Graham Hancock Discovers the Ancient Teachers

Disclose.tv Graham Hancock Discovers the Ancient Teachers Video

Really fun interview with Graham Hancock exploring his body of work. Hancock makes the most of rather surface questions asked and manages to cover significant features of very diverse areas of his research and experience. He retraces his journalistic progression from East Africa correspondent for The Economist to his quest for the Ark of the Covenant in The Sign and the Seal, and how this opened the door to his incredible research into ancient mysteries and the possibilities of a great, lost civilization. He also goes into a fair bit of depth on Supernatural, his exploration of psychotropes in shamanic practice, and discusses the theories surrounding the correlation between UFO experiences and legends of the Fae. The lucidity with which he explains these very challenging concepts, and even distills the information down to soundbites, is quite astonishing. Like all of his work, very worthwhile.

Graham Hancock's books and other media can be found in the bookstore.

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Zecharia Sitchin: Where Creationism and Evolution Collide

There's a little write-up on Zecharia Sitchin in the New York Times metro section the other day. It definitely treats him like a curiosity, but there's no such thing as bad publicity, I guess.

In Mr. Sitchin’s Upper West Side kitchen, evolution and creationism collide. He is an apparently sane, sharp, University of London-educated 89-year-old who has spent his life arguing that people evolved with a little genetic intervention from ancient astronauts who came to Earth and needed laborers to mine gold to bring back to Nibiru, a planet we have yet to recognize.

Outlandish, yes, but also somehow intriguing from this cute, distinguished old man whom you may have seen shuffling slowly down Broadway with his cane, and thought, “Is Art Carney still alive?”

. . .

“Well, you could start by calling me the most controversial 89-year-old man in New York,” Mr. Sitchin says. “Or you could just say I write books. I understand you’ve got to have an opening sentence, but describing my theories in a sentence, or even something like a newspaper article, is impossible. It will make me look silly.”

Mr. Sitchin has been called silly before — by scientists, historians and archaeologists who dismiss his theories as pseudoscience and fault their underpinnings: his translations of ancient texts and his understanding of physics. And yet, he has a devoted following of readers.

His 13 books, with names like “Genesis Revisited” and “The Earth Chronicles,” have sold millions of copies and been translated into 25 languages. “And Albanian is coming,” he notes, spooning the Taster’s Choice into two mugs.

You get the idea. He's one of the many endearing, eccentric Manhattanites the city takes such pride in displaying.

The complete works of Zecharia Sitchin can be found in the bookstore.

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Graham Hancock: Underworld

Hat tip to documentaries 2 be seen and to Graham Hancock, who has been busily scouring the web for available content related to his body of work, and posting links on Facebook. Many of them I've found and posted previously. Some not and the following is a new find. It's the documentary of Underworld on google video. The sound quality is not that great, but it's still very worth viewing. (Underworld, the book, is available in the bookstore.)

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Egyptian Alarm Clock

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"When I'm in Egypt, and I look at the pyramids, I think, that's the real world." 

~ William Henry

Some years ago I recorded something in my journal that, like so many things I scribble in these notes, has taken me years to even begin to understand. An image emerged in my mind's eye of what looked like a mountain range, so I began to draw it. I drew the first peak. The second was a bit higher. Then my hand was forced down to draw a much lower, disproportionate looking third peak. The asymmetry of the drawing bothered me, somewhat, but it was a fair representation of what I saw in my head. Then I heard the following words, which I wrote under my funny looking mountain range. "Trapped in the wrong dimension." The asymmetrical mountain range looking thing became stunningly obvious one day, when I saw a photo of the pyramids at Giza, from that particular angle.  The phrase I heard I still don't really understand, but I have theories.

As I've mentioned previously, Graham Hancock's concept of us as "a species with amnesia" really resonates for me. I found an older interview with Graham Hancock on Coast to Coast with the legendary Art Bell. The whole interview is excellent, but the part that really struck me I've transcribed here:

I can tell you that many, many people, around the world today, have the sense of an awakening memory. There is a sense that the pyramids of Egypt are operating like a beacon drawing people towards them. And, imagine this: Imagine if you were the survivors, as I spoke before, of a lost civilization with a high wisdom and knowledge -- a knowledge that we do not have today -- and you believed in reincarnation. And not just believed; you knew that it happened, and you knew that you would be reborn 12,000 or more years, in the future. And, that you knew that part of the deal with reincarnation is that you do not remember past lives; that at the most you get these faint, haunting recollections that you do not clearly remember. Perhaps you would create an alarm clock for yourself. Perhaps you would create a beacon that would draw you towards it, and an alarm clock -- a symbolic alarm clock -- that would awaken those repressed memories of past lives.

William Henry has a similar take on Egypt's ability to wake us up to a reality that is more "real" than our current, transient experience on earth. In this Conscious Media Network interview, he explains his fascination with Egypt, and with its effect on the psyche.

Both Henry and Hancock express a certain urgency, and the need for those of us who hear this wake-up call to acquire the necessary knowledge. Hancock posits that there is a window of opportunity here, that we may miss. All I know is that the promptings to "remember" are getting louder, and that I also feel there is something (???) I'm supposed to do. Increasingly, I feel like the white rabbit, checking my fob watch.

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Drunvalo: The Maya of Eternal Time

As discussed here, Drunvalo Melchizedek has been in close contact with the National Mayan Council of Guatemala and it's leader Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj for some years. This council, which is the head of all 440 Mayan tribes, has not put out a statement on any prophecy for 527 years. They are only now breaking their silence regarding the Mayan Calendar. Over the summer, Drunvalo was able to deliver a sanctioned message, via webcast. In this program, he discusses those elements of the prophecy that the council is ready to report. This includes events that have occurred -- such as the "blue star prophecy" -- as well as signs that they are still waiting for. He also explains the background of the crystal skulls and how the secrets they hold are in the process of being recovered by the Maya.

Those who are nervous about the date Dec. 21, 2012 can relax... sort of. According to Drunvalo, that's the one date the Mayans are certain the forecasted events won't happen. Instead, they say, we have entered a window they call "the end of time." The pending polar shift and other events could happen anytime between now and 2015.

I find one of the most intriguing parts of this broadcast in Drunvalo's explanation of the ceremonial work he participated in. Readers of Graham Hancock's Supernatural should be interested at his description of events during a ritual that took place deep inside a cave. Here is Hancock's description of the cave paintings at Pech Merle (p. 16):

Floating over the red foreground of the panel, the Ice Age mammals of the Frise Noire conspire in the convincing illusion of a three-dimensional array. Through the clever use of tricks of perspective, the impression is somehow conveyed that the closer figures have emerged from the rock face itself, while the ranks of other creatures beyond them seem almost to fade and disappear into its inner depths.

Attentive listeners to this webcast will notice a description of exactly the kind of experience those Paleolithic shamans were undoubtedly conveying, through their art, thousands of years ago. This is one of many reminders I have been getting lately that shamanism is the original, global religion of humanity.


Don Alejandro Cirilo

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Drunvalo on the Mayan Calendar, Pole Shift, The Secret, and the Heart

This September interview with Drunvalo Melchizedek manages to cover a lot of ground in a fair degree of depth. He explains his fascination with and detailed study of sacred geometry, and where it has led him. It was sacred geometry which initially drew me to study and train in the Flower of Life with Drunvalo years ago. He explains these geometries, and how they underpin manifest creation, better than anyone, in my opinion.

Mostly this interview focuses on the present time and how it relates to the Mayan Calendar. Drunvalo has enjoyed a very special relationship with the Maya for many years. He has been saying for some time that none of the interpretations of the calendar, in wide circulation, have come from the Maya themselves, and are, therefore, incomplete and largely wrong. The Mayan council is only now beginning the process of bringing forth an interpretation consistent with their traditions, oral history, and hidden knowledge. He reports that they are distressed that we have been so focused on the doomsday scenarios, which they say are only one part of the prophecy. They say that it will involve some type of pole shift, which could be very disastrous, but they emphasize that the way to move through this is to stay in the heart, not the head, and it will actually be a very positive transformation of the planet.

Drunvalo goes into great depth about the importance of being in our hearts. By way of example he explains the deeper problem of The Secret. As I have said many times, the determination to be "positive" does not allow for wholeness, or oneness consciousness. Drunvalo explains it as being a problem of creating with the head (our thoughts) rather than our hearts. Whereas, our hearts are in wholeness, our brains are polarized. They are binary instruments, and he says can only create dualism. He points to the way the authors of The Secret manifested loads of money, but have also invited the dark reflection of that manifestation. Much of the money is tied up in litigation. (Litigation, and possibly criminal charges, are also likely for Secret contributor James Arthur Ray whose sweat lodge disaster has now resulted in a third death.) By focusing on our heart consciousness, Drunvalo explains that we can transcend duality and the seesaw effect of polarized creation, and this is where we will need to be to transition into the new reality, on the other side of this great shift.

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O Egypt, Egypt

Carmen Boulter, much like Omm Sety, has spent her life pursuing an obsession with ancient Egypt, that dates back to early childhood. Traveling extensively there, and studying its sacred sites, she has been able to connect many pieces of her past life memory to physical locations, and put forth cogent theories on the land and its secrets.

In this interview she puts forward the tantalizing notion that the pyramids were actually functioning devices, rather than tombs. By putting them into a broader context of surrounding structures, she posits that they were an energy system, focusing sound and light to power their mysterious technology. Her description of the pyramids as sonic resonators reminded me of something I recently read about the Mayans possibly using their pyramids to create sound.

SIT on the steps of Mexico's El Castillo pyramid in Chichen Itza and you may hear a confusing sound. As other visitors climb the colossal staircase their footsteps begin to sound like raindrops falling into a bucket of water as they near the top. Were the Mayan temple builders trying to communicate with their gods?

The discovery of the raindrop "music" in another pyramid suggests that at least some of Mexico's pyramids were deliberately built for this purpose. Some of the structures consist of a combination of steps and platforms, while others, like El Castillo, resemble the more even-stepped Egyptian pyramids.

She also references Walter Cruttenden's theories on precession and the Great Year. According to Cruttenden, ancient writings across many cultures describe great cycles of time in which Earth civilizations rise and fall, volleying between periods of enlightenment and degradation. This, according to Cruttenden, is why some of our most ancient recorded cultures seem to have been more advanced than those that followed them; our current age reaching its nadir during the dark ages. He also posits that our sun and Sirius are actually a binary star system, explaining our cross-cultural obsession with that star. I found two excellent interviews, here and here, with Cruttenden, on Conscious Media Network, in which he thoroughly explains his theories.

O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety. And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and of worship. And so religion, the greatest of all blessings, for there is nothing, nor has been, nor ever shall be, that can be deemed a greater boon, will be threatened with destruction; men will think it a burden, and will come to scorn it. They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of things of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which be has made, ungrudgingly favouring man’s welfare, this combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that can call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder.

Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven ; the pious will be deemed insane, and the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good. As to the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you, all this they will mock at, and will even persuade themselves that it is false. No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven and of the gods of heaven, will be heard or believed.

And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing!, and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches by main force into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul. Then will the earth no longer stand unshaken, and the sea will bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, nor will the stars pursue their constant course in heaven; all voices of the gods will of necessity be silenced and dumb; the fruits of the earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken in sullen stagnation. After this manner will old age come upon the world. Religion will be no more; all things will be disordered and awry; all good will disappear.

But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then the Master and Father, God, the first before all, the maker of that god who first came into being, will look on that which has come to pass, and will stay the disorder by the counterworking of his will, which is the good. He will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world from evil, now washing it away with water-floods, now burning it out with fiercest fire, or again expelling it by war and pestilence. And thus he will bring back his world to its former aspect, so that the Kosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence, and God, the maker and restorer of the mighty fabric, will be adored by the men of that day with unceasing hymns of praise and blessing.

Such is the new birth of the Kosmos; it is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-striking restoration of all nature; and it is wrought in the process of time by the eternal will of God. For Gods will has no beginning; it is ever the same, and as it now is, even so it has ever been, without beginning. For it is the very being of God to purpose good.

~ from The Prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus

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William Henry and the Lost Symbol -- Updated

Now that Mercury has gone direct, I'm hoping some of the comm issues will be leveling out. Nearly two months after moving, I finally have a decent, broadband connection again. So, I've been catching up my YouTubes. A lot of great stuff was posted during my unintentional, internet hiatus, including a brand new interview with William Henry, on the hidden symbolism in the US Capitol. I wrote a bit about this here. In this interview, Henry goes into a bit more detail on the symbolism of the dome, its connection to the sacred geometry of Metatron's cube, and the critical importance of the pineal gland. He also discusses Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol, and its parallels to his own journey of discovery with this sacred architecture.

Update: I just stumbled on this radio interview with William Henry discussing his theories on the Capitol, in more depth. He offers some good background on how Constantino Brumidi came to paint the "Apotheosis of George Washington" in the dome, and what arcane symbolism underlies it. He also speculates on the what principles from the Gnostics and Western Alchemy may have shaped the vision of the founding fathers.

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Contemplating A More Esoteric Patriotism

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"Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains." ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

While watching the fireworks last Saturday evening, I found myself ruminating on the deeper symbolism underlying our patriotic traditions. I guess I've always found it a little dark that we celebrate our independence by evoking the sounds of battle. This particular display was a bit intense, as I explained on my Facebook page.

Montclair's fireworks go to 11!!! Innovative idea starting with a grand finale type display and building to a crescendo that sounds like incoming mortar fire. My husband turned a little white -- hell, it triggered my ptsd and I wasn't even in Iraq -- but really, really great!!!

So, that was our 4th. Very loud and very evocative of the "rockets' red glare" and "bombs bursting in air." It got me to thinking about what all that sacrifice was for; about our foundational principles. And so, I was ruminating on what "freedom" really means. (No. In case you're concerned, this is not the moment at which I suddenly veer off into some jingoistic rhapsody filled with meaningless platitudes, abstractions, and yellow ribbon magnets.) What, I pondered, did our founding fathers really mean by words like sovereignty, freedom, and liberty? Could there have been a meaning beyond independence from the British Crown; or even beyond any political reality.

What came to mind is some of the research mythologist William Henry has been doing into the esoteric underpinnings of our nation's heritage. I read some of the material on his site, some months ago, and found it very compelling. Certainly, much has been written about the symbolism in our nation's Capitol, the great seal, and other monuments. There is also a lot of paranoia about the association with Freemasonry and symbols that look very occult. Not surprisingly, Henry's take is entirely different.

The U.S. Capitol has numerous architectural and other features that unquestionably identify it with ancient temples including stone construction, an underground entrance, chapels, an image of a deified being, religious imagery, symbols, and inscriptions, divine proportions, massive columns, palpable spiritual energy, acoustic trickery, terrifying guardians, mystic visitors, closed doors, private members, secret chambers, and orientation to the Sun.

Earlier last week, my family and I took an unplanned drive through D.C. Unplanned because our intent had been to bypass it on the major highways. But, a lot of new construction on Rte. 95 and our GPS system conspired to take us on a more byzantine path. It was quite exciting for my daughter who had never seen such a view of "where Barack Obama lives." But, she recognized the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument from the television. It's been a while since I was this close to those structures myself. But, for years now, I have not been able to look at them without seeing an omphalos stone at the navel of the earth, and the tekhenu (obelisk), with it's gleaming benben. Why indeed does our nation's Capitol owe its design to such ancient and sacred architecture? Henry suggests a very conscious connection to our deepest creation mythos.

Domes have been called the perfect architectural shape: the circle, symbol of the universe, executed in three dimensions.

. . .

The oculus or eye of the dome is considered the Gateway of the Sun. From this gateway at the top of the dome rises the World Axis, the link between heaven and earth. Domes, therefore, are the threshold or gateway of the spiritual world.

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And, in the elaborate fresco, Henry sees allusions to religious iconography of many cultures, depicting perfection and ascension mythology. The title of the piece painted by Constantino Brumidi would seem to make that fairly obvious: "The Apotheosis of George Washington."

Apotheosis is a Greek word that means ‘to raise to god like stature’ or the glorification of a person as an ideal. Indeed, this fresco depicts Washington as a god-man. Christian art portrays Jesus sitting on a rainbow and enthroned exactly the same way. The sun is a symbol of Christ from the prophecy of Malachi 4:2 “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.”

Tibetan artists use identical imagery to portray their high holy ones (called lamas) who have achieved “The Great Perfection” (Dzogchen). The aim of the Great Perfection is to awaken the individual to the primordial state of enlightenment, which is naturally found in all beings. The initiate’s goal is to integrate enlightenment into all his or her activities and to unite the physical body with the energy of Nature. The supreme realization of which lies in the manifestation of the “Rainbow Body” or body of light.

Perfection is the foundation tantra of the European Enlightenment thinkers Locke, Voltaire and Rousseau who inspired the deeply spiritual, even mystic, founders of America (many of whom were Freemasons and Rosicrucians). Human beings are not inherently depraved or sinful, Enlightenment thinkers reasoned, we are naturally good.

Tearing a page from Plato’s Republic, they saw enlightenment as a process of revealing what is already inside the person; self-perfection into the Gnostic “Man of Light”. The Enlightened ones of Tibet say the same thing only adding that perfection or holiness is the natural state of every living being whether they know it or not and that we also have the capacity to manifest perfection (= Rainbow Body).

The implication, here, is that the founding fathers, and other of our wiser historical leaders, did not build all of this symbolism and sacred geometry into our national icons simply for their own Masonic entertainment; nor to hide in plain sight some nefarious intent. That, in fact, they were imbuing our national heritage with cues to the possibility of an even greater level of freedom than most have conceptualized.

Graham Hancock speculates in Heaven's Mirror that ancient monuments, the world over, are gifts to humanity bearing messages meant to awaken hidden knowledge; keys to our remembrance of a greater reality. Of King Jayavarman VII, whose manic devotion to construction at Angkor Thom has been construed as egotism, he writes:

It might all be an accident and modern historians might be 100 per cent correct when they allege that this high-speed building programme was just megalomania, resulting in the random construction of many temples here and there: 'an orgy of building, a brief yet sustained period of hectic, almost crazy architectural creation'. Yet in inscriptions from which we have already quoted in earlier chapters, Jayavarman sounds far from crazy or egocentric. On the contrary, he tells us explicitly that his temples were part of a grand scheme to win the 'ambrosia of immortality' for 'all those who are struggling in the ocean of existence'. We know, too, that he saw the Angkor monuments as effective instruments in this quest because of their special qualities as 'mandalas of the mind'.

Perhaps too, our founding fathers, with their allusions to creation and ascension mythology, had a similar scheme to free us from the "ocean of existence."

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Ark of the Covenent Still a Mystery

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If you've been waiting, with bated breath, for the Ethiopian Church to unveil the Ark of the Covenant, prepare to be disappointed. It appears that reports last week were somewhat overblown.

"It is not going to happen so the world has to live with curiosity," said the statement, signed only "Webmaster" in response to the WND inquiry.

The webmaster statement described the tempest as being caused either because of a translation mistake or "a slip [of the] tongue from the patriarch."

I've never been one to get heavily invested in Biblical artifacts, but I was quite intrigued by this announcement. I was also stunned at the possibility that Ethiopian Church would even consider showing its most prized artifact, after all this time. I read Sign and the Seal a few years ago, more because I love Graham Hancock's writing, than any great interest in the mystery of the Ark. I came away from the book fairly convinced that whatever it is, it's in Ethiopia. Something is being fiercely guarded there. While the Ethiopian Church is very public about having the Ark in their possession -- and uses wooden copies in elaborate rituals -- no one sees the actual item, except those charged with its protection.

The guardians of the Ark are selected from among church monks, and spend the rest of their natural lives living with Ark night and day. It is both an honor and a curse. Hancock relates the story of one guardian who abandoned his post and fled to the hills, only to be dragged back to the temple and chained at his post. It also seems to take quite a toll on the body. As has been recorded in other historical texts, on the Ark, it is very "powerful" and causes people near it to have some health problems. The Ethiopians keep it wrapped to "protect the laity" from its effects. Hancock describes the guardians he met as having developed cataracts. I believe it's in this interview that Graham Hancock recently spoke about the toll guarding the Ark takes on the body. The symptoms are, of course, consistent with radiation poisoning, which adds some credence to the theory that it was really a technological device of some kind -- Zecharia Sitchin theorized a communicator -- and may be radioactive.



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A Species With Amnesia

Really excellent interview with Robert Bauval. In it he walks us through some of his thought process in writing both The Orion Mystery and The Egypt Code. The entire interview is fascinating, but I was particularly struck by the explanation, in the tenth video of the series, of an ancient Egyptian code. He cites Graham Hancock's oft stated assertion that, "we are a species with amnesia," and suggests that the Egyptians have left us a blueprint for remembering who and what we really are. This concept particularly resonates for me, because it could explain why the message I get over and over, from my guides, as I trip the light fantastic through the mysteries, is "remember." Another book to add to the list.

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Atlantis: Perspectives

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Interviews with William Henry, Graham Hancock, and John Anthony West, on the evidence for an ancient civilization Plato called Atlantis.

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More William Henry

UPDATE: I'm going to bump this back up to the top, because more videos have been added to this series, and I have updated the playlist accordingly. The newly posted material is mind-blowing. I think some of Strieber's comments need more explanation, so I have added some clarification. See below.



Hot off the... whatever YouTube videos are formatted on, an interview from 2005. Interviewed here by Whitley Streiber, he discusses his book Mary Magdalene: The Illuminator. On a note of sheer hilarity, if you want to view the videos on YouTube, you have to confirm that you are over 18. Apparently the graphic sexuality of 19th Century French painter Jules-Joseph Lefebvre's "Mary Magdalene in the Grotto" was just too much for YouTube users to bear, so the following warning comes up.

This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community.

By clicking "Confirm", you are agreeing that all videos or groups flagged by the YouTube community will be viewable by this account.

Yes, artistically rendered breasts are terrifying. Run away! Run away!

********

On Junk DNA: In the second segment of his interview with William Henry, Whitley Strieber makes reference to the discovery that junk DNA has been proven to be a language. He doesn't give a lot technical explanation, on that, and I think it requires more background. I read about this discovery in Graham Hancock's Supernatural (pp. 484-487).

All human languages have a strange and most unexpected secret in common. It is called Zipf's Law, after the linguist George Zipf, who discovered it in 1939. He studied texts in many different languages and ranked the words in order of frequency. What he found, which has since proved to be true whether the language is English or Inuit, Japanese or Xhosa, Arabic or Urdu, is that a direct, exact, unvarying and utterly counter-intuitive mathematical relationship exists between the rank of a word and the actual frequency of occurrence of that word. No matter which text he selected, when Zipf created a histogram that plotted word frequency against word rank, the surprising result was a straight line "with a slope of -I for every human language."

Researchers from Boston University and Harvard Medical School, in the 1990s, applied some linguistic tests to DNA strands. They found that our coding DNA, the 3-10 percent, whose purpose we basically understand, conformed to no known linguistic pattern. The "junk" DNA however...

So far so predictable, and so reassuring. Of course our DNA doesn't contain intelligent messages and isn't trying to communicate them to us in a language! If it did, all the basic principles of modern evolutionary science would be turned head over heels! Still, what happened next was most unexpected -- "really remarkable," in Eugene Stanley's appraisal: "There's no rhyme or reason why that should be true." This really remarkable and totally unexpected discovery was that in every case where non-coding regions of DNA have been evaluated, they turned out to demonstrate a perfect Zipf Law linear plot. If these DNA sequences had been books filled with pages of indecipherable printed letters, then this result would oblige us to conclude that the letters were not random alphabet soup but words in an organized language. Stanley didn't shy away from the implications of this. In his opinion, the non-coding DNA sequences do contain "a structured language fundamentally unlike the coding in genes." Even though it doesn't code for proteins, we therefore need to consider the possibility that "the 'junk' DNA may carry some kind of message."

Such a daring proposition receives further support from the second linguistic test that the team also applied to the DNA sequences. Developed in the 1950s by information theorist Claude Shannon, this test distinguishes texts written in true languages from texts written in alphabet soup by quantifying the "redundancy" of any string of characters. The test works, and is universal, because "languages are redundant sequences... You can fill in a typographical error by noting nearby characters. A random sequence, in contrast, has no redundancy."

Again, when the test was applied to coding regions of the DNA, these were shown not to have the properties of a human language -- as we would predict. The genetic code is not, and cannot be, a redundant sequence in which errors can be corrected with reference to the general context; on the contrary, geneticists are well aware that even a single mistake involving a single base pair on a single gene can scramble the code and produce catastrophic abnormalities. By contrast, the researchers found that the non-coding sections of DNA "revealed a surprising amount of redundancy -- another sign that something was written in these mysterious stretches."

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Graham Hancock on Supernatural

A freshly minted and recent interview with Graham Hancock gives a wonderful overview of his career and views. Primarily focused on his book Supernatural, but also discussed are Fingerprints of the Gods and Sign and the Seal.

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William Henry on Stargates

This video series was recently posted to YouTube. It's from his Conscious Media Network interview. The original can be found here. There appears to be a variety of problems with YouTube players, right now. This video series can also be found in my playlist, so one way or another, it should be viewable.

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John Anthony West Explains Egypt

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I first learned of John Anthony West when I read Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods, many years ago. West's theories on the real age of the Sphinx figure heavily into Hancock's ideas about an antediluvian civilization from which Egypt and Latin America may have inherited much. West originally put forward his ideas about Egypt in Serpent in the Sky; a book designed to introduce the much earlier work of R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz. It is a conception of ancient Egypt very different from the that of most Egyptologists. West has devoted years to exploring a symbolic system he thinks is far deeper and richer than is understood by prevailing interpretations.

West's symbolist interpretation of Egypt is graphically depicted in the television series Magical Egypt. Some industrious soul has uploaded the entire series to YouTube and I've been very much enjoying it. I've broken it down into episode by episode playlists, which are posted on my channel. I cannot recommend these enough, so I'm posting them all.

I should say that West's overall interpretation accords with my own experiential sense of the Egyptian mysteries and the past life memories that I can never seem to escape. One of the most intriguing aspects of the shows is in the introduction. Woven into the opening theme music is something that sounds like a strange, unintelligible whisper. It's a little like the din of conversation one might here at a party, except that it's somehow distorted and diffused; a conversation that you can hear, but can't, even though it's going on right over your head. This is the sound of what I call the "whispering room" of the Egyptian exhibit at the Met. In this room, where a number of the mummies are displayed, this strange, barely audible whisper is ever present. I always find it hard to leave that room to look at the rest of the exhibit. I find it, somehow, comforting. I'm not the only person to have heard it there, and I suspect West has heard it as well; probably in Egypt, itself.

Posted below are all the episodes. DVDs of the entire series are also available for purchase in the bookstore.

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Seven Wonders Reborn

Two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World will be getting new life. The gods to be so honored: Artemis and Helios.




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Plans are being drawn up to rebuild the Temple of Artemis in Selçuk.

Dr. At?lay ?leri, the founder of the Selçuk Artemis Culture, Arts and Education Foundation, met with Dr. Anton Bammer of the archaeology institute at the University of Vienna, Austria, a decade ago while Dr Bammer was leading a series of excavations in the area. During this period, experts searched for the techniques on how to rebuild Artemis.

It was at this meeting that the two began to realize the reconstruction of the once magnificent Temple of Artemis. With support from Austrian scientists, ?leri had Swiss architects prepare a plan for the reconstruction of the temple.

?leri, who has dreamed of reconstructing the temple for 10 years, said: “When completed, the temple will not be a copy or an imitation of the original Artemis but the Artemis itself. And its sisters of the past will set their eyes on it with pride and emulation.”

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The massive re-envisioning of Helios, known as the Collosus, will, appropriately for a sun god, be made of light.

Like the original, erected in homage to the sun god Helios by the master sculptor Chares of Lindos, the new Colossus will adorn an outer pier in the harbour area of Rhodes, and be visible to passing ships.

And like its ancient namesake, the modern-day wonder will be dedicated to celebrating peace and built, at least in part, out of melted-down weapons from around the world.

But unlike the ancient Colossus, which stood 34 metres high before an earthquake toppled it in 226BC, the groundbreaking work of art is slated to be much taller and bigger. And unlike previous reconstruction efforts, officials say the Cologne-based design team is determined to avoid recreating a replica.

. . .

Instead, in the spirit of the 21st century the new Colossus has been conceived as a highly innovative light sculpture, a work of art that will allow visitors to physically inspect it by day as well as enjoy - through light shows - a variety of stories it will "tell" by night.

No word yet on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the giant statue of Zeus. Developing...

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World's Oldest Temple?

Certainly, the oldest yet discovered. Predating Stonehenge by some 6,000 years Gobekli Tepe, is the first known temple to be built by stone age hunter-gatherers. Smithsonian Magazine, this month, profiles the recently discovered archaeological find, which once again, turns our conception of history on its ear.

Gobekli Tepe was first examined—and dismissed—by University of Chicago and Istanbul University anthropologists in the 1960s. As part of a sweeping survey of the region, they visited the hill, saw some broken slabs of limestone and assumed the mound was nothing more than an abandoned medieval cemetery. In 1994, Schmidt was working on his own survey of prehistoric sites in the region. After reading a brief mention of the stone-littered hilltop in the University of Chicago researchers' report, he decided to go there himself. From the moment he first saw it, he knew the place was extraordinary.

. . .

Schmidt returned a year later with five colleagues and they uncovered the first megaliths, a few buried so close to the surface they were scarred by plows. As the archaeologists dug deeper, they unearthed pillars arranged in circles. Schmidt's team, however, found none of the telltale signs of a settlement: no cooking hearths, houses or trash pits, and none of the clay fertility figurines that litter nearby sites of about the same age. The archaeologists did find evidence of tool use, including stone hammers and blades. And because those artifacts closely resemble others from nearby sites previously carbon-dated to about 9000 B.C., Schmidt and co-workers estimate that Gobekli Tepe's stone structures are the same age. Limited carbon dating undertaken by Schmidt at the site confirms this assessment.

What is truly striking about the dating of this site, is that it places its initial construction before the Neolithic Revolution; that is to say, the advent of agriculture. The Wikipedia entry on the site explains:

Göbekli Tepe can be seen as an archaeological discovery of the greatest possible importance, since it profoundly changes our understanding of a vital point in the development of human societies. Apparently, the erection of monumental complexes was within the capacities of hunter-gatherers and not only of sedentary farming communities as had been assumed hitherto. In other words, as Klaus Schmidt put it: "First came the temple, then the city". This revolutionary hypothesis will have to be supported or modified by future research.

What does it say about the role of religion in ancient cultures, that such incredibly elaborate masterpieces were painstakingly carved from stone tools, and were the very hub of their evolving community? Could this actually be a peek into the spiritual beliefs our pre-historic ancestors?

What was so important to these early people that they gathered to build (and bury) the stone rings? The gulf that separates us from Gobekli Tepe's builders is almost unimaginable. Indeed, though I stood among the looming megaliths eager to take in their meaning, they didn't speak to me. They were utterly foreign, placed there by people who saw the world in a way I will never comprehend. There are no sources to explain what the symbols might mean. Schmidt agrees. "We're 6,000 years before the invention of writing here," he says.

"There's more time between Gobekli Tepe and the Sumerian clay tablets [etched in 3300 B.C.] than from Sumer to today," says Gary Rollefson, an archaeologist at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, who is familiar with Schmidt's work. "Trying to pick out symbolism from prehistoric context is an exercise in futility."

That doesn't stop Schmidt from speculating, however.

The excavator, Klaus Schmidt, has engaged in some speculation regarding the belief systems of the groups that created Göbekli Tepe, based on comparisons with other shrines and settlements. He assumes shamanic practices and suggests that the T-shaped pillars may represent mythical creatures, perhaps ancestors, whereas he sees a fully articulated belief in gods only developing later in Mesopotamia, associated with extensive temples and palaces. This corresponds well with the Sumerian tradition of an old belief that agriculture, animal husbandry and weaving had been brought to humankind from the sacred mountain Du-Ku, which was inhabited by Annuna-deities, very ancient gods without individual names. Klaus Schmidt identifies this story as an oriental primeval myth that preserves a partial memory of the Neolithic. It is also apparent that the animal and other images are peaceful in character and give no indications of organised violence.

The intricate animal carvings catch the eye immediately, of course, and suggest shamanic practices. In Supernatural, Graham Hancock makes the case that shamanic experiences led to the sudden development of art, symbolic thinking, and early civilization (pp. 29-31).

Whether we find its traces in Australia, Asia Africa, or Europe, it is simply impossible to overstate the uniqueness and peculiarity of the evolutionary event by which we were drawn into fully modern consciousness and the fully modern capacity for symbolism and culture, religion, and art. No ancestor in the human lineage had ever made use of any form of symbolism before, and needless to say, no other animal species had ever done so either. But the switching-on of humanity's symbol-making capacity between approximately 100,000 and 40,000 years ago was the change that changed everything.

. . .

What adds to the mystery of this amazing stepping-up for our effectiveness and competitiveness is that it was not accompanied or immediately preceded by any obvious anatomical change. There was, for example, no increase in human brain size between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago. On the contrary, the fossil record shows that today's average of around 1,350 cubic centimeters had already been attained by our ancestors in Africa as early as half a million years ago -- even before full anatomical modernity was reached -- and has since remained relatively stable. We are therefore obliged to ask why it was that humans with identical brains, looks, and genes to ours nevertheless behaved so very differently from us for the first 100,000 years of their existence (i.e. from roughly 200,000 to roughly 100,ooo years ago) -- so differently, in fact, that they seem almost like another species. And why did they then embark on an immense behavior metamorphosis -- that would not hit critical mass until around 40,000 years ago -- to become innovative and artistic, symbolic and cultured, religious and self-aware? What caused the momentous change of direction and destiny, hitherto unparalleled in the history of life on earth, that gave birth to modern human culture?

. . .

For Ian Tattershall of the American Museum of Natural History, the problem posed by this gap -- and what happened to our ancestors during it -- is the "question of questions in paleoanthropology. His collegue, Professor David Lewis-Williams of the Rock Art Research Institute at South Africa's Witwatersrand University, describes the same problem as "the greatest riddle of archaeology -- how we became human and in the process began to make art and practice what we call religion.

(There is more on this theory of ancient shamanism and images of paleolithic art here.)

Further insight into the spiritual underpinnings manifested here, could be hinted at by the name. Gobekli Tepe translates into "belly hill" or "hill with a belly," depending on whom you read. What immediately sprung to my mind was the possibility that the reference is to the navel. Indeed, the Wikipedia entry also refers to Gobekli Tepe as "Navel Mountain." If so, the reference puts it in line with numerous sacred sites around the world. Hancock explains in Heaven's Mirror (p. 250).

Easter Island was called 'Eyes Looking at Heaven ', but it was also called Te-Pto-O-Te-Henua, 'The Navel of the World', a name that was supposedly bestowed on it by the god-king Hotu Matua himself. What is strange, as we shall see in Part V, is that it shares his name with Cuzco -- meaning 'Navel' -- the incredible megalithic capital of the Inca empire high up in the Pervuian Andes. Moreover, the same name, or idea, was applied in ancient times to many other ritual and sacred 'places of honour in the middle'. In all cases where there is sufficient evidence to make a judgement, these turn out to have been revered as centres of geodesy and geometry and of the related art of geomancy -- a word that means literally, 'earth divination'.

Frequently such 'Navels of the Earth' also prove to have associations with meteorites -- stones fallen from heaven. Many will have their own 'navel stone', or 'sunstone', or 'foundation stone', which wil sometimes be accompanied by a tradition of a rod or pillar sunk into the earth or of an obelisk raised up. Each will additionally be depicted as a primordial centre of creation, from which all esle grows: 'The Holy One created the world like an embryo. As the embryo proceeds from the navel outwards, so God began to create the world from its navel onwards, and from there it was spread out in different directions.'

For some unknown reason, Gobekli Tepe was not gradually abandoned as the civilization evolved. It was abruptly and, apparently, deliberately covered with soil around 8000 BC. While this kept it hidden for thousands of years, it has provided for a remarkably well-preserved site to be unearthed all these years later by Klaus Schmidt and his team.



Amazing.

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Did Stone Age Man Take Drugs?

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Graham Hancock certainly thinks so. And, he makes a very good case in Supernatural, which I might add, is one of my very favorite books. So, I was very excited this morning to see press reports appearing to confirm evidence of Stone Age drug use.

Scientists have long suspected that humans have an ancient history of drug use but much of the evidence has been indirect, ranging from the bizarre images found in prehistoric cave art to the discovery of hemp seeds in excavations.

Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to South American tribes.

Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitz-patrick, an archeologist from North Carolina State University, found the ceramic bowls, plus tubes used to inhale drug fumes or powders, on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.

The bowls appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried the 400 miles to the islands. One implication is that drug use may have been widespread for thousands of years before this time.

One problem. The time frame given -- 100BC - 400BC -- is by no stretch of the imagination, the Stone Age. To gain some clarity on the use of this term, I did a lot of googling, this morning. Ultimately, my husband located the original, peer reviewed article in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Nowhere, do the authors use the term "Stone Age," only "prehistoric." I see no evidence that the islanders documented in the article are latter Neolithic. As near as I can determine, someone thought "stoned age" was a clever play on words to describe the use of psychotropes by indigenous people, as documented by Kaye and Fitzpatrick. If anyone has a better explanation, I'd love to hear it.

Indeed, the only reference to Stone Age inhabitants of the Caribbean was here.

The first settlers were an unknown race of Stone Age people who lived in the Caribbean about 4,000 years ago.

Apparently without permanent settlements, they were hunter-gatherers. They left behind no pottery, only stone tools which the Arawaks found useful 1,000 years later when they moved into the islands.

The Arawaks called this unknown race Ciboney, after the Arawak word "ciba" for stone. Modern archaeologists still have no idea where the Ciboney wandered in from or off to, but they were gone from the Caribbean long before the Arawaks arrived.

So, as far as I know, there remains no documentary evidence that psychotropes were used in the actual Stone Age; specifically, the Upper Paleolithic era, which gave rise to the magnificent artifacts described in Supernatural. Even so, I have little doubt that some type of mind-altering methods were employed. They may have ingested any number of psychotropic plants. They almost definitely employed rhythmic drumming and/or dancing. The evidence presented by Hancock of geometric patterns, therianthropy, and nose-bleeds consistent with vigorous, ceremonial dancing, is just too strong. Here, Hancock describes the nut of the idea that inspired his research.

I quickly realized that this was the mystery, and the period, I wanted to investigate. Not that endless, unimaginative cultural desert from 7 million years ago down to just 40,000 years ago when our ancestors hobbled slowly through their long and boring apprenticeship, but the period of brilliant and burning symbolic light that followed soon afterwards when the first of the great cave art of southwest Europe appeared – already perfect and fully formed – between 35,000 and 30,000 years ago.

A most remarkable theory exists to explain the special characteristics of these amazing and haunting early works of art, and to explain why identical characteristics are also found in prehistoric art from many other parts of the world and in art produced by the shamans of surviving tribal cultures today. The theory was originally elaborated by Professor David Lewis-Williams, and is now supported by a majority of archaeologists and anthropologists. In brief, it proposes that the reason for the similarities linking all these different systems of art, produced by different, unrelated cultures at different and widely-separated periods of history, is that in every case the shaman-artists responsible for them had previously experienced altered states of consciousness in which they had seen vivid hallucinations, and in every case their endeavour in making the art was to memorialise on the walls of rock shelters and caves the ephemeral images that they had seen in their visions. According to this theory the different bodies of art have so many similarities because we all share the same neurology, and thus share many of the same experiences and visions in altered states of consciousness.

There are lots of ways of inducing the necessary altered state. The bushmen of South Africa get there through night-long rhythmic dancing and drumming, the Tukano Indians of the Amazon do it through consuming the hallucinogenic beverage Ayahuasca. In prehistoric Europe I present evidence that the requisite altered states may have been reached through the consumption of Psilocybe semilanceata – the popular little brown “magic mushroom” that is still used throughout the world to induce hallucinations today. In Central America the Maya and their prececessors used other psilocybe species (P.Mexicana and P. Cubensis) to induce the same effects.

The images speak for themselves.



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Happy Autumnal Equinox

Today at 15:44 UT (GMT) the earth achieve that moment of balance that occurs each spring and fall.

When and why the fall equinox happens:

The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5° tilt of the earth's axis. Because the earth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, it points in a fixed direction continuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth is also revolving around the sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphere is more exposed to the sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest of the year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears high in the sky during summertime and low in the sky during winter. It is highest at the summer solstice (about June-21) and lowest at the winter solstice (about December-21). The half-way points in the year are called the equinoxes. It is time of the year when the sun rises exactly in the east, travels through the sky for 12 hours, and sets exactly in the west. _1,2 Everywhere on earth experiences close to 12 hours of daylight, and 12 hours of nighttime.

Crystalinks gives a good round-up of Autumnal Equinox observances from around the world, and offers this more general advice.

There are those who believe the equinox solar affect produces a reduction in the magnetic field of the Earth, providing easier access to other dimensions beginning around 24 hours before, and ending around 24 hours after the exact Equinox point.

Doorways or thresholds into the mysteries are more easily accessed during equinoxes and when we consciously engage this timing we are taking advantage of the opportunity to further activate our own experience of these sacred timings and what they have to offer us. This is a great time to be on the land, in a power spot that calls to you, whether that is in a forest, near a body of water, on a mountain, in a sacred site or in your back yard. What is important is to create the time and space that supports a direct experience of the mysteries that are ready to reveal themselves to you.

Also see Edna Spennato's diary for an explanation of a global event planned for today, as well as an awesome image of Kukulkan's (Queztalcoatl's) Pyramid at Chichen Itza.

In Heaven's Mirror, Graham Hancock describes what occurs at this magnificent temple.

On 21 September 1996, the autumn equinox, we were at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan, a Mayan site thought to date to the sixth century AD and to have been continuously developed thereafter until at least the thirteenth century. The central pyramid is dedicated to Kukulkan (Quetzalcoatl). Consisting of nine superimposed platforms, it towers 30 metres high and measures 55.3 metres along each side. Like the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan its principle axis is deliberately tilted east of north and west of south. Here, however, the angle selected is not designed to signal the days of the sun's zenith passage but instead the spring and autumn equinoxes, when the sun rises precisely due east and the hours of light and darkness are equal.

By about 5.15 in the evening it was clear what was happening. So skillfully was this magnificent pyramid aligned to the trajectory of the setting equinoctial sun that it had been possible for the ancient builders to contrive a pattern of light and shadow on the western side of the northern stairway. Very gradually, as the minutes ticked by and the sun fell lower in the sky, this pattern, which was projected by the north-western corner of the pyramid, gained in shape and substance. By around 5.30 p.m., it had manifested itself fully as a gigantic undulating serpent with seven coils of shadow defined by seven triangles of light. The tail of the serpent reached the top platform of the pyramid, with its body extending down the balustrade all the way to the ground where a huge sculpted serpent's head with gaping jaws completed the illusion of the stairway.

This almost magical epiphany of an ancient deity as a signal of the equinoxes indicates that an advanced geodetic and astronomical science must at one time have been practised at Chichen Itza -- for only a civilization with highly skilled surveyors, astronomers and setting-out engineers could have achieved the razor-sharp alignments necessary to materialize such an image in such a way at precisely the desired moment. It is impossible to say for sure when this science might have first begun to express itself in the architecture of Chichen Itza, because the Temple of Kukulkan -- like the pyramids of Teotihuacan -- surmounts an earlier structure that stood on the same site and had the same orientations.

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Graham Hancock's "Quest for the Lost Civilization"

Some helpful soul has posted this movie on YouTube. It seems to be out of print and near impossible to get, although I have a page set up in the bookstore, where you may be able to purchase it on VHS. But unless and until it is issued on DVD, opportunities for viewing have been limited. It is highly recommended viewing. Enjoy.

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