THE MODERN FREEMASONIC JOURNAL

NEW EVIDENCE REGARDING THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

2006-08-16T20:02:00.000-04:00

New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters' clay.

Magen and Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.

By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites' eastern frontier.

"The association between Qumran, the caves and the scrolls is, thus, a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis," Magen said in an article in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and Peleg wrote a more detailed report of their research in "The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates," published this year.

This is by no means the first challenge to the Essene hypothesis originally advanced by Roland de Vaux, a French priest and archaeologist who was an early interpreter of the scrolls after their discovery almost 60 years ago. Other scholars have suggested that Qumran was a fortified manor house or a villa, possibly an agricultural community or a commercial entrepôt.

Norman Golb, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago who is a longtime critic of the Essene link, said he was impressed by the new findings and the pottery-factory interpretation.

"Magen's a very seasoned archaeologist and scholar, and many of his views are cogent," Golb said in a telephone interview. "A pottery factory? That could well be the case."

Golb said that, of course, Qumran could have been both a monastery and a pottery factory. Yet, he added: "There is not an iota of evidence that it was a monastery. We have come to see it as a secular site, not one of pronounced religious orientation."

For years, Golb has argued that the multiplicity of Jewish religious ideas and practices recorded in the scrolls made it unlikely that they were the work of a single sect like the Essenes.

The scrolls in the caves were probably written by many different groups, Golb surmised, and were removed from Jerusalem libraries by refugees in the Roman war. Fleeing to the east, the refugees may well have deposited the scrolls for safekeeping in the many caves near Qumran.

The new research appears to support this view. As Magen noted, Qumran in those days was at a major crossroads of traffic to and from Jerusalem and along the Dead Sea.

Magen also cited documents showing that refugees in another revolt against the Romans in the next century had fled to the same caves. He said they were "the last spot they could hide the scrolls before descending to the shore" of the Dead Sea.

In the magazine article, Magen said the jars in which most of the scrolls were stored had probably come from the pottery factory. If so, this may prove to be the only established connection between the Qumran settlement and the scrolls.

New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters' clay.

Magen and Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.

By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites' eastern frontier.

"The association between Qumran, the caves and the scrolls is, thus, a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis," Magen said in an article in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and Peleg wrote a more detailed report of their research in "The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates," published this year.

This is by no means the first challenge to the Essene hypothesis originally advanced by Roland de Vaux, a French priest and archaeologist who was an early interpreter of the scrolls after their discovery almost 60 years ago. Other scholars have suggested that Qumran was a fortified manor house or a villa, possibly an agricultural community or a commercial entrepôt.

Norman Golb, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago who is a longtime critic of the Essene link, said he was impressed by the new findings and the pottery-factory interpretation.

"Magen's a very seasoned archaeologist and scholar, and many of his views are cogent," Golb said in a telephone interview. "A pottery factory? That could well be the case."

Golb said that, of course, Qumran could have been both a monastery and a pottery factory. Yet, he added: "There is not an iota of evidence that it was a monastery. We have come to see it as a secular site, not one of pronounced religious orientation."

For years, Golb has argued that the multiplicity of Jewish religious ideas and practices recorded in the scrolls made it unlikely that they were the work of a single sect like the Essenes.

The scrolls in the caves were probably written by many different groups, Golb surmised, and were removed from Jerusalem libraries by refugees in the Roman war. Fleeing to the east, the refugees may well have deposited the scrolls for safekeeping in the many caves near Qumran.

The new research appears to support this view. As Magen noted, Qumran in those days was at a major crossroads of traffic to and from Jerusalem and along the Dead Sea.

Magen also cited documents showing that refugees in another revolt against the Romans in the next century had fled to the same caves. He said they were "the last spot they could hide the scrolls before descending to the shore" of the Dead Sea.

In the magazine article, Magen said the jars in which most of the scrolls were stored had probably come from the pottery factory. If so, this may prove to be the only established connection between the Qumran settlement and the scrolls.

New archaeological evidence is raising more questions about the conventional interpretation linking the desolate ruins of an ancient settlement known as Qumran with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in nearby caves in one of the sensational discoveries of the last century.

After early excavations at the site, on a promontory above the western shore of the Dead Sea, scholars concluded that members of a strict Jewish sect, the Essenes, had lived there in a monastery and presumably wrote the scrolls in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Many of the texts describe religious practices and doctrine in ancient Israel.

But two Israeli archaeologists who have excavated the site on and off for more than 10 years now assert that Qumran had nothing to do with the Essenes or a monastery or the scrolls. It had been a pottery factory.

The archaeologists, Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, reported in a book and a related magazine article that their extensive excavations turned up pottery kilns, whole vessels, production rejects and thousands of clay fragments. Derelict water reservoirs held thick deposits of fine potters' clay.

Magen and Peleg said that, indeed, the elaborate water system at Qumran appeared to be designed to bring the clay-laced water into the site for the purposes of the pottery industry. No other site in the region has been found to have such a water system.

By the time the Romans destroyed Qumran in A.D. 68 in the Jewish revolt, the archaeologists concluded, the settlement had been a center of the pottery industry for at least a century. Before that, the site apparently was an outpost in a chain of fortresses along the Israelites' eastern frontier.

"The association between Qumran, the caves and the scrolls is, thus, a hypothesis lacking any factual archaeological basis," Magen said in an article in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. He and Peleg wrote a more detailed report of their research in "The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates," published this year.

This is by no means the first challenge to the Essene hypothesis originally advanced by Roland de Vaux, a French priest and archaeologist who was an early interpreter of the scrolls after their discovery almost 60 years ago. Other scholars have suggested that Qumran was a fortified manor house or a villa, possibly an agricultural community or a commercial entrepôt.

Norman Golb, a professor of Near Eastern languages and civilization at the University of Chicago who is a longtime critic of the Essene link, said he was impressed by the new findings and the pottery-factory interpretation.

"Magen's a very seasoned archaeologist and scholar, and many of his views are cogent," Golb said in a telephone interview. "A pottery factory? That could well be the case."

Golb said that, of course, Qumran could have been both a monastery and a pottery factory. Yet, he added: "There is not an iota of evidence that it was a monastery. We have come to see it as a secular site, not one of pronounced religious orientation."

For years, Golb has argued that the multiplicity of Jewish religious ideas and practices recorded in the scrolls made it unlikely that they were the work of a single sect like the Essenes.

The scrolls in the caves were probably written by many different groups, Golb surmised, and were removed from Jerusalem libraries by refugees in the Roman war. Fleeing to the east, the refugees may well have deposited the scrolls for safekeeping in the many caves near Qumran.

The new research appears to support this view. As Magen noted, Qumran in those days was at a major crossroads of traffic to and from Jerusalem and along the Dead Sea.

Magen also cited documents showing that refugees in another revolt against the Romans in the next century had fled to the same caves. He said they were "the last spot they could hide the scrolls before descending to the shore" of the Dead Sea.

In the magazine article, Magen said the jars in which most of the scrolls were stored had probably come from the pottery factory. If so, this may prove to be the only established connection between the Qumran settlement and the scrolls.

Reprinted from the International Herald Tribune by John Noble Wilford, The New York Times

Published: August 16, 2006

Shriners Behaving Badly Pt. 7

2006-08-16T07:02:00.000-04:00

(*Once again we see the good old boys doin what they do best in this saga of corruption and greed. Sandy has done a remarkable job connecting all the dots! Darren)

Unanswered Questions -
Shriners: Part 7
By Cassandra 'Sandy' Frost
8-15-6

This story began unfolding four months ago, after Vernon Hill, a
Shriners whistleblower, tried to find an investigative journalist willing to
look into his allegations that the top echelon of the Shriners
Hospitals for Children, a 501c3 non profit charitable group, was corrupt. To
date, six investigative articles have been written. Here is Part 7.

What Does "Non-Profit" Mean?

Imagine if you will, a box labeled "Fraternal, 501c10, Shriners
Temples" and another box labeled "Charitable 501c3, Shriners Hospitals for
Children." The first group oversees the individual temples of which
Shriners are members and, according to their articles of incorporation,
oversees and controls the second group, the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Both have very distinct non profit classifications per the IRS. As
such, each group is supposed to function separate from the other, though in
this case, it appears that the fraternal controls the charitable.

Non profit status confers the following benefits on both groups:

(1) exemption from federal and state income tax (2) ability of certain
non-profits to make purchases without paying state sales tax (3)
ability for certain non-profits to receive tax-deductible contributions

Non profit groups have strict disclosure guidelines, especially when it
comes to their taxes. Certain questions on the IRS non profit 990 tax
return forms provide important indications of how a group is doing. Or
tell who the group is affiliated with. Or answer if they lobbied or if
they had real estate transactions between the corporation and directors,
officers or employees. Or if they amended their governing documents.

Article Highlights

Here are the highlights of the previous six articles. A comparison of
similar questions asked by this writer, the General Accounting Office
(GAO) and Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Finance, follows.

1) A series of investigative articles published by the Orlando Sentinel
in 1986 reported that in 1985 the Shriners kept 71 percent of the $21.7
million raised to pay for clubhouse expenses, including the upkeep of
private bars, restaurants, golf courses, conventions, travel,
entertainment and fund raising. Less than 2 percent, or $346,251, went to the
medical care of the children.

2) Shriners whistleblower, Vernon Hill, has worked with a former IRS
agent and accountant, Paul Dolnier, for the past year and a half. They
ordered and analyzed thousands of pages of Shriners tax returns which led
to Dolnier presenting evidence of alleged charity fraud to the chief
investigator, auditor and counsel for Pennsylvania's Charitable Special
Investigation unit during a six hour meeting in spring of 2006.

3) Non profit watchdogs like Give.org (non profit arm of the Better
Business Bureau) and American Institute of Philanthropy are howling about
how the Shriners Hospitals for Children seem to be "hoarding" money
that could be used on the medical needs of more sick children. The
Shriners control over $9.5 billion dollars, which is eleven times their
current operating budget.

4) After corporate corruption cases like Enron and Worldcom, business
experts emphasize the importance of conflict of interest policies for a
corporation's board of directors, officers and trustees. In the case of
the Shriners, there have been years of 100% overlap between those on
both the Shriners' 501c10 fraternal board also sitting on the Shriners'
501c3 charitable board. There have also been years when hospital
officers sat on both boards.

5) The lack of disclosure on the Shriners' tax returns of real estate
transactions involving Lewis Molnar, recently retired CEO of Shriners
Hospitals for Children, Charles Cumpstone, recently retired executive
vice president and Donald W. Peirce, a recently deceased employee. The
last real estate transaction took place in 2003 and was not reported to
the IRS.

6) On October 17, 2000, a Resolution was filed with the Polk County
Clerk, Florida, that grants the Shriners' top echelon unlimited power to
execute all types of financial transactions without accountability to or
oversight by internal governance committees. This change in governing
documents was not reported to the IRS.

7) In 1998, the Shriners had a beginning cash balance of $354 million.
By the end of the year, they lost over $351 million or 99.1% of what
they started with. In 2001, they lost $614 million in investments. And in
2002, the Shriners lost nearly 16% of their investments, down by $1+
billion dollars or $1,045,760,830.

8) Fraternal Articles of Incorporation state that "The objects and
purposes of this corporation and business to be transacted by it areto
maintain, control, conduct and superintend any and all charities,
benevolences and hospitals now established, maintained and controlled by the
Imperial council and to create and maintain a charitable and educational
fundfor the purchase, erection, operation and maintenance of Shriners
Hospitals for Children." This does not match what the fraternal
organization states as their purpose on their tax returns.

9) Over the past three years, Hill and others have asked Shriners
leaders questions like "Where does all the money go?" Instead of receiving
any answers, these Shriners have been ignored, kicked out, removed from
committees and in the case of Hill, sent a "cease and desist" email
from Shriners corporate attorney. Is there further punishment for such
actions? According to Shriners ritual, the punishment is "In willful
violation whereof may I incur the fearful penalty of having my eyeballs
pierced to the centre with a three-edged blade, my feet flayed, and I be
forced to walk the hot sands upon the sterile shores of the Red Sea until
the flaming sun shall strike me with livid plague, and may Allah, the
god of Arab, Moslem and Mohammedan, the god of our fathers, support me
to the entire fulfillment of the same. Amen. Amen. Amen." (1)

10) It appears that the "Cease and desist" email sent by the Shriners
corporate attorney to Hill violated the "Whistle blower Protection"
provided by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In July, 2003, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
was signed into law after corporations like Enron were caught illegally
pursuing annual profits rather than maintaining sound business
practices. The law calls for new standards for governance, financial
transactions and audit procedures. It calls for the establishment of an
independent audit committee, policies that address insider trading and conflicts
of interest, spells out the responsibilities of auditors, requires
certified financial statements, mandates the disclosure of tax returns in
an "easily accessible way," provides whistle blower protection and
addresses document destruction so as to prevent criminal obstruction.

Unanswered Questions

Two sets of questions have been emailed to the Shriners Director of
Public Relations; the first sent on 7/11/06, over a month ago and the
second sent on 7/28/06, nearly three weeks ago. To date, both remain
unanswered.

The first email asked about the Shriners hiring a lobbyist named
Hershel Gober, former Director of Veterans Affairs for the Clinton
administration. These questions included "Why was this relationship reported to
the U.S. Senate but not disclosed on the 2005 tax returns?" and "Why
would Gober, as confirmed by Gober himself, lobby against the
Sarbanes-Oxley act on behalf of the Shriners Hospitals for Children?" Other
questions include:

1) Specifically, what are the points of Sarbanes-Oxley that the
Shriners lobbied against? 2) What did the Shriners hope to accomplish by
lobbying against Sarbanes-Oxley? 3) Who was involved with the meetings set
up by Mr. Gober? 4) Who is currently lobbying on behalf of the Shriners?
5) Are the Shriners still lobbying against Sarbanes-Oxley?

Are these issues that address non profit transparency and
accountability important? The General Accounting Office and Senator Chuck Grassley,
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, seem to think so. The
second email sent to the Shriners asked questions similar to those asked by
a July 28, 2006 General Accounting Office (GAO) survey and by Senator
Grassley.

According to the GAO survey cover letter:

"As a part of Congress's continuing efforts to oversee the activities
of the nonprofit sector, you asked us to review executive compensation
issues at selected private, nonprofit hospital systems to gain an
understanding of the policies and practices related to the salaries,
benefits, travel, gifts, and entertainment expenses paid by these hospital
systems. Our study's key questions were as follows:

· What corporate governance structure do selected hospital systems
report as having in place over executive compensation?

· What is the basis for the compensation and benefits earned by,
awarded to, or paid to the executives as reported by selected hospital
systems?

· What internal controls do selected hospital systems report as having
in place over the approval, payment, and monitoring of executive travel
and entertainment expenses, gifts, and other perquisites?"

Senator Grassley had this to say about the study:

"We need to insure that charitable assets benefit those who need them
most rather than those who need them leastIn my experience reviewing
charities that have failed their mission, poor board governance unites
them all. When the board members fail to understand the gravity of the
task before them, charities sufferIn 17 percent of the cases, the CEO or
other top paid executives were voting members of the executive
compensation body. In essence, they were voting to give themselves their
salaries and benefits. Critical audits of personal entertainment expenses,
spousal travel, automobile expenses, and social club dues are not being
performed on a regular basis"

On May 25, 2005, Senator Grassley sent out his own set of questions,
asking non profit hospitals to account for activities related to their
non profit status. "The Congress is considering the issues of tax-exempt
organizations and particularly the duties and requirements of public
charities in relation to the billions of dollars in tax benefits that
tax-exempt organizations receive at the federal, state and local level,"
he wrote.

Here are some of the unanswered questions emailed to Shriners Hospitals
for Children. Those in common with the GAO and/or Senator Grassley are
marked as such.

1) Is there a conflict of interest policy or other disclosure mechanism
for Board Members, Officers, Trustees and others in high level
positions for both the fraternal and charitable organizations to disclose any
investments or others interests in companies or organizations who have
patent licenses/agreements/contracts with Shriners Hospitals or that are
the result of research done at any of the Shriners Hospitals or on
behalf of Shriners Hospitals or by anyone associated with Shriners
Hospitals? (Q7, Grassley)

2) None of the tax returns list expenses or expense accounts for any of
the Officers, Directors, Trustees or Key Employees for either the
charitable or fraternal organizations. Please provide the last three years
of expense reports or other accounting information for these
individuals. (Q21, Grassley. Q36, Q37, GAO)

3) Are there annual performance audits of the Board members, Trustees
and Officers of both the charitable and fraternal organizations? (Q18,
GAO)

4) When the officers, Directors and trustees serve on both the
charitable and fraternal boards, are their expenses paid for in both
capacities? (Q36, GAO)

5) Will you please provide a list of the board meetings for the past
three years for both the fraternal and charitable organizations, to
include date, location, who attended as well as expense reports or
accounting for each of those who attended as well as for costs paid for by both
organizations? (Q36, Q41, GAO)

Here are some of the unanswered questions raised in previous articles
that were also asked by the GAO.

1) Does your hospital system make loans to its CEO or any of the other
top four executives? (Q30, GAO)

2) Since January 1, 2004, has your hospital system made loans to its
CEO or any of the other top four executives for the following purposes,
specifically real estate? (Q 31, GAO)

On Monday, July 31, a call was placed to Shriners Headquarters to
determine if Alicia Argiz-Lyons, the Shriners Corporate Director of Public
Relations had received the emailed questions. She answered the phone and
confirmed that the emailed questions had been received.

When asked about the conflicts of interest of real estate transactions
between Shriners Hospitals for Children and Lewis Molnar (recently
retired hospital CEO), Donald Peirce (IT employee who recently died) and
Charles Cumpstone (recently retired executive vice president),
Argiz-Lyons answered "One is dead and the two others are not here any more. And
besides, they happened when the Shriners moved their headquarters."

I then suggested that Argiz-Lyons answer did not negate the fact that
these transactions happened and I suggested that she search the public
records to locate the real estate records in question. I told her that
the real estate transactions had not been reported to the IRS.
Argiz-Lyons said that the IRS had "been down there for 18 months and found
nothing wrong."

She then asked me if I'd been to a Shriners Hospital for Children? I
said no, I had not and certainly, the good that was being done on behalf
of the sick and crippled children was commendable.

She then said "If you really want to help the children, you'll stop
spending all your time asking questions."

As a professional courtesy and as the "fact checking" process I've used
for the past five years, an email was sent to Argiz-Lyons on Friday,
August 4, to provide her the opportunity to confirm or deny what had been
said during our July, 31 conversation. To date, this, and the previous
two emails, remains unanswered.

These unanswered emails seem to follow the Shriners Hospitals for
Children pattern of stonewalling questions about their finances. The
questions that need to be asked now are "Why do they refuse to answer the
questions?" and "What might they be hiding?"

(1) The Encyclopedia of Fraternities, by Albert Stevens

All copies of material reprinted or duplicated from "by Sandy Frost"
must include the following credit line: From
http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/ Copyright © 2006 by Sandy Frost. Used
by permission.

Visit me at:

http://sandyfrost.newsvine.com/
http://thecassandrafrostcollection.blogspot.com/

The Burning Taper: Grand Lodge of Georgia violates own rules by promoting sectarian Christianity

2006-08-15T18:20:00.000-04:00

The Burning Taper: Grand Lodge of Georgia violates own rules by promoting sectarian Christianity

The Grand lodge of Georgia has once again proven that it is absolutely the most despotic regime to exist since the Vatican.

Was Cancer "Cured" in the 1930's??!!

2006-08-10T22:33:00.000-04:00

Royal Raymond Rife

Imagine, for a moment, that you have spent more than two decades in painfully laborious research-- that you have discovered an incredibly simple, electronic approach to curing literally every disease on the planet caused by viruses and bacteria . Indeed, it is a discovery that would end the pain and suffering of countless millions and change life on Earth forever. Certainly, the medical world would rush to embrace you with every imaginable accolade and financial reward imaginable. You would think so, wouldnt you?

Unfortunately, arguably the greatest medical genius in all recorded history suffered a fate literally the opposite of the foregoing logical scenario. In fact, the history of medicine is replete with stories of genius betrayed by backward thought and jealously, but most pathetically, by greed and money.

In the nineteenth century, Semmelweiss struggled mightily to convince surgeons that it was a good idea to sterilize their instruments and use sterile surgical procedures. Pasteur was ridiculed for years for his theory that germs could cause disease.
Scores of other medical visionaries went through hell for simply challenging the medical status quo of day, including such legends as Roentgen and his X-rays, Morton for promoting the 'absurd' idea of anaesthesia, Harvey for his theory of the circulation of blood, and many others in recent decades including: W.F. Koch, Revici, Burzynski, Naessens, Priore, Livingston-Wheeler, and Hoxsey.

Orthodox big-money medicine resents and seeks to neutralize and/or destroy those who challenge its beliefs. Often, the visionary who challenges it pays a heavy price for his 'heresy.'

So, you have just discovered a new therapy which can eradicate any microbial disease but, so far, you and your amazing cure aren't very popular. What do you do next? Well, certainly the research foundations and teaching institutions would welcome news of your astounding discovery. Won't they be thrilled to learn you have a cure for the very same diseases they are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars per year to investigate? Maybe not, if it means the end of the gravy train. These people have mortgages to pay and families to support. On second thought, forget the research foundations.

Perhaps you should take your discovery to the pharmaceutical industry; certainly it would be of great interest to those protectors of humanity, right? But remember, you have developed a universal cure which makes drugs obsolete, so the pharmaceutical industry just might be less than thrilled to hear about your work. In fact, the bigshots might even make it certain that your human disease-ending technology never sees the light of day, by preventing it from becoming licensed by the regulatory agencies.

Now, assuming your amazing cure is an electronic instrument, the only cost of using it is electricity. And it is absolutely harmless to patients, who can recover without losing their hair, the family home, and their life savings. So, with your technology, there is no longer any reason for people with cancer to pay over $300,000 per patient -- to become deathly ill from chemotherapy, radiation treatments, and the mutilation of surgery. It sounds like you won't find many friends and support among practicing oncologists, radiologists, and surgeons, doesnt it?

You might try the hospitals and big clinics. But how thrilled are they going to be about a therapy administered in any doctor's office; which reverses illness before the patient has to be hospitalized? Thanks to you, the staffs of these institutions will essentially be out of work.

Well then, how about the insurance companies? Surely, they would be delighted to save the expense of hospitalization - at least the companies which haven't invested in hospitals, where the staff is now sitting around waiting for someone to break a leg or be in a car accident...and the ones who don't lose policyholders as a result of your invention...and the companies which aren't trying to divest their pharmaceutical stock. Oh well, forget the insurance companies, too.

It looks like you just might have a little problem with the medical establishment, no?

Probably the only friends you'll have will be the patients and those progressive doctors who see change as an opportunity, rather than a threat to their established money-making monopoly. Those people will love you. But they don't call the shots.

What follows, now, is the story of exactly such a sensational therapy and what happened to it. In one of the blackest episodes in recorded history, this remarkable electronic therapy was sabotaged and buried by a ruthless group of men. It has re-emerged in the underground medical/alternative health world only since the mid-80's. This is the story of Royal Raymond Rife and his fabulous discoveries and electronic instruments.

If you have never heard of Rife before, prepare to be angered and incredulous at what this great man achieved for all of us only to have it practically driven from the face of the planet. But, reserve your final judgement and decision until after you have read this.

Of course, some may regard this as just an amusing piece of fiction. However, for those who are willing to do some investigating on their own, there will be mentioned several highly-respected doctors and medical authorities who worked with Rife as well as some of the remarkable technical aspects of his creation.

However, in the final analysis, the only real way to determine if such a revolutionary therapy exists is to experience it yourself. The medical literature is full of rigged 'double-blind' clinical research tests, the results of which are often determined in advance by the vested corporate interests involved.

If FDA and other regulatory and licensing procedures and guidelines are observed, it is your privilege to experiment with this harmless therapy. So let's now turn to the story of the most amazing medical pioneer of our century.

Royal Raymond Rife was a brilliant scientist born in 1888 and died in 1971. After studying at Johns Hopkins, Rife developed technology which is still commonly used today in the fields of optics, electronics, radiochemistry, biochemistry, ballistics, and aviation. It is a fair statement that Rife practically developed bioelectric medicine himself.

He received 14 major awards and honors and was given an honorary Doctorate by the University of Heidelberg for his work. During the 66 years that Rife spent designing and building medical instruments, he worked for Zeiss Optics, the U.S. Government, and several private benefactors. Most notable was millionaire Henry Timkin, of Timkin roller bearing fame.

Because Rife was self-educated in so many different fields, he intuitively looked for his answers in areas beyond the rigid scientific structure of his day. He had mastered so many different disciplines that he literally had, at his intellectual disposal, the skills and knowledge of an entire team of scientists and technicians from a number of different scientific fields. So, whenever new technology was needed to perform a new task, Rife simply invented and then built it himself.

Rife's inventions include a heterodyning ultraviolet microscope, a microdissector, and a micromanipulator. When you thoroughly understand Rife's achievements, you may well decide that he has the most gifted, versatile, scientific mind in human history.

By 1920, Rife had finished building the world's first virus microscope. By 1933, he had perfected that technology and had constructed the incredibly complex Universal Microscope, which had nearly 6,000 different parts and was capable of magnifying objects 60,000 times their normal size. With this incredible microscope, Rife became the first human being to actually see a live virus, and until quite recently, the Universal Microscope was the only one which was able view live viruses.

Modern electron microscopes instantly kill everything beneath them, viewing only the mummified remains and debris. What the Rife microscope can see is the bustling activity of living viruses as they change form to accommodate changes in environment, replicate rapidly in response to carcinogens, and transform normal cells into tumor cells.

But how was Rife able to accomplish this, in an age when electronics and medicine were still just evolving? Here are a few technical details to placate the skeptics...
Rife painstakingly identified the individual spectroscopic signature of each microbe, using a slit spectroscope attachment. Then, he slowly rotated block quartz prisms to focus light of a single wavelength upon the microorganism he was examining. This wavelength was selected because it resonated with the spectroscopic signature frequency of the microbe based on the now-established fact that every molecule oscillates at its own distinct frequency.

The atoms that come together to form a molecule are held together in that molecular configuration with a covalent energy bond which both emits and absorbs its own specific electromagnetic frequency. No two species of molecule have the same electromagnetic oscillations or energetic signature. Resonance amplifies light in the same way two ocean waves intensify each other when they merge together.

The result of using a resonant wavelength is that micro-organisms which are invisible in white light suddenly become visible in a brilliant flash of light when they are exposed to the color frequency that resonates with their own distinct spectroscopic signature. Rife was thus able to see these otherwise invisible organisms and watch them actively invading tissues cultures. Rife's discovery enabled him to view organisms that no one else could see with ordinary microscopes.

More than 75% of the organisms Rife could see with his Universal Microscope are only visible with ultra-violet light. But ultraviolet light is outside the range of human vision, it is 'invisible' to us. Rife's brilliance allowed him to overcome this limitation by heterodyning, a technique which became popular in early radio broadcasting. He illuminated the microbe (usually a virus or bacteria) with two different wavelengths of the same ultraviolet light frequency which resonated with the spectral signature of the microbe. These two wavelengths produced interference where they merged. This interference was, in effect, a third, longer wave which fell into the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This was how Rife made invisible microbes visible without killing them, a feat which today's electron microscopes cannot duplicate.

By this time, Rife was so far ahead of his colleagues of the 1930's(!), that they could not comprehend what he was doing without actually traveling to San Diego to Rife's laboratory to look through his Virus Microscope for themselves. And many did exactly that.

One was Virginia Livingston. She eventually moved from New Jersey to Rife's Point Loma (San Diego) neighborhood and became a frequent visitor to his lab. Virginia Livingston is now often given the credit for identifying the organism which causes human cancer, beginning with research papers she began publishing in 1948.

In reality, Royal Rife had identified the human cancer virus first...in 1920! Rife then made over 20,000 unsuccessful attempts to transform normal cells into tumor cells. He finally succeeded when he irradiated the cancer virus, passed it through a cell-catching ultra-fine porcelain filter, and injected it into lab animals. Not content to prove this virus would cause one tumor, Rife then created 400 tumors in succession from the same culture. He documented everything with film, photographs, and meticulous records. He named the cancer virus 'Cryptocides primordiales.'

Virginia Livingston, in her papers, renamed it Progenitor Cryptocides. Royal Rife was never even mentioned in her papers. In fact, Rife seldom got credit for his monumental discoveries. He was a quiet, unassuming scientist, dedicated to expanding his discoveries rather than to ambition, fame, and glory. His distaste for medical politics (which he could afford to ignore thanks to generous trusts set up by private benefactors) left him at a disadvantage later, when powerful forces attacked him. Coupled with the influence of the pharmaceutical industry in purging his papers from medical journals, it is hardly surprising that few heave heard of Rife today.

Meanwhile, debate raged between those who had seen viruses changing into different forms beneath Rife's microscopes, and those who had not. Those who condemned without investigation, such as the influential Dr. Thomas Rivers, claimed these forms didn't exist.
Because his microscope did not reveal them, Rivers argued that there was "no logical basis for belief in this theory." The same argument is used today in evaluating many other 'alternative' medical treatments; if there is no precedent, then it must not be valid. Nothing can convince a closed mind. Most had never actually looked though the San Diego microscopes...air travel in the 1930's was uncomfortable, primitive, and rather risky. So, the debate about the life cycle of viruses was resolved in favor of those who never saw it (even modern electron microscopes show frozen images, not the life cycle of viruses in process).

Nevertheless, many scientists and doctors have since confirmed Rife's discovery of the cancer virus and its pleomorphic nature, using darkfield techniques, the Naessens microscope, and laboratory experiments. Rife also worked with the top scientists and doctors of his day who also confirmed or endorsed various areas of his work. They included: E.C. Rosenow, Sr. (longtime Chief of Bacteriology, Mayo Clinic); Arthur Kendall (Director, Northwestern Medical School); Dr. George Dock (internationally-renowned); Alvin Foord (famous pathologist); Rufus Klein-Schmidt (President of USC); R.T. Hamer (Superintendent, Paradise Valley Sanitarium; Dr. Milbank Johnson (Director of the Southern California AMA); Whalen Morrison (Chief Surgeon, Santa Fe Railway); George Fischer (Childrens Hospital, N.Y.); Edward Kopps (Metabolic Clinic, La Jolla); Karl Meyer (Hooper Foundation, S.F.); M. Zite (Chicago University); and many others.

Rife ignored the debate, preferring to concentrate on refining his method of destroying these tiny killer viruses. He used the same principle to kill them, which made them visible: resonance.

By increasing the intensity of a frequency which resonated naturally with these microbes, Rife increased their natural oscillations until they distorted and disintegrated from structural stresses. Rife called this frequency 'the mortal oscillatory rate,' or 'MOR', and it did no harm whatsoever to the surrounding tissues.

Today's Rife instruments use harmonics of the frequencies shown on the display screen. The wavelength of the actual frequency shown (770hz, 880hz, etc.) is too long to do the job.

This principle can be illustrated by using an intense musical note to shatter a wine glass: the molecules of the glass are already oscillating at some harmonic (multiple) of that musical note; they are in resonance with it. Because everything else has a different resonant frequency, nothing but the glass is destroyed. There are literally hundreds of trillions of different resonant frequencies, and every species and molecule has its very own.

It took Rife many years, working 48 hours at a time, until he discovered the frequencies which specifically destroyed herpes, polio, spinal meningitis, tetanus, influenza, and an immense number of other dangerous disease organisms.

In 1934, the University of Southern California appointed a Special Medical Research Committee to bring terminal cancer patients from Pasadena County Hospital to Rife's San Diego Laboratory and clinic for treatment. The team included doctors and pathologists assigned to examine the patients - if still alive - in 90 days.

After the 90 days of treatment, the Committee concluded that 86.5% of the patients had been completely cured. The treatment was then adjusted and the remaining 13.5% of the patients also responded within the next four weeks. The total recovery rate using Rife's technology was 100%.

On November 20, 1931, forty-four of the nation's most respected medical authorities honored Royal Rife with a banquet billed as The End To All Diseases at the Pasadena estate of Dr. Milbank Johnson.

But by 1939, almost all of these distinguished doctors and scientists were denying that they had ever met Rife. What happened to make so many brilliant men have complete memory lapses? It seems that news of Rife's miracles with terminal patients had reached other ears. Remember our hypothetical question at the beginning of this report: What would happen if you discovered a cure for everything? You are now about to find out....

At first, a token attempt was made to buy out Rife. Morris Fishbein, who had acquired the entire stock of the American Medical Association by 1934, sent an attorney to Rife with 'an offer you can't refuse.' Rife refused. We many never know the exact terms of this offer. But we do know the terms of the offer Fishbein made to Harry Hoxsey for control of his herbal cancer remedy. Fishbein's associates would receive all profits for nine years and Hoxey would receive nothing. Then, if they were satisfied that it worked, Hoxsey would begin to receive 10% of the profits. Hoxsey decided that he would rather continue to make all the profits himself. When Hoxsey turned Fishbein down, Fishbein used his immensely powerful political connections to have Hoxsey arrested 125 times in a period of 16 months. The charges (based on practice without a license) were always thrown out of court, but the harassment drove Hoxsey insane.

But Fishbein must have realized that this strategy would backfire with Rife. First, Rife could not be arrested like Hoxsey for practising without a license. A trial on trumped-up charges would mean that testimony supporting Rife would be introduced by prominent medical authorities working with Rife. And the defense would undoubtedly take the opportunity to introduce evidence such as the 1934 medical study done with USC. The last thing in the world that the pharmaceutical industry wanted was a public trial about a painless therapy that cured 100% of the terminal cancer patients and cost nothing to use but a little electricity. It might give people the idea that they didn't need drugs.

And finally, Rife had spent decades accumulating meticulous evidence of his work, including film and stop-motion photographs. No, different tactics were needed...

The first incident was the gradual pilfering of components, photographs, film, and written records from Rife's lab. The culprit was never caught.

Then, while Rife struggled to reproduce his missing data (in a day when photocopies and computers were not available), someone vandalized his precious virus microscopes. Pieces of the 5,682 piece Universal microscope were stolen. Earlier, an arson fire had destroyed the multi-million dollar Burnett Lab in New Jersey, just as the scientists there were preparing to announce confirmation of Rife's work. But the final blow came later, when police illegally confiscated the remainder of Rife's 50 years of research.

Then in 1939, agents of a family which controlled the drug industry assisted Philip Hoyland in a frivolous lawsuit against his own partners in the Beam Ray Corporation. This was the only company manufacturing Rife's frequency instruments (Rife was not a partner). Hoyland lost, but his assisted legal assault had the desired effect: the company was bankrupted by legal expenses. And during the Great Depression, this meant that commercial production of Rife's frequency instruments ceased completely.

And remember what a universal cure meant to hospitals and research foundations? Doctors who tried to defend Rife lost their foundations grants and hospital privileges.

On the other hand, big money was spent ensuring that doctors who had seen Rife's therapy would forget what they saw. Almost no price was too much to suppress it. Remember that, today, treatment of a single cancer patient averages over $300,000. It's BIG business.

Thus, Arthur Kendall, the Director of the Northwestern School of Medicine who worked with Rife on the cancer virus, accepted almost a quarter of a million dollars to suddenly 'retire' in Mexico. That was an exorbitant amount of money in the Depression.
Dr. George Dock, another prominent figure who collaborated with Rife, was silenced with an enormous grant, along with the highest honors the AMA could bestow. Between the carrots and the sticks, everyone except Dr. Couche and Dr. Milbank Johnson gave up Rife's work and went back to prescribing drugs.

To finish the job, the medical journals, support almost entirely by drug company revenues and controlled by the AMA, refused to publish any paper by anyone on Rife's therapy. Therefore, an entire generation of medical students graduated into practice without ever once hearing of Rife's breakthroughs in medicine.

The magnitude of such an insane crime eclipses every mass murder in history. Cancer picks us off quietly...but by 1960 the casualties from this tiny virus exceeded the carnage of all the wars America ever fought. In 1989, it was estimated that 40% of us will experience cancer at some time in our lives.

In Rife's lifetime, he had witnessed the progress of civilization from horse-and-buggy travel to jet planes. In that same time, he saw the epidemic of cancer increase from 1 in 24 Americans in 1905 to 1 in 3 in 1971 when Rife died.

He also witnessed the phenomenal growth of the American Cancer Society, the Salk Foundation, and many others collecting hundreds of millions of dollars for diseases that were cured long before in his own San Diego laboratories. In one period, 176,500 cancer drugs were submitted for approval. Any that showed 'favorable' results in only one-sixth of one percent of the cases being studied could be licensed. Some of these drugs had a mortality rate of 14-17%. When death came from the drug, not the cancer, the case was recorded as a 'complete' or 'partial remission' because the patient didn't actually die from the cancer. In reality, it was a race to see which would kill the patient first: the drug or the disease.

The inevitable conclusion reached by Rife was that his life-long labor and discoveries had not only been ignored but probably would be buried with him. At that point, he ceased to produce much of anything and spent the last third of his life seeking oblivion in alcohol. It dulled the pain and his acute awareness of half a century of wasted effort - ignored - while the unnecessary suffering of millions continued so that a vested few might profit. And profit they did, and profit they do.

In 1971, Royal Rife died from a combination of valium and alcohol at the age of 83. Perhaps his continual exposure to his own Rife frequencies helped his body endure abuse for so many years.

Fortunately, his death was not the end of his electronic therapy. A few humanitarian doctors and engineers reconstructed his frequency instruments and kept his genius alive. Rife technology became public knowledge again in 1986 with the publication of The Cancer Cure That Worked, by Barry Lynes, and other material about Royal Rife and his monumental work.

There is wide variation in the cost, design, and quality of the modern portable Rife frequency research instruments available. Costs vary from about $1200 to $3600 with price being no legitimate indicator of the technical competence in the design of the instrument or performance of the instruent. Some of the most expensive units have serious technical limitations and are essentially a waste of money. At the other extreme, some researchers do get crude results from inexpensive simple, unmodified frequency generators, but this is just as misguided as spending too much money. Without the proper modifications, the basic frequency generator gives only minimal and inconsistent results. Please recall that the actual destruction of the viruses and bacteria, etc. is not accomplished by the frequency displayed on these cheap generators, but by certain shorter harmonics of that particular frequency which are often blocked by the crudity of a cheap and rudimentary instrument itself.

This very problem led Rife to ultimately abandon the 'ray tube' design in favor of today's version. The newer technology applies the frequencies and their harmonics to the body through the use of hand-held, footplate, or stick-on electrodes. Proper frequency exposure and flushing of the body with large amounts of clean, pure water is critical to achieve the kind of results Rife got. These procedures are fully explained in the manuals of the best units on the market.

So, unless you would be satisfied with sporadic results for minor conditions, it is suggested you use only the highest quality equipment and only the proper, proven procedures in your personal research. If you do, you may discover that nothing can approach what can be achieved through the application of these safe, time-tested frequencies (many for over 65 years)- and all without drugs, surgery, or radiation.

One day, the name of Royal Raymond Rife may ascend to its rightful place as the giant of modern medical science. Until that time, his fabulous technology remains available only to the people who have the interest to seek it out. While perfectly legal for veterinarians to use to save the lives of animals, Rife's brilliant frequency therapy remains taboo to orthodox mainstream medicine because of the continuing threat it poses to the international pharmaceutical medical monopoly that controls the lives - and deaths - of the vast majority of the people on this planet.

This story can be found at : www.rense.com

WHAT GOD IS & WHAT THE WORD RELIGION SIGNIFIES, AND HOW AND WHY SUCH A GREAT NUMBER HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED IN THE WORLD

2006-08-08T23:55:00.000-04:00

This EXCELLENT post was found on TUBALCAIN420 and I just had to post it here! Thanks to the folks at Tubalcain420 for letting me do so!

Until now we have fought the popular idea concerning the Divinity, but we have not yet said what God is, and if we were asked, we should say that the word represents to us an Infinite Being, of whom one of his attributes is to be a substance of extent and consequently eternal and infinite. The extent or the quantity not being finite or divisible, it may be imagined that the matter was everywhere the same, our understanding not distinguishing parts. For example, water, as much as water is imagined, is divisible, and its parts separable from one another, though as much as a corporeal substance it is nether separable nor divisible. [So of water, however, it may be subject to generation and corruption, as long as it is substance it is not subject to separation and division.] Thus neither matter or quantity have anything unworthy of God, for if all is God, and all comes surely from his essence, it follows quite absolutely that He is all that he contains, since it is incomprehensible that Beings quite material should be contained in a Being who is not. That we may not think that this is a new opinion, Terlullian, one of the foremost men among the Christians, has pronounced against Apelles, that, "that which is not matter is nothing," and against Praxias, that "all substance is matter," without having this doctrine condemned in the four first Councils of the Christian Church, ecumenical and general. [The four first Councils were 1. That of Nice in the year 345, under the Emperor Constantine the Great, and under Pope Sylvester I.; 2. That of Constantinople in the year 381, under the Emperors Gratian, Valentinian and Theodore and the Pope Damase I.; 3. That of Ephesus in the year 431, under the Emperor Theodore, the younger, and Valentinian and under the Pope Celestin; 4. That of Chalcedon in the year 451, under Valentinian and Martian, and under Pope Leo I.]

These sentiments are plain and the only ones that good and sound judgment can form of God. However, there are but few who are satisfied with such simplicity. Boorish people, who are accustomed to adulation of opinion, demand a God who resembles earthly kings. The pomp and circumstance surrounding them so fascinates, that to take away all hope of going after death to increase the number of heavenly courtiers enjoying the same pleasure which attaches to the Court of Kings, is to take away the consolation and the only things which prevent them from going to despair over the miseries of life. They want a just and avenging God, who rewards and punishes after the manner of kings, a God susceptible of all human passions and weaknesses. They give him feet, hands, and ears, and yet they do not regard a God so constituted as material. They say that man is his masterpiece, and even his own image, but do not allow that the copy is like the original. In a word, the God of the people of today is subject to as many forms as Jupiter of the Pagans, and what is still more strange, these follies contradict each other and shock good sense. The vulgar reverence them because they firmly believe what the Prophets have said, although these visionaries among the Hebrews, were the same as the augurs and the diviners among the pagans. [These, among us, are the Astrologers and Fanatics.] They consult the Bible as if God or nature was therein expounded to them in a special manner, however this book is only a rhapsody of fragments, gathered at various times, selected by several persons, and given to the people according to the fancy of the Robbins, who did not publish them until after approving some, and rejecting others, and seeing if they were conformable or opposed to the Law of Moses. [the Talmud remarks that the Robbins deliberated whether they should omit the Book of Proverbs and that of Ecclesiastes from the number of canonicals, and would have done so had they not found in several places that they eulogized the Mosaic law. They would have done the same with the prophecies of Ezekiel had not a certain Chananias undertook to harmonize them with the same law.] Yes, such is the malice and stupidity of men that they prefer to pass their lives disputing with one another, and worshipping a book received from ignorant people; a book with little order or method, which everyone admits as confused and badly conceived, only serving to foment divisions.

Christians would rather adore this phantom than listen to the law of Nature which God -- that is to say, Nature, which is the active principle -- has written in the heart of man. All other laws are but human fictions, and pure illusions forged, not by Demons or evil spirits, which are fanciful ideas, but by the skill of Princes and Ecclesiastics to give the former more warrant for their authority, and to enrich the latter by the traffic in an infinity of chimeras which sell to the ignorant at a good price.

All other laws are not supported save on the authority of the Bible, in the original of which appear a thousand instances of extraordinary and impossible things, [The versions that we have differ greatly in a thousand places, one with another, until the end of the book.] and which speaks only of recompenses or punishments for good or bad actions, but which are wisely deferred for a future life, relying that the trick will not be discovered in this, no one having returned from the other to tell the news. Thus, men kept ever wavering between hope and fear, are held to their duty by the belief they aver that God has created man only to render him eternally happy or unhappy, and which has given rise to the infinity of religions which are about to be discussed.

WHAT THE WORD RELIGION SIGNIFIES, AND HOW AND WHY SUCH A GREAT NUMBER HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED IN THE WORLD.

Before the word Religion was introduced in the world mankind was only obliged to follow natural laws and to conform to common sense. This instinct alone was the tie by which men were united, and so very simple was this bond of unity, that nothing among them was more rare than dissensions. But when fear created a suspicion that there were Gods, and invisible powers, they raised altars to these imaginary beings, so that in putting off the yoke of Nature and Reason, which are the sources of true life, they subjected themselves by vain ceremonies and superstitious worship to frivolous phantoms of the imagination, and that is whence arose this word Religion which makes so much noise in the world.

Men having admitted invisible forces which were all-powerful over them, they worshipped them to appease them, and further imagined that Nature was a being subordinate to this power, thence they had the idea that it was a great mace that threatened, or a slave that acted only by the order that such power gave him. Since this false idea had broken their will they had only scorn for Nature, and respect only for those pretended beings that they called their Gods. Thence came the ignorance in which mankind was plunged, and from which the well-informed, however deep the abyss, could have rescued them, if their zeal had not been extinguished by those who led them blindly, and who lived by imposture. But though there was but little appearance of success in the enterprise, it was not necessary to abandon the party of truth, and only in consideration of those who were afflicted with the symptoms of so great an evil, were generous souls available to represent matters as they were.

Fear which created Gods, made also Religion, and when men imbibed the notion that there were invisible agencies which were the cause of their good and bad fortune, they lost their good sense and reason substituting for their chimeras so many Divinities who had care of their conduct.

After having forged these Gods they were curious to know of what matter they consisted, and finally imagined that they should be of the same substance as the soul. Then being persuaded that the latter resembled the shadows which appear in a mirror, or during sleep, they believed that some Gods were real substances but so thin and subtle that to distinguish them from bodies they called them Spirits. So that bodies and spirits were in effect the same thing, and differed neither more nor less, and to be both corporeal and incorporeal is a most incomprehensible thing. The reason given is that each spirit has a proper form, and is included within some limit, that is to say that it has some boundaries, and consequently must be a body however thin and subtle it might be. [See Tertullian ante, also Hobbes' Leviathan, C. 12, p. 56.]

The ignorant, that is, the greater part of mankind having settled in this manner the substance of their Gods, tried also to determine by what methods these invisible powers produced their effects. Not being able to do this definitely by reason of their ignorance, they put faith in their conjectures, blindly judging the future by the past, while seeing neither cohesion nor dependence.

In all that they undertook they saw but the past, and foretold good or evil for the future according as the same enterprise had at another time turned out either good or bad. Phormion having defeated the Lacedemonians at the battle of Naupacte, the Athenians, after his death, chose another general of the same name: Hannibal having succumbed to the arms of Scipio Africanus, the Romans, remembering this great success, sent another Scipio to the same country against Caesar, which acts gained nothing for either the Athenians or the Romans. So after two or three experiences, good or bad fortune is made synonymous with certain names or places; others make use of certain words called enchantments, which they believe to be efficacious; some cause trees to speak, create man from a morsel of bread, and transform anything that may appear before them. (Hobbes' Leviatlian de homine. Cap. 12, p. 56-57.)

Invisible powers being established in this way, straightway men revere them only as they do their rulers, that is to say, by tokens of submission and respect, as witness offerings, prayers, and similar things, I say at first, for nature has not yet learned to use on such occasions sacrifices of blood, which have only been instituted for the benefit of the sacrificers and the ministers called to the service of these beautiful Gods.

These causes of Religion, that is, Hope and Fear, leaving out the passions, judgments and various resolutions of mankind, have produced the great number of extravagant beliefs which have caused so much evil, and the many revolutions which have convulsed the nations.

The honor and revenue which attaches to the priesthood, and which has since been accorded to the ministry of the Gods, and those having ecclesiastical charges, inflame the ambition and the avarice of cunning individuals who profit by the stupidity of the people, who readily submit in their weakness, and we know how insensibly is caused the easy habit of encouraging falsehood and hating truth.

The empire of falsehood being established, and the ambitious ones encouraged by the advantage of being above their fellows, the latter endeavor to gain repute by a pretense of being friendly with the invisible Gods whom the vulgar fear. For better success, each schemes in his own way, and multiplies deities so that they are met at every turn.

The formless matter of the world they term the god Chaos, and the same honor is accorded to heaven, earth, the sea, the wind, and the planets, and they are made both male and female. Further on we find birds, reptiles, the crocodile, the calf, the dog, the lamb, the serpent, the hog, and in fact all kinds of animals and plants constitute the better part. Each river and fountain bears the name of a God, each house had its own, each man his genius; in fact all space above and beneath the earth was occupied by spirits, shades and demons. It was not sufficient to maintain a Divinity in all imaginable places, but they feared to offend time, day, night, concord, love, peace, victory, contention, mildew, honor, virtue, fever, and health, or to insult these charming divinities whom they always imagined ready to discharge lightning on the heads of men, provided temples and altars were not erected to them.

As a sequel, man commenced to fear his own special genius, whom some invoked under the name of Muses, and others under the name of Fortune adored their own ignorance. The latter sanctified their debauches in the name of Cupid, their rage in the name of Furies, and their natural parts under the name of Priapus, in a word, there was nothing which did not bear the name of a God or a Demon. (Hobbes' de homine, Chap. 12, p. 58.)

The founders of Religion having based their impostures on the ignorance of the people, took great care to maintain them by the adoration of images which they pretended were inhabited by the Gods, and this caused a flood of gold and benefactions called holy things, to pour into the coffers of the priests. These gifts were regarded as sacred, and designed for the use of these holy ministers, and none were so audacious as to pretend to their office, or even to touch them. To allure the people more successfully, these priests made prophecies and pretended to penetrate the future by the commerce which they boasted of having with the Gods. There is nothing so natural as to know destiny. These impostors were too well informed to omit any circumstance so advantageous for their designs. Some were established at Delos, others at Delphos and elsewhere, where by ambiguous oracles they replied to the demands made of them. Women even were engaged in these impostures, and the Romans in their great Calamities had recourse to the Sibylline books; fools and lunatics passed for enthusiasts, and those who pretended to converse with the dead were called necromancers.

Others read the future by the flight of birds, or by the entrails of beasts. Indeed the eyes, the hands, the face, or an extraordinary object, all seemed to them to possess a good or bad omen, so it is true that the ignorant will receive any desired impression when the secret of their wish is found. (Hobbes' de homine, Chap. 12, pp. 58-59.)

2nd Communication from Newly Elected UGLA GM

2006-08-08T10:42:00.000-04:00

For Immediate Release

Grand Master’s Statement

To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe and under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of America, greetings from the Grand East.

The Bill of Rights of the United Grand Lodge, as modified at our Annual Grand Lodge Communication on the 5th day of the month of August 2006 is posted below.

Fraternally,

S. Aaron Peavy

Grand Master

United Grand Lodge of America

Grand Lodge Bill of Rights

I. The Grand Lodge shall have the power to collect per-capita fees from the Lodges for its normal operations. The Grand Lodge shall provide financial statements of its activities at its regular communications.

II. The Grand Lodge shall return all unused funding back to the Lodges on a per-capita basis for the previous year after the collection of per-capita taxes.

III. The Grand Lodge is prohibited from owning, leasing or acquiring real estate.

IV. The Grand Lodge is prohibited from receiving or acquiring any monies or assets except through the collection of its annual per-capita fees.

V. No Grand Lodge Officer or any Representative from any of the Lodges shall receive any compensation for their services, other than reimbursable expenses covered by the Tax Code of the United States of America.

VI. No Free-Mason or close relation of a Free-Mason shall be hired by the Grand Lodge to provide any product or service to the Grand Lodge.

VII. The Grand Lodge shall be the sole authority over all Masonic Rites and Appendant Bodies and no Rite or Appendant Body shall form independent governing Bodies.

VIII. The various Masonic Rites will provide the educational curriculum relevant to their specific Order.

IX. The Grand Master is prohibited from issuing Edicts.

X. The Grand Master has the power and authority to temporarily suspend the Charter of any Lodge or any member, but only when the action is necessitated by an action of the Government or a Criminal Court.

XI. Any elected representative of a Lodge (Master or Warden) can introduce new legislation before the Grand Lodge, and the Grand Lodge shall not pass any law prohibiting this nor causing the same to be subject to the approval of any person or persons.

XII. Any elected representative of a Lodge (Master or Warden) can speak before the Grand Lodge about any issue concerning Free-Masonry, and the Grand Lodge shall not pass any law prohibiting this nor causing the same to be subject to the approval of any person or persons.

As amended by the members of the United Grand Lodge of America on 08/05/06
Attested by the Grand Secretary

G. David Cooksey

United Grand Lodge of America

Renting Out Shrine for Rock Concerts & Selling Beer on Premises

2006-08-08T08:06:00.000-04:00

Yet, another Shrine arrogating it's own interests over Masonic Law... DS
By JACI WEBB Of The Billings Gazette Staff

Frank Glasgow figured he hit the mother lode in 2000 when Bob Dylan performed for 2,500 people at the Shrine Auditorium. "That was the first show that put us on the map," said Glasgow, the rental manager for the Shrine, located at 1125 Broadwater Ave. Glasgow concedes that he and the volunteers who run beer concessions and take tickets were rookies back then. They've since learned a lot. "We learned from Bravo how to be a venue," Glasgow said. "I remember for that Dylan show we didn't even realize that you don't sell cans of beer at a concert." Sometimes shows get a little rowdy and concertgoers throw things - it hurts more to be hit by a can than by a plastic cup. Thus, the ban on canned beer.

Bravo Entertainment, a Boise, Idaho-based promotion company, brings many of the shows to the Shrine, including Dylan's concert. Since 2000, there have been dozens of concerts, from hip-hop acts like the Ying Yang Twins and Ludacris to blues legend B.B. King, country stars like Willie Nelson and Big and Rich, and lately, a rash of metal shows starting with Godsmack in 2004 and leading into the trio of hard rock shows over the next week, beginning with tonight's Rob Zombie concert and including shows by Billy Idol and Alice Cooper.

Glasgow said he occasionally takes heat from community members about the types of shows performed at the Shrine, but he points out that legally when a private facility is rented to the public it becomes a public venue and he can't discriminate. As long as potential renters have a $1 million liability insurance policy, the rental fee of $950 plus a $250 cleaning deposit, the building is theirs for the night.

"Once in a while, we get a call, 'How can you have an act like that? Have you heard their record?' Some are more disgusting than others. Alice Cooper and Billy Idol were pretty disgusting in their day." Glasgow said he took the most grief for the Joan Baez, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt concert back in 2000 because it was to help raise money and awareness for the Save the Yellowstone Buffalo Coalition.

Part of the charm of the building, which has 16,000 square feet of space on each of two levels, is that it feels like a high school gym. And, indeed, that was the idea when the building was constructed in 1950 - to put in an all-purpose gym for the community. The hardwood floor was designed to give with the weight of the crowd, giving it a bouncy feel during packed shows. "It can be a bit disconcerting when you're in the basement making cotton candy and the elephants are tromping around upstairs," Glasgow said. Glasgow, a trumpet player in school at West High, remembers Al Hirt playing a show there in the 1960s and, even further back, Louis Armstrong performing. The venue was used throughout the '50s and '60s for concerts, basketball tournaments and the Shrine Circus.

"For years it was a civic hub," Glasgow said. "But with the advent of the Metra, they stopped using it. It sat here from the 1970s to until 1998, and it was used only for meetings and occasional craft shows." Erecting a building to benefit the community is par for the course for the Shrine organization, a nonsectarian men's service group that raises money for ailing children treated at the Shrine hospitals. The local group, Al Bedoo, formed in Billings in 1922, held meetings in the Masonic Hall on North Broadway and Second Avenue North, across the street from the Alberta Bair Theater. The local organization has about 1,000 members, an aging population that is sometimes startled by Glasgow's ideas.

Glasgow joined the Al Bedoo Shrine organization in 1994, about the same time group leaders were wondering what to do with the building. At one time it was going to be put up for sale because it wasn't being used and needed repairs. Glasgow convinced his fellow Shriners first of all to bring back the Shrine Circus. The concerts came later.

"We have all kinds of folks who are here helping out. We have a rugby team that loves to sell beer in exchange for practice space in the winter. We have Boy Scouts and other group selling concessions. Of our 1,000-odd members we can count on 50 to help us out."

UGLA Grand Master's Statement

2006-08-07T12:54:00.000-04:00

S. Aaron Peavy
UGLA Grand Master

For Immediate Release:

From the Office of the Grand Secretary G. David Cooksey:

Grand Master’s Statement

To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe and under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of America, greetings from the East.

August 5, 2006 was a momentous day for Modern Free-Masons worldwide. The United Grand Lodge of America met to form its governing Grand Lodge body. Many items were discussed at length and many resolutions and items of great importance were completed. The three principle officers were elected and a compliment of Grand Lodge officers was appointed.

The cornerstone of our Grand Lodge was set into place at this meeting and we are now heading towards the ultimate goal of our basic principles:

1. Brotherhood of Humankind under the all-seeing eye of Deity

2. All Masons are on the same level

Thanks goes to Free-Masons from across the nation who met in Peace, Virtue, Truth, Brotherhood, and Fraternal union at our first Grand Lodge Communication. I will be issuing our plans for the future of our Brotherhood as Free-Masonry has been forged for the next generation. Let this new Grand Lodge be a beacon of the universal Light that was and always will be Free-Masonry.

Fraternally,

S. Aaron Peavy

Grand Master

United Grand Lodge of America

The Tao of Masonry: The Real Freemasonry

2006-08-06T19:06:00.000-04:00

The Tao of Masonry: The Real Freemasonry

An Excellent article from Bro. Tom Acousti, with a great lesson behind it. Sit with it for awhile.

Darren

"Atlantis" Under Antarctica??!!

2006-08-06T17:09:00.000-04:00

Special thanks to PRAVDA for this story!

After WW II, scientists started to pay close attention to the issue of a supposedly once-existing civilization in Antarctica. The hypothesis is confirmed by some medieval maps and research of paleogeologists and glaciologists.
In January of 1820, Lieutenant of Russian Empire Fleet Mikhail Lazarev discovered a new continent. In the beginning of 20th century, a Russian encyclopaedia, while adducing the approximate square milage of south pole continent, reported that it was insufficiently explored and there was no flora and fauna. The author of the article also mentioned the richness of the algae and sea life.

Twenty years later, the director of the Istanbul National Museum, Khalil Edkhem, was sorting out a library of the Byzantine emperors in an old palace. He found an ancient map made on gazelle skin. On the map, there were the shores of western and southern Africa, as well as the northern shores of Antarctica. Khalil could not believe hiseyes: the shores of the Queen Mod Land, to the south of the 70th parallel, was free of ice. An ancient cartographer marked a mountain chain there. The name of the cartographer was known: an admiral of the Ottoman Empire fleet, Piri Reis, who lived in the first half of 16th century.

The map’s authenticity was without doubt. Graphology examinations of the notes on the margin confirmed that they belonged to the admiral.

In 1949, a combined British and Swedish expedition conducted intensive seismic measurements of the South Pole through the ice cap. According to the commander of 8th Technical Investigation Squadron of the US Armed Force Strategic Command, Colonel Harold Olmayer, “ the geographical details of the bottom part of the map (the shore of Antarctica) correspond with the results of the seismic measurements. We cannot correlate these data with the supposed level of geography in 1513.”

In his notes on the map’s margin, made in the early 16th century, Piri Reis explained that he was not responsible for the cartography and that the map was based on earlier sources. Some of these “earlier sources” belong to his contemporaries (for example, to Christopher Columbus), while others could be dated to the 4th century B. C. Not later, because one of these sources belonged to Alexander the Great.

Of course, professional historians who specialize in ancient history could say the following: “This is only one more hypothesis. What about documentary and, what is more desirable, trust-worthy sources? The opinion of the Turkish admiral and notes on a margin… You know, it is too disputable!”

Therefore, I would like to present the position of the late historian and professor of Keene College in New Hampshire, USA, Charles H. Hapgood. In the late 1959, he found in the Washington Congressional Library a map created by Orontheus Phynius in 1531. Orontheus Phynius depicted Antarctica with mountains and rivers, without glaciers. The relief of the continent’s center was not marked, which, according to Hapgood, could mean that there had been an ice cap in that area.

In the early 1960s, Phynius’ map was studied by Doctor Richard Stratchen of the Massachusetts Technology Institute together with Hapgood. Both scientists concluded that Phynius had indeed depicted Antarctica free of ice. The characteristics depicted were very close to the information that was obtained in 1958 by specialists from different countries.

Gerard Cremer, known in the world as Mercator, also trusted Orontheus’ evidence. He included the Phynius map into his atlas, in which several maps of Antarctica by Mercator himself were also included. There is one interesting feature: on Mercator’s map of 1569, the west shore of South America is pictured less accurately than on the earlier map of Mercator from 1538. The reasons for this contradiction are the following: while working at the earlier map, the cartographer of 16th century proceeded from ancient sources, which were not kept for our time, and while working at the later map, he proceeded from observations of the first Spanish explorers to South America. Gerard Mercato’s mistake can be excused. In the 16th century, there were no precise methods to measure longitude: as a rule, an error could have been hundreds of kilometers!

Finally, we come to Philippe Boiche, full member of the French Academy of Science. In 1737, he published his map of Antarctica. Boiche presented a precise picture of Antarctica of the time when the continent was free of ice. On his map, the under-ice topography of the continent is presented, about which our civilization had no clear idea until 1958. Moreover, based on now-lost sources, the French academician depicted in the middle of the South Pole a body of water dividing it into two sub-continents, which were situated to the west and to the east from the line, where the Trans-Antarctic Mountains are now marked. According to the investigation in the framework of International Geophysical Year (1958), Antarctic is in fact an archipelago of large islands covered with 1.5-kilometers of ice.

Medieval maps show Antarctica without an ice cap or partially covered with ice. The precision of the 16th century cartographers was very high and even surprising. Their data surpassed the technical possibilities even of the late Middle Ages (for example, the determination of the longitude of a relief within one minute). This level was reached by mankind in the late 18th century, while in some cases, the 20th.

Scientists cannot comment on the high scientific level of medieval cartography. Information from almost 2000-year-old primary sources is supposed to be not well-founded.

Orthodox geology claimed that the age of the Antarctica ice cap was at least 25 million years; however, recently, it has been reduced to six million years.

Therefore, we should notice the following feature of the Reis map: the shore of the continent was free of ice. On the Phynius map, made 18 years after the Reis map, there is an ice cap around the South Pole within the limits of 80th and the 75th parallels. Two hundred years later, academician Boiche depicted Antarctica with glaciers.

The conclusion is obvious: we can see the process of the spreading of glaciers on the southern continent.

In 1949, Admiral Baird’s expedition bore holes into the Ross Sea in three spots, where Orontheus Phynius marked river-beds. In the cuts, fine-grained layers were found, obviously brought to the sea with rivers, whose sources were situated in temperate latitudes (i.e. free of glaciers).

While using the nuclear dating method of doctor U. Oury from the Karnegy Institute in Washington, scientists discovered that Antarctica’s rivers, which were sources of fine-dyspersated deposits, were flowing as depicted on the Phynius map, about 6,000 years ago. About 4000 years B. C., glacial sediments started to accumulate on the bottom of Ross Sea. Kernels show that before this, there was a long warm period.

Therefore, the maps of Reis, Phynius, and Mercator present Antarctica when the ancient Egyptian and Shumer civilizations were newborn. This point of view is excluded by almost all professional historians and could be regarded as an operating hypothesis that cannot be verified. Any historian would say that there were no civilization of the kind in the late 5th millenium B. C. According to Doctor Jacob Hock from Illinois University, the deposits in-question could be 6 to 12 thousand years old.

In September 1991, US and Egyptian archaeologists discovered at a distance of 13 km from Nile River, in Abidos, 12 large boats that belonged to Pharaohs of First Dynasty. The age of the boats is about 5,000 years. They are believed to be the most ancient vessels in the world, the leader of the expedition, D. O’Connor far, the find is estimated to be aimed for religious rites.

According to Herodotus, ancient Egyptians tracked stars more than 10,000 years ago. This statement of the “father of history” is supposed to be esoteric and, therefore, not true. However, land nations seldom produced astronomers. The fact that ancient Egyptians were interested in astronomy may indicate that they inherited some knowledge from an unknown civilization of navigators.

Workers of US technical intelligence determined the projection center of the Piri Reis map, whose data belongs to 4000 year B. C. The projection center was supposedly situated near today’s Cairo. At that time, according to most historians, all then-existing nations were at a very low level of development.

Between the 5th and 10th milleniums B. C., there was a civilization on Earth that possessed great knowledge in the field of navigation, cartography, and astronomy, which was no less advanced than that that of the 18th century.

This civilization preceded our civilization, and it was not an extraterrestrial one. Its age could be several thousands years, while its location was probably on the northern shore of the most southern continent, or archipelago: Antarctica. Later, this civilization may have resettled to the north-east of Africa.

The reason for the death of the civilization was the covering of Antarctica with glaciers. This process started no earlier not than in 10th millenium B. C. It cannot be excluded that there were also large-scale floods, which were regular and cause long-term local deluges (this is confirmed by archaeologists). These disasters could have destroyed most of the civilization’s cultural objects. However, some fragments might be found in the future under the thickness of ice. It can also be assumed that the survivors of Antarctica kept and handed down knowledge to the ancient Egyptians.

Therefore, if there will ever be an extensive exploration of Antarctica, mankind will most likely be surprised with the results.

Translated by Vera Solovieva

[Ed. Note: By the way... the NSA and the CIA are in the process of some furious activity at Lake Vostok and communications have quite recently gone silent. University of Honolulu is involved in the research and ties of CIA money have been discovered as the backing force of the research. Satellite imaging and magnetic anomalies seem to indicate that "something" is there under all that ice and that it's not "natural" in origin. If the NSA and the CIA get involved in covering something up... you can bet there's something to the story!]

Darren

EVENT OF HISTORIC SIGNIFIGANCE

2006-08-06T15:51:00.000-04:00

Multi-State Council of Delegates at the United Grand Lodge of America Headquarters
in Atlanta, Georgia
Photo Credits: The Burning Taper Blog

This just in! An event of historic signifigance has just taken place! All Grand Lodges of Freemasonry are advised of the following:

____________________________________________________________

New Grand Lodge Formation

To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe and under the auspices of the United Grand Lodge of America. The Brethren assembled on the 5th day of the month of August in the year 2006. met in the city of Atlanta in the state of Georgia, under the sun where Peace, Virtue, Truth, Brotherhood and Fraternal Union prevailed.

The Brethren Met for the purpose of forming a regular Grand Lodge and to elect Grand Lodge Officers;

To that end the Brethren assembled voted in their first election of officers who are as follows:

S. Aaron Peavy- Grand Master
G. David Cooksey- Grand Secretary
Brian P. Roper- Grand Treasurer

Other officers are appointed by the Grand Master

Grand Secretary
G. David Cooksey
United Grand Lodge of America

Sunken City Found Of Coast of India!

2006-08-04T22:44:00.000-04:00

Archaeologists are absolutely amazed at the discovery of a "sunken city" off of the coast of Surat, India. They're not so surprised that they found the city or even that it's where it is. What they're all surprised by is it's apparent age.

Carbon-dating of organic materials at the site indicate that the city is at least 9,500 years old! That would place it at the end of the last known ice age and older than the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese cultures.

Below, we've reprinted an article courtesy of Linda Moulton Howe from www.earthfiles.com.

_________________________________________________________

Sunken City Off India Coast - 7500 B. C.?

by Linda Moulton Howe

The underwater archaeological site that could be more than 9,000 years old
is about 30 miles west of Surat in the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) in northwestern India.

Surat, India - A month ago in mid-January, marine scientists in India announced they had sonar images of square and rectangular shapes about 130 feet down off the northwestern coast of India in the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay). Not only are their sonar shapes with 90-degree angles, the Indian Minister of Science and Technology ordered that the site be dredged. What was found has surprised archaeologists around the world and was the subject of a private meeting two weeks ago attended by the Indian Minister in charge of investigating the underwater site about thirty miles off the coast from Surat.

An American who traveled to that private meeting was Michael Cremo, researcher in the history of archaeology for the Bhakti Vedanta Institute in India and author of the book Forbidden Archaeology. I talked with him today in India about the dredging operation, what the ocean engineers found and the implications of first carbon dating of artifacts at more than 9,000 years.

Interview

Michael Cremo, Researcher of Ancient Archaeology and Author, Forbidden Archaeology: "Within the past few months, the engineers began some dredging operations there and they pulled up human fossil bones, fossil wood, stone tools, pieces of pottery and many other things that indicated that it indeed was a human habitation site that they had. And they were able to do more intensive sonar work there and were able to identify more structures. They appeared to have been laid out on the bank of a river that had been flowing from the Indian subcontinent out into that area.

According to the news releases, they have done a radiocarbon testing on a piece of wood from the underwater site that is now yielding an age of 9,500 years which would place it near the end of the last Ice Age.

Yes, those are the indications that are coming. There were actually two radiocarbon dates: one about 7500 years old and another about 9500 years old. The 9500 year old one seems to be the strongest one. That's the one they are going with. This was announced by Minister Joshi (Murli Manohar Joshi is Indian Minister for Ocean Technology) at this meeting I attended in Hyderabad, India. He said there is going to be more work going on. It's difficult because it's very difficult to see down there. There is a very swift current. So, it's going to have to be a pretty massive effort, but he said the government of India is willing to put the resources behind it to do whatever it takes to further confirm these discoveries.

I also spoke in Hyderabad with an independent archaeologist not connected with the Indian government, but who has a deep interest in these discoveries and he says they are still going to have to send divers down there. Up to this point, they have not sent divers down. The information they have is based on the sonar readings and the dredging they have done. Eventually, they are going to have to find a way to get people down there to take a closer look at this. I think this effort is going to go on.

Now, another American archaeologist, Richard Meadows of Harvard University, is proposing there should be an international effort here. On the surface that sounds like a good idea, but it also may be an effort of American archaeologists and others to control the project. I don't think they want to see a civilization being as old as it appears to be according to these new finds at 9500 years ago. So, I would hope the Indian archaeologists and government would be very cautious about letting outsiders in there who might have a different agenda and who might try to control what gets let out about this very important discovery. It could be quite revolutionary.

Cultural Background of People At Underwater Site?

Even if we don't know what the cultural background of the people is, if it does happen to be a city that is 9500 years old, that is older than the Sumerian civilization by several thousand years. It is older than the Egyptian, older than the Chinese. So it would radically affect our whole picture of the development of urban civilization on this planet.

Now, if it further happens that additional research is able to identify the culture of the people who lived in that city that's now underwater. If it turns out they are a Vedic people - which I think is quite probable given the location of this off the coast of India - I think that would radically change the whole picture of Indian history which has basically been written by western archaeologists.

India's Vedic Culture - Was It Really Older Than 3500 Years?

The most archaic Sanskrit (Devanagari) is that of the Vedas, multiple books written in thousands
of hymns and verses arranged in song cycles. The Vedas say that "God-men" brought Sanskrit to
Earth men as a language of musical tones.

Sources: The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edition © 1993
and Sanskrit Keys to the Wisdom Religion © 1968 by Judith Tyberg.

Ever since the 19th Century, there has been a huge debate about the actual history of India. When the Europeans first came there, they noticed that the people in India who had the Sanskrit language as the main language of their literature - they noticed that the European languages were similar (in word concepts), so that meant the Europeans and East Indians had to be related. The 19th Century scientists also noticed that the Sanskrit culture or Vedic culture, as it is sometimes called after the ancient Indian literature, Vedas, which means knowledge. So sometimes the ancient Indian culture is called the Vedic culture or Vedic civilization. The literature is called the Vedic literature. So, the scientists noticed that it appeared to be older than the European cultures. Since the European languages were related to the Indian language Sanskrit of the Vedas that could only mean that the European peoples had to have come out of India somehow and then gone to Europe with their languages that differentiated into Russian, English, Spanish, German and the rest of them. The European investigators didn't like that idea because it would have given the Vedic culture a position superior to their own. So, these early cities in the Indus Valley like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro have been identified by archaeologists such as Richard Meadows and others as being non-Vedic. They think the Vedic culture came into India maybe 3500 years ago.

Isn't that inconsistent with the concept of the Vedas of the Krishna character who comes and says the universe is teeming with life and appears to have knowledge about other habitations in the cosmos and is talking from an age that would go back at least 9,500 years?

Oh, absolutely, Linda. In these ancient Sanskrit writings, there is no hint at all that the culture came from anywhere else.

And if they are the prime source and if the Vedic literature can be taken literally, then it implies that there were cities there inhabited at least several thousand years ago.

Yes, and there has been other research going on in that area. For example, the Rg Veda, which is one of the earliest Vedic literatures, talks about a mighty river called the Saraswati that flowed from the Himalayan mountains down to the Arabian Sea, down in that area of northwestern India. And such a river doesn't exist there today. So, what happened is that people thought therefore the Rg Veda cannot be talking about India. It has to be talking about some other place outside of India where there was some kind of river.

But what happened that is quite interesting a few years ago is that archaeologists in India started studying the satellite photographs from American satellites like LANDSAT had been providing and they noticed there was a dry river channel that began up in the Himalayas, a huge river that went down almost to that Bay of Khambaht (Cambay) we are talking about (the location of the underwater city site). And then later, they found that on the banks of that river there were 800 to 1000 urban sites, archaeological sites.

So, it does appear that what the Rg Veda was talking about, a mighty river lined with cities in India over 5,000 years ago - that has to be true. The last time that river had water in it was over 5,000 years ago?

Is there a possibility that there could have been some sort of non-human co-habitation on the continent of India let's say 50,000 years ago that could explain all of the Vedas?

Yes. In Kashmir, the valley of Kashmir, it appears it was many years ago a lake. Now, there is an ancient Sanskrit manuscript that tells of a lake that existed in that area, so that account is there in some ancient writings. Now, according to modern geological reporting, about 40,000 years ago Kashmir was indeed a lake in the valley of Kashmir in northern India. It was covered by a huge lake and it was blocked on the southern end by a little range of mountains. And at a certain point, something happened and it broke open and the lake drained out. That happened about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. So, it is interesting that you've got this ancient historical record that talks about this lake. And if it is to be taken literally, then it means that somebody must have seen this lake as it existed 50,000 years ago and wrote about it."

More Information
Harappan Civilization (ca. 3000 - 1500 B.C.)

Until the recent Bay of Khambaht discovery, one of the oldest, advanced urban centers in India investigated by archaeologists is Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in present day Pakistan along the Indus River. Will anything in the Bay of Khambaht discovery resemble the structures of the very ancient and mysterious Harappan Civilization?

Harappa archaeology dig in Indus River valley showing heights and depths of structures,
many built on mounds 3500 years ago. Source: North Park University, Chicago, Illinois.

Excavated walls of a Harappan urban city, one of the most mysterious cultures
of the ancient Indian world more than 3,000 years ago. The people were literate and used
the Dravidian Sanskrit language, only part of which has been deciphered today. The artifacts from
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley of Pakistan are extraordinary in beauty and detail.
Source: North Park University, Chicago, Illinois.

Freedom of Speech & Social Responsibility

2006-08-04T00:57:00.000-04:00

After reading a comment posted to the previous article regarding Mel Gibson; I feel compelled to point something out. Mr. Anonymous made a comment about the berating of Mel Gibson because of his drunken, anti-semetic tirade that has recently made the news. He asked if Mel Gibson lived in a Communist country? It seemed that he was inferring that freedom of speech meant that you could say whatever you want without fear of social backlash or dissenting opinion.

Something I pointed out to Mr. Anonymous was that freedom of speech is a two-edged sword. If you express an opinion in public... you have the right to do so... but you must also deal with others excercising their freedom of speech rights by expressing counter opinions and their views over your character, because we all know that what a person thinks says a lot about what kind of person he or she is. In this respect, the old Biblical admonishment is true;

"For it is not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him, but what issues forth..." Mr. Gibson is not the victim of the suppression of his right to speak freely. In fact, it is quite evident that he exercised that right to it's fullest extent! Mr. Gibson, if anything, is the victim of his lack of accountability in making these comments. Comments which he now regrets in the cold, harsh light of sobriety. What I am saying is that if you're going to put forth an opinion in the public realm, BE ACCOUNTABLE! Make sure that you can deal with those who will disagree. Take ownership of what you say! Vocal dissent over a person's or a group's opinion over ANY issue is not only the right, but the duty of every American citizen.

There are those that feel that you should be able to say whatever you want to publicly and somehow be shielded or protected from verbal backlash or anger.

This is an endorsement of censorship at it's most basic form.

Where does the rationale of this idea stop? All things being equal, if you can't express disdain over someone else's opinion being vocalized publicly; then you take away the fundamental right that the original person had to vocalize their original opinion in the first place!

There would be no such thing as dissent, opinion, or free speech!

Freedom of Speech = Freedom of Expression, Freedom to Disagree, Freedom to Agree, Freedom to Boycott, Freedom of Religious Expression, Freedom of Political Affiliation, Freedom to be successful, Freedom to Fail, Freedom to Live, Freedom to Die...Freedom...Just Freedom

No, Mr. Anonymous... Freedom of Speech IS alive and well. It is social and personal responsibility and accountability that is in danger of disappearing. But... That's just MY opinion that I'm expressing freely.

Thank you,

Darren Simpson

The Burning Taper: Mel Gibson can't help being anti-Semitic — it's part of Christian culture, pagan historian says...

2006-08-02T14:05:00.000-04:00

The Burning Taper: Mel Gibson can't help being anti-Semitic — it's part of Christian culture, pagan historian says... <--- Click link for the whole story

"By now everyone knows that Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite, at least when he's drinking.On Sunday the Pagan Temple blogged:"

(Thanks to the folks at The Burning taper!)

The New View Over "Melchizedek"

2006-08-01T21:08:00.000-04:00

Those who study the Christian Bible, the Zohar, the Talmud, and the Nag Hammadi scripts will recognize the name "Melchizedek". This mysterious "priest-king" of "Salem" (now known as Jerusalem") has been a pivotal figure in the annals of Freemasonry as well; however, many in the Blue Lodge has forgotten the real signifigance of the Master Mason Degree and it's links to Melchizedek...the Canaanite link to the Hiram Abiff story...and the inexorable link to the Messianic legacy of Jesus Christ. I've included some different angles on Melchizedek, taken from different texts and viewpoints. Perhaps, when the real story comes to light about this shadowy figure from the distant past... History will look very different, indeed.

Melchizedek in Rabbinic Lore & the Zohar

Melchizedek is a character in the Old Testament who appeared in Genesis to the patriarch Abraham. He is called "king of Salem" (believed to be ancient Jerusalem) and "priest of the most high God" in Genesis 14:18.

In the Tanakh, Melchizedek brought bread and wine to Abraham (then called Abram) after Abraham's victory over the four kings who had besieged Sodom and Gomorrah and had taken his nephew Lot prisoner (described in Genesis 14). (Gen. 14:18.) Melchizedek blessed Abraham in the name of ³God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.² (Gen. 14:19.) In return, Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth, a tithe, of the spoils gained from the battle. (Gen. 14:20.)

In some translations, Psalm 110:4 names Melchizedek as representative of the priestly line through which a future king of Israel's Davidic line was ordained. Alternatively, the term in Psalm 110:4 can be read ³rightful king.² (E.g., New JPS Tanakh.)

In Rabbinic interpretationIn the Midrash, the Rabbis identified Melchizedek with Shem son of Noah. (E.g., B. Talmud Nedarim 32b; Genesis Rabbah 46:7; Genesis Rabbah 56:10; Leviticus Rabbah 25:6; Numbers Rabbah 4:8.) Rabbi Isaac the Babylonian said that Melchizedek was born circumcised.

(Genesis Rabbah 43:6.) Melchizedek called Jerusalem 'Salem.' (Genesis Rabbah 56:10.)

The Rabbis said that Melchizedek instructed Abraham in the Torah. (Genesis Rabbah 43:6.)

Rabbi Eleazar said that Melchizedek's school was one of three places where the Holy Spirit manifested itself. (B. Talmud Makkot 23b.)

The Rabbis taught that Melchizedek acted as a priest and handed down Adam¹s robes to Abraham. (Numbers Rabbah 4:8.)

Rabbi Zechariah said on Rabbi Ishmael's authority that God intended to bring forth the priesthood through Melchizedek¹s descendants, but because Melchizedek blessed Abraham before he blessed God (in Gen. 14:19-20), God brought the priesthood forth from Abraham¹s descendants. (B. Talmud Nedarim 32b.)

Rabbi Judah said in Rabbi Nehorai's name that Melchizedek¹s blessing yielded prosperity for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Genesis Rabbah 43:8.) Ephraim Miksha'ah the disciple of Rabbi Meir said in the latter's name that Tamar descended from Melchizedek. (Genesis Rabbah 85:10.)Rabbi Hana bar Bizna citing Rabbi Simeon Hasida identified Melchizedek as one of the four craftsmen of whom Zechariah wrote in Zechariah 2:3. (B. Talmud Sukkah 52b; see also Song of Songs Rabbah 2:33 (crediting Rabbi Berekiah in the name of Rabbi Isaac).

The Talmud teaches that David wrote the Book of Psalms, including in it the work of the elders, including Melchizedek (in Psalm 110). (B. Talmud Baba Batra 14b-15a.)

The Zohar finds in 'Melchizedek king of Salem' a reference to 'the King Who rules with complete sovereignty,' or according to another explanation, that 'Melchizedek' alludes to the lower world and 'king of Salem' to the upper world. (Zohar, Bereshit, 1:86b-87a)

(Source:http://www.crystalinks.com/melchizedek.html)

Jesus Christ as Melchizedek Reincarnated

Another incarnation of Jesus is the Old Testament figure known as Melchizedek, the High Priest and King of Salem. It is clear from the Book of Hebrews that Melchizedek was not an ordinary man, assuming he even was a man. A careful examination of the evidence concerning the existence of Melchizedek reveals him to be a previous reincarnation of Jesus. There are strong parallels between Melchizedek and Jesus: both are the Son of God, priest of the Order of Melchizedek, King of Righteous, King of Peace, the Messiah, appointed by God, eternal priesthood, and preexistent. Besides the Biblical evidence, there exists evidence from the discoveries of early Christian texts in 1945 and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. There is also extra-Biblical revelations that support this Melchizedek-Jesus connection.

Identical Characteristics of Melchizedek and Jesus
Both are:
(1) Sons of God
(2) High Priests of God
(3) Kings of Righteousness
(4) Appointed by God
(5) Kings of Peace
(6) Eternal ones
(7) Priests (8) Pre-existent ones
(9) Association with Abraham
(10) Rituals of bread and wine
(11) Anointed ones

Identical Sonship: "Son of God"

(A) In the Bible, the only individuals who have the title of the "Son of God" are Jesus, Adam and Melchizedek.
Adam: "the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." (Luke 3:38)

Melchizedek: "Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever." (Heb. 7:3)
Jesus: "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God." (Mark 1:1)

(B) The Bible also states that Melchizedek was made in the image or likeness of the Son of God. This could be taken as the image of the son of God (the second in the trinity) or as the image of the begotten son of God, when the Lord took on a fleshly body. But they are one and the same.
Jesus: "the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Cor. 4:4)
Jesus: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." (Heb. 5:6)

Definition of "order": Greek "aphomoioo" (a) A facsimile (b) An exact copy or exact reproduction (c) A duplicate

Jesus: "And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears." (Heb. 7:15)

Definition of "another priest like": Greek "kata ten homoioteta" (a) in every respect (b) after the similitude of (c) according to the likeness of (d) a thing so like another as to be indistinguishable from it.

Identical Order of Priesthood: Priest of the God Most High of the Order of Melchizedek

(A) Melchizedek and Jesus have identical priesthoods.
Melchizedek: "He was priest of God Most High." (Gen 14:18)
Messiah: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110:4)
Jesus: "You are a priest forever, in the order [facsimile] of Melchizedek." (Heb. 5:6)
Definition of "facsimile": (a) an exact copy or exact reproduction (b) duplicate

(B) Notice also that Paul has a mystery concerning Jesus and Melchizedek but is reluctant to tell the uninitiated:

"[Jesus] was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." (Heb. 5:10-14)

(C) Paul indicates the Priest(s) of order of Melchizedek were to last forever and that the system of priests through the tribe of Levi would eventually come to an end. These men were chosen by God for the office. They would give sacrifice to God which symbolically atoned, or paid for the people's sins. We see this principle at work very early in the story of Job:
"After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite:

"I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."

So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job's prayer." (Job 42:7-9)

Identical Symbol of Rule: "King of Righteousness"

(A) Melchizedek as the King of Righteousness:

"To whom Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation “King of Righteousness“ and after that also King of Salem, which is “King of Peace.” (Heb. 7:2)

(B) Jesus as the King of Righteousness:

"The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land." (Jer. 23:5)

(C) Melchizedek, as the King of Righteousness, fulfilled this scepter promise:

"The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his." (Gen. 49:10)

(D) Jesus, as the King of Righteousness, fulfilled this scepter promise:

"But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom." (Heb. 1:8)

Identical Right to Rule: Appointed by God

(A) Jesus and Melchizedek's priesthoods are similar because they did not depend upon genealogy as the Aaronic priesthood did. The human lineage of Jesus was from Judah - a tribe that Moses did not associate with the priesthood.

"For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests." (Heb. 7:14)

(B) Jesus Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, not because he came from the right line, but because he comes as one who has indestructible life - the only one who can be an eternal priest! The priesthood of both is a royal priesthood. The priesthood of both is based on personality, not legality. Both are universal priesthoods for Gentile and Jew because the priesthood of Melchizedek was before the Law was given. Melchizedek illustrates an eternal priesthood of which the Jesus is the reality.

Identical Title: "King of Peace"

(A) Melchizedek and Jesus are the Kings of Peace.

Melchizedek: "First, his name means "King of Righteousness"; then also, "King of Salem" means "King of Peace." (Heb. 7:2)

Jesus: "And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

(B) Melchizedek is the "King of Peace" and Jesus is the "Prince of Peace". Who could be King of Peace over Jesus?

Identical Term of Priesthood: Eternal

(A) Melchizedek and Jesus are eternal priests.
Melchizedek: "like the Son of God he remains a priest forever." (Heb. 7:3)
Jesus: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." (Heb. 5:6)

(B) Melchizedek and Jesus are priests forever with an unchangeable priesthood. This indicates they are the same priest - just different times.

Identical in Likeness: Priest

(A) Melchizedek and Jesus are priests of God.
Melchizedek: "He was priest of God Most High." (Gen 14:18)

Jesus: "And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come." (Heb 7:15-16)
The word "likeness" is translated homoios: (a) "after the similitude of"

Note: Heb. 7:15-16 does not mean Jesus is "similar to Melchizedek." In context, it means "Jesus is Melchizedek."
Proof: Another Biblical example of "homoios" meaning "likeness."

"Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." (Phil. 2:6-7)
Point 1: Jesus was human: The Word became flesh (John 1:14)

Point 2:

And Jesus had a human nature: "The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David." (Rom. 1:2-4)

Conclusion: Jesus was more than just the likeness of Melchizedek.

Jesus was Melchizedek.

(B) Why would Jesus be compared to Melchizedek if his status was not equal to or greater than Jesus? He certainly would not be compared to anyone lesser than himself. This suggests that both Melchizedek and Jesus were of the same nature and of similar purpose and, therefore, the same person.

Identical Age: Pre-existent

(A) Both Melchizedek and Jesus are pre-existent (i.e. they existed before birth).

Melchizedek: "Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever." (Heb. 7:3)

Jesus: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." (Micah 5:2)

Jesus: "The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water ... Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind." (Prov. 8:22-31)

Identical Association with: Abraham

(A) Both Melchizedek and Jesus were both associated with Abraham:

Melchizedek: "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abraham, saying, "Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth." (Gen. 14:18-19)

Jesus: "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.
"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham?"
"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" (John 8:56-59)

(B) Melchizedek and Jesus are one spirit who incarnated many times and who transcended death. They could enter and leave the world at will without having to go through birth and death.

"Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood." (Heb. 7:23)

Identical Use of Ritualistic Symbols: Bread and Wine

(A) Melchizedek's offering of bread and wine to Abraham is the first incidence where bread and wine appear in the Scripture. Melchizedek provided a priesthood which gave the symbols of bread and wine. Jesus also provided a priesthood which gave the symbols of bread and wine.

Melchizedek: "And Melchizedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine..." (Gen. 14:18)

Jesus: "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." (Matt. 26:26-29)

Jesus: "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

"Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

"Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." (John 6:48-59)

Identical Title: Anointed One, the "Messiah"

(A) Melchizedek is the "anointed one":

Melchizedek: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." (Heb. 1:9)

(B) Jesus is the "anointed one":

Jesus: "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one." (Acts 4:25-26)

Note: The word translated "anointed" is the Greek chrio which refers to contact between the one being anointed and the one doing the anointing. The Greek word "Christos", translated "Christ" is derived from "chrio".

Christian Gnostic Scriptures Discovered in 1945 Affirm Melchizedek and Jesus to be Different Incarnations of the Same Soul

On December, 1945, in Upper Egypt, ancient texts revealing that the early Christians and Jews believed that Melchizedek was a previous reincarnation of Jesus the Messiah.

These long lost texts were discovered by an Arab peasant was digging in the ground in search of fertilizer when he discovered large jars containing books which have been buried since around 390 A.D. These books where hidden by monks from a nearby monastery to escape destruction under the order of the emerging orthodox Church in its violent expunging of all heresy. These texts were one of the greatest archeological discovery ever discovered. It was only eclipsed by the Dead Sea Scroll discovery in Israel two years later in 1947. It is a strange coincidence that these ancient discoveries containing valuable information of early Jewish and Christian theology and history should appear around the same time.

This immensely important discovery in Egypt includes a large number of Christian Gnostic scriptures -- texts once thought to have been entirely destroyed. Some of the scriptures discovered were the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth.

One of the Christian Gnostic texts discovered is entitled "Melchizedek". The following quote is from this text. [...] indicates missing fragments or illegible wording.

"And you crucified me from the third hour of the Sabbath - eve until the ninth hour. And after these things I arose from the dead. My body came out of the tomb to me. [...] They did not find anyone greeted me [...] They said to me, Be strong, Melchizedek, great High Priest of God Most High"

There is little doubt that this quote attributed to Melchizedek refers to him being crucified and resurrected. Commenting on the above text, noted authority Birger A. Pearson states:

"Furthermore, the tractate's apparent identification of Melchizedek with Jesus Christ ... is also documented elsewhere in early Christianity, particularly in Egypt. We are drawn to the conclusion that, in the revelation which the priest Melchizedek has received, he has seen that he himself will have a redemptive role to play as the suffering, dying, resurrected and triumphant Savior, Jesus Christ! ... From what we read ... it seems that the victory of Jesus Christ is the victory of Melchizedek and that, in fact, they are one and the same."

"I did and do understand the text of the first tractate to imply that Melchizedek was prophesied to return again, as Jesus."

Dead Sea Scroll Discovery of 1947 Revealed the Messiah to be a Reincarnation of Melchizedek

In 1947, scrolls from the Jewish Essenes were discovered which affirmed that they believed Melchizedek would reincarnate as the Messiah.

These ancient scrolls of profound importance were discovered by young Bedouin shepherds, searching for a stray goat around the Dead Sea in Israel entered an undiscovered cave and found jars filled with ancient scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls were scrolls from a monastic group known as the Essenes, dated to be about two thousand years old. The Essenes were an apocalyptic Jewish sect who withdrew from society and established a monastery on the shores of the Dead Sea. It is believed that sometime during the Roman-Jewish war of 66-70 A.D. the Essenes hid their sacred writings.

The Essenes believed in the doctrine of pre-existence and reincarnation and appeared to have been influenced by Gnosticism. The Dead Sea Scrolls prove that the Jewish mystical tradition of divine union went back to the first, perhaps even the third, century B.C.

Biblical scholars were not disturbed by what they found in the Dead Sea Scrolls because they had known all along that the origin of Christianity was not what was commonly supposed to have been.

The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus stated that the Pharisees were believers in reincarnation. Josephus has several long passages dealing with the reincarnation beliefs of both the Essenes and the Pharisees. Josephus writes that the Jews in their secret or esoteric doctrines called the Kabbalah taught reincarnation openly.

The caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found yielded a series of thirteen fragments on Melchizedek which identifies Melchizedek as the one who will carry out the vengeance of God's judgments and the one who delivers the people from the hand of Belial and the spirits of his lot.

The belief that Melchizedek was the Messiah was a strongly held conviction among the Qumran community, as well as among some other Jewish and Gnostic sects in the first century A.D. This becomes apparent in the text entitled "The Last Jubilee" (Dead Sea Scroll: 11Q13, Column 2) about the coming of Melchizedek as the Messiah.

"The Last Jubilee" is a sermon within the "Melchizedek Texts" (also known as "I IQ Melchizedek Text" or " I I Q Melchizedek"). The following is a summary of this sermon:

The Last Jubilee text refers in messianic terms to a future King of Righteousness. In the text, this King of Righteousness is described as passing judgment on Belial [Satan] and his followers. After the judgment in heaven comes the destruction of those who have followed Belial rather than God. The text states that "the one designed, by God's favor, for the King of Righteousness (which is what, by his very name, Melchizedek prefigures) will come into his dominion." The time of his coming "into his dominion" is identified as the period which Isaiah termed the year of favor or "acceptable year of the Lord"

The Biblical reference for this can be found in Isaiah 61:1-2:

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn ..." (Isaiah 61:1-2)

Jesus made his first appearance in Nazareth and spoke at the synagogue there, and the book of Isaiah was handed to him. Luke 4:17-19 records that he then found and read the two verses quoted above but stopped after the phrase "acceptable year of the Lord." Bible scholars concluded that by suspending reading without referring to God's day of vengeance, Jesus was distinguishing between his present ministry of grace and the second advent when he would carry out God's judgments. On the other hand, his stopping after that phrase may have been for the purpose of emphasis, for it truly was the "year of the Lord."

After Jesus had concluded his reading, verse 21 adds:

"And he began to say unto them, 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'" (Luke 4:21)

Thus in Luke 4:21, Jesus seems to identify himself as the one promised by Isaiah "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" when he said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And the Melchizedek Texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls identify Melchizedek as the person who will fulfill that prophecy.

In the text "Commentary on the Book of Habakkuk," the "Teacher of Righteousness" is referred to as one "to whom God has made known all the mysteries of His servants the prophets." This Teacher of Righteousness was expected to return and usher in the Messianic Age and according to Jewish tradition to be Elijah or Phinehas or Melchizedek.

At least one respected Dead Sea Scroll authority stated that Jesus in these documents "appears in many respects as an astonishing reincarnation of the Teacher of Righteousness."

The Qumran "Melchizedek Texts" contain several comments which seem clearly to identify the so-called "King of Righteousness," a title referring to Melchizedek, as the promised Messiah. They discuss the role of this future King in overthrowing Belial and executing God's avenging judgment and clearly state that this King will be "Melchizedek redivivus" (reincarnated). One scholar has summarized the document thusly:

"In this fragment, written in Hebrew, Melchizedek appears as an eschatological savior who has a heritage. His mission is to bring back at the end of days the exiles to announce to them their liberation ... and the expiation of their sins."

Near-Death Experience Revelations of Edgar Cayce Reveals Melchizedek and Jesus to be Different Incarnations of the Same Soul

Edgar Cayce received volumes of information from his near-death experiences from a heavenly so-called "Hall of Records." Much of the revelations he received concerned Jesus and his many incarnations including Adam and Melchizedek. Cayce received these revelations years before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Gnostic find. These discoveries agree with the Cayce revelations concerning Adam, Melchizedek and Jesus.

This parallel between Melchizedek and other incarnations from the ancient Christian Gnostic texts also supports the Cayce revelations that Enoch and Melchizedek were the same spirit. Cayce also provided the interesting revelation that the Dead Sea Essenes grew out of the teachings of Melchizedek as propagated by prophets, such as Elijah, Elisha, and Samuel. Cayce also identified Melchizedek as a previous incarnation of Jesus.

According to Cayce, it was necessary that the very advanced spirit of Melchizedek reincarnate in order to reach Christhood as Jesus. The Cayce revelations show us why the Master spirit again incarnated after the experience as Melchizedek:

The Christ spirit incarnated as Adam, Enoch, Melchizedek, then took on flesh to teach and lead. After several more incarnations such as Joseph (prince of Egypt), the Christ spirit realized it was necessary to set a pattern for humanity and to show the way back to God. Thus, the Master spirit assumed the mission of through his final incarnation as Jesus. By resurrecting his body, he made the Jesus-Melchizedek priesthood eternal.

This priesthood, according to the Encyclopedia Judaica's interpretation of Hebrews, "is excellent, superior to that of Abraham's descent, and transcends all human, imperfect orders."

In view of such evidence found in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Christian Gnostic texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls and extra-Biblical sources such as Cayce, the early Christian veneration of Melchizedek and the rich Messianic tradition about him, Christians should in no way find it demeaning to link the soul of Melchizedek with that of Jesus. Certainly both individuals were important instruments of God, and each life marks an historic step in the spiritual evolution of humanity.

"His followers said to him, 'When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?'

"He said to them, 'What you look for has come, but you do not know it.'" - Jesus, the Gospel of Thomas, saying 51

The Nag Hammadi Texts Concerning Melchizedek <- Click Here for the text in English

Melchizedek In the Urantia Book

PAPER 95 THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS IN THE LEVANT

95:0.1 AS INDIA gave rise to many of the religions and philosophies of eastern Asia, so the Levant was the homeland of the faiths of the Occidental world. The Salem missionaries spread out all over southwestern Asia, through Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran, and Arabia, everywhere proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Machiventa Melchizedek. In some of these lands their teachings bore fruit; in others they met with varying success. Sometimes their failures were due to lack of wisdom, sometimes to circumstances beyond their control...

Click HERE for more

Source for the above text has been referenced beneath corresponding text or otherwise, linked to their original source sites.

What I Believe

2006-07-30T18:26:00.000-04:00

Many of you who have read this BLOG of mine have noticed the aggressive tone I have taken regarding fundamentalist exponents of Christianity. You may have also noticed that I have often taken up arguments that supported a less-than-divine explanation for biblical going-ons and miracles. My arguments come from a point of view that I have developed over many years of research, trials, and tribulations.

It is because of this that you will probably believe that I am an atheist or an agnostic at worst, or an esotericist at best. You would probably be surprised to know that neither case is true!

It is because of this that I wish to clear the air.

Here is what I believe:

1) I believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, as the only incarnate son of God and author of my spiritual salvation. I believe in the Trinitarian view of the deity as is described in the Nicene and the Apostle's Creeds. I also believe that people have the right to disagree and to follow their own path. I don't think that all who are of different faiths are destined for a "fiery" afterlife. I believe that variety is the spice of life and to study how different people pray and believe, is to become familiar with the divinity that is within our very selves as humans.

2) I believe that those who use religion to intimidate and to garner control over other's consciences are indeed, the most diabolically evil beings on the face of the planet Earth. They would surely face a very unpleasant afterlife if I were in charge of that aspect.

3) I believe in the veracity of the Bible, so far as it has been translated. I believe that it is divinely inspired; however, imperfectly understood. I also believe that God has had his hand in the inspiration of other sacred texts of inate wisdom and revelation. I believe that it is Man that stands in the way of perfect communication of the divine. It is, indeed, Man that separates himself from his brother and the divine.

4) I believe that there is much to be learned from the study of the world through the discipline of science. I believe that all science is inspired by the desire to understand and contemplate the face and the hand of God. Heaven, often has use of even those who do not love it's ways. Truth is truth. To deny the manifestation of undoubtable truth is to deny creation...and God.

5) I believe that the Church should never have a say in the passing of laws in the temporal realm. If Churches are to have a say in politics...then I believe they should pay taxes. I also believe that people should be free to express freely whatever religious belief they believe in, so long as it does not deny other's of their freedom of such expression. Freedom OF religion should be the norm... Not freedom FROM religion. I do not believe people have a right not to be exposed to the religious practices of others. I also believe that those who have no religious belief should be accorded the same right to practice their agnosticism in the open and freely without encroachment. I believe that people have the right to disagree, but not physically-harmfully so.

6) I believe that Freemasonry is an honorable and a valuable institution of good and a force for building moral and honest men and women. I believe it should be open to all races and to women from all faiths. I believe that those theologians who discredit and vilify Freemasonry speak from a view where they are truly in the dark over the true intent of the fraternity. ( This is well and good for the arts, parts and points of Freemasonry ARE NOT for the general public!) Many who seek to destroy Freemasonry are the weak-minded individuals who should NOT know those secrets that are concealed by the keepers of the craft.

7) Finally, I believe that one day, all people of all faiths will be able to communicate and live in harmony with mutual respect for each other. When we decide that instead of separating us...the ultimate lesson of true religion is to unite mankind to one another...and eventually... to the Divine.

It is for these reasons that I will no longer engage in arguments with fundamentalists and those of closed minds and dispositions. I will not allow myself to be exposed to those attitudes that originally pushed me away from my faith before.

Thank you,

Darren Simpson

Irish 'Dead Sea Scroll' Found in a Bog

2006-07-28T23:50:00.000-04:00

This in from the Universe Catholic News. DS

July 29, 2006

By The Universe: Fragments of an ancient early Christian manuscript, possibly more than 1,000-years-old, have been uncovered in a bog in Ireland.

The discovery of the Psalter or Book of Psalms in a County Offaly bog has already been hailed by experts as one of the greatest ecclesiastical finds from a European bog. The find is said to be one of the most significant discoveries in European and World archaeology in decades and has been likened to the Irish equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Specialists from the National Museum of Ireland have said it is impossible to know how the manuscript ended up in the bog, but believe they may have been lost in transit or dumped after a raid possibly one thousand to twelve hundred years ago.

"It is not so much the fragments themselves, but what they represent, that is of such staggering importance," said Dr Pat Wallace, Museum Director.

"In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the Early Christian civilisation of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland."

According to Dr Wallace the extensive fragments appear to be of an Irish Early Christian Psalter, written on vellum. Recovered from the bog by a bulldozer the manuscripts were transported to the National Museum`s conservation laboratory the following day.

The pages appear to be those of a slim, large format book with a wraparound vellum or leather cover from which the book block has slipped. Raghnall O Floinn, Head of Collections at the museum, estimates that there are about 45 letters per line and a maximum of 40 lines per page. While part of Psalm 83 is legible, the extent to which other Psalms or additional texts are preserved will only be determined by painstaking work by a team of invited experts probably operating over a long time in the museum laboratory according to Mr O’Floinn.

Sturgis 2006 Schedule of Events

2006-07-28T23:28:00.000-04:00

To all those bikers out there, It's that time of year again and STURGIS; the Mecca of motorcyclists everywhere is set to begin! I've included a link to let you know the schedule of events that will be happening. Harley Davidson will be out in force with their 2007 model bikes and a lot of incentives to buy at GREAT savings before the fall and winter seasons.

CLICK HERE

RIDE ON!!!

Calling Masons Satanic is Folly

2006-07-25T22:19:00.000-04:00

I found this post on a site called "On the Level" and it is a great article on what fundamentalists and anti-masonic hacks claim is a connection between Freemasonry and Satanism. The author of this post puts it together more eloquently than I could ever hope for. Many thanks to the Bro. Ken for allowing us to post this and you might want to click over to his site for many other articles of insight and "Light". Many thanks! Darren _____________________________

Calling Masons Satanic is Folly
by Paul Harasim

If Dr. James Holly of Beaumont is right, George Washington, the father of our country, was a devil worshiper. Marvin Zindler has to be one, too. Ditto for Sam Houston and Presidents James Monroe, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford. To take Holly's argument to its logical conclusion, Irvin Berling was under the influence of Satan when he wrote "White Christmas." So was John Wayne when he played in TRUE GRIT on the silver screen. And astronaut Buzz Aldrin did devil's work when he flew to the moon. What makes these people satanic?

Well Holly says, its because they're Masons, members of the most widely known fraternity in the world--a fraternal group that spends $250 million each year in the United States on charities, including free treatment of children at its network of 22 Shriners hospitals. Now if we start thinking Holly's way -- that Masonry "springs from the pits of hell and from the father of lies, Lucifer" because the fraternity accepts people from different religious groups as brothers -- chances are our friends would suggest we get our heads examined. But when Holly the Baptist wrote a tract arguing that Masonry is satanic, the Southern Baptist Convention decided a study should be undertaken to determine whether membership in a Masonic Lodge conflicts with its beliefs.

It was not called Holly's Folly. It should have been. Too many people had too much time on their hands. If they had become Masons, like one million other Baptists, they could have found people to help. In Saturday's POST you probably read that Masons are breaking their tradition of keeping silent when criticized. They've realized ignorance isn't bliss. They worry that a negative finding against their 4 million member organization by the 15.3 million-member Southern Baptist Convention when it meets in June could cost membership.

That should worry all of us who care about children. The Shriners hospitals alone have helped more than 500,000 children at no cost. It's a shame that the Rev. Ed Young, the brilliant preacher at Second Baptist Church and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention hasn't used his position as a bully pulpit against this nonsense. With Americas charities hurting badly, as has been evidence by United Way's problems, this isn't the time for him to utilize a "don't make waves" leadership style. Something tells me he understands the five-pointed star sometimes used as a Masonic symbol is not a symbol of witchcraft by the oldest symbol of man--the five points refer to the head, the hands and the feet.

Holly tries to argue Masonry is a religion. The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, himself a Mason, says no way. " Freemasonry has no dogma or theology," he says. "It teaches that it is important for every man to have a religion of his choice and to be faithful to it...A good Mason is made even more faithful to the tenets of his faith by membership. " Toleration, according to Holly, is Masonry's blackest sin -- a definite link to the devil. Masonic leader Allan D. Large has a memorable response to the charge. "When you consider," he says, "what intolerance has produced -- the Inquisition, the massacre of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, the burning of Protestants at the stake, the horrors of Hitler, the mass murders of Stalin, the killing fields of Cambodia -- it is hard to believe that toleration springs from the devil.

Oh, by the way, I'm not a Mason.

Blue Lodge Masons Under Anti-Terror Surveillance After UDA Infiltrates Scottish Lodges

2006-07-25T11:24:00.000-04:00

Blue Lodge Masons Under Anti-Terror Surveillance After UDA Infiltrates Scottish Lodges

By Neil Mackay (Sunday Herald, Scotland)

MASONIC halls throughout Scotland are under covert surveillance by anti-terror police after the outlawed loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) successfully infiltrated the controversial secret society.
David Begg, the grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, told the Sunday Herald that Freemasons have been advised by police that lodges throughout the country – particularly in the west of Scotland – are under surveillance by officers targeting the UDA. One Fife lodge has been penetrated by loyalist terrorists who used the premises for fund-raising and operational planning. For more than 18 months, UDA member Steven Moffat used the St Kenneth Lodge in Kennoway as a cover for loyalist paramilitary activity.

The UDA is one of Ulster’s most brutal paramilitary organisations. Using the cover-name the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) it waged a campaign of sectarian assassination against Northern Ireland’s Catholics. One of its most notorious “brigadiers”, Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair, fled to Ayrshire after his expulsion from Belfast following an internecine loyalist feud.

Moffat is serving five years in jail after being imprisoned by the High Court in Edinburgh earlier this month under the Terrorism Act 2000 for membership of a proscribed organisation and possession of firearms.

He was found with a Browning 9mm automatic pistol and ammunition at his home. Police also discovered flags, balaclavas and other paramilitary regalia, including documents detailing the UDA’s initiation ceremonies.

Police and prosecutors believed the items “were for the preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism”. Moffat joined the UDA in Belfast at least three years ago.

The Mason’s Fife and Kinross provincial grand master, David Wishart, said Moffat had used the Masonic Lodge in Kennoway for UDA meetings for at least 18 months. A member of the lodge who was also in the Orange Order had arranged for Moffat and his loyalist associates to hold meetings in the Kennoway lodge. Wishart insisted that no other members knew the true nature of Moffat’s activities.

Once Moffat’s actions were discovered, the Mason and Orange Order member who assisted him resigned after being threatened with expulsion from the Masons.

“I was horrified to find out that this had been going on,” said Wishart.

Moffat, who was not a Freemason but often drank in the St Kenneth Lodge’s bar, used the Kennoway Masonic Hall for two types of meetings. Firstly, regular private “strategy” meetings with Moffat and 10 other men occurred over 18 months. The UDA members discussed their plans in a closed room while lodge members drank at the Mason’s bar in the same building.

The second type of meeting was fund-raising events for loyalist causes in Northern Ireland. Up to 70 people attended three fundraisers held at the Masonic Hall over an 18-month period.

Wishart said: “The UDA infiltrated and used us for their illegal purposes. These people are very clever. We were trusting; they gained our confidence and then we were manipulated.”

Kennoway Masonic Hall was closed for eight weeks for an internal Masonic inquiry following police raids in the area in connection with Moffat’s activities.

At the time of his arrest, Moffat was planning to hold an initiation ceremony for Scottish UDA recruits at the Masonic hall. Wishart has since altered hall letting procedures and leasing now has to be cleared by a committee and a lodge member must vouch for those letting the premises. The Orange Order has been banned from using the Kennoway lodge’s premises. Previously, Orangemen regularly hired out the hall.

“Due to rogue members of the lodge linked to the Orange Order and the UDA we took the decision to no longer allow them the use of the premises,” said Wishart.

Senior police officers told Wishart that they were “mounting similar surveillance operations in the west of Scotland” against Masonic lodges which might have been infiltrated by loyalist terrorists.

“I can’t say if there is or isn’t a risk elsewhere,” said Wishart, pointing out that members of some of the 49 Fife lodges under his command were also in the Orange Order. One other lodge in Fife also allows the Orange Order to rent its premises for functions.

David Begg, the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, said if any lodges were involved in supporting the UDA they would be closed. He has warned Scotland’s 32 provincial masters to be extra vigilant but cannot compel lodges to introduce committee-led hall letting procedures similar to those adopted by Kennoway.

“We can’t tell lodges what to do. It is up to the trustees of each lodge but we will be producing general guidance in the near future,” he said.

Beauty Pageants, Hypocrisy, and the Baptist Church

2006-07-25T00:04:00.000-04:00

Our friends at the SACRED FEMS Blog posted this and allowed us to cross-post it here.

Way back in 1926, the Southern Baptist Convention urged its members to "just say no" to beauty pageants.
WHEREAS, The purity and sanctity of the home depends upon a proper respect for and safeguarding of our girls; and

WHEREAS, "Beauty contests" and so-called "bathing revues" are evil and evil only, and tend to lower true and genuine respect for womanhood, emphasizing and displaying only purely physical charm above spiritual and intellectual attainments,

THEREFORE, We, the Southern Baptist Convention do deplore and condemn all such contests and revues.
It's never been revoked. Apparently it's one of those sins still on the Baptist books, along with alcohol use and homosexuality.

In May, 2006 Lakewood Baptist Church of Gainesville, Georgia, a Southern Baptist Convention member church, according to Founders.org, held a beauty pageant for women of all ages, from Ms. Infant Miss (6-12 months) to Senior Ms. (age 55 and up), called the Hall County Queens for C.A.R.E. Pageant, to benefit the Hall County (Ga.) Relay for Life.

Contestants were judged "in 4 categories, each on a scale of 1-10. 1) natural beauty, 2) presentation (grace/modeling), 3) personality (smile, eye contact, introduction), and 4) over all appearance (hairstyle, dress color, fit, length, age appropriateness)"... in other words, it "[was] evil and evil only, and tend[ed] to lower true and genuine respect for womanhood, emphasizing and displaying only purely physical charm above spiritual and intellectual attainments." Or so the Southern Baptists said....

Peering a little deeper into their website we find there's a whole franchise set up to do these pageants, called Miss Christian Atlanta. Apparently it's run by two little sisters, ages 7 and 9 (shades of Jon Benet!), who between them hold the titles of 2005 Young Jr. Miss Atlanta Christian, 2005 Little Miss Gilmer County Forestry, 2005 Junior Miss Sweetheart of Georgia, 2005 Young Miss Mountain Laurel, 2004 Miss Georgia Junior Pre Teen National American Miss, 2005 Supreme Miss Atlanta Christian, 2005 Supreme Georgia Peach Princess, 2005 Little Miss Mountain Laurel, and a National title as 2005 All American Princess for National American Miss.

How great thou art!

Image: Lakewood Baptist Church beauty pageant, May 2006

The Farting Preacher

2006-07-24T23:37:00.000-04:00

I just thought I'd digress from the usual fare of the site and present you folks with a bit of humor and frivolity. As we like to poke fun at that "old-time religion", Click on the link below for something that will make you pee your pants! ENJOY!!!

Darren

----------------->CLICK HERE<------------------

New Fossil Finds Shed New Light on "Cuddly" Marsupials

2006-07-23T22:40:00.000-04:00

Thu Jul 13, 8:12 PM ET (Reprinted from Yahoo News...)

SYDNEY, Australia - Before there were cuddly koalas, hoards of flesh-eating kangaroos, "demon ducks," and marsupial lions roamed Australia's Outback, according to recent fossil discoveries by paleontologists.

A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales working in the eastern state of Queensland made the discoveries in three new fossil deposits during a recent two-week dig.

Many of the fossils are older than 24 million years; one of the deposits is thought to contain fossils up to 500 million years old, according to Prof. Mike Archer, the university's dean of science.

A saber-toothed kangaroo and a giant 10-foot-tall, 881-pound bird scientists nicknamed the "demon duck of doom" were among the largely unknown species uncovered in the dig, Archer told reporters Wednesday.

"They were galloping kangaroos, they didn't hop," Archer said. "They were also far more muscly than the kangaroos we know, with sharp saber-like incisors and powerful forelimbs to help rip and tear their prey."

The remains of ancient tree-climbing crocodiles and marsupial lions were also uncovered in the rocks.

Archer said many of the animals were similar or related to others elsewhere in the world, but had evolved uniquely in Australia. Hundreds have no living representative.

"They are that bizarre. There are literally, probably in the order of about 500 extinct creatures in these rocks," he said.

Archer said a detailed study of the fossils was expected to provide answers about the evolution of climate and creatures in the past, as well as about the directions they might follow over thousands of years to come.

"The biggest excitement is what's going to happen over the next year in the labs as the rocks dissolve and the treasure inside emerges," he said.

A Message From the Grand Master Of York

2006-07-23T00:12:00.000-04:00

"Our good friends at Alabama-Free-Mason-Blog has just released this breaking news and we are posting it here as well. Heart-felt thanks to the good brothers at Alabama-Free-Mason for breaking this story!"

Darren

Grand Lodge of All England

"Brethren, this day The Grand Lodge of All England has been duly and properly formed, armed with a constitution that remains true to its predecessors, and fit for the 21st Century and beyond.

The reponement, or rebirth of our illustrious institution here in York, which dates back to time immemorial, has produced a great surge of interest and activity since our historic meeting last year. Indeed, apart from ongoing developments in Yorkshire, we are now fully committed to the inauguration, within the next six months, of a second operative Lodge, to meet regularly in London. Brethren, this and much more will come to pass.

I am also pleased to announce that negotiations are at an advanced stage with The United Grand Lodge of America. We expect to agree terms for a formal Agreement of Amity before our next meeting in December.

We send them our fraternal greetings, together with our support and best wishes for the future of Craft Masonry throughout the United States of America. They have taken on a difficult task with great fortitude, resilience and determination and, although they are a "new" Grand Lodge, they carefully and in every respect uphold the principles and purposes of Ancient Freemasonry. Not least, they provide us all with a freshness, vitality and renewed enthusiasm.

Unfortunately however, but not unexpectedly, some of the interest expressed in the Grand Lodge of All England has been malign. I am sorry to have to announce that we have found it necessary to suspend the "Latest News" section of our very successful website. This is due to the actions of a small minority in misusing the information provided in order to disrupt our lawful activities, including this very meeting of Grand Lodge. We wish to make it quite clear, of course, that we do not place any blame directly on any other Grand Lodge. The guilt lies with a few sad and misguided individuals perhaps more needful of our prayers than our disapprobation.

Brethren, this is most unfortunate. It is also unhelpful to those interested in monitoring our progress and who wish to keep up to date with the development of Craft Masonry in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and elsewhere. However, the purile actions of such delinquents cannot interrupt or delay our inevitable progress. We will continue to give out as much information as we possibly can to Freemasons and the general public alike without detriment to ourselves or connections.

In such circumstances it is perhaps timely to clarify what we in this Grand Lodge understand by true and genuine Freemasonry. In this we can best start by considering the aims and aspirations for our Brethren and candidates.

An initiate into Freemasonry first enters a Lodge unknowing, and untutored in the Craft: a so-called rough ashlar (building block). But, if he is joining for a valid reason, he anticipates that his life is about to be fundamentally changed by the experience.

Thenceforward it is his duty, and the purpose of true and genuine Freemasonry, to develop his character and knowledge to such a degree that he figuratively evolves into a perfect ashlar (a carefully measured and prepared stone), thereby ensuring that he becomes fit and ready for the challenges of citizenship, and prepared for his inevitable destiny in this life, and in the hereafter.
However, many illustrious Brethren, not least our late Brother Walter Wilmshurst, have pointed out how a Mason's understanding of the Craft often remains at an early and undeveloped stage. Whilst the literal, superficial value of our teachings is gained through ceremony in the Lodge room and through memorising of ritual, this is merely the first part of the journey.

Unfortunately, the great majority of Brethren are unable to take further steps towards a deeper understanding.

They choose instead to remain at a level of knowledge whereby the Craft is regarded as a social, quasi-secret club to which it is agreeable, and possibly advantageous to belong to in terms of the external, materialistic world.

Aspirations at this stage are often for office and apron. The ability to perform proficient ceremonial and to parrot catechism are regarded the pinnacle of Masonic endeavour. Other matters, such as the conviviality of the festive board or the amount of charitable monies raised in order to purchase public approbation regarded as more fundamental than the work itself. But such sentiments are the uncrafted, rough ashlar stage of Masonic understanding.

What then do we in our own Grand Lodge consider to be true and genuine Freemasonry?
Curiously, any such attempt at a working definition is absent from many works on the Craft. It is all very well to talk with somewhat archaic usage of "a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols", but does this really explain very much? Should we, in any event, restrict our understanding of Freemasonry to that system which has grown up since speculative Masonry was organised into its currently recognisable structure, or should we raise our eyes to a much wider vista?

Brethren, allow me to offer something of my own fallible understanding. I see an initiatory order based upon a treasury of ancient truths and values enshrined in human experience, and resonating with the underlying philosophies of many religions. A system of spiritual alchemy based on a symbology free of dogma, doctrine, crafted to guide and assist individuals in realising their full potential in their life-journey towards self-knowledge.

Freemasonry, on this definition, or anything like it, represents a serious internal, intellectual and spiritual journey far beyond the concerns of the external, profane, uninitiated world. True and genuine Freemasonry thus represents the precise and absolute opposite of the mafia of the mediocre of popular imagination.

It is thus crucial to the survival of the true Craft, that those men humbly soliciting to be admitted to the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry are in actual fact, and not just in empty words, first prepared to become a Freemason, in their hearts. Without such heartfelt fervency and zeal they will always remain at best as rough ashlars, and the spiritual temple of Freemasonry bereft of its living stones.

Brethren, we are engaged upon weighty matters. We could not have come so far without your support, committment and perseverance in the face of adversity. Thank you for taking the time to attend Grand Lodge today. I look forward with confidence and enthusiasm to our next Convocation in December, and offer my good wishes to you all for an enjoyable and reinvigorating Summer break.

Most Worshipful Brother John Gordon Graves, Grand-Master Mason

( Saturday, 01 July 2006 )

Tutankhamun's Gems Hint at Massive Space Impact

2006-07-22T22:09:00.000-04:00

"This story was an intriguing one from the BBC. It seems that one of King Tutankhamun's gemstones in his breats mantle was actually glass. Glass that is older than the Egyptian civilization appears to be. Glass that is still being found in large chunks in the Sahara Desert. One mainstream theory is the one proposed in this news story. Read on through to the end and I'll give you a link or two pointing at another, more intriguing explanation."

Darren

In 1996 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Italian mineralogist Vincenzo de Michele spotted an unusual yellow-green gem in the middle of one of Tutankhamun's necklaces.

The jewel was tested and found to be glass, but intriguingly it is older than the earliest Egyptian civilisation.

Working with Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat, they traced its origins to unexplained chunks of glass found scattered in the sand in a remote region of the Sahara Desert.

But the glass is itself a scientific enigma. How did it get to be there and who or what made it?

Thursday's BBC Horizon programme reports an extraordinary new theory linking Tutankhamun's gem with a meteor.

Sky of fire

An Austrian astrochemist Christian Koeberl had established that the glass had been formed at a temperature so hot that there could be only one known cause: a meteorite impacting with Earth. And yet there were no signs of an impact crater, even in satellite images.

American geophysicist John Wasson is another scientist interested in the origins of the glass. He suggested a solution that came directly from the forests of Siberia.

"When the thought came to me that it required a hot sky, I thought immediately of the Tunguska event," he tells Horizon.

In 1908, a massive explosion flattened 80 million trees in Tunguska, Siberia.

Although there was no sign of a meteorite impact, scientists now think an extraterrestrial object of some kind must have exploded above Tunguska. Wasson wondered if a similar aerial burst could have produced enough heat to turn the ground to glass in the Egyptian desert.

Jupiter clue

The first atomic bomb detonation, at the Trinity site in New Mexico in 1945, created a thin layer of glass on the sand. But the area of glass in the Egyptian desert is vastly bigger.

Whatever happened in Egypt must have been much more powerful than an atomic bomb.

Impact simulation
A natural airburst of that magnitude was unheard of until, in 1994, scientists watched as comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with Jupiter. It exploded in the Jovian atmosphere, and the Hubble telescope recorded the largest incandescent fireball ever witnessed rising over Jupiter's horizon.

Mark Boslough, who specialises in modelling large impacts on supercomputers, created a simulation of a similar impact on Earth.

The simulation revealed that an impactor could indeed generate a blistering atmospheric fireball, creating surface temperatures of 1,800C, and leaving behind a field of glass.

"What I want to emphasise is that it is hugely bigger in energy than the atomic tests," says Boslough. "Ten thousand times more powerful."

Defence lessons

The more fragile the incoming object, the more likely these airborne explosions are to happen.

In Southeast Asia, John Wasson has unearthed the remains of an event 800,000 years ago that was even more powerful and damaging than the one in the Egyptian desert; one which produced multiple fireballs and left glass over three hundred thousand square miles, with no sign of a crater.

"Within this region, certainly all of the humans would have been killed. There would be no hope for anything to survive," he says.

Dr Aly Barakat with desert glass in hand (TV6/BBC) ----------->
Barakat holds up one of the many, huge chunks of glass in the desert

According to Boslough and Wasson, events similar to Tunguska could happen as frequently as every 100 years, and the effect of even a small airburst would be comparable to many Hiroshima bombs.

Attempting to blow up an incoming asteroid, Hollywood style, could well make things worse by increasing the number of devastating airbursts.

"There are hundreds of times more of these smaller asteroids than there are the big ones the astronomers track," says Mark Boslough. "There will be another impact on the earth. It's just a matter of when."
"Now, I promised you an alternative theory...Keep Reading DS":

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Ancient Nuclear War?
by Manuel Sancho

Ancient Nuclear War? There is evidence that the Rama empire (now India) was devastated by nuclear war. The Indus valley is now the Thar desert, and the site of the radioactive ash found west of Jodhpur is around there. Consider these verses from the ancient (6500 BC at the latest) Mahabharata: ...a single projectile Charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame As bright as the thousand suns Rose in all its splendour... a perpendicular explosion with its... Click Here for the Full Story