Friday 15 October 2010
Sunday 12 September 2010
THE CURSE OF CARNARVON - Extract from TUTANKHAMUN: THE EXODUS CONSPIRACY
by Andrew Collins and Chris Ogilvie-Herald
It is certain that, had he lived, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon would have believed in the curse of Tutankhamun, for it seems that the British aristocrat was deeply influenced by spiritualism and the occult. He was also an active member of the London Spiritual Alliance. On numerous occasions Carnarvon organised séances in the East Anglia Room at Highclere Castle. Present would be his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert, the politician and lawyer Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC; Lady Cunliffe-Owen and, when in the country, Howard Carter.
In his published memoirs the sixth Earl of Carnarvon says that his father became 'keenly interested in the occult' as he and Howard Carter waited restlessly for hostilities to cease during World War One. Moreover, he recalls attending one of these séances organised by his father. It occurred during a month spent with the family following his return from military duty with the 7th Hussars in Mesopotamia in the late spring of 1919, when Carter was also present. He remembers how, in the company of his sister Lady Evelyn, he proceeded to the East Anglia Room, where his father, along with Howard Carter, Louis Steele, 'a brilliant photographer domiciled in Portsmouth', and Helen Cunliffe-Owen were readying themselves for the psychic session. When everyone had settled down, Steele began to utter some form of 'incantation' that sent Lady Cunliffe-Owen into a trance in which she began speaking Coptic. By 'Coptic' he presumably meant the language used by the original inhabitants of Egypt, as opposed to the Greek immigrants, in the wake of Alexander the Great's celebrated entry in 332 BC. It was adopted as the language of the Coptic Christians, who trace their lineage back to St Mark the Evangelist. The sixth earl records that only Howard Carter understood Lady Cunliffe's strange utterances, and afterwards she had no recall whatsoever of what had been said.
The sixth earl goes on to say that Lady Evelyn was then placed in a similar trance, 'but she was so overcome by the experience that she had to go into a nursing home in London for a fortnight's rest'. What supposedly happened next stretches the imagination to the extreme:
To round off that session, my father said, 'If we sit round the table holding hands, I believe we shall achieve a levitation.' 'What does he mean?' I whispered to my sister. 'I think he hopes the flowers on the table will rise several feet into the air,' she replied and they did.'
These are the words of the sixth Earl of Carnarvon, a greatly respected British aristocrat who moved in high society circles before his death in 1987. That he believed these events took place does not seem to be in doubt, as they are recorded in his published memoirs. However, exactly what transpired at Highclere Castle that night in 1919 is probably lost for ever. All that the authors have been able to ascertain is that the sessions did indeed take place in the East Anglia Room, something that is looked on with some embarrassment by the tour guides, reflecting perhaps the feelings of the present-day Carnarvon family. Indeed, when the authors visited Highclere and met the future 8th Earl of Carnarvon in August 2001, special permission had to be gained to enter the East Anglia Room, which is currently out of bounds to the general public. They were finally able to enter the room, used today as a dressing room for wedding parties, in the company of Tony Leadbetter, the godson of Lady Almina Herbert, the fifth earl's wife. He insisted that she loathed the séances and would have nothing to do with them, since they frightened her greatly. As we shall see, the fifth earl's powerful belief in all things supernatural might not have helped dampen rumours that his untimely death was connected in some way with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The rebirth in Egypt
Lord Carnarvon's interest in the occult was not unique for his era. Many wealthy, well-to-do people in British society shared a belief in the omnipotent powers of ancient Egypt. To them this distant land, beneath the hot desert sun, was an exotic paradise, where the ancient gods still lived on in the invisible world. These very humanlike deities were seen not simply as the product of the superstitious fears of a bygone race, but as the power and motivation behind the great civilisation that built the Great Pyramid and flourished for nearly 3,000 years before its decline at the time of the Roman Empire.
With the spread of spiritualism from the United States to Europe in the mid-1800s, the idea of communicating with perceived celestial intelligences suddenly became more acceptable. And, if an American Indian chief or a Chinese philosopher could act as a spirit guide, then so could long-dead Egyptian spirits and even the gods and goddesses of that wonderful country. More significantly, the revival in the mystic powers of ancient Egypt was embraced by a number of occultists of the era, who felt some kind of sympathetic connection with this unseen world. More importantly, it was the influence of one such mystic that may well have convinced Lord Carnarvon that his destiny was linked inextricably not only with coming events connected with the resurrection of the Amarna age in popular consciousness, but also with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
We speak of 'Cheiro' (pronounced ki-ro), alias Count Louis le Warner Hamon (1866-1936), the world-renowned fortune-teller and palmist of Irish birth, who during the late Victorian period read palms, cast horoscopes and made psychic predictions for the rich and famous. His first client is said to have been Arthur James Balfour, the future Conservative Prime Minister and the signatory on the so-called Balfour Declaration of 1917 (see Chapter 23). From the 1890s onwards, Hamon attracted an elite clientele both at his Indian-style salon in London's trendy Bond Street, and while on his travels abroad. The list is mind-boggling, and apparently included, among others, Mark Twain, Sarah Bernhardt, the British statesman Sir Austin Chamberlain, the writer Oscar Wilde and the Dutch dancer and spy Mata Hari, with whom he became a close acquaintance. Sir Ernest Shackleton, the explorer of the Antarctic, went in disguise to his Bond Street address in order to test him, but was told, correctly, that he would not return from a second expedition. When Field Marshal Horatio, Lord Kitchener, the hero of the Sudan, turned up to see Hamon he was informed that his death would come at sea. He was to die when his cruiser, HMS Hampshire, struck a mine and sank in the North Sea, off the Orkney Isles, in June 1916.
As Hamon's reputation as a fortune-teller grew, he was introduced to more and more clients of distinction. Among them was the King of Italy, Humbert I, whom he met in Rome in 1900 and predicted correctly that he would be dead within three months. Another was the Shah of Persia, whom he met in Paris that same year. Hamon informed him that his life was in grave peril, prompting the shah's police guard to foil an assassination attempt by an anarchist.
Most famous of all Hamon's clients was Edward VII, for whom he predicted the exact date of his coronation in August 1902 and subsequent death in 1909. Through the British king he was introduced to other members of the royal family, for whom he cast horoscopes and made predictions. It was also through Edward VII that Hamon came to meet Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, about whom he predicted that around '1917 he will lose all he loves most by sword or strife in one form or another, and he himself will meet a violent death'. So intrigued was the Tsar by this prediction that in late 1904, on a visit to St Petersburg, Hamon was invited to dine with him at the Summer Palace. During his stay Gregori Rasputin came to meet Hamon one afternoon in January 1905. As with the Tsar, he predicted that Rasputin would suffer 'a violent end within a palace. You will be menaced by poison, by knife, and by bullet. Finally I see the icy waters of the Neva closing above you'. It goes without saying that both Rasputin and the Tzar were to lose their lives in the manner prescribed.
Marshall Hall QC
It is certainly not the place here to extol any further the apparent predictions of Count Louis Hamon, alias 'Cheiro', whatever their basis in truth. Yet what is significant to the story behind the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb is that the author Barry Wynne in his 1972 book BEHIND THE MASK OF TUTANKHAMEN claimed that Lord Carnarvon was one of Hamon's clients. Indeed, it is recorded that in 1899 Hamon had cause to ask the Earl of Carnarvon's close friend and lawyer, Sir Edward Marshall Hall QC, to defend him, after he was named as a co-respondent in a case brought against him by the husband of a woman client who had become infatuated by the celebrated palmist. In the end the petitioner withdrew his claim, and paid the damages and costs, but only after Hamon was able to prove his innocence. At the time, the fortune-teller revealed to Marshall Hall psychic imagery that would foreshadow, and even predict, his election win at Southport some sixteen months later in October 1901.
Since Marshall Hall was one of the participants in the séances that took place at Highclere Castle, it seems reasonable to assume that by this time Hamon had become a personal acquaintance of the Earl of Carnarvon. This should be borne in mind as we review the strange psychic warning that Hamon sent to Lord Carnarvon shortly after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Cheiro's Warning
Later he would claim that it had been delivered to him in the form of automatic writing by Meketaten, one of Akhenaten's daughters, whose mummified hand he believed he had been given by an elderly Egyptian guide at the Temple of Karnak in the mid-1880s. Yet, regardless of its original source, the unnerving nature of the message must have sent a chill down the British aristocrat's spine, for, according to Hamon
It was to the effect that on his arrival at the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen he was not to allow any of the relics found in it to be removed or taken away. The ending of the message was 'that if he disobeyed the warning he would suffer an injury while in the tomb - a sickness from which he would never recover, and that death would claim him in Egypt'.
Rightly or wrongly, Hamon sent the warning message to Lord Carnarvon at Highclere, which was received by him shortly after his return from Egypt in mid-December 1922. He was said to have 'read it over to one of his companions, the Hon. Richard Bethell, and to a close friend of Admiral Smith Dorrien, whose letter relating these facts I have still in my possession'. Apparently, Carnarvon was 'deeply impressed by the warning', yet responded with the words, 'If at this moment of my life all the mummies in Egypt were to warn me I would go on with my project just the same'.
Yet Hamon goes on to reveal that it was 'common knowledge what happened' next, for, according to him, 'Lord Carnarvon took numerous relics out of the tomb and sent them on to England. He would probably have taken still more if the Egyptian Government had not interfered'.
This outrageous claim made in Hamon's autobiographical work REAL LIFE STORIES, published in 1934, must have infuriated not only the fifth earl's friends and family, but also the entire Egyptological community, including Howard Carter, who had completed his clearance of the tomb just two years beforehand. Yet, whatever Hamon's source was for this information, it proved to be staggeringly accurate, for as we shall see in Chapter 13, there is overwhelming evidence to show that Carnarvon and Carter did indeed illegally remove art treasures from the tomb.
Ridiculous stories
That a warning of the sort described by Hamon was received by his lordship around the time of the discovery of the tomb is confirmed by the sixth earl's memoirs, which tell us:
Upon the news of the discovery of the tomb he [Hamon] had written to my father warning him not to become involved. This matter preyed on my father's mind and he decided to consult his own clairvoyant, Velma.
With the fifth earl's deep interest in the occult, there is no doubt that such a warning would indeed have 'preyed' on his mind. The fact that it had come from the world-renowned fortune-teller Count Louis Hamon, to whom both he and Marshall Hall seem to have been admirers, must have increased his anxiety still further.
Nowhere is it recorded what Carnarvon's feelings might have been after the discovery of the tomb - whether he felt he was destined to find it or that some kind of karmic retribution would result from its discovery. Yet according to Arthur C Mace, one of Carter's team on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnarvon 'was one of the most superstitious men he had ever met'.
Carter, on the other hand, openly dismissed the idea of a curse connected with the death of Lord Carnarvon in the second volume of THE TOMB OF TUT.ANKH.AMEN. Towards the end of the Preface he states that he does not intend to 'repeat the ridiculous stories which have been invented about the dangers lurking in ambush … in this tomb, to destroy the intruder'. Moreover, he says, 'So far as the living are concerned curses of this nature have no place in the Egyptian ritual'. Yet these words do not reflect what he truly believed, for, according to an article that appeared in the DAILY EXPRESS the day after Carnarvon's death, Carter had told 'a friend' only days beforehand that 'This tomb has brought us bad luck'. More significantly, an entry in the unpublished memoirs of the then British vice-consul to Cairo, Sir Thomas Cecil Rapp (1893-1984), tells us:
He [Carter] was suffering too from a superstitious feeling that Lord Carnarvon's death was possible nemesis for disturbing the sleep of the dead, a nemesis that might also extend to him. But he was to survive for seventeen years.
This is an important revelation, never before made public, which shows a more vulnerable side of Carter's character. That he also participated in the séances held at Highclere Castle, and even identified the language spoken in trance by Lady Cunliffe-Owen as Coptic, hints strongly that, like his friend and patron, he was motivated by spiritual beliefs linked intrinsically with the legacy of ancient Egypt.
His soul shall be destroyed for ever
It seems certain that the fifth Earl of Carnarvon will have felt a little uneasy after reading Hamon's letter so soon after clandestinely entering the tomb's Burial Chamber and removing a number of choice pieces for his own purposes. Yet would there be a price to pay? Hamon obviously thought so, and Carnarvon would have had every reason to believe so, too, for, contrary to what Carter wrote in his book, magical formulas were sometimes left behind in tombs in order to deter intruders. For example, Arthur Weigall in his book TUTANKHAMEN AND OTHER ESSAYS, rushed out in 1923 during the wave of massive public interest in all things Egyptian, records a curse that was inscribed on a mortuary statue of a person named 'Ursu', a mining engineer who lived less than a hundred years before Tutankhamun:
He who trespasses upon my property or who shall injure my tomb or drag out my mummy, the Sun-god shall punish him. He shall not bequeath his goods to his children; his heart shall not have pleasure in life; he shall not receive water (for his spirit to drink) in the tomb, and his soul shall be destroyed for ever.
Similar curses have been found in other tombs as well. For instance, Weigall cites another example inscribed on the wall of the tomb of Harkhuf at Aswan, which dates from the Sixth Dynasty, c. 2340 BC:
As for any man who shall enter into this tomb … I will pounce upon him as on a bird; he shall be judged for it by the great god.
It is inconceivable to think that Carnarvon would not have been aware of such curses, and would therefore have been concerned that in violating an Egyptian tomb he was playing into the hands of occult forces. Publicly he would have shrugged off such thoughts, but quietly, when he was on his own, such convictions may well have haunted him. Perhaps this is why Lord Carnarvon went in search of answers, or at least some form of solace, from his personal seer and palmist known only as 'Velma'
Like Hamon, Velma was famed for his predictions, which included the assassination of the Tsar of Russia and his son, Alexis Nicoleavitch, as well as the death of Francisco Pancho-Villa, the bandit turned Mexican President, whose palm he had read when in Mexico City. One of his most celebrated prophecies concerned the then Duchess of York, who went on to become the Queen Mother (she died in March 2002). Velma had met her during an Elizabethan pageant at the seat of the Cecil family at Hatfield in Hertfordshire. During this meeting he predicted that her marriage would be enhanced greatly
by the arrival of a child who will be worshipped from one end of the [British] Empire to the other. You are, at the present time, in a mansion that stood in Elizabethan times and this is an Elizabethan Fête. It may well be that all the great characteristics of the queen of that name will be found in the princess of your house …
He was referring, of course, to the birth of the future Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's reigning monarch for over fifty years.
Yet Velma's advice to Lord Carnarvon was not of such a positive tone. Having explained the contents of the communication from Hamon, the palmist took hold of his hands and pointed out a fairly long lifeline, which was thin at the centre with ominous spots that might indicate death at this point in his life. Similar combinations in other areas of the hand led Velma to advise: 'I do see great peril for you … Most probably - as the indications of occult interest are so strong in your hand - it will arise from such a source'. According to the writer Barry Wynne, in his 1972 book BEHIND THE MASK OF TUTANKHAMUN, Carnarvon's reply to this second warning was somewhat jocular: 'Whatever happens I will see to it that my interest in things occult never gets so strong as to affect either my reason or my health'.
A second meeting with Velma
We cannot be certain exactly what transpired between the fifth Earl of Carnarvon and the seer and palmist named Velma during this meeting, but the work of Barry Wynne leads us to believe that his lordship put on a 'brave face' and left 'in a sombre mood'. Whatever his final thoughts, Carnarvon is known to have returned to Velma for a second meeting before his departure for Egypt in January 1923. We are told that on this occasion, when Velma took his hands, the ominous spots noted before had, if anything, enlarged. As Wynne penned with a sense of drama, 'In particular, the spot on the Life Line seemed perilously close to the earl's present age'.
Apparently, Velma then consulted his crystal ball and on staring into its depths saw an Egyptian temple, thick with people divided into three separate parties. The features of the individuals became clearer and Velma described those that could be seen. Yet from the ethereal mist that prevented better clarity came the words, 'To Aton … only God … Universal Father …' There then appeared the image of a golden mask being placed over the head of a young pharaoh: 'Nothing says so, but I believe that this is the burial of your King Tutankhamen'.
Next, Velma saw what he took to be a tomb, presumably that of Tutankhamun, from which emerged flashes of light, evidence, it seemed, of supernatural influences at work. Lord Carnarvon and his associates were there too, carrying out their work, but then came images of a multitude of spirit forms that 'demanded vengeance against the disturbers of the tomb'. Finally, he saw an image of Lord Carnarvon set amid this spectacle of great turmoil.
Carnarvon apparently recognised the danger implied by the vision, but played down its importance, saying that he was well aware of the possible dangers of entering the tomb and would continue the work until it was done.
According to Wynne, Velma responded with the words, 'If I were you … I should make some public excuse and finish. I can only see disaster to you, without any adequate gain to humanity to justify the sacrifice'. The sixth Earl of Carnarvon, in his memoirs, also provides details of his father's visits to see Velma, and confirms that on the second occasion the seer and palmist warned him against returning to Egypt lest disaster strike.
Lord Carnarvon departed for Egypt in the company of Lady Evelyn in mid January, and was back in the Valley by Wednesday, the 31st. He examined the treasures removed from the Antechamber inside the nearby tomb of Seti II, which was being used as a laboratory, and in the days that followed hung around Tutankhamun's tomb receiving invited guests and visitors, and generally acting as if the royal sepulchre was his own private estate.
Voices of disdain
With the removal of various treasures from the Antechamber during the early months of 1923, the international press were provided with interim news stories that kept Tutankhamun in the forefront of people's minds. Almost daily, newspaper reports would appear written by a 'special correspondent' in Luxor, making sure that no one could get away from the splendours of ancient Egypt. It was perhaps inevitable therefore that certain individuals in the public eye would begin to draw their own conclusions about what they saw as a violation of a royal tomb. One such person was the gothic novelist Mary Mackay, better known by her nom de plume Marie Corelli (1855-1924), whose occult novels were loved by, among others, Queen Victoria. Like Hamon, Corelli was known to the rich and famous, among them the late Edward VII, whose coronation she attended, Mark Twain and the Empress Frederick of Germany.
A few weeks after the official opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Corelli wrote a letter to the NEW YORK TIMES. In it she asserted that an old Egyptian book in her possession contained a reference to the fact that 'the most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb'. What led Corelli to make such an eccentric statement in the NEW YORK TIMES is unclear, and the title of the old Egyptian book in her possession was never disclosed.
It has been proposed recently that Marie Corelli was simply propounding the idea of a curse attached to Egyptian tombs and mummies featured in nineteenth-century tales of the supernatural. For instance, Dr Dominic Montserrat of the University of Warwick has traced the origins of the mummy's curse to an obscure children's book written in the 1820s by a 25-year-old English author named Jane Loudon Webb. After watching a public mummy unwrapping in Piccadilly Circus by the Italian adventurer and strongman Giovanni Belzoni, she penned a story entitled 'The Mummy', about a vengeful Egyptian spirit that came back to life and threatened to strangle the hero. Then in a novel entitled THE FRUITS OF ENTERPRISE, written by an anonymous English writer in 1828, an adventure inside an Egyptian pyramid leads its characters to use mummy parts as torches to illuminate the way.
Inspired very probably by these earlier works, in 1869 the American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) composed a short story called 'Lost in a Pyramid'. In it an explorer again uses mummy parts, this time of an Egyptian priestess, to light the passages inside a pyramid. From here he steals a gold box containing three strange seeds. These he takes back to the United States and presents to his fiancée, who plants them in the garden. They develop into grotesque flowers, which she wears on her wedding day. Unfortunately, their peculiar scent sends her into a coma and she herself becomes a living mummy!
The same theme was used again and again by various British and American writers of the late Victorian era, culminating eventually in Bram Stoker's classic, THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS in 1903, which has spawned some classic horror movies over the years. Very similar influences it would seem led Marie Corelli to conclude that a swift punishment would befall anyone who dared violate the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh.
A bird is scratching my face …
Whether or not Lord Carnarvon was made aware of Corelli's ramblings in the New York Times is not recorded. However, the earlier warnings delivered to him both by Count Hamon and Velma must have made him at least slightly uneasy about the whole situation as the Burial Chamber was officially opened on Friday, 16 February 1923. Not helping the matter one little bit was the incident regarding the strange death of Carter's canary the previous November, and the strange omens that went with it, especially the prediction that 'before the winter was out someone would die'.
As we know, it was around the time of the official opening of the Burial Chamber that Lord Carnarvon became ill and, exactly as Arthur Weigall had flippantly remarked, he was to be dead just over six weeks later. Yet strange stories are told about his final night on earth. Amid the feverish delirium that accompanied the final stages of his illness, he is reported to have said over and over again, 'A bird is scratching my face. A bird is scratching my face'.
By this time he was more or less in a coma, and so anything he said at this time should perhaps be taken as the ravings of a dying man. Yet the matter has intrigued certain Egyptologists, including Dr Ali Hassan, a former head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. According to the author Philipp Vandenberg, Hassan is on record as saying, 'This sentence is of particular interest because something similar appears in a curse-text from the First Intermediate Period c.2140-2100 BC, which says that the Nekhebet [vulture] bird shall scratch the face of anyone who does anything to a tomb'. We should also perhaps recall the inscription found on the wall of the tomb of Harkhuf at Aswan:
As for any man who shall enter into this tomb … I will pounce upon him as on a bird; he shall be judged for it by the great god.
It would be easy to conclude that Lord Carnarvon was himself judged by the ancient gods for entering the tomb of Tutankhamun. Yet we live in a rational world where curses are dismissed as the feeble beliefs of the weak and simple-minded. They cannot affect us, because we have no place for them in our lives. But anyone who carries around this attitude is a fool who does not understand the delicate nature of the human brain and its gross need for personal security on a psychological level.
To a greater or lesser degree, a large percentage of the human race still relies upon ritual, in the belief that, their individual or group rites having been upheld, nothing bad will affect their day-to-day life - whether it be twice checking that the gas and electrical appliances are off, avoiding walking under a ladder, crossing oneself to gain God's protection or adopting certain routines to avoid potential bad luck. The vast majority of us do this instinctively and are not strong-willed enough to ignore these primeval compulsions. Indeed, the human mind works in completely the opposite way, believing that, if we don't do it, then something bad will happen! Curses and superstitions tap into those very same neurotic insecurities.
If we violate the dead, then we naturally expect that something bad will happen, and, if the owner of a tomb tells us that something bad is going to happen, then in all probability it will. The more superstitious we are, the more likely it is that warnings of ill omen can and will affect our lives, and this would seem to have been a weakness of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. He believed in the supernatural powers of ancient Egypt and paid for it with his life. Moreover, it would seem that this was a failing also of the sixth earl, who during his own lifetime made it clear that he could not be persuaded to return to the tomb of Tutankhamun, even for a million pounds! Why? If curses do not exist then what did he have to fear from the tomb?
The death of the fifth earl on 5 April 1923 should have brought to a close any thoughts relating to the judgment of the gods on those who desecrate tombs of pharaohs, but this was not to be the case. For, even as his lordship's body was still warm, strange occurrences began to take place that would only help compound the idea that the curse of Tutankhamun was not going to go away.
It is certain that, had he lived, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon would have believed in the curse of Tutankhamun, for it seems that the British aristocrat was deeply influenced by spiritualism and the occult. He was also an active member of the London Spiritual Alliance. On numerous occasions Carnarvon organised séances in the East Anglia Room at Highclere Castle. Present would be his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert, the politician and lawyer Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC; Lady Cunliffe-Owen and, when in the country, Howard Carter.
In his published memoirs the sixth Earl of Carnarvon says that his father became 'keenly interested in the occult' as he and Howard Carter waited restlessly for hostilities to cease during World War One. Moreover, he recalls attending one of these séances organised by his father. It occurred during a month spent with the family following his return from military duty with the 7th Hussars in Mesopotamia in the late spring of 1919, when Carter was also present. He remembers how, in the company of his sister Lady Evelyn, he proceeded to the East Anglia Room, where his father, along with Howard Carter, Louis Steele, 'a brilliant photographer domiciled in Portsmouth', and Helen Cunliffe-Owen were readying themselves for the psychic session. When everyone had settled down, Steele began to utter some form of 'incantation' that sent Lady Cunliffe-Owen into a trance in which she began speaking Coptic. By 'Coptic' he presumably meant the language used by the original inhabitants of Egypt, as opposed to the Greek immigrants, in the wake of Alexander the Great's celebrated entry in 332 BC. It was adopted as the language of the Coptic Christians, who trace their lineage back to St Mark the Evangelist. The sixth earl records that only Howard Carter understood Lady Cunliffe's strange utterances, and afterwards she had no recall whatsoever of what had been said.
The sixth earl goes on to say that Lady Evelyn was then placed in a similar trance, 'but she was so overcome by the experience that she had to go into a nursing home in London for a fortnight's rest'. What supposedly happened next stretches the imagination to the extreme:
To round off that session, my father said, 'If we sit round the table holding hands, I believe we shall achieve a levitation.' 'What does he mean?' I whispered to my sister. 'I think he hopes the flowers on the table will rise several feet into the air,' she replied and they did.'
These are the words of the sixth Earl of Carnarvon, a greatly respected British aristocrat who moved in high society circles before his death in 1987. That he believed these events took place does not seem to be in doubt, as they are recorded in his published memoirs. However, exactly what transpired at Highclere Castle that night in 1919 is probably lost for ever. All that the authors have been able to ascertain is that the sessions did indeed take place in the East Anglia Room, something that is looked on with some embarrassment by the tour guides, reflecting perhaps the feelings of the present-day Carnarvon family. Indeed, when the authors visited Highclere and met the future 8th Earl of Carnarvon in August 2001, special permission had to be gained to enter the East Anglia Room, which is currently out of bounds to the general public. They were finally able to enter the room, used today as a dressing room for wedding parties, in the company of Tony Leadbetter, the godson of Lady Almina Herbert, the fifth earl's wife. He insisted that she loathed the séances and would have nothing to do with them, since they frightened her greatly. As we shall see, the fifth earl's powerful belief in all things supernatural might not have helped dampen rumours that his untimely death was connected in some way with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The rebirth in Egypt
Lord Carnarvon's interest in the occult was not unique for his era. Many wealthy, well-to-do people in British society shared a belief in the omnipotent powers of ancient Egypt. To them this distant land, beneath the hot desert sun, was an exotic paradise, where the ancient gods still lived on in the invisible world. These very humanlike deities were seen not simply as the product of the superstitious fears of a bygone race, but as the power and motivation behind the great civilisation that built the Great Pyramid and flourished for nearly 3,000 years before its decline at the time of the Roman Empire.
With the spread of spiritualism from the United States to Europe in the mid-1800s, the idea of communicating with perceived celestial intelligences suddenly became more acceptable. And, if an American Indian chief or a Chinese philosopher could act as a spirit guide, then so could long-dead Egyptian spirits and even the gods and goddesses of that wonderful country. More significantly, the revival in the mystic powers of ancient Egypt was embraced by a number of occultists of the era, who felt some kind of sympathetic connection with this unseen world. More importantly, it was the influence of one such mystic that may well have convinced Lord Carnarvon that his destiny was linked inextricably not only with coming events connected with the resurrection of the Amarna age in popular consciousness, but also with the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
We speak of 'Cheiro' (pronounced ki-ro), alias Count Louis le Warner Hamon (1866-1936), the world-renowned fortune-teller and palmist of Irish birth, who during the late Victorian period read palms, cast horoscopes and made psychic predictions for the rich and famous. His first client is said to have been Arthur James Balfour, the future Conservative Prime Minister and the signatory on the so-called Balfour Declaration of 1917 (see Chapter 23). From the 1890s onwards, Hamon attracted an elite clientele both at his Indian-style salon in London's trendy Bond Street, and while on his travels abroad. The list is mind-boggling, and apparently included, among others, Mark Twain, Sarah Bernhardt, the British statesman Sir Austin Chamberlain, the writer Oscar Wilde and the Dutch dancer and spy Mata Hari, with whom he became a close acquaintance. Sir Ernest Shackleton, the explorer of the Antarctic, went in disguise to his Bond Street address in order to test him, but was told, correctly, that he would not return from a second expedition. When Field Marshal Horatio, Lord Kitchener, the hero of the Sudan, turned up to see Hamon he was informed that his death would come at sea. He was to die when his cruiser, HMS Hampshire, struck a mine and sank in the North Sea, off the Orkney Isles, in June 1916.
As Hamon's reputation as a fortune-teller grew, he was introduced to more and more clients of distinction. Among them was the King of Italy, Humbert I, whom he met in Rome in 1900 and predicted correctly that he would be dead within three months. Another was the Shah of Persia, whom he met in Paris that same year. Hamon informed him that his life was in grave peril, prompting the shah's police guard to foil an assassination attempt by an anarchist.
Most famous of all Hamon's clients was Edward VII, for whom he predicted the exact date of his coronation in August 1902 and subsequent death in 1909. Through the British king he was introduced to other members of the royal family, for whom he cast horoscopes and made predictions. It was also through Edward VII that Hamon came to meet Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, about whom he predicted that around '1917 he will lose all he loves most by sword or strife in one form or another, and he himself will meet a violent death'. So intrigued was the Tsar by this prediction that in late 1904, on a visit to St Petersburg, Hamon was invited to dine with him at the Summer Palace. During his stay Gregori Rasputin came to meet Hamon one afternoon in January 1905. As with the Tsar, he predicted that Rasputin would suffer 'a violent end within a palace. You will be menaced by poison, by knife, and by bullet. Finally I see the icy waters of the Neva closing above you'. It goes without saying that both Rasputin and the Tzar were to lose their lives in the manner prescribed.
Marshall Hall QC
It is certainly not the place here to extol any further the apparent predictions of Count Louis Hamon, alias 'Cheiro', whatever their basis in truth. Yet what is significant to the story behind the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb is that the author Barry Wynne in his 1972 book BEHIND THE MASK OF TUTANKHAMEN claimed that Lord Carnarvon was one of Hamon's clients. Indeed, it is recorded that in 1899 Hamon had cause to ask the Earl of Carnarvon's close friend and lawyer, Sir Edward Marshall Hall QC, to defend him, after he was named as a co-respondent in a case brought against him by the husband of a woman client who had become infatuated by the celebrated palmist. In the end the petitioner withdrew his claim, and paid the damages and costs, but only after Hamon was able to prove his innocence. At the time, the fortune-teller revealed to Marshall Hall psychic imagery that would foreshadow, and even predict, his election win at Southport some sixteen months later in October 1901.
Since Marshall Hall was one of the participants in the séances that took place at Highclere Castle, it seems reasonable to assume that by this time Hamon had become a personal acquaintance of the Earl of Carnarvon. This should be borne in mind as we review the strange psychic warning that Hamon sent to Lord Carnarvon shortly after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Cheiro's Warning
Later he would claim that it had been delivered to him in the form of automatic writing by Meketaten, one of Akhenaten's daughters, whose mummified hand he believed he had been given by an elderly Egyptian guide at the Temple of Karnak in the mid-1880s. Yet, regardless of its original source, the unnerving nature of the message must have sent a chill down the British aristocrat's spine, for, according to Hamon
It was to the effect that on his arrival at the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen he was not to allow any of the relics found in it to be removed or taken away. The ending of the message was 'that if he disobeyed the warning he would suffer an injury while in the tomb - a sickness from which he would never recover, and that death would claim him in Egypt'.
Rightly or wrongly, Hamon sent the warning message to Lord Carnarvon at Highclere, which was received by him shortly after his return from Egypt in mid-December 1922. He was said to have 'read it over to one of his companions, the Hon. Richard Bethell, and to a close friend of Admiral Smith Dorrien, whose letter relating these facts I have still in my possession'. Apparently, Carnarvon was 'deeply impressed by the warning', yet responded with the words, 'If at this moment of my life all the mummies in Egypt were to warn me I would go on with my project just the same'.
Yet Hamon goes on to reveal that it was 'common knowledge what happened' next, for, according to him, 'Lord Carnarvon took numerous relics out of the tomb and sent them on to England. He would probably have taken still more if the Egyptian Government had not interfered'.
This outrageous claim made in Hamon's autobiographical work REAL LIFE STORIES, published in 1934, must have infuriated not only the fifth earl's friends and family, but also the entire Egyptological community, including Howard Carter, who had completed his clearance of the tomb just two years beforehand. Yet, whatever Hamon's source was for this information, it proved to be staggeringly accurate, for as we shall see in Chapter 13, there is overwhelming evidence to show that Carnarvon and Carter did indeed illegally remove art treasures from the tomb.
Ridiculous stories
That a warning of the sort described by Hamon was received by his lordship around the time of the discovery of the tomb is confirmed by the sixth earl's memoirs, which tell us:
Upon the news of the discovery of the tomb he [Hamon] had written to my father warning him not to become involved. This matter preyed on my father's mind and he decided to consult his own clairvoyant, Velma.
With the fifth earl's deep interest in the occult, there is no doubt that such a warning would indeed have 'preyed' on his mind. The fact that it had come from the world-renowned fortune-teller Count Louis Hamon, to whom both he and Marshall Hall seem to have been admirers, must have increased his anxiety still further.
Nowhere is it recorded what Carnarvon's feelings might have been after the discovery of the tomb - whether he felt he was destined to find it or that some kind of karmic retribution would result from its discovery. Yet according to Arthur C Mace, one of Carter's team on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnarvon 'was one of the most superstitious men he had ever met'.
Carter, on the other hand, openly dismissed the idea of a curse connected with the death of Lord Carnarvon in the second volume of THE TOMB OF TUT.ANKH.AMEN. Towards the end of the Preface he states that he does not intend to 'repeat the ridiculous stories which have been invented about the dangers lurking in ambush … in this tomb, to destroy the intruder'. Moreover, he says, 'So far as the living are concerned curses of this nature have no place in the Egyptian ritual'. Yet these words do not reflect what he truly believed, for, according to an article that appeared in the DAILY EXPRESS the day after Carnarvon's death, Carter had told 'a friend' only days beforehand that 'This tomb has brought us bad luck'. More significantly, an entry in the unpublished memoirs of the then British vice-consul to Cairo, Sir Thomas Cecil Rapp (1893-1984), tells us:
He [Carter] was suffering too from a superstitious feeling that Lord Carnarvon's death was possible nemesis for disturbing the sleep of the dead, a nemesis that might also extend to him. But he was to survive for seventeen years.
This is an important revelation, never before made public, which shows a more vulnerable side of Carter's character. That he also participated in the séances held at Highclere Castle, and even identified the language spoken in trance by Lady Cunliffe-Owen as Coptic, hints strongly that, like his friend and patron, he was motivated by spiritual beliefs linked intrinsically with the legacy of ancient Egypt.
His soul shall be destroyed for ever
It seems certain that the fifth Earl of Carnarvon will have felt a little uneasy after reading Hamon's letter so soon after clandestinely entering the tomb's Burial Chamber and removing a number of choice pieces for his own purposes. Yet would there be a price to pay? Hamon obviously thought so, and Carnarvon would have had every reason to believe so, too, for, contrary to what Carter wrote in his book, magical formulas were sometimes left behind in tombs in order to deter intruders. For example, Arthur Weigall in his book TUTANKHAMEN AND OTHER ESSAYS, rushed out in 1923 during the wave of massive public interest in all things Egyptian, records a curse that was inscribed on a mortuary statue of a person named 'Ursu', a mining engineer who lived less than a hundred years before Tutankhamun:
He who trespasses upon my property or who shall injure my tomb or drag out my mummy, the Sun-god shall punish him. He shall not bequeath his goods to his children; his heart shall not have pleasure in life; he shall not receive water (for his spirit to drink) in the tomb, and his soul shall be destroyed for ever.
Similar curses have been found in other tombs as well. For instance, Weigall cites another example inscribed on the wall of the tomb of Harkhuf at Aswan, which dates from the Sixth Dynasty, c. 2340 BC:
As for any man who shall enter into this tomb … I will pounce upon him as on a bird; he shall be judged for it by the great god.
It is inconceivable to think that Carnarvon would not have been aware of such curses, and would therefore have been concerned that in violating an Egyptian tomb he was playing into the hands of occult forces. Publicly he would have shrugged off such thoughts, but quietly, when he was on his own, such convictions may well have haunted him. Perhaps this is why Lord Carnarvon went in search of answers, or at least some form of solace, from his personal seer and palmist known only as 'Velma'
Like Hamon, Velma was famed for his predictions, which included the assassination of the Tsar of Russia and his son, Alexis Nicoleavitch, as well as the death of Francisco Pancho-Villa, the bandit turned Mexican President, whose palm he had read when in Mexico City. One of his most celebrated prophecies concerned the then Duchess of York, who went on to become the Queen Mother (she died in March 2002). Velma had met her during an Elizabethan pageant at the seat of the Cecil family at Hatfield in Hertfordshire. During this meeting he predicted that her marriage would be enhanced greatly
by the arrival of a child who will be worshipped from one end of the [British] Empire to the other. You are, at the present time, in a mansion that stood in Elizabethan times and this is an Elizabethan Fête. It may well be that all the great characteristics of the queen of that name will be found in the princess of your house …
He was referring, of course, to the birth of the future Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's reigning monarch for over fifty years.
Yet Velma's advice to Lord Carnarvon was not of such a positive tone. Having explained the contents of the communication from Hamon, the palmist took hold of his hands and pointed out a fairly long lifeline, which was thin at the centre with ominous spots that might indicate death at this point in his life. Similar combinations in other areas of the hand led Velma to advise: 'I do see great peril for you … Most probably - as the indications of occult interest are so strong in your hand - it will arise from such a source'. According to the writer Barry Wynne, in his 1972 book BEHIND THE MASK OF TUTANKHAMUN, Carnarvon's reply to this second warning was somewhat jocular: 'Whatever happens I will see to it that my interest in things occult never gets so strong as to affect either my reason or my health'.
A second meeting with Velma
We cannot be certain exactly what transpired between the fifth Earl of Carnarvon and the seer and palmist named Velma during this meeting, but the work of Barry Wynne leads us to believe that his lordship put on a 'brave face' and left 'in a sombre mood'. Whatever his final thoughts, Carnarvon is known to have returned to Velma for a second meeting before his departure for Egypt in January 1923. We are told that on this occasion, when Velma took his hands, the ominous spots noted before had, if anything, enlarged. As Wynne penned with a sense of drama, 'In particular, the spot on the Life Line seemed perilously close to the earl's present age'.
Apparently, Velma then consulted his crystal ball and on staring into its depths saw an Egyptian temple, thick with people divided into three separate parties. The features of the individuals became clearer and Velma described those that could be seen. Yet from the ethereal mist that prevented better clarity came the words, 'To Aton … only God … Universal Father …' There then appeared the image of a golden mask being placed over the head of a young pharaoh: 'Nothing says so, but I believe that this is the burial of your King Tutankhamen'.
Next, Velma saw what he took to be a tomb, presumably that of Tutankhamun, from which emerged flashes of light, evidence, it seemed, of supernatural influences at work. Lord Carnarvon and his associates were there too, carrying out their work, but then came images of a multitude of spirit forms that 'demanded vengeance against the disturbers of the tomb'. Finally, he saw an image of Lord Carnarvon set amid this spectacle of great turmoil.
Carnarvon apparently recognised the danger implied by the vision, but played down its importance, saying that he was well aware of the possible dangers of entering the tomb and would continue the work until it was done.
According to Wynne, Velma responded with the words, 'If I were you … I should make some public excuse and finish. I can only see disaster to you, without any adequate gain to humanity to justify the sacrifice'. The sixth Earl of Carnarvon, in his memoirs, also provides details of his father's visits to see Velma, and confirms that on the second occasion the seer and palmist warned him against returning to Egypt lest disaster strike.
Lord Carnarvon departed for Egypt in the company of Lady Evelyn in mid January, and was back in the Valley by Wednesday, the 31st. He examined the treasures removed from the Antechamber inside the nearby tomb of Seti II, which was being used as a laboratory, and in the days that followed hung around Tutankhamun's tomb receiving invited guests and visitors, and generally acting as if the royal sepulchre was his own private estate.
Voices of disdain
With the removal of various treasures from the Antechamber during the early months of 1923, the international press were provided with interim news stories that kept Tutankhamun in the forefront of people's minds. Almost daily, newspaper reports would appear written by a 'special correspondent' in Luxor, making sure that no one could get away from the splendours of ancient Egypt. It was perhaps inevitable therefore that certain individuals in the public eye would begin to draw their own conclusions about what they saw as a violation of a royal tomb. One such person was the gothic novelist Mary Mackay, better known by her nom de plume Marie Corelli (1855-1924), whose occult novels were loved by, among others, Queen Victoria. Like Hamon, Corelli was known to the rich and famous, among them the late Edward VII, whose coronation she attended, Mark Twain and the Empress Frederick of Germany.
A few weeks after the official opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Corelli wrote a letter to the NEW YORK TIMES. In it she asserted that an old Egyptian book in her possession contained a reference to the fact that 'the most dire punishment follows any rash intruder into a sealed tomb'. What led Corelli to make such an eccentric statement in the NEW YORK TIMES is unclear, and the title of the old Egyptian book in her possession was never disclosed.
It has been proposed recently that Marie Corelli was simply propounding the idea of a curse attached to Egyptian tombs and mummies featured in nineteenth-century tales of the supernatural. For instance, Dr Dominic Montserrat of the University of Warwick has traced the origins of the mummy's curse to an obscure children's book written in the 1820s by a 25-year-old English author named Jane Loudon Webb. After watching a public mummy unwrapping in Piccadilly Circus by the Italian adventurer and strongman Giovanni Belzoni, she penned a story entitled 'The Mummy', about a vengeful Egyptian spirit that came back to life and threatened to strangle the hero. Then in a novel entitled THE FRUITS OF ENTERPRISE, written by an anonymous English writer in 1828, an adventure inside an Egyptian pyramid leads its characters to use mummy parts as torches to illuminate the way.
Inspired very probably by these earlier works, in 1869 the American novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) composed a short story called 'Lost in a Pyramid'. In it an explorer again uses mummy parts, this time of an Egyptian priestess, to light the passages inside a pyramid. From here he steals a gold box containing three strange seeds. These he takes back to the United States and presents to his fiancée, who plants them in the garden. They develop into grotesque flowers, which she wears on her wedding day. Unfortunately, their peculiar scent sends her into a coma and she herself becomes a living mummy!
The same theme was used again and again by various British and American writers of the late Victorian era, culminating eventually in Bram Stoker's classic, THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS in 1903, which has spawned some classic horror movies over the years. Very similar influences it would seem led Marie Corelli to conclude that a swift punishment would befall anyone who dared violate the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh.
A bird is scratching my face …
Whether or not Lord Carnarvon was made aware of Corelli's ramblings in the New York Times is not recorded. However, the earlier warnings delivered to him both by Count Hamon and Velma must have made him at least slightly uneasy about the whole situation as the Burial Chamber was officially opened on Friday, 16 February 1923. Not helping the matter one little bit was the incident regarding the strange death of Carter's canary the previous November, and the strange omens that went with it, especially the prediction that 'before the winter was out someone would die'.
As we know, it was around the time of the official opening of the Burial Chamber that Lord Carnarvon became ill and, exactly as Arthur Weigall had flippantly remarked, he was to be dead just over six weeks later. Yet strange stories are told about his final night on earth. Amid the feverish delirium that accompanied the final stages of his illness, he is reported to have said over and over again, 'A bird is scratching my face. A bird is scratching my face'.
By this time he was more or less in a coma, and so anything he said at this time should perhaps be taken as the ravings of a dying man. Yet the matter has intrigued certain Egyptologists, including Dr Ali Hassan, a former head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. According to the author Philipp Vandenberg, Hassan is on record as saying, 'This sentence is of particular interest because something similar appears in a curse-text from the First Intermediate Period c.2140-2100 BC, which says that the Nekhebet [vulture] bird shall scratch the face of anyone who does anything to a tomb'. We should also perhaps recall the inscription found on the wall of the tomb of Harkhuf at Aswan:
As for any man who shall enter into this tomb … I will pounce upon him as on a bird; he shall be judged for it by the great god.
It would be easy to conclude that Lord Carnarvon was himself judged by the ancient gods for entering the tomb of Tutankhamun. Yet we live in a rational world where curses are dismissed as the feeble beliefs of the weak and simple-minded. They cannot affect us, because we have no place for them in our lives. But anyone who carries around this attitude is a fool who does not understand the delicate nature of the human brain and its gross need for personal security on a psychological level.
To a greater or lesser degree, a large percentage of the human race still relies upon ritual, in the belief that, their individual or group rites having been upheld, nothing bad will affect their day-to-day life - whether it be twice checking that the gas and electrical appliances are off, avoiding walking under a ladder, crossing oneself to gain God's protection or adopting certain routines to avoid potential bad luck. The vast majority of us do this instinctively and are not strong-willed enough to ignore these primeval compulsions. Indeed, the human mind works in completely the opposite way, believing that, if we don't do it, then something bad will happen! Curses and superstitions tap into those very same neurotic insecurities.
If we violate the dead, then we naturally expect that something bad will happen, and, if the owner of a tomb tells us that something bad is going to happen, then in all probability it will. The more superstitious we are, the more likely it is that warnings of ill omen can and will affect our lives, and this would seem to have been a weakness of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon. He believed in the supernatural powers of ancient Egypt and paid for it with his life. Moreover, it would seem that this was a failing also of the sixth earl, who during his own lifetime made it clear that he could not be persuaded to return to the tomb of Tutankhamun, even for a million pounds! Why? If curses do not exist then what did he have to fear from the tomb?
The death of the fifth earl on 5 April 1923 should have brought to a close any thoughts relating to the judgment of the gods on those who desecrate tombs of pharaohs, but this was not to be the case. For, even as his lordship's body was still warm, strange occurrences began to take place that would only help compound the idea that the curse of Tutankhamun was not going to go away.
Saturday 21 August 2010
Friday 20 August 2010
Chips Ahoy!!! - The boiling frog in the pot phenomenon applies to the gradual implementation of implanting microchips in humans. Eventually it will become mandatory upon pain of death for refusal.
Stu's News
August 5, 2002
Dennis G Stewart
Posted With Permission
Micro Management" has taken on a whole new meaning, yes? The recent increase in news reports about abducted children, more oft than not found heaven-bound, sadly to say, is only going to continue. The mass hysteria generated by the removal of the chicks from the hens follows the pecking order of this new feeding frenzy found to be induced by the ever increasing granules of terror doled out by the farmer, who continues to fatten his poultry for butchering.
We continue to witness a large sector of delusional mindsets, insomuch as our society has been sold on the theory that the costs TO freedom outweigh the costs FOR freedom. That the events of 9/11 remain the catalyst - if not catapult - for swift and sudden changes in both attitudes and approaches is inarguable.
Consider, for example, the following:
*****
911 Provides Green Light for Chip Implants http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Chip_Implants/LATimes011219/
"THE NATION
A Chip ID That's Only Skin-Deep - Biotech Firm plans to sell implantable devices that can store a variety of data about you. [Home Edition] DAVID STREITFELD, TIMES STAFF WRITER; The Los Angeles Times; Dec 19, 2001; Record edition; pg. A.1
Brief text excerpt:
A Florida company is poised to become the first to sell microchips designed to be implanted into human beings, an achievement that opens the door to new systems of medical monitoring and ID screening.
Implantable chips have long been discussed by technologists and denounced by those who object on religious grounds or fear their use by a totalitarian state. But the company that did the test, Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, said the specter of terrorism is shifting attitudes. The direct union of man and computer is no longer dismissed out of hand."
*****
The title says it all. Creation of fear is in itself the creation of security. How so? We are shown a most frightening image, and immediately provided with a solution to remedy its effects upon our senses. The cause promulgates the cure. Simply put, the creation of fear gives rise to the necessity for security. I should think in mathematical terms, the equation would resemble:
Cause + Effect = Change
or
Fear over Security = Control
There is no question that the elitists are continuing their pogrom of our fundamental freedoms, rights and liberties, in their ever-continuing quest for a New World Order. Their plans include the creation of individual fears for our children, by placing the boogyman on every street corner and increasing 10-fold the number of abductions....well, let me just say that you will undoubtedly be seeing print ads (if not TV commercials) from Applied Digital Solutions (among others) pedaling something akin to the "Child Away Recovery Emitter", or "C.A.R.E." Perhaps it won't be that corny, but nonetheless, it's a'coming, folks.
Heck, it's been around for quite some time already where pets are concerned. Take a moment to review the following:
*****
Home Again Microchips for Your Pets http://lambriarvetsupply.com/pages/Pet_Identification.html
"Hand-held microchip scanner will read and recognize both the Home Again and the Avid brand microchips. It will also recognize the existence of other types of microchips, however, will not read them. ..."
*****
Other types of -chips???? Just how many different chips are they coming up with? At any rate, if that wasn't enough for you, then here's another one for your reading enjoyment:
*****
Detroit considers requiring microchip implants for dogs August 28, 1998 http://www.freep.com/tech/qchip28.htm
"In Detroit, it may soon get harder for Fido to keep his anonymity when he gets picked up by dog catchers.
The city's health department is working on an ordinance that would make it mandatory for residents to have microchips implanted in their dogs that would provide information on the pet and its owner when scanned.
The department's animal control unit already has been implanting microchips in dogs that it gives out for adoption. The chip, which is covered with a protective coating and is not discernible to the human eye, is placed beneath the skin on the dog's neck. With a scanner that is about the size of a wand, animal control officers would be able to obtain such information as the dog's name, its owner, its attack record and whether it has been picked up before."
*****
Take particular note of the part that reads "....AND ITS OWNER" [emphasis added-ds].
Another scare tactic that continues to be on the front lines of the psy-op marketing stratagem is the promise of saving lives. Heck, we all want to live forever, don't we? For example:
*****
CNN - Microchip implants may save lives one day January 23, 2002 Posted: 1:47 p.m. EST (1847 GMT) http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/01/22/microchip.heart/
"Researchers are testing an implantable microsensor that can send data to a hand-held receiver outside the body, alerting doctors to a potential medical crisis, without using any wires or batteries."
*****
And this tactic is working, as you will see in the next offering, which illustrates the desperation of an Alzheimer's patient:
*****
Posted on Sun, Mar. 10, 2002 An ID idea: Microchips under your skin BY SHANNON TAN http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2828025.htm
"Nathan Isaacson of Tamarac is one of 2,500 people who want to get computer chips implanted in their bodies."
*****
And in further efforts to make it "vogue"......and even more appealing to the younger "hipper" generations (who says you need scare tactics? Just show them how fun it can be to pierce your nose! Watch for new slogans, like, "Be HIP. Get a CHIP!" :
*****
New Body Art: Chip Implants http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0%2C1284%2C50769%2C00.html
"A Canadian artist has implanted microchips in her hands in a quest to explore the relationship between identity and technology in an era when life is increasingly regulated by gadgets and machines."
*****
Thus, we get to the service members who are - yet again - being herded down the cattle chutes:
*****
Takechip http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/8827/takechip.html
"Troops at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base were recently asked to voluntarily have microchips implanted in their bodies for "identification" purposes. For the military, "voluntary" most often means mandatory. "
*****
Air Force 2025 - Home Page http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/index.html
Air Force 2025 - Part 4 http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/v3c2/v3c2-4.htm
Implanted Microscopic Chip
"The implanted microscopic brain chip110 performs two functions. First, it links the individual to the IIC, creating a seamless interface between the user and the information resources (in-time collection data and archival databases). In essence, the chip relays the processed information from the IIC to the user. Second, the chip creates a computer-generated mental visualization based upon the user's request. The visualization encompasses the individual and allows the user to place himself into the selected battlespace. "
*****
And just when you thought you've seen the end of madness:
*****
A new kind of fish 'n' chips: Microchips to aid tracking of salmon By Lisa Heyamoto - Seattle Times staff reporter http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134303417_salmon06m.html
"The state biologists want to implant as many of the smolts as they can with a glass-coated microchip smaller than a grain of rice. The chip contains a digital code, like a Social Security number, that allows the fish to be tracked as they migrate through the Ballard Locks and into Puget Sound."
*****
There you have it. Sit back and enjoy the ride on the downhill locomotive whose brakes are non-existent. DS.
*****
Microchip Mind Control, Implants And Cybernetics http://www.rense.com/general17/imp.htm
Actual 1974 Congressional Testimony of Dr. Jose Delgado -
"We need a program of PSYCHOSURGERY for POLITICAL CONTROL of our society. The purpose is PHISICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be SURGICALLY MUTILATED.
"The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective.
"Man does NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must ELECTRICALLY CONTROL THE BRAIN. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain."
Dr. Jose M.R. Delgado Director of Neuropsychiatry Yale University Medical School Congressional Record, No. 26, Vol. 118 February 24, 1974
(Author of "PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND" 1969)
*****
Have Biochip Will Travel Part Man, Part Computer Microchip implant will record neurological signals By Donnalee Moulton http://www.mnsi.net/~mousepad/Articles/01Nov06_00FinPost.htm
"Dr. Kevin Warwick is already making plans for next summer, but soaking up too much sun and rum punch is not part of them. He will be too busy trying to revolutionize medicine.
The director of cybernetics at the University of Reading in England intends to have a microchip implanted in his arm next year. That chip will be linked directly to a computer outside his body and internally to his central nervous system. "It will be a two-way process. The computer will store signals and later send [those] same signals," Dr. Warwick says."
*****
For one of the best sites located, which you likely have seen before, revisit the following:
*****
Human Implants Already Here http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Chip_Implants/
" . . . and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
-- Revelation 13:15-17
*****
Convict Chip Idea Stirs Ire Lawyer: Gov. Eyes Inmate Implants By Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer Autumn 99 - Issue No. 244 http://www.raven1.net/nmimplan.htm
"Much to the dismay of inmate lawyers, Johnson at a private meeting in May [1999] raised the possibility that a futuristic form of incarceration could include implanting microchips in convicted felons."
*****
CATO Institute February 7, 2002 Why Not Implant a Microchip? by Charlotte Twight http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-07-02.html
"In their struggle to come up with a politically palatable national ID system, proponents of the ID card are being far too timid. So here's a modest proposal: Why not implant a microchip under everyone's skin?"
[further, comes this....ds
"The system could be voluntary at first, to allow time for Americans to get used to the idea. "
*****
Read that part again...."The system could be voluntary - - - AT FIRST......."
Stay tuned, skeptics.
Dennis Stewart
August 5, 2002
Dennis G Stewart
Posted With Permission
Micro Management" has taken on a whole new meaning, yes? The recent increase in news reports about abducted children, more oft than not found heaven-bound, sadly to say, is only going to continue. The mass hysteria generated by the removal of the chicks from the hens follows the pecking order of this new feeding frenzy found to be induced by the ever increasing granules of terror doled out by the farmer, who continues to fatten his poultry for butchering.
We continue to witness a large sector of delusional mindsets, insomuch as our society has been sold on the theory that the costs TO freedom outweigh the costs FOR freedom. That the events of 9/11 remain the catalyst - if not catapult - for swift and sudden changes in both attitudes and approaches is inarguable.
Consider, for example, the following:
*****
911 Provides Green Light for Chip Implants http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Chip_Implants/LATimes011219/
"THE NATION
A Chip ID That's Only Skin-Deep - Biotech Firm plans to sell implantable devices that can store a variety of data about you. [Home Edition] DAVID STREITFELD, TIMES STAFF WRITER; The Los Angeles Times; Dec 19, 2001; Record edition; pg. A.1
Brief text excerpt:
A Florida company is poised to become the first to sell microchips designed to be implanted into human beings, an achievement that opens the door to new systems of medical monitoring and ID screening.
Implantable chips have long been discussed by technologists and denounced by those who object on religious grounds or fear their use by a totalitarian state. But the company that did the test, Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, said the specter of terrorism is shifting attitudes. The direct union of man and computer is no longer dismissed out of hand."
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The title says it all. Creation of fear is in itself the creation of security. How so? We are shown a most frightening image, and immediately provided with a solution to remedy its effects upon our senses. The cause promulgates the cure. Simply put, the creation of fear gives rise to the necessity for security. I should think in mathematical terms, the equation would resemble:
Cause + Effect = Change
or
Fear over Security = Control
There is no question that the elitists are continuing their pogrom of our fundamental freedoms, rights and liberties, in their ever-continuing quest for a New World Order. Their plans include the creation of individual fears for our children, by placing the boogyman on every street corner and increasing 10-fold the number of abductions....well, let me just say that you will undoubtedly be seeing print ads (if not TV commercials) from Applied Digital Solutions (among others) pedaling something akin to the "Child Away Recovery Emitter", or "C.A.R.E." Perhaps it won't be that corny, but nonetheless, it's a'coming, folks.
Heck, it's been around for quite some time already where pets are concerned. Take a moment to review the following:
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Home Again Microchips for Your Pets http://lambriarvetsupply.com/pages/Pet_Identification.html
"Hand-held microchip scanner will read and recognize both the Home Again and the Avid brand microchips. It will also recognize the existence of other types of microchips, however, will not read them. ..."
*****
Other types of -chips???? Just how many different chips are they coming up with? At any rate, if that wasn't enough for you, then here's another one for your reading enjoyment:
*****
Detroit considers requiring microchip implants for dogs August 28, 1998 http://www.freep.com/tech/qchip28.htm
"In Detroit, it may soon get harder for Fido to keep his anonymity when he gets picked up by dog catchers.
The city's health department is working on an ordinance that would make it mandatory for residents to have microchips implanted in their dogs that would provide information on the pet and its owner when scanned.
The department's animal control unit already has been implanting microchips in dogs that it gives out for adoption. The chip, which is covered with a protective coating and is not discernible to the human eye, is placed beneath the skin on the dog's neck. With a scanner that is about the size of a wand, animal control officers would be able to obtain such information as the dog's name, its owner, its attack record and whether it has been picked up before."
*****
Take particular note of the part that reads "....AND ITS OWNER" [emphasis added-ds].
Another scare tactic that continues to be on the front lines of the psy-op marketing stratagem is the promise of saving lives. Heck, we all want to live forever, don't we? For example:
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CNN - Microchip implants may save lives one day January 23, 2002 Posted: 1:47 p.m. EST (1847 GMT) http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/01/22/microchip.heart/
"Researchers are testing an implantable microsensor that can send data to a hand-held receiver outside the body, alerting doctors to a potential medical crisis, without using any wires or batteries."
*****
And this tactic is working, as you will see in the next offering, which illustrates the desperation of an Alzheimer's patient:
*****
Posted on Sun, Mar. 10, 2002 An ID idea: Microchips under your skin BY SHANNON TAN http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2828025.htm
"Nathan Isaacson of Tamarac is one of 2,500 people who want to get computer chips implanted in their bodies."
*****
And in further efforts to make it "vogue"......and even more appealing to the younger "hipper" generations (who says you need scare tactics? Just show them how fun it can be to pierce your nose! Watch for new slogans, like, "Be HIP. Get a CHIP!" :
*****
New Body Art: Chip Implants http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0%2C1284%2C50769%2C00.html
"A Canadian artist has implanted microchips in her hands in a quest to explore the relationship between identity and technology in an era when life is increasingly regulated by gadgets and machines."
*****
Thus, we get to the service members who are - yet again - being herded down the cattle chutes:
*****
Takechip http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/8827/takechip.html
"Troops at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base were recently asked to voluntarily have microchips implanted in their bodies for "identification" purposes. For the military, "voluntary" most often means mandatory. "
*****
Air Force 2025 - Home Page http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/index.html
Air Force 2025 - Part 4 http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usaf/2025/v3c2/v3c2-4.htm
Implanted Microscopic Chip
"The implanted microscopic brain chip110 performs two functions. First, it links the individual to the IIC, creating a seamless interface between the user and the information resources (in-time collection data and archival databases). In essence, the chip relays the processed information from the IIC to the user. Second, the chip creates a computer-generated mental visualization based upon the user's request. The visualization encompasses the individual and allows the user to place himself into the selected battlespace. "
*****
And just when you thought you've seen the end of madness:
*****
A new kind of fish 'n' chips: Microchips to aid tracking of salmon By Lisa Heyamoto - Seattle Times staff reporter http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134303417_salmon06m.html
"The state biologists want to implant as many of the smolts as they can with a glass-coated microchip smaller than a grain of rice. The chip contains a digital code, like a Social Security number, that allows the fish to be tracked as they migrate through the Ballard Locks and into Puget Sound."
*****
There you have it. Sit back and enjoy the ride on the downhill locomotive whose brakes are non-existent. DS.
*****
Microchip Mind Control, Implants And Cybernetics http://www.rense.com/general17/imp.htm
Actual 1974 Congressional Testimony of Dr. Jose Delgado -
"We need a program of PSYCHOSURGERY for POLITICAL CONTROL of our society. The purpose is PHISICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be SURGICALLY MUTILATED.
"The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective.
"Man does NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must ELECTRICALLY CONTROL THE BRAIN. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain."
Dr. Jose M.R. Delgado Director of Neuropsychiatry Yale University Medical School Congressional Record, No. 26, Vol. 118 February 24, 1974
(Author of "PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND" 1969)
*****
Have Biochip Will Travel Part Man, Part Computer Microchip implant will record neurological signals By Donnalee Moulton http://www.mnsi.net/~mousepad/Articles/01Nov06_00FinPost.htm
"Dr. Kevin Warwick is already making plans for next summer, but soaking up too much sun and rum punch is not part of them. He will be too busy trying to revolutionize medicine.
The director of cybernetics at the University of Reading in England intends to have a microchip implanted in his arm next year. That chip will be linked directly to a computer outside his body and internally to his central nervous system. "It will be a two-way process. The computer will store signals and later send [those] same signals," Dr. Warwick says."
*****
For one of the best sites located, which you likely have seen before, revisit the following:
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Human Implants Already Here http://www.greaterthings.com/News/Chip_Implants/
" . . . and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
-- Revelation 13:15-17
*****
Convict Chip Idea Stirs Ire Lawyer: Gov. Eyes Inmate Implants By Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer Autumn 99 - Issue No. 244 http://www.raven1.net/nmimplan.htm
"Much to the dismay of inmate lawyers, Johnson at a private meeting in May [1999] raised the possibility that a futuristic form of incarceration could include implanting microchips in convicted felons."
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CATO Institute February 7, 2002 Why Not Implant a Microchip? by Charlotte Twight http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-07-02.html
"In their struggle to come up with a politically palatable national ID system, proponents of the ID card are being far too timid. So here's a modest proposal: Why not implant a microchip under everyone's skin?"
[further, comes this....ds
"The system could be voluntary at first, to allow time for Americans to get used to the idea. "
*****
Read that part again...."The system could be voluntary - - - AT FIRST......."
Stay tuned, skeptics.
Dennis Stewart
Sunday 8 August 2010
Wednesday 4 August 2010
The Battle of our Life Time
What an Age we live in my dear brothers and sisters? Corporations and Business on anything. Everything is for sale...all displayed to see and pick. Bodies in all shapes and forms posing for the fateful glance, Souls bare open with their small and ...pitiful dramas of our everyday existence all out there to attract like hungry mouths waiting for the higher biter. We kept nothing sacred nothing pure all are for sale to the crematories of death and all that beautiful and real was ...given for a trifle an itchy bitsy illusion, a flickering moment of pleasure.
For how long we will give in to the seductive eyes and the call of the vanities of the world? How many times we will have to pick ourselves up from the dirt?
As our liberties are taken one after the other and soon it will be that we will have nothing to give and nothing to share except our own soul… are we going to sell that too?
Are we fear pain and isolation? Is it that we will go hungry? Our children will die, or cast out from a society that doesn’t give a dime for the Good, the beautiful or the True?
Should we really be afraid?
Think about it. When you have the Universal order on your site how it is possible to lose any battle you give?
And it is time for battle my dear friends a battle for Peace on Earth my dear brothers and sisters. There is no way that we can lose this battle we cannot afford to lose the only opportunity we have to build a new future for all living beings on earth.
It should be clear by now that We are not the rulers of this world but instead we have a contract of symbiosis with all beings …the occupants of this great sphere we call our home our mother EARTH.
We have to stand up and be counted as the time and the calling is now. Lets pick up a field and start fighting discord and disease in all levels. We will not give in and we will never give up.
This Planet depended on beings with Good Will, you and me and what we contribute in this battle is of a great importance.
Rise against mindless Death and Destruction, say Yes to Life and the Harmony of All Beings.
Thank you.
For how long we will give in to the seductive eyes and the call of the vanities of the world? How many times we will have to pick ourselves up from the dirt?
As our liberties are taken one after the other and soon it will be that we will have nothing to give and nothing to share except our own soul… are we going to sell that too?
Are we fear pain and isolation? Is it that we will go hungry? Our children will die, or cast out from a society that doesn’t give a dime for the Good, the beautiful or the True?
Should we really be afraid?
Think about it. When you have the Universal order on your site how it is possible to lose any battle you give?
And it is time for battle my dear friends a battle for Peace on Earth my dear brothers and sisters. There is no way that we can lose this battle we cannot afford to lose the only opportunity we have to build a new future for all living beings on earth.
It should be clear by now that We are not the rulers of this world but instead we have a contract of symbiosis with all beings …the occupants of this great sphere we call our home our mother EARTH.
We have to stand up and be counted as the time and the calling is now. Lets pick up a field and start fighting discord and disease in all levels. We will not give in and we will never give up.
This Planet depended on beings with Good Will, you and me and what we contribute in this battle is of a great importance.
Rise against mindless Death and Destruction, say Yes to Life and the Harmony of All Beings.
Thank you.
Sunday 1 August 2010
Autodidactic Hall of Fame - Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
Millions of people pay a king's ransom for college tuition to learn what is free for the taking when motivated by a compelling desire to learn. In the movie Good Will Hunting, Will (played by Matt Damon) chides an arrogant Ivy League student for paying a fortune for an education that would be free but for the price of a library card. Although this is absolutely valid, very few people believe it. Instead they are convinced the knowledge they could acquire on their own is secondary to paying a lot of money to an institution which will attest that they have, even if they cheated their way through the process.
Credentialism has existed for centuries in one form or another as groups with an information or knowledge advantage have tried to maintain their position of superiority with everything from guilds and associations to secret societies and esoteric languages. And even though teachers and educators have noble intentions, their position in our economy, by design is dependent upon a psychology of the scarcity of knowledge.
Whole categories of attributes from self-help to self-directed inquiry have been coined to disguise and set apart individual learning as an aberration so as not to displace the hierarchical power of educators. And yet, throughout history self-educated men and women from all walks of life and social stations have risen to the occasion of the challenges facing them. In so doing, they have set new standards for learning, which without question have raised the bar of achievement for their respective societies. But only in the latter half of the twentieth-century has the insidious notion that one must have the blessing of an institution to function in society been generally accepted without protest.
We need colleges and universities just as we need teachers and people who are enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with others. But the idea that the only learning respectable enough for economic compensation comes from institutions, which treat it as a scarce resource, is patently absurd. The people named in the following list demonstrate this beyond doubt.
Adams, Abigail
Adams, Ansel
Alcott, Louisa May
Allen, Paul
Allen, Woody
Amos, Wally
Anderson, Hans Christian
Ando, Tadao
Angelou, Maya
Austen, Jane
Avedon, Richard
Baldwin, James
Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Banneker, Benjamin
Bartlett, John
Bell, Alexander Graham
Ben-Gurion, David
Bentley, Wilson
Bernstein, Carl
Blake, William
Bradbury, Ray
Bragg, Rick
Branson, Richard
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, John Moses
Browning, Robert
Buchwald, Art
Burns, Robert
Cage, John
Cameron, James
Campbell, Joseph
Capote, Truman
Carnegie, Andrew
Chandler, Raymond
Chanute, Octave
Cheever, John
Christie, Agatha
Clarke, Arthur C.
Clarke, John Henrik
Clay, Henry
Clemens, Samuel
Cleveland, Grover
Cobbett, William
Conrad, Joseph
Cooper, Peter
Cornell, Ezra
Crichton, Judy
Cronkite, Walter
Davy, Humphrey
DeLibero, Shirley A.
Dell, Michael
Dickens, Charles
Disney, Walt
Douglass, Frederick
Drudge, Matt
Dylan, Bob
Eads, James Buchanan
Edison, Thomas
Einstein, Albert
Ellison, Lawrence
Faraday, Michael
Farnsworth, Philo T.
Fast, Howard
Faulkner, William
Fessenden, Reginald Aubrey
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Foote, Shelby
Ford, Henry
Franklin, Benjamin
Frost, Robert
Fuller, R. Buckminster
Gates, Bill
Geffen, David
George, Henry
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
Goldman, Emma
Goodall, Jane
Grasso, Richard
Greeley, Horace
Hailey, Kendal
Haley, Alex Palmer
Harriman, Pamela
Harris, Joel Chandler
Harrison, John
Harte, Bret
Heaviside, Oliver
Hemingway, Ernest
Henderson, Hazel
Henry, Patrick
Hershey, Milton
Hoffer, Eric
Honda, Soichiro
Howe, Elias
Hughes, Catherine Elizabeth
Hughes, Robert
Huizenga, Wayne
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Irving, Washington
Jennings, Peter
Jervis, John Bloomfield
Jobs, Steven
Johnson, Andrew
Kamen, Dean
Kelly, Kevin
Kerik, Bernard
Kerkorian, Kirk
Kroc, Ray
Kubrick, Stanley
Lai, Jimmy
L'Amour, Louis
Lane, Rose Wilder
Lanier, Jaron
Lauder, Estee
Lauren, Ralph
Leakey, Richard E.
Lear, William
Lebowitz, Fran
Lessing, Doris
Lincoln, Abraham
London, Jack
Luce, Clare Boothe
Major, John
Malcolm X
Marconi, Guglielmo
McCormick, Cyrus Hall
McKinley, William
Melville, Herman
Mencken, H.L.
Monaghan, Tom
Monroe, James
Morgan, Arthur Ernest
Nightingale, Florence
O'Casey, Sean
Ochs, Adolph
Poe, Edgar Allen
Pope, Alexander
Porter, Gene Stratton
Porter, William S. -- "O. Henry"
Potter, Beatrix
Ramanujan, S.
Rockefeller, John D.
Romero, John
Roosevelt, Eleanor
Rosenberg, Bill
Ross, Harold Wallace
Rove, Karl
Salinger, J.D.
Sandburg, Carl
Sanders, Colonel Harland
Sanger, Margaret
Saramago, Jose
Sarnoff, David
Sewell, Anna
Shaw, George Bernard
Siebert, Muriel
Smith, Clark Ashton
Snyder, Daniel M.
Spencer, Herbert
Spielberg, Steven
Steel, Dawn
Stone, Edward Durrell
Tarantino, Quentin
Taylor, Jeff
Taylor, Zachary
Tesla, Nikola
Thomas, R. David
Thomas, Vivian
Tolstoy, Leo
Truman, Harry
Turner, Ted
Ustinov, Peter
Van Buren, Martin
Vidal, Gore
Washington, George
Watson, Thomas J.
Westinghouse, George
Wharton, Edith
Whitman, Walt
Whittier, John Greenleaf
Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Wilson, August
Woodull, Nancy
Wozniak, Steve
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Wright, Orville
Wright, Wilbur
Yeager, Chuck
Credentialism has existed for centuries in one form or another as groups with an information or knowledge advantage have tried to maintain their position of superiority with everything from guilds and associations to secret societies and esoteric languages. And even though teachers and educators have noble intentions, their position in our economy, by design is dependent upon a psychology of the scarcity of knowledge.
Whole categories of attributes from self-help to self-directed inquiry have been coined to disguise and set apart individual learning as an aberration so as not to displace the hierarchical power of educators. And yet, throughout history self-educated men and women from all walks of life and social stations have risen to the occasion of the challenges facing them. In so doing, they have set new standards for learning, which without question have raised the bar of achievement for their respective societies. But only in the latter half of the twentieth-century has the insidious notion that one must have the blessing of an institution to function in society been generally accepted without protest.
We need colleges and universities just as we need teachers and people who are enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with others. But the idea that the only learning respectable enough for economic compensation comes from institutions, which treat it as a scarce resource, is patently absurd. The people named in the following list demonstrate this beyond doubt.
Adams, Abigail
Adams, Ansel
Alcott, Louisa May
Allen, Paul
Allen, Woody
Amos, Wally
Anderson, Hans Christian
Ando, Tadao
Angelou, Maya
Austen, Jane
Avedon, Richard
Baldwin, James
Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Banneker, Benjamin
Bartlett, John
Bell, Alexander Graham
Ben-Gurion, David
Bentley, Wilson
Bernstein, Carl
Blake, William
Bradbury, Ray
Bragg, Rick
Branson, Richard
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, John Moses
Browning, Robert
Buchwald, Art
Burns, Robert
Cage, John
Cameron, James
Campbell, Joseph
Capote, Truman
Carnegie, Andrew
Chandler, Raymond
Chanute, Octave
Cheever, John
Christie, Agatha
Clarke, Arthur C.
Clarke, John Henrik
Clay, Henry
Clemens, Samuel
Cleveland, Grover
Cobbett, William
Conrad, Joseph
Cooper, Peter
Cornell, Ezra
Crichton, Judy
Cronkite, Walter
Davy, Humphrey
DeLibero, Shirley A.
Dell, Michael
Dickens, Charles
Disney, Walt
Douglass, Frederick
Drudge, Matt
Dylan, Bob
Eads, James Buchanan
Edison, Thomas
Einstein, Albert
Ellison, Lawrence
Faraday, Michael
Farnsworth, Philo T.
Fast, Howard
Faulkner, William
Fessenden, Reginald Aubrey
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Foote, Shelby
Ford, Henry
Franklin, Benjamin
Frost, Robert
Fuller, R. Buckminster
Gates, Bill
Geffen, David
George, Henry
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
Goldman, Emma
Goodall, Jane
Grasso, Richard
Greeley, Horace
Hailey, Kendal
Haley, Alex Palmer
Harriman, Pamela
Harris, Joel Chandler
Harrison, John
Harte, Bret
Heaviside, Oliver
Hemingway, Ernest
Henderson, Hazel
Henry, Patrick
Hershey, Milton
Hoffer, Eric
Honda, Soichiro
Howe, Elias
Hughes, Catherine Elizabeth
Hughes, Robert
Huizenga, Wayne
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Irving, Washington
Jennings, Peter
Jervis, John Bloomfield
Jobs, Steven
Johnson, Andrew
Kamen, Dean
Kelly, Kevin
Kerik, Bernard
Kerkorian, Kirk
Kroc, Ray
Kubrick, Stanley
Lai, Jimmy
L'Amour, Louis
Lane, Rose Wilder
Lanier, Jaron
Lauder, Estee
Lauren, Ralph
Leakey, Richard E.
Lear, William
Lebowitz, Fran
Lessing, Doris
Lincoln, Abraham
London, Jack
Luce, Clare Boothe
Major, John
Malcolm X
Marconi, Guglielmo
McCormick, Cyrus Hall
McKinley, William
Melville, Herman
Mencken, H.L.
Monaghan, Tom
Monroe, James
Morgan, Arthur Ernest
Nightingale, Florence
O'Casey, Sean
Ochs, Adolph
Poe, Edgar Allen
Pope, Alexander
Porter, Gene Stratton
Porter, William S. -- "O. Henry"
Potter, Beatrix
Ramanujan, S.
Rockefeller, John D.
Romero, John
Roosevelt, Eleanor
Rosenberg, Bill
Ross, Harold Wallace
Rove, Karl
Salinger, J.D.
Sandburg, Carl
Sanders, Colonel Harland
Sanger, Margaret
Saramago, Jose
Sarnoff, David
Sewell, Anna
Shaw, George Bernard
Siebert, Muriel
Smith, Clark Ashton
Snyder, Daniel M.
Spencer, Herbert
Spielberg, Steven
Steel, Dawn
Stone, Edward Durrell
Tarantino, Quentin
Taylor, Jeff
Taylor, Zachary
Tesla, Nikola
Thomas, R. David
Thomas, Vivian
Tolstoy, Leo
Truman, Harry
Turner, Ted
Ustinov, Peter
Van Buren, Martin
Vidal, Gore
Washington, George
Watson, Thomas J.
Westinghouse, George
Wharton, Edith
Whitman, Walt
Whittier, John Greenleaf
Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Wilson, August
Woodull, Nancy
Wozniak, Steve
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Wright, Orville
Wright, Wilbur
Yeager, Chuck
Wednesday 23 June 2010
Have you ever wanted to say...
Have you ever wanted to say f… off wars, f… off violence, f… off bullies of the world, f… off TV, f… off radio, f… off magazines and Films and Newspapers and books and comics and computers and facebook and twitter and blog scrabbling and keyboard clicking and art and relationships and food and music and the views of the worlds and the expectations of the future and the cares of the fellow man and the animals and the plants and all living things?
Do you feel that all this is crawling into your mind infesting you with responsibility and endless cares and fear and rejections and obsessions and this vast wall of limitation????....probably you did ...cause some of us we feel quite often this way... but again ask yourself what does it mean to be that …space that unites all…the energy who fills the universe …a silence so full of everything you will ever need and want...
Look the Great Eagle …his eyes are watching from the towering heights the centre of the electric storm without a blink fearless and ready to dive to Life’s Great Adventure…are you ready to be that Energy…this fearless Hart… this Silent Mind???
Do you feel that all this is crawling into your mind infesting you with responsibility and endless cares and fear and rejections and obsessions and this vast wall of limitation????....probably you did ...cause some of us we feel quite often this way... but again ask yourself what does it mean to be that …space that unites all…the energy who fills the universe …a silence so full of everything you will ever need and want...
Look the Great Eagle …his eyes are watching from the towering heights the centre of the electric storm without a blink fearless and ready to dive to Life’s Great Adventure…are you ready to be that Energy…this fearless Hart… this Silent Mind???
Saturday 29 May 2010
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Global Bee Death
Science has been relatively clear in predicting how few are the years between when the bees die and when the humans follow them. It appears now that the honey bees are pretty well on their way to extinction in the majority of the globe. Up till now it was considered something of a mystery as to who killed them.
New scientific evidence is now emerging to explain very clearly the sequence of steps - between Monsanto's marketing of GMO corn - and the death of the bees. (See the paper - with abundant references.)
The global bee die off did not reach Brazil for example until just after they let in Monsanto's GMO corn. Now it is Australia's turn. That is one of the few places in the world which still has healthy bees. The test is whether they will follow the foolish lead of Brazil in letting in GMO corn. So please, will you forward this paper to your government and URGE them to get Monsanto's bee killer GMO CORN, OUT of your country.
Here is the deadly sequence of steps which created our global funeral for the bees:
1.Monsanto decides- that since the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis - kills a corn parasite- to insert the DNA sequence from that bacteria IN to their GMO corn.
2.The BT in the corn pollen causes an immune system response (rather like triggering a sneeze) in the bees- similar to if they had eaten the BT directly - also causes holes and porosity in the gut.
3.During the summer- the bees have enough protein to tolerate the immune 'sneeze' response- and still learn navigation ... BUT during the winter when protein ( pollen) is in rather short supply in the hive- bees had evolved a survival response. IF a bee's immune system was threatened in Winter - then the hive was best served if it was eliminated. The way this works - is that the protein normally invested in learning and remembering complex navigation requirements- has gone into immune reaction- and so - those bees - immune challenged - get lost trying to get back to the hive. (Rather like the older people of the Eskimo's who simply don't show up at the next igloo in the march - during Winter).
4.This accounts for the facts:
◦CCD - Colony Collapse Disorder was originally called: Fall Dwindle Disease - because the bee disappearance almost always is worst just as Winter sets in.
◦It also explains why the few dead bees who are found- have the same blackened & porous guts- like bees responding directly to the Bt.
◦It also explains why the global bee die-off generally followed the spread of GMO corn.
Action required
1.Circulate this WIDELY
2.Demand your universities and government replicate the proof- measure the immune response of bees to GMO corn pollen - vs non GMO - note how HARD this is to do now that Monsanto's GMO corn has completely and illegally swept thru Mexico for example - simply by pollen drift
3.Run, don't walk - to demand your country eliminate GMO corn - before it is too late!
New scientific evidence is now emerging to explain very clearly the sequence of steps - between Monsanto's marketing of GMO corn - and the death of the bees. (See the paper - with abundant references.)
The global bee die off did not reach Brazil for example until just after they let in Monsanto's GMO corn. Now it is Australia's turn. That is one of the few places in the world which still has healthy bees. The test is whether they will follow the foolish lead of Brazil in letting in GMO corn. So please, will you forward this paper to your government and URGE them to get Monsanto's bee killer GMO CORN, OUT of your country.
Here is the deadly sequence of steps which created our global funeral for the bees:
1.Monsanto decides- that since the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis - kills a corn parasite- to insert the DNA sequence from that bacteria IN to their GMO corn.
2.The BT in the corn pollen causes an immune system response (rather like triggering a sneeze) in the bees- similar to if they had eaten the BT directly - also causes holes and porosity in the gut.
3.During the summer- the bees have enough protein to tolerate the immune 'sneeze' response- and still learn navigation ... BUT during the winter when protein ( pollen) is in rather short supply in the hive- bees had evolved a survival response. IF a bee's immune system was threatened in Winter - then the hive was best served if it was eliminated. The way this works - is that the protein normally invested in learning and remembering complex navigation requirements- has gone into immune reaction- and so - those bees - immune challenged - get lost trying to get back to the hive. (Rather like the older people of the Eskimo's who simply don't show up at the next igloo in the march - during Winter).
4.This accounts for the facts:
◦CCD - Colony Collapse Disorder was originally called: Fall Dwindle Disease - because the bee disappearance almost always is worst just as Winter sets in.
◦It also explains why the few dead bees who are found- have the same blackened & porous guts- like bees responding directly to the Bt.
◦It also explains why the global bee die-off generally followed the spread of GMO corn.
Action required
1.Circulate this WIDELY
2.Demand your universities and government replicate the proof- measure the immune response of bees to GMO corn pollen - vs non GMO - note how HARD this is to do now that Monsanto's GMO corn has completely and illegally swept thru Mexico for example - simply by pollen drift
3.Run, don't walk - to demand your country eliminate GMO corn - before it is too late!
Wednesday 12 May 2010
RESTORING CREATIVE CONFIDENCE - What if I haven't got 'art' skills? I have been told I am not artistic…
It is irrelevant whether people think they are artists or not. That kind of evaluation just straightjackets the beauty of the individual. Take no notice. Creativity is simply a natural part of healthy, happy life for anyone. When the creative spontaneity and passion are blocked, there are all kinds of energy consequences.
The rather exclusive and narrow-minded art scene, of which such judgements are symptomatic, is slowly transforming. All the wonderful new art materials available mean the options for creativity have never been so plentiful. art is being democratised and making things has become accessible and fun. Also there are many wonderful free lessons online and via dvd, shared by the new and more generous breed of enthusiastic creatives.
Don’t forget that the labels 'artist' and 'artistic' come from a certain kind of specialization that has happened in western culture alone, where early segregation at school into 'artistic' and 'not artistic' camps perpetuates the myth that some people are just born with the gift - it is down to Fate. Before this children express themselves directly - how life feels, what the heart sees. Pictures don’t have to be recognizable, they are songs of the inner world...For more visit http://www.soulgardens.co.uk/ - FAITH NOLTON.
The rather exclusive and narrow-minded art scene, of which such judgements are symptomatic, is slowly transforming. All the wonderful new art materials available mean the options for creativity have never been so plentiful. art is being democratised and making things has become accessible and fun. Also there are many wonderful free lessons online and via dvd, shared by the new and more generous breed of enthusiastic creatives.
Don’t forget that the labels 'artist' and 'artistic' come from a certain kind of specialization that has happened in western culture alone, where early segregation at school into 'artistic' and 'not artistic' camps perpetuates the myth that some people are just born with the gift - it is down to Fate. Before this children express themselves directly - how life feels, what the heart sees. Pictures don’t have to be recognizable, they are songs of the inner world...For more visit http://www.soulgardens.co.uk/ - FAITH NOLTON.
Monday 19 April 2010
Sunday 18 April 2010
Wednesday 24 March 2010
Saturday 6 March 2010
The Ten Commandments of Everyday life
1. Know where you are and what you are doing at every moment of the day - avoid drifting, daydreaming and fantasising.
2. Have your intention always before you -set goals for the day and at regular intervals during the day realign yourselves with them and confirm intention.
3. Keep your living and working environment clean and tidy.
4. Dispel negative emotion as a matter of psychic hygiene as you would wash your hands after coming into contact with anything unclean.
5. Be honest in deed and truthful in word – avoid exaggeration and compromising the truth for the sake of a good line.
6. Show appreciation to others at every opportunity.
7. Donate some time and effort every day to the world at large: e.g., pick up litter, feed the birds, put out water for animals, plant something – avoid becoming motivated by the gratitude of others and the expectation of reward.
8. Do not meet anger with anger.
9. Do not gossip or bitch about others, the weather, life – or indeed, anything else.
10. Do not watch TV as the default setting for free time – your mind is being controlled and your emotions manipulated.
2. Have your intention always before you -set goals for the day and at regular intervals during the day realign yourselves with them and confirm intention.
3. Keep your living and working environment clean and tidy.
4. Dispel negative emotion as a matter of psychic hygiene as you would wash your hands after coming into contact with anything unclean.
5. Be honest in deed and truthful in word – avoid exaggeration and compromising the truth for the sake of a good line.
6. Show appreciation to others at every opportunity.
7. Donate some time and effort every day to the world at large: e.g., pick up litter, feed the birds, put out water for animals, plant something – avoid becoming motivated by the gratitude of others and the expectation of reward.
8. Do not meet anger with anger.
9. Do not gossip or bitch about others, the weather, life – or indeed, anything else.
10. Do not watch TV as the default setting for free time – your mind is being controlled and your emotions manipulated.
Thursday 18 February 2010
Friday 29 January 2010
Love in New Testament
"...Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all the mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love Suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away...And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Corinthians 13
Tuesday 26 January 2010
My friend Ada Manola send this - based on the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be careful of your thoughts, they become words. Be careful of your words, they become actions. Be careful of your actions, they become habits. Be careful of your habits that become character. Be careful of your character, it becomes your destiny.
Monday 25 January 2010
Friday 22 January 2010
Sunday 17 January 2010
Thursday 7 January 2010
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