Paradigm Busters: Beyond Science, Lost History, Ancient Wisdom
256
Paradigm Busters: Beyond Science, Lost History, Ancient Wisdom
256Paperback
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Overview
Pulled from the pages of Atlantis Rising®, here is a collection of thirty concise and well-illustrated articles by world-class researchers like Philip Coppens, Robert Schoch, Frank Joseph, Steven Sora and many others who offer thought-provoking insights on some of today's most interesting, if least understood topics.
Featuring:
- Ancient Keys to the Future by Walter Cruttenden
- The Legend of Markawasi by Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D.
- Mystery of the Montauk Monster by Steven Sora
- Close Encounters of the Ball Lightning Kind by Frank Joseph
- The Project Serpo Saga by Len Kasten
- Places of the Builder Gods by Freddy Silva
"In the articles collected for this book, we hope to show that many of the beliefs of our supposedly advanced society are a long way from knowledge - particularly in the areas of modern science, ancient history, and today's conventional wisdom. If, in so doing, a few sacred paradigms are busted, we say, let the chips fall where they may!" - J. Douglas Kenyon, Editor & Publisher, Atlantis Rising
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780990690405 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Atlantis Rising |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2015 |
| Series: | Atlantis Rising Anthology Library |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Paradigm Busters
Beyond Science ? Lost History ? Ancient Wisdom
By J. Douglas Kenyon
Atlantis Rising
Copyright © 2013 J. Douglas KenyonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9906904-0-5
CHAPTER 1
Martial Arts and the Laws of Physics
What Is Science to Do When the 'Impossible' Happens?
William B. Stoecker
Are the incredible feats of some martial artists a challenge to the standard model of physics? Is their brick-breaking, for example, evidence that some of them can control a mysterious primal energy? And martial artists are not alone; throughout history people have done things that would seem impossible for mere flesh and blood.
Modern physics is having problems to begin with, resting uneasily on the twin pillars of relativity theory and quantum mechanics. There has been a problem all along with reconciling quantum gravity with relativistic gravity, and grand unified theories (GUTs) have tried and generally failed to bridge the gap. The current favorite is string theory, already morphing into membrane theory, which, unfortunately, cannot be tested either to prove or disprove it. Then there are problems like the missing solar neutrinos, the controversy over dark matter and now dark energy as well, the lack of any single and credible explanation for the magnetic fields of celestial bodies, and the problem of explaining all the internal heat of planets, especially the outer planets of our own solar system.
A lot of people believe that the famous Michelson-Morley experiment in the late nineteenth century proved that there is no luminiferous ether, but it is impossible to prove a negative proposition (like proving that God, Santa Claus, or Bigfoot do not exist). Michelson and Morley never made such a claim; they were simply unable to detect an ether, and Michelson, years later, stated that he suspected that there was some kind of ether filling all of space. Einstein also admitted that relativity actually required an ether. And, in recent years, with little publicity, a handful of trained physicists and astronomers have challenged many of the assumptions of the standard model and the big bang.
As stated above, it is not just martial artists who present a challenge. In Atlantis Rising (#70), Len Kasten's article "The Superhero Factor" suggested (as many of us have suspected over the years) that some stage magicians, rather than making mere tricks look paranormal, may actually have some paranormal powers, which they pretend are just tricks. Kasten gave the example of David Copperfield, who seemingly levitated over the Grand Canyon, walked through the Great Wall of China, and made the Statue of Liberty disappear. David Blaine supposedly held his breath for 17 minutes (the world record, without breathing oxygen to prepare for the feat, is officially eight minutes and 58 seconds). Blaine also was publicly encased in ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes, and 15 seconds. Magician Criss Angel has repeatedly levitated in public, once floating some 200 feet from one roof to another and, on another occasion, floating for 10 minutes above the Luxor Pyramid in Las Vegas. Once he seemingly walked on water across a swimming pool, with people swimming under and around him. None of this actually proves paranormal abilities, but such acts are extremely difficult to explain.
In addition to magicians and martial artists, others have demonstrated abilities that are exceedingly difficult to explain away. The telekinetic feats of Uri Geller and Nina Kulagina might be nothing more than stage magic, but what about the apparent levitation performed by medium Daniel Dunglas Hume, reportedly witnessed by several reputable people? Many, many decades ago, the Polish strongman Siegmund Breitbart, it is claimed, bit through steel chains and pounded spikes into wooden beams with his bare hands. If these acts were not somehow faked, it is impossible for human teeth to cut steel, which is much, much harder, stronger, and less brittle than human bone and tooth enamel. And human flesh and blood would be bruised and even lacerated by pounding against the spikes.
More recent accounts of incredible feats are better documented. Some have been videotaped and even televised, as on the "Stan Lee's Superhumans" program. "Hammerhead" John Ferraro, a wrestler and strong man, can pound nails into wood with his head and has had assistants break a stack of bricks on his head. This is at least stretching the limits of what is possible for unaided flesh and blood.
A Belgian free diver, Patrick Musimu, dived to 685 feet underwater just holding his breath, with no scuba or other breathing gear. To put this in perspective, scuba divers rarely go deeper than 200 feet without special gas mixtures, which require more advanced training. I have been diving for many, many years and have never been deeper than 90 feet. Wim Hof, the Dutch "iceman," stayed one hour, 13 minutes, and 48 seconds in an ice bath.
He also climbed Kilimanjaro in shorts and did a marathon, also while wearing shorts, when the temperature was four degrees below zero Fahrenheit. He practiced "tummo," a discipline developed by Tibetan Buddhist monks of the Kagyu tradition; these monks claim that they harness the kundalini energy, producing internal heat as a kind of by-product and, to test themselves, wrap themselves in wet sheets in cold weather and dry the sheets with the heat they produce. This has been pretty well documented. At first glance, Hof's hour in an ice bath sounds less impressive than David Blaine's incredible 63 hours in ice, but Hof was in a mixture of ice and liquid water, which would conduct his body heat away more rapidly.
Then there are the magnetic people. Miroslav Magula can cause heavy metal objects to stick to his body and claims to be able to control the force; he was studied by Dr. Friedbert Karger at the Max Planck Institute in Germany in 1997. Liew Thow Lin in Malaysia has been videotaped doing the same thing and was studied by Professor Doctor Mohamed Amin Alias at the Malaysian Universiti Teknologi. Lin and was featured on the Discovery Channel's "One Step Beyond."
But martial artists are probably the largest single group of people who demonstrate abilities hard to explain in conventional terms, with the possible exception of Tibetan monks. A few words of explanation are in order. The term "martial arts" means any art of war, including rifle marksmanship or the ability to pilot a fighter jet. But it is generally used in a more narrow sense to refer to unarmed combat or fighting with clubs and sticks and edged weapons. Western martial arts, like boxing and wrestling, tend to be more fluid and improvisational than most of the Far Eastern arts, which emphasize meditation, breathing, and the practice of often complex but rigidly defined movements called "katas." The one exception is Thai kick boxing, which is as fluid and improvisational as Western boxing.
The Oriental martial arts can be roughly divided into those that mainly emphasize punching, hand strikes, and kicking, and those that emphasize throws, locks, and choke holds. The first category includes such arts as karate, Korean Tai Kwan Do, and some forms of Kung Fu. Kung Fu, or Wushu refers to a variety of Chinese martial arts; some forms of kung fu seem to have originated in the famous Shaolin Buddhist monastery as far back as the seventh century. Kung fu seems to be closely related to the disciplines of Tao Yin, Quigong, and Tai Chi Chuan, systems of postures, exercises, and breath control believed to enhance health and mental well-being. Their similarity to hatha yoga is almost certainly more than coincidental.
Other forms of kung fu, and Japanese jiu-jitsu emphasize holds, locks, and throws more than hand strikes or kicks. Jiujitsu practitioners claim to use the opponent's strength against him. In the late nineteenth century Kano Jigoro developed judo from jiu-jitsu; it is somewhat less lethal (and, arguably, less effective for self-defense) and places a greater emphasis on throws. Mitsuyo Maeda brought jiu-jitsu to Brazil in 1914 and taught it to his friend Carlos Gracie. The Gracie family then developed Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which involves a lot of grappling on the ground or mat. Marihei Ueshiba developed, also from jiu- jitsu, aikido, which is less lethal and attempts to redirect attacks rather than meet them head on.
Most of these Oriental martial arts use meditation, certain postures, and breath control as part of their training, and as any Bruce Lee fan will attest, almost all of them claim to develop a mysterious energy source known by many names across the world: chi, ki, mana, prana, kundalini, orgone energy, vril, and odic force. It is believed that this energy fills all of space and can be controlled by the human will. While indigenous shamanic traditions may be one source for this belief, the Hindu practices of India, especially Hatha Yoga, were almost certainly the main influence. Of course, Yoga itself may have first been developed by shamans on the sub-continent, but given the evidence for the extreme antiquity of civilization in India, that would have been many, many thousands of years ago, far back in prehistory. Knowledge of Yoga could have spread directly and, via Buddhism, indirectly.
Not only might this explain the extreme feats of breaking stacks of bricks or concrete blocks or multiple boards at once, but it might be true, as the Shaolin monks claim, that it is the source of their "iron shirt" technique, which makes them seemingly impervious to thrusts from sharp spears and blows to the head with heavy sticks. Trickery can never be entirely ruled out, but these feats have repeatedly been witnessed, videotaped, and televised. Perhaps it is this technique that allows John Ferraro to perform his incredible acts.
If, indeed, the abilities of some martial artists are due to their control of the chi force, there is a need for thoroughly and rigidly controlled experiments. It should be possible to eliminate any fraud and to determine with certainty if certain acts are possible for unaided muscle and bone or not. Also, just as amateur investigators of hauntings use sensitive instruments to detect electric and magnetic fields, researchers studying martial arts should do the same. I strongly suspect that martial artists, channeling chi, may produce such fields as a side effect; this might also explain the magnetic people described earlier. The problem is that few reputable and professional scientists are willing to undertake such experiments; and amateurs, no matter how intelligent, honest, and thorough they may be (like the people who investigate hauntings), are seldom taken seriously. Much is at stake here.
The chi force, if it exists, may very well be the ether, a dynamic ether that could be a source of inexhaustible "free" energy, and which could, perhaps, lead to new medical technologies. But there is even more to it than that: if the human will controls chi, and chi is the ether, perhaps the primal source of all matter and energy, this would seem to undermine the atheist/materialist status quo so popular among all too many scientists today.
CHAPTER 2Mystery of the Montauk Monster
Bizarre Discoveries on Long Island Raise New Concerns about Old, but Not Forgotten, Dangers
Steven Sora
In January of 2010 the last of several very unusual creatures was discovered on the beaches near Montauk Point on New York's Long Island. To date, the creatures have not been identified as any known species. They had turned up in July of 2008 and again in 2009. The mostly-local media had a field day with what was dubbed the "Montauk Monster." Opinions varied sharply on just what the creatures were. It was claimed that they could be some kind of bioterror weapon, possibly carrying the H1N1 swine-flu virus or some other form of contagion. Others said it was the corpse of a dog bloated by long exposure in the seawater. Even Jeff Corwin of the Animal Planet weighed in. In his opinion the mutant creature was simply a raccoon.
CNN and Fox News both played down speculation of an unknown creature being discovered, although experts including William Wise of Stony Brook University's Living Marine Resource said it was not anything that had been seen before. The hairless creature was not a sea turtle outside of his shell since Turtles don't have teeth. It wasn't a large raccoon as the legs were too long in proportion to the body. It was not a rodent based on the unusual teeth, and it could not be a dog as the prominent eye-ridge and shape of the feet didn't match.
The first monster had washed up in Southold on the island's quiet North Fork. When another washed up in tony East Hampton, Fox News announced "Its baaaack." Then still another made an appearance on the other side of the Sound in Milford, Connecticut. All were described as smelling badly and looking worse, by all accounts hideous in appearance. While the creatures were compared to different animals, there was agreement on the odd physical characteristics shared by all three. The fourth creature was more human-like.
The first three, though, were not anything close to human. In fact, one of the closest comparisons was to an odd animal called the Chupacabra. The name itself means "goat-sucker" as early reported victims were mostly goats. These creatures would, it is said, leave behind the partially eaten remains of their victims. Loren Coleman, the dean of crypto-zoological studies with several books on mysterious creatures to his credit, says the Chupacabras had never been seen until they were found in Puerto Rico in 1995, where as many as 150 farm animals and pets were killed. Since then, these four-foot-tall, large-headed animals have been spotted in Mexico, as far south as Colombia and as far north as Maine. In Texas two were reportedly found. One was eventually declared to be a dog with terrible mange. The other was said to have features of a dog, a kangaroo and a rat.
Could These Creatures Have Reached Long Island?
If there are mutant creatures lurking anywhere on eastern Long Island, the first place usually suspected is Plum Island. The relatively small, 840-acre island lies in the Long Island Sound between the eastern end of Long Island and the southern coastline of Connecticut. It started out as a USDA research facility at the end of World War II. The charter called for investigation into curing animal ailments such as hoof and mouth disease. But this was at a time when the American military, it is reported, was importing ex-Nazi scientists under Operation Paperclip. As many as 2000 were allowed into the United States. They were hired, it is alleged, to continue work begun under Hitler, from the building of rockets and weapons, to more ominous bio-terror weapons.
It was in 1954 that the research became less defensive and more offensive. Specifically the study was intended to provide a way of carrying disease to enemy livestock. Dr. Eric Traub was one of the early German researchers whose mission was to see if ticks could be used to spread disease. He had studied in America in the 1930's and belonged to a German-American "club" referred to as Camp Seigfried before the war. The camp was based in Yaphank, 30 miles from Plum Island. He was a Nazi scientist until the end of the war when the Soviets forced him briefly to work for them. He then escaped to the United States. His Paperclip agreement had him working at Fort Detrick and Plum Island.
These two facilities are on the highest level of such biological research outside of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. Two independent researchers Steven Nostrum and John Loftus (author of The Belarus Secret) made the connection between this ticks-as-weapons research and the outbreak of a new disease in southern Connecticut. In 1975 the disease was named for the place it was first reported, Lyme Connecticut. Eastern Long Island remains the record holder for the highest incidence of Lyme Disease.
The victims infected with Lyme Disease suffer from a host of flu-like symptoms including fatigue, headache, joint pains, and sometime, but not always, a target-like rash at the point of infection. Months after infection, even worse problems occur including arthritis, meningitis, inflammation of the heart, and muscle weakness. It is treatable with antibiotics but often misdiagnosed. At its worst, it is an incapacitating disease that causes memory loss, constant pain, paralysis, blindness and even death.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Paradigm Busters by J. Douglas Kenyon. Copyright © 2013 J. Douglas Kenyon. Excerpted by permission of Atlantis Rising.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
Part 1 Beyond Science
1 Martial Arts and the Laws of Physics: What Is Science to Do When the 'Impossible' Happens? William B. Stoecker 2
2 Mystery of the Montauk Monster: Bizarre Discoveries on Long Island Raise New Concerns about Old, but Not Forgotten, Dangers Steven Sora 8
3 Close Encounter of the Ball Lightning Kind: When a Simple Business Trip Turns into a Paranormal Adventure Frank Joseph 15
4 Firewalking: Sometimes Talking the Talk is Not Enough John White 22
5 What Do Animals Know?: From Balaam's Ass to the Elberfeld Horses, There Are Mysteries Here Michael E. Tymn 30
6 Science vs. Levitation: There Was a Time When More than Tables Were Up in the Air Michael E. Tymn 40
7 The Possession Factor: New Research Backs an Ancient Insight into Disturbing Human Behavior Stephen Hawley Martin 48
8 The Project Serpo Saga: Did the Director of Close Encounters of the Third Kind Know Something We Don't? Len Kasten 54
9 Passion in Coral: The Strange and Miraculous Obsession of Edward Leedskalnin Frank Joseph 62
10 The Legend of Markawasi: The Geologist Who Redated the Sphinx Explores Monumental Stone Sculptures on an Andes Plateau Robert M. Schoch 69
Part 2 Lost History
11 The Georgia Guidestone Mystery: Do the Monuments in a Georgia Cow Pasture Bode Well or III for the Future of Earth? Robert M. Schoch 78
12 Survival of a Different Kind: The True Story of Journalistic Pioneer, William Thomas Stead Michael E. Tymn 87
13 Whence Went Thomas Aquinas?: Did the Medieval Theologian Travel Out of His Body? John Chambers 95
14 Mary Magdalene and the House of Orange European History Would Not Be the Same Without Her Ralph Ellis 102
15 New Vindication for James Churchward?: Or Maybe Not… Are New Reports Confirming a Secret Library to Be Credited? Philip Coppens 109
16 When Three Is a Charm: The Very Strange Legacy of Sir Thomas Tresham Philip Coppens 117
17 Roerich and Tibet: The Road to Shambhala Can Take Some Very Surprising Turns Andrei Znamenski 124
18 Mitterrand's Mystery Monuments: Esoteric Architecture Did Not Die with the Ancients Philip Coppens 132
19 Legend of the Three Marys: There's More to the Story than Reported in The Da Vinci Code Steven Sora 140
20 The Rosslyn Bones: Is the Tale of the Murdered Apprentice More than Just a Legend? Jeff Nisbet 147
Part 3 Ancient Wisdom
21 Meeting the Karmic Challenge: Have We Forgotten What the Ancients Once Knew? Patrick Marsolek 156
22 Places of the Builder Gods: Understanding the Ancient Science of Temple Creation Freddy Silva 163
23 The Seven Gates of Paradise: Another Take on the Meaning of Ancient Temple Science Freddy Silva 171
24 The Mystery of Mudra: Is There Hidden Meaning in the Gestures of the Saints? Patrick Marsolek 179
25 How Modern Is Modern Science?: Did Quantum Physics First Appear as Ancient Egyptian Temple Wisdom? Edward F. Malkowski 187
26 Lost Tradition of the Sacred Bee: Today's Threat to the Honey Bee- A Reminder of Forgotten Wisdom? Andrew Gough 195
27 Ancient Keys to the Future: What's to Be Learned from the Changing Seasons of Human Evolution? Walter Cruttenden 203
28 God and Gold: What's at the Heart of the Mystery that Provokes Such Intense Pursuit? John White 210
29 The Mystery of Music: Have We Forgotten Secrets that the Ancients Once Knew? Ron McVann 217
30 The Lost Word and the Masonic Quest: What Is the Key to the Ancient Secrets of Temple Initiation? Mark Stavish 223
Contributing Authors (in order of appearance) 232