The Great American Eclipse of 2017

August 18, 2017 Leave a reply

Credits: NASA

The Great American Eclipse

An eclipse is an amazing and mystical experience, a breathtaking spectacle that humans have witnessed since the beginning of recorded history. For centuries, our ancestors attributed solar eclipses to the signs of the end of the world or drastic changes for our future. Some even believe that eclipses affect animals in peculiar ways, tricking them into acting as if it were night. An eclipse can be such a memorable and meaningful event that scientists prepare themselves to study and document them months or years in advance.

On Monday, August 21, 2017, many Americans will witness an awe-inspiring event—the first time in 38 years in fact—of the Moon blocking the Sun for over 2 minutes. There will be a total solar eclipse, which means that the Moon will pass between the Earth and Sun, the first one in 99 years that covers coast to coast in the United States and won’t happen again until seven years later on April 8, 2024.

Coined The Great American Eclipse, the Moon’s shadow will span along what is called the path of totality or the area of the Moon’s shadow from the east coast to the west, from Oregon to South Carolina. The Moon will completely cover the Sun and the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona. The shadowed area or area of totality will be approximately 70 miles wide. As the sky turns dark, planets and stars hidden by the Sun’s brilliant light will reappear, which may unveil Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus. Outside the path of totality in the United States people will experience a partial eclipse. Europe will not see the eclipse this time around.

A Few Facts

The shadow cast by the Moon during a total solar eclipse consists of the central umbra (associated with the area of totality) and the penumbra (area of partial eclipse). At the beginning and end of the total solar eclipse, the Moon’s rough, cratered surface creates intermediate “beads of sunlight” around its perimeter called Baily’s beads. (Dinwiddie 63)

During the eclipse, a diamond ring effect appears when sunlight peeks through where there are valleys on the lunar edge, which creates glistening bursts of light or “diamonds” on a bright ring of light around the Moon’s edges.

Total eclipses can hit anywhere in the world. In the US, Specific places like Carbondale, Illinois will see the eclipse this year and in 2024. There will be 1500 years before Los Angeles sees another. Denver, Colorado’s last total eclipse was in 1878, and won’t another until 2045. Hundreds of years can span between total eclipses in specific locations. “This difference in time happens because orbits of the Earth and moon are not perfect circles. Scientists have to use advanced math to figure out when the next eclipse will be.” (Baxter)

The Oldest Eclipse Recorded

Possibly the earliest recorded solar eclipse is documented on a clay tablet discovered in 1948. The tablet records that in Ugarit, a port city in Northern Syria, the sky darkened for 2 minutes 7 seconds on May 3, 1375, BC. This date has been disputed. For example, the journal Nature reported in 1989 that the eclipse actually occurred on March 5, 1223, BC. That new date came from a historical dating of the tablet as well as an analysis of the tablet’s text, which mentions the visibility of the planet Mars during the eclipse. “Mesopotamian historians in Ugarit recount that the sun was ‘put to shame’ during this total eclipse.” (Ghose)

Solar Eclipses in Art

Some historians believe Cosmas Damian Asam’s painting completed in 1735 is the earliest depiction of a total eclipse of the sun. In the painting, he captured the solar corona and the diamond effect mentioned above.

Prophecies and Omens

“Since ancient times, people have viewed the moon completely blacking out the sun for mere minutes—the entire solar eclipse, as the moon’s shadow moves across Earth, can take hours—as omens that indicate an impending miracle, the wrath of God, or the doom of a ruling dynasty.” (Ghose 2017)

Today many Christians believe that a total eclipse is a sign from God and warning of the end of the world taking heed from scripture. “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” Joel 2:31 “The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.” Joel 3:15

Other conspiracy theorists believe that another planet called Nibiru or Planet X, which supposedly enters the Earth’s orbit every 3000 years, will collide with Earth after the eclipse—a symbol of the apocalypse’s beginning—in September of this year. David Meade, the author of Planet X—The 2017 arrival, believes he’s found bible passages to support his claims. (Muffitt)

Scientific Discoveries

Solar eclipses allow scientists to make discoveries of the Sun that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible because they can study the Sun’s corona and chromosphere. For example, Sir Arthur Eddington verified Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity on May 29, 1919 by viewing a solar eclipse. (Eclipse History)

Historical Events and War

Eclipses were to blame for the death of King Henry I in 1135 AD, and the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London decades even though eclipses hadn’t happened during these events but years before or after. (Waxman).

Our ancestors often linked eclipses with war. In May 585 B.C., the Battle of Halys was stalled when a philosopher named Thales predicted an eclipse. The battle became known as the Battle of the Eclipse. A solar eclipse happened over Tyre, a city Alexander the Great captured during his invasion of Persia. In September 1093, the crusades—which lasted two centuries—began just after an eclipse over Jerusalem. On May 9^th, 1948, violence escalated in Korea on a voting day monitored by the United Nations and by 1950 war had begun. (King)

During World War I, the eclipse on August 21, 1914, coincided with German and British troops clashing on the Western Front in Tannenberg, resulting in the death of John Parr, Britain’s first military death just minutes of the eclipse. (King)

Myths and Legends

The Sun vanishing from the sky during a total eclipse confused ancients, and they used stories to explain the anomaly. In Vietnam, they described the event as a giant frog eating the Sun. In Norse cultures, famished wolves were responsible for eating it up. A celestial dragon ate the Sun in an ancient China legend. The deity Rahu in Hindu mythology was beheaded by the gods for drinking the gods’ nectar; his head went flying into the sky, swallowing the Sun. Native Americans called Pomo in Northwestern, US, recount a legend of a bear that fights with the Sun and takes a bite out of it. They have a word for solar eclipse that translates to “Sun got bit by a bear.” The Greeks blamed angry gods, and the New Mexico, Tewo tribe, described the Sun as angry and left to the underworld. (Time and Date)

Citations:

-Baxter, Roberta. Top Ten Facts About Eclipses. 2017

-Dinwiddie, Robert. Universe, The Definitive Visual Guide. London: DK Limited, 2005

-Eclipse History. Nasa.gov. https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-history

-Ghose, Tia.(February 13, 2017). The 8 Most Famous Solar Eclipses in History. https://www.livescience.com/57865-famous-solar-eclipses.html,

-King, Iain. (August 20, 2015). World War I: The Most Important Battle. Retrieved from www.iainbking.com/tag/battle-of-tannenberg/.

-Muffitt, Eleanor. (11 August 2017). Will 2017 solar eclipse cause secret planet ‘Nibiru’ to destroy Earth next month? (No, but conspiracy theorists think so). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/will-2017-solar-eclipse-cause-secret-planet-called-nibiru-destroy

– Time and Date. Myths and Superstitions Around Solar Eclipses. www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar-eclipse-myths.html, 2017

-Waxman, Olivia B. (Aug 16, 2017). Why People Used to Be Afraid of Solar Eclipses. www.time.com/4886511/total-solar-eclipse-superstition-history.

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Alien Phenomenon’s Message Lingers

August 16, 2017 Leave a reply

Alien Message To Children Remains

On an October night in 1940, when he was 5 years old, Brad Steiger, a writer of the paranormal, witnessed something extraordinary. He was sitting on his bed looking out the window at a harvest moon when he heard something. It was the sound of someone walking on the fall leaves outside his house. He was surprised that his dog, Bill, wasn’t barking, for his family lived on an Iowa farm, and the dog always barked at strangers.

He then heard the sound of a wash tub being dragged from the well pump. This prompted him to look out the window. He wasn’t scared, more amazed to see a small man in tight overalls standing outside the kitchen window. The man had an oversized head, pointed ears and slender fingers, and two slits for a nose. They were seven feet from each other, separated only by the glass of the window. The man looked at him with large, reptilian, slanted eyes that made his heart race. He felt a tinge of fear until he continued to look into its eyes. The next thing he remembered it was morning. (Steiger 1-2)

The UFO phenomenon is both fascinating and frightening at the same time. Although alien encounters have happened since antiquity, there’s a sense of denial in our current culture that causes us to dismiss that these events are actually happening to people. It’s been said that we like to live in our comfortable boxes, but the truth is something is going on. It might be a message to us that we’re just not hearing. But what is the message?

Aliens in Ancient Times

Objects in the sky or unidentified flying object sightings have been recorded since ancient times as far back as the 15^th Century BC in Egypt when the pharaoh Thutmose III witnessed circles of fire and discs in the sky. (Williams 20-21)

These ancient records have included men in shiny white clothing appearing in altars in the clouds. “Encounters range from distant views to possibly actual contact; the preferred place and time of observation seem to be rural areas in the daytime. Physical evidence is generally lacking.” (Stothers 90)

Alien Abductions

Although sightings are an anomaly for most, alien abductions are even more intriguing. In modern times, for those who have been abducted by aliens or have witnessed a UFO, there is never enough proof to convince non-believers that the events actually happened. However, when there is more than one witness to a UFO sighting, the stories become more believable. Especially when the event involves children, and their accounts coincide with one another.

Ariel School Alien Sighting

One compelling example coined as “one of the most important events in UFO history” is that of 62 children who witnessed something incredible at the Ariel Primary School outside Harare, Zimbabwe in 1994. While in the school playground, they heard a high-pitched sound and saw two or more objects or crafts land, and two alien men appeared outside the crafts. In separate interviews, they described the beings as small in stature with large, black slanted eyes and described them as acting curious. They seemed to “hop” around. After the encounter, many of the children drew what they saw.

Zimbabwe UFO

Dr. John Mack, a Harvard psychologist and Pulitzer prize winning author, traveled to Zimbabwe to interview the children. This is his account of what happened there, “The older children were monitoring the younger children. They noticed the younger children were wandering outside the school perimeter going further out of the schoolyard than they should have. So the older children followed to bring them back, and the younger children pointed to a field and said ‘look, ’ and the older children saw this large UFO hovering above the ground and a smaller craft there and two or more alien beings there and the children became very excited, all of them. Sixty or more children saw this, the ones that were out there. As what happens so often…there’s always this irony of data.

“The adults were in a meeting. The children came rushing in, excitedly, frightened, about this serious thing they had seen. They told the adults. No adult went out to see this. By the time the break was over, and it was time to go out, there was nothing out there to be seen. This trickster like play of information runs constantly through this field, that illusiveness of data. (Mack)

“At first the parents didn’t believe the kids. But as the consistency of the stories came up over and over again, this very hard-nosed head master came to a conclusion that those children saw something that was “not of this world.” That was his phrase. And the teachers were even more skeptical. We met with all the teachers, and we went around the room to hear what they thought. They said ‘I know those kids. This happened. They saw it.’ The teachers were shocked and appalled. It was kind of like a single event [that] shattered their worldview. Because they were geared not to believe this and yet there was no other explanation.” (Mack)

The Alien’s Message

During the interviews with Mack, one little girl named, Lisel expressed her concern and an innate understanding that the aliens had a message for them. “We don’t look after the planet or air properly,” she said and told Mack that she felt horrible after she had returned home the night after the encounter. He asked her why and she replied, “It was like the world, and all the trees would come down, [there’s] no air and people will be dying.” She said that if it happened again that she would have asked the beings why they were here and what they wanted from us. (Fauci)

Mack states in his book Passport to the Cosmos that he was “astonished to discover…in case after case, powerful messages about the human threat to the Earth’s ecology were being conveyed to the experiencers in vivid, unmistakable words and images.” He believed it was, “quite possible that the protection of the Earth’s life is at the heart of the abduction phenomenon.” (Christie)

Emily Trim, another girl who witnessed the event, described her experience as a child the best she could at the Alien Cosmic Expo in June 2015 as a guest speaker. At the time of the incident, she received telepathic, technological messages in the form of images in her mind from the beings who were no more than five feet from her, what she believed to be a warning that we need to use our technology for better purposes. She was asked by an attendee of the conference if the beings still contacted her and she answered yes. She currently uses painting and drawing as therapy for her experiences and visions. (Trim)

At the close of Emily’s emotional speech regarding those strange events that happened in Zimbabwe over twenty years ago, Luigi Vendittelli, a UFO and abduction researcher and monitor of the event commented on his previous conversations with her. “I remember Emily saying once to me, who cares what the ship looked like, who cares what it sounded like, who cares what they looked like. She says it’s what they are trying to say to us.” (Trim)

Lisel, the student mentioned previously, appears as an adult in the upcoming film’s trailer for Ariel Phenomenon, and said, “There is a God, but there’s also other things around that can’t be explained. It’s another creature.” (Earth Mystery News)

-Ariel Phenomenon. “Ariel Phenomenon” Official Trailer. Youtube, Published on 30 Aug, 2016. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr_remi7qgQ.

-Christie, Sean. (2014, September 4) Remembering Zimbabwes Great Alien Invasion. Retrieved from www.mg.co.za/article/2014-09-04-remembering-zimbabwes-great-alien-invasion.

-Earth Mystery News. Zimbabwe UFO Child Conactee Speaks Publicly For The 1st Time. Youtube, Published by Earth Mystery News – EMN, 21 Jun, 2016. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaLvp-BkqAo.

-Fauci, Vince. John E. Mack: 62 School Children: Close encounter with 2 beings: UFO lands in schoolyard. Youtube, Published on 17 Jan, 201. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W75HZD8VaE.

-Mack, John E. 1995.04.28 John E. Mack, M.D. presentation at IONS on alien encounters. Youtube, Published on 24 March, 2014. www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Y07Ij06qM.

-Stothers, Richard. Unidentified Flying Objects in Classical Antiquity. The Classical Journal 103.179–92, 2007.

-Williams, Richard. UFO: The Continuing Enigma. New York: DK Direct Limited, 1991.

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Messages From The Other Side

August 11, 2017 Leave a reply

Messages From The Other Side
Photo by Julia Caesar on Unsplash

Messages from the Other Side

Unsolved Mysteries was a television show hosted by Robert Stack that chronicled strange, real life stories. Years ago, I caught an episode about psychic experiences which mentioned a book entitled Always Karen written by Jeanne Walker. In the book, Walker shares her experience contacting her daughter, Karen—who had passed away from cancer at the tender age of 20—from the other side.

Walker and her husband Tom enlisted the help of a medium named Reverend George Daisley shortly after Karen’s death to contact their daughter. Daisley wrote an introduction to the book in which he explained his gift and his role in helping the Walkers. He also played prominently in another book similar in scope called The Other Side, in which he helped Bishop James A. Pike contact his son, Jim who had committed suicide. Both Walker and Pike claimed that their children were still alive in a spirit world after death and that their children could make contact and influence the lives of others.

Automatic Writing

Walker’s initial contact with Karen was just the beginning of an intriguing story. Walker wrote her thoughts and feelings on paper and soon realized that Karen was the one writing them. Through this automatic writing, Karen told her about her new world. “You are to write! I want the world to know that I live, so they will know that their loved ones live.” (Walker 98)

At first, Walker questioned herself, believing it might be her subconscious in action. Her husband Tom convinced her that it didn’t matter. “The pen is writing some most interesting and profound thoughts. If Karen is doing it, then we have a wonderful contact with another plane of life. If it is your subconscious, then I am proud of you. You have hidden talents and depths I never suspected in all these years.” (Walker 97)

Automatic writing is a psychic science. For those not familiar with this phenomenon, here is an explanation of the process. “This [automatic writing] is truly a step beyond, in tapping the subconscious. The operator takes a pencil in hand and lets it inscribe messages or even drawings on a sheet of paper. Very remarkable information, pertaining to the past, present, and future has been obtained through such a procedure. Often, the integrity of the operator is unquestioned, though skeptics have often cast doubt as to the value of the revelations.

“The most remarkable feature of the automatic writing is that it often lives up to the term ‘automatic.’ A gifted person may keep on writing lengthy dissertations, even the manuscripts of entire books, long after they should have tired physically. The hand of the operator seems to be actuated by an outside force, making the results all the more impressive.” (Gibson 341) Walker’s writing began to affirm one thing: her subconscious wasn’t doing the writing. She had connected with her deceased daughter and Karen had a lot to tell her about the state of consciousness and our thoughts.

Manipulating Objects

Pike realized that Jim was contacting him by manipulating objects on earth from the other side. This included multiple bottles of milk that had soured and were capped, books and postcards left in unusual positions, and even burning strands of hair on the bangs of one of their friends. (Pike 74-105)

Once Pike realized what was happening, he consulted the help of a medium. Jim came through in a seance determined to tell his father and everyone else that he lived on. (Pike 370)

The Real World

Karen explained her struggles in life before her death and her new existence to her mother. “I actually came to my new environment, my life after death, on December 17 and remained in a state resembling sleep for some hours.” She also explains that her transition was fast and she entered her spiritual body. (Walker 48) There was a short period when she didn’t know she had died. “Had I not been told, and had it not been for experiencing different people who I knew were ‘dead,’ I would not have known I was not as before. I still looked and felt like the same Karen except that my body was stronger.” (Walker 48)

Jim worked on dealing with his regrets for killing himself and finally reached a sense of peace. “…I’m working real hard at learning that being dead is really being more alive.” (Pike 217) Karen expressed similar thoughts to her mother. “I live in the real world. You don’t.” (Walker 99)

Consciousness

Consciousness is defined as an “awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.” We all know that when we are born we are conscious, meaning that we are awake. The opposite is the subconscious mind. “The nomenclature to distinguish the two functions of your mind is as follows: The objective and subjective mind, the conscious and subconscious mind, the waking and sleeping mind, the surface self and the deep self, the voluntary mind and the involuntary mind, the male and the female, and many other terms.” (Murphy 23)

Walker continued to question whether she was tapping into only her subconscious until she received confirmation that it really was Karen. Karen began to tell her things that she would not have known, like the sex and physical qualities of her friend’s babies who had not been born. She did this to urge her mother to continue her writing. “We want to get the writing on the way—all of us here. Continue your writing, Mom. It’s coming out fine. It is from me.” (Walker 98)

Jeanne mentioned that prior to Karen’s death she had read Stewart Edward White’s book, The Unobstructed Universe. Karen used her mother’s knowledge of this book to explain the idea of consciousness. “Go back to The Unobstructed Universe. You remember there that you were told that consciousness is the one and only reality in the universe and that all forms of consciousness are in degree. Each form, whether human, animal, plant, electric, or atomic, has its own degree or quality. And all forms of consciousness have shapes or containers, form.” (Walker 101-102)

Power of Our Thoughts

One of the main ideas that Karen shared was that thoughts are more powerful than we think they are, that a thought is an actual object in time and space and can be extremely powerful. She mentioned Jesus’ saying, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” She explained that this tenant was a perfect example of a powerful thought-form that had been carried on for generations. “Many ideas are written and never stand the test of time. Others, like this example are different…It was the fact that this was born as a thought-form of great potential and was sent with tremendous impetus that insured its survival.” (Walker 103)

“A thought is a force, and it is projected. It moves through time and space. It can even become a separate consciousness of its own when it is released from the person who projects it.” (Walker 101-102)

Evolution of the Soul

Both Karen and Jim were excited about their future. Karen continued to study and learn on the other side. Jim wanted to share his excitement about his new life. “I want so much to tell you about a world where everybody is out to create a greater sense of love and harmony.” “…And this is the process of evolution. This is man cleansing himself gradually and continuously, and he evolves and becomes more enlightened. He throws away his props and his shackles, and he works to what is essential. This is what I’ve discovered.” (Pike 384)

-Gibson, Walter B., & Gibson, Litzra R. The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1966

-Murphy, Dr. Joseph. The Power of the Subconscious Mind. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963

-Pike, James A. The Other Side. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1968

-Walker, Jeanne. Always Karen. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1975

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Chi, The Invisible Life Force

August 4, 2017 Leave a reply

Chi – Flows, Permeates, Moves, and drives us and our universe.

Chi, Invisible LIfe Force
Photo by Andrew Branch on Unsplash

Chi, The Invisible Life Force

In eastern mysticism (Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism), there’s a belief that in all of us and all around us is an unseen, universal life force of energy called chi or qi in Chinese, also known as ki in Japanese and prana in Indian culture. This energy flows, permeates, moves and drives our whole being and remains an enigma to many. Can we unveil this mystery and tap into it?

In ancient Chinese medicine, balance is integral to health and well being. Chi exists in each part of our body, and for chi to flow correctly in all these parts, we must be in balance. “The balance between all these parts is maintained by a continuous flow of chi, or vital energy, along a system of ‘meridians’ which contain the acupuncture points.” (Capra 108)

Chi is a Mystery

Martial arts is an avenue where many have experienced chi first hand. Joe Hyams, an American columnist who rubbed elbows with stars like Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, and Bruce Lee, studied a form of martial arts called Aikido, which is known as “the gentle art.” While he practiced, he wanted to know more about ki. He asked his instructor, and she explained to him that no one can really define it, “but you can experience it.” (Hyams 53)

A Sioux Holy Man’s Visions

August 2, 2017 Leave a reply

The Sacred Hoop

Visions, prophetic dreams, talking animals, sacred ornaments of wisdom, cloud spirits descending from the sky, and mysterious voices are just some of the mystical experiences in the life of Black Elk, a Sioux warrior and holy man of the Oglala tribe. He, along with some of his old friends, were interviewed over the summer of 1932 by John G Neihardt for his book, Black Elk Speaks.

Niehardt’s purpose was to document the history of Black Elk’s people and to share with the Wasichus (white man) so that they would have a better understanding of his people’s culture. What remains is a gripping tale of struggle and perseverance and the mystical experiences of a warrior and holy man whose Great Vision never materialized.