Thursday, December 14, 2006

"Do You See What I See?"



If a space ship touched down
In my yard I would run
Right towards it, yelling
"Greetings, let's go have some fun!"
- Arthur's Songbook

On the evening of September 27 in the village of Premanon during France's seriously weird year of 1954, a 12-year old named Raymond Romand stepped out of his farmhouse and immediately saw in the yard an apparent humanoid entity "as tall as a door, and shiny, like a wardrobe with a mirror."

It approached Raymond and gently touched him, and he fell to the ground terrified. His nine-year old sister Janine and two other children, who had followed him outside to play, now saw it too. The entity moved away, and Raymond, encouraged by the presence of others, began throwing stones as it left. One sounded as though it struck something metallic. The entity left the yard for a downhill pasture, where the children observed it enter an object they described as a "ball of fire," which soon ascended into the sky.

The children knew their parents and their community well enough to realize this was something best kept to themselves. But the next day at school Raymond told a friend, who told others. When it was overheard by a teacher she called the police. At the spot of the "ball of fire," officers from Saint Claude and Les Rousses found four triangular indentations in the ground and a clearly defined area of compression 12-feet in diameter with grass heavily flattened, like a pinwheel, in a counterclockwise fashion. "In addition," Jacques Vallee writes in Challenge to Science, "a pole fence had been grazed and the bark of a pine tree was scorched five feet above the ground."

But to me, the most interesting aspect of the story is the reaction of Raymond's mother:

Throughout this investigation, Mrs Romand displayed a very strange attitude. She seemed deeply shocked by the whole affair and reluctant to let the interview take place. She refused to believe that Raymond might have seen something. A very pious, devout woman, she stated plainly that "flying saucers" and "Martians" could not exist and that she would rather believe that an evil spirit, or the Devil himself, was prompting her son to lie.... A newspaper reporter who went to Premanon and spoke to the woman remarked that her home was probably one of the few places in France where the subject of "flying saucers" had never been discussed at the dinner table. The children themselves never used the term "saucer" or "Martian." They said and repeated that they had seen a "ghost." The idea of a "flying saucer" was started by the adults in Premanon.


To Mrs Romand it became of paramount importance, for both her family's reputation in the community and her until-then unchallenged assumptions of the way things were, that her son must have made the whole thing up. Think about that for a moment, and you may see what a common response it is to information that transgresses our base-beliefs. Sometimes, the consequences of admitting certain realities are thought to be so grave we would rather believe a loved one a lunatic or a liar for testifying to them.

But Raymond and the children didn't change their story: whatever they had seen, it was what they had seen, and the best reference they had for it was not the "flying saucers" of adults' presumptions but rather, vaguely (and so perhaps most accurately), a "ghost." Raymond was punished for his resistance to admit a lie, and was confined to the house until the episode was behind them and normalcy restored.

Edward Ruppelt, director of Project Blue Book, came to respect the ineffability of the UFO phenomenon, yet he also said "next to the 'insufficient data' file was a file marked 'C.P.' This meant crackpot. Into this file went all reports from people who had...inspected flying saucers that had landed in the United States." To this, Vallee remarks that if "we do not refuse to study the UFO as an aerial object, we cannot logically refuse to study it when it has reported to have landed." Furthermore, "we cannot dispose of the sightings made by pilots, customs officers, and railroad engineers, people who are not prone to go berserk, by saying that they have 'merely' had hallucinations or invented a science fiction story."

We all have our meta-narratives about Life, the Universe and Everything by which we interpret events and perceive trends. We need them if we aspire to critical thought, but we also ought to be conscious of them and of what they represent: they're the mental scaffolding to support our modeling of the world and to build a case about it, they are not the world itself. And so they need to be flexible, and we need to be humble enough to reconfigure them when necessary according to new evidence and fresh insight. If not, we can find ourselves in rabbit holes of our own making that resemble nothing so much as The Princess Bride's battle of wits. ("Truly you have a dizzying intellect." "Wait 'til I get going!")

With respect to UFOs, it's a fairly common parapolitical conceit to subsume the entire phenomenon to mind control, and relegate everything that doesn't fit, Ruppelt-like, to the crackpot file. Such absolutism regards the paranormal as a competing and even threatening meta-narrative: if UFOs and "aliens" have been hoaxed and employed as screen memories, then that's regarded as the depth of their reality. No further investigation is required nor considered beneficial.

The Litvinenko story provides an interesting example of competing meta-narratives. The current Kremlin line is that the former spy was not assassinated, but rather unintentionally poisoned by polonium-210 he was peddling to al Qaeda for use as the trigger for a nuclear bomb. It's fascinating to watch this digested by some in the West who, if told a similar tale by the White House, would probably respond How gullible do they think we are? Polonium makes an unlikely choice of poison, unless the assassination was also a myth-making exercise to suggest the Chechens had the bomb. In any regard, answering the rhetorical Cui bono? is not so easy, unless you want to be a Wallace Shawn about it.

Senator Tim Johnson's critical illness is another. Could it be an assassination attempt? Naturally; it always could be. But let's keep our hypotheses in an open hand, and not a balled fist, especially at this early date. Otherwise our theorizing can lapse into soap opera every bit as unreal, though with the appearance of reality, as "Lonelygirl15"'s flight from a thelema-like cult. (Besides, Johnson's no Paul Wellstone, whom Dick Cheney threatened with "severe ramifications" for voting against the war. And to think the Republicans need another body in order to control the agenda is to mistake parties for partisanship and the Washington consensus for representative democracy. )

And regarding 9/11, "inside job" for some means making the hijackers disappear altogether, and so Daniel Hopsicker's ongoing investigation into Mohamed Atta's deep political demimonde will be dismissed as a "distraction," "disinfo," or a threat best disregarded. Their mental scaffolding has become a fetish, and is incapable of innovation or correction.

We need nimble minds about this stuff, and to always be ready to erect new scaffolding when the old no longer serves us well. And when we see a ghost, perhaps we ought to say we've seen one. Even if we don't believe in them.

187 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff, one of your enlightened readers recently posted:

"Real ability is to respect relative truth without damaging oneself by refusing to realize that it will be superseded. When you observe that today's controversies often reveal not relevance but the clash of the untaught with the wrongly taught, and when you can endure this knowledge without cynicism, as a lover of humankind, greater compensations will be open to you than a sense of your own importance or satisfaction in thinking about the unreliability of others."

- Idries Shah, A Perfumed Scorpion

Which reminds me:

Latest news: The shuttle finally gets off the ground!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle

Years: 1969 to 1972 – The first successful moon landing and subsequent moon landings. In fact, six (6) moon landings without a hitch. Noticeably, all the “failures” of the Apollo program happened in earth orbit or on the launch pad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Apollo

Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick present for your brainwashing pleasure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations

12/14/2006 01:13:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, I've seen a ghost!

Oh shit, it was only me....

Hey guys from the last thread:

Just to clarify: the "Bill Hicks (in all his incarnations Fan" is not me. Maybe it's Kevin Booth, or Slade or someone, but it ain't me.

I only posted twice, and hey, I was mistaken again. Going down for the third and last time only today and forever....third time's the charm you know?

An "un-named source" where I spend my days (thank God, it ain't the lake of fire, and there IS fuckin' incredible music up/out/over here, by the way - this place ROCKS!), um sorry, an un-named, highly placed source here/there asked me to bring back a message for someone named Erika Nolan and for Bob Bauman. It's this:

"Take your Lichtenstein tax savings and FEED THE HUNGRY. That's right. You can do it. There now."

That's about it, I guess. I gotta go back.

Oh yes, and there was one other part to the message I almost forgot. Geez there'd be something WORSE than "hell" to pay if I forgot to tell you this. Ready? Here goes:

"If there's anyone in Advertising out there? Kill yourselves."

No. Really.

Okay, I gotta go. I'm outta here. I love you. You people are great.

Now get up off your sorry asses and do something, will ya? Jesus Christ, man.

You know who will be watching.

12/14/2006 01:34:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man, I am so fucked...........

When I said "Feed the Hungry" I forgot to add, "and clothe the poor. We can do it all, AND explore space, both inner and outer. Just stop arming the world and blowing everyone up. You fuckers."

(the last two words were mine. Shh. Don't tell.)


That's it.

Okay.... Can I come back now?

Thanks.

Hey, 'bye you guys. It's been great.

12/14/2006 01:39:00 PM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Ah, quite right, Jeff; but how do we construct an "all of the above" scaffolding when some parts are metric, some are English, some are political, and some are ethereal? Or is the holographic universe supposed to be an organic, pell-mell construct?

12/14/2006 01:45:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Inconceivable!

12/14/2006 01:48:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I received an email late last week from a supporter of an organization I work for, and I posted it Monday here. My correspondent called a Senate office to protest a bill:

I told her [a staffer for a Senator] in the end that we are under attack from within by our own leaders and corporations worse than anything the muslims could ever do to us. She said "I heartily understand what you're saying". She also agreed that things are bad and she said so too. She lowered her voice and said "its bad up here right now". I think its more than just lobbying. I think these guys in office may be threatened from the sounds of her voice and what she said. I thanked her.

In a follow-up email (before the Tim Johnson story broke), he wrote,

I used to be a legislative analyst for the house of representatives many years ago
and I know what that tone of voice and whispering means.

Given the power these guys have, you know its bad when the staffers are
afraid and I am telling you she was afraid. If the senators are afraid then there is good reason. Its reflected by their staff.

If they are not afraid then the staffers are not afraid. I just
thought you should know why I wrote that and what background I had to determine that it was serious. I began to wonder if WEllstone was a lesson to those who resist. If so, then they are more courageous than I gave them credit for.

12/14/2006 02:11:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Leave me out of it, IC.

12/14/2006 02:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff, you are the ultimate distracter, aren't you?

"Look! Aliens!!!"

FYI, "Qui Bono?" is French for "Who's Bono?"

The question I think you meant to ask is "CUI BONO?" [CVI BONO in the original letters]. That's Latin for "Who benefits?"

12/14/2006 03:02:00 PM  
Blogger Peter of Lone Tree said...

WIKIPEDIA:

Agents of the Bulgarian secret police assisted by the KGB had previously made two failed attempts to kill (Georgi) Markov before a third attempt succeeded. On September 7, 1978 (the birthday of Todor Zhivkov), Markov walked across Waterloo Bridge, which crosses the River Thames, and was waiting at a bus stop on the other side, when he was jabbed in the thigh by a man holding an umbrella. The man apologized and walked away. Markov would later tell doctors that the man had spoken in a foreign accent. The event is recalled as the Umbrella Murder.

Markov recalled feeling a stinging pain from where he had been hit by the umbrella tip. When he arrived at work at the BBC World Service offices he noticed a small red pimple had formed and the pain from being jabbed had not gone away. He told at least one of his colleagues at the BBC about this incident. That evening he developed a high fever and was admitted to hospital where he died three days later.

Due to the circumstances and statements Markov made to doctors expressing the suspicion that he had been poisoned, Scotland Yard ordered a thorough post mortem examination of Markov's body. At the post mortem, forensic pathologists discovered a spherical metal pellet the size of a pin-head embedded in Markov's calf.

The pellet measured 1.52 mm in diameter and was composed of 90% platinum and 10% iridium. It had two holes with diameters of 0.35mm drilled through it, producing an X-shaped cavity. Further examination by experts from Porton Down showed that the pellet contained traces of ricin toxin. Even if the doctors treating Markov had known this it would have made no difference because there was (and, as of 2006, still is) no known antidote to ricin poisoning.

12/14/2006 03:12:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff,

Come to think of it, you probably WERE inquiring after Bono.

12/14/2006 03:14:00 PM  
Blogger Jeff Wells said...

"Cui Bono"

Thanks, I always do that.

12/14/2006 03:20:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, I am not Bill HIcks Res. I apologize for causing any confusion.

Oarwell, I find it utterly remarkable that you would quote the Dislneyland Fascism essay, with its attacks on the manufactured ideology of false individualism, then assert your own superiority as an individual (for what else could you have been doing?) over the lovely caricature you give us of the "NFL-obsessed, NASCAR guzzling" hillbillies with whom you, alas, are forced to share existence. First, I have yet to meet such a one-dimensional person as your caricature portrays; second, this turning inward (towards sports, religion, nascar, what have you) is an unfortunate but understandable reaction on the part of the working class to their certain knowledge that they are "being fucked in the ass every day of their lives," to quote Bill once more; and third, in painting such a caricature all you're doing is engaging in typical elitist self-righteous bullshit.

Look, IC and Oarwell, you guys are bright and have a lot of well thought-out, and even erudite, insight. I enjoy reading many of your posts. But, my God, the earnestness of your delivery gets grinding after a while (especially since you've both so eagerly taken up the mantle of posting superstar most recently set aside by Shrubageddon). Make us laugh once in a while! Hell, even Kafka tickles the funny-bone every now and again.

And don't look now, but James Leroy Wilson (from above) writes a, gasp, FOOTBALL BLOG! Would you like to explain to him how this makes him stupid, or shall I?

Go Saints!

12/14/2006 03:21:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why Some People Are So Damn Rich

(Here's a hint... it's not just what they do, but where they do it) Step inside a private world of wealth preservation known to only a privileged few...

Thatcher Trades Taxes in UK for Penthouse on the Rock

GIBRALTAR - Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former British Prime Minister, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, will soon become a tax exile in Gibraltar. And once he moves to the Rock, he may only pay £20,000 (US$39,000) a year on his £64m (US$125m) fortune.

Unlike Americans, UK citizens still have the luxury of avoiding most income taxes if they move away and establish a foreign residence. According to The Times, Thatcher has consulted tax experts and is now house hunting for a £1m (US$1.9 m) penthouse on the Rock. Brits can apply under a new Gibraltar status designed to attract the super-rich and help the dependency compete with places like Monaco, traditionally the preferred location for UK tax exiles.

Meanwhile, voters in Gibraltar have accepted a new constitution which the government says will give it more autonomy from the United Kingdom over its own internal affairs. In a referendum held in early December, 60.24% of those who turned out voted 'yes' to the new constitution, while 37.75% voted to reject it. An impressive 60.4% of Gibraltar's 20,061 registered voters voted. Chief Minister Peter Caruana said: "The new constitution gives us what we want, namely, a British Gibraltar in which our right to self determination is recognized and which is governed by us. That is dignity. That is real democracy. That is a non-colonial relationship with Britain."

BOB BAUMAN, Editor

EDITOR'S NOTE: Envious of Sir Mark? Want to become a tax exile yourself? Bono did it. But he's a British citizen like Sir Mark. In the U.S., the only way to legally become a "tax exile" is to expatriate. This is a bold move, but it can eventually save you thousands in taxes.

12/14/2006 03:40:00 PM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Mantles? I don't wear no mantles (especially not Shrub's--he thought hygiene was socialism). I can assure you, Sir, that you take me far more seriously than I do. Erudite? Must I once explain my humble origins as a high school drop-out who played in miserable (but fun!) post-punk bands for $14 a night for years and years and? Please, Sir, don't misconstrue my irreverence as arrogance--I really like oatmeal and your very funny comments. Some people just do comedy better than others. Look at our Fearless Leader. That shit is funny...or would be if it weren't killing everything near and dear. Here's to hoping Jeff's aliens can get past the missile defense system.

12/14/2006 04:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the missile defense system. That must be were all the money for the so-called moon landings went to.

12/14/2006 04:48:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I saw a huge triangular craft , black ,silent and so large and low flying it took over the sky.It had slowly blinking lights too.

The switchboards lit up that night in
1985.Teterboroairport reported nothing unusual,except the telephone calls.

I told my brother not to look at it. Perhaps we could be beamed up?

Or be giving it power ourselves by thinking about it.

The hudson Valley region.

North Hudson Park In North Bergen,New Jsersey
has a rich history of incidents of the paranormal.

Well it may be from here or there.
I saw it.

It scared the shit out of us and we went the opposite direction as the craft slid down the park towards the Hudson river.

Cool calm and collective now and then,but it was otherwordly.

Spooky

12/14/2006 04:55:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I used to have the Bergen Record article about that night and the teterboro spokesman reply.

Its out there.

12/14/2006 04:59:00 PM  
Blogger Christopher said...

I've told people who like me things they can't believe--I think it saddens them--but they cannot believe things that take away their general view of how the world works. Honest ones admit it. What is interesting is why so many of us think that "uncovering" facts and presenting them in a logical way makes much difference--it simply does not by itself. You have to hook with some major beam within other people's framework and build from there otherwise you are just being annoying. There are far less of us than we may imagine that can dispense with consensus reality--far far less.

12/14/2006 05:31:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They are locked into the TV beam and cannot be helped.period
Truth is shit happens.
and they can not always sweep it up so fast as they ( whoever ) would like.
as far as attemping to change the status quo.

I was always avante-garde.

For many years, these ignorant spiritually deluded new age idiots have been crowing on and on concerning the "sins" of humanity and how we are a threat to the universe with our nuclear weapons and our aggression, while all those extra-terrestrials are so goddamned wonderful. They claim they scout our military and weapons bases out of a altruistic concern for all life in the universe as we have become a threat to them resulting from our sinful ways. WRONG.

These aliens have kept our defense systems under surveillance to see where we are at and just how vulnerable we are to a mass invasion. The USA and Russia both know this. These aliens have continually and aggressively acted to prevent us from space exploration, jamming our launch vehicles, satellites, causing mechanical problems and even preventing a few from being thrust into orbit. They have acted to jam our signals with buzzing and other electronic intervention. Their shooting across our radar detectors, creating blips and encouraging our air force to tail them; they are testing the speed of our aircraft and our maneuverability. They want to know exactly where we are technologically. These greys played cat and mouse games, and edged ever closer until there was a response. They have also attempted to disrupt worldwide communication and our defenses through electrical and magnetic field interference.

Their employment of night vision devices would have been an advantage. The defense dept now has these and many other military technologies that are a threat to them. The USA and Russia planned in case of an alien attack, only half of the Earth would be sacrificed, if one nation was knocked out, the other could cover.

General Douglas McArthur remarked to the New York Times in 1955 that the threat comes from out there. "The nations of the world will have to unite for the next war will be an interplanetary war."

An alien base was seen on the Moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 fly-over and landing. Mercury 7 astronauts as have many others been tailed by UFO's. "They didn't just shadow or track our aircraft in orbit; they buzzed us and tried to create such havoc with our communications systems that NASA more than once had to rethink astronaut safety in the Mercury and Gemini programs." The Apollo moon-landing program was ultimately abandoned because there was no way to protect our astronauts from alien threats.

"The alien spacecraft were also aggressively buzzing our frontline defenses in Eastern Europe, either looking for blind spots or weaknesses; probing our radar to see how quickly we responded.” While never disclosing it publicly, military intelligence analysts supported the view that Earth was already under some form of probing attack by one or more alien cultures that were testing both our ability and resolve to defend ourselves."

"Our only successes in defending against them, back in the 1950's and 1960's, occurred when we were able to get a firm tracking radar lock. Then when we locked our targeting radars on, the signals that missiles were supposed to follow to the target, it somehow interfered with their navigational ability, and the vehicles flight became erratic. If we were especially fortunate and able to boost the signal before they broke away, we could actually bring them down. Sometimes we actually got lucky enough to score a hit with a missile before the UFO could take any evasive action, which an Army air defense battalion did with an anti-aircraft missile near Ramstein Air force base in Germany in May of 1974. The spacecraft managed to crash-land in a valley. The craft was retrieved and flown back to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The Roswell crash was different. There was much speculation that it was a combination of the desert lightening storm and our persistent tracking radars at Alamogordo and the 509th that helped bring down the alien vehicle over the New Mexico desert in 1947."

The new age focus on love, love, love and three fold bullshit and everything else. This is nothing more than a close relative of xianity that renders those who are stupid and deluded enough to follow it, helpless.

An uncontrolled mind is a terrible thing ....to those who seek to control.

12/14/2006 05:49:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe haarp can knock down what powers these interdimensional entities?
Maybe it can slow or stop our communicating tx/rx capabilities of the brain?

12/14/2006 05:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The last time I looked, Blair's pal Bono was still an Irish citizen not British!

12/14/2006 06:13:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff, did you not know that the Catholic Church's official position on what we have come to believe are UFO's, Grey's etc., is that they are demonic? And when I say 'Catholic' I mean Pre-Vatican II.

I know you generally stay away from religion, but traditional Catholicism is so ensconced in the supernatural that perhaps you should take a look down that street. You began with Spirit of the Beehive. Would be nice to see you venture down that path again. Especially as regards Mejugorie - which is a false aparition - primarily investigated by Ret. NYPD Det. Jimmy "Boots" Rothstein of Johnny Gosch notoriety.

12/14/2006 08:19:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sixty-four years ago this month, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment in psychological warfare.

It was the night before Halloween, 1938. At 8 p.m. CST, the Mercury Radio on the Air began broadcasting Orson Welles' radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds. As is now well known, the story was presented as if it were breaking news, with bulletins so realistic that an estimated one million people believed the world was actually under attack by Martians. Of that number, thousands succumbed to outright panic, not waiting to hear Welles' explanation at the end of the program that it had all been a Halloween prank, but fleeing into the night to escape the alien invaders.

Later, psychologist Hadley Cantril conducted a study of the effects of the broadcast and published his findings in a book, The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic. This study explored the power of broadcast media, particularly as it relates to the suggestibility of human beings under the influence of fear. Cantril was affiliated with Princeton University's Radio Research Project, which was funded in 1937 by the Rockefeller Foundation. Also affiliated with the Project was Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) member and Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) executive Frank Stanton, whose network had broadcast the program. Stanton would later go on to head the news division of CBS, and in time would become president of the network, as well as chairman of the board of the RAND Corporation, the influential think tank which has done groundbreaking research on, among other things, mass brainwashing.

Two years later, with Rockefeller Foundation money, Cantril established the Office of Public Opinion Research (OPOR), also at Princeton. Among the studies conducted by the OPOR was an analysis of the effectiveness of "psycho-political operations" (propaganda, in plain English) of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Then, during World War II, Cantril÷and Rockefeller money÷assisted CFR member and CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow in setting up the Princeton Listening Center, the purpose of which was to study Nazi radio propaganda with the object of applying Nazi techniques to OSS propaganda. Out of this project came a new government agency, the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS). The FBIS eventually became the United States Information Agency (USIA), which is the propaganda arm of the National Security Council.

Thus, by the end of the 1940s, the basic research had been done and the propaganda apparatus of the national security state had been set up--just in time for the Dawn of Television ...


Experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman reveal that, when a person watches television, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is the seat of logical thought. Here, information is broken down into its component parts and critically analyzed. The right brain, however, treats incoming data uncritically, processing information in wholes, leading to emotional, rather than logical, responses. The shift from left to right brain activity also causes the release of endorphins, the body's own natural opiates--thus, it is possible to become physically addicted to watching television, a hypothesis borne out by numerous studies which have shown that very few people are able to kick the television habit.

This numbing of the brain's cognitive function is compounded by another shift which occurs in the brain when we watch television. Activity in the higher brain regions (such as the neo-cortex) is diminished, while activity in the lower brain regions (such as the limbic system) increases. The latter, commonly referred to as the reptile brain, is associated with more primitive mental functions, such as the "fight or flight" response. The reptile brain is unable to distinguish between reality and the simulated reality of television. To the reptile brain, if it looks real, it is real. Thus, though we know on a conscious level it is "only a film," on a conscious level we do not--the heart beats faster, for instance, while we watch a suspenseful scene. Similarly, we know the commercial is trying to manipulate us, but on an unconscious level the commercial nonetheless succeeds in, say, making us feel inadequate until we buy whatever thing is being advertised--and the effect is all the more powerful because it is unconscious, operating on the deepest level of human response. The reptile brain makes it possible for us to survive as biological beings, but it also leaves us vulnerable to the manipulations of television programmers.

It is not just commercials that manipulate us. On television news as well, image and sound are as carefully selected and edited to influence human thought and behavior as in any commercial. The news anchors and reporters themselves are chosen for their physical attractiveness--a factor which, as numerous psychological studies have shown, contributes to our perception of a person's trustworthiness. Under these conditions, then, the viewer easily forgets--if, indeed, the viewer ever knew in the first place--that the worldview presented on the evening news is a contrivance of the network owners--owners such as General Electric (NBC) and Westinghouse (CBS), both major defense contractors. By molding our perception of the world, they mold our opinions. This distortion of reality is determined as much by what is left out of the evening news as what is included--as a glance at Project Censored's yearly list of top 25 censored news stories will reveal. If it's not on television, it never happened. Out of sight, out of mind.

Under the guise of journalistic objectivity, news programs subtly play on our emotions--chiefly fear. Network news divisions, for instance, frequently congratulate themselves on the great service they provide humanity by bringing such spectacles as the September 11 terror attacks into our living rooms. We have heard this falsehood so often, we have come to accept it as self-evident truth. However, the motivation for live coverage of traumatic news events is not altruistic, but rather to be found in the central focus of Cantril's War of the Worlds research--the manipulation of the public through fear.

There is another way in which we are manipulated by television news. Human beings are prone to model the behaviors they see around them, and avoid those which might invite ridicule or censure, and in the hypnotic state induced by television, this effect is particularly pronounced. For instance, a lift of the eyebrow from Peter Jennings tells us precisely what he is thinking--and by extension what we should think. In this way, opinions not sanctioned by the corporate media can be made to seem disreputable, while sanctioned opinions are made to seem the very essence of civilized thought. And should your thinking stray into unsanctioned territory despite the trusted anchor's example, a poll can be produced which shows that most persons do not think that way--and you don't want to be different do you? Thus, the mental wanderer is brought back into the fold.

This process is also at work in programs ostensibly produced for entertainment. The "logic" works like this: Archie Bunker is an idiot, Archie Bunker is against gun control, therefore idiots are against gun control. Never mind the complexities of the issue. Never mind the fact that the true purpose of the Second Amendment is not to protect the rights of deer hunters, but to protect the citizenry against a tyrannical government (an argument you will never hear voiced on any television program). Monkey see, monkey do--or, in this case, monkey not do.

Notice, too, the way in which television programs depict conspiracy researchers or anti-New World Order activists. On situation comedies, they are buffoons. On dramatic programs, they are dangerous fanatics. This imprints on the mind of the viewer the attitude that questioning the official line or holding "anti-government" opinions is crazy, therefore not to be emulated.

Another way in which entertainment programs mold opinion can be found in the occasional television movie, which "sensitively" deals with some "social" issue. A bad behavior is spotlighted--"hate" crimes, for instance--in such a way that it appears to be a far more rampant problem than it may actually be, so terrible in fact that the "only" cure for it is more laws and government "protection." Never mind that laws may already exist to cover these crimes--the law against murder, for instance. Once we have seen the well-publicized murder of the young gay man Matthew Shepherd dramatized in not one, but two, television movies in all its heartrending horror, nothing will do but we pass a law making the very thought behind the crime illegal.

People will also model behaviors from popular entertainment which are not only dangerous to their health and could land them in jail, but also contribute to social chaos. While this may seem to be simply a matter of the producers giving the audience what it wants, or the artist holding a mirror up to society, it is in fact intended to influence behavior.

Consider the way many films glorify drug abuse. When a popular star playing a sympathetic character in a mainstream R-rated film uses hard drugs with no apparent health or legal consequences (John Travolta's use of heroin in Pulp Fiction, for instance--an R-rated film produced for theatrical release, which now has found a permanent home on television, via cable and video players), a certain percentage of people--particularly the impressionable young--will perceive hard drug use as the epitome of anti-Establishment cool and will model that behavior, contributing to an increase in drug abuse. And who benefits?

As has been well documented by Gary Webb in his award-winning series for the San Jose Mercury New, former Los Angeles narcotics detective Michael Ruppert, and many other researchers and whistleblowers--the CIA is the main purveyor of hard drugs in this country. The CIA also has its hand in the "prison-industrial complex." Wackenhut Corporation, the largest owner of private prisons, has on its board of directors many former CIA employees, and is very likely a CIA front. Thus, films which glorify drug abuse may be seen as recruitment ads for the slave labor-based private prison system. Also, the social chaos and inflated crime rate which result from the contrived drug problem contributes to the demand from a frightened society for more prisons, more laws, and the further erosion of civil liberties. This effect is further heightened by television news segments and documentaries which focus on drug abuse and other crimes, thus giving the public the misperception that crime is even higher than it really is.

There is another socially debilitating process at work in what passes for entertainment on television these days. Over the years, there has been a steady increase in adult subject matter on programs presented during family viewing hours. For instance, it is common for today's prime-time situation comedies to make jokes about such matters as masturbation (Seinfeld once devoted an entire episode to the topic), or for daytime talk shows such as Jerry Springer's to showcase such topics as bestiality. Even worse are the "reality" programs currently in vogue. Each new offering in this genre seems to hit a new low. MTV, for instance, recently subjected a couple to a Candid Camera-style prank in which, after winning a trip to Las Vegas, they entered their hotel room to find an actor made up as a mutilated corpse in the bathtub. Naturally, they were traumatized by the experience and sued the network. Or, consider a new show on British television in which contestants compete to see who can infect each other with the most diseases--venereal diseases included.

It would appear, at the very least, that these programs serve as a shill operation to strengthen the argument for censorship. There may also be an even darker motive. These programs contribute to the general coarsening of society we see all around us--the decline in manners and common human decency and the acceptance of cruelty for its own sake as a legitimate form of entertainment. Ultimately, this has the effect of debasing human beings into savages, brutes--the better to herd them into global slavery.

For the first decade or so after the Dawn of Television, there were only a handful of channels in each market--one for each of the three major networks and maybe one or two independents. Later, with the advent of cable and more channels, the population pie began to be sliced into finer pieces--or "niche markets." This development has often been described as representing a growing diversity of choices, but in reality it is a fine-tuning of the process of mass manipulation, a honing-in on particular segments of the population, not only to sell them specifically-targeted consumer products but to influence their thinking in ways advantageous to the globalist agenda.

One of these "target audiences" is that portion of the population which, after years of blatant government cover-up in areas such as UFOs and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, maintains a cynicism toward the official line, despite the best efforts of television programmers to depict conspiracy research in a negative light. How to reach this vast, disenfranchised target audience and co-opt their thinking? One way is to put documentaries before them which mix of fact with disinformation, thereby confusing them. Another is to take the X Files approach.

The heroes of X Files are investigators in a fictitious paranormal department of the FBI whose adventures sometimes take them into parapolitical territory. On the surface this sounds good. However, whatever good X Files might accomplish by touching on such matters as MK-ULTRA or the JFK assassination is cancelled out by associating them with bug-eyed aliens and ghosts. Also, on X Files, the truth is always depicted as "out there" somewhere--in the stars, or some other dimension, never in brainwashing centers such as the RAND Corporation or its London counterpart, the Tavistock Institute. This has the effect of obscuring the truth, making it seem impossibly out-of-reach, and associating reasonable lines of political inquiry with the fantastic and other-wordly.

Not that there is no connection between the parapolitical and the paranormal. There is undoubtedly a cover-up at work with regard to UFOs, but if we accept uncritically the notion that UFOs are anything other than terrestrial in origin, we are falling headfirst into a carefully-set trap. To its credit, X Files has dealt with the idea that extraterrestrials might be a clever hoax by the government, but never decisively. The labyrinthine plots of the show somehow manage to leave the viewer wondering if perhaps the hoax idea is itself a hoax put out there to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials. This is hardly helpful to a true understanding of UFOs and associated phenomena, such as alien abductions and cattle mutilations.

Extraterrestrials have been a staple of popular entertainment since The War of the Worlds (both the novel and its radio adaptation). They have been depicted as invaders and benefactors, but rarely have they been unequivocally depicted as a hoax. There was an episode of Outer Limits which depicted a group of scientists staging a mock alien invasion to frighten the world's population into uniting as one--but, again, such examples are rare. Even in UFO documentaries on the Discovery Channel, the possibility of a terrestrial origin for the phenomenon is conspicuous by its lack of mention.

UFO researcher Jacques Vallee, the real-life model for the French scientist in Stephen Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, attempted to interest Spielberg in a terrestrial explanation for the phenomenon. In an interview on Conspire.com, Vallee said, "I argued with him that the subject was even more interesting if it wasn't extraterrestrials. If it was real, physical, but not ET. So he said, 'You're probably right, but that's not what the public is expecting--this is Hollywood and I want to give people something that's close to what they expect.'"

How convenient that what Spielberg says the people expect is also what the Pentagon wants them to believe.

In Messengers of Deception, Vallee tracks the history of a wartime British Intelligence unit devoted to psychological operations. Code-named (interestingly) the "Martians," it specialized in manufacturing and distributing false intelligence to confuse the enemy. Among its activities were the creation of phantom armies with inflatable tanks, simulations of the sounds of military ships maneuvering in the fog, and forged letters to lovers from phantom soldiers attached to phantom regiments.

Vallee suggests that deception operations of this kind may have extended beyond World War II, and that much of the "evidence" for "flying saucers" is no more real than the inflatable tanks of World War II. He writes: "The close association of many UFO sightings with advanced military hardware (test sites like the New Mexico proving grounds, missile silos of the northern plains, naval construction sites like the major nuclear facility at Pascagoula and the bizarre love affairs ... between contactee groups, occult sects, and extremist political factions, are utterly clear signals that we must exercise extreme caution."

Many people find it fantastic that the government would perpetrate such a hoax, while at the same time having no difficulty entertaining the notion that extraterrestrials are regularly traveling light years to this planet to kidnap people out of their beds and subject them to anal probes.

The military routinely puts out disinformation to obscure its activities, and this has certainly been the case with UFOs. Consider Paul Bennewitz, the UFO enthusiast who began studying strange lights that would appear nightly over the Manzano Test Range outside Albuquerque. When the Air Force learned about his study, ufologist William Moore (by his own admission) was recruited to feed him forged military documents describing a threat from extraterrestrials. The effect was to confuse Bennewitz--even making him paranoid enough to be hospitalized--and discredit his research. Evidently, those strange lights belonged to the Air Force, which does not like outsiders inquiring into its affairs.

What the Air Force did to Bennewitz, it also does on a mass scale--and popular entertainment has been complicit in this process. Whether or not the filmmakers themselves are consciously aware of this agenda does not matter. The notion that extraterrestrials might visit this planet is so much a part of popular culture and modern mythology that it hardly needs assistance from the military to propagate itself.

It has the effect not only of obscuring what is really going on at research facilities such as Area 51, but of tainting UFO research in general as "kooky"--and does the job so thoroughly that one need only say "UFO" in the same breath with "JFK" to discredit research in that area as well. It also may, in the end, serve the same purpose as depicted in that Outer Limits episode--to unite the world's population against a perceived common threat, thus offering the pretext for one-world government.

The following quotes demonstrate that the idea has at least occurred to world leaders:

"In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us realize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world." (President Ronald Reagan, speaking in 1987 to the United Nations.

"The nations of the world will have to unite, for the next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of the earth must someday make a common front against attack by people from other planets." General Douglas MacArthur, 1955)

Some one remarked that the best way to unite all the nations on this globe would be an attack from some other planet. In the face of such an alien enemy, people would respond with a sense of their unity of interest and purpose." (John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, speaking at a conference sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1917)

And where was this "alien threat" motif given birth? Again, we find the answer in popular entertainment, and again the earliest source is The War of the Worlds--both Wells' and Welles' versions.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that H. G. Wells was a founding member of the Round Table, the think tank that gave birth to the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA) and its American cousin, the CFR. Perhaps Wells intentionally introduced the motif as a meme which might prove useful later in establishing the "world social democracy" he described in his 1939 book The New World Order. Perhaps, too, another purpose of the Orson Welles broadcast was to test of the public's willingness to believe in extraterrestrials.

At any rate, it proved a popular motif, and paved the way for countless movies and television programs to come, and has often proven a handy device for promoting the New World Order, whether the extraterrestrials are invaders or--in films like The Day the Earth Stood Still--benefactors who have come to Earth to warn us to mend our ways and unite as one, or be blown to bits.

We see the globalist agenda at work in Star Trek and its spin-offs as well. Over the years, many a television viewer's mind has been imprinted with the idea that centralized government is the solution for our problems. Never mind the complexities of the issue--never mind the fact that, in the real world, centralization of power leads to tyranny. The reptile brain, hypnotized by the flickering television screen, has seen Captain Kirk and his culturally diverse crew demonstrate time and again that the United Federation of Planets is a good thing. Therefore, it must be so.

It remains to be seen whether the Masters of Deception will, like those scientists in The Outer Limits, stage an invasion from space with anti-gravity machines and holograms, but, if they do, it will surely be broadcast on television, so that anyone out of range of that light show in the sky, will be able to see it, and all with eyes to see will believe. It will be War of the Worlds on a grand scale.


Jack Kerouac once noted, while walking down a residential street at night, glancing into living rooms lit by the gray glare of television sets, that we have become a world of people "thinking the same thoughts at the same time."

Every day, millions upon millions of human beings sit down at the same time to watch the same football game, the same mini-series, the same newscast. And where might all this shared experience and uniformity of thought be taking us?

A recent report co-sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Commerce Department calls for a broad-based research program to find ways to use nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive sciences, to achieve telepathy, machine-to-human communication, amplified sensory experience, enhanced intellectual capacity, and mass participation in a "hive mind." Quoting the report: "With knowledge no longer encapsulated in individuals, the distinction between individuals and the entirety of humanity would blur. Think Vulcan mind-meld. We would perhaps become more of a hive mind--an enormous, single, intelligent entity."

There is no doubt that we have been brought closer to the "hive mind" by the mass media. For, what is the shared experience of television but a type of "Vulcan mind-meld"? (Note the terminology borrowed from Star Trek, no doubt to make the concept more familiar and palatable. If Spock does it, it must be okay.)

This government report would have us believe that the hive mind will be for our good--a wonderful leap in evolution. It is nothing of the kind. For one thing, if the government is behind it, you may rest assured it is not for our good. For another, common sense should tell us that blurring the line "between individuals and the entirety of humanity" means mass conformity, the death of human individuality. Make no mistake about it--if humanity is to become a hive, there will be at the center of that hive a Queen Bee, whom all the lesser "insects" will serve. This is not evolution--this is devolution. Worse, it is the ultimate slavery--the slavery of the mind.

And it is a horror first unleashed in 1938 when one million people responded as one--as a hive--to Orson Welles' Halloween prank.

In a sense, those people who fled the Martians that night were right to be afraid. They were indeed under attack. But they were wrong about who was attacking them. It was something far worse than Martians. Had they only known the true nature of the danger facing them, perhaps they would have gone to the nearest radio station with torches in hand like the villagers in those old Frankenstein movies and burned it to the ground, or at least commandeered the new technology and turned it towards another use--the liberation of humanity, instead of its enslavement.

12/14/2006 08:46:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

THE HIVE MIND

US report foretells of brave new world

By Nathan Cochrane
July 23 2002
Next

A draft government report says we will alter human evolution within 20 years by combining what we know of nanotechnology, biotechnology, IT and cognitive sciences. The 405-page report sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and Commerce Department, Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, calls for a broad-based research program to improve human performance leading to telepathy, machine-to-human communication, amplified personal sensory devices and enhanced intellectual capacity.

People may download their consciousnesses into computers or other bodies even on the other side of the solar system, or participate in a giant "hive mind", a network of intelligences connected through ultra-fast communications networks. "With knowledge no longer encapsulated in individuals, the distinction between individuals and the entirety of humanity would blur," the report says. "Think Vulcan mind-meld. We would perhaps become more of a hive mind - an enormous, single, intelligent entity."

Armies may one day be fielded by machines that think for themselves while devices will respond to soldiers' commands before their thoughts are fully formed, it says. The report says the abilities are within our grasp but will require an intense public-relations effort to "prepare key organisations and societal activities for the changes made possible by converging technologies", and to counter concern over "ethical, legal and moral" issues. Education should be overhauled down to the primary-school level to bridge curriculum gaps between disparate subject areas.

Professional societies should be open to practitioners from other fields, it says. "The success of this convergent-technologies priority area is crucial to the future of humanity," the report says. wtec.org/ConvergingTechnologies/Report/NBIC-pre-publication.pdf

12/14/2006 09:03:00 PM  
Blogger Jeff Wells said...

"I know you generally stay away from religion, but traditional Catholicism is so ensconced in the supernatural that perhaps you should take a look down that street. You began with Spirit of the Beehive."

I think before that I posted The Sheep Look Up, about Fatima, and The "Day of Declaration" about Maitreya.

"Would be nice to see you venture down that path again. Especially as regards Mejugorie - which is a false aparition - primarily investigated by Ret. NYPD Det. Jimmy "Boots" Rothstein of Johnny Gosch notoriety."

That is interesting. I hope to. (FYI, here's video of an alleged example of Medjugorje's "miracle of the sun.")

12/14/2006 09:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And, sir, may I remind you that your hero Frank Zappa was also a high school dropout (at least I think he was) and was also one of the most erudite (not to mention irreverent!) people around? Ain't nobody saying the two can't go together.

Rock on, IC. Since the real Bill Hicks has returned to heaven, I also shall retire my moniker and choose a new one. (And I'm a big hypocrite anyway, as the anarcho-socialist punks are some of the most humane and thoughtful people I know, as well as among the few people who make any sense to me.)

And BTW--Jeff's aliens making it through missile defense? Nice:)

12/14/2006 09:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Watch out where them huskies go.
and don't you eat no yellow snow.

Zappa called the discovery channel the mil-ind channel.
Sad he is not commenting anymore.
He was cool.

12/14/2006 09:38:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lennon

Zappa maybe taken out early too.

he talked too much."The biggest threat to America today is not communism. It's moving America toward a fascist theocracy, and everything that's happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe ... When you have a government that prefers a certain moral code derived from a certain religion and that moral code turns into legislation to suit one certain religious point of view, and if that code happens to be very, very right wing, almost toward Attila the Hun..."

"The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions."

"The most important thing to do in your life, is to not interfere with somebody else's life."


"Government is the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial complex."

12/14/2006 09:48:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So long, Bill, we hardly knew ye.

You're right, people aren't caricatures. "NASCAR" and "NFL" are shorthand stand-ins for, well...you know. Admit it, you do, don't you?

After all, SOMEONE voted for Bush in 2004.

But, even assuming I'm an elitist (is there anything worse a man can be called, in this, the land of the bullet-ridden populist?), the essay on Fascistic Disney speaks directly to the idea that the best slave is the one who thinks himself free. "Freedom of Choice," like DEVO sang, right? Why, heck, I can't even discuss a topic without reference to some prole pre-indy band mass-marketed to me during my ill-starred youth.

Oops. I used the word "prole."

But when they're planning billboards in LA that will read your car's RFID chip and target the ad directly to your purchasing tastes, that's pretty highly-evolved corporatism (to use a sanitized word for fascism, which Mussolini defined as the alliance of state and corporate interests). What could be more individualistic, more American, than an ad targeted directly to you, the freedom-loving individual, as he drives his freedom car down freedom's highway?

It's all about freedom. You like the Saints, maybe I like the Redskins. We're free to differ about these critical issues. Maybe the Redskins will hand your Saints an upset Sunday.

Or maybe not. But it's exciting to think about, hmm?

And then there's Rex Grossman and the Bears. That's not going to be pretty.

But I will defend to the death your right to root for the New Orleans Saints.

Because that's what is great about Freedom's Land.

Choice.

Because we're all free to decide which team to root for.

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled alien distraction.

12/14/2006 10:49:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oarwell,

I have nothing against having extremely high standards, nor do I wish to glorify working class or prollish culture. Although I do fear we get into dangerous territory when we begin to think more highly of ourselves than others (not that I haven't been guilty of this myself). And, yes, I admit it...I get your point.

Freedom of choice, it's what you've got. Freedom from choice...

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...

"Free from the need to be free" says it best [Funkadelic].

Jurassic 5 also have a great song called "Freedom." I think we could put together a nice album for our freedom-worshipping friends...

I like the Saints' chances this Sunday...I never knew I could like someone named Bush so much!

12/14/2006 11:04:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff,

First, thanks for mentioning "UFOs And The Security State": an incredible book. I'm just about done with it. Biggest "thunks"? Right-angle turns at human-tissue-splattering speeds. No sonic booms.

But the worst was learning historically how the Security State worked, and obviously still works.

After making UFOs irrelevant, they began to control the State, doing whatever the fuck they wanted, to anyone they wanted, any time they wanted, and without a shred of evidence left behind.

It is truly sickening to imagine how much we'll never know about the apparatus that is supposed to be "protecting" us.

My favorite story was the ICBMs turning off one by one as the silent craft hovered nearby, and nobody could figure out why.

Thanks again.

12/14/2006 11:23:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Freedom begins between your ears."
--Edward Abbey

"Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions." ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Dick Cheney

Most people want security in this world, not liberty. ~H.L. Mencken, Minority Report, 1956

Freedom means choosing your burden. ~Hephzibah Menuhin

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. ~Woodrow Wilson
(the same guy who locked up Eugene Debs)

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights. ~Felix Frankfurter

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. ~Louis D. Brandeis

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. ~Edmund Burke

12/14/2006 11:39:00 PM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

This is so cool--Jeff writes an invitation to examine the tenacity with which we hold our beliefs, against all comers, using the delicious bait of alien preconceptions, and he gets such wildly divergent, staunch specimens to crawl onto the petri plate.

One person takes the Corso hardline aliens-are-scum position (largely discredited by Corso's own Gladio/M-I-Complex connections), while another person camps out in Jim Keith's Saucers of the Illuminati theme park, and yet they both (all?) focus on the alien-threat-as-pretext-for-NWO scenario! Brilliant, Jeff, brilliant.

Any other possiblities? The person who described how the media muddy the waters of the truth about aliens seems to also suggest that there is only one simple truth. What if the truth itself isn't entirely comprehensible with our primitive lens?

For that matter, what if the hive mind were beyond the control of any individuals or even groups? (An idea explored by Spider Robinson in Time Pressure, where it's even reversible; or, for those intrigued by this and who want a very strange experience, try another great writer's blog--Rudy Rucker's Blog--where he's asking fans for input on the book he's in the process of writing on this notion, among others.)

What if all these scenarios are correct (and you just have to vibe with Uncle Frank's assessment in these post-Reagan days), but there's still more to it that we can't grok yet? Here's another thought: all that stuff about programming us via boob-tube might be true enough, but then there's us, talking about it like we're not susceptible to the deadly rays--how does that work? And why do 40% of the alleged sheep defecate on the official story of 9/11, while even more doubt the Warren Report?

One possiblity is that the internet, for all its faults and despite the sluicing gates of mis-, dis- and anti-information at work, is a sort of antidote to the programming, an accidental bulwark against totalitarianism.

And speaking of freedom, has anybody seen this one yet: John McCain’s ‘war on blogs’? It's over at The Carpetbagger Report and includes the irate reactions of the reactionary right. Commenting on this most transparent ploy to shut down the only free medium left is "Red State, a leading conservative blog, (which) helps make the case against McCain’s latest attempt to score some cheap points with the GOP base":

Through a vaguely written last-minute piece of legislation, scrawled on a napkin by a staffer who could’ve used an extra Red Bull, McCain would solve the problem of online child pornography by regulating the heck out of the internet in the form of massive fines for sites that allow any obscenity to slip through. The target area includes everything from message boards to MySpace to (if the smart lawyers who don’t work for McCain are right) Redstate and other membership-based blogs.

This is exactly the reason why McCain has such little support from social conservatives. Either this misguided legislation is completely honorable, and McCain’s just that naive, or it’s another sloppy attempt to throw a bone to the socon base. We think it’s a blatantly crass attempt, insultingly so, with the implicit assumption that right wingers are suspicious of internet freedom. As John Cleese would say, it’s irritating but obvious — like setting Julie Andrews on fire.

In Carpetbagger's comment field you then find this interesting observation:

Drugs and kiddy-porn are the best enablers fascists have found since the jackboot. They use those issue to clampdown on everyone. (Comment by Dale — 12/14/2006 @ 2:58 pm)

The most irksome irony of the whole thing is that while McCain's real purpose is obviously to shut down the one arena which does not support the bullshit "McCain as maverick" meme, the use of drugs and illicit sex as the pretext for doing so is beyond flabbergastability. A Republican? Drugs and pedophilia, the core values of Bush's base?

There is a certain (certainly perverse) logic at work here, however. Since they haven't been able to shut down the internet (yet) by fiat or faked legal means, they can accomplish the same thing through the preferred backdoor, by putting those who would protect this last bastion of freedom in the odd position of having to defend the rights of sexual predators to enter internet chat rooms. They just might get what they're after this time.

What would FZ say? (And thanks for those kindly words, fellow Zappatistas. I think he did actually graduate from high school, though, for what difference it might make.)

So Jeff, how's that Canadian immigration policy evolving these days? Still room for a hundred million sane Americans? (High school diploma necessary? I do actually have some others around here someplace, just not that one...)

12/15/2006 12:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

During the summer of 1995 I saw a ghost. This was at the Crows Creek Campground near Kansas City. After a 50 mph thunderstorm that lasted about an hour, I heard, from my pup tent, a giggling coming from the treetops. Six other campers in tents were at this campsite around 11:00 PM when this happened. When I first heard the laughing I thought it emanated from a bubble. That part of this experience is a mystery. I could hear a giggling bubble on the treetops inside my pup tent? Was it my mind playing tricks on my lonesome self or was it an actual reality?

The giggling sound came closer to the center of the camp site. It was the feminine laughing of a young woman. Closer it came and closer to where I realized she was in front of my tent. I thought to myself, Why my tent? Because she was in front of my tent I ventured to unzip it and look out into the darkness. I couldn't see her at first but then ten feet to the right there she was just lighter than the darkness around her.

I instinctively shot back into my tent with much fear. I recouped and forced myself with a grimaced smile to face this entity once again. She disappeared. I honestly felt that I may have scared her off. I nonetheless slept well that night and totally forgot about it the following morning.

I traveled to Las Vegas passing through Denver up back to the Grand Canyon and headed east back to Kansas City. About two weeks after I saw this ghost I returned to the Crows Creek Campground. I was the only one there this time and around midnight it suddenly dawned on me that I had seen her the last time I was there. The horror I experienced at that moment lasted for more than an hour. I ended up standing on the roof of my car shouting at the top of my lungs. I felt that if she would have returned I would have died of fright or became permanently insane.

She did not and the memory of this female ghost lives on because of a fluke decision of mine to tent down at a campsite where I completely forgotten that I had seen a ghost there.

12/15/2006 02:04:00 AM  
Blogger Tsoldrin said...

Is it lack of imagination, or arrogance that always casts 'Aliens' in such a human light?

Look around this planet, from octopus to orca to giraffe to house-cat to scorpion to platypus to buffalo. All these things, in their wildly divergent diversity have evolved here; On this planet, under this sun, in this air, under this gravity, with these solar and lunar cycles.

Can you even imagine what strangeness another planet might produce? I'll tell you, the answer is no, you can't. You're still limting yourself in some unknown way. Perhaps thinking of beings as bi-symetrical, or even as solids at all. The point being, with all the wild possibilities out there, what're the chances that anything even recognizable would arrive here? Can you say slim-to-none? That'd be an overstatement to say the least. What's to say 'they' even operate on the same time reference as us? Perhaps they are glacially slow, or unseeably fast? We don't know. That's just it. To think 'they' are in any way relatable to us is nothing more than hubris. By that same token, why would 'they' build metalic ships? We are nearly at the end of our metalic age and moving on to other, better, mostly fabricated materials... to think someone advanced enough to even find here, much less get here, would still be using metals in any form would be the equivalent of thinking we would be making space shuttles out of wood. No sense. There's just no sense to it. By the same numerical stastics that garuntees there is life out there, it also garuntees that any life that comes into contact with us will be 'alien' in the sense that we probably wouldn't even recognize it...or vice versa.

12/15/2006 06:20:00 AM  
Blogger Sounder said...

We humans have such a scant basis for the application of rationality that we may do better considering our beliefs to simply be pretences.

Not in a post-modern relativist way.

Rather in a post-post-modern way that acknowledges the absolute, while also seeing that our conceptions of its structure are far from adequate.

12/15/2006 06:25:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Qui Bono?

This is Bono:
http://www.elevation.com/EP_IT.asp?id=112

His mob now own 40% of Forbes magazine.

So what? I owned "Survivor" and "Big Brother". I think I'm richer than him as well. So there....

12/15/2006 07:42:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How come you never see any fat aliens?

But Tsoldrin is right, as far as the practical phenomenology of off-worlders: it's unlikely they're tied to our space-time curveball. I prefer the nano alien, too small to observe, but plucking the string theory thing in non-12 tone scale would be just as effective.

But I still think the best take on the whole subject was Chris Buckley's, in "Little Green Men."

Question. Someone noted a few days ago that we are all "slowed vibrations of light," a recurring idea on this board. That's a string theory idea, and I happen to agree with it: reading about Planck distances (something like 10 to the minus 23 meters, very damn small) and Planck energies (some similarly enormous HUGE number) wrapped up in those little vibrating circles does make one...well, kinda humble.
And it makes sense: below the boson/lepton/hadron level lies this ... stuff ... these little chunks of Ultra-energy, and in different vibration modes they become, transmute into, matter.

So matter IS slowed light (the conversion factor, ala Albert E., being the speed of light squared).

So here's Friday's question: by what volition was this light slowed, or frozen, to allow particles to come into being?

By what process did the Big Bang actually succeed in SLOWING light energy to allow the formation of matter?

Was Volition involved? Who or what has the authority to slow light?

--------

And no, I'm not being Jesuitical.

12/15/2006 09:49:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the far more interesting question is: "Qui Bono?"

12/15/2006 09:55:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"By what process did the Big Bang actually succeed in SLOWING light energy to allow the formation of matter? Was Volition involved? Who or what has the authority to slow light?"

That's premised on whether the Big Bang Theory is sound.

If so, interesting question.

If not, the general issue is still there, regardless of whether there was a Big Bang, so a more neutered question, is "why there are different speeds of light hanging around each other (matter and light) in the first place?" Probabaly just electrogravity issues, get some stochastic bunching somewhere who can say why, then light might 'clump' more, make matter, get heavy enough, set up chain reaction, make a star, set off light from the consolidated matter, i.e., it's all a big electrogravitic blur.

I don't think you have to pin it all on a surrogate issue of the Big Bang.

12/15/2006 10:16:00 AM  
Blogger ericswan said...

Brown shoes don't make it.

My personal experience is that resistance builds a better mousetrap.

12/15/2006 10:18:00 AM  
Blogger Tsoldrin said...

Well, I don't accept the 'everything is light' or the 'everything is energy' premises. I think the universe is just far deeper than that. For instance, if something were moving significantly faster than light, it would be impercievable, because it would continually be moving backwards in time. Also, I shun the term 'volition', because it implies a driving intelligence behind it all, which I personally see no evidence, or even an indication of.

Still, for purposes of conversation, taking this: By what process did the Big Bang actually succeed in SLOWING light energy to allow the formation of matter?

I would say, the question should be reversed to read: By what process did the Big Bang actually succeed in ALLOWING light energy into this reality? Which seems more appropriate. Accepting that everything is light, it would make more sense that a 'rift' of some kind allowed it in 'here' in the first place and thereafter the light itself did all the work. Apparently, the edge of our reality would be what slows it down, or perhaps bounces it back and returning light is what slows down outbound light, but in the process of bouncing it also stretches our universe outward a micro bit. Unfortunately, under this scenario, it does not explain why the expansion of the universe is speeding up instead of slowing down, as one would expect. Of course, the outter shell of our reality could be finite and therefore being stretched more and more thin, and thus weakening, but that would presupose that it was 'something' to begin with, and had properties before ... well, before the beginning.

Now that I think of it, the real catch is that no matter what begining viewpoint you take, there is always some 'outside' influence at work, so... where is the real begining? And more importantly, where did THAT begin? ;)

12/15/2006 10:31:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re the "Alien" question, as with most topics, I'm more of an All-of-the-above kind of guy. Why do we feel the need to force all of these vastly different experiences into the same framework of interplanetary RV's, or military psy-ops, or demonic infiltration, or the faerie folk.

By the way, I agree with the sentiment that if we were visited by folks from off-world, they would most likely not look much like us. They might very likely, however, have the technological, or "supernatural', know-how to present themselves to us in a form that would be more easily accepted by us. I mean, that's how I'd do it...

And sorry to drag RAW into it again, but from the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal page of his site:
________

Dublin, 1986. I had given a talk to the Irish Science-Fiction Society and the question period began.

"Do you believe in UFOs?" somebody asked.

"Yes, of course," I answered.

The questioner, who looked quite young, then burst into a long speech, "proving" at least to his own satisfaction that all UFOs "really are" sun-dogs or heat inversions. When he finally ran down I simply replied,

"Well, we both agree that UFOs exist. Our only difference is that you think you know what they are and I'm still puzzled."

12/15/2006 10:35:00 AM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Quit school--why fake it?

Tsoldrin is traveling outside his mind, but he’s not crazy; it’s the only way to see the other, which is what alien means. Very laudable mental gymnastics, at that. You and Sounder might like the other speaking to us through Alien Axioms. It's massive, and massively weird, with "messages" like this, from the section called Communication From The Shining Ones:

Like all conscious races at your current stage of progress, many species have felt isolated and uncomfortable as they stood by and watched their foreseeable future fade within the escalating chaos that was consuming their world. They reached a breaking point where they needed to take back control of their future. Now you have the same choice. Consider this message as one possible baseline for your future.

Moving a little closer to us, the messengers explain our connections in The Shining Ones:

You and I are multidimensional beings. Our physical reality is nothing more than three-dimensional diffraction patterns of light from our consciousness. This light is the intervening substance through which our conscious expressions are transmitted. It is also the force or impulse of our vitality, spirit, energy and strength. It is one and the same as the creative power of the universe. From this oneness all things emerge and manifest from our consciousness, giving us a connection to many worlds.

Through this realization many worlds are created by a fundamental process of perception within our thought patterns providing us concrete, experimental or intellectual data to form or deform reality, internally or externally. As multidimensional beings we are able to experience these different realities through the cultivation of universal compassion (the love of all life) within our sentient minds (the sentient mind is not a physical construct or epiphenomenon of matter, nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but a formless continuum separate from the body).

Everything we do draws us further away from or closer to a higher state of consciousness and enlightenment. As we move further away from enlightenment; fear, uncertainty and doubt grow. As we draw closer to enlightenment; knowledge, wisdom and joy grow.

This awareness of the continuum of form between all living things is the breath of light.


For those less cosmically inclined, or who simply tire of all this cosmic debris (the nuts & bolts crowd), there’s a section called Alien White Paper - The Alien Question?, wherein it is written, on whatever it is that they write on up there:

On the basis of present knowledge and the most likely explanation of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, we have been and are being visited by intelligent life forms that appear self-disguising in and out of the narrow band of human perception. These continuous direct and indirect multifaceted alien manifestations demonstrate we are connected beyond the universe as we know it and are part of a much more profound cosmic mystery.

We have been presented a profound mystery of an intelligence that has entered our space and we are ignoring its transformation potential and purpose primarily because we do not have any way of controlling the vast implications for our contemporary world. The evidence of extraterrestrial life forms visiting Earth and operating in our skies on a regular uninterrupted basis is extensive both in scope and detail.

In its totality the evidence comprises a body of information so profound that it has numbed the human experience of all government and religious leaders around the world into an absolute de facto policy of denial. This would also include most if not all members of our mainstream scientific community who fear the social stigma associated with the subject.

Some examples of evidence are the magnetic and geologic surveys of many areas throughout the world that have revealed magnetic anomalies that could not be produced by any natural or known phenomena. These transient magnetic anomalies have been recorded and indicate synchronous aerial magnetic anomalies that have a multidimensional para physical place of origin in terms of a different level of reality where stability and solidity are being fueled by a ceaseless process of subatomic particles, constantly dissolving into an implicit order and then re-crystallizing within our space.

Extraterrestrial life forms are using technologies and aspects of the physical universe that are beyond our current understanding to conceal their behavior, culture and appearance. Occasionally they reveal their presence in our measurable space-time by making frequency shifts that leave traces of field flux in certain energy spectra that allows us to witness their presence.


Sorry for the dump, stargazers; I just thought these aliens had some pertinent explanations which would otherwise be nearly undetectable in the vastness of their website continuum. Is it just me, or does the alienness of the authorship seem to decline toward the end there, as if they've joined us, or reached across to our level to explain "themselves"?

12/15/2006 10:37:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yikes, bad link. Lets try it the low-tech way:

http://www.rawilson.com/csicon.shtml

12/15/2006 10:38:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What has always puzzled me is why aliens are always posited as being vastly superior to us in every way. (Is this another aspect of the yearning for God?) Couldn't they be, as, ahem, Bill Hicks famously wondered, intergalactic hillbillies?

BH: "What I want to know is, if these aliens are all super-intelligent, why they always end up visiting places like the backwoods of Alabama. 'Hey, don't y'all want to visit New York or LA?'"

Alien: "Naw, we just had a long trip. We're gonna kick back and whittle some."

BH: "Oh my God, their intergalactic hillbillies."

Alien: "We're thinking of entering our mothership in the monster truck rally. Yee-haw!!"

Jeff, please don't let the naysayers discourage you from continuing to post on the paranormal and UFOs. They cut to the quick of some of your most relevant themes: What exactly is coincidence, and how much can it be trusted? To what extent do "perception" and "reality" overlap? Also, they spark far more interesting discussions.

Great post, Tsoldrin.

12/15/2006 11:10:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"(the sentient mind is not a physical construct or epiphenomenon of matter, nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but a formless continuum separate from the body)."

Indeed. Which is why I find accounts of Near-Death Experience compelling.

Tsoldrin, I like that concept of light having to "break through" the edge of our "reality." But the model of star formation leaves me wondering: stars are mainly aggegates of the lightest element, hydrogen, and generate light by thermonuclear fusion. Why would lighter elements clump with each other to form helium and heavier and heavier elements, and release photons?

Why do gravitational waves become "stronger" the more sublight particles congomerate. Is gravity an inverse of light? Think of a planet, with so much iron and carbon. A lot of light energy had to be released (or "slowed") to form it, yet it has greater gravity, the more "massive" it is.

Electric fields can be used to lift a charged object to counteract the effects of gravity. Are we simply imparting previously lost energy back into a static, gravity bound system?

According to Wells, et al., DNA emits light. What is it losing by emitting light? Is it "aging?" Is it becoming more gravity-bound?

Our language also touches on this apparent reality. The somber person is imbued with "gravitas," the opposite of levity. The older we get, the more grave. The young are "light-hearted." People like to "get high," but depressed people are "down," ie., in the direction of the grav field.

Enough. You can use both sides of the paper to answer, if necessary.

Next week: the Duoplasmatron, and Kaufman ion thrusters, built by NASA in the 1960s. Get high with electrodynamics!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lifter_with_power_supply.jpg

12/15/2006 01:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Link no work. Here's the article with the pic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionocraft

12/15/2006 01:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The moon is hollow.

It hasn't been here for most of the history of the planet.

It may be about 10,000 years old, in a geosynchronous orbit that perfectly keeps one side hidden to the planet permanently, simultaneous to being the perfect distance to accurately block out the sun during an eclipse perfectly. The chances of three planetary 'resonsnaces' or compatability to generate such phenomena--with the earth's dimensions, earth's rotation, to the moons' dimensions, to the moon's rotation, to the moon matching the sun's dimensions, while only standing on the surface of the planet earth, make all these variables happening as an accident close to impossible. So, who built the moon?

And its full of watchers.

Though there's hardly the only ones around.

Another purpose may be as a kindhearted "gravity damper" on various climatic fluctuations. That's why we're 'overdue' geologically for an Ice Age. The Moon and its 'bringers' helped stop the huge climactic gyrations, certainly with intent, because...

All human societies on any scale have expanded only in the past 10,000 years, as well, during this durable climactic summer.

They embed things in some people, track them, and monitor specimens, then release. Some are killed.

There seems to be lots of different interplanetary species that want the earth. Some of them having claims longer than we have been here as a sentient species. Some kind. Some vicious. Some human looking. Some not.

Bob Lazar, who passed all lie detector tests, and the stories details have never been vague or altered, says he saw while working at Groom Lake on downed alien craft (they were attempting to back engineer), he was placed in a locked room in the beginning--with a heap of U.S. Government top secret files to get him up to speed on the context. Watch his early 1990s film at the link, 40 min. He gave another hour interview that is good that you can purchase cheaply at Video Google.

They just handed him the files and said, "Read."

And left him there for hours. It was everything in your worst nightmare, or dream (take your pick).

Lazar pointed out that one of the files told him that humans were genetically modified at least 60 or more times over the history of the species, tinkering with things. That is what he read.

They've attempted to scare him into silence, though that didn't work. He was only working there for several months, until he quit.

12/15/2006 01:29:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lunar eclipses of the sun occur because the distance to the earth from both sun and moon is 108 times their diameter.

Nice coincidence.

The earth's diameter times 108 gives you the diameter of the sun.

3 x (6 squared) = 108

1 to the first
times
2 to the second
times
3 to the third = 108

Number of names of God for Hindus = 108

Fun with numbers.

108 is also (assuming a month to be 31 days) equal to the biblical "time, times, and half a time" mentioned in the Book of Daniel (I think).

12/15/2006 01:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"You will obey me as I lead you,
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we dont need you
Dont run for help... no one will
heed you!
Your mind is totally controlled,
And has been stuffed into our mold,
And you will do as you are told,
Until the rights to you are sold!

12/15/2006 01:52:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Frank Zappa was 108 centimeters tall.

12/15/2006 02:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

By an oddly kosmic coincidence that is exactly the same length as my Peter, or John Thomas, as it were.

12/15/2006 02:41:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well IC...

Whatever our Holographic Universe is, "organic" isn't one of its properties, nor is any "image" of a measuring stick, regardless of whether it's calibration appears to be imperial, or metric, or anything else, of much practical use beyond simply measuring some of other "images" that are also in "your picture" right along with it. (Just like that very nice POV shot of you quite intently doing all that meticulous measuring with it...hmmm?)

Since you've already got the hang of that particular one let me just say you're already well on the way to making your picture just as real as real can be for yourself!

Since the rules governing the production of all such images and their appearances have to be obeyed for them to exist, whether you measure the actual images themselves or not is quite "immaterial" simply because you think it isn't at the moment.

All you're actually giving yourself are a few more comforting details to help convince yourself that whatever it is you think you are measuring that is seemingly "out there" is "out there", when it's really only ever in your mind that way.

Truth be told, none of us actually knows where either that mind of ours, or what "we" genuinely are within it, are besides being ensconced within some part of that larger Consciousness as qute unique and specific parts of it put together to do what we're apparently doing.

Of course doing what we're doing is nothing more or less than figuring out the best way to do what it is that we're doing or more properly think we're doing at the moment so naturally it's a "work in progress" and we're somewhat stuck with learning the ropes as we go.

All that's really "real" out there, and really, really "real" if you will, just like all that's actually real "in here", wherever "here" is, is only ever that Holographic Universe itself doing it's thing through these images of us and everything around us seeming doing our's.

Now it's all connected and all the very same thing and set up in such a way that it essentailly flies on automatic pilot to allow for the "free will" that is necessary at every possible level for the system to simply work and be what it is.

So in determining which out of every concievable possible outcome that is already real in every possible detail within the entire Energy/Information/Consciousness gestalt the holographis universe itself is, will not only spontaneously emerge from all the rest, but why it will?, and how it will? and by what criteria? (all of which will spontaneously emerge themselves in the process and cause it to simply be whichever, whatever, and whenever it will ultimately be.)

So you see it's all very quite simple...really!

12/15/2006 02:59:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"But the model of star formation leaves me wondering: stars are mainly aggegates of the lightest element, hydrogen, and generate light by thermonuclear fusion."

Do they?

The Electric Universe arclight model of stars fits the data far better, particularly when wedded to the overwhelming evidence and mass spectrometry of the actual metal ions streaming from the sun's electric arc.

This is particularly since the closer star we can see, our Sun, seems to be a lump of metal instead of hydrogen, and covered with electric arc light that occasionally reveals streams of metal ions or surface patters of the rough metal below.

News summary on it, though there are many others

If you if you mix the Electric Universe with the Iron Sun model it fits even better, though:

"....[i]t is a pity that the "Iron Sun" researchers are not conversant with plasma cosmology and the Electric Sun model. They make a compelling case against the standard solar model, and their recent findings of electrically induced nuclear reactions on the solar surface could open a pathway to discoveries reaching well beyond solar science."

excerpt:

The "Iron Sun" Debate - Part II
By David Talbott
Thunderbolts.info
1-26-2006

A little known fact: Popular ideas about the Sun have not fared well under the tests of a scientific theory. The formulators of the standard Sun model worked with gravity, gas laws, and nuclear fusion. But closer observation of the Sun has shown that electrical and magnetic properties dominate solar behavior.

For centuries, the nature of the Sun's radiance remained a mystery to astronomers. The Sun is the only object in the solar system that produces its own visible light. All others reflect the light of the Sun. What unique trait of the Sun enables it to shine upon the other objects in the solar system?

Today, astronomers assure us that the most fundamental question is answered. The Sun is a thermonuclear furnace. The ball of gas is so large that astronomers envision pressures and densities within its core sufficient to generate temperatures of about 16 million K - producing a continuous "controlled" nuclear reaction.

Most astronomers and astrophysicists investigating the Sun are so convinced of the fusion model that only the rarest among them will countenance challenges to the underlying idea. Standard textbooks and institutional research, complemented by a chorus of scientific and popular media, "ratify" the fusion model of the Sun year after year by ignoring evidence to the contrary.

A growing group of independent researchers, however, insists that the popular idea is incorrect. These researchers say that the Sun is electric. It is a glow discharge fed by galactic currents. And they emphasize that the fusion model anticipated none of the milestone discoveries about the Sun, while the electric model predicts and explains the very observations that posed the greatest quandaries for solar investigation.

More than 60 years ago, Dr. Charles E. R. Bruce, of the Electrical Research Association in England, offered a new perspective on the Sun. An electrical researcher, astronomer, and expert on the effects of lightning, Bruce proposed in 1944 that the Sun's "photosphere has the appearance, the temperature and the spectrum of an electric arc; it has arc characteristics because it is an electric arc, or a large number of arcs in parallel." This discharge characteristic, he claimed, "accounts for the observed granulation of the solar surface." Bruce's model, however, was based on a conventional understanding of atmospheric lightning, allowing him to envision the "electric" Sun without reference to external electric fields.

Years later, a brilliant engineer, Ralph Juergens, inspired by Bruce's work, added a revolutionary possibility. In a series of articles beginning in 1972, Juergens suggested that the Sun is not an electrically isolated body in space, but the most positively charged object in the solar system, the center of a radial electric field. This field, he said, lies within a larger galactic field. With this hypothesis, Juergens became the first to make the theoretical leap to an external power source of the Sun.

Juergens proposed that the Sun is the focus of a "coronal glow discharge" fed by galactic currents. To avoid misunderstanding of this concept, it is essential that we distinguish the complex, electrodynamic glow discharge model of the Sun from a simple electrostatic model that can be easily dismissed. Throughout most of the volume of a glow discharge the plasma is nearly neutral, with almost equal numbers of protons and electrons. In this view, the charge differential at the Earth's distance from the Sun is smaller than our present ability to measure - perhaps one or two electrons per cubic meter. But the charge density is far higher closer to the Sun, and at the solar corona and surface the electric field is of sufficient strength to generate all of the energetic phenomena we observe.

Today, the electrical theorists Wallace Thornhill and Donald Scott urge a critical comparison of the fusion model and the electrical model. Given what we now know about the Sun, which model meets the tests of unity, coherence, simplicity, and predictability? Why did so many discoveries surprise investigators and even contradict the expectations of the fusion model? Is there any fundamental feature of the Sun that contradicts the glow discharge hypothesis?

Our closer looks at the Sun have revealed the pervasive influence of magnetic fields, which are the effect of electric currents. Sunspots, prominences, coronal mass ejections, and a host of other features require ever more complicated guesswork on behalf of the fusion model. But this is the way an anode in a coronal glow discharge behaves!

...

and, what convinced me:

The Rosetta Stone:
My Deep Gratitude To Everyone Involved In The HUBBLE, Yohkoh, SOHO, Trace, RHESSI, Geos, Chandra And Spitzer Satellite Programs

This is a formal manuscript [PDF] of the solid surface model that has been offered for web peer review. It includes a more formal presentation of this material. A larger file in Microsoft Word [.doc] is also available.

The sun is the "Rosetta Stone" of astronomy. Observing, understanding and explaining the inner workings of our own sun is the key to unraveling the mysteries of the physical and quantum universe that surrounds us. The only way to know if we have properly deciphered the stone and confirm that we have discovered the correct model is to use this model to explain the observed behaviors of the sun.

For four centuries Galileo's antiquated gas model of the sun has utterly failed to unlock the inner workings of our own sun and provide the answers to solving these mysteries. On the other hand, the model that Dr. Kristian Birkeland experimented with in the early 1900's may indeed unlock the secrets of the universe...

http://www.thesurfaceofthesun.com/model.htm?

12/15/2006 05:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The iron sun. Cool. Or hot, as the case may be.

I love when standard models are shown to be made of balsa wood.

Speaking of electicity, check out this picture of Tesla:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Looks like Frank Zappa.

And what sound does a Tesla weapon make? ZAP!

And Captain Beefheart's "Electricity" here's a picture of him shooting bolts of the stuff from his hands:

http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/

And let's not forget "Trout Mask Replica," obviously clue to the Sirius reality:

http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/disco/06trout.html

And how could we have forgotten this famous Frank quote on freedom?

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre."

Zappa as libertarian:

"The function of government ought to be: make sure you have good water to drink, somebody picking up the garbage, good roads to drive on, enough ELECTRICITY to turn your light bulbs and your record player on..."

And for you, IC:

"If you want to get laid, go to college, but if you want an education, go to the library."

12/15/2006 05:37:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Zappa/Hicks duel spirit infestation in this comment thread have made for the most entertaining reading I've found on the net for a while. Very original! Thanks.

The numerology stuff was interesting too.

12/15/2006 05:42:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One version of the Litvinenko-Chechen-Atomic Bomb Trigger story touched on in the blog can be found in a story found here at http://www.urbansurvival.com, posted on December 12 under the title 'Message in Spy Death'

Just an FYI. Read if you want and make up your own damn mind. No support/denial or warranty implied.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

12/15/2006 05:49:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Tesla was fascinated with the idea of light as both a particle and a wave, a fundamental proposition already incorporated into quantum physics. This field of inquiry led to the idea of creating a "wall of light" by manipulating electromagnetic waves in a certain pattern. This mysterious wall of light would enable time, space, gravity and matter to be altered at will, and engendered an array of Tesla proposals that seem to leap straight out of science fiction, including anti-gravity airships, teleportation, and time travel. The single strangest invention Tesla ever proposed was probably the "thought photography" machine. He reasoned that a thought formed in the mind created a corresponding image in the retina, and the electrical data of this neural transmission could be read and recorded in a machine. The stored information could then be processed through an artificial optic nerve and played back as visual patterns on a viewscreen.

Immediately after Tesla's death became known, the Federal Bureau of Investigation instructed the government's Alien Property Custodian office to take possession of his papers and property, despite his US citizenship. His safe at the hotel was also opened. At the time of his death, Tesla had been continuing work on the teleforce weapon, or death ray, that he had unsuccessfully marketed to the US War Department. It appears that his proposed death ray was related to his research into ball lightning and plasma and was composed of a particle beam weapon. The US government did not find a prototype of the device in the safe. After the FBI was contacted by the War Department, his papers were declared to be top secret. The so-called "peace ray" constitutes a part of some conspiracy theories as a means of destruction. The personal effects were seized on the advice of presidential advisors, and J. Edgar Hoover declared the case "most secret", because of the nature of Tesla's inventions and patents."

Real life X-files.

"In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. Never putting much focus on his finances, Tesla died impoverished and forgotten at the age of 86."

"In the "War of Currents" era in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the alternating current (AC) advocated by Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla."

Guess who won?

12/15/2006 05:50:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think y'all are really going to enjoy _Against the Day_, when you get around to it. Are you posting on here, Tommy?

12/15/2006 06:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Holy fuck, anon 8:46 p.m. You did it: your post is better than Jeff's original. Never thought I'd see that. Fucking beautiful!

12/15/2006 07:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oarwell, I have really enjoyed your posts on the last two threads. You're an alright dude, eh?

I've read two books about Tesla and one by him, and I still feel that I am substantially in the dark about much of his stuff. Among other things, this much is clear, he did invent the radio/wireless transmission, not Marconi, and was awarded all of the valid patents for it, reaffirmed by the SCOTUS.

He was, as you also said, working on electromagnetic weapons for the US Navy, and also radio guided torpedoes.

You also nailed the AC/DC debate which Edison was on the wrong side of. They had quite a troubled relationship, but it seems clear Edison benefitted economically and intellectually from Tesla's work and Tesla suffered for it.

George Westinghouse also screwed Tesla royally. Interestingly, his company was the main competitor for Edison's General Electric until not very long ago.

Most notably, Tesla's patron was J.P. Morgan who held a controlling stake in Tesla's work in the latter decades of his life and used that to suppress the technology Tesla developed to extract electricity from the atmosphere and send it wirelessly to points hundreds of miles away from the ground station, using the earth itself as the conductor. Several public demonstrations were held where electric lights and motors were powered in this manner many miles from the transmitting station. Here's the kicker:

When JP Morgan realized that he couldn't regulate and control the availability of the electricity in order to profit from it, because it was freely extractable and there were no wires or transformers, he shut Tesla down with a vengeance.

There are at least 3 or 4 good books out there that detail much of this history, but even these works seem to be skirting larger issues.

Tesla also seems to have enjoyed the company of attractive men over women, and been a bit of a hedonistic dandy, as well as naively trusting of his partners and collaborators. This seems to have been his downfall. Much to the loss of all the inhabitants of earth, it would seem.

Hard to believe the foregoing could be so completely suppressed. I was a science buff as a kid, and was accepted to an elite engineering school of an Ivy league university, but I didn't learn this stuff until decades after the fact.

That degree of data and truth supression in the telling of news and history almost amazes me even more than what Nikolai Tesla invented.

12/15/2006 07:42:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For any Tesla fans who haven't gotten around to it yet or those curious to know a little bit more about about this true genius his autobiography "My Inventions" is now online and available at...

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jul/teslaautobio.html

12/15/2006 08:30:00 PM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Silverfox,
Either the scaffolding metaphor was ill-constructed or misconstrued, but here's where it all started:

We all have our meta-narratives about Life, the Universe and Everything by which we interpret events and perceive trends. We need them if we aspire to critical thought, but we also ought to be conscious of them and of what they represent: they're the mental scaffolding to support our modeling of the world and to build a case about it, they are not the world itself.

Now, as you know, scaffolding is constructed nowadays of pipe, which comes in a variety of standard sizes & threads--none of which is interchangeable. This is why the metaphor (should) work--if our metanarratives are mutually exclusive, then we invest too much of our belief in them, at the expense of the truth we tell ourselves we're modeling. There is no "measuring" involved.

As to the really real reality stuff, it's all subsumed in the all-of-the-above model (the rare, interchangeable scaffolding.) Just because the universe is holographic doesn't mean it's not real. That would be more of the old either/or logic, which seems to have outlived its usefulness.

Oarwell,
The Tesla/Zappa thing works on so many different levels, even the photographic. In this page from Educate-Yourself (which, granted, isn't always the sanest spot on earth), you'll find some of both. It was edited by Ken Adachi, about whom opinion is mostly very polarized, but the page is mostly based on a lecture given by Dr. Peter Lindemann on September 12, 2000, called “The Free Energy Secrets of Cold Electricity,” which, in turn was heavily influenced by a book by Gerry Vassilatos (Secrets of Cold War Technology). Lindemann is considered one of the good guys in free energy circles, so the story has some scientific street-cred, which is a nice oxymoron any way you slice it.

In the end, we're always asking, "Who are the Brain Police?"

(Thanks for all those Zappa links, btw.)

12/15/2006 08:57:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

With the help of 3rd and 4th graders from Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, John W. Wagner has donated $6,000 bronze busts of Nikola Tesla to 19 major U.S. universities. The plaque on the bust reads as follows:

Nikola Tesla
1856 - 1943
American Inventor
HIS NAME MARKS AN EPOCH
In A Single Burst Of Invention He Created The Polyphase Alternating Current System Of Motors And Generators That Powers Our World. He Gave Us Every Essential Of Radio, And Laid The Foundation For Much Of Today's Technology.

If you are interested in learning more about Tesla and want to be utterly fascinated about what is actually being done about his ommission from history go to www.ntesla.org AMAZING

U.S. Senator Carl Levin from Michigan on July 10, 1990 stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered a scorching account of how the Smithsonian Institute fails to acknowledge Tesla as the father of electricity. Congressional record, Vol. 136, No. 86. ..."Nikola Tesla has not been granted his proper place in history. In the Smithsonian Institute, for example, Mr. Edison's inventions are justifiably well represented. However, although the museum has included Mr. Tesla's alternating current generators in their exhibit, no mention is made of Mr. Tesla. In fact, the generator is included as part of the Edison exhibit..."

If you go to this unique website you'll learn how 3rd and 4th graders are contributing to our society in such a way as to royally slap the establishment's face red. Bending the establishment over the fence of reality and paddling it's bottom until it becomes clown nose red. A real pick me up. Donations are optional. Check it out.

12/15/2006 09:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

anon said:

'An alien base was seen on the Moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 fly-over and landing'.

Even the non-deluded can be deluded.

We did not "go to" the moon. Neil Armstrong did not "walk on the moon" as we are imagining it. His dad was a 33degree mason. Buzz Aldrin is a 33degree mason. C. Fred Kleinknect, head of NASA at the time of the Apollo Space Program, was a 33degree mason. The structure was in place to pull off the hoax of the century.

Maybe alien-type interdimensional travel, or something of the kind, took place. But certainly not in a space craft traveling from "here to there". Google Van Allen radiation belt to get an idea of why it was impossible considering the technology of 1969. Remember transistor radios? Mathematicians were still using slide-rules.

12/15/2006 09:07:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On Tesla:

"Among other things, this much is clear, he did invent the radio/wireless transmission, not Marconi, and was awarded all of the valid patents for it, reaffirmed by the SCOTUS."

I've often thought it was much cheaper for the US to assign the patents to someone they were about to put under top secret classification, or was just dead--than give the invention to someone with heirs and alive? Thus, even though it was true that Marconi stole Tesla ideas (with Tesla's gentlemanly allownaces to a fellow equally brilliant technician and inventor to be fair) who was gien free reign in Tesla's files, it probably served someone's private interest to award the patents 'back' to a dead man. It is 'funny' (actually tragic) that still you get all this nonsense about Marconi inventing the concept of radio. Marconi was brilliant, though the ideas were all Tesla.

He was, as you also said, working on electromagnetic weapons for the US Navy, and also radio guided torpedoes.

He sold some to the Germans actually, which became an issue during WWI when Tesla was an American citizen.


You also nailed the AC/DC debate which Edison was on the wrong side of.

Well, the "Edisonian" world won in some ways, on the local scale where it works more efficiently. We all have Edison DC appliances, for instance. However, the transmission frameworks are "Teslarian" AC.

George Westinghouse also screwed Tesla royally.

Be nice to Westinghouse. He bought up Tesla's patents when no one else wanted then, was the origin of his royalties. Tesla loved Westinghouse. He even tore up his royalty contract as a friendship and thanks gesture to Westinghouse for giving him the start in the (difficult to fund) world of full time inventing. They were very close actually. Tesla tore up his Westinghouse royalty contracts when a banker (I think it was Morgan) was attempting to economically have a price war to force him to sell out. I forget who was attempting to subvert and consolidate Westinghouse then. Though for many issues, particularly Tesla's abrogation of his over 1 million dollar a year (in early 1900s dollar) royalties, helped keep Westinghouse afloat in a price and stock war. Hardly all business owners were psychopaths, Westinghouse was a rare breed it seems from my reading.

It was the other big break that Westinghouse, instead of Edison, got the electrical contract for the "White City" 1893 Chicago World's Fair, which MADE Tesla's technology and name. Tesla and Westinghouse as well got the contract for Niagara Falls power plant, first in the world. Both of these things were very close run things. It could have been the case that Tesla would have been a nonentity for his whole life, without Westinghouse. The book on this that I think is best is Empires of Light:

Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World, by Jill Jonnes


and as for this, when a funny thing happened on the way to the moon, it all clicks when you said that. I wondered what kind of personnel they had in place politically, and boom, there it is--Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry leadership:

Neil Armstrong did not "walk on the moon" as we are imagining it. His dad was a 33degree mason. Buzz Aldrin is a 33degree mason. C. Fred Kleinknect, head of NASA at the time of the Apollo Space Program, was a 33degree mason. The structure was in place to pull off the hoax of the century.

Thanks. It was obviously a hoax from the pictures and video I have seen at Director Bart Sibrel's moonmovie.com, where he was told during his earlier NBC cameraman days, to his shock, in private by a NASA exec that it was all a hoax:

"...to fool the Soviet Union about the U.S. during the Cold War" when that totalitarian state was out symbolically competing with the US in the "Space Race."

However, one thing that is hackneyed about Sibrel, is that he fails to look critically at the USSR side of the affair. I've seen a "Russian Bart Sibrel's" analysis that Yuri Gragarin's film that was given the world of him going up in space, was all pre-filmed and staged as well.

If so, double ha ha on the fake Cold War while the Rockefellers and the Soviet Premiers were sharing friendships, caviar and vodka.

Additionally what was in place besides 33 degrees: Tricky Dick! ("I am not a crook"--just don't ask him about that "Bay of Pigs thing" or who erased all those tapes, or his Bohemian Grove visits).

Free video introduction of moon hoax at the link. Watch the sad astronaughts sweating bullets in press conferences--looking either nervous or like they want to kill themselves over depression at lying to everyone (in some other free videos there).

This is hardly to say that "we" have yet to go to the moon or elsewhere, only hardly in the rinky dinky NASA crafts. Black projects craft, well, that's another story, I'm sure, given that that UK Pentagon hacker found the database for the "Non-Terrestrial Officers" assignments and ship names--none of which were in the records of the US Navy...

We're already out there, at least a small black projects 'we.'

12/15/2006 09:46:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned, in all this blasphemous talk about free energy, these guys:

http://www.steorn.net/frontpage/default.aspx

From their ad in The Economist:
"

12/15/2006 10:09:00 PM  
Blogger Mjoll said...

The forum and new website seem to be down.

12/15/2006 10:33:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As for the moon hoax issue, I was a bit puzzled looking at one of the Wiki articles referenced on the previous thread, which debunked the Van Allen argument by noting that the Apollo astronauts passing through the belt would have incurred only 1 milligray.

Here's the Wiki:

"Some hoax theorists have suggested that Starfish Prime (high altitude nuclear testing in 1962) was a failed attempt to disrupt the Van Allen belts.

The Moon is ten times higher than the Van Allen radiation belts. The spacecraft moved through the belts in just 30 minutes, and the astronauts were protected from the ionizing radiation by the metal hulls of the spacecraft. In addition, the orbital transfer trajectory from the Earth to the Moon through the belts was selected to minimize radiation exposure. Even Dr. James Van Allen, the discoverer of the Van Allen radiation belts, rebutted the claims that radiation levels were too dangerous for the Apollo missions. Dosimeters carried by the crews showed they received about the same cumulative dosage as a chest X-ray or about 1 milligray. Plait cited an average dose of less than 1 rem, which is equivalent to the ambient radiation received by living at sea level for three years.(Plait 2002:160-62)
The radiation is actually evidence that the astronauts went to the Moon. 33 of 36 of the Apollo astronauts who were on the nine Apollo missions to leave Earth orbit have early stage cataracts that have been shown to be caused by radiation exposure to cosmic rays during their trip."

End Wiki.

1 milligray equals 100 milliREM, or mREM, which is equal to a single chest xray. That part is correct. But the article then goes on to cite the fact that 33 of 36 Apollo astronauts have cataracts from the ionizing radiation. That doesn't make sense. The annual limit for a radiologist to the eyes is 5000 mREM, because of the cataract danger (much less to is allowed to organs and gonads). A single chest x-ray is nowhere near the dose needed to cause cataracts (which makes sense, or else EVERYONE would develop cataracts, since everyone gets exposed to that much radiation, either through medical x-rays or ambient, background radiation).

Something doesn't compute in the official debunking argument.

And what the hell is "Starfish Prime?"

"Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States of America on July 9, 1962, a joint effort of the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Launched via a Thor rocket and carrying a W49 thermonuclear warhead (manufactured by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) and a Mk. 4 reentry vehicle, the explosion took place 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. It was part of Operation Dominic.

Pages 19-21 of "A 'Quick Look' at the Technical Results of Starfish Prime", August 1962 states:

"At Kwajalein, 1450 miles to the west, a dense overcast extended the length of the eastern horizon to a height of 5 or 8 degrees. At 0900 GMT a brilliant white flash burned through the clouds rapidly changing to an expanding green ball of irradiance extending into the clear sky above the overcast. From its surface extruded great white fingers, resembling cirro-stratus clouds, which rose to 40 degrees above the horizon in sweeping arcs turning downward toward the poles and disappearing in seconds to be replaced by spectacular concentric cirrus like rings moving out from the blast at tremendous initial velocity, finally stopping when the outermost ring was 50 degrees overhead. They did not disappear but persisted in a state of frozen stillness. All this occurred, I would judge, within 45 seconds. As the greenish light turned to purple and began to fade at the point of burst, a bright red glow began to develop on the horizon at a direction 50 degrees north of east and simultaneously 50 degrees south of east expanding inward and upward until the whole eastern sky was a dull burning red semicircle 100 degrees north to south and halfway to the zenith obliterating some of the lesser stars. This condition, interspersed with tremendous white rainbows, persisted no less than seven minutes."

Holy fuck! You should see the photo of it, taken from Honolulu 1,300 kilometers distant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

The article goes on in deadpan: "The summer of 1962 was problematic for nuclear weapons aboard Thor rockets." Nuclear devices were lost, radioactive debris rained down, plutonium contamination, the usual.

Back in blue Hawaii, 900 miles away, the EMP knocked out street lights, tv (!), radios, and caused power lines to fuse. An artificial aurora persisted over the Pacific for 7 minutes. This was recorded 3,200 Km away in the Samoan Islands!

"The weaponeers became quite worried when three satellites in low earth orbit were disabled. These man-made radiation belts eventually crippled one-third of all satellites in low orbit. Seven satellites were destroyed as radiation knocked out their solar arrays or electronics, including the first commercial communication satellite ever, Telstar."

"In 1963, Brown et al. reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research that Starfish Prime had created a belt of MeV electrons, and Bill Hess reported in 1968 that some Starfish electrons remained for five years. Others reported that radioactive particles from Starfish Prime descended to earth seasonally and accumulated in terrestrial organisms such as fungi and lichens."

In 1958, Operation Argus blew off nukes at high altitude in the South Atlantic, testing the South Atlantic Anomaly where the van Allen belts are closest to Earth's surface.

Those were the days, huh? Now you can't even test a 1 kiloton weapon underground without every Sierra Club and eco nut for miles around raising holy hell.

What's this world coming to?

12/15/2006 11:38:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who Built the Moon indeed. Are we nothing but a glorified an ant farm?

12/16/2006 02:07:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wizard — The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius
by Marc Seifer, 542 pages, illustrated, references, is probably the most comprehensive and balanced account in the msm. Here are excerpts of a couple of reviews that detail some of Tesla's achievements and attributes. Check out the list of his inventions in the second paragraph below. And this reviewer even left out wireless communication and the radio as such:

From Publishers Weekly

Seifer's vivid, revelatory, exhaustively researched biography rescues pioneer inventor Nikola Tesla from cult status and restores him to his rightful place as a principal architect of the modern age.

Based largely on firsthand documents including Tesla's writings, his patents and those of competitors, it credits the Croatian-born Serb, who moved to New York in 1884, with the invention of the induction motor, long-distance electrical power distribution, fluorescent and neon lights, the first true radio tube and remote control, besides making vital contributions to the technology underlying television, wireless communication, robotics, lasers, the facsimile [FAX] machine and particle-beam weaponry anticipating the space-based "Star Wars" defensive shield.

Though often depicted as a recluse, flamboyant nouveau-riche Tesla (1856-1943) lived in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for two decades, and hobnobbed with architect Sanford White, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, conservationist John Muir, mogul John Jacob Astor III, Swami Vivekananda. Yet the electronic wizard, who competed fiercely with Marconi and with his one-time employer Edison, became swamped in debt, abandoned by a world he helped create, ending his days in seedy poverty, a bitter, anorexic eccentric obsessed with feeding pigeons and avoiding germs.

Seifer, who teaches psychology at Community College of Rhode Island, attributes Tesla's downfall partly to his megalomaniacal, neurotic, self-destructive tendencies, partly to a quagmire of litigation and also to his Faustian pact with his ambivalent benefactor, Wall Street financier J. Pierpont Morgan, to whom he relinquished control of several patents.

Morgan, suggests Seifer, stymied Tesla's visionary scheme for a global, wireless power-distribution system because, if realized, it would jeopardize electrical, lighting and telephone monopolies. Seifer provides the fullest account yet of Tesla as an entrepreneur, experimental physicist and inventor. Photos.

Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Nikola Tesla is credited by many as the inventor of radio and should have received most of the credit for the development of modern electricity. Yet there is considerable confusion about his technical contributions and even more about his personal life. This book, by a professor of psychology at Bristol Community College and a member of the International Tesla Society, painstakingly documents Tesla's wide-ranging contributions.

Born in Croatia, Tesla emigrated to the United States in 1884 and almost immediately began work on alternatives to what was then accepted as standard electrical technology. This brought him into conflict with Edison and later Westinghouse.

The pattern of conflict continued for nearly 60 years, partially because Tesla was far ahead of his time, partially because he was erratic and off-beat, and partially because he was not an astute business partner. Seifer has analyzed extensive sources, many not previously used by other Tesla biographers, to provide a detailed interpretation of his life.

12/16/2006 02:42:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is an audio recording from the "Watergate tapes" of then President Richard M. Nixon talking to H.R. Haldemann and/or John Erlichman about his ONE and ONLY visit to the Boho Grove/Bohemian club. Here's what he said:

"Faggiest Goddamn thing you ever saw."

He was disgusted and never went back.

You can listen to the excerpt of the tape and hear Nixon say it himself on Alex Jones' prisonplanet.tv

It's a hoot and a half.

12/16/2006 02:45:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of the electric sun theory, I remember finding David Talbott's "Thunderbolts of the Gods" at thunderbolt.info a while back.

David Talbott and his brother Steve used to produce a magazine, Pensee, which went into Velikovsky's theories. I'm not mentioning this to discredit them; I think Velikovsky was underrated by conventional science and should be re-examined more. Here are more articles along those lines:

http://www.aeonjournal.com/articles/road_to_saturn/road_to_saturn.html

http://www.aeonjournal.com/articles/talbott/talbott.html

And Steve Talbott now also writes for The Nature Institute - http://natureinstitute.org/

12/16/2006 04:36:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Velikovsky's ideas are part of hat's known as catastrophism - here are some more links:
http://www.aeonjournal.com/links.html

12/16/2006 04:55:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

God, this comments section has become a hangout for science geeks.

We need more diversity. Some of the science stuff can be interesting, but there's been an unbalanced innundation as of late.

Some of you so-called intellectuals can be quite nauseating. Can you not formulate your own words and opinions without name dropping to let us know how well read you are?

This isn't a show of intellectual wit, you know. Come down out of your ivory-coated Zeppellins.

It's amazing that people who talk with such erudition actually are delusional enough to think they can somehow change the world.

I have news for you. Fat, fleshy Americans, which is the majority by the way, have no patience for sophisticated talking folks such as yourselves. They'd just assume you have the shit knocked out of you let alone listen to your bloviating.

Screw the Saints and the NFL and all institutionalized sports.

12/16/2006 08:59:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Crawl back under your rock, Shrub.

12/16/2006 09:20:00 AM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Science geeks? Fat fleshy Americans? Is that really you, Shrub? Come back and join the soft parade if it still tickles some part of your doomed fancy.

What makes you think the science geeks aren't as fully fleshly as the rest of the herd? Or, that the herd can't dabble, as amateurishly as we, in the "elevated discourse" of What-the-Hell-Is-Going-On-Here?

Can't change the world? Where did those poll numbers come from?

* 40% don't buy 9/11 (53% believe the gov't. is "hiding something")

* 75% disapprove of the invasion of Iraq

* clear majorities favor universal healthcare, Manhattan Project for alternative energy, massive ecological repair initiatives and, most telling, disclosure of the complicity of secrecy surrounding everything from the CIA's Nazi past to Cheney's energy task force...

The herd has already changed--the owners just haven't acknowledged it yet. And you know what they're saying:

It's important that you believe me...bop, bop, bop...when I tell you...it can't happen here.

12/16/2006 10:30:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The man who has no
imagination has no wings.
--Muhammed Ali

12/16/2006 11:09:00 AM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Just a quick fat ass/science geek update:

Steorn has not gone away (yet). They’re branching out (in the forum, at least) to include the work of other free energists, even the enigmatic Reidar Finsrud, a Norwegian sculptor very much in the Tesla/Zappa tradition who has built perpetual motion machines, much to the frothing consternation of those of know what’s real and possible.

Also, for fat asses looking for something to do, if you live on the west coast you can show some solidarność and maybe help free a purportedly scandalously abused free energy pioneer and inventor, Paul Pantone. Suppressed, drugged, jailed for no apparent reason—it has all the signs of the classic J.P. Morgan/US government cartel crushing Tesla phenomenon.

You'd think they'd at least change the script once in a while.

12/16/2006 11:21:00 AM  
Blogger Bruce said...

Jeff,
While I admire and respect Hopsicker's work (have all his books) documenting the purported hijackers in the vale of Jackson Stevens and The Company in Venice Florida, Germany, etc., it doesn't logically follow that these (seemingly incompetent) met were the pilots of the infamous (purported) flights of 9/11. For instance, Atta's father, a lawyer in Cairo Egypt, has stated several times that he talked to Mohammad on Sept. 12th, but that he was subsequently murdered by his handlers. Regarding the role of the largely Saudi patsies in the plane-bombings, Hopsicker seems an embittered true believer.

12/16/2006 01:23:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is for IC and you hinterleckshuals: Beavis & Butt-head watch Frank Zappa:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D41A0l5NzQI&mode=related&search=

Don't have anything in your mouth.

12/16/2006 01:37:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

who's this shrub person posters have been referring to in the last several threads?

12/16/2006 02:56:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The man who has no
imagination has no wings.


......but at least he's free of parkinson's.

allowing one's head to be smashed to smithereens by 200+ lb. brutes repeatedly for two and a half decades is some kind of imagination.

12/16/2006 03:02:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beavis & Butt-head, that's the ticket, and ferociously intelligent.

Can we get Beavis & Butt-head and the manifesting carbohydrate economy?

What about Beavis and Butt-head and Paul Pantone?

Go Saints!

12/16/2006 03:10:00 PM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

Thanks, Oarwell. I'll return the favor. Here's Frank looking very Tesla in Sweden, 1973, playing Montana with Jean Luc Ponty, George Duke, the Fowler Brothers, etc, etc. What he does with his guitar in this is what Tesla did with his medium--it's their genius that ties them together and sets them apart from this horribly fore-shortened glass of orange juice we call the modern world. On the other hand, we're not exactly alone in recognizing them for what they are.

12/16/2006 03:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please let me rest in peace and quit invoking my name. Get your own life. I don't like fans.

12/16/2006 03:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"who's this shrub person posters have been referring to in the last several threads?"

Ye shall not invoke The Name! Ye bring down curse of The Name upon us all, once more. Go Back! Go Back! (and search through previous threads for The Name.)

12/16/2006 03:23:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This thread's pretty much shot, so what the hey? Be prepared to scroll: It's Oarwell's flashback!

1973. I was 14, working as the "fry guy" at a Red Lob (I lied about my age), and the "expeditor" down the line was a guy called "Burn." All Burn and his fellow kitchen pirates talked about, sang the lines from, was "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" and "Burnt Weenie Sandwich." What did I know? I was still listening to Foghat, fer cryin' out loud.

I learned a lot that year: what fish (flounder) got subbed when you ran out of any other fish, how to squeeze hush puppies (cornmeal in Frymax) how to throw the food on the floor if the customers complained, before sending it back, and just who this Zappa guy was. I made enough cash (at $1.65/hr, which was minimum wage back then, if I remember, and I might just not, because I also found out why the guy was called "Burn,") to buy that Marantz receiver I had my eye on.

Just me and the pygmy ponies.

Still haven't made it to Montana, though.

12/16/2006 05:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can't end the story without saying how I ended up.

The things we did for a buck sixty-five an hour! Get your heads around that folks, and consider the absurdity of breaking your back for that pittance.

And still there's no revolution, and probably never will be.

12/16/2006 05:38:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff - thanks for posting that link to that bullshit "miracle" black dot on the sun.

I'm watching it and the first thing that comes to mind is the Police:

"There's a little black spot on the sun today It's the same old thing as yesterday..."

Henry Kissinger has a sizable ownership in the bank which funnels the money made off of Mejugorie if that tells you anything about its illegitamacy.

12/16/2006 06:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Burn, man, I'm sorry about ratting you out to Vinny the Fish, but they threatened to kill my goat. It got ugly, I heard; they forced you to listen to The Osmonds at full volume for days on end, made you wear bright brown leisure suits to BeeGees shows, drop Sandoz and watch Gilligan's Island until you agreed to "help the Professor," the whole Clockwork Orange treatment. Last I heard you'd "gone native" in the central highlands and were trying to teach Hmong tribesmen the Mudshark Dance.

Glad to see you made it out. But be warned--this blug, whatever they call it--it's turning into another Vietnam.

And you still owe me the 3 bucks you borrowed to buy Overnite Sensation when it came out.

12/16/2006 06:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Old, banned Floyd Smoots said:
Jeff, I still read and respect your blog posts. The late, lamented Douglas Adams of the UK, I believe, actually coined the phrase, "Life, the Universe, and Everything" as the title of his third novel in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy. It later became a "quintilogy". However, I think it was my use of the phrase many many times in the late winter and early spring of this Year of Our Lord, 2006, which probably implanted it in your "reptilian brain". Don't thank me. Remember, you banned me out of pique with "Thumperton". You said as much on your blog when you mentioned us both in the same "breath", though you gave different reasons for banning us both. I hold no grudge about it. It IS YOUR blog, not mine. To "Anonymous 5:31" I MUST respond. That is some of the most informative, cogent, coherent "Non Wallpaper" I have read all year. Thank you for posting it. I hope every RI reader/poster read and UNDERSTOOD it in it's entirety. Since you are that well informed, I can only hope that you don't work for the "Other Side", and are merely rubbing our poor working-class noses in it. BRAVO!!!

12/16/2006 07:30:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

CIA Programming Directive #71822-18

Listen to music at highest volume tolerable.

Mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they'll like this song?
Mother, do you think they'll try to break my balls?
*Go to the bathroom on the floor at the salad bar at Wendys.*
Mother, should I build the wall?
Mother, should I run for President?
Mother, should I trust the government?
*Mix split pea soup, chili, and chunks of bread and dump into adversary's automobile. Add mealworms. Lock car doors and superglue nickels to doorlocks.*
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Is it just a waste of time?

Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry
*In the middle of the night collect 20 pounds of dog droppings from neighborhood backyards. With gloves place excrement in sack and launch niblets into adversary's backyard.*
Momma's gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Momma's gonna put all her fears into you
Momma's gonna keep you right here under her wing
*Call 10 people on the phone and ask them if their refrigerator is running. Wait 5 days and politely ask them again.*
She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing
Momma's will keep Baby cozy and warm
Oooo Babe
Oooo Babe
Oooo Babe, of course Momma's gonna help build the wall
*Ask a buddy at work how his wife is doing. Find out how she really is doing. Make requests to be answered in specific details.*

Mother, do you think she's good enough for me?
Mother, do you think she's dangerous to me?
Mother, will she tear your little boy apart?
*Time to play solitaire.*
Mother, will she break my heart?

Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry
Momma's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you
*Write adversary's phone number including area code on all your cash money spent.*
Momma won't let anyone dirty get through
Momma's gonna wait up until you get in
Momma will always find out where you've been
*Downsize a photocopy of your whatsyourmacallit to postage stamp size and tape it to work rival's locker or office name plate.*
Momma's gonna keep Baby healthy and clean
Oooo Babe
Oooo Babe
Oooo Babe, you'll always be Baby to me
*For two weeks take cellular phone and telephone and randomly call people in the early hours of the morning. Place speaker next to receiver and vice versa.*

Mother, did it need to be so high?
*Rent the video Oldboy and watch it alone 20x.*

Yes my Master. You are the boss. Everything you command I do. You are good. I love you.

12/16/2006 09:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

God is Dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we—we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.

12/17/2006 10:02:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nietzsche is dead.
God is not dead, He's merely ignoring you.

12/17/2006 10:29:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How do you know I'm a He?

12/17/2006 11:22:00 AM  
Blogger Julian said...

True skepticism is closely related to the Buddhist practice of total acceptance. A good scientist would never look one direction when the facts lead elsewhere. Unless he or she was biased for one of many possible reasons.

A skeptic will seek to explore fact and fallacy, both social and personal, with a clinical objectivity that does not allow the ego to limit the scope of inquiry. In this mode the 'truth', or knowing as best you can yourself and the world around you, is a process with no end.

I find that many people get hung up on 'truth as a process'. Its helps to become more familiar with our system of justice, and how our scientific community operates. As a process, the truth has value as the basis of a moral system of community and self-government, the truth increases insight as we learn more about our past and recent history, and with our values and insight we are lead to take action, moving from student to teacher.

If we can agree to look at 'truth' from a functional perspective, there is plenty of room for everyone at some point in the process. Some reinforce our fundamental values. Some are focused on research. And some are promoting and educating. In many ways the process of democracy is analogous to the process of truth above. Law, science, and democracy all rely upon an ever changing social measure of that which is valid or just.

So I suppose I'm suggesting that we all aspire to be better skeptics. For ourselves and our community. And further that we engage on some level in the social process of truth.

Here's my contribution for the day. A reminder. The 9/11 truth movement has long ago established probable cause, based on analysis of documentation related to means, motive and opportunity, to suspect that the 9/11 attacks were in a number of ways facilitated by high ranking members of our government, military, and intelligence communities. This probable cause far outweighs, in extent and veracity of evidence, any argument to the contrary.

P.S. For a challenge, try eliminating E-prime from your vocabulary. The verb 'to be'. No is, was, been, or am. In other words, not 'the cup is red', but rather 'my optical system, at one moment, perceived a red cup. It might seem anal at first, but try it fast. Its a nerdy drinking game, and it's also good practice for anyone who hopes to speak to others with a great degree of accuracy.

12/17/2006 12:07:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To the 'Anonymous' who said ...

"Sixty-four years ago this month, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment..."

Please, you are awesome, do you have a blog of your own for us to read!?!

12/17/2006 01:45:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who the hell wrote the post {as
Frank Zappa} that said "I don't
like fan's?!" Frank didn't
hate his fans, he just didn't
like to talk about his music
that much. Maybe you have read
his take on it: "Talking about
music is like dancing about
architecture". In 1980 I was
living in Santa Cruz California
and Zappa was coming to town
to do a couple of shows. I called
his office pretending to be
on staff with a local rag trying
to score an interview. Even
though he knew I was full of
shit, his press agent sent out
an amazing press kit which
included a great 8x10 B&W shot
of Frank which he was gracious
enough to autograph. Frank, we
miss you man.

12/17/2006 02:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Troll said...
Holy fuck, anon 8:46 p.m. You did it: your post is better than Jeff's original. Never thought I'd see that. Fucking beautiful!
7:14 PM






Anonymous said...

To the 'Anonymous' who said ...

"Sixty-four years ago this month, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment..."



Please, you are awesome, do you have a blog of your own for us to read!?!
1:45 PM


the 64 years ago post is here....
http://www.mackwhite.com/tv.html
mackwhite.com

the blog is here
http://mackwhite.blogspot.com/

12/17/2006 02:39:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr. Bombay said...
Who the hell wrote the post {as
Frank Zappa} that said "I don't
like fan's?!"


I confess. It was me.

You ain't nothin but a hound dog.

Let Frank rest in piece. Quit leaning on him. Fix yourself a grilled banana, peanut butter, bacon and pickle sandwich.

12/17/2006 02:51:00 PM  
Blogger foist lastus said...

"P.S. For a challenge, try eliminating E-prime from your vocabulary."

I always preface my statements to the effect , "In my reality..."

I found this to be usefull when talking to my parents who don't own or watch t.v. and barely use the internet.

12/17/2006 06:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

to the false god at 11:22am:
because I saw you naked?

12/17/2006 06:57:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When Allah (God)created man, he told all spirits to bow before him.

Iblis refused claiming he was better than humans because he was created out of fire instead of mud.

Allah then cast him down for his pride. Allah then agrees to let Iblis tempt humanity until the last day when the dead are raised, but tells Iblis he will have no power over Allah, Himself, or any of Allah's servants. Two of the accounts are listed below:

'And We created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall ye prostrate before Adam! And they fell prostrate, all save Iblis, who was not of those who make prostration. He said: What hindered thee that thou didst not fall prostrate when I bade thee ? (Iblis) said: I am better than him. Thou createdst me of fire while him Thou didst create of mud. He said: Then go down hence! It is not for thee to show pride here, so go forth! Lo! thou art of those degraded. He said: Reprieve me till the day when they are raised (from the dead). He said: Lo! thou art of those reprieved. He said: Now, because Thou hast sent me astray, verily I shall lurk in ambush for them on Thy Right Path.' - AL A'RAAF 7:11-16

'And (remember) when We said unto the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam, and they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He was of the jinn, so he rebelled against his Lord's command. Will ye choose him and his seed for your protecting friends instead of Me, when they are an enemy unto you ? Calamitous is the exchange for evil-doers.' - AL KAHFI (18:50)

Though Allah had cast Iblis out of heaven, he gave him permission to tempt Adam and Eve before he left. Iblis was the one to persuade Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. The Qur'an is explicit in saying that the Devil only has the power to tempt, not to compel, for mankind still has its free will to choose to follow Allah or the Devil.

The loss of "godly" status by the Devil. For the Devil, in Christianity and Islam, is very much a God; only the equal of God could battle God.

"THERE IS NO GOD BUT MYSELF" "KNOWING THIS, WHO DARES WORSHIP THE FALSE GODS OF THE KORAN AND BIBLE?"
-SATAN

Iblis was a Jinn, a creature made of smokeless fire by God (like humans are made of 'clay'). In an outburst rooted in envy, Iblis disobeyed Allah and was expelled from the grace of Allah. He was later sent to earth along with Adam and Eve after having lured them into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, although in this role he is always referred to as al-Shaitan. He was condemned consequently by God to Hell. He replied with saying that he wanted to bring the inhabitants of Earth down with him, and God, to test Mankind and Jinn, allowed him to roam Earth to attempt to misguide others.

He tempts humans through his whisper (waswas, "he whispered") of sinful ideas in their head and false suggestion (haiif). In the end, it is believed, he will be cast into Jahannam (Hell in Islam) along with those who give in to his temptation of sinful ideas and disobeyed God's true message to mankind (Islam), while those who successfully try to follow a righteous path will be rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah (Paradise or Heaven in Islam).

The Qur'an does not depict Shaitan as the enemy of Allah, for Allah is supreme over all his creations and Iblis is just one of his creations. Unlike the Zoroastrian beliefs, all good and bad deeds are from Allah himself and only he can save humanity from the evils of his universe and his creations. Shaitan's single enemy is humanity. He intends to discourage humans from obeying God. Thus, humankind is warned to struggle against the mischiefs of the Shaitan and temptations he puts them in. A commonly shared belief in both Islam and Christianity is that the universal existence of evil in personal lives is usually experienced because of the devil.
FROM THE QU'RET AL-YEZID

12/17/2006 07:52:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The loss of "godly" status by the Devil. For the Devil, in Christianity and Islam, is very much a God; only the equal of God could battle God.



"THERE IS NO GOD BUT MYSELF" "KNOWING THIS, WHO DARES WORSHIP THE FALSE GODS OF THE KORAN AND BIBLE?"
-SATAN

12/17/2006 07:55:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

High Priest (Leads the girl to the right side of the altar to a black throne, upon which is seated Satan in the materialization of a huge black goat with a human body, but with the hooves and head of a goat. The goat has three horns, the middle one being a lighted torch)
“Kiss the Goat!!”
(As the girl kisses the posterior of the goat from behind the throne, the ceremony of fidelity to Satan known as the Pax, the High Priest intones . . . )
“As the shavings of the clock do never return to the clock from which they are taken, so may your soul never return to Heaven.”
( . . . leading the girl back to the altar)
“Now . . . remove your garment and lie down at full length upon the altar.”
(As the girl drops her garment and lies naked on the altar, the High Priest stretches out her arms and places a lighted black candle in each outstretched hand. She is now a human altar in the shape of a crucifix; her ankles still being bound by the shackles. Some members of the assemblage, looking ahead to the ceremony where she must submit to the sexual desires of the coven, are beginning to express their emotions.)
“Brothers and sisters of the Left-Hand Path . . . the penitent has proved a worthy neophyte in our high order. It is now my happy duty to free her from the bonds of ignorance and superstition.”
(The High Priest removes the shackles from the ankles of the young probationer/neophyte and proceeds with the rite symbolic of copulation with the devil. If the Lord Satan or one of his demons is present at this portion of the Mass, the High Priest will step aside and lead conjurations of lust while the ceremony is actually performed. After this rite, the neophyte, still serving as the altar, has the Chalice containing the host and a skull filled with blood placed upon her prone body. The host is generally stolen from a Catholic church, dyed black, and cut into a triangular shape. The blood is generally from a previously sacrificed animal of bird; although for a major high Sabbath, the most effective sacrifice is an unbaptised baby)
High Priest (chants)
“Satanas gratias.” “Thanks be to Satan”
“Satanas vobiscum.” “Satan be with you.”
Coven (responds)
“Et cum spiritu tuo” “And with thy spirit.”
High priest and Coven (Walks to left of human altar to begin the Offeratory. He holds up the Paten containing the consecrated host)
“Lucifer, Save us! Master, Save us!
Astaroth, Save us! Master, Save us!
Shaiton, Save us! Master, Save us!
Zabulon, Save us! Master, Save us!
Maloch, Save us! Master, Save us!”
(High Priest walks to the right of human altar, and holds up the skull or other Chalice containing the blood)
“Satan, Have mercy! Master, Have mercy!
Baal, Have mercy! Master, Have mercy!
Azazel, Have mercy! Master, Have mercy!
Dagon, Have mercy! Master, Have mercy!
Mammon, Have mercy! Master, Have mercy!”
High Priest (Taking Communion, consecrates the Paten and the Chalice with the blessing of Death)
“Blessed be the bread and wine of death . . . blessed a thousand times more than the flesh and blood of life, for you have not been harvested by human hands nor did any human creature mill and grind you. It was our Lord Satan who took you to the mill of the grave, so that you should thus become the bread and blood of revelation and revulsion. I spit upon you! And I cast you down! In the memory of Satan, because you preach punishment and shame to those who would emancipate themselves and repudiate the slavery of the church!”

12/17/2006 08:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A boxcutter in time saves nine.......plus one plus one.

12/17/2006 08:07:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"For the Devil, in Christianity and Islam, is very much a God..."

Not in Christian theology. Lucifer is an angel, a different order of created being, not a god. He doesn't "do battle" with God, but refuses to serve him ("non serviam"). Satan is "the Accuser," in active rebellion, just as all sin is merely rebellion against the Will of God.

I assume you were quoting an Islamic text.

At the end, it said:

" Unlike the Zoroastrian beliefs, all good and bad deeds are from Allah himself and only he can save humanity from the evils of his universe and his creations."

Is this really an Islamic belief? That all bad deeds are from Allah?

Is the sage who appeared at the end of the previous post ("The Thread Which Shall Never Die"), ibn rushd, around? Is Islam a Manichean religion?

12/17/2006 08:09:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a much needed correction to the Anonymous poster above who convulted the story of the fall a bit:

Iblis was the angel dearest to God and loved God with greater intensity than all the other angels. Iblis' initial answer to God viz. the reason he refused God's command to prostrate before Adam was that he, Iblis, loved God above all else and that for him to bow to man would be to denigrate the love Iblis had for the Almighty.

God informed Iblis that he could best demonstrate his love by following God's command and bowing before Adam. It was then that Iblis said, "Did you not make me and the other angels out of fire? Are we not superior to this man made of clay?"

God requested obedience, but it was Iblis' sin of Pride which prevented him from following God's command, even when he felt it was humiliating.

The Qur'an does not say Iblis was a jinn, that is a bit of folklore. According to the book, both angels and jinn are made of fire.

Thus it was that Iblis was condemned to hell, but bargained his way back to earth in order to serve as tester and tempter of the moral fiber of man and woman. In Muslim as well as Christian wisdom traditions it is said that the punishment was so severe to Iblis because he was kept from the Divine presence, that which he most dearly loved. The most horrific cry of grief ever to occur was Iblis' lament of lost love as he descended to earth.

The Qur'an, unlike the Bible, holds that "hell" is not an eternal punishment, and that God's mercy ultimately redeems all of his creation. The separation is just temporary.

Iblis is known as the whisperer, and his minions collectively are the shayatin, plural of Shaitan.

The Arabic term for the whispering is wiswas, an onomatopoetic word, resembling the sound of whispering dimly heard.

Sufis teach that, until his fall, Iblis was the greatest lover of God, whom the Sufis term "the Beloved".

12/17/2006 08:17:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

" Unlike the Zoroastrian beliefs, all good and bad deeds are from Allah himself and only he can save humanity from the evils of his universe and his creations."

interesting, and yet we are told, like god, allah is perfect. if so, then from the statement above surely it holds that evil is part of that perfection, since it is a derivative thereof. such being the case, why the stigma attached to evil?

or, is evil imperfect, and hence allah is also imperfect?

who makes this shit up, anyway?

12/17/2006 08:25:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Oarwell,

The friendly fakir above has gotten the story of Iblis right. As to your question about good and evil, yes, the core understanding if ALL forms of Islam, Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Ismaili, you name it, is tawhid (pronounced Toe-HEED), which is Arabic for unity.

The indivisible unity of the divine is the quintessence of Islam.

Muslims revere Jesus (Issa, in Arabic) as a unique prophet, for whom the Qur'an reserves the specific name Ruhallah, literally "the Spirit of God".

Muslims also exalt his mother Mary (Maryam in Arabic). Her name is actually mentioned more times in the Qur'an than in the entire New Testament.

Consonant with the Muslim belief in Jesus as a very special prophet, unique in his teaching and mission to humanity, is the belief that Jesus with return at the time Judgement to defeat the Dajjal, or antichrist. Again, this is true for all Muslims. In addition, the Shia (a small minority sect) hold that Jesus will be assisted in this effort by the Mahdi, or hidden imam. There are various Shia sects (so-called Twelvers, Seveners, etcetera), who differ in their view as to whether the Mahdi is the hidden 7th imam, or twelfth imam.

In keeping with the concept of Tawhid, or unity, all muslims also adhere to the doctrine that Jesus was yet a man, not God incarnated. In Islam this would be considered a blasphemy of shirk, or establishing partners to God. Similarly therefore, Iblis is also simply God's creation and thus incapable of thwarting or countering the Divine will. Of course this would be logcially inconsistent with God's infinite attributes.

Muslim scholars would argue more specifically that Jesus never made any claims for his divinity, and that that was something foisted upon the world by the Council of Nicea in the 4th century.

To try and cast it in perhaps slightly poetic language, Muslims believe in the unity, ubiquity, omniscience and omipotence of God. God is understood to be both imminent and transcendent, hidden and manifest, seen and heard, though ineffable, complete, uncreated, self-evident yet mysterious, possessed of all attributes and lacking none, encompassing all that is, as well as all that cannot be known other than by God.

To Muslims this presents no paradox, but is rather a constant living truth, a truth to which all beings owe their lives and existence. God is the owner of our souls, dispenser of mercy and grace, beyond yet containing all form, and though God's "essence is not directly knowable, the attributes of God are. God is not separate or "other" in away way, and yet, always, completely One.

Muslims seek to live in surrender to the divine will, yet know that the gift of free will, with which we are constantly charged to make moral choices both great and small, is that vehicle by which we may be blessed to draw ever nearer to what is already "closer to us than our neck veins."

That's as succintly and clearly as I can state it.

12/17/2006 08:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's a link to a good video of a GWU professor who gives a very elegant summary of the basics of Islam:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7163678675859613485&pr=goog-sl

12/17/2006 08:47:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So did the mother in Jeff's post have it right?

UFO's enzo are demonic and from the devil /(iblis)?

After all he (Satan/Lucifer/Iblis) is the prince of the air.

12/17/2006 09:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Prince my patootie.

Blah, blah, woof, woof.

12/17/2006 09:58:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Two corrections:

When I wrote "away way" I meant to write "any way."

To Oarwell, I hope my post clarified that not only is there no Manichean dualism in Islam, that it would be a grave heresy, just as in Christianity.

Anonymous said,

"....we are told, like god, allah is perfect."

The question is a non sequitur.

Allah is just the Arabic word for God. When Arab Christians pray to God the word they use is "allah." Just like Muslims.

[Actually, there are no capital letters in Arabic}.

There is only one God.

la ilaha illa llah.

12/17/2006 10:41:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To Blaf woofie ever read the new testament, the devil knows the scriptures by heart.


Talk shit get bit...........

Now with no further adou

from the kjv i assume

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

12/17/2006 11:11:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Iblis/Lucifer was to bow before man.

Is this not because man was made in gods image?


Sin is generated through the inspiration and persuasion of the living and malignant "prince of the power of the air."

Because sin's source lies in a living being, the Bible considers it dynamic rather than static. Verse 1—"[we] were dead in trespasses and sin"—is especially enlightening.

God calls things exactly what they appear from His point of view. Up to the time of our calling, we thought we were alive, but that is how wrong our thinking is. God considered sin to have already killed us, but in His mercy He made us alive so we could overcome it.

Satan is described as a spirit who is "prince of the power of the air." This phrase has a familiar ring to it, but alternative translations may be better suited to understanding.

The New English Bible calls him "commander of the spiritual powers of the air now at work among God's rebel subjects." The Concordat Literal New Testament renders it as "chief of the jurisdiction of the air, the spirit now operating in the sons of stubbornness."

Webster's gives as one of the usages for jurisdiction, "the limits, or territory within which authority may be exercised."

This particular jurisdiction is where air exists, tying in with the word "heavenly" in Ephesians 6:12: "[We wrestle] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Here, "heavenly" refers, not to the place of God's throne, but to the first heaven, the air surrounding the earth in which birds fly.

This also links with Revelation 18:2 and its "unclean and hated birds," symbolizing demons. Birds operate in the same heaven Satan commands.

God gave Satan and his demon assistants substantial authority over everything from the earth's atmosphere on down to the earth itself, which includes us, its inhabitants. We must never forget that, in large part, our wrestling, as Paul terms it, is with these spirits. We inhabit the same space they do.

These evil spirits indeed use deceived people to carry out their plans to destroy those in whom God lives. These people are likely under the strong influence of those spirit authorities, and because they are deceived, they are unaware that they are being used! They are not necessarily possessed, as the Bible shows some are, but influenced by demons to act against our best interests.

A factor God wants us to realize more completely and fully is that we are not alone in this ocean of air. Even as vicious sharks and barracuda prowl the water, their demonic counterparts, symbolized as foul and unclean raptors and carrion-eaters, inhabit the ocean of air right along with us. It is essential to our spiritual well-being to heed Paul's warning in Ephesian 6:10-12 that our battles are against these creatures, and they are fighting tooth-and-toenail to hang on to what they believe is theirs by first-occupancy rights. Earth, the Bible plainly tells us, was "their first estate" (Jude 6, KJV). They hate us because we are becoming like the Father and Son, and because they know this earth, our inheritance, will be taken from them and given to the sons of God, those who are in His image.

On the surface, they have advantages over us because they are invisible to our eyes. In addition, they can, without our even being aware, communicate their thoughts and attitudes to our minds through the very air that supports our lives. Most people in this world do not know they are deceived or how they became deceived. Satan and his demons have not sat us all down to tell us, "We are here to deceive you." We know only because God's Word reveals this truth to us, and we believe it. Despite this happening in our lives, deception can still be communicated to us unless we are astute enough to take care that it does not happen again.

Nevertheless, deception and its resulting behaviors have been communicated to us through the culture we were born into. The culture, the world around us, is the medium of this corrupting communication. We have been freed from deception by God's revelation of Himself, but the urgent admonition from our Lord and Savior is, "Don't be passive concerning the responsibilities your liberation has imposed. Take action because the communication can be reabsorbed, enslaving you once again."


So the ufos are the fallen angels, amen.

12/17/2006 11:26:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LIVE EVIL

Who's the boss on earth?

“Before he killed him, Charles “Tex” Watson told Voytek Frykowski: ‘I am the Devil and I am here to do the Devil’s business.’” Months later at the trial, Manson’s “disciples” were said to have been utterly under his power.



Followed by expert MK techniques mastered from the nazis via operation paperclip.

John Lennon Murder


John Lennon with his killer
Mark Chapman in background

John Hinkley who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan "followed as exactly as he possibly could EVERY SINGLE MOVE that Mark David CHAPMAN had made, in the days before CHAPMAN murdered John Lennon.

Even MORE bizarre: at the time of their respective arrests following both shooting incidents, John Hinckley AND Mark David Chapman were each carrying on their person a paperback copy of the J.D. Salinger novel, ’CATCHER IN THE RYE.’ (AS did the MK-Ultra mind-controlled assassin Jerry played by Mel Gibson in the surprisingly revealing movie Conspiracy Theory.)

J.D. Salinger, certainly a gifted author, had SUBSTANTIAL and enduring ties to the U.S. intelligence community; in particular, the CIA. Was the book originally intended to be a mind-control programming tool? It's hard to say, but not inconceivable.

SO: Hinckley traced Chapman's footsteps, as it were, in an incredibly eerie AND incredibly REVEALING, scripted tableau; which culminated, as it did with Chapman, in mind-controlled Manchurian Candidate assassin Hinckley shooting his prey on the New York City streets.

Which indeed, brings up yet a FURTHER point. Hinckley FIRST CAME to New York WELL BEFORE his attempt to assassinate Reagan, in order to prepare himself for his assigned role by imitating Chapman's moves and actions of a few months before.

SO: HOW did Hinckley KNOW, several weeks BEFORE-hand, that Reagan was going to be at the place in New York City were Hinckley would shoot him, AND the DAY and TIME Reagan would be there??

SOMEBODY on the "INSIDE," who knew Reagan's schedule some time in advance, positioned Hinckley in New York well before the date of the attempted assassination of Reagan.

Somebody like George BUSH, Sr., maybe? Trying to get a jump on taking over as President? Or, maybe just sending ol' Ronnie a VERY strong, clear message about who the "boss" really was...

12/17/2006 11:43:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another cocksure windy Anonymous (see above)....

Why are so many anonymi so self-righteous, yet afraid to pick a name?

Not merely a rhetorical question.

My objection was to the word "prince." Don't buy it. Satan ain't 'lord' or 'prince' of nothin' but shit and flies.

And God never gave fallen angels "substantial jurisdiction" over the earth and its inhabitants.

That is a lie and a satanic inversion. Are you afraid to have a name because someone might use it to put you in your dark little hole??? Malachi Martin says demons greatest fear is to reveal their name because then it can be used to banish them.

That resonates a bit.

And I quibble big time with Paul, the epileptic formerly known as Saul of Tarsus. He was no prophet.

While I might well agree that some "UFOs" are demonic, the rest of your unattributable chatter is mostly just 'wiswas' whisperings.

God made Adam regent over the earth and all of it's creatures, not satan, you liar.

Get thee behind me.

12/17/2006 11:50:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Weeks before Lennon's death, on his latest album there was a song by Yoko Ono titled Kiss Kiss Kiss. When played backwards one can hear Yoko say, "I shot John Lennon." This is the same album that Lennon's killer John Chapman listened to over and over again!

Number nine = turn me on dead man


Anyone hear this?

12/17/2006 11:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WE ARE LEGION

Even Jesus did not dispute Satan when he said he had dominion over all of the earth , but you do......
Jimi lsd25 is on your head band again.

12/18/2006 12:08:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jimi you get only a half credit, sorry kiddo.


By obeying Satan, Adam and Eve opened the way for him to have partial dominion over them, over the earth, and over all of their children (see Fall of Adam).

12/18/2006 12:16:00 AM  
Blogger messianicdruid said...

Men teach the bible says that hell is forever but Eternal Punishment is against the Law: www.goldismoney.info/showthread.php?t=21276

Carl Sagan said, "Conceivably, the capture and hollowing of a small asteroid {{ or moon ?}} may be technically more feasible than the construction in orbit of an artificial satellite with material brought from the surface."

"I concur. Following are my reasons, which are based on the number 2277 and much beyond. I noted that the synodical or apparent revolutions of the five planets in man's immediate view were as follows: Saturn 378, Jupiter 399, Mars 780, Venus 584, and Mercury 116. The total number of days involved amounts to 2257. Adding the Direction Number [1] to each - south 4, west 6, center 2, east 3, and north 5 - gives 20. 2257 plus 20 equals 2277, the same as the combined minutes schedules for Phobos (459) and Deimos (1818). It also reflects the mean distance of Mars (227,700,000) from the Sun. Mere coincidence?

The dimensions of the Martian moons were unknown and could not be determined by telescope from Earth. Nonetheless, in 1944, at age seven, I gave my trixial measures for Phobos and Deimos as an expression of my harmonius number (see below) 521746.251746 squared, or 272219151211. I then used this number to directly read off the sizes in kilometers for the Martian moons as follows: Phobos 27 long, 22 wide, 19 deep; Deimos 15 long, 12 wide, 11 deep [2].

These measures had to await confirmation by NASA spacecraft; according to the Viking orbiters, they were all correct.

I have been asked repeatedly how I derived my harmonius number and what evidence I used to settle upon the six figures. To answer this question, I must ask the patience of the reader."

www.tmgnow.com/repository/mars/bartjordan_1.html

12/18/2006 12:37:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re the "man-made moon" and hollow planet speculative nonsense:

Didn't any of you geniuses stop to think that the mass of a sphere is proportional to the cube of its radius by virtue of the formula

Mass = Density x Volume

where the Volume of the sphere is equal to

4/3 X pi x r3(Radius of the sphere cubed).

So the mass of the sphere (in this case the earth or the moon) is directly proportional to the cube of its radius.

Okay? Now hold that thought for a moment.

The Earth's orbit is roughly circular with radius = 1.5 × 10(to the 11th power) meters and the Earth moves with a speed 30,000 meters/second (= 30 km/s) in its orbit. The distance is given in meters to match the units of the speed. The distance unit of a meter is used because you will be using the gravitational constant G in your calculation and it uses the meter unit. When you do a calculation, you must be sure you check that your units match up or you will get nonsense answers.
Plug the values into the mass relation:

the Sun's mass = (30,000)2 × (1.5 × 1011)/(6.7 × 10-11) = 2 × 1030 kilograms. This is much larger than the Earth's mass so it was okay to ignore the Sun's movement toward the Earth. Using no approximations (ie., not assuming a circular orbit and including the Sun's motion toward the Earth) gives a value for the Sun's mass that is very close to this. Your answer does not depend on which planet you choose to use (here you used the Earth's orbit). You would get the same value for the mass of the Sun if you had used any of the other planets orbital speeds and sizes.


This relation tells you what you need to know in order to measure a planet's or star's mass: the orbital speed of a satellite and the distance it is from the center of the planet or star. Because the velocity is on top of the fraction, satellites are made to move faster if the mass of the central object is greater. At the same distance, a massive planet will exert more gravity force than a low-mass planet, so the massive planet will produce greater inward accelerations on satellites orbiting it. The satellites will, therefore, orbit at faster speeds.

Sometimes the orbital period P is measured instead of the orbital velocity. The orbital period is the time it takes the object to travel the circumference of its orbit (for a circle,

circumference = 2(pi)r
where pi is approximately 3.1416).

Recall that
speed = (distance travelled)/time,
so the
speed v = the circumference of the orbit/orbital period.

When you substitute this for the speed in the mass relation above, you get

M/G = 4pi(squared) X r(cubed)/P the orbital Period(squared)

Sorry for the confusing graphology, I can't get blogger comments to show two-tiered equations or superscripts properly.

This may or may not look familiar to you. It's Kepler's third law.

There is a distance cubed, an orbital period squared, and some other constant factors. Newton found that when Kepler used the motions of the planets to formulate his third law, Kepler was actually measuring the mass of the Sun. If you use the convenient set of units of an astronomical unit for the distance, a year for the time, and 'solar mass' (mass relative to the Sun) for the mass, the complicated term
[4 x (P squared)]/G becomes the simple value of 1.

For the planets orbiting the Sun, the mass relation becomes

1 = r cubed / P squared

or

the radius cubed = the orbital Period squared,

just what Kepler found.

If you can do a little basic arithmetic it becomes self-evident why heavenly bodies behave as they do, namely, why the moon orbits the earth with the periodicity it does, and why its circumfrence occurs at a distance from the earth so as to allow for the phenomenon of solar eclipses.

Oops.

Really, people. If the kind of mumbo jumbo you spout on this blog about hollow moons and alien-constructed planets is evidence of your degree of knowledge or "rigorous intuition" about any level of reality whatsoever, well, no wonder you have morons spouting off about "Moloch" and "Lucifer" and such. Both sets of "intuitions" are equally bogus and ridiculous.

Yes, the moon and earth and sun were created, by the Creator of all things visible and invisible.

Not your petty demi-urges or demonic aliens.

Oy vey.

And we can thank our Muslim brethren for much of the knowledge and enabled Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, and me to do our things.

In the Islamic world, the study of astronomy was closely linked to religious practices. The faithful had to determine the times of the five prayers prescribed by the Quran. They also had to find the direction of Mecca in whatever region of the world they happened to be. These calculations could not be performed accurately without applying spherical trigonometry and studying the Ptolemaic celestial model. To read the heavens, the Arabs compiled astronomical tables, built major observatories, and invented instruments that remained in use until the eighteenth century, such as the astrolabe, the quadrant, the equatorium, and the torquetum. Islamic astronomy spread to Christian Europe thanks to the Tables prepared in Toledo by the astronomer al-Zarqâlî in the eleventh century.

Since then, many Arabic terms such as zenith, azimuth, nadir, and almucantars have entered into the astronomical lexicon of the western world.

Better go back to secondary school, or university, or church, or the mosque or the synagogue.

You might actually learn a thing or two that is REAL.

12/18/2006 01:48:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Druid-with-a-messiah-complex,

If your numbers are so "harmonius", then maybe you ought to learn how to spell it.

HARMONIOUS, that is.

Schmuck

12/18/2006 01:53:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes and who taught the arabs?

The Chaldeans who knew all the names of the stars.

Of course book burnings helped not in
the hahah western age of enlightenment.

The west was sooooo far behind then the ancients.

12/18/2006 02:06:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Using their great skills in astronomy, the Chaldeans also used the movement and positions of the planets and stars to predict the plan of the gods and thus, the future. Astronomy was also utilized to create a method of time based upon a seven-day week, as well as days comprised of twelve 120-minute hours.

Who taught them and the Dogon tribe about sirius alpha canis major being a two star system by the way?

Annunuki ? Aliens ?
Wacky guess?

12/18/2006 02:18:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did amphibious beings from the star Sirius visit the earth 5,000 or more years ago and leave advanced astronomical knowledge that is still possessed by a remote African tribe called the Dogon?

12/18/2006 02:26:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enki, Satan if you will did teach man.


Enki was the deity of crafts, water, intelligence and creation.

The main temple of Enki was called é-engur-a, the "house of deep waters"; or é-abzu, the "house of Abzu", the under ground area of sweet waters(most probably the sumerians explanation of groundwater). It was in Eridu, which was then located in the wetlands of the Euphrates valley not far from the Persian Gulf. He was the keeper of the holy powers called Me, the gifts of civilised living.

Enki is also the master shaper of the world, God of wisdom and of all magic. He is the lord of the Apsu (Akkadian, Abzu in Sumerian, hence Greek and English Abyss) , the fresh-water ocean of groundwater under the earth.

His symbols included a goat and a fish, symbols at the opposite ends of the year (Pisces and Capricorn) which later combined into a single beast, the Capricorn, which became one of the signs of the zodiac. Enki in Sumerian astronomy also represented the planet Mercury, known for its ability to shift rapidly, and its proximity to the Sun, Sumerian Utu, Akkadian Shamash, the God of Justice.

Enki's symbol is the caduceus (2 serpents on a eagle winged stick) is one of the most ancient of symbols.

12/18/2006 02:31:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enki, Champion of Humankind
Kind of like the greek Prometheus story too.

According to Sumerian mythology, Enki also assisted humanity to survive the Deluge designed to kill them. In the Legend of Atrahasis Enlil, the jealous king of the Gods sets out to eliminate humanity, whose noise is offensive to his ears. He successively sends drought, famine and plague to eliminate humanity, but Enki thwarts his half-brother's plans by teaching Atrahasis irrigation, granaries and medicine. Humans again proliferate a fourth time. Enraged Enlil, convenes a Council of Deities and gets them to promise not to tell humankind that he plans their total annihilation. Enki, doesn't tell Atrahasis, but tells of Enlil's plan to the walls of Atrahasis' reed hut, thus covertly rescuing the man Atrahasis, or Ziusudra by either instructing him to build some kind of a boat for his family, or by bringing him into the heavens in a magic boat. After the seven day Deluge, the flood hero, Utnapishtim, Atrahasis or Ziusudra frees a swallow, a raven and a dove in an effort to find if the flood waters have receded. On the boat landing, a sacrifice is organized to the Gods. Enlil is angry his will has been thwarted yet again, and Enki is named as the culprit. As God of what we would call ecology, Enki explains that Enlil is unfair to punish the guiltless Atrahasis for the sins of his fellows, and secures a promise that the Gods will not eliminate humankind if they practice birth control and live within the means of the natural world. The threat is made, however, that if humans do not honour their side of the covenant the Gods will be free to wreak havoc once again. This is apparently the oldest surviving source of the Noah's Ark biblical tale and other parallel Middle Eastern Deluge myths.

The Jews retold the story and the result is the distorted bible.

12/18/2006 02:38:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another troubling one for the devoutly religious.........

The Prometheus myth bears striking similarities to the Adamic myth of the fall of man. The Promethean fire and the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge can be considered semiotic synonyms; there are clear links between Pandora and Eve. In fact the euphemistic name for Satan's former angelic form, Lucifer — actually, a Latin name for the planet Venus — literally means "light bearer," which seems to hint at the image of Prometheus carrying the divine fire down to man. Of course, Satan was not called Lucifer until St. Jerome translated the Hebrew phrase heilel ben-schahar in the Latin Vulgate, many centuries after the account of the Fall of Man was written, making a Prometheus-Lucifer/Satan connection rather unlikely.

Such a reading seems to identify Yahweh as Zeus and the serpent/Satan as the Prometheus figure. This reading is problematic for Judeo-Christian readers, since it seems to suggest that Yahweh is jealous, vengeful and keen to restrict humankind, while presenting Satan as a Prometheus-like champion of humanity. Satanism uses Prometheus as a symbolic aspect of Satan. (see the article Satanism) However, there is no actual evidence of actual borrowing between these two cultures. Old Testament scholarship and that of the contemporary cultures (Hittitology, Assyriology, and Egyptology) show that the beginning of Genesis is modeled more in-line with Ancient Near Eastern myth, so if there is any borrowing, hait would be more likely that the Greeks borrowed from an Ancient Near Eastern culture.

What remains of Prometheus today ? Prometheus continues to be the mythical founder of Western humankind, but is also shrouded in ambiguity: he was the one who continuously strove to invent new techniques, although he was also guilty of defying a “natural order”, a type of “mad savant” who acted without thinking of the consequences.

You can sense in him the liberation of humankind from the oppressive and obscurantist domination of the gods; but he is also the one who moved away from the “the golden age” of the human species. At a cost of great suffering, he placed priority on progress and knowledge over easy submission and wealth.

12/18/2006 02:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MS 2950

ATRA-HASIS, EPIC, THE END OF THE BABYLONIAN FLOOD STORY: - IN HIS HEART HE DID NOT TAKE COUNSEL(?) -, THE ANIMALS HAD SWELLED UP -, MANKIND HAD SWELLED UP -, AT THAT TIME THE SAGE WATRAM-HASIS SAW THIS. HE SPOKE TO EA HIS LORD, (ENLIL WAS DISTURBED BY) THE NOISE OF (THE PEOPLE)
ms2950

MS in Old Babylonian on clay, Babylonia, 1900-1700 BC, upper half of a tablet, 6,5x5,2x2,5 cm, single column, 12 lines of originally 40 lines in cuneiform script.

Binding: Barking, Essex, 2000, blue quarter morocco gilt folding case by Aquarius.

Context: The present part of Atra-Hasis is so far missing on all known tablets. It could belong to BM tablet I, lines 360-365, with a gap concerning the plague prior to the Flood, or to BM tablet III, column 3 after line 27, and column 4 before line 30, where 54 lines are missing, covering the flood story from its peak to the period after the flood had dried up. The primary cause of swelling is development of interior gasses following floods and drowning or famine. According to W.G. Lambert and A.R. Milland: Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian story of the flood. Eisenbrauns 1999, pp. 31-41. There are only some 13 tablets and fragments preserved of the Atra-Hasis Epic, in at least 4 different recentions. Very much of the epic is lost. Another part of the Atra-Hasis epic is MS 5108.

Commentary: The Old Babylonian Flood story told in both the epics of Atra-Hasis and Gilgamesh was written about 200 years before the account in the Bible, Genesis 6:5-8:22. While the cause of the Flood in the Bible was mankind's wickedness and violence, the Old Babylonian cause was the noisy activities of humans, preventing the chief god, Enlil, from sleeping, actually mentioned in the present tablet.
The harsh account of swollen animals and human bodies was apparently deleted from the Biblical Flood story, even if it would have been the first sight meeting Noah leaving the Arc.


http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/4/4.3/432.html
The Schoyen Collection: Literature -- 3.2 Babylonian literature

12/18/2006 02:56:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When I first met Enki he'd already fallen on hard times. I used to pay him two bits to detail my Stutz Bearcat when I was in L.A. But after he ripped off my raccoon coat and pawned it I had to let him go. Now I hear he's hustling out on the strip, sucking cock for crack money.

12/18/2006 05:15:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want the mountain to release our sons. The mountain has no right to keep our sons.

12/18/2006 09:33:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the middle of all these comments, someone brought up Hinkly. Just thought I'd mention, last night's "American Dad" Christmas Episode was a 'back-to-the-future' style sinerio where the dad must shoot Reagan to save the world. Dark humor abounds, and, in the end, he doesn't hit Brady, so now, you can buy a gun, lick-a-ti-split. Merry X-mas.

12/18/2006 10:26:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ibn rushd and fakir, thanks for your comments. Interesting and helpful.

About Islam and free will: I read this in the online Catholic Encyclopedia:

"The Mohammedan doctrine of predestination is equivalent to fatalism. They believe in God's absolute decree and predetermination both of good and of evil; viz., whatever has been or shall be in the world, whether good or bad, proceeds entirely from the Divine will, and is irrevocably fixed and recorded from all eternity. The possession and the exercise of our own free will is, accordingly, futile and useless. The absurdity of this doctrine was felt by later Mohammedan theologians, who sought in vain by various subtle distinctions to minimize it."

Although I'm RC, I'm willing to assume a little "outcome bias" in the CE (even though it's post-Vatican II and therefore intended to be broad-minded in its approach to ecumenicism). But still, this passage seems a mite Old Church:

"It is hardly necessary here to emphasize the fact that the ethics of Islam are far inferior to those of Judaism and even more inferior to those of the New Testament. Furthermore, we cannot agree with Noldeke when he maintains that, although in many respects the ethics of Islam are not to be compared even with such Christianity as prevailed, and still prevails, in the East, nevertheless, in other points, the new faith — simple, robust, in the vigour of its youth — far surpassed the religion of the Syrian and Egyptian Christians, which was in a stagnating condition, and steadily sinking lower and lower into the depths of barbarism (op. cit., Wollaston, 71, 72). The history and the development, as well as the past and present religious, social, and ethical condition of all the Christian nations and countries, no matter of what sect or school they may be, as compared with these of the various Mohammedan countries, in all ages, is a sufficient refutation of Noldeke's assertion. That in the ethics of Islam there is a great deal to admire and to approve, is beyond dispute; but of originality or superiority, there is non. What is really good in Mohammedan ethics is either commonplace or borrowed from some other religions, whereas what is characteristic is nearly always imperfect or wicked."

Rather truculent. Not to mention the concluding graf:

"In matters political Islam is a system of despotism at home and aggression abroad. The Prophet commanded absolute submission to the imâm. In no case was the sword to be raised against him. The rights of non-Moslem subjects are of the vaguest and most limited kind, and a religious war is a sacred duty whenever there is a chance of success against the "Infidel". Medieval and modern Mohammedan, especially Turkish, persecutions of both Jews and Christians are perhaps the best illustration of this fanatical religious and political spirit."

Was it Uri Avnery who recently contrasted the treatment of Jews in medieval Christian lands compared to their treatment in Islamic lands? Moorish Spain vs. Spain at the time of Ferdinand?

The author of that last CE paragraph might be wise to "first pluck from his own eye the plank, before compaining of the mote in his brother's eye."

I must say, though, that the Mohammedan conception of Paradise is rather more attractive than what I imagine John Calvin's to have been:

"...the Koran often speaks of the rivers of Paradise as a principal ornament thereof; some of these streams flow with water, some with wine and others with honey, besides many other lesser springs and fountains, whose pebbles are rubies and emeralds, while their earth consists of camphor, their beds of musk, and their sides of saffron. But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and ravishing girls, or houris, of Paradise, the enjoyment of whose company will be the principal felicity ofthe faithful. These maidens are created not of clay, as in the case of mortal women, but of pure musk, and free from all natural impurities, defects, and inconveniences. They will be beautiful and modest and secluded from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls."

Sweet.

To all, may you enjoy always the peace which surpasseth all understanding.

12/18/2006 10:27:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Really, people. If the kind of mumbo jumbo you spout on this blog about hollow moons and alien-constructed planets is evidence of your degree of knowledge or "rigorous intuition""..

(Sigh). Just goes to show how a mathematical argument can extrapolate away all other information not in its equation...and call it proof. If it ain't in your equation, it can't exist right? hee hee

There's a huge amount of statistical improbability to to call the tailor made sun-earth-moon relationships above random chance, mentioned above.

Though if you want to cite 1600s mathematical equations, feel free. Though you would not be able to explain strange gravity fluctuations during an eclipse, or many other things discussed as anomalous in those books, particularly by NASA people.

12/18/2006 11:36:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I dared to suggest to God that perhaps he should use top soil, rather than clay, in making man. Afterall, top soil is fertile with nutrients allowing for proper growth and health. Seeds do not germinate well in clay. The almighty one would have none of it, though. Thus began my fall from grace.

12/18/2006 11:44:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And an interesting MKULTA segway you have here:

Even MORE bizarre: at the time of their respective arrests following both shooting incidents, John Hinckley AND Mark David Chapman were each carrying on their person a paperback copy of the J.D. Salinger novel, ’CATCHER IN THE RYE.’ (AS did the MK-Ultra mind-controlled assassin Jerry played by Mel Gibson in the surprisingly revealing movie Conspiracy Theory.)

J.D. Salinger, certainly a gifted author, had SUBSTANTIAL and enduring ties to the U.S. intelligence community; in particular, the CIA. Was the book originally intended to be a mind-control programming tool? It's hard to say, but not inconceivable.


I never heard that about the Hinkley carrying the Catcher in the Rye as well? Are you sure?

And Salinger with US. Intel links? Who says? point my way?

Fascinating thought as well that the recording engineers might implant CIA stuff in popular records as well, like backmasking for their MKULTRAs, or even commission popular books as imprinters. I can see them piggybacking onto already existing things more often and using them in programming, though it's hardly unlikely what you suggest that some materials are seeded in the popular culture first for just such culture steering.

12/18/2006 11:45:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want the mountain to release our sons. The mountain has no right to keep our sons.

i hope your sons are prepared to pay the bills for the rescue effort if and when they find them, mama. i don't appreciate my tax dollars supporting this nonsense when economically downtrodden folks have to pay tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses for lack of proper insurance.

your sons were irresponsible and took absurd risks. it was their choice and they, and you should accept the potential outcomes of that risk taking without intervention from uncle sam.

and do us all a favor and leave the damn mountain out of it. who was climbing who you stupid bitch?

12/18/2006 11:53:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Medieval and modern Mohammedan, especially Turkish, persecutions of both Jews and Christians are perhaps the best illustration of this fanatical religious and political spirit.""

Wha?

The Turks left autonomous all their different non-Muslim religious communities, under their own leadership, just turning them into a form of subsidiary Turkish administration for taxation and law among their groups.

And as for Muslim Spain, it was far better (judged by current standards of religious freedom) under the Muslims than when it was later part of "Christian Europe," per the greater conviviality of the three 'peoples of the book' that coexisted more equanimity under the Muslim statelets than they ever would under the Christian versions.

For Spain, the completely different treatment of Muslims to Jewish peoples compared to Germany (when Jewish people got their first "forced yellow stars" and other forced clothing) while Spain they could be high level state administrators, during the same centuries is quite shocking.

That's why I have always liked Spain before the "Reconquista": it was the only place that had a long period of interaction of all the 'peoples of the book.

I can still hear the Arab/Muslim cadences in Spanish guitar, and Jewish Sephardim of Spain have heartbreakingly beautiful music as well that sounds like a close relative to it.

And for this the "rigorous intuition hook," on this topic--a lot of 'occult Europe synthesis', particularly for just one example the Jewish Cabala intermixing with the Christian esotericism which was to move to the Netherlands and England into the 1600s (becoming the Christian Cabala), came out of Spain as well.

The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age by Frances Yates

The Rosicrucian Enlightenment by Frances A Yates

The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, First Freemasons by Tobias Churton

12/18/2006 12:08:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, that was my point, that Moorish Spain treated its Jewish residents far better than that of Catholic Ferdinand, which expelled them in 1492.

I thought I made that clear. Sorry about the Confucian. (Mondegreen intended)

12/18/2006 12:30:00 PM  
Blogger iridescent cuttlefish said...

And here we've veered right back into the original groove--the need for flexible scaffolding when constructing models of reality & truth. Very nicely done, ebb & flow (no relation to Flo & Eddie). Still, it smarts when you have to tear off a chunk of the old belief system, or push some part of it further down the bench to make room for some new fat ass with a scientific notion.

This is why we hold our illusions (and our allusions, all you resisters of the mudshark in my mythology) so closely. It's not just the disconnect of our dissonance--the real weasels ripping our flesh are the personal attachments we make to our pet theories.

I just had a similar sort of experience trying to have some sort of dialogue with a sci-fi writer I've always admired (and whom I've recently linked here.) His name is David Brin, and Jeff has also quoted him, regarding what I don't remember. He's got this great analysis of what the future might hold called Singularities & Nightmares running over at Ray Kurzweil's excellent site, KurzweilAI.net, but when I went over to his blog to ask him about some of his ideas, he reacted very strangely.

You guys know me--friendly guy with a mouthful of oatmeal, right? Well, Dr. Brin called me a snarling lefty (and a lot more besides), and more importantly, or at least much more disillusion-ingly, he refused to speculate about the future at all, other than to insist ad my nauseum that capitalism is the best of all worlds and shut the fuck up, Mr. Cuttlefish.

Being the patient guy that I am, I went back repeatedly just to see if I could get the speculative theorist to speculate a bit, but he's not having any of that. He's still a great sci-fi writer, and I don't mind getting called snarling & ignorant, but it sure made me think twice about where I get my news & views. That perspective thing again, I suppose. Did I mention the damage to my conceptual continuity?

12/18/2006 02:37:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're learning, IC, and you just may get it, eventually.

A sci-fi writer is just a sci-fi writer.

So it goes.

12/18/2006 02:46:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

IC, I went over and took a peek at that blog. I thought your comments very well-reasoned, and was astonished by the arrogance of his reply. The guy is a self-important putz, plus he seems blinded by his own ideology.

"In other words, commerce won’t do it all, alone. Especially when it comes to matters environmental, or those involving the spread of liberty and free-thinking, or giving the poorest of the poor a chance to take part in this great game of uplift."

Great game of uplift? Does he mean exploitation? Who does he think he's kidding, if not himself?

"Make no mistake; EVERY ENEMY WE HAVE EVER HAD has been one that thrives better in darkness than we do. Every single one of them has had more reason to FEAR secular trends toward a more open world. (Go on. Name a case in which we’ve faced an opponent, in which sudden and universal light would not have harmed them more than we were harmed.)"

Uh...Guatemala? Honduras? Nicaragua? Cuba? The Phillipines? Grenada? Greece? El Salvador? Serbia? Vietnam? Iraq?

How do you lampoon such writing, such "fever-in-the-brain-ism?" Brin comes across as Strangelovian, a megalomaniac:

"I am (barely) in reach of actually changing the minds of people with actual power..."

Yuh, right. Our kleptocracy completely ignores the will of the people, and is actually going to send MORE troops to Iraq, and he thinks he can change their minds? He is amazingly deluded.

"And yes, because you cannot bench press 300 pounds that means your arms do not move at all, right?"

What a brilliant analogy.

"I am on the front lines fighting for reciprocal openness and accountability. You are kvetching that the fight is already lost."

I guess mentioning Paperclip and the metastasized National Security State is "kvetching," in his Heinleinian, Hitler Jugend world. HE is on the front lines, IC. HE is a big shot, a macher. Stand aside, lest you get his boot stomping on your face.

How much more genial Jeff Wells is.

(I might as well mention that I'd never heard of the great Mr. Brin until you mentioned him.)

12/18/2006 03:36:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you ruined it with your last line, oarwell, proving you still don't get it.

12/18/2006 03:54:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Check out the 90 minute speech by Webster Tarplay

9/11 Truth: Webster Tarpley Speaks in Seattle, April 1, 2006

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-609179074068244932

He was the one who (literally) 'wrote the book' on Gladio and European false flag terrorism from the 1970s. See him talk about the continuity of it into 9-11, particularly concerning the Bush family.

MIHOP is "the temper of the times...."

12/18/2006 03:58:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, and it's sort of on topic--some of the Hinkley issues mentioned above, to the (Bush orchestrated) Reagan Assassination is fleshed out in the intro.

12/18/2006 04:06:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A friendly fakir 8:17 said...

The Qur'an, unlike the bible, holds that "hell" is not an eternal punishment, and that God's mercy ultimately redeems all of His creation. The separation is just temporary.

I am interested in the Qur'an and thank you for the messages. In my Christian Bible hell is not eternal. In The Revelation 20: 14 the Holy Bible reads, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. - So we interpret this as God's judgment being eternal. Death and hell are not eternal. The second death is after the end of the first heaven and the first earth. Then comes a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation 21: 1. This is after death and hell are cast into the lake of fire.

We human beings as a species have only been in existence for a very short duration of time in the universe. Fossil remains and educated geological data put the earth's age of possible years in the billions. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth (became) waste, and void. The Hebrew word (without form) is tohu va bohu. The earth was not created tohu, but became tohu. We read in Isaiah 45: 18 For thus says the Lord That created the heavens; God Himself That formed the earth and made it; He has established it, He created it not (in vain) Heb. tohu The same word as in Genesis 1. 2 ("without form"), He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord;

and there is none else.

Therefore it must have become tohu: which is exactly what Genesis 1. 2 declares. In 2 Peter 3. 5,6 For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

So we read in Genesis 1. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

An enemy had done this. God then recreated the heavens and the earth. We read in 2 Peter 3. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

The Creation Tablets are preserved in an epic poem in honor of Merodach, the patron god of Babylon. If Genesis looks back to Creation, it is to put on record the profound contrast between them, and to give, instead of the corruption of primitive truth, which had been handed down by tradition, the Divine account by Him Who created all things, by the hand and pen of Moses.

1. The Tablets begin with chaos. The Bible with perfection (Gen. 1.1).
2. The Tablets make the heavenly bodies to be gods. Genesis makes them into created matter.
3. The Tablets are all polytheistic mythology. Genesis is monotheistic truth.
4. The Tablets make all the work of a craftsman. In Genesis, God speaks, and it is done.
5. In the Tablets we meet everywhere with the childishness of a grotesque superstition. In Genesis we find the grand and solemn realities of righteousness and holiness.

Taken from the writings of the Bible theologian E.W. Bullinger.

12/18/2006 04:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well IC...

A scaffold is also just the perfect thing to have a proper hanging and it's somewhat customary to have the condemned help build their own before they finally stick their neck in the noose and try to dance on thin air...hmmm? LOL

Not the best of elements to mix into any metaphor, particularly where it's probably best to shoot from the hip, or the lip, as the case may be and let the chips fall where they may in order to find some plainer terms to help describe what ought to be plain as day but rarely ever gets beyond being as clear as mud, namely "Reality".

Now any "belief" in what can only ever be sensed visually or otherwise can only presume that belief itself to be true or real rather than whatever it is ostensibly about.

This is of the very nature of all our beliefs. Of course whenever we create or accept a belief and fancy something to be true or real, whatever evidence we accept for it never comes without having to ignore and sacrifice anything and everything that dares to contradict it, at least untill we finally trip over some part of it and fall flat on our faces. Pride, as Mother used to say, always goes before a fall.

We may actually have had more reasons to believe something than not but we are always swayed by what is more important "to us" about it rather than whatever is important in and of itself. This is far more true of most beliefs as opposed what they are supposed to be about than we think, or more precisely, allow ourselves to think.

So we consitently overlook the fact that we invariably have "motives" we are less than honest with ourselves about in relation to both what we want to believe and why we want to believe it; for what that particular belief and having it says "about us" far more importantly than whatever we may say or even sometimes pretend it is ever about.

It isn't knowing any particular truth for it's own intrinsic value but trying to own and poseess it and be proud of being better than any who don't that's at fault. Ego, pure and simple.

So those ulterior motives we hide from ourselves are what distorts our picture of the world and muddies up the pretty colours we so desperately want to paint it with.

The more desperately we try the darker they actually become. It never dawns on us that our theme has turned to one of desperation or that reality is quite accurately reflecting that back at us.

Our "collective consciousness" doesn't merely display what we only "think" we most desire or want to experience but what that desire actually "means" or "becomes" or is "translated into" or "says about us" in terms of physical events when it is delivered with the kind of true intent and raw power we put behind it.

I'll try and give you a simplified hypothetical situation that's plausible enough these days...

Let's say we love our children and our families and we only want to keep them safe from harm or unpredictable events, (which is always perfectly true), and of course at the very same time our minds are filled with terrible and fearfull thoughts and we are stock-piling guns, ammunition, and supplies and doubling up all the locks on our doors and busily barring all the lower floor windows.

Just on the surface of that, what are we expecting and anticipating? What are we so diligently preparing to meet? What is the nature of our true "intent" or the fear that drives it or what we intend to meet with it? Safety? Security? Peace of mind and tranquility? Or simply "the worst"?

So what happens? Why the worst happens but it "really" is the very worst, naturally.

One of our children will get run over by a car or our spouse will have fatal heart attack or a devatating stroke and all this time we worried and prepared for what we only believed to be "the worst" found us completely unprepared for the "reality" of it when it arrived.

Not only that but more than likely those same useless preparations will have something elemental to do with what did happen, giving it a helping hand, if you will by way of all the additional stress or being completely preoccupied and distracted by it.

So do we see or admit to any connections? Could we have brought it on ourselves? Is there any lesson to it? Who would dare to even suggest such a thing in the face of such a totally "unpredictable" tragedy...hmmm? Was it? Really?

And so I'm afraid, as Vonnegut say's, it goes. The events are all "on topic" and directly related and the motives, actions and all their undercurrents deliver them up.

We will all refer to it as one of life's peculiar little ironies and keep right on doing the very same kind of things ourselves.

The nature of our experience is complicated and complex just as we ourselves are. There is a story and players and a stage for them to take place on and those who will set it as well as any who will only seem to be an audience for it.

All have a hand in it's creation. All with something to learn if they can acept that responsibility with some humility.

Each component also serves a similar purpose of its own with it's own subplots and subtexts that will have some resemblence and bearing to the overall theme being explored itself...

The "beliefs", if you will, that are all made "real" to be seen for what they genuinely are and what they are genuinely based on.

If we do not look for these beliefs and the real reasons for their existence the "object lessons" will simply repeat in another guise.

The mechanism by which reality is governed in this regard does not differentiate between whether we actually want something or simply haven't gotten the point yet about something we're mistaken about wanting.

The experience will always be new and sufficiently stimulating to prompt us and at least gain our attention either way. To see a new face on something we want or haven't recognised in any of it's previous ones.

That, of course, is entirely up to us and just as it should be.

12/18/2006 04:22:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What don't I get? This?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YmIrvhysKpE&search=negativland

12/18/2006 05:17:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

brtanner said: "Regarding the role of the largely Saudi patsies in the plane-bombings, Hopsicker seems an embittered true believer."

i have read these comments only up to that point, so i might be missing some followup, but let me add that while i take hopsicker at face value and think his work is some of the best out there, he does seem unwilling to talk very much about domestic complicity. i don't really understand where he is coming from in that regard.

i do admire him when he says (to dave emory, for example) that he doesn't know what the big picture is.

on the other hand, i don't like it when (in speaking with dave emory, again) hopsicker starts attacking peter dale scott. i mean, it starts to sound like a typical internecine situation, and it's disappointing to hear one of the best start trashing another one of the best.

12/18/2006 06:07:00 PM  
Blogger messianicdruid said...

Dear Einstien with-an-albert-complex: did you not notice the quotation marks? the mis-spelling was not mine. Go to the link, and consider how some one could predict the sizes of Mars' moons years before we had a way to do it. It seems to indicate they were positioned there on purpose.

12/18/2006 06:27:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What don't I get? This?

It appears to me that maybe you misunderstood anonymous

12/18/2006 07:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Regarding Spain's treatment of the Jews:

Well, the Germans sure treated the Native Americans more kindly than did the Spaniards.

to hold one group of eurospuds morally over another is puerile and absurd. I thought Muhammed Ali and Malcolm X made that obvious.

Hey IC, at least oatmeal is whole grain!

12/18/2006 09:44:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey ppl,

Check out this vid concerning MKULTRA/Project Talent survivor Duncan O'Finioan.

Especially interesting are the parts concerning Dubya when he was Governor of Texas.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8816519826373820792

Ties in with a lot of other stuff often discussed around here.

Regards

12/18/2006 10:01:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've always found Negativland to be a wonderful and inspiring model. No Mother-Earth-News-types these, no, they have all they need in the way of the most modern audio and video equipment available. But what's their sermon? Do not as we do, but as we say! If they really believed the crap they were spewing, they wouldn't be spewing it to begin with.

I've found, among my associates, the more profoundly they believed in socialism, the more likely they were to be users.

12/18/2006 10:04:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Awerwell,

Thanks for the appreciation. Your CE source is, as you note, more than a bit biased. I would tend to characterize it as disinformation, or perhaps more accurately, propaganda.

The use of the term "Mohammedan" to denote Islam is evidence of this. No Muslim hears this term other than as a pejorative, and insult, or even a blasphemy, because it is attributing something to Muhammad which properly belongs to God. I don't know the exact temporal origin of the term but it has been used by the RC at least since Pope Innocent III hawked the first crusade at the end of the 11th century, to portray Muslims as some kind of cultists. The "mOhammEd" spelling with the O and the E rather than mUhammAd (which is the correct transliteration into the Roman alphabet, is the intentionally incorrect Italo-French transliteration, specifically intended also as an insult, like making fun of somebody's name on a Jr. High School playground to pick a fight. There is in fact no vowel O, nor any vowel E, in the entire Arab language.

The sort of mocking mispelling, not to mention the blasphemic* eponymizing** by calling the religion "Mohammedan" rather than Muslim or Islam, has been used in the same way ever since. You'll still hear it today in certain circles in Europe, UK, US, Ozzieland, and elsewhere when somebody is trying to go for blood. Nothing new under the sun, eh?

id est, the religion did not come from Muhammad*, nor is it about him.** It is about God, and surrender to God.

The anonymous who mentioned the quality of life for non-Muslims in Spain, or al-Andalus, whose great cities were Granada, Cordoba, Toledo and Salamanca under the Almohad and Ummayad caliphates for OVER SEVEN CENTURIES (Dig THAT!!) from 786 A.D. to the reconquista in 1492 by Isabel and Ferdinand on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, said a mouthful.

There are many good books on this history, a quite excellent one being "The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain". Interestingly enough the author is Maria Rosa Menocal, who is Roman Catholic who is a professor at Yale, with an introduction by Harold Bloom, an old Reaganite culture warrior who is a neocon.

It just goes to show that ANYONE is capable of doing some good.

Interesting footnote is that after the reconquista, this and other historical accounts mention that something on the order of 40-60% of the Bishops of the Inquisition were formerly Jewish conversos.

As for the issue of Divine predetermination in Islam, I think the paragraphs posted above by Ibn Rushd address this. Free Will on the part of man is absolutely a part of both exoteric and esoteric Islam. Yet God is infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, etcetera. So of course we can not "thwart" the will of God. No more than can a fallen angel or a jinn.

The answer is clear if one contemplates a bit silently. I think Augustine provided similar insights for the philosophically minded among the RCC.

For the CE to say what it did, well, like I said it's propagandistic disinformation aimed at "otherizing" Muslims, so the those who would sadly wish to carry on the torch and the battleaxe of the "crusader" (I actually mistyped the typo "cursader" first --very interesting.....)

Thanks one and all for a lively, informed discussion.

Salaam

12/18/2006 10:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

a bit of clarification,

I wasn't meaning to disrespect MRMenocal for being Catholic. Far from it. My irony was intended for the Yale connection of her and Bloom, and the latter's neocon connection.

Re my comment,

Interesting footnote is that after the reconquista, this and other historical accounts mention that something on the order of 40-60% of the Bishops of the Inquisition were formerly Jewish conversos.

I meant to add: Could this be the origin of the "Wandering Bishops?"

12/18/2006 10:22:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Everthings backwards

Due to thousands of years of misinformation, lies, and the systematic removal of knowledge, few people these days understand or even know what “Satanism” really is all about.

Some 10,000 years ago, the Gods left us. This article is not to go into the details as to how or why. This will be covered in a separate article. The Gods are an extra-terrestrial race of beings. As a matter of fact, there have been several different alien races that have lived here on planet Earth on and off and have taken an interest in human beings, either as friends, enemies or neutrals.

The main Gods who interacted with humanity and are our creators (through genetic engineering) are the race of Gods known as the Nordics. They live throughout the galaxy in several different solar systems. They are highly advanced in knowledge, intelligence, and in spirit. Some are helpful to humans as are Satan and the Elder Gods who have been labeled as “Demons.” Some are neutral and others are and have been working for our destruction. The background concerning the creation can be found in more detail in separate articles on this website.

Thousands of years ago, the Gods shared a lot of their knowledge with human beings. This included spiritual knowledge. Many even inter-married and/or bore children with humans. The original religions (long before the arrival of Judaism, Xianity, and Islam, which is an offshoot of xianity) all had one thing in common- the emphasis on the serpent. The serpent is the symbol of the kundalini, the DNA helix, wisdom, and knowledge.

Thousands of years ago, there was a time when human beings had power close to that of the Gods. This was when the Gods lived side by side with humanity. The Gods left images in stone for a future time when knowledge would once again be discovered. Markers of specific times such as the Egyptian Sphinx (Age of Leo, 10,500 BCE), the scarab (Age of Cancer, 8,800 BCE), the twins, (Age of Gemini, 6,640 BCE), the bull (Age of Taurus, 4,480), and the rams heads (Age of Aries, 2,320 BCE)- all of these go back thousands of years and provide evidence that civilization is much older than previously assumed. Ancient temples, many that are still intact in Egypt are aligned with the constellations and stars; evidence of the extra-terrestrial Gods.

At some point, circa 8,000 BCE, the Earth and the Original Creator Gods who befriended humans were attacked. Guns, bombs and other weapons are obsolete in advanced worlds. Warfare is of the mind and soul and is spiritual. The Gods who were outnumbered left and humanity was at the mercy of enemy alien beings. The being known as “Jehova/Yaweh” suddenly appeared on the scene. This being never revealed his identity. His destination of choice was Egypt. With the destruction of Atlantis, remaining knowledge made its way to Egypt where it was kept and preserved within the royalty families, and the Egyptian priesthood.

The entity known as “Yaweh” proceeded to attack and destroy Egypt. He led the Israelites into the desert for an extended length of time where new generations who had no ties to the past were prepared to annihilate surrounding communities where ancient knowledge was kept.

Under the pretext of securing a “promised land” for the displaced Hebrews, the entity directed this hoard on a rampage of mass murder, destruction, and slaughter in the region known as the “Cradle of Civilization” and surrounding areas. Places that possessed knowledge and allegiance to the Original Gods were viciously attacked. Their people were mass murdered, their centers of learning and libraries were sacked and burnt to the ground, statues and other relics representing the Original Gods were destroyed, and Yaweh designated any remaining women and children to be turned over to the Hebrews to be kept as slaves.

Following the destruction, fictitious histories were invented in further attempts to destroy all knowledge of the ancient past and the Original Gods. The book known as the “Bible” emerged; full of stolen bits and pieces of former civilizations and religious doctrines. All of these were twisted and corrupted to fit the mold of this new so-called “religion.” The Original Gods were demonized and their reputations were destroyed. Yaweh/Jehova took over as the presumed “creator” and *owner* of humanity.

This set the stage for more destruction and removal of ancient knowledge with the invention of the fictitious Nazarene and the coming of the “prophet” Mohammed, who was visited by enemy extra-terrestrial “Gabriel” was given the same message convert others to Islam or murder them. With the Christian and Moslem religions, human beings were deceived into destroying and removing any knowledge on their own, so Yaweh and his entities would no longer have to constantly provide the necessary supervision.

Duality became the theme. “God” vs. the “Devil.” “Good” vs. “Evil.” The serpent and knowledge became synonymous with evil and now the origin of all evil was the Devil. “Satan” is the Hebrew word for “adversary” and anything opposed to this new doctrine was labeled as “satanic” or of the Devil. Teachings of ancient civilizations were stolen, corrupted and wound up in the Judeo/Christian bible and passed off as Judeo/Christian doctrines where people were deceived into believing they had originated. Each succeeding generation of humanity was stripped more and more of spiritual knowledge and power. When Christianity had gained control, much of the world descended into the era known as the “Dark Ages” where literacy and learning ceased to exist. Everything centered around Christianity.

From the above, we can plainly see Christianity was and is nothing more than a tool for removing knowledge, and replacing it with lies. Anything having to do with kundalini and spiritual advancement became a serious offense punishable by torture and death.

Human sexuality was severely regulated and frowned upon by the church. This is because sexuality and orgasm as the life force are essential to spiritual advancement and the raising of the kundalini serpent. Because the church could not supervise sexual activity, they enforced a doctrine of extreme terror. The populace, stripped of all knowledge and spiritual power (ignorance= fear) fell victim to lies. “Hell” emerged on the scene. The word “Hell” was stolen from the Norse word “Hel” representing the Norse underworld. The emphasis on the trinity and the number seven are reminiscent of the chakras. The three knots of the root, heart and third eye chakras, and the seven chakras of the human soul. Every attempt was made by the church to replace any spiritual associations with these numbers and any significant numbers that were related to the human soul such as 144,000; which is the number of nadis within the human body to channel the life force of the soul. The number two became synonymous with Satan. The second chakra is sexual in nature and controls human sexuality, so of course any association with two was evil. Blockages in the second chakra keep an individual completely enslaved spiritually as the life force remains completely dormant in the first chakra.

With fear, human beliefs and thoughts can be controlled. Humanity was led to believe this omnipresent and “all-powerful” “God” could know their every little thought and action. Through fear, people began to monitor their own thoughts and actions. The seven sacraments of the Catholic Church (The original Christian religion) enforced strict control over every stage of an individual’s life, particularly that of “confession.” Through confession, the church had even more control, that of knowing the deepest secrets of the frightened population. This enabled the ruling clergy to have power over kings, queens and other secular monarchy.

Whenever necessary, enemy alien beings stepped in astrally to encourage and enforce these beliefs of terror as with the visions of Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who wrote the Medieval epic “Divine Comedy.” Enemy aliens were quick to enforce the fear through horrific visions of “Hell” and the afterlife for anyone who ventured onto the astral. This was simple in that the intense and total emphasis on xianity assured no alternative knowledge would act as a threat. Shape shifting aliens took full advantage of the spiritual ignorance of the human populace, appearing as messengers of “God” and on occasion, the aliens masquerading as the Nazarene even made special visits to give credence to this anti-life campaign.

Islam took control of the Middle East and other regions physically inaccessible to xianity at that time and directed the same campaign- the removal of all knowledge, which was forcibly replaced with the false doctrines of the Koran. Same old themes- sexuality and free thought are taboo. Women were denigrated because of their innate sexual attraction for men. Ancient legends were warped to conform to xian teachings, such as the “Adam and Eve” tale. The tree of life which symbolizes the pathways for the kundalini life force became the forbidden “Tree of Knowledge.” The serpent symbolizing the kundalini became synonymous with “evil” and the “Devil” who was erroneously labeled as death.

The force was set in motion. The populace, now totally ignorant of energy manipulation and spiritual power put 100% into creating a powerful new thought form; that of xianity. Humanity has paid the price and has degenerated spiritually as a result. Spiritual knowledge, power, and control has remained in the hands of a few to the detriment of all. Contact with the Elder Gods who lost a battle in a spiritual war was cut off. The Elder Gods were bound at the soul by the temporarily victorious enemy and lost much of their spiritual powers. These Gods were labeled as “evil,” by the new enemy religions and tales of demonic possession, hideous monsters out to destroy humanity and other frightening lies were pushed upon an unknowing populace.

Again, to enforce these lies so they would take on a life of their own, free from continual enemy alien supervision, enemy aliens would again shape shift and pose as “Demons” to frighten any humans who would dare to try to establish contact with them. Grimoires and “black books” were written specifically for this purpose.

Those who dared were led to believe the Elder Gods were monsters who could be summoned like slaves to do the bidding of the sorcerer. These beings became the denizens of Hell, synonymous with death, destruction, and evil. Within the confines of a nine-foot circle, the sorcerer would write Yaweh/Jehova and angelic names and petition prayers to these enemy entities before, during and after the summoning. Given the Elder Gods were deprived of much of their spiritual powers; they were at the mercy of these enemy entities. The petitions and prayers secured enemy control and supervision in every contact.

"Spirituality" was seriously corrupted into something ugly by the church. This theme also bled into Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, where denial, denouncing physical and earthly pleasures and sexuality have been the theme. Suffering was exalted as a virtue along with every other negative and destructive practice. Strict adherence to these anti-life and anti-spiritual teachings also ensured a slave mentality. This benefited the corrupted leaders of the church in many respects.

The removal of knowledge is still occurring today. The same theme- remove and destroy all knowledge of the past so an alternative past can be invented to exert further control upon an already spiritually ignorant populace. Because of a lack of knowledge, humanity can and has been as a whole, manipulated into a system of false beliefs that have taken on a life of their own through mass thought energy. This is one reason Christianity has had such a powerful hold on its adherents.

Satanism which is the original religion has suffered. Many are deluded into believing Satan and Satanism are synonymous with the Judeo/Christian concept of “evil.” The Christian Churches have dictated to a populace cut off from all ancient knowledge and the Original Gods; namely our Creator God, Ea, also known as Enki, Lord of the Earth and “Satan” what “Satanism” is supposed to be all about. Few are even aware they have a soul and those who know we do, most are ignorant as to how to care for it and empower it. With the age of information, Wicca, with its Judeo/Christian overtones, has arrived on the scene, once again, working to deprive practitioners of any serious power. Paganism recognizes the Elder Gods, but as a whole remains ignorant concerning the history of these Gods, and because of this, mixes enemy and friendly Gods, which is extremely dangerous. Modern Pagans are also ignorant to the fact we have a Creator God who has been labeled as the “Devil.”

Humanity has paid the price. Spiritual degeneration has resulted in misery, sickness, disrespect for worthwhile life, and has been at the mercy of cruel fate through ignorance. Those who are spiritually powerless and unknowing are easily controlled and manipulated by those few who *do* have this knowledge and power.

The Nazarene has acted as a distraction. One just recites a few robotic meaningless prayers and sets his/herself on the path of severe self-denial and he/she is automatically “saved.” True spirituality never even enters into the picture. The Christian churches are and always have been 100% material, though they try to convince an ignorant populace otherwise. The truth is- we save our own souls and the alien enemies of humanity know this. This is the real reason the world in such chaos. The enemy continues to play the game of deluding people and placing the blame for this chaos on the human race as a whole, while they, themselves have been the ones who have worked relentlessly to remove all spiritual knowledge that would have prevented much of this from this world. Only through Satan can they be defeated. Satan is our True God and Creator. He gave us “the breath of life” which is the human soul. He wishes us to empower ourselves and to advance spiritually.

12/18/2006 10:59:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They use earth as a soul farm and the moon is hollow!!!

12/18/2006 11:01:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is Lapetus an artificial satellite of Saturn?

Some excerpts from the 6 page story linked below-

http://www.enterprisemission.com/moon1.htm

"There is no viable geological model to explain a sixty thousand-foot-high, sixty thousand-foot-wide, four million-foot-long “wall”"

"Then, if we look along the southern horizon, we see the same type of anomaly … this time a “tower-like structure,” rising more than a mile above the surrounding terrain"(pictured bottom of page 1)

"Needless to say -- natural planets or satellites do NOT come with sharply-defined “straight edges!”And before anyone says, “Oh, that’s just a smeared photo,” I would remind them of the official NASA press release that came with it, which plainly states:
… The image shows mainly the night side of Iapetus; part of the far brighter sunlit side appears at the right and is overexposed due to the long integration time of 180 seconds. Despite this long exposure time, almost no blurring due to the spacecraft’s motion is apparent.
What this means, of course, is that the stark, “impossible” straight-edged geometry we’re seeing on Iapteus’ limb … is real!"

"In addition to Arthur’s well-known musings, the extreme albedo range displayed by Iapetus prompted a sober suggestion in the 1980’s, that “the brightness variations might be artificial.” Donald Goldsmith and Tobias Owen (the latter, the NASA discoverer of “the face on Mars!”) wrote of Iapetus in The Search for Life in the Universe (1980):
This unusual moon is the only object in the Solar System which we might seriously regard as an alien signpost - a natural object deliberately modified by an advanced civilization to attract our attention"

"That, instead of being spherical – as natural moons larger than about 250 miles across must be (due to inexorable gravitational contraction) -- the overall 900-mile-wide form of Iapetus is highly geometric… specifically, apparently an eroded truncated icosahedron!"

"One of the most remarkable examples of potential ancient artifacts published by Cremo and Thompson were hundreds of “small, grooved spheres” – mined in South Africa. According to Roelf Marx, curator of the Museum of Klerksdorp, South Africa, where some of the spheres are housed:
“The spheres are a complete mystery. They look man-made, yet at the time in Earth's history when they came to rest in this rock no intelligent life existed. They're nothing like I have ever seen before (Jimison 1982).”"

"The discovery of manufactured artifacts -- looking exactly like what we now know Iapetus to be -- and in the middle of this incredibly ancient, incredibly primitive Pre-Cambrian Epoch … is simply impossible.Unless—
They were brought here from “somewhere else” -- when those original sediments were being formed ….Which, of course, introduces the idea of “seed ships.”"

12/18/2006 11:12:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How did He (2001)write a book about this before we knew?

Now we know , how did he?

12/18/2006 11:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This unusual moon is the only object in the Solar System which we might seriously regard as an alien signpost - a natural object deliberately modified by an advanced civilization to attract our attention"

12/18/2006 11:16:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Cassini spacecraft has made a close pass of Saturn's moon Iapetus, a striking world of two halves.

One side of Iapetus' surface is as bright as snow, while the other is coated in a material as dark as tar.

At 0130GMT on 1 January, Cassini flew by the frigid moon at a distance of 123,400km on its closest approach.

Some scientists think the dark material on Iapetus' surface came from space, while others believe it could have spewed out from the moon's interior.


It looks like the skin of a stitched baseball
Dr Carolyn Porco, Space Science Institute
The flyby could bring scientists a step closer to knowing which of these processes was responsible for its bizarre appearance.

"[Iapetus] is novel and it's intriguing and may signify some important planetary process that's just begging for further investigation," Dr Carolyn Porco, who leads the mission's imaging team, told the BBC News website.

Cassini got roughly 10 times closer to the moon than the Voyager 2 probe did in 1981. The closest approach occurred over the moon's dark terrain, which has never been seen at close range.

The best images taken of Iapetus by Voyager had a resolution of about 8km per pixel, while on this pass Cassini got down to a resolution of about 1km per pixel.

Cover of darkness

The dark coating is rich in organic (carbon-based) molecules and blankets the side of Iapetus that leads in the direction of orbital motion around Saturn (apart from the moon's poles).

It may have started off as a cloud of material ejected into space by an impact on an outer moon of Saturn. Over time, the orbiting dust could have moved inward towards the ringed planet.

Eventually, Iapetus flew through the cloud, which "painted" it on one side with the organic-rich material.

Iapetus pictured by Voyager 2, Nasa
Voyager 2 caught this glimpse of Iapetus in 1981
The other possibility is that the dark coating originated within Iapetus itself.

"It could have been extruded out on to the surface in a violent event or in some other way; we just don't know," Dr Porco explained.

12/18/2006 11:25:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They know.

We just cannot handle the truth.

12/18/2006 11:26:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand...

12/18/2006 11:34:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did anyone like my new version of Heartbreak Hotel (the Bloodline Fever Blues) at the end of the last thread?

Here's an original for you the the boy's in D.C., my only song of socio-political commentary, Poison Ivy League. Dig it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-yvMGZcek

12/18/2006 11:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Astrology, when interpreted accurately, is the most detailed and advanced method of divination and is essential to timing rituals and working magick. Nearly all of the ancient megalithic structures were designed to observe the stars and their movements. The four cardinal points used in ritual are based upon the points of the Zodiac, as are the elements.

The Gods referred to the planetary tables as the "tablets of destiny/fate." One interpretation of the number 666 is 6 x 6 x 6= 216. 2,160 years is how long it takes the synetic vernal point to travel through a house of the zodiac. This is the time of an astrological age. "666, is the number of a man" Aquarius, the water bearer. This will be the Age of Aquarius, the age of fire, the Age of Satan.

12/18/2006 11:43:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The thing you refuse to understand is that Hopsicker himself is one of the Messengers of Deception. He's one of the gatekeepers of the so-called left doing the work of the Bush crime family. All of the so-called hijackers are alive and well.

Lets face it, a building just doesn't fall like that and steel melts at a higher temperature than you get from burning jet fuel. I'm sick of all this stuff about girders losing their structural integrity which is what the government liars are trying to tell us, for a building to just fall like that the steel would have to be completely MELTED LIKE LAVA and besides the steel had impenetrable fire protection coating and no other buildings in hisotry ever before fell from a structural fire, for example the empire state building which was hit by a plane.

Let's crash the gatekeepers! Unless they are willing to print the truth they shouldn't be writing.

-- nestor

12/19/2006 05:43:00 AM  
Blogger Sounder said...

Dear anon 10:59,

In my worldview it is inappropriate to consider any created, temporal, or 'advanced alien' as being G-d.

Your inherent idolatry seems to show in the willingness to capitalize a conceptual representation that is itself derived from something larger.

12/19/2006 05:49:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

About "free-will" and predestination...

Every possible outcome is already known and already exists in an "incipient" state if you will.

What physics calls "probabilities" but as yet is still somewhat reluctant to call "real" or recognise that they must exist in a infinitely larger reality of which our's is but a quite deliberately chosen sub-set that is only revealed in three dimensions and made available for our three dimensional selves to experience when and if we select them.

So all those probabilities or potential outcomes from whatever choices we select are not simply "potentially real", that potential itself has to be "real" in every sense of the word if we are to make them "real" in our own terms.

So all things are known and nothing can exist which does not already exist in this somewhat pre-packaged state, nor can it be "unwrapped" or "unfolded" into our own extracted version of that larger reality, except as a matter of voluntary "choices" at our level.

In order to have those choices we must have something to choose from and not just any something, a fantasy something, an impossible something, or some imaginary something,(even though it may well appear that way to us sometimes), but a definite something, a most concrete something, a continuing something, a something that dovetails with the something we've already chosen in one way or another that will present us with our next set set of equally "real choices".

All those choices can be either deliberate or spontaneous but whichever they are they can never be known untill they are made, untill the circumstances that lead to them have themselves been chosen in order to bring them about.

Now the possibilities are quite literally infinite and limited only by the laws of mathematics, physics, and chemistry that enable anything to be real as we understand it in three dimensions.

Since every possibility exists to be chosen the choice of an "inevitable future", or a "pointless future", or "a cold mechanical and heartless future" or even some "bitter end of a future" are also among those infinite options.

We can have such experiences if we so choose but they will only exist as long as we make no other choices in that regard.

It seems somewhat difficult to concieve how that could be the case, unless of course we also deliberately chose to allow ourselves to be convinced otherwise.

We can never abandon our free will nor exist without it for even an instant nor do anything more than pretend in that regard.

It is as elemental and inescapable as walking into a delicatessen or confronting a buffet table or even relieving ourselves, which we can choose to do on the spot or choose to rush off in search of a nearby washroom and hope that we make it.

12/19/2006 08:21:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I used to believe in Fate, but I matured, and changed my mind. Now I can't help but believe in Free Will.

12/19/2006 10:42:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I relish the the fact that we are free to accept or reject our fate.

Thanks be to god, for that.

12/19/2006 01:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OT: isn't the UFO in the illustration a close cousin of the ones in the old British Gerry Anderson series "UFO"? Sure look like it...

12/20/2006 08:24:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for that Lapetus (moon of Saturn) page.

12/20/2006 12:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

jeff,

you gotta get off this ufo stuff - it really takes the amazing research you have done in other areas lose serious credibility.

yeah - the us military and other top secret gov't programs are years ahead of the pubilc knowledge of technology, etc. - yeah they probably developed some pretty crazy flying objects and weird atmospheric phenomenon in the process. but come on man - aliens?!?!

12/20/2006 12:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you gotta get off this ufo stuff - it really takes the amazing research you have done in other areas lose serious credibility.

No it doesn't. Particularly if you follow the rabbit down the hole it does in a major way get into the relationships between 'high wierdness' as well as the national security state concerning UFOs. Read that:

UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973 by Richard M. Dolan and Jacques F. Vallee (2002)

yeah - the us military and other top secret gov't programs are years ahead of the pubilc knowledge of technology, etc. - yeah they probably developed some pretty crazy flying objects and weird atmospheric phenomenon in the process. but come on man - aliens?!?!

You tell me what is stupider to believe in

[A]: evidence for aliens right in front of your face,

[B]: a lack of evidence supporting the human species is entirely alone in the whole universe, though you believe it anyway!

Don't try to judge or control a sprawling network of relationships based on how it fits into your preconceptions.... Re-read the 'moral' this very post!

Jeff wrote:

But to me, the most interesting aspect of the story is the reaction of Raymond's mother:

Throughout this investigation, Mrs Romand displayed a very strange attitude. She seemed deeply shocked by the whole affair and reluctant to let the interview take place. She refused to believe that Raymond might have seen something. A very pious, devout woman, she stated plainly that "flying saucers" and "Martians" could not exist and that she would rather believe that an evil spirit, or the Devil himself, was prompting her son to lie.... A newspaper reporter who went to Premanon and spoke to the woman remarked that her home was probably one of the few places in France where the subject of "flying saucers" had never been discussed at the dinner table. The children themselves never used the term "saucer" or "Martian." They said and repeated that they had seen a "ghost." The idea of a "flying saucer" was started by the adults in Premanon.

To Mrs Romand it became of paramount importance, for both her family's reputation in the community and her until-then unchallenged assumptions of the way things were, that her son must have made the whole thing up. Think about that for a moment, and you may see what a common response it is to information that transgresses our base-beliefs. Sometimes, the consequences of admitting certain realities are thought to be so grave we would rather believe a loved one a lunatic or a liar for testifying to them.



So, A or B, choose which one fits the evidence, or choose which one fits your fear?

The choice can be stated even more succintly: do you want building blocks, or mental blocks?

12/20/2006 12:52:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

About the little matter of credibility...

The opposite of "belief" isn't "disbelief" for disbelief itself is a form of hardened belief in something that simply contradicts another belief while being just as similarly short on facts to support what it supposedly contends.

Relying exclusively on any real or imagined shortcomings of the belief it purports to oppose.

In this case the disbelief ignores the simple fact that no one has yet to provide any irrefutable proof that aliens, UFO's and the like cannot possibly exist and untill such time as they do any who simply "believe" that contention are calling their own credibility, rather than our's into question.

The failure to provide irrefutable proof for the one "belief" does not constitute some irrefutable poof to "disbelieve" it. That is a non-sequitar. (it does not follow). That contention too requires its own burden of proof in order for us to "believe" it and that simply hasn't been established.

So the genuine opposite of belief is "doubt"...hmmm?

So we may honestly doubt the existence of aliens and UFO's or beings who may live in other "dimensions" etc. and quite legitimately study, observe, and discuss that information in order to try and find out one way or the other for neither case has been satisfactorily proven.

Any lack of of "credibility", such as it is, pertains only to that information we're evaluating and by no means reflects or damages our own credibility simply because we are being fair, reasonable, and and quite logical in trying to determine what merits either side may have.

In short we are being nothing if not entirely credible in that pursuit.

12/20/2006 10:11:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Vincenzo Oliveti is the author of Terror’s Source: The Ideology of Wahhabi-Salifism and its Consequences.

Nowhere in Islamic history can one find a doctrine similar to Saint Augustine’s cognite intrare (“lead them in”—i.e. “force them to convert”). In fact the Qur’an says the exact opposite: There is no compulsion in religion(2:256). Augustine’s frightening idea that all must be compelled to “conform” to the “true Christian faith” has unleashed centuries of unparalleled bloodshed.

Indeed, Christians have suffered more under the rule of Christian civilization than under pre-Christian Roman rule or any other rule in history. Millions were tortured and slaughtered in the name of Christianity during the periods of the Arian, Donatist and Albigensian heresies, to say nothing of the various Inquisitions, or the Crusades, when the European armies were saying, as they slaughtered both Christian and Muslim Arabs: “Kill them all, God will know his own.”

Needless to say, these transgressions— and indeed all the transgressions of Christians throughout the ages—have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ and or even the New Testament as such. Indeed, no Muslim by definition would ever or will ever blame this on Jesus Christ (the Word made Flesh, for Christians and Muslims)...

By no means was such indiscriminate violence limited to Europe’s “Dark Ages” or to one period of Christian history. The Reformation and Counter Reformation took inter-Christian slaughter to new extremes; two thirds of the Christian population of Europe being slaughtered during this time.

Then there were (among many others wars, pogroms, revolutions and genocides) the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815); the African slave trade that claimed the lives of 10 million; and the Colonial Conquests. Estimates for the number of Native Americans slaughtered by the Europeans in North, Central and South America run as high as 20 million within three generations.

Despite the ravages of Europe’s violent past, in the 20th century, Western Civilization took warfare to new extremes. A conservative estimate puts the total number of brutal deaths in the 20th century at more than 250 million. Of these, Muslims are responsible for less than 10 million deaths. Christians, or those coming from Christian backgrounds account for more than 200 million of these! The greatest death totals come from World War I (about 20 million, at least 90 % of which were inflicted by “Christians”) and World War II (90 million, at least 50% of which were inflicted by “Christians,” the majority of the rest occurring in the Far East). Given this grim history, it appears that we Europeans must all come to grips with the fact that Islamic civilization has actually been incomparably less brutal than Christian civilization. Did the Holocaust of over 6 million Jews occur out of the background of a Muslim Civilization?

In the 20th century alone, Western and/or Christian powers have been responsible for at least twenty times more deaths than have Muslim powers. In this most brutal of centuries, we created incomparably more civilian casualties than have Muslims in the whole of Islamic history. This continues even in our day—witness the slaughter of 900,000 Rwandans in 1994 in a population that was over 90 % Christian; or the genocide of over 300,000 Muslims and systematic rape of over 100,000 Muslim women by Christian Serbs in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. The horrible truth is that, numerically and statistically speaking, Christian Civilization is the bloodiest and most violent of all civilizations in all of history, and is responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths.

The production and use of nuclear weapons alone should be enough to make the West stand in shame before the rest of the world. America created nuclear weapons. America is the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons, and Western countries strive to maintain a monopoly over them. As the record stands, we have no moral grounds for objecting to the acquisition of such weapons until we prove willing to forfeit them entirely.

It should also be mentioned that although Islam has the concept of legitimate war in self-defense (as does Christianity, and even Buddhism), nowhere in Islamic culture (or in other cultures that survive today) is there latent the idealization, and perhaps idolization, of violence that exists in Western Culture.

Westerners think of themselves as peaceful, but in fact the gentleness and sublimity of the New Testament, and the peace-loving nature of the principles of democracy, are scarcely reflected in Western popular culture. Rather, the entire inclination of popular culture— Hollywood movies, Western television, video games, popular music and sports entertainment—is to glorify and inculcate violence.

Accordingly, the relative rates of murder (especially random and serial murder) are higher in the Western World (particularly in the U.S., but even in Europe, taken as a whole) than they are in the Islamic world in counties that are not suffering civil wars, and this true despite the much greater wealth of the West...

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
(Matthew 7:1-5)

Let not the hatred of the people—because they hindered you from the Sacred Mosque—incite you to transgress. Help one another in goodness and reverence, and do not help one another in sin and aggression. (Qur’an 5:2)

O ye who believe, be upright for God witnesses injustice; and let not the hatred of a people [against you] cause you to be unjust. Be just — that is closer to piety. (Qur’an 5:8)

One can hardly imagine a more emphatic message of justice, forgiveness and reconciliation.
-------------
The foregoing was excerpted from Oliveti’s article The Myth of “the Myth of Moderate Islam” appearing earlier this year in Issue 15 of Islamica Magazine.

12/21/2006 10:30:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lolz, zomg christians are responsible for the most atrocities, lolz

I'm just not going to fall for this line of thinking. Sure, I'll buy that when you do away with the facts, but, until then:

http://net-burst.net/hot/war.htm

I'm aware of the argument that people under these evil men were not necessarily secular, but, are the people underneath Christianity necessarily Christian? Can't use one argument on one group and fail to apply the same to the other. The question is, what movement created the most evil? It's not religion.

12/25/2006 01:20:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

All those evil men. How do they do it? Seriously, how are they able to dupe so many for so long.......unless, of course, so many prefer to be duped for so long.

With personal accountability comes empowerment. So long as you believe the tripe that it's all because of a handful of evil men, you will remain in the bondage of your self-styled shackles.

Sure, there are "evil" humans, but "evil" humans can't succeed without weak and easy targets.

12/31/2006 04:02:00 PM  
Blogger Sounder said...

Carl the rat; so speak up more, together we may break this hypnotic spell.

On second and third thought; lets see... Agree that people seem to want to be duped... disagree about the influence of 'evil' men. OK, lets split the difference. Lets find a different way to order our categories so that 'clever' men have a bit less leverage for gaming the system.

1/06/2007 06:05:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

bono is irish, not british, you ignorant cunt!!!!

10/21/2009 09:35:00 PM  
Anonymous enemy territory said...

The home of the infamous european toxic clan, psycho urban fraggers that pawn the virtual return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory battlefields.

7/20/2010 06:16:00 AM  
Anonymous justpub said...

Just Pub, a dumb return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory comic strip by feuersturm.

7/20/2010 06:17:00 AM  

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