert, Isaac Newton – even the allegedly arch-rationalist Francis Bacon. The Hermetic system is a metaphysical and magical

philosophy and cosmology contained in a collection of texts known as the Hermetica, ascribed to a legendary Egyptian teacher, Hermes Trismegistus (‘Thrice-Great Hermes’). These writ-ings, of which around twenty survive out of a much larger body, were set down in Egypt during the period of Greek domi-nation, some time after the third century BCE. They were largely lost to Europe af-ter the crackdown on pagan scholarship when Christianity became the state reli-gion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century CE. But they survived in the Middle East (where they actually laid the foundations of medieval Arab sci-

ence), and were rediscovered by Europe in the mid-fifteenth century by an agent working for the great patron of learning, Cosimo de’ Medici – the event that actually triggered the Renaissance. As we show in The Forbidden Universe, not only did the Hermetica go on to be the driving force behind the scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but it also – somewhat spookily – outlines a cosmology that fits very neatly with Wheeler’s and Jantsch’s. (This may not be entirely coincidental, as Wheeler’s great philosophical hero was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz [1646-1716], the extraordi-nary intellect and contemporary of Newton, who, like him, was steeped in the Hermetic tradition – although it was expedient to downplay his interest in matters esoteric.) The Hermetica, too, celebrated the universe as an emanation of the mind of God, declaring: “… you must think of god in this way, as having everything – the cos-mos, himself, the universe – like thoughts within himself.”18 American historian of science Ernest Lee Tuveson sums up the fundamental Hermetic principle: “the world emanates from the divine intelligence, and, as a whole in which each part is an essential component member, expresses the great Mind.”19 And modern Hermetic specialist, American phi-losopher Glenn Alexander Magee, writes: “Hermeticists not only hold that God requires creation, they make a specific

“We are participators in

bringing into being not only the near and here but the far away and

long ago.”


creature, man, play a crucial role in God’s self-actualisation. Hermeticism holds that man can know God, and that man’s knowledge of God is necessary for God’s own completion.”20 Back to Wheeler’s participatory universe… In the Hermetic cosmology, the universe is God, every-thing in it is an emanation of God’s mind, and human beings play a necessary part in God’s self-actualisation. In Wheel-er’s, consciousness plays a fundamental role in actualising the universe. But where did the writers of the Hermetic treatises get their ideas? Renaissance devotees of their philosophy believed it encapsulated the highest wisdom of the ancient Egyptian civilisation, that of the pyramid builders them-selves. In later centuries there was a more critical view: the texts might have been written in Egypt, but owed more to Greek ideas. However, recent research shows that – while written for a Greek audience – the Hermetic books do indeed contain traditional Egyptian religious and cosmologi-cal ideas. In fact, there a compelling case that they came from the most ancient known Egyptian cult: the religion of Heliopolis, as set out in the Pyramid Texts, the oldest magi-cal writings in the world. And as it was indeed the religion of the builders of the great pyramids of Giza, this would vindicate the beliefs of the Renaissance Hermeticists. In their complex and highly symbolic system, the Pyra-mid Texts too reveal many parallels with Wheeler’s partici-patory universe. According to the Heliopolitan theology the cosmos is an emanation flowing out from the creator-god, Atum, expanding from a single point of origin outward to the material world. But it, too, involves a flow from our-selves back to the moment of creation. As specialist in the Heliopolitan religion, American anthropologist Karl Luck-ert puts it, the universe not only “exhales” from Atum but “inhales.” We might need Atum/God, but he needs us. So perhaps instead of tying themselves in the knots of string theory and abandoning themselves to the siren seduc-tion of the non-existent multiverse, scientists would be better advised to read the Hermetica. After all, they would only be following in the footsteps of intellectual giants. But they should be warned: there is a creative consciousness involved, as science itself shows. It is a fact: face it. But we must stress that while this ‘god’ bears no resemblance whatsoever to the petty tyrant of the Old Testament, he/she/it is not too hard to find. Simply start the quest with a mirror.

LyNN PICKNETT and CLIVE PRINCE are just celebrating their 22nd year of co-authorship. Their joint career began with Turin Shroud: How Leonardo Da Vinci Fooled History and – eight books later – they have just published The Forbidden Universe. They are best known for their 1997 The Templar Revelation, which Dan Brown acknowledged as the primary inspiration for The Da Vinci Code. As a reward for their contribution they were given cameos in the movie (on the Lon-don bus). They also give talks to an international audience. Lynn & Clive both live in South London. Their website is www.picknettprince.com.

s Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince are the authors of the new book The Forbidden Universe: The Occult Origins Of Science And The Search For The Mind Of God (Constable, 2011), available from all good bookstores or visit www.newdawnreviews.com.

Footnotes1. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam Press, London, 1988, 175.2. Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design, Bantam Press, London, 161.3. Freeman J. Dyson, A Many Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, 2007, 44.4. Paul Davies, The Mind of God: Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning, Penguin, London, 1993, 197.5. In Mervyn Stockwood (ed.), Religion and the Scientists, SCM Press, London, 1959, 64.6. Leonard Susskind, ‘A Universe Like No Other’, New Scientist, no. 2419, 2003, 37.7. Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, Hutchinson, London, 1993, 182.8. Bernard Carr, Universe of Multiverse?, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007, 14.9. In the Sunday Times’ Eureka magazine, September 2010.10. John Archibald Wheeler and Kenneth Ford, Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1998, 334.11. Ibid., 337.12. On ‘The Anthropic Universe’, The Science Show, ABC National Radio, 18 February 2006.13. John Archibald Wheeler, ‘Genesis and Observership’, in Robert E. Butts and Jaakko Hintikka (eds.), Foundational Problems in the Special Sciences, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1977.14. B.J. Carr, ‘On the Origin, Evolution and Purpose of the Physical Uni-verse’, in John Leslie (ed.), Physical Cosmology and Philosophy, Macmil-lan, New York, 1990, 152.15. Hawking and Mlodinow, op. cit., 140.16. Erich Jantsch, The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1980, 308.17. Ibid., 308.18. Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, 41.19. Ernest Lee Tuveson, The Avatars of Thrice Great Hermes, Bucknell University Press, London, 1982, xi.20. Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2001, 9.


© By sTAnIslAv GRoF, m.d.

Since the publication of Jose Arguelles’ book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology (Ar-guelles 1987) brought to the attention of lay audi-ences the ancient prophecy concerning the end of the Maya Long Count calendar, which started on

August 11, 3114 BCE, and will end on December 21, 2012, this date has become the focus of many articles, books, and conferences. Similar prophecies about the end of the Great Cycle can be found in many other cultural and religious groups – the Hopi, Navajo, Cherokee, Apache, Iroquois confed-eracy, ancient Egyptians, the Kabbalists, Essenes, Qero elders of Peru, the Sub-saharan Dogon tribe, and the Australian Aborigines. With a few exceptions, the Mayan prophecy about the end of the cosmic cycle, the Fifth World, has been in-terpreted in terms of actual physical destruction of humanity and of the material world, in a way similar to the interpretation (or better misinterpreta-tion) of the term apocalypse by Chris-tian fundamentalists, particularly the millions of American Christians who believe that at the time of this global destruction they will experience “rapture” and be united with Jesus. People who see it this way are not aware of the fact that the original and literal meaning of the term apocalypse (Greek Αποκαλυψις Apokálypsis) is not destruction but “lifting of the veil” or “revelation.” It referred to the disclosure of some secrets hidden from the majority of humanity to certain privileged persons. The source of the misinterpretation of this word is probably the phrase “apokálypsis eschaton” which literally means “revelation at the end of the æon, or age.” The purpose of this conference* is to explore a radi-cally different, more optimistic interpretation of the Mayan

prophecy – as referring to the end of the world as we have known it: a world dominated by unbridled violence and insa-tiable greed, egotistic hierarchy of values, corrupted institu-tions and corporations, and irreconcilable conflicts between organised religions. Instead of predicting a physical destruction of the mate-rial world, the Mayan prophecy might refer to death and rebirth and a mass inner transformation of humanity. In order to explore this idea, we have to answer two important questions: First, how could ancient Mayans two thousand years ago predict what situation humanity would be facing

in the twenty-first century? And second, are there any indications that modern society, more specifically industrial civilisation, is currently on the verge of a major psychospiritual transformation? I will try to address these questions in the course of my presentation. The Mayan prophecy concerning the 2012 winter solstice has an important astronomical dimension. Over 2,000 years ago the early Maya formulated a profound galactic cosmology. Being ex-cellent observers of the sky, they noticed that the position of the winter solstice sun was slowly shifting toward an align-ment with the galactic axis. This move-ment is caused by so called precession – the wobble of the rotational axis of the

earth. The Mayans concluded that major changes of cosmic proportions would occur at the time of this auspicious solar/galactic alignment. This is an event that happens only every 25,920 years, which is the period required for the equinox to move through all twelve zodiacal signs. C.G. Jung used in his book Aion and in his other writings the term “Platonic Month” for the period that it takes the vernal equinox point to pass through one constellation of the sidereal zodiac (ap-proximately 2,160 years) and the term “Platonic Year” for the completion of the entire zodiacal cycle. Astronomers of the pre-classic Maya culture called the Izapa Culture devised the Long Count calendar consist-ing of thirteen baktuns to target the time when the cosmic

2012 & human Destiny

End of the World or Consciousness Revolution?

– Part 1 –

Instead of predicting a physical destruction

of the material world, the Mayan

prophecy might refer to death and rebirth

and a mass inner transformation of

humanity.

* 2012 Now Conference, Colorado, USA, 29 May 2009


alignment would maximise – December 2012. The cultural legacy of ancient Mayans includes stone monuments convey-ing in carved glyphs and images the prophecy concerning this auspicious alignment. My own area of interest in the last fifty years has been research of non-ordinary states of consciousness or, more specifically, an important subcategory of these states for which I coined the term holotropic. This composite word means literally “oriented toward wholeness” or “moving in the direction of wholeness” (from the Greek halos = whole and trepein = moving toward or in the direction of something). These are states that novice shamans experi-ence during their initiatory crises and later induce in their clients. Ancient and native cultures have used these states in rites of passage and in their healing ceremonies. They were described by mystics of all ages and initiates in the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth. Procedures inducing these states were also developed in the context of the great religions of the world – Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (Grof 2000, 2006). It is less immediately evident and requires some explanation why and how experiences and observations from the study of holotropic states can throw new light on the problem of the Mayan prophecy. The key consideration in this regard is that powerful consciousness-expanding procedures (“technologies of the sacred”) played an integral and essential role in the Mayan culture. We have ample pictorial evidence on Mayan stone stelae, sculptures, and ceramics that they used for this purpose the Mexican cactus peyote (Lophophora williamsii), magic mushrooms (Psilocybe mexicana or coerulescens known to the Indians as Xibalba okox or teonanacatl), and skin secretions of the toad Bufo marinus. Additional plant materials used in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica were the morning glory seeds (Ipomoea violacea) called by the natives ololiuqui, Salvia divinato-rum, also known as diviner’s sage, wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), and balche (a fermented drink made from the tree Lonchocarpus longistylus and honey). A powerful and specifically Mayan mind-altering technique was massive bloodletting induced by using lancets made of stingray spines, flint, or obsidian to wound the tongue, earlobes, and genitals (Schele and Miller 1986, Grof 1994). Ritual bloodletting opened up an experiential realm that was not ordinarily accessible before the time of biological death. The Mayans used the symbol of the Vision Serpent for the experiences induced by blood loss and shock. This symbol represented the contact between the everyday world of human beings and the world of gods and sacred an-cestors, who were expected to appear in their visions in the supernatural realms. The lancet was perceived as a sacred object with enormous power; it was personified in the form of the Perforator God. Because of the extraordinary importance that these

“technologies of the sacred” had in the Mayan culture, it is reasonable to assume that visionary experiences induced by them might have provided inspiration for the prophecy concerning 2012 and played a major role in its articulation. It is thus fully justified to look at this prophecy through the prism of the discoveries of modern consciousness research. In holotropic states of consciousness, it is possible to obtain profound revelations concerning the master blueprint of the universe designed by cosmic intelligence of such astonishing proportions that it is far beyond the limits of our everyday imagination. Individuals experiencing psychedelic states, including myself, occasionally reported that they had profound illuminating insights into the creative dynamics of the Kosmos. More specifically, psychedelic pioneer Terrence McKenna described in his preface to John Major Jenkins’ book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 that he received his insights

concerning 2012 in his mushroom ses-sions. Individuals who had such illuminat-ing cosmic visions suddenly under-stood that what is happening in the material world is formed and informed by archetypal principles, beings, and events existing in dimensions of reality that are inaccessible for our everyday consciousness. They also saw that the dynamics of the archetypal world is systematically correlated with the movements of the planets, their an-gular relationships, and their relative positions to the fixed stars. This led to a completely new understanding of astrology, its origins, and paramount importance. It became clear to them

that the source of astrology were global encompassing visions of the workings of the Kosmos and not tedious accumulation of individual observations of correlations between events in the world and celestial bodies. Richard Tarnas amassed over a period of more than thir-ty years impressive and convincing evidence for systematic correlations existing between the archetypal world, celestial dynamics, and psychological and historical processes and presented it in his ground-breaking and paradigm-breaking book Cosmos and Psyche (Tarnas 2006). Rick’s astrologi-cal research has focused primarily on correlations with the movements of the planets, but there exist astrological systems, which pay great attention to fixed stars; experiences in holotropic states can provide equally revealing insights in this regard. An important aspect of experiences in holotropic states is that they transcend narrow linear time and make it pos-sible to see events in the universe on a cosmic astronomical scale. In all their grandeur, time scales like the Mayan Long Count Calendar or the Great or Platonic Year are very mod-est as compared to others inspired by visionary experiences, such as those found in Tantric science, in which the age of the universe amounts to billions of years (a number simi-lar to the assessment of modern cosmologists), or to those discussed in Hindu religion and mythology, such as the

A powerful and specifically

Mayan mind-altering technique

was massive bloodletting

induced by using lancets...


kalpas or the Day of Brahman that also amounts to billions of years. The visions of ancient Mayan seers could thus with the help of “technologies of the sacred” easily reach many centuries into the future. The Mayan prophecy concerning the galactic alignment is not limited to astronomical observations and astrological predictions; it is intimately interconnected with mythol-ogy, with what C.G. Jung called the archetypal domain of the collective unconscious. For example, the Mayan seers referred to the December solstice sun as “Cosmic Father” and to the Milky Way as “Cosmic Mother.” They envisioned the centre of the galaxy, where modern astronomy places a giant black hole, as her creative and destructive womb. The time of the galactic alignment was thus the time of a cosmic hieros gamos, sacred marriage between the Feminine and the Masculine. In the year 2012, the sun will have travelled to the edge of a cosmic dust cloud known as the Great Dark Rift that lies along the Milky Way and seems to divide its light into two paths. The Mayans called this dark rift Xibalba Be (Road to the Underworld) and saw it as a place of birth and death and of death/rebirth. It was for them the birth canal of the Cosmic Mother Creatrix, where the December solstice sun gets reborn in 2012. It was also a death place, because it is the doorway into the underworld, the land of the dead and the unborn. These associations clearly were not products of everyday fantasy and imagination of the Mayans projected on the night sky, but results of profound direct apprehen-sions of the connection between the archetypal world and the celestial bodies and processes. The Mayan prophecy has also an important mythologi-cal connection to the story about the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who were invited by the death gods to visit the underworld Xibalba and play ballgame with them. The Xibalba Lords put them through many ordeals and the brothers overcame them all and, finally, they died and were reborn as the Sun and the Moon (or according to some inter-pretations as the Sun and Venus). The part of the story that

seems particularly relevant in this regard is the battle of the twins with the bird demon Vucub-Caquix (“Seven-Macaw”); he is a vain, selfish, and impulsive ruler, who pretends to be the sun and the moon of the twilight world inbetween the former creation and the present one. He seems to represents the ego archetype that is dominant at the end of the cycle. Seven Macaw seems to have an archetypal parallel in the New Testament – the Endtime Ruler or the “Beast,” also known as Antichrist. Hunahpu and Xbalanque defeat Seven Macaw and strip him of his teeth (the instrument of violence), of his riches, and his power. By doing this, they facilitate the resurrec-tion of their father, One Hunahpu, a just ruler who repre-sents selfless divine consciousness that is holistic; it shows concern for all beings, and makes political decisions based upon future generations or – as Native Americans say – with regard to how they will affect seven generations down the road. Research of holotropic states – psychedelic therapy, holo-tropic breathwork, and work with individuals in “spiritual emergencies” – made major contributions to the under-standing of mythology. Myths are commonly considered to be products of human fantasy and imagination not unlike stories of modern fiction writers and playwrights. However, the work of C.G. Jung and Joseph Campbell brought about a radically new understanding of mythology. According to these two seminal thinkers, myths are not fictitious stories about adventures of imaginary characters in non-existent countries and thus arbitrary products of individual human

The Lophophora williamsii (peyote) cactus contains an alkaloid that when ingested induces a non-

ordinary state of consciousness.

This lintel depicts the Maya Lord Shield Jaguar and his principal wife Lady Xoc engaged in a bloodletting rite that took place on 9.13.17.15.12.5 eb 15 mac (28 Oct 709).


fantasy. Rather, myths originate in the collective uncon-scious of humanity and are manifestations of primordial organising principles of the psyche and of the cosmos which Jung called archetypes (Jung 1976). Archetypes express themselves through the individual psyche and its deeper processes, but they do not originate in the human brain and are not its products. They are superordinate to the individual psyche and function as its governing principles. In holotropic states the archetypal world can be directly experienced in a way that is as convincing and authentic as the material world appears to be, or more so. To distinguish transpersonal experiences involving archetypal figures and domains from imaginary products of individual fantasy, Jungians refer to this do-main as imaginal. French scholar, philosopher, and mystic, Henri Corbin, who first used the term mundus imaginalis, was inspired in this regard by his study of Islamic mystical literature (Corbin 2000). Islamic theosophers call the imaginal world, where everything existing in the sensory world has its ana-logue, ‘alam a mithal,’ or the “eighth climate,” to distinguish it from the “seven climates,” regions of traditional Islamic geography. The imaginal world possesses extension and dimensions, forms and colours, but these are not perceptible to our senses as they would be if they were properties of physical objects. However, this realm is in every respect as fully ontologically real and susceptible to consensual valida-tion by other people as the material world perceived by our sensory organs. Archetypes are timeless essences, cosmic ordering prin-

ciples, which can also manifest as mythic personifications, or specific deities of various cultures. The figures of Maya mythology – Hunahpu, Xbalanque, their father One Hu-nahpu, Seven Macaw, Quetzalcoatl (Kukulcan), and others – like those of any other culture are thus ontologically real and can be directly apprehended by individuals experiencing holotropic states. As John Major Jenkins points out, Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend contributed to the understanding of archetypes another important dimension that is relevant for the problem of the Mayan prophecy. They described in their book Hamlet’s Mill the deep connection that exists between myth and astronomical processes (de Santillana and Dechend 1969).

* * *

In 1948, after many years of systematically studying my-thologies of various cultures of the world, Joseph Campbell published his ground breaking book The Hero with a Thou-sand Faces, which in the following decades profoundly in-fluenced research and understanding in the field (Campbell 1968). Analysing a broad spectrum of myths from various parts of the world, Campbell realised that they all contained variations of one universal archetypal formula, which he called the monomyth. This was the story of the hero, either male or female, who leaves his or her home ground or is forcefully separated from it by external circumstances and, after fantastic adventures and ordeals culminating in psy-chospiritual death and rebirth, returns to his original society radically transformed – as an enlightened or deified being, a healer, seer, or great spiritual teacher. In Campbell’s own words, the basic formula for the hero’s journey can be summarised as follows: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow men.” Campbell’s inquisitive and incisive intel-lect went beyond simply recognising the universality of this

Aztec sculpture representing Quetzalcoatl, the Mesoamerican deity of death and rebirth

(in the form of the Feathered Serpent).


myth over time and space. His curiosity drove him to ask what makes this myth universal. Why does the theme of the hero’s journey appeal to cultures of all times and countries, even if they differ in every other respect? Campbell’s answer has the simplicity and unrelenting logic of all brilliant insights: the monomyth of the hero’s journey is a blueprint for the transformative crisis, which all human beings can experience when the deep contents of the unconscious psyche emerge into consciousness. The hero’s journey describes nothing less than the experiential territory that an individual must traverse during times of profound transformation. The story of the Mayan Hero Twins is a classical example of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. It belongs to a vast array of archetypal motifs that we can experience in holotropic states. I hope that the above discussion adequately addressed the first question that I asked earlier in my presen-tation: “How could ancient Mayans two thousand years ago discover anything that would be relevant for humanity in the twenty-first century?” The theme of Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey brings us to the second question: “If the Mayan prophecy does not refer to the end of the world and to physical destruction of humanity, but to profound collective psychospiritual death and rebirth comparable to what Campbell described on the individual scale, are there any indications that such Inner transformation is possible or that it actually is already underway. My approach to this question is based not only on observations of the experiences of thousands of individuals in holotropic states of consciousness – psychedelic therapy, holotropic breathwork sessions, and spontaneous psychospir-itual crises (“spiritual emergencies”) – but also on extensive personal experience of these states. I would like to begin this discussion with an account of an experiential sequence from one of my own psychedelic sessions. It provided for me deep insights into the archetype of the Apocalypse, a motif that occurs relatively rarely in holotropic states, but is particularly relevant for the topic of this conference. About fifty minutes into the session, I started experi-encing strong activation in the lower part of my body. My pelvis was vibrating as enormous amounts of energy were being released in ecstatic jolts. At one point, this stream-ing energy swept me along in an intoxicating frenzy into a whirling cosmic vortex of creation and destruction. In the centre of this monstrous hurricane of primordial forces were four giant herculean figures performing what seemed to be the ultimate cosmic sabre dance. They had strong Mongolian features with protruding cheekbones,

oblique eyes, and clean-shaven heads decorated by large braided ponytails. Whirling around in a frantic dance craze, they were swinging large weapons that looked like scythes or L-shaped scimitars; all four of these combined formed a rapidly rotating swastika. I intuitively understood that this monumental archetypal scene was related to the beginning of the process of crea-tion and simultaneously to the final stage of the spiritual journey. In the cosmogenetic process (in the movement from the primordial unity to the worlds of plurality) the blades of the scimitars represented the force that is splitting and fragmenting the unified field of cosmic consciousness and creative energy into countless individual units. In relation to spiritual journey, they represented the stage when the seeker’s consciousness transcends separation and polarity and reaches the state of original undifferentiated unity. The

direction of this process seemed to be related to the clock-wise and counterclockwise rotation of the blades. Projected into the material world, this archetypal motif seemed to be related to growth and development (the fertilised egg or seed becoming an organism) or destruction of forms (wars, natural catastrophes, decay). Then the experience opened up into an unimaginable panorama of scenes of destruction. In these visions, natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, crashing meteors, forest fires, floods and tidal waves, were combined with images of burning cities, entire blocks of collapsing high-rise buildings, mass death, and horror of wars. Head-ing this wave of total annihilation were four archetypal images of macabre riders symbolising the end of the world. I realised that these were the Four Horsemen of the Apoca-lypse (pestilence, war, famine, and death). The continuing vibrations and jolts of my pelvis now became synchronised with the movements of this ominous horseback riding and I joined the dance, becoming one of them, or possibly all four of them at once, leaving my own identity behind. Suddenly, there was a rapid change of scenery and I had a vision of the cave from Plato’s Republic. In this work, Plato describes a group of people who live chained

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887.


all of their lives in a cave, facing a blank wall. They watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of the cave entrance. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. The enlightened philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from this illusion and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are illusory, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners. This was followed by profound and convincing realisation that the material world of our everyday life is not made of ‘stuff’ but created by cosmic consciousness by infinitely complex and sophisticated orchestration of experiences. It is a divine play that the Hindus call lila, created by cosmic illusion maya. The final major scene of the session was a magnificent ornate theatre stage featuring a parade of personified uni-versal principles, archetypes – cosmic actors, who through a complex interplay create the illusion of the phenomenal world. They were protean personages with many facets, levels, and dimensions of meaning that kept changing their forms in extremely intricate holographic interpenetration as I was observing them. Each of them seemed to represent simultaneously the essence of his or her function and all the concrete manifestations of this element in the world of matter. There was Maya, the mysterious ethereal principle symbolising the world illusion; Anima, embodying the eter-nal Female; a Mars-like personification of war and aggres-sion; the Lovers, representing all the sexual dramas and

STANISLAV GRoF, M.D., Ph.D. is one of the world’s foremost researchers of the further reaches of the human mind. A psychiatrist who has researched non-ordinary states of consciousness for over 50 years, he is one of the founders of transpersonal psychology. Dr. Grof is the bestselling author of numerous books including When the Impossible Happens, Psychology of the Future, The Cosmic Game, The Ultimate Journey, and Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy (with Christina Grof). Dr. Grof is a professor of psychol-ogy at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. His website is www.stanislavgrof.com.

romances throughout ages; the royal figure of the Ruler; the withdrawn Hermit; the elusive Trickster; and many others. As they were passing across the stage, they bowed in my direction, as if expecting appreciation for the stellar perfor-mance in the divine play of the universe. This experience brought me a deep understanding of the meaning of the archetypal motif of the Apocalypse. It suddenly seemed profoundly wrong to see it as related ex-clusively to physical destruction of the world. It is certainly possible that the Apocalypse will in the future be actually manifested on a planetary scale as a historical event, which is a potential of all archetypes. There are many examples of situations in which archetypal motifs and energies broke through the boundary that usually separates the archetypal realm from the material world and shaped history. The giant asteroid that 65 million years ago killed the dinosaurs, wars of all ages, the crucifixion of Jesus, the medieval Witches’ Sabbath and Dance of Death, the Nazi concentration camps, and Hiroshima are just a few salient examples. But the primary importance of the archetype of the Apocalypse is that it functions as an important landmark on the spiritual journey. It emerges into the consciousness of the seeker at a time when he or she recognises the illusory nature of the material world. As the universe reveals its true essence as virtual reality, as a cosmic play of consciousness, the world of matter is destroyed in the psyche of the indi-vidual. This might also be the meaning of the “end of the world” referred to in the Mayan prophecy.

s The above is the transcript of the author's speech to the 2012 Now Conference, Colorado, USA, 29 May 2009. The second part of this article, to appear in the next issue of New Dawn, explores the process of psychospiritual death and rebirth, and the possibil-ity the Mayan prophecy refers to a mass inner transformation of humanity.

Recommended Reading – Titles by dr. stanislav Grof

Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research, State University of New York (SUNY) Press, Albany, New York, 2000.When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Non-Ordinary Realities, Sounds True, Louisville, CO, 2006.The Ultimate Journey: Consciousness and the Mystery of Death, MAPS, Sarasota, FL, 2006.Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy (with Christina Grof), State University of New York (SUNY) Press, Albany, New York, 2010.

Plato‘s allegory of the cave


© By FREddy sIlvA

I asked the natives whether these edifices were built in the time of the Inca. They laughed at the question, af-firming that they were made long before the Inca… that they had heard from their forebears that everything to be seen there appeared suddenly in the course of a single night.1

Thus reads the eyewitness account by Pedro Cieza de León when he came across the mega-lithic temple of Tiwanaku two miles above sea level on the Altiplano of Bolivia, incorporating a stadium-sized court of 99 standing stones,

a stepped pyramid, and a pier constructed from 440-ton slabs of andesite and capable of accommodating one hundred ocean-going vessels. In reading de León’s diary it is clear he struggled for adjectives while attempting to describe what lay in front of him. The year was 1549. Myths of temples and ‘cities of knowledge’ constructed by individuals of giant stature, both mentally and physi-cally, exist far and wide, floating around Tiwanaku, Giza, Easter Island, and Teotihuacan like magnetic mist. The Egyptian texts place these builder gods in remote, possibly Palaeolithic times, for the era of dynastic kings supposedly only began in 3100 BCE with the Pharaoh Menes, who was considered the first human ruler – that is, a descendent of a pure human bloodline. This was preceded by the era governed by the Akhu Shemsu Hor (“Shining Ones, Followers of Horus”), builder gods whose lineage was of divine descent; prior to this, Egyptian his-tory mentions the “Occasion of the First Time,” and we are informed the land was then presided by the Neteru (“crea-tor gods”) whose era was closed by a catastrophic global deluge. Advice to initiates in the temple of Edfu offers a glimpse as to what the builder gods may have looked like, since the initiates were instructed to “stand up with the Ahau” (“Gods who stand up”) who measured 9 cubits tall. That’s approximately 15 feet or 4.6 metres! As for the motivation behind the unusual temple build-ers, we need look no further than the walls of the Egyptian temple of Edfu and its Building Texts. This unique record

is said to be a faithful copy of an older text which per-ished with the original temple after a global conflagration. It reveals that after founding the first primeval mound at Heliopolis (later the Academy), groups of builder gods set about locating other special mounds at carefully chosen locations that would act as foundations for future temples, the development of which was intended to bring about “the resurrection of the former world of the gods” following its destruction by a worldwide flood. It is stated that the Ahau were survivors from an island overwhelmed by a catastro-phe that “inundated the former mansions of the gods,” and brought to an end a Golden Age.

The legacy of the Gods – part 2

Places of the Builder Gods

Wall carving on the Egyptian temple of Edfu.


We do not know exactly when human-constructed temples began, yet we do know that many of the structures we have inherited are far older than previously believed, and even what we see stands on the foundations of far older structures; Tiwanaku, for one, is now reliably dated to 15,000 BCE.2

It is also known that such places of power were constructed as close to a ‘navel of the earth’ as was permitted. These temples became microcosms of a macrocosm,3 protectors of a hotspot of energy in perpetuity, a reminder of the sacrality of place. In southern India, when the essence of Siva manifested as a phallic pillar on the eastern side of the sacred hill of Arunachala, the architect Visvakarma erected a temple around it and “became like a god.” The deeds of this man of geometry and number would subsequently be re-enacted throughout the ages by other adepts, most notably by the architect and High Priest of Heliopolis, Imho-tep, who brought the pyramid form to Egypt and added the step pyramid to the temple complex at Saqqara. He subsequently becomes a god. These and many other acts had their basis in a supposed “Golden Age,” when ‘creator gods’ of great stature, moved by an unshakable duty to the

divine, created temples as ‘cities of knowledge’, what the Hindu call Jnana Puri.

The Golden Age of Creator Gods

Had we been given the choice of incarnating in a period such as 16,000 BCE the world would have looked a lot different than it does today. This was the time of the last glacial maximum, when more of the Earth’s landmass was exposed. During this pe-riod Australia and New Guinea formed a massive continent; the British Isles were joined to each other and to Europe; the Black Sea, the North Sea and the Persian Gulf were dry land; the Mediterranean was a lake, and the Indonesian archipelago and Asia were one. Southern India was also much more vast and incorporated Sri Lanka, which is now an island. Together they comprised the kingdom of Kumari Kandam, “the Land of the Virgin” – an interesting correspondence to the name given to ancient Egypt, Ta-

Mery, “the place of Mary.” As with Heliopolis and Tiwan-aku, Kumari Kandam is described in the Tamil texts as a high civilisation, part of a “Golden Age,” where the pursuit of knowledge was held in the highest esteem and cities

of knowledge were created by men of great stature, both physically and men-tally, who possessed exquisite skills in temple-building and sacred knowledge that compared them to gods. Tamil traditions describe this age as a time when “kingship was lowered from heaven”4 at the sacred hill of Arunachala, whereupon it became a repository of a creator god’s power and knowledge. Arunachala lies in the land of the Dravidian culture, which is at least 10,000 years old, and the origin of today’s Tamil culture. The hill is mentioned in the oldest Tamil sacred literature, the Tolkappiyam, which itself refers to an even older work that

was based on a library of archaic texts said to have been compiled more than 10,000 years earlier.5 We are therefore talking about an extremely old scripture spanning unim-aginable eons of time, much like the oral traditions of the Aborigines.

We are therefore talking about an

extremely old scripture spanning unimaginable eons of time, much like the oral traditions of the Aborigines.

A head of a giant statue located in the megalithic temple of Tiwanaku two miles above sea level on the Altiplano of Bolivia.


The theme is repeated in Central America. Of all the interesting things about the Mayan corpus named Popul Vuh, two items in particular stand out. First, its depiction of life during a “Golden Age” before a catastrophic global flood swept the Earth sounds remarkably like most gnostic texts compiled by other civilisations with whom the Maya supposedly had never interacted. Second, it describes how the “First Men” possessed clairvoyant ability: “Endowed with intelligence, they saw and instantly they could see far; they succeeded in seeing, they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world. The things hidden in the distance they saw without first having to move… they were formidable men.”6

The Flood and End of the Golden Age

Certainly makes one yearn for those times. But all good things come to an end. The Tamil Pura-nas state that there came a great pouring of the waters that submerged vast tracts of land, includ-ing the ancient acad-emies, beneath gigantic waves. In fact there are at least twelve identical worldwide legends of great lands swallowed by rapidly encroaching oceans, and with them, the folding of the “golden age” of the gods. Such written accounts are hardly the product of a fertile imagination. Off the coast of India there have been found no less than five sites of pre-diluvial cities, such as the former Mahabalipuram (“The city of the giant Bali”), along with the Temple of the Seven Pagodas whose golden tips are seen by fisher-men during a calm sea. On the northwestern coast of India, out across the bay from the present city of Dwarka lies the original city of Kushasthali and its temple presided by Khrishna, now submerged beneath fifty feet of muddy ocean. To the southwest of India lie submerged staircases in what are now the Maldive Islands, while in the Microne-sian island of Pohnpei (“upon a stone altar”), one hundred artificial islands comprise the pentagonal temple of Nan Madol (“reef of heaven”). Within it sits the basalt temple of Nan Dowas and its central pyramid, wherein megalithic foundation stones are said to have been erected by two antediluvian gods who came by boat from a sinking land to the west, and “by their magic spells, one by one, the great masses of stone flew through the air like birds, settling down into their appointed place.”7 Traditionally called

Sounhleng, “reef of heaven,” it’s built as a mirror image of its sunken counterpart Kahnimweiso Namkhet (“city of the Horizon”). Indeed, undersea ruins of two cities have been discovered here, lying at great depths and complete with standing columns on pedestals rising to 24 feet.8 Off the Japanese island of Yoganumi lies an entire cita-del complete with deliberately cut and purposefully angled platforms and columns. It too now lies beneath 100 feet of ocean water following a catastrophic rise in sea level. So, what does science have to say about this event so unanimously experienced around the world?

There are 175 global flood myths sharing near-identical descriptions, and mostly in cultures that allegedly had no contact with one another. Professor of Geology Alexander Tollman compared several flood myths in which the Earth was described as hit by “seven burning suns” before being overwhelmed by floods. He compared these with geologi-cal anomalies of molten rock thrown up by impact sites and proved that around 10,000 BCE the Earth was indeed hit by seven comet fragments whose impact generated an increase in radioactive Carbon-14, which has been found in fossilised trees dating to that period. Another impressive study into terrestrial comet impacts concluded that “the environmental data in the flood myths fit remarkably well with the modelling for a large, oceanic comet impact, above the threshold for global catastrophe at or greater than 100 gigatons.” The geologic and atmospheric report of the impacts pretty much synchronises with the de-scription of conditions in myths: six or seven days of intense rain and hurricane-force winds, generated and sustained by the air pressure blast wave and the impact plume, not to men-tion the thick, muddy rain filled with submicron debris gener-ated by the impact itself. The Maya described it as “heavy

The ancient kingdom of Kumari Kandam – imagined in the above map – is described in Tamil texts as a high civilisation, part of a “Golden Age,” where the pursuit of knowledge was held in the

highest esteem and cities of knowledge were created by men of great stature.


resin fell from the sky… a black rain began to fall by day and by night.” There is certainly evidence that both animal and human survivors found shelter on tops of mountains as high as 1,430 feet, only to be overwhelmed by advancing water. On the peaks of mountains in France lie the splintered bones of humans violently mixed with that of mammoth, reindeer, carnivores and birds that became extinct shortly thereafter. Whale skeletons and Ice Age marine life can even be found 600 feet above sea level – inland in Vermont! If a comet or fragments of one collided with the Earth and generated this kind of unparalleled destruction, the soot and particle debris from the event – which according to world legends seems to have blanketed the entire globe – would be sealed in the geologic record as sediment in ice. In 2008 a team of Danish geologists conducting an exten-sive examination of ice cores in Greenland secured the precise date of the event to 9703 BCE. Startled by the layer of soot in the ice, they remarked that “the climate shift was so sudden that it is as if a button was pressed.”

The Tall ones Various traditions state that “the knowledge” and other important records of “men of high learning” not only sur-vived the flood but were promulgated by groups of adepts, the most notable being the Seven Sages, and the Akhu Shemsu Hor, “the shining ones, followers of Horus.” In the Edfu Texts they were the only divine beings who knew how temples and sacred places are to be created. The Tamil Puranas also mention how seven sages vis-ited the sacred hill of Arunachala after the flood to collect ‘the knowledge’ and embark on reconstructing the area between the Indus and the Ganges, creating new temples and sowing the seeds of civilisation. Likewise, Andean traditions describe the megalithic monument builders as the Huari, a race of unusually tall, white-skinned, bearded giants, the most celebrated of which was a builder god named Viracocha. Together with seven “shining ones,” he set about re-building the temple complex of Tiwanaku, from whence they set out to promulgate the knowledge throughout the Andes. The same story is repeated over and over by cultures seemingly disconnected from one another. And it is due to their efforts that we have inherited this legacy of temples and places of veneration. As I mentioned earlier, the initiates at the temple of Edfu were instructed to “stand up with the Ahau” who measured 9 cubits tall. There is evidence that such beings not only existed but their descendents survived well into historic times. In the Pacific Ocean, the first European explorer to reach the island of Te Pito o Te Henua (“Navel of the World”) was Jacob Roggeveen, who did so on Easter Sunday, 1722, hence its recent, anglicised name of Easter Island. He faithfully recorded the experience along with some of the islanders’ traditions; one of them states that the population consisted of two types of races – the Short Ears and the Long Ears. The Short Ears referred to the typical homo sapiens. As for the Long Ears, Roggeveen and his crew had direct interaction with them: “In truth, I might say that these savages are as tall and broad in proportion, averaging 12 feet in height. Surprising as it may appear, the tallest men on board our ship could pass between the legs of these children of Goliath without bending their head.”9

Are we dealing here with the same Ahau associated with ancient Egypt? Possibly. Like so many other lands and their flood myths, Easter Island is said to have been part of a larger landmass before a giant cataclysm and a subsequent rise in sea level claimed much of it. Ocean maps validate this to be the case: what is now Easter Island was once a longer ridge of mountain ranges. The natives apparently received survivors from the drowned land of Hiva, and that seven sages, “all illuminated men,” carefully surveyed the island before setting up sacred mounds at spe-cific locations. Here we find several linguistic associations with Egypt and its builder gods, the Ahau, for the sacred platform constructed at the original landing place is called

Photo c.1896 of a fossilised giant dug from one of the thousands of Giant’s Graves found throughout the British Isles. The Egyptians describe such tall people as ‘builder gods’ who

possessed the knowledge of harnessing natural laws in temple building. Originally published in Stand Magazine, 1898.



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ahu, upon which seven moai were subsequently erected in commemoration of the original seven extraordinary builder gods. There is also the word akh, “everlasting spirit,” not a far cry from the Egyptian ankh, meaning “everlasting life.” The magician-builder gods of Easter Island were called Ma’ori-Ko-Hau-Rongorongo, “master of special knowledge,” and they are claimed to be the ancestors of the Long Ears. According to oral tradition they moved the moai with the use of mana, a kind of psychic force where matter yields to the focused intent of a person skilled in the subtle arts. Legend states that by “words of their mouths” the en-igmatic stone heads were commanded to walk through the air. There is an echo of this in Central America. Just as the Popul Vuh rep-resents the oral history of the Quiche Maya, so the Codex Vaticanus records faithfully the very ancient oral tradi-tions of Central America. In one curi-ous passage it states that “in the First Age, giants existed in that country [Mexico]. They relate to one of the seven whom they mention as “having escaped from the deluge… he went to Cholula and there began to build a tower… in

order that should a deluge come again he might escape to it.”10 Indeed the pyramid of Cholula still stands, partly be-cause a newer, Spanish church now resides on top of it, and mostly because it’s the largest pyramid ever constructed in the world – its volume is greater than that of the great pyramid at Giza.11 In Nahuatl language it’s named Tlachi-

hualtepetl, also known as the “artificial mountain.” Originally it was named Acholollan, meaning “water that falls in the place of flight.” Certainly these builders were physi-cally and intellectually endowed, as one account after another credits these unusual individuals with achieving the seemingly impossible by using tech-niques that bend the presently-known laws of physics. At the temple complex of Uxmal, the Pyramid of the Magician is said to have been raised in just one night by a man of magical disposition who “whistled and heavy rocks would move into place.”12 Compare this with the traditions of Tiwanaku, in which

“the great stones were moved from their quarries of their own accord at the sound of a trumpet… taking up their positions on the site.”13 Similar attributes are common to the creators of Teotihuacan and Stonehenge, as well as the

...the Pyramid of the Magician is

said to have been raised in just one night by a man of

magical disposition who “whistled and heavy rocks would move into place.”


original Egyptian temples, which are described as “speedy at construction.”14

Such legends are consistent with the use of mana by the magician builders of Easter Island.

The purpose of the Temple The primary purpose behind the temple – and the builder gods who re-started this legacy – was to go on promulgating the knowledge over an enormous span of time, by which I mean 4,000 years at a stretch. This is an unimaginable reach of time by modern standards, par-ticularly as we in this computer age can barely cope with planning a quarter of the year at a time; even three days in the world of e-mail seems like a century. Physical evidence of the multiple layers of structures beneath present tem-ple buildings suggests the original sites were maintained, improved and expanded over the course of thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian traditions assert beyond their 3,000-year recorded history that no site was considered sacred unless it had been built upon the foundations of earlier temples, particularly those connected with Zep Tepi. A temple built during the historic period and superim-posed on the foundation of another was determined by a pre-existing entity set in the time of myth, so that this new structure became a concretisation of its ancestral predeces-sor, or as the Pyramid Texts inform us, “...made like unto that which was made in its plans of the beginning.” Thus,

the foundation mound of the Great Pyramid at Giza dates to 10,500 BCE, but the additional final courses of outer casing stones over the inner core of the building features shafts that reference specific stars in 2,500 BCE.15

Aside from the visual impact of the sight of Tiwan-aku on the eyes of Pedro Cieza de Léon in 1549, it’s not unusual that such places should still exert a tremendous influence on the pilgrim like a master hypnotist’s pass of the hand. The art of creating temples was serious busi-ness involving the synthesising of universal laws and the harnessing of natural forces to create spaces where the veil between worlds is thinner. As a testament to the skill of the builder gods, their practical magic is still palpable across face of the earth, their creations remain sentient, living and breathing, like organisms. Their structures are mirrors of the universe. When we stare at them we see our own image reflected back in stone. The experience is commonly-shared from generation to generation. This may not seem so far-fetched because the locations chosen by the builder-gods for their “cities of knowledge” are places where planetary electro-magnetics behave differently. And being electromagnetic by nature we cannot help but be influenced by these subtle-ties. The Edfu Building Texts – as well inscriptions at Teo-tihuacan and instructions in the sacred texts of the Tamil – describe how the temples were to be designed as places

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FREDDy SILVA is one of the world’s leading experts on crop circles and sacred sites, and a leading researcher into ancient systems of knowledge, and the interaction between temples and consciousness. He is best-selling author of Secrets in the Fields, and Director of the documentaries “Temple-making”, “Stairways To Heaven: The Practical Magic Of Sacred Space”, and “In The Footsteps Of Isis”. His new book is Common Wealth: The Origin of Sacred Sites and the Rebirth of Ancient Wisdom. He lectures internationally, and has appeared on The History Channel, Discovery Channel, BBC, video documenta-ries, and radio shows. Recently described by the CEO of Universal Light Expo as “perhaps the best metaphysical speaker in the world right now.” Web sites: invisibletemple.com and cropcirclesecrets.org.

where the individual can be “transformed into a god, into a shining star.” In other worlds, the purpose of the tem-ples was nothing less than the complete self-realisation of the individual through a transfiguration of the soul. Their craftsmen wished to remind us of this someday, lest we forgot. Thus when they built temples, they also created myths and rituals to preserve the knowledge so it survived whatever cataclysm the Earth cared to brew. The Gnostic Gospels unearthed in 1947 at Nag Hammadi, near the temple of Dendereh, offer a graphic reminder of this aim and why the tradition was maintained from age to age. The papyri state that temples were built “as a representation of the spiritual places,” and in doing so, created an antidote against forces of darkness that “…steered the people who followed them into great troubles, by leading them astray with many deceptions. They died not having found the truth and without knowing the God of truth. And thus the whole creation became enslaved forever from the foundations of the world.”16

A giant’s chair found atop Loughcrew, a ceremonial stone chamber in Ireland dated c.3500 BCE. It is carved from solid granite and stands over six feet high. Giant lore in this Celtic region is often

associated with the legendary Tuatha de Danaan. Image courtesy of Freddy Silva.

Footnotes1. Pedro Cieza de Léon, Chronicle of Peru - Hakluyt Society, London, 1864 and 1883, Pt. 1, Ch. 87.2. Professor Arthur Posnan-sky, Tiahuanacu (Tiwanaku): The Cradle of American Man, J.J Augustin, New York, 1957.3. Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 19744. John Mitchener, Traditions of the Seven Rishis, Motilal Banersidass, Delhi, 19825. Ibid6. Delia Goetz and Sylvan-nus Morley, Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiche Maya, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.7. Graham Hancock, Heaven’s Mirror; and Dr. Arthur Saxe, The Nan Madol Area of Pohnpei, Office of the High Commissioner, Trust Territory of the Pacific, Saipan, 1980

8. Ibid9. F. W. Christian, The Caroline Islands, 8110. Quoted in Anthony Roberts, Sowers of Thunder, Ryder and Co., London, 197811. Guinness Book of World Records12. J.E. Thompson, Maya History and Religion, University of Oklahoma Press, 197013. Graham Hancock, Ibid; and Harold Osborne, Indians of the Andes, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 195414. E.A.E. Reymond, The Mythical Origin of the Egyptian Temple, Man-chester University Press, 196815. See for example Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock, The Message of the Sphinx; and Robert Bauval, The Orion Mystery, et al.16. The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J.M. Robertson, Leiden, New York, 1988

s Adapted from the new book, Common Wealth: The Origin of Sacred Sites and the Rebirth of Ancient Wisdom by Freddy Silva. Available direct from the author’s website www.invisibletemple.com.


© By RoBERT lAnzA

Every now and then a simple idea shakes the foundations of knowledge. The discovery that the Earth wasn’t flat challenged the way people perceived themselves and their relationship with the world. Our ancestors were challenged to

believe that the Earth was round, even though the ground they walked on seemed flat. Nothing in day-to-day experi-ence hinted at the truth of this theory. “If the earth were really round,” it was argued, “Then the people at the bot-tom would fall off.” For most people, the notion the Earth was a ball of rock was nonsense 500 years ago. Likewise, Biocentrism – a new theo-ry of everything – turns the world upside down again with the seemingly absurd idea that the Universe springs from life, not the other way around. Switching the perspective of the universe from physics to biology shatters everything we’ve ever known about reality. We think life is just an accident of physics, but a long list of experiments suggests the opposite. Amazingly, if you add life and consciousness to the equation, you can explain some of the biggest puzzles of science. For instance, it becomes clear why space and time – and even the properties of matter itself − depend on the observer. It also becomes clear why the laws of the uni-verse are fine-tuned for the existence of life. Science has failed to recognise those properties of life that make it fundamental to our existence. This view of the world in which life and consciousness are bottom-line in understanding the larger universe is called biocentrism. It revolves around the way our consciousness relates to a physical process. It’s a vast mystery I’ve pursued my entire life with a lot of help along the way. I’ve also come to con-clusions that would shock my predecessors, placing biology above the other sciences in an attempt to find the “theory of everything” that has evaded other disciplines.

We’re taught since childhood that the universe is divid-ed into two entities − ourselves, and that which is outside of us. This seems logical. “Self” is commonly defined by what we can control. We can move our fingers but I can’t wiggle your toes. The dichotomy is based on manipulation, even if basic biology tells us we have no more control over the trillions of cells in our body than over a rock or a tree. Consider everything you see around you right now – this magazine, or even your hands holding it. Custom says it all lies outside us in the external world. Yet your eyes aren’t just portal to the world. You can’t see anything through the vault of bone surrounding your brain. Every-

thing you see is part of a process occur-ring in your mind. You’re this process, not just that tiny part you control. Consider, the weather “outside.” You see a blue sky, but the cells in your brain could be changed so it looks green or red. In fact, with a little genetic engineering we could make everything red vibrate or make a noise, or even make you want to have sex with some birds. You think it feels hot and humid, but to a tropical frog it would feel cold and dry. This logic applies to everything. Bottom line: What you see couldn’t be present without your consciousness. Emerson once said: “We have

learned that we do not see directly, but mediately, and that we have no means of correcting these coloured and distort-ing lenses which we are, or of computing the amount of their errors. Perhaps these subject-lenses have a creative power; perhaps there are no objects.” Science is operating with an outdated paradigm. We believe there’s an external world that exists independent of the perceiving subject. Philosophers and scientists from Plato to Hawking have debated this idea. Niels Bohr, the great Nobel physicist, said, “Not so.” When we measure something, we’re forcing an undetermined, undefined world to assume an experimental value. We’re not “meas-uring” the world; we’re creating it. Of course, this issue is

Biocentrismhow Life & Consciousness

are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe

I’ve come to conclusions that would shock my

predecessors, placing biology above the other sciences in

an attempt to find the “theory of everything”...


ancient and predates biocentrism, which explains why one view and not the other must be correct. Consider the famous two-hole experiment. When sci-entists watch a particle pass through two holes in a barrier, it behaves like a bullet and goes through one hole or the other. But if you don’t watch, it acts like a wave and can go through both holes at the same time. So how can a particle “out there” change its behaviour depending on whether you watch it or not? The answer is simple – reality is a process that involves our consciousness. Or consider the uncertainty principle, one of the most important aspects of quantum mechanics. If there’s really a world out there with particles just bouncing around, then we should be able to measure all their properties. But you can’t. For instance, a particle’s exact location and momen-tum can’t be known at the same time. So why should it matter to a particle what you decide to measure? Or how can entangled parti-cles be instantaneously connected even when separated by large distances? Because they’re not ‘just’ out there – space and time are tools of our mind. We look at the world like a chip-munk or a squirrel. The squirrel opens his eyes and the acorn is just miracu-lously there – he grabs it and scurries up the tree without further thought. We humans are the same − we wake up in the morning and the world is just magically there. But experiment after experiment shows not a single particle exists with real properties if no one is observing. We need to replace the old physics with a new biology. Space and time are not objects like the pebbles you pick up along the beach. Wave your hand through the air. If you take everything away, what’s left? The answer is nothing. The same applies for time – you can’t put it in a bottle like milk. Again, space and time are simply the mind’s tools for putting everything together. Biocentrism is also the only rational way to explain the structure of the universe itself. The cosmos has a long list of traits that make it appear as if everything was tailor-made just for us. Some call this the Goldilocks principle after “The Story of the Three Bears.” In the nursery tale, a little girl named Goldilocks enters a home occupied by three bears and tries different bowls of porridge; some are too hot, some are too cold. She also tries different chairs and beds, and every time, the third is “just right.” Likewise, the cosmos has an incredibly unlikely list of traits that are not “too this” or “too that,” but rather “just right” for life. For instance, if the Big Bang was just one part in a million more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for galaxies and worlds to form. Result: No us. If the gravitational force were decreased by a hair, stars (including the Sun) wouldn’t ig-nite. There are over 200 parameters so exact it strains reason to think they’re random. Tweak any of them and you never existed. None of them are predicted by any theory and they all seem carefully chosen to allow for life.

Other than saying “God did it,” the most obvious expla-nation is biocentrism, which explains how the universe is created by life, not the other way around. No universe that doesn’t allow for life could possibly exist; the universe and its parameters simply reflect the spatiotemporal logic of the animal observer. It turns out the long-sought Theory of Everything is merely missing a component that was too close for us to have noticed. Some of the thrill that came with the an-nouncement that the human genome had been mapped, or the idea that we are close to understanding the “Big Bang,” rests in our desire for completeness. But these comprehen-sive theories fail to take into account one crucial factor: we’re creating them. It’s the biological creature that fash-ions the stories and makes the observations. And therein lies the great expanse of our oversight − that science hasn’t

confronted the one thing that’s at once most familiar and most mysterious − consciousness. For several centuries a single mind-set has dominated scientific thought. This model has brought us countless insights and applications that have transformed every aspect of our lives. But this model has reached the end of its useful life. The old model proposes that the universe was until recently a lifeless collection of particles bouncing against each other. The universe is presented as a watch that somehow wound itself up and will unwind in a semi-predictable way. Of course, there are many prob-

lems with this paradigm. But the overarching problem involves life, since its arising is still a scientifically un-known process, even if the way it then changed forms can be apprehended using Darwinian mechanisms. The bigger problem is that life contains consciousness, which, to say the least, is poorly understood. Consciousness isn’t just an issue for biologists; it’s a problem for physics. There’s nothing in modern physics that explains how a group of molecules creates conscious-ness. The beauty of a sunset, the taste of a delicious meal, are all mysteries to science. We can sometimes pin down where in the brain the sensations arise, but not how and why there’s a subjective experience to begin with. Our understanding of this most basic phenomenon is virtually nil. Interestingly, physics doesn’t even recognise this as a problem. But even putting aside the life-and-consciousness is-sues, the current model leaves much to be desired when it comes to explaining the fundamentals of our universe. The universe – indeed, the laws of nature themselves – just popped out of nothingness one day 13.7 billion years ago, in a titanic event called the Big Bang. We don’t begin to understand where the Big Bang came from. Indeed, every theorist realises in his bones that you can never get some-thing from nothing, and that the Big Bang is no explana-tion at all for the origins of everything.

...if the Big Bang was just one part in a million more powerful, it would

have rushed out too fast for galaxies

and worlds to form. Result: No us.


At some point, virtually everyone has thought: This really doesn’t work. This doesn’t explain anything funda-mental, not really. When it comes right down to it, science is amazingly good at figuring out how the parts work. What alludes us is the big picture, which unfortunately encompasses all the bottom-line issues: What’s the nature of this thing we call reality? Any honest summary of the current state of explaining the universe as a whole is: A swamp. And this particular Everglade is one where the alligators of common sense must be evaded at every turn. Some scientists insist a Theory of Everything is just around the corner, and then we’ll essentially know it all. It hasn’t happened and won’t happen until we understand a critical component of the cosmos – a component that has been shunted out of the way because science doesn’t know what to do with it. This, consciousness, isn’t a small item. It’s not like anything else. Consciousness is an utter mystery, which we think has somehow arisen from molecules and goo. How did inert, random bits of carbon ever morph into that Japanese guy who always wins the hot dog eating contest? In short, the attempt to explain the nature of the universe and what’s really going on, requires an understanding of how the observer − our presence − plays a role. This may seem impossible, but we can use what we know to formulate a model of the universe that makes sense of things for the first time. Undeniably it’s the biological creature that makes the observations and creates the theories. Our entire education system − indeed, language itself − revolves around a mindset that assumes a separate universe “out there.” It’s further as-sumed we accurately perceive this external reality and play little or no role in its appearance. However, starting in the 1920’s, experiments have shown just the opposite. The observer critically influences the outcome. An electron turns out to be both a particle and a wave. But how − and more importantly − where such a particle will be located remains dependent upon the very act of observation. This is perhaps most vivid in the two-hole experiment, which has been performed so many times it’s conclusively proven if one “watches” a particle pass through slits on a barrier, it behaves like a particle and passes through one or the other hole. But if the scien-tists don’t observe its trajectory, it behaves like a wave and passes through both holes at the same time. This and similar experiments have befuddled scientists for decades. Some of the greatest physicists have described them as impossible to intuit. How can quantum physics be so impervious to metaphor and language? Amazingly, if we accept a life-created reality at face value, it all becomes simple to understand. Take the seemingly undeniable logic that your kitchen is always present. You think its contents assume all their

familiar shapes and colours whether or not you’re in it. But consider: The shapes known as your kitchen are seen because light bounces off the various objects and interacts with your brain through a complex set of neural interme-diaries. On its own, light doesn’t HAVE any colour, or any brightness, or any visual characteristics at all. It’s merely an electromagnetic phenomenon. You might think the kitchen was there in your absence, but the unquestionable reality is nothing remotely resembling what you can imag-ine could be present when a consciousness isn’t interacting. Quantum physics comes to a similar conclusion. At night you click off the lights and leave for the bedroom. Of course the kitchen is there, unseen, all through the night. Right? But, in fact, the refrigerator and everything else are composed of a shimmering swarm of matter/energy. Quan-tum physics tell us not a single one of those particles actu-

ally occupies a definite place. Rather, they exist as a range of possibilities – as waves of probability – as Max Born demonstrated back in 1926. They’re statistical predictions – nothing but a likely outcome. Outside of that idea, nothing is there! It’s only in the pres-ence of an observer – that is, when you go back to get a drink of water – that the mind sets the scaffolding of these particles in place. Until it lays down the threads (somewhere in the haze of probabilities that represent the object’s range of possible values) they can’t be thought of as being either here or there, or having an actual position. It’s like watching a DVD. When the

player is off, there’s no movie. But when you return to the room and turn the player on, it leaps back into 3D. No matter how many times you turn the player on or off, the movie doesn’t change. Indeed, it’s here that biocentrism suggests a very dif-ferent view of reality. Most people imagine the external world to exist on its own with an appearance that resembles what we ourselves see. Our eyes, according to this view, are merely clear windows that accurately let in the world. If our personal window ceases to exist (as in death) or is painted black (as in blindness) that doesn’t alter the continued exist-ence of the external reality. A rock is still there whether or not we’re looking at it. It has an independent existence. True, a dog may see an autumn maple solely in shades of gray, and an eagle may perceive greater detail among its leaves, but most creatures basically apprehend the same object, which persists even if NO eyes were upon it. This “Is it really there?” issue pre-dates biocentrism. Once one fully understands there’s no independent external universe outside of biological existence, the rest more-or-less falls into place.

Where is the universe? And exactly where is that fridge? Where is the universe even located? We think it all lies outside us in the external

...the attempt to explain the nature of the universe and what’s really going

on, requires an understanding of how the observer − our presence −

plays a role.


world. Yet we’ve seen nothing can be perceived that isn’t already interacting with our consciousness. Since the im-ages aren’t imaginary, it must be happening in some loca-tion. Physiology texts answer this without hesitation. The eye responds to particles of light that deliver bits of energy, which is channelled through cables to the back of the brain, where the perception of images themselves physi-cally occur. This process is augmented by nearby locations in the brain as vast as the hallways of the Milky Way. This, according to physiology texts, is where the actual colours, shapes, and movement “happen.” If you try to access the visual part of the brain, it’s easy. You’re already effortlessly perceiving it with every glance you take. Custom says what we see is “out there” – outside ourselves. Such a viewpoint is necessary in terms of language and utility, such as in “please pass the butter that’s over there.” But make no mistake: The butter itself exists only within the mind. It’s the only place visual im-ages are perceived and hence located. Information has no colour by itself. Our perception of a yellow block of butter, or even its smell and texture, are expe-rienced in the mind alone. Bottom line: The “butter” isn’t “out there” except by the convention of language. The same is true for all perceived objects, including the brain, cells, and the electromagnetic events we detect with our instruments. Some may imagine there are two worlds − one “out there” and a sepa-rate one inside the skull. But the “two worlds” model is a myth. As we’ve seen, only one visual reality exists – it’s the one that requires consciousness in order to manifest.

Gone for Keeps Quantum mechanics describes the tiny world of the atom with stunning accuracy. When studying subatomic particles, the observer appears to alter and determine what’s perceived. In 1964 John Bell proposed an experiment to determine if particles can influence each other instantaneously over great distances. We know everything has both a particle nature and a wave nature, and an object’s behaviour exists only as probabilities. Objects assume a particular place or motion when its “wave function” collapses. What accom-plishes this collapse? Messing with it in any way. Hitting it with light to “take its picture” instantly does the job. But it became increasingly clear any possible way an experi-menter can “take a look” at the object collapses the wave function. As more sophisticated experiments were devised, it became obvious mere knowledge in the experimenter’s mind is sufficient to cause the wave function to collapse. That was freaky, but it got worse. If the wave function of an entangled particle collapses, so will the other’s – even if they’re separated by the width of the universe. They act as if there’s no space or time between them. Experi-

ments from 1997 to 2007 have shown this is indeed the case, as if they’re endowed with a kind of ESP. They prove that Einstein’s insistence that nothing can influence any-thing else faster than the speed of light – is wrong. Rather, the entities we observe are floating in a field – a field of mind, biocentrism maintains – that’s not limited by the external spacetime Einstein theorised a century ago.

no Time to lose Quantum theory increasingly casts doubts about the existence of time as we know it. The presence or absence of time is an important factor in any fundamental look into the nature of the cosmos. When people speak of time, they’re usually referring to change. But change isn’t the same thing as time. To meas-

ure anything’s position precisely, at any given instant, is to “lock-in” on one static frame of its motion. Conversely, as soon as you observe movement or momentum you can’t isolate a frame because they’re the summation of many frames. Sharpness in one parameter induces blurriness in the other. Con-sider a film of a moving arrow: If the projector stops on a single frame, you know its position with great accuracy – it’s just beyond the grandstand, 20 feet above the ground. But you’ve lost all information about its momentum. It’s going nowhere. Time is the mind’s tool that animates the still frames of the spatial world. At each moment we’re at the edge

of a paradox described by the Greek philosopher Zeno. Since an object can’t occupy two places simultaneously, he contended an arrow is only at one place during any given instant of its flight. To be in one place, however, is to be at rest. The arrow must therefore be at rest at every instant of its flight, and motion is impossible. But is this really a paradox? Or rather, is it proof that time (motion) isn’t a fea-ture of the outer, spatial world, but is rather a conception of thought? In addition to the uncertainty principle, other experi-ments confirm that Zeno was right. Scientists have proved the quantum equivalent of “a watched pot doesn’t boil.” This behaviour − the “quantum Zeno effect” − turns out to be a function of observation. Theoretically, by the tenets of the Zeno effect, if a nuclear bomb were watched intently enough, it wouldn’t explode, that is, if you could keep checking its atoms every million trillionth of a second. Bi-zarre? It’s hard to believe the Zeno effect is real. The prob-lem lies not in the experiments, but in our way of thinking. Biocentrism is the only humanly comprehensible way to explain them − quantum phenomena are only ‘weird’ in the context of the existing paradigm. This is supported by recent experiments. In 2002, scientists showed that pairs of photons knew what their distant twins would do in the future. They let one photon

Our perception of a yellow block

of butter... are experienced in the mind alone. ...The “butter” isn’t “out there” except by

the convention of language.


finish its journey – it had to decide whether to be either a wave or a particle. Researchers stretched the distance the other photon took to reach its own detector. However, they could add a scrambler to prevent it from collapsing into a particle. Somehow, the first particle knew what the researcher was going to do before it happened. They decide not to become particles before their twin even encounters the scrambler. It doesn’t matter how we set up the experi-ment. Our mind and its knowledge is the only thing that determines how they behave. Weird? Consider another experiment recently published in Science. Scientists shot photons into an apparatus and showed they could retroactively change something that had already happened in the past. As the photons passed a fork in the apparatus, they had to decide whether to behave like particles or waves. Later on − well after the photons passed the fork − the experimenter could ran-domly turn a second switch on or off. It turns out what the observer decided at that point, determined what the particle did at the fork in the past. At that mo-ment, the experimenter chose his past. Of course, we live in the same world. Critics claim this behaviour is limited to the microscopic world. But this ‘two-world’ view (that is, one set of physical laws for small objects and another for the rest of the universe including us) has no basis in reason and is being challenged in laboratories around the world. In 2009, a paper in Nature showed quantum behaviour extends into the everyday realm. Pairs of ions were coaxed to entangle so their physical properties remained bound together when separated by large dis-tances (“spooky action at a distance,” as Einstein put it). In 2005, crystals exhibited entanglement ridges one-half inch high, quantum behaviour nudging into the world of human-scale objects.

RoBERT LANzA M.D. is one of the most respected scientists in the world. A US News & World Report cover story called him a “genius” and a “renegade thinker.” He is currently Vice President of Research & Scientific Development at Advanced Cell Technology, and Adjunct Professor at Wake Forest Univer-sity School of Medicine. He has hundreds of publications and inventions, and 20 scientific books, among them, “Principles of Tissue Engineering,” which is recognised as the definitive reference in the field. Dr. Lanza was part of the team that cloned the world's first human embryo, as well as the first to clone an endangered species, and to generate stem cells using a method that does not require the destruction of human embryos. Lanza teamed with Bob Berman to produce Biocentrism, a revolutionary new view of the universe. Together they wrote Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (BenBella Books, 2010). His website is www.robertlanza.com.

space-out There’s a peculiar intangibility about space, as well. We can’t pick it up and bring it the laboratory. This is because space is part of an animal’s mental software that molds sensations into multidimensional objects. However, we’ve come to regard space as sort of a vast container without walls. But this is false. Consider: 1. Empty space is in fact not empty. 2. Distances between objects change depend-ing on conditions like gravity and speed, so no bedrock distance exists anywhere. And 3. Quantum theory casts serious doubt about whether even distant individual items are truly separated at all. Now, space and time illusions are certainly harmless. A problem only arises because, by treating them as some-thing physical – as existing in themselves − science im-

parts a completely wrong starting point for investigations into the nature of reality. In reality there can be no break between the observer and the observed. If the two are split, the reality is gone. Space and time aren’t objects. We carry them around with us like turtles with shells. Thus, there’s no self-existing matrix in which physical events occur independent of life. Accepting space and time as forms of animal sense understanding (as biologic) rather than as external objects, offers a new way of understanding everything from the microworld to the forces and laws that shape the universe. Biocentrism makes sense of biological and physical phenomena which are currently insensi-

ble. Until we recognise the universe in our head, attempts to understand the world will remain a road to nowhere.

s Adapted from Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (Ben-Bella Books, 2010) by Robert Lanza with Bob Berman, available from all good bookstores or visit www.newdawnreviews.com.

Scientists shot photons into an apparatus and

showed they could retroactively

change something that had already happened in the

past.



RE V I E WS

ESCAPE To hELL AND oThER SToRIESBy Muammar Gadaffi288 pages, hardcoverPublished by: Blake Publishingorder online at:www.newdawnreviews.com

Most books by world leaders are snow jobs written to project an im-age or polish an ego. You would be surprised how many are ghost writ-ten by an editorial team. Escape to Hell is a breath of fresh air. It has an instant sense of authen-ticity and integrity not often found in a literary work. It speaks of the soul of the Libyan people: their anguish, dreams and visions for the future. This book reveals a deep and thoughtful side to Muammar Qadhafi [Gadaffi] that certainly does not gel with his media created image. Read it and experience the man for yourself. Escape to Hell includes a range of short stories and significant essays, as well as an eye opening Foreword by Pierre Salinger. What is most startling about this work is its tone: honest, funny, and at times snarling and cynical, other times visionary and mystical. Muammar Qadhafi, honest to his Islamic heritage, takes a truly unique approach to communicating his vi-sion to the world. This is the city: a mill that grinds down its inhabitants... Children are worse off than adults. They move from darkness to darkness; from three dark-nesses to the fourth, as in the Quran. Qadhafi reflections on urban-ity and life in the city are powerful. The city disengages the individual from the land, his social network and himself, and he is reduced to quan-tity seeking financial goals alone. The city destroys the organic link between land, peoples, kith & kin & culture, and leaves its inhabitants in a “worm like biological existence.” The city creates an addiction to con-sumerism that is not easily resisted. The problem is not with the peo-

ple – they are the same everywhere city or country – it is when they are disconnected from the land and their natural networks that the city swal-lows them up. The village evokes the opposite vision, that of the natural state of human society. Qadhafi’s vision of the village and the interrelation of land, people, culture and spirituality, has a strong environmental emphasis. His short story ‘The Suicide of the Astronaut’ explores the inanities of irrelevant education and our lack of skills. As our knowledge becomes more specialised we lose simple skills needed to survive. In Qadhafi’s tale, it is likened to a highly trained astronaut who, returning to Earth after the space program fails, has no skills to survive, not even knowledge to till the earth. Totally indoctrinated in his discipline, he only sees things through the lens of scientific analysis and ultimately becomes so useless he commits suicide because there is naught else he can do. Qadhafi also reflects on the power of the people, and this is examined in the core story of the book, ‘Escape to Hell’. I will now tell you the story of my experiences when I made that journey, that escape to hell. I will describe the road that leads there, describe hell itself for you, and tell you how I came back by the same way. It was truly an adventure, and one of the strangest true stories ever, and I swear to you

that it is not fiction. In fact, I escaped twice to hell, fleeing from you only in order to save myself...... Qadhafi urges the masses to take responsibility for their own political lives through the Libyan People’s Congresses, but they still place end-less demands on him. Within this mass of people, who poisoned Hannibal, burnt Savonarola, and smashed Robespierre, who loved you but failed to reserve a seat for you at the cinema, or even a table in a cafe, who love you without express-ing this in any simple way... This is what the masses have done and con-tinue to do to such people. So what can I – a poor bedouin – hope for in a modern city of insanity? People snap at me whenever they see me: build us a better house! Get us a better telephone line! Build us a road upon the sea! Make a public park for us!... Some of his essays are philosoph-ical such as his piece on death. It is both a spiritual account of death’s influence on Qadhafi’s life and our own. Beautifully written and moving, it takes us into the Libyan experience of a harsh life fighting an old enemy. Qadhafi reflects on many religious tales but also rejects if not ridicules those who become so attached to the form they forget the spirit. At the same time Qadhafi rejects the Luddites who refuse modern technology and sees a balance between spirit, science and his vision for his people without an addic-tion to progress as seen in Western consumerism. He stands against both Fundamentalism and liberalism offering a new vision or ‘third way’. The essays which end the volume are written in a poetic manner. They evoke all manner of images, Quranic and literary, and offer a deep explo-ration of Qadhafi’s personal feelings on various political subjects. This is the true secret for their hat-ing you: you are not of this world. You are not wealthy, and for this they hate you. You are not oppressors, and for this this they hate you. You are not pretenders, so they hate you…

– Robert Black


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ThE SUBTLE ENERGy BoDy ThE CoMPLETE GUIDEBy Maureen Lockhart, Ph.D.416 pages, paperback, 32-page colour insert and b&w illustrations

Published by: Inner Traditionsorder online at:www.newdawnreviews.com

In this large book Eastern and West-ern traditions in esoteric cosmol-ogy are drawn together. As the title indicates, it is all about the Subtle Energy Body. The energy body is a collection of generally unseen ener-gies attached to all individuals as a series of psycho-spiritual levels of increasing energy frequencies. This comprehensive guide ex-plains and surveys the knowledge of this highly esoteric area of meta-physics. It proceeds from the earli-est known records to contemporary practice. The text is accompanied by excellent illustrations from all tradi-tions. Maureen Lockhart, Ph.D. has had a long career, both in the UK and in India as a homeopath, naturopath and yoga teacher. She co-authored The Art of Survival: A Guide to Yoga Therapy. Do not think for a minute that this very large work is simply an A-Z of Eastern and Western Philoso-phy. It is far more than that. It is no less than a primer on the work and knowledge of spiritual development worldwide. It proceeds from ancient times to the twenty-first century. The material is set out logically and proceeds from the simple to the complex while tracing the origins of human beliefs on the structure and function of the nonmaterial or subtle bodies. The style is didactic, with plenty of evidence for extensive research, well supported by Notes and Bibliography. Part One – Eastern Perspectives, traces the lineage of the many forms and systems of Yoga that have cre-ated a religious stream in India and the subcontinent and flowed as far afield as Tibet and China; and later, of course, to the Western world.

The foundation of true Yoga is explained, with its emphasis on both the seen and unseen bodies of man. The history of consciousness and spiritual reality is very dependent on the wisdom of the ancient Vedas which are the oldest known Sanskrit texts. The Upanishads came later, but are just as influential. Although there are remarkable parallels to Western thought, the Indian yogic system is the most an-cient. The most apparent is the tree of life motif and the chakra concept of energy centres. Readers will learn that the concept of the subtle energy body is pivotal to all wisdom of the East. Westerners will find familiar-ity in the mechanics of yoga, such as the Chakras & Nadis, along with popular yoga branches and types of meditation. It all has one aim, and that is to integrate all parts of the human being and blend with the divine or higher self. Part Two – Western Perspec-tives. This section uses a different perspective to that of the Eastern philosophies in regard to the subtle body. The large corpus of West-ern esoteric tradition is analysed. The range is quite vast, covering Hellenistic religion and philoso-phy streams; the Jewish kabba-listic wisdom, and the Perennial Philosophy. Alchemy, Paganism, Magick, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism, Christianity, and Jungian psychology all play their parts well as a host of other West-ern esoteric sources. All have elements in common

and depending on your choice of philosophy, the emphasis will differ regarding the subtle energy body. Just as in the Eastern stream, the wisdom is, at the core, very similar, but ‘the devil is in the details’. A lot of Eastern wisdom has leaked into the Western Esoteric stream, especially in the last 150 years with the advent of Theosophy, the occult Magick tradition and the New Age Movement. Science has much to offer the student of the subtle body. This can range from fringe science on the paranormal to the cutting edge of quantum physics and mathematics. There is an emergence of respect-ability in the new fields of non-local intentionality. Much recent research has been made into remote view-ing and healing. The reader will find that the very concepts now becom-ing so accepted do depend on the existence of unseen aspects of the human being, to whit, the subtle energy bodies. The author has spent the final chapter reconciling the Western and Eastern perspectives. She outlines how the knowledge of the subtle body can enhance the search for spiritual integration. This also holds for the society in which the seeker lives. It takes one person changing to start a trend. That could be you when you have read this book and taken the wisdom on board. This is not a book for an extend-ed flight read on an airplane or for casual browsing. It brings together wisdom and knowledge from all times and all places. Some of it may be unfamiliar, but is valuable never-the-less. It is recommended for those already on the seeker’s path, and equally so for those just now setting out on the most exciting journey of this life – the inner journey. There is a marriage of the tra-ditional sciences and the esoteric sciences that is unique in the world of this type of study and literature. This should please both sides of the aisle and perhaps even create a meeting of those diametrically opposed minds. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

– Jennifer Hoskins


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A booklet by international lecturer and teacher John Fitzsimons that explains how to get (and keep) you and your home and work environ-ment “clearer”.

Send $10.00 (post paid) to Aspects Pty Ltd, PO Box 5171, Clayton Vic 3168, Australia.

For details of our SEMINARS/MEETINGS on PAST LIVES, HEALING, MEDIUMSHIP, PSYCHIC PROTECTION etc., write to the above address or contact us by email or phone.

Web: home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/Phone: (03) 9562-9707

“PSYCHIC PROTECTION etc”

CoNJURING hITLERhoW BRITAIN AND AMERICA MADE ThE ThIRD REIChBy Guido Giacomo Preparato336 pages, paperback

Published by: Pluto Pressorder online at:www.newdawnreviews.com

Conjuring Hitler is a command-ing rewrite of many of the central mythologies of the 20th century. By Guido Giacomo Preparato, Assis-tant Professor of Political Economy at the University of Washington, it offers sweeping evidence that commanding figures opposed to Anglo-American interests in the 20th century, Lenin as well as Hitler, were the carefully crafted products of British political machinations. These appear to have been inspired by the basic need to master the Eurasian landmass in order to maintain Britain’s naval-power based global order – a challenge identified by the British geographer, Halford Mackinder. Were this reviewer not familiar with William Engdahl’s A Century of a War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order and The Gods of Money: Wall Street and the Death of the American Century, many of the constructions in Con-juring Hitler may have seemed to demand too substantial a suspen-sion of disbelief. Considered together, however, these works all tend to confirm the central thesis of Conjuring Hitler,

namely the fundamentally conspira-torial quality of Anglo-American political authority. This, of course, is a theme with substantial con-temporary relevance, particularly when evaluating the morass of small wars in which the United States has become entangled. While arguing powerfully and persuasively that the United King-dom achieved much of what it set to do with Adolf Hitler, Preparato remarks only in passing, in conclu-sion, on the ultimately self-defeat-ing nature of these stratagems. After all, World War II effectively stripped the United Kingdom of the remains of its Empire and subordi-nated it to the United States. Equally, the United States has followed the model, using “terror-ism” to give some legitimacy to wars of choice, only to find itself unable to win them even as these engagements drive it into bankrupt-cy.

Engdahl and Preparato almost seem to be the originators of a new genre of history – the re-evaluation of the success, grandeur, folly and failure of Anglo-American Empire. The beginning of Preparato’s brief concluding chapter reads: “The elimination of the Ger-man menace of 1900 cost Britain dearly: her empire, her military and economic strength. Yet the English speaking idea, the imperial creed and the cultivation of the oligarchic bent were all traits that she be-queathed upon her natural, insular heir: they live on in the American establishment. Britain’s was a con-scious decision; she knew the risks involved. “The present geopolitical policy of the United States is a direct and wholly consistent continuation of the old imperial strategy of Britain. It is that unmistakable cocktail of aggression, subversion and mass murder waged at the vital nodes of the landmass from Palestine and Central Asia to the gates of China, in Taiwan and Korea, that seeks to undermine any movement towards a confederation of nations capable of turning the continental base into a Eurasian league of socio-political co-operation and defense (against Anglo-American assault). “It took two world conflicts to destroy the German threat. World War I was a conventional siege in which the British Empire sacrificed roughly 1 million men – the first bloodletting that shook the estab-lishment to its foundations. In the second round, which was neces-sary given that World War I had in fact left the Fatherland unscathed,


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no such effusion would have been tolerable – Britain would sacrifice 400,000 soldiers in World War II. So deception was deployed on a major scale to trip the Nazi into the inescapable war on two fronts.” The measure of British success might be identified by the fact that the Soviet Union sacrificed 20 mil-lion and Germany 3.5 million civil-ians. Elsewhere in his conclusion, Pre-parato writes: “Besides, the Bolsheviks owed virtually everything to the West: the deposition of the Czar, the tim-ing of Rasputin’s death, the politi-cal void after Kerensky, the slush funds – German and otherwise, the double crossing of the Whites, capi-tal equipment, giant investments, military know-how…” And: “…..if all the foregoing is true, then it is just to lay direct respon-sibility for incubating Nazism and planning World War II, and indirect responsibility for the holocaust of the Jews, at the door of the Anglo-American establishment.” This review cannot give an ad-equate summary of the volume of evidence that Preparato marshals in support of these conclusions. His somewhat flourishing style of writing can be both incisive and mysterious but overall it is difficult not to feel that he has advanced a convincing case that commands both respect and condemnation of British policy making. In the process of dissecting the policies and personalities of Europe in the first half of the 20th century, Preparato gives a fascinating insight into the role of key figures at the heart of the financial “grid” that dic-tated most important developments on the continent. Again, his writing seems to have relevance to contemporary financial interactions, except that there no longer seems to be any central fig-ures in the West who exude compa-rable authority and competence. Of course, the 1920s and 1930s included periods of considerable fi-nancial and economic distress, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that these were often, like the rise of Hitler, the consequence of conscious and deliberate policies.

Preparato can seem to attrib-ute to the British a little too much control over the process of events. He succeeds, nevertheless, in dem-onstrating that much of the com-monly accepted demonic image of Hitler is the product of the victor’s propaganda. This totally obscures the manner in which the Nazis were continuously duped by those from a much richer culture of political intrigue. The importance of Preparato’s (and Engdahl’s) work rests in the manner in which they are revising long unquestioned truths. They are proposing a narrative that could become increasingly popular as the international constructs put in place after the end of World War II become the object of increasing stress, criticism and re-evaluation. This includes the whole United Na-tions institutional framework. It may, however, first become ap-parent within the European Union, where the economic strength of Germany is increasingly required to rescue many weak and dependent partners, all shepherded willy-nilly into the Western alliance – or the so-called “international community.” Having been encouraged to re-examine the past geopolitical machinations of the Anglo-Ameri-can world, could Germany discover that Eurasia offers it more oppor-tunities than the Atlantic world to which it was subordinated in 1945?

– Reg Little

63 DoCUMENTS ThE GoVERNMENT DoESN’T WANT yoU To READBy Jesse Ventura with Dick Russell302 pages, hardback

Published by: Skyhorse Publishingorder online at:www.newdawnreviews.com

Former professional wrestler, ex-US Navy SEAL, movie actor, TV show producer and host, past governor of the US state of Minnesota, and au-thor of five bestselling books, Jesse Ventura has put together perhaps his most sensational and revealing work yet. The idea for his latest book came on the heels of his last one, Ameri-can Conspiracies. For this one, he has chosen 63 separate documents, most of them somewhat recently declas-sified and now available through the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He picked 63 from hundreds because that number was the year (1963) of the Kennedy assassination. Within the book, as the inside of the dust cover says, “He proves that we’ve been duped into wars we shouldn’t be fighting, lied to about intelligence, fed hogwash about ter-rorism, and tricked into losing more and more of our civil liberties…. Government officials can and do dis-regard the law, torture people, break promises, practically rewrite the Con-stitution, and keep on lying without raising any eyebrows…. Today, pretty much everything the government does is presumed secret.” Not counting the Introduction, “Why You Need to Read This Book,” and the Epilogue, “Resources for Curious Readers,” Ventura divides the 63 declassified papers into five categories: (1) Our Scandalous Post-war History, (2) Government, Military, and Corporate Secrets, (3) Shady White Houses, (4) 9/11, and (5) The “War on Terror.” Before showing each document, many being excerpts from photo-copies of the originals, Ventura in-cludes a short synopsis pointing out what he feels are the highlights of its

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text. This is most helpful as some are old and difficult to read transcrip-tions and others are detailed testi-mony from congressional committee hearings. You can then choose to read the entire excerpt, or skim it, picking out the important points he gave you in the synopsis. Here, with brief comments, are what I feel are some of the more startling inclusions. Keep in mind that every document “is in the public domain and, for the most part, downloadable from the Internet.” The CIA’s Secret Assassination Manual and US Assassination Plots against Foreign Leaders. The first document is part of a 19-page guide prepared for use in a 1954 coup against the government of Guate-mala and declassified in 1997. The second involves targeting Fidel Cas-tro. Jesse asks, “How is it that we are allowed to kill other people if we’re not in a declared war with them?” Kennedy’s Plans to Withdraw Troops from Vietnam. Ventura calls Vietnam “a sham from the get-go, trumped up by the military industrial complex.” JFK was killed less than one month after the second memo shown. What Really Happened at the Gulf of Tonkin. According to top secret documents released in 2005 by the National Security Agency (NSA), somebody in Signals Intelligence skewed the data to make it look like US ships were pre-emptively attacked by the North Vietnamese. As a result, roughly 58,000 Americans were killed in the Vietnam conflict and probably over a million Vietnamese. US Capabilities in Chemical and Biological Warfare includes most of the transcript of hearings before a House Subcommittee on Appropria-tions held in 1969 for the Depart-ment of Defense (DOD) 1970 budget. It shows the R&D going on at the time plus how the US was using herbicides (like Agent Orange) in Vietnam. Ventura finds it “ironic that the very thing we attacked Saddam Hussein over, we’d maintained in our arsenal for many years.” He also points to a section in the transcript describing “Synthetic Biological Agents” that would soon be developed for which no natural immunity could be acquired, and he reminds us that people started dying

of AIDS only ten years later. Statistics on the potency of these chemical and biological weapons is staggering, as are the sizes of the stockpiles men-tioned. The list under the category of Lethal Biological Agents includes Yellow Fever virus, Anthrax virus, and Plague. Shocking, to say the least! “Emergency” Detention Camps and Civilian Inmate Labor Program exhibits documents substantiating the Homeland Security Department’s contract with Halliburton subsidiary KBR for establishing civilian prison camps on Army installations. A Think Tank’s Anticipation of 9/11 suggests that the neo-con’s “Project for a New American Centu-ry” September 2000 report, entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strate-gies and Resources for a New Century, actually foreshadowed 9/11. One sentence of that document says: “…the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalysing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.” Of course, after 9/11, it was easy for the United States and its allies to invade Iraq and Afghanistan to produce the kind of “regime change” desired by the neo-cons. Sections 43 through 49 of the book seem to indicate at least prior knowledge if not complicity of gov-ernment and some businesses in the events of 9/11. The headings include FBI Knowledge of Terrorists Training at Flight Schools; “Bin Laden Deter-mined to Strike US,” Bush Was Told; The Pentagon’s “Stand Down Order” on 9/11; The “Free Fall” of Building 7 (subtitled Controlled Demolition);

and Evidence for Insider Stock Trad-ing Before 9/11 (subtitled Follow the Money). This last one I emphasise because it consists of a riveting, well-documented 8-page exposé by Kevin Ryan that appeared in the November 18, 2010 issue of Foreign Policy Journal entitled “Evidence for Informed Trading on the Attacks of September 11.” Ryan’s conclusion, reprinted on page 232 of this book, is most telling: “The evidence for informed trad-ing on 9/11 includes many finan-cial vehicles, from stock options to Treasury bonds to credit card transac-tions made at the WTC just before it was destroyed. Today we know that financial experts from around the world have provided strong evidence, through established and reliable statistical techniques, that the early expert suspicions were correct, and that 9/11 informed trading did occur.” Part 5 of the book points to a phony “War on Terror” resulting from 9/11 that is being used to help accomplish the Justice and Defense Departments’ secret plans to subvert the US Constitution, justify acts of torture, hide illegal acts of killing, stifle freedom of the press, sanction medical experiments on detainees, foster drug-based economies of for-eign regimes, and, in general, help to promote and sustain the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about. 63 Documents was #4 on the New York Times’ bestseller list for a num-ber of weeks. It is dedicated to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who Jesse Ventura describes as “the only federal elected official who will stand up for America on the Congressional floor.” Section 63 of the book fittingly ends with a quote from the 1912 Progressive Party presidential plat-form of Theodore Roosevelt that I think is a good summary as well as a challenge to citizens of all countries, not just the United States: “Behind the ostensible govern-ment sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul this unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of statesmanship.”

– Alan Glassman


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ThE ART oF CoSMIC VISIoNPRACTICES FoR IMPRoVING yoUR EyESIGhTBy Mantak Chia & Robert T. Lewanski208 pages, paperback

Published by: Destiny Booksorder online at:www.newdawnreviews.com

The Art of Cosmic Vision: Practices for Improving Your Eyesight by Mantak Chia and Robert T. Lewanski, is a comprehensive collection of eye improvement exercises and therapies from various traditions. It will leave a sympathetic reader with confidence that only time and commitment are needed to achieve dramatic improvement in one’s eye-sight. I am an unabashed enthusiast for Mantak Chia’s writing, having found in it many insights and practices that transformed for the better various aspects of my health and life. This book is different from oth-ers with which I am familiar, in that it encompasses much that reaches beyond Mantak Chia’s usual focus on Chinese traditional practices to include Indian, Western and other wisdom. This exposes the ignorance that characterises much mainstream approach to eye health. The partnership with Robert Lewanski has been well chosen and together the authors awaken the reader to practices that can enhance both eyesight and the quality of life. Published first in Thailand in 2008 and by Destiny Books in 2010, The Art of Cosmic Vision, contains chapters on The Miracle of Perfect Eyesight, The Basic Foundation of Eye Improve-ment, Daily Eye-Strengthening Habits, Perfect Eyesight Exercise Program, Vision Improvement through Healing the Kidneys and Liver and Nutritional Secrets for Visual Clarity. The claims inherent in these titles are more than substantiated by the content of these chapters. The fol-lowing sentence captures the es-sence of the book: “Yes, both of us writing this book have quit wearing

eyeglasses and now we both see perfectly.” At the end of the first chap-ter headed The Miracle of Perfect Eyesight the authors highlight their conclusion with the words Knowledge and Wisdom Bring Understanding and Practice. This follows passages that explain eye anatomy, eye muscle accom-modation and healthy vibrant eyes, all in language that inspires confi-dence that the reader can follow the example of Chia and Lewanski and overcome any past dependence on eyeglasses. The second chapter, The Basic Foundation of Eye Improvement gets down to the substance and hard work that characterises the book. One does have to work in a mun-dane way to obtain Cosmic Vision in a world of many pressures and distractions. In a phrase that Mantak Chia uses often in other contexts where even more suspension of disbelief is necessary – you do it, you get it. In other words, Cosmic Vision can be achieved only by the necessary hard work, discipline and dedication. While the authors write as if almost any eye condition can be transformed by the therapies they explain, some may be wise to ex-ercise caution in interpreting their language literally. It seemed to me, nevertheless, this positive approach was required of all seeking to aid those in need and was in no way seeking to misrepresent the power of the various remedies outlined.

The third chapter on Daily Eye-Strengthening Habits offers fourteen practices to enhance and safeguard eye strength. These are simple, mun-dane and easy to follow but remind us of how neglectful we can become of basic health routines. The fourth chapter, Perfect Eye-sight Exercise Program, is a little more exotic, drawing on Egyptian, Indian and Chinese traditional therapies. These provide many approaches to furthering an understanding of ways to heal and strengthen the eyes. Other chapters outline self-heal-ing massage techniques, nutritional support for visual clarity and the nutritional body types that can help one understand ways to optimise health and eyesight. In doing so, they highlight the fact that an ethos of holistic health is hard to separate from perfect vision and that the pursuit of one leads naturally to a concern with the other. Of course, it is not only the pres-sures and distractions of modern life that blind many of us to these truths but also the academic ortho-doxies and media fashions that tend to define “health” in contemporary political debate. The authors conclude with 25 pages of quotations from a diverse range of authorities commenting on holistic health and natural eye vision. They demonstrate the value of Mantak Chia’s work which has been dedicated to reminding readers of diverse forms of neglected health wisdom, both ancient Chinese and modern Western. The use of the word Cosmic in the title has a significance that goes beyond eyesight. The reader cannot help wondering, even if only at a subconscious level, how many other so-called failings of advanced years may not, like eyesight, be responsive to relatively simple holistic and natu-ral therapies. Familiarity with other work of Mantak Chia will assist in advanc-ing such exploratory thought as his books seem invariably to give one an ever deeper sense of the body’s self healing capacity whenever it is given a little sensitive and reflective support in accessing the energies of the Cosmos.

– Reg Little


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WIThoUT DUE CAREAN AUSTRALIAN hoSPITAL TRAGEDyBy Therese Mackay187 pages, paperback

Published by: Therese Mackayorder:Send $27.99AUD plus P&H $6 (cheque/money order) toTherese MackayPO Box 248Port Macquarie NSW 2444Order online at www.withoutduecare.com.au

Without Due Care: An Australian Tragedy is at its deepest level a pas-sionate love story. It is also a warn-ing to all Australians, and almost certainly to most who live in wealthy societies with advanced medical cultures. It is an ardent, honest book, written with a bewildered mix of love, anger and incomprehension. The incomprehension is about a brutal reality that pervades modern medicine, bureaucracy and life. It is the impersonal insensitivity that seems inevitable when cultures are defined by financial calculations and professional arrogance. In this instance, this total insensi-tivity produced a nightmare hospital staffed with callous nurses and con-descending, and often incompetent, doctors, protected by professional bureaucrats and politicians. But above all, the book is inspired and uplifted by Therese Mackay’s overriding love for her husband, Don, a quadriplegic, whom she had nursed and tended virtually 24 hours a day for 25 years. It is a testimony to the human will and spirit and the capacity of two people to intelligently overcome the most daunting of physical tragedies and disabilities. Its anger is intensi-fied by the almost total lack of these qualities among the professionals in a Sydney hospital. At the same time, the author fully acknowledges the fact that these people are not necessarily represent-ative of a profession that did enable her husband to live a very full life for 25 years after an accident that may have left him with no future at all.

While Therese Mackay is as-tounded and outraged at the treat-ment handed out to her husband, it is clear from her passing remarks that others, many others, have suf-fered similarly. Indeed, her family’s prior experience of the hospital and her own experience in protesting the fluoridation of drinking water might have equipped her better than many to handle the injustices she and her husband experienced. He died over a torturous five weeks, after being admitted for a simple procedure related to a fluid build up in one lung. The story is convincing because it reflects the agony of someone given to assum-ing a basic humanity and compe-tence in the world around her. Of course, her own words and account suggest that this was unwise and unrealistic, but this failing is one that she likely shares with a great majority of her fellow Australians. Her book is a profound warning because it highlights how corrupt mainstream medical culture can be when people are at their most defenceless. It is unpleasant to think about this but a little reflection on what has happened to mainstream food and medicine in modern ad-vanced societies highlights the way in which self-interested calculation and the mechanical pressures of professional routine can over-ride humanity and simple fellow feeling. Massive and highly profitable industries that are central to contem-porary medical practice, culture and education are now beginning to be exposed as seeding and aggravating

much of the plague of degenera-tive disease in so-called advanced societies. Their influence remains profound, however, often among the best and brightest of each genera-tion, who spend much time, energy and wealth to obtain medical qualifi-cations. She mentions in passing that Don’s five torturous weeks in this hospital cost $100,000 and it is im-possible for a reader not to wonder how this money was distributed. Even worse, after admission to the Intensive Care Unit, her husband was signed up, with little under-standing or awareness, to participate in a NICE-SUGAR Study. The author subsequently discovered this con-tributes to death when conducted on critically ill patients. The author describes the hideous frequency of blood tests and transfusions appar-ently conducted to service this study. Therese Mackay’s story is far from being a methodical study of the failings of contemporary health care but is more a flood of bewil-dered feelings unable to accept the reality of a world where the car-ers and healers can so betray the reason for their existence. As such, the reader is swept into the author’s world, carried along by the repeti-tion of the unbelievable, the shock of the unimaginable and the torture of the unconscionable. This horror story then steps into the bureaucratic and political worlds, as they reveal themselves to be part of this man-made hell, concerned only to meet formal obligations that insist that mere human feelings and protests not be allowed to intrude on systemic imperatives. It shows that democratic pro-cesses in possibly the most liveable society in the contemporary world, Australia, do not always protect those in need. While the society provided the means and community for a quadri-plegic to live a more fulfilled life than many with no physical disabilities, it failed abysmally when care and attention was needed in a routine treatment as that life approached a moment of celebration and special fulfilment with the imminent mar-riage of a much loved daughter. Perhaps Therese and Don Mackay expected too much, having defied


About our ReviewersROBERT BLACK is the editor of Living Traditions Magazine (www.livingtraditions-magazine.com).

JENNIFER HOSKINS has a background in psychology. Her strong interests are comparative religion, mythology, folklore and spirituality of all kinds. You can visit her website – which has most of her reviews posted – and leave comments at www.jenniferhoskins.com.au.

REG LITTLE was an Australian diplomat for over 25 years. He is the author of A Confucian-Daoist Millennium? He can be contacted by email at [email protected].

ALAN GLASSMAN has a background in architecture and has studied metaphysical teachings for 35 years. He can be reached by email for discussion about sacred geometry/mythology/cosmology/hermetic research/post-quantum physics at [email protected].

CHARD CURRIE is a freelance writer/ reviewer currently residing in Sydney. He can be reached for writing/ conspiracy/work/brain change/ history/religion/left wing/right wing/no wing-related discussion at [email protected] or Facebook under Chard Core.

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fate so bravely for 25 years, but nothing could legitimise the horrific last 5 weeks of Don’s hospital treat-ment. Yet, Therese’s love and horror story is a monument to Don’s life and death. While his life clearly affected many in very positive ways, the tell-ing of his death may be his ultimate glory, both in demonstrating the love that defined his life and the callousness of modern systems that inflicted his death. Sadly, anyone who follows in any depth events in the contemporary world, knows that such callousness exists both in our domestic food and medical systems and in our external policies that legitimise many cruel-ties in the name of humanitarian and other noble causes. Man still lives in a jungle but the nature of its rapidly changing and evolving character remains little defined. Therese Mackay has written an elegant and distressing account of the jungle of false promises and pretences that engulfed her and her beloved husband at a moment when both found themselves to be de-fenceless.

– Reg Little

TRAVEL GUIDE To oThER DIMENSIoNS WITh A NEURoThEoLoGI-CAL INSIGhT INTo ALTERED AND ExPANDED STATES oF CoNSCIoUSNESSBy Jeanette Woldman208 pages, paperback

Published by: Jeanette Woldmanorder online at:www.jeanettewoldman.com

If you are looking for a one-stop book on how to get to higher levels of consciousness, travel to other dimensions, techniques for doing so (legal and illegal), and how our brains are effected, you gotta get this book! The travel means and methods

outlined are Psychedelics, Medita-tion and prayer, Regression hyp-nosis, Binaural beat stimulation, Repetitive and rhythmic stimula-tion, Electric and electromagnetic stimulation, Disease, Deprivation of essential elements, Magnetic field disturbances and UFO abductions. The first part looks at the basics of the concepts explained in the book. ASEC’s (Altered or Expanded States of Consciousness), and ODR’s (Other Dimensions of Reality), are outlined, as the acronyms pop up a lot. The second part of the book ex-plains various methods for extra-di-mensional travel and gaining higher states of consciousness. These methods are covered in both a scientifically concise manner and an approach sympathetic to the hours and effort put into research as well as individual experience. The author covers the im-portance of DMT (N,N-Dimeth-yltryptamine). This naturally occurring psychedelic compound has been recently mentioned in the Australian news, with the govern-ment wanting to ban hundreds of species of plants because this chemical is present in its make up. Well, it’s present in our make up too. Our pineal gland releases DMT when we dream, making the dreams seem real to our brains while our bodies sleep. South American cul-tures have used it for thousands of years and know the dimensions it can take you to, and it’s all natural! Binaural Beat Stimulation was another chapter that perked this

reviewer’s interest. Binaural Beats were discovered in 1839 by H.W. Dove. He found that by playing two different, but very similar audio fre-quencies (sounds) to a subject, the brain interprets them by creating a ‘binaural beat’ (phantom signal), that resonates in the brain and can bring about ‘whole brain’ synchroni-sation, as well as a higher suscepti-bility to hypnosis. Understanding these methods and how they affect the brain are helped along with extensive dia-grams and tables, showing what part of the brain are used as well as the chemical, aural and other make-up of the methods. Travel Guide to Other Dimensions is a great, compact read, chock-full of useful and insightful information for the modern mind-traveller, and proves itself as a worthwhile refer-ence tool.

– Chard Currie

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