Atlantis Rising 85 Sampler

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EARLY RAYS

n September History Channel viewers hada chance to see the cave beneath Egypt’s

Giza plateau, rediscovered in 2008 by re-searcher Andrew Collins, reported by PhilipCoppens in Atlantis Rising #80 (“The Un-known Catacombs of Giza”), and discussedagain by Greg Little in #84 (“Hall of RecordsCOVERUP?”). In an episode of the archaeo-logical series “Chasing Mummies” titled“Bats,” viewers saw Egyptian Antiquities Di-rector Zahi Hawass and a team of came-ramen and explorers penetrate an estimated350 feet into the cavern behind what Collinshas dubbed the “Tomb of the Birds,” osten-sibly in an attempt to disprove what Hawasscalled “pyramidiots.” It did anything but.

As Collins has explained in his book Be-neath the Pyramids and on his web site (An-drewCollins.com), the cave complex wasoriginally entered in 1817 by Italian explorerGiovanni Caviglia—penetrating several hun-dred yards—and again in 1837 by BritishCol. Richard Howard. The entrance, in whatCollins now calls “The Tomb of the Birds,”only a few hundred yards from the pyramids,was located by him, his wife Sue, and ex-plorer Nigel Skinner Simpson.

Later, when informed of the find by Col-

I lins, Hawass showed little interest; but whenaccompanied by the History Channel filmcrew, while declaring his intention to de-bunk the “pyramidiots,” he asked to take alook, while expressing the view that the cavewould not reach very far. Viewers were ablethen to follow the team into the cavernwhere, fighting off swarms of bats, they ad-vanced for over a hundred yards, much fur-ther than Hawass had expected, but not, alas,as far as the pyramids.

The cave exploration possibilities, how-ever, Collins believes, have not been fully ex-hausted, and he cites an image of the plateaucreated by the German TerraSAR-X satellitewhich could mark the extent, position, andorientation of the caves explored in Giza’snorth cliff. “The caves’ presence,” says Col-lins, “seems to be echoed by a shadow linethat has no corresponding feature on theground. More intriguing is the fact that thisshadow line connects with another that ex-tends eastwards toward the Second Pyr-amid.”

To date, though, Hawass has not, at leastpublicly, expressed interest in re-confrontingany bats, either beneath Giza or in anyone’sbelfry.

HISTORY CHANNEL INVADESLOST GIZA “CATACOMBS”

(Top right) Plan of tomb and caves drawn by Andrew Collins following his own explorationof the complex in 2008 (© Andrew Collins).

(Top photo) Section of the the TerraSAR-X radar satellite image of July 2, 2007, showing the curvedshadow lines starting at the edge of the plateau's north cliff and heading across to the SecondPyramid. (Middle and lower photos) We see the transition from the TerraSAR-X image into the

Google Earth satellite image made the same day. The position of the tomb is marked with adownward triangle. Note the north-south shadow line in the proximity of the tomb and caves

in the lower photo (© Rodney Hale).

(Bottom) Diagram of the faulting at the northwest corner of the Second Pyramid as detected byground penetrating radar equipment in 1977 (picture: Dolphin/SRI/Ain Shams)

Entrance to Tomb of the Birds


Number 85 • ATLANTIS RISING 11See Our Great 8-page Catalog Beginning on Page 74

ZECHARIA SITCHIN PASSESecharia Sitchin, longtime advocate forthe idea that human advancement on

Earth is a product of ancient extraterrestrialintervention, died on October 9, 2010. Hewas 92.

Author of the Earth Chronicles series,Sitchin first gained interna-tional fame in 1976 withpublication of the best-selling book 12thPlanet which madethe case that ancientcuneiform texts,which he couldtranslate, told thestory of interactionsbetween alien over-lords and humanslaves who served asvirtual guinea pigs forgenetic experimenta-tion. He would ulti-mately use every an-cient source available,from the Bible to thePopul Vuh, to defend histhesis which in-cluded a fairlycomprehensivetheory of plane-tary develop-ment in thesolar system.

According toSitchin, there is anundiscovered planet beyond Neptune whichfollows a long, elliptical orbit, entering theinner solar system about every 3,600 years.This planet is called Nibiru (although Ju-piter, according to conventional scholarship,was associated with the god Marduk in Baby-lonian cosmology) and is the home of an ex-traterrestrial race called the Anunaki. Thoseof them who “fell” to Earth were called theNefilim. Nibiru, said Sitchin, collided catas-trophically with Tiamat (a goddess in the

Z Babylonian creation myth the Enûma Eli?),who he considered to be another planet lo-cated between Mars and Jupiter. This colli-sion, he argued, formed planet Earth, the as-teroid belt, and the comets.

In some ways Sitchin’s work resembledthat of Immanuel Velikovsky and

even Erich von Daniken—atleast in terms of the opposi-

tion it generated—but heclearly had an immense

and loyal following allhis own. Probably no

figure in the world of al-ternative archaeologyis more criticized and

more venerated. Sitchin was first

interviewed for an ar-ticle in Atlantis Risingin 1995. The piece was

later republished inour book Forbidden

History. Subsequentlyhe wrote several arti-

cles for thispublication,

most recently,the cover story

for issue #83“Ancient Giants &

Alien DNA,” based onhis last book There

Were Giants Upon theEarth (Inner Traditions,

2010) which argued that alien DNA would befound in human remains taken from ancienttombs near Ur in modern-day Iraq. He cer-tainly had many avid fans and followersamong the readers of this publication. Onthe Internet many notable voices, saddenedby the news of his passing, have been hon-oring his memory, including Alan Boyle fromMSNBC’s Cosmic Log, DailyGrail.com, andBeliefNet.com.

or over 60 years the DeadSea Scrolls have been at

the center of much debate overthe origins of Christianity andits relationship to ancient Ju-daism. All discussions were atthe mercy of the few scholarswho had access to the scrolls,and the result was consider-able controversy. All of thatwill soon be history, as some-time early in 2011 the scrollsare set to be published on theInternet where any interestedperson with a computer will be able toGoogle them in great detail.

Newly digitized using the latest infrared

FDead Sea Scrolls On the Web

and multispectral imagingtechnology, the scrolls nowreveal words once invisiblein natural light, and scholarsare able to read previouslyundecipherable portions ofthe text. All of that will beavailable on line.

Consisting of 30,000 sep-arate fragments forming 900manuscripts of biblical textsand religious writings fromthe time of Jesus, the Scrolls

were found between 1946 and1956 in the ruins of the ancient village ofKhirbet Qumran in 11 caves near the WestBank.



POPULAR CULTURE

Continuedon Page 59

ome stories areweirder than anythingHollywood screen-writers could dream

up. But then, facts are oftenstranger than fiction. Howwould you react if you weretold that the phallus of theEgyptian god Osiris is possiblylocated underneath a buriedpyramid in the very center ofHollywood—Los Angeles?Doesn’t this sound like something from amovie? Well, it isn’t.

The site where Osiris’ phallus is suppos-edly buried is known as the Hollywood Cross,which sits on a small hill next to Interstate101, at Cahuenga. The site is notorious, asthe cross can clearly be seen from the 101,especially at night, when it is illuminatedand sometimes—depending on visibility—seems to be suspended in mid air.

So, how could a legendary Egyptian arti-fact ever end up beneath a very naturallooking hill in lala-land? It seems absurd,even impossible, as the Ancient Egyptians,according to all historical accounts, nevermade it to America, let alone the “left coast.”But however illogical it seems, this was thefirm conviction of one of the greatest astrolo-gers of the twentieth century, LindaGoodman, who spent a small fortune intrying to prove her point.

Goodman was a New York Times best-selling author, whose books on astrology—including Sun Signs, published in 1968—sold millions. Though a well-known publicfigure, less known was that her life was de-fined by two major preoccupations: findingout the fate of her eldest daughter Sally, whohad disappeared under mysterious circum-stances; and proving the presence of thephallus of Osiris in Hollywood.

The phallus’ purported location was un-derneath the Hollywood Cross, which may befound on Pilgrimage Drive, in Cahuenga. Ca-huenga is the Spanish name for the Tongvavillage of Kawengna, meaning “place of themountain”—etymological evidence that themountain was important to the Native Amer-icans who lived there.

Today, the hill overshadows the Ford am-phitheater. But it was the hill’s purported in-terior that obsessed Goodman. From theearly 1970s until her death on October 21,1995, she believed that there was a subterra-nean structure underneath the hill, whichcontained the phallus of Osiris. From 1990sonward, she laid out a considerable sum tohave many tests performed using the latestavailable technology—short of physical dig-ging—to map the hill’s interior. Realizingthat no one was going to believe her, or allowher to excavate without virtually concreteproof that something manmade was indeedunderneath that hill, she, nevertheless, per-sisted for the rest of her life in the strangequest for her Holy Grail.

But those who knew Goodman during the

S

Osiris& Isis


Linda Goodman

Hollywood Cross

Linda Goodman& the SECRET of theHollywood Cross

promoting her bestselling SunSigns, she stayed in room 1217(later renumbered 1221) of the

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, then,as now, one of Hollywood’s iconic

landmarks.Unexpectedly, a stranger

knocked on her door and identi-fied himself as “Nahtan.” He wasinvited in. During the discussion

which followed, he made anumber of extraordinary claims;he could, he said, bilocate, walk

through walls, and other things.He was, apparently, an initiate of

some advanced order, who hadlived for more than thirty years in

a monastery in

1990s and saw thescientific materialshe compiled—infutile efforts to rally support—confirm that the surveys unani-mously supported her suppositionthat there was indeed somethingunderneath that hill. Some speakof a buried pyramid, while othersmention clear evidence of a man-made structure, or chamber. Witheach survey, Goodman becamemore convinced that one of thegreatest mythical artifacts—thought to exist only in legend—was, in fact, buried beneath Holly-wood.

How did a bestselling authorbecome convinced that such athing existed? Goodmantells the tale inher book StarSigns. It beganon New Year’sDay 1970. While

What Does the Bodyof an Ancient

Egyptian Deity Haveto Do with Tinsel

Town Magic?

What Does the Bodyof an Ancient

Egyptian Deity Haveto Do with Tinsel

Town Magic?

LindaGoodman

Hollywood Cross

• BY PHILIP COPPENS• BY PHILIP COPPENS


GREATER DIMENSIONS

n an October 2006 “Tooth and Claw” ep-isode of BBC-TV’s hit science-fiction se-ries Doctor Who, Britain’s Queen Vic-toria pays a visit, in 1879, to Torchwood

House, in Scotland. Torchwood, which con-tains an observatory, was the scene of many alively discussionabout the mysteriesof the heavens be-tween Victoria’sopen-minded hus-band, Prince Albert,who died in 1861,and the house’s ec-centric owner, SirGeorge MacLeish,who was fascinatedby both the sciencesand local folklore.

In the DoctorWho episode, a giantwerewolf tries towrest the thronefrom Victoria but isthwarted by theyoung and person-able Doctor Who. Butonly apparently! TheDoctor (a “TimeLord” who regularlysaves our planet fromdisaster) tells theQueen she’s actuallybeen rescued by thespirit of her late hus-band, who has inter-vened from the be-yond. Victoria hadalready told theviewing audiencethat Prince Albertwas intensely inter-ested in all aspects ofparanormal phenomena.

In devising this episode, the creators ofDoctor Who are merely giving fresh expres-sion to a lingering belief among Britons thatQueen Victoria was deeply intrigued by theoccult and that, after Albert’s death, shemade desperate efforts to contact his spirit inthe afterworld—and succeeded. These per-sistent rumors include the untoward insinua-tion that, through the agency of medium-ship, Albert’s spirit was able to enter the soulof Victoria’s Scottish personal servant JohnBrown, thereby giving the Queen license tohave an affair with Brown.

Is there any truth to this sinister scuttle-butt, which in the eyes of many casts an un-warranted occult shadow over the memory ofa monarch who demonstrated, through-outher 64-year-long reign, many noble qualitiesand who passionately loved her foreign-bornPrince Consort husband?

Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent, asshe was christened in 1819 (she died in

I• BY JOHN CHAMBERS

Continued on Page 26

1901), presided over an era of unprecedentedgrowth and prosperity for Great Britain andits empire. The British Empire no longer ex-ists; since the end of World War II, the appa-ratus of imperialism has been largely sweptinto the dustbin of history. But Britons inthe nineteenth century looked with pride ontheir empire, which spanned every conti-nent, and upon which, they were fond ofsaying, “the sun never sets.” The empirereached its greatest extent seventeen yearsafter the death of Victoria, who had been pro-

claimed “Empress of India” in 1877, andwhose long and stable reign played an indis-pensable role in holding it together.

Victoria’s reign saw Britain’s industrialrevolution make Britain a world leader intrade and commerce. This wasn’t accom-plished without a struggle. It took fierce bat-tles in parliament to abolish child laborabuses and to ensure minimally tolerablework standards for key sectors of the popula-tion. All this came about without actual rev-olution or major civic upheavals; Britain’sincreasingly sophisticated system of parlia-mentary democracy, along with self-help or-ganizations created by the workers them-selves, managed to anticipate and ward offthe more important of the crises. Britain’sRoyal Navy—bigger than the next threebiggest navies in the world put together—kept Britain safe from foreign invasion andgave it a logistical advantage in overseas con-flicts. The social and political stability engen-dered by these factors encouraged an efflo-

rescence of literary genius in Great Britainwhich included writers like Charles Dickens,George Eliot, William Makepeace Thackeray,Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Alfred LordTennyson, Elizabeth Barrett and RobertBrowning, Anthony Trollope, and manymore.

The enlightened stability of Queen Vic-toria’s long reign (1837-1901), including,not infrequently, her advice to her ministers(the queen herself had no ultimate power),helped make all this possible.

It seemed un-likely Victoria would

succeed. She came tothe throne when she

was only 18 and,though she wasclever and well-

educated, it was adaunting task for her

to suddenly have tocontend on an equal

footing not only withher own government

but with all theleading powers of theday. Most historians

agree that the youngQueen would have

succeeded only withthe greatest of diffi-

culty if it hadn’t beenfor her husband, Al-bert of Saxe-CoburgGotha (a tiny princi-pality in Germany), a

foreigner, importedfrom the continent,whom she marriedin 1840 when both

were 21 (she wasthree months older).

This was an ar-ranged, dynasticmarriage; Albert

himself was part of aruling dynasty. But,

as the movie Young Victoria, released in2009, glowingly (and more or less accu-rately) portrays, it was a loving marriage,particularly for Queen Victoria, who had akeen appreciation of male physical beauty(she also preferred whiskey to milk or creamin her tea and loved sleeping in). Victoriaconfided to her journal:

“Albert really is quite charming, and soexcessively handsome, such beautiful blueeyes, an exquisite nose, and such a prettymouth with delicate mustachios and lightbut very slight whiskers; a beautiful figure,broad in the shoulders and a fine waist; myheart is quite going.”

Lytton Strachey, writing in Eminent Vic-torians in 1911, wasn’t sure that Albert re-ciprocated these feelings:

“Affection, gratitude, the natural reac-tions to the unqualified devotion of a livelyyoung cousin who was also a queen—suchfeelings possessed him, but the ardours of

Was Britain Ever Guided by Departed Spirits?Was Britain Ever Guided by Departed Spirits?Was Britain Ever Guided by Departed Spirits?Was Britain Ever Guided by Departed Spirits?Was Britain Ever Guided by Departed Spirits?


The Baptism ofJesus, Leonardo

da Vinci

• BY MARTIN RUGGLESor thousands of years, scientists fromaround the world have tried to un-derstand how the ancient Egyptianserected their giant pyramids, espe-

cially the Great Pyramid at Giza. Now, an ar-chitect and researcher at the Norwegian Uni-versity of Science and Technology (NTNU) inTrondheim says he has discovered a previ-ously unappreciated dimension to theproblem—the extraordinarily precise plan-ning and direction that such a massive struc-ture would have required. Is it possible thatmillennia ago the monument’s architectswere the first to use a technique now consid-ered essential to the construction of modernskyscrapers?

According to Ole J. Bryn, in a new scien-tific paper, prior researchers have been sopreoccupied, if not overwhelmed, by the lo-gistics of dealing with the massive weightand sheer numbers of stone blocks involvedthat they have virtually overlooked othermajor problems that would have faced theancient builders: How, for instance, did theEgyptians know exactly where to put theenormously heavy building blocks? And howwas the master architect able to communi-cate detailed, highly precise plans to a workforce of 10,000 illiterate men?

These were among the questions thatconfronted Bryn when he began his examina-tion of the Great Pyramid. The so-calledKhufu pyramid, better known as the Pyramidof Cheops, consists of 2.3 million limestoneblocks weighing roughly 7 million tons. At146.6 meters high, it held the record as thetallest structure ever built for at least 4000years.

FANCIENT MYSTERIES

What Bryn discovered wasactually quite simple. TheEgyptians, he believes, musthave invented the modernbuilding grid by separating thestructure’s measuring systemfrom the physical building it-self, thus introducing “toler-ance,” as it is called in today’sengineering and architecturalprofessions.

According to Bryn, “the Egyptian pyra-mids are the only true pyramids in the worldculminating in an Apex point [which im-plies] the need for extreme precision on agrand scale. To aim for a point 146.6 meters(280 Royal Cubits) up in the sky with only aplumb line and a string implies a crucialneed for numerous points of measure. Thesepoints, says Bryn, have to be evenly distrib-uted over the face of the pyramid in order forthe geometry to be carefully controlled.”

In his scientific article published in May2010 (Retracing Khufu’s Great Pyramid inthe Nordic Journal of Architectural Re-search, vol 22, no. 1/2, 2010), Bryn discussesaspects that can explain the construction of amultitude of the Egyptian pyramids bytaking the building grid, and not the phys-ical building itself, as the starting point forthe analysis.

Early TheoriesKhufu’s Great Pyramid (purportedly built

between 2606-2573 BC) on the Giza plateauis arguably the most studied structure in thehistory of mankind. Its immense size, so-phistication, and endurance has nurtured agreat number of theories, some more plau-sible than others, on how it was built and

why its dimensions are whatthey are.

In one of the earliest theo-ries, the historian Herodotus,claimed Egyptian priests toldhim the Great Pyramid was de-signed so that the area of eachface was equal to the square ofits height.

During the nineteenth cen-tury, as the Great Pyramid was measured andre-measured, a number of explorers, Egyptol-ogists, and early scientists suggested explana-tions concerning its shape and size. For ex-ample in 1859 John Taylor, an Englishpublisher and Egyptologist, introduced atheory that included and square roots. Inhis model, the perimeter was twice timesthe height. He went on to claim that theGreat Pyramid was intended to, “make arecord of the measure of the Earth.”

In 1863 French Architect Viollet-le-Ducintroduced the use of the 3-4-5 triangle to ex-plain the structure’s geometry. The mathe-matical theory related to this triangle hadbeen developed 2000 years earlier by theGreek philosopher Pythagoras, and bears hisname—the much celebrated PythagoreanTheorem.

Other theories claimed that the exteriorslope angle could be formed with the vesicapisces; that the Great Pyramid’s geometry isan accurate representation of the northernhemisphere; that it incorporates the Greek“Golden section,” etc. And while some ofthese ideas have fallen by the wayside, to thisday, none solve the crucial engineering chal-lenge, which is how to build a massive four-sided building whose four sides meet at a pre-determined apex point. “The great pyramid,

Planning the PyramidsA New Theory Shows these Architects Were Way Ahead of Their Time

Ole J. Bryn



LOST HISTORY

n an August night in 1990, some-time after midnight, two youngmen with Dickensian-soundingnames approached Britain’s Canter-

bury Cathedral. Armed with crowbars, boltcutters, chisels, wire, masking tape, and atorch, Peregrine Prescott and Risto Pronkwere well prepared for surreptitious entrybut perhaps not well enough. Despite the factthat both young adventurers were veterans ofthe Foreign Legion, the police learned oftheir apparent burglary-in-progress andpromptly took both into custody. The pairclaimed not to have intendedstealing anything; but, alas,what small case there mighthave been for the innocence oftheir intentions was not helpedwhen, along with burglary tools,in their possession was found amap of the cathedral interior.The explanation offered—onewhich at first did little to im-press police—was that they weresearching for the bones of one ofEngland’s most revered saintsThomas a’Becket.

Becket had lived in very tur-

Obulent times, but, as fate would have it, evenin the afterlife, his bones would see littlerest. The actions of Prescott and Pronk weresimply the latest on a long list of distur-bances marring the saint’s post-mortemslumber, including the highly acclaimed1964 film starring Richard Burton as Becket.

Born in 1118 of Norman parents, Becketwas blessed with a quality education, astrong presence, and, most likely, no smallportion of charisma. He entered the serviceof the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald,who soon recognized his talent and packedhim off to Bologna and then Auxerre to fur-ther his studies in the law. When Becket re-

turned to England, King Henry IItook him on as chancellor, an ac-tion that immediately made himone of the most powerful men inthe country. For years, the kingand his chancellor got along fa-mously. They soldiered togetherin war, hunted in peace andBecket came to share his king’spassion for luxury. Thomas up-held the policies of the churchbut with the king it was as an ad-visor and a friend.

Then Theobold died. Becketwas ordained at once as priest Continued on Page 67

• BY STEVEN SORA and as Archbishop and immediately tookover the role of Archbishop of Canterbury.This new position, he realized, would havepotential to cause a rift between him and theking. He knew no man could serve two mas-ters at the same time. And, indeed, soon hisrole as advisor to the king became strainedand diminished as he now represented a sep-arate power. While humor may once havesettled differences, since Becket was nowbound to the Church, it failed. It didn’t helpthat he chose now to dress in the austeregarb of a religious man. And it certainly didnot help that he took his new role seriously.One of his jobs was to collect estates owed tothe Church that were held by his once dearfriend the king. Minor conflicts soon snow-balled into major ones, and by 1164 he wasforced to escape to France to avoid beingjailed.

Then, in December of 1170, having beenled to believe that reconciliation was pos-sible, Becket returned to Canterbury but notfor long. One day four knights rode to theCathedral, rushed into the Chapel of St.Benedict, and charged through the handfulof helpless monks. Each knight struck theArchbishop on the head with his sword andleft him bleeding and near death, then made


Does This Casket at London’s Victoria and Albert MuseumReally Contain the Bones of Saint Thomas of Becket?






&

ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE

espite the myth of the “objectivity”of “pure science,” there is nothingfully objective about the way prac-ticing scientists actually pursue

their business. Scientists, like everyoneelse, are influenced either subtly or ex-plicitly by combinations of social, po-litical, and religious pressures (evenwhen reacting against such factors)and by deeply ingrained assump-tions and worldviews that arevirtually inescapable. Thestatus quo rewards “good”scientists, those who tow theparty line, with prestige,honor, promotions, grant money,personal gain, and even wealth.But those who step out of line maybe severely punished.

Politicians often have the ability tohalt the serious pursuit of certain sci-entific endeavors. This has been thecase for thousands of years. Hero ofAlexandria (first century AD) waswell on his way to developing an ef-fective steam engine. However, thepoliticians and administrators wantednothing to do with such a device. The RomanEmpire widely employed slave labor. If me-chanical engines were used to irrigate fieldsor for other aspects of production, whatwould all those slaves do? Idleness could leadto rebellion. The first practical steam enginewould have to wait another 1600 years. Ima-gine what the world might be like today ifthe politicians had not squelched the inven-tion of the steam engine two thousand yearsago.

The patron of science, or of a particularscientist or field, can be all-important. Aclassic example is the Soviet agronomistTrofim Lysenko (1898-1976) who gained the

D• BY ROBERT M. SCHOCH, PHD.

personal support of the dic-tator Joseph Stalin (1878-1953). Lysenko rose to promi-nence in the 1920s, garneringthe attention of Soviet leadersas someone ideologically com-patible with the politics of thetime. Lysenko had peasantroots; he despised classic aca-demic theory and mere labora-tory work, emphasizing prac-tical techniques to increase crop yields.Lysenko was given the helm of the Academyof Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Unionand named director of the Institute of Ge-netics of the USSR Academy of Science. His

Hero’s Engine

anti-Mendelian, neo-Lamarck-ian (inheritance of environ-mentally acquired characteris-tics) views received high-handed official approval.Statutes outlawed dissentingviews. In the end, Lysenko’s“science” proved ineffective;

many of his supposed results were eithergreatly exaggerated or simply fraudulent. Ly-senko may be an extreme case, but it illus-trates the abuses possible when those withpower and money decide to support an

Trofim Lysenko

&POLITICSMONEYSCIENCE

POLITICSMONEYSCIENCE

Who Really Decides Which IdeasAre Accepted and Which Are Not?

Subscribe or Order Books, DVDs and Much More!


Continued on Page 68

agenda, using science as the means. On a different scale, I have seen the cor-

rupting effects of money in Bosnia. I am re-ferring to the so-called “Bosnian Pyramids”located in Visoko. Initially I was excited aboutthe prospect of very ancient pyramids (claimscirculated that they were 10,000 or moreyears old). Upon visiting the site, I discovereda massive hoax fueled by money, power, in-fluence, and patronage. The major player isSemir Osmanagich, a Bosnian-American whocontinues to promote several natural hills ashuman-made ancient pyramids. He has solic-ited private, corporate, and governmentbacking and funds to continue excavationsthere, excavations that only perpetuate thefraud by actually shaping the hills into whatappear superficially to be step-pyramid struc-tures. Osmanagich brings high-level politi-cians to the site, touting the great “discov-eries” being made, and organizes“conferences” about the “pyramids.”

While in Visoko exploring the site first-hand in 2006, I briefly met a former head ofstate of Yugoslavia, there to support the “pyr-amids” (Bosnia/Herzegovina is one of thecountries that resulted from the breakup ofYugoslavia during the 1991-1995 wars), and Iattended one of Osmanagich’s conferences.The conference was a farce with no hard evi-dence corroborating the reality of the “pyra-mids” but rather a lot of mumbo-jumbo andambiguous comments generated by peopleclaiming to be scientists (archaeologists, geo-physicists, chemists, geologists—you nameit) who were present simply because theywere being paid, and jobs were difficult tocome by in the ravaged Bosnian economy.The politicians apparently knew nothingabout science, and could care even less. Allthey were concerned about was bringing inmoney, and the so-called pyramids formed a

major tourist attraction, with small busi-nesses, restaurants, and hotels sprouting upto serve the needs of the pilgrims to the site.And pilgrims they were, for they werecoming to a virtually sacred site, one that en-gendered national loyalty and pride in theantiquity and sophistication of Bosnia’s ori-gins—supposedly older than Egypt or per-haps any other civilization. To question theauthenticity of the Bosnian pyramids was toinsult the Bosnian people and their heritage.Nationalism can trump scientific evidenceand reason. The paradigm, the accepteddogma, in the case of the so-called Bosnianpyramids was that they are authentic. Evi-dence to the contrary was ignored, or worseyet, those advocating a different view werevilified and persecuted. I was re-minded of the Inquisition.

This brings us to a majorproblem with science today: Thedominance of certain ruling par-adigms. Those who control themoney, jobs, prestige, technicalpublication outlets, and popularmedia (whether directly or sub-tlety) have a low tolerance forideas that may challenge the de-sired result or accepted statusquo. In modern America if onewants to fit in, one does notquestion certain sacred cows. Among theseare human-induced global warming, Dar-winian evolution, gradualism, global platetectonics, Big Bang cosmology, various as-pects of materialism, and historical progres-sionism (the general concept that history is aone-way street going from dumb old “them”to modern enlightened technologically so-phisticated “us”). Various other topics areanathema and shunned by any “serious” sci-entist who expects to receive grant funding;

desires a decent university, government, orcorporate position; and entertains publishingin the most prestigious scientific journals,which in turn are taken by the popular mediaas dogmatic truth worthy of reporting.Shunned subjects include non-traditionalmedicine, crop circles, UFOs, intelligent de-sign, alternative archaeology (including theconcept that some ancient peoples weremuch more sophisticated than traditionallybelieved), and paranormal (parapsycholog-ical) studies.

Parapsychology is an interesting case. Tel-epathy (direct mind-to-mind communica-tion), psychokinesis (mind-over-matter), andprecognition have been studied extensivelyfor over a century by some of the best minds,including Ph.D. scientists and even Nobellaureates (for example, Charles Richet, NobelPrize in Physiology/Medicine, 1913, andBrian Josephson, Nobel Prize in Physics,1973). The basic phenomena have been dem-onstrated over and over again and even beenput to practical use. There is a vast scientificliterature on parapsychology, with specializedjournals and societies. Yet, despite thesefacts, the “average scientist” does not con-sider parapsychology a science, and knowingnothing about the subject and evidence, feelsfree to make disparaging statements aboutthe field and any of its practitioners. If any-thing concerning parapsychology makes it tothe popular media, the press is sure to inter-view some mainstream “acknowledged au-thority” and will be fed a bunch of rubbishsupposedly debunking parapsychology. To be-little parapsychology even more, the mediamay include comments about crystal balls,fortunetellers, false séances, or quack astrolo-gers, thus further condemning parapsy-chology by association.

Given its low status, parapsychology hasnever been the recipient of adequate funding.In the early 1990s it was estimated that thetotal expenditures devoted to parapsycholog-ical studies worldwide since 1882 (the year

when the Society for PsychicalResearch was established, begin-ning systematic scientificstudies of the paranormal) wereat most equal to two months ofpsychology funding in theUnited States. In the last 20years the situation has only be-come more dire as thePrinceton Engineering Anoma-lies Research (PEAR) laboratoryhas shut down and the UnitedStates government and militaryare no longer (at least not pub-

licly) funding parapsychological research orapplications.

Between 1972 and 1995 the CIA (CentralIntelligence Agency), the DIA (Defense Intel-ligence Agency), INSCOM (U.S. Army Intelli-gence Support Command), the NSC (Na-tional Security Council), and other federaldepartments funded, studied, and appliedparapsychological techniques to military and

Purportedexcavationat “BosniaPyramid Site”

Brian Josephson

See Our Great 8-page Catalog Beginning on Page 74


THE UNEXPLAINED

ome paranormal events are so ex-traordinary and inexplicable; thatthey form the outstanding experi-ences of a lifetime. My own en-

counter began at daybreak last September16, when publisher Wayne May and I drovefrom the offices of his magazine, AncientAmerican, in Colfax, Wisconsin, to an alter-native archaeology symposium some 200miles away.

Before arriving at Marquette, Michigan,where attendees of the Ancient AmericanPreservation Society were meeting the nextday, we stopped overnight at a friend’scountry home little more than an hour’sdrive from the conference site. Alex, our gra-cious host, was a Vietnam War veteran,whose bizarre mix of macabre and hilariousrecollections kept us up until almost mid-night. He also suffers from multiple scler-osis, a chronic, inflammatory disease that at-tacks various parts of the nervous systemleading to muscular disability. Although con-fined to an automated wheelchair, Alex’smind and spirit are bright and indomitable.

Sometime after 11:00, Wayne and I wereshown to our sleeping quarters in a largeroom on the second floor. A faint drizzle wasfalling outside, typical of the rainy conditionsthrough which we had passed most of theday during our drive toward Michigan’sUpper Peninsula. We doused the lights; theroom fell into perfect darkness and silence;and I was soon drifting off to sleep, when Iheard a loud “snap!” or “click!” that re-minded me of a circuit breaker beingthrown.

S“What was that?” I asked Wayne, who was

lying in his own bed on the far side of theroom. He had not yet fallen asleep but hap-pened to be staring unseeing into the nighttoward the ceiling, thinking about the up-coming conference. The sudden soundbrought my mind back to full consciousness,and I opened my eyes.

Responding to my question, Wayne couldonly offer, “I don’t know.” Justthen, an intensely bright light exploded,without any additional noise, in our room.The white wall I faced in the darkness lit upin a sheet of intense violet brilliance. Ithought at once that an electrical short hadshot through the house. But the source ofthis abrupt incandescence winked on justwhere Wayne had been staring in the dark-ness. He was looking directly at a sphericalwhite light the size and shape of a large soft-ball encircled from top to bottom by a broadband of purple neon hanging motionless andwithout a sound near the ceiling fan. A broadskirt of violet light streamed like an enor-mous lampshade descending from the orb toilluminate all four walls, leaving the floorand ceiling relatively unlit.

Although the object popped into exis-tence with the abruptness of an exceptionallypotent flashbulb, it lingered longer, perhapstwo seconds. It left Wayne blind for a fewseconds more until he was able to make outthe midnight horizon beyond our rain-streaked windows stabbed with about adozen lightning strikes. These were followedshortly thereafter by a rolling series of thun-derclaps that shook the whole house.

Given the surrounding storm, we as-sumed our brilliant visitor must have been a

meteorological phenomenon of some kind,most likely a form of ball lightning, an at-mospheric electrical discharge little under-stood by science. Most of what is knownabout ball lightning derives from eyewitnessaccounts that vary greatly in their descrip-tions. Reports of color, size, configuration,movement, behavior, or sound all differ inthe extreme. The brilliant orbs range frommore than 10 feet across down to the dimen-sions of a pea, with shades of red, green,white, or purple, mostly blue.

According to Brian Dunning, writing forSceptoid, Critical Analysis of Pop Phe-nomena (http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4192,2010), “Electromagnetic theory makes noprediction that anything like ball lightningneed exist. It does predict all known forms ofelectrical discharge. Some have speculatedthat ball lightning is a plasma ball, but thattheory has been dismissed, because a hotglobe of plasma should rise like a hot-air bal-loon, and that is not what ball lightningdoes.”

Our September 16 encounter did notmatch this or any other description of balllightning I was able to locate on the In-ternet. The orb Wayne saw did not move.Nor did its purple band and descending skirtof light resemble anything we could learnabout ball lightning, which is invariablycharacterized as highly mobile, of a singlecolor, and not accompanied by a lampshade-like formation.

Alex wondered if the powerfully chargedsphere would have injured, or even killedhim, had it appeared instead in his down-stairs bedroom, where his sleeping facilitiescomprise a kind of metal cage he uses to

When a Simple Business Trip Turns into a Paranormal Adventure

• BY FRANK JOSEPH


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