By Barbara C. Porter, Tempe, Arizona
THE TRUTH OF A CHILDHOOD VISION WAS CONFIRMED IN A MOMENT OF CRISIS
My family lived in a two-story frame house on Sixth Street in Marion, Indiana, when I was four. In the large, fenced backyard there was an old pear tree from which my father had hung a swing. How I loved that swing! Sitting on it, pumping with my legs, rising higher and higher, I seemed to sweep over the fence and into the blue sky, almost to heaven itself.
Usually my mother called me in at twilight, but one evening I played in the backyard in the gathering dark. I had just jumped off the swing when the grass became resplendent in front of me. Looking up, I gazed into a man's face. He was tall - taller than my father, who stood six feet one, taller than anyone I had ever seen. The man seemed to be made of pure light. He held a large double-edged sword, the hilt set with jewels more vibrant than anything I'd ever seen.
I was shy with strangers, especially adults, but I was not scared. "Who are you?"
"I speak for I Am," he said. I didn't understand those words, but I repeated them until they were fixed in my mind.
Finally my mother called me and I ran to the house. Glancing back, I saw my visitor grow taller and taller until he was higher than the pear tree. His light gradually faded and dispersed into the falling darkness. When I told my mother I had been talking with a man out by the swing she was frightened. Who was this stranger? How had he gotten into the yard? My father overheard us and took me into his study.
"Describe this person," Dad said. My father listened. The son of a clergyman and a serious student of religion, he knew about God's messengers. At last he announced, "You have met the Archangel Michael." I was astounded.
Growing up, I came to understand more about archangels. I even learned the meaning of those words I had memorized as a child, "I Am" being one of God's names in the Bible. "I speak for I Am" was almost a job description. Michael was God's messenger. Most important, I could still experience the comfort I had known that summer eve.
I left home to get my B.A. and M.A. degrees, taught, married, had a daughter. My husband, Spencer, was a chemistry professor, and there came difficult times in a tough job market in the early 1970s when he went from one temporary appointment to another. While he taught in a small college associated with St. Meinrad's Archabbey at St. Meinrad, Indiana I was often sustained by joining the monks in prayer. One one particular day, when my inner world was in disarray, I joined the community for Lauds. As I knelt at the small prayer desk, the phrase came to me, "I send you Michael, who has never left you..." Yes, my soul sang, he is still here with me!
Then, 15 years ago, I experienced another encounter. My husband had accepted a sabbatical appointment in Arizona State University in Tempe. With our daughter, then 14, we had been spending the summer at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California and set out from there to drive to Arizona. We ventured into the Mojave ill-prepared. Our car did not have air conditioning, so we stopped at the edge of the desert and bought jumbo-sized drinks with lots of ice. We were drinking them slowly when miles from nowhere disaster struck: a flat tire.
We piled out of the car. The heat from the asphalt was so intense it burned my feet through the soles of my loafers. Spencer opened the trunk to find the spare and the jack but he couldn't get to them. Our daughter's metal storage trunk, with all her riding gear in it, was on top and too hot to touch.
Just then a small red sports car pulled over and stopped. A remarkably tall young man with light blond hair that seemed to glow in the desert light stepped toward us. "Let me do that," he said. With his bare hands he easily lifted out Laura's trunk, removed the tire and jack, and repaired the flat - all in a matter of minutes.
Spencer thanked him and hurried to the driver's side. "We sure were lucky that you came along," he said. Laura jumped into the backseat. Standing behind the car, I asked, "What is your name?" as I had addressed a strangely similar individual long ago. He threw his arm up in farewell and blessing, "I am Michael," he said.
I got back into our car and the sports car pulled away. The heat sent mirages dancing ahead of us for miles, but we never again saw the red sports car.
I've had much joy in my life. I've also had trials and pain, but their full power has always somehow been deflected. When I sit down at my desk in the morning to begin my day's work I am conscious of divine direction and the presence of the archangel He has given charge over me: Michael, who speaks - and acts - for the I Am.
________
This was one of my favorite stories. It gives one such hope that we are watched over.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
DAVID HUGGINS
Many years ago David Huggins came to Seattle to attend the "Jorpah", the conference held each year by the UFO Contact Center International. The conference was specifically for abductees. Persons came from all across the US, Japan, Canada, etc. David brought his paintings of the aliens he had been contacted by for years. The paintings were very graphic in detail!
This morning I discovered a book has been written about his experiences. This is it.
This morning I discovered a book has been written about his experiences. This is it.
Love in an Alien Purgatory
From the UFO Mystic website. Posted by Nick Redfern
Love in an Alien Purgatory: The Life and Fantastic Art of David Huggins (Anomalist Books, 2009) is a book that is as intriguing and thought-provoking as it is unique and alternative. Written by well-known UFO researcher Farah Yurdozu (who, originally from Turkey, lives in New York City and writes regularly for UFO Magazine), the book tells the story of one David Huggins, a skilled artist who has experienced a lifetime of encounters of a distinctly “alien abduction” nature with…well, some form of intelligence from elsewhere.
And that’s the refreshing thing about this book: it doesn’t force any particular theory on the reader. Indeed, as Farah notes, very wisely and astutely, early on: “Although we still have very little evidence indicating that these visitors are from another planet, it is reasonable to assume that they are coming from another realm that is completely different from our earthly reality.”
With that view, I am most definitely in agreement. And so, with that said, let’s press on.
I used the words “unique” and “alternative” above for a very good reason. Rather than laboriously chronicle his experiences with apparent entities from elsewhere on reams of paper or in Microsoft Word, Huggins has taken a much different approach: as a very talented artist, he has used canvas, oils and more. In other words, the book is a definitively visual diary of Huggins’ encounters; rather than a written one.
And what is the nature of those experiences? For the most part, they are of the type we have come to expect from people exposed to the “alien abduction” puzzle; such as:
(A) childhood encounters with alien beings;
(B) very personal and sexual experiences that seem to be linked with an agenda to create a hybrid, alien-human race;
(C) evidence of longstanding interaction with advanced - yet curiously fragile, and perhaps even sickly - intelligences;
(D) a suggestion that Huggins has been monitored on a large-scale for most of his life; and much more.
Of course, anyone who has had even the remotest exposure to accounts of alien abduction will instantly recognize that such assertions are absolutely staple parts of the subject. However, it’s the artwork that really makes Huggins’ story stand out.
After a fine introduction from Farah that firmly sets the scene, that relates the history of Huggins’ experiences, and that allows us to understand what it is that drives and motivates the man himself, we see his story unfold before our eyes via a large body of very skilled artwork.
Indeed, Huggins is extremely good at capturing the apparent other-worldly nature of his visitors from the outer-edge.
For example, he claims longstanding contact with a female being he names “Crescent” - who appears to be a classic example of a “hybrid” entity. And the paintings of Crescent that can be found on (particularly) pages 20 and 28 - as well as those of other alleged hybrids at the top of page 51 - do, to my mind, superbly serve to portray the truly alien nature of the entities at issue.
However, those same images also suggest a sense of eeriness and detachment; and perhaps even menace. But that’s just my own opinion, of course. Whatever the true nature of Huggins’ encounters, he is to be congratulated for portraying the creatures in a fashion that is both memorable and slightly unsettling.
I don’t know why I find them unsettling - but I do. Perhaps it’s the long-black wigs and the obvious attempts to try and pass themselves off as more human-like than they really are - as they seek to secretly and stealthily move among us - that makes me come to such a conclusion.
Actually, the one thing that stands out more than any other in my mind, is that the particular entities in question seem to conjure up imagery not of literal extraterrestrials, but of Mac Tonnies’ cryptoterrestrials - beings that originate right here on Earth, but who masquerade as aliens to hide their true nature and intent; which may not be entirely benign.
But, maybe I am wrong about the origin and intent of the creatures at issue. As I said, that’s just my own view, having digested the words, pages and many paintings contained in the book. Perhaps the story that Farah tells of Huggins’ experiences is a wholly positive one. Time, I earnestly hope, will tell.
Regardless of what lies at the heart of the alien abduction/hybrids story in general, and Huggins’ story in particular, Love in an Alien Purgatory is a truly fascinating study of one man who has experienced some bizarre - and, at times, distressing - events in his life, and who has used his own skills and talents to try and make some sense of those same events in a positive, uplifting and always visually-appealing fashion.
_________
I have copies of David's paintings that were photographed in Seattle at the Jorpah. Very unusual.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
ROSEMARY BROWN
MUSIC FROM BEYOND
An Introduction to Rosemary Brown
The spirits of Liszt, Chopin, Brahms and others dictate their music to her, says Rosemary Brown. Her Publisher here offers the details of her story.
For as long as Rosemary Brown's name has been known to the public, controversy has lingered over every manifestation of her unusually powerful gift or communication with "the beyond." Mediums are numerous enough worldwide to pursue their work without exceptional publicity. Rosemary Brown -- who makes no claim as a medium -- caught world attention when it became known that great composers of the past were dictating new music to her for public performance.
Such a situation forced confrontation with the professional musical world, and demanded opinion. Only the smallest percentage responded, leaving the rest to tiptoe away anxious to avoid involvement. And this situation remains today. The critical fraternity likewise ignores public performance and therefore avoids the necessity of expressing opinion one way or the other.
Rosemary Brown's three books have by welcome contrast, enjoyed wide sale and esteem. The first, Unfinished Symphonies gives an account of her early life and demonstrates the natural ease with which she communicates with relatives, friends, and celebrities from all walks of earthly life. They come to her willingly. Even that response need not excite special attention, for it is a condition familiar to more people on this plane than necessarily admit to it. (There is also an estimate that three out of four of us experience the supernatural, however superficially, at least once in our lives.)
Rosemary Brown's experience became singular from the day in her childhood when Liszt revealed that she would in due course receive music from him and other composers. By the time this began she had raised a family and suffered the early death of her husband.
The first piano pieces bear dates in the mid-sixties, most of them dictated by Liszt. Other composers -- Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, and Schubert amongst them -- began to appear and attempted the labor of "composing" backwards, in a sense, from a habit, to a lady immensely willing but initially lacking the expertise for a form of musical dictation that would intimidate a professional. Over the years Rosemary Brown has worked assiduously at improving her response as music is dictated note by note. She has now brought to the world some remarkable evidence of this rare kind of phenomena, of which the Twelve Mazurkas from Chopin form a small part. The failure rate has always been high because composers often abandon pieces before completion.
Piano music has consistently remained the most accommodating category. Despite that, composers attempt music for voice, organ, or for such ensembles as string quartet, and even full orchestra. No such experiment has yet proved successful, either because a composer gives up before completion or because the final result is blemished. All this bears evidence to the challenge implicit in transferring fine detail from one dimension to another.
When Schumann embarked upon his first set of piano pieces through Rosemary Brown late in 1979, it became a feat of endurance involving constant revision, that was exhausting to both composer and amanuensis. When finally the pieces were on manuscript paper to the reasonable satisfaction of Schumann, it seemed to me as the prospective publisher that an opportunity was now provided for Liszt -- the father figure of the whole amazing undertaking - to "present his cast" to a suspicious world. I conclude this introduction to the Rosemary Brown achievement with Liszt's response to that challenge.
For several years, a group of composers in the world of spirit has been making sustained efforts to transmit new musical works to the world of matter through an intermediary named Rosemary Brown.
Their efforts have not been entirely unfruitful, though their work is not always accepted by those whose minds are biased. Ignorance, prejudice, and apathy have ever constituted obstacles to the spread of Truth, and the final years of the twentieth century are proving no exception in this respect.
The music transmitted is not put forth with the object of surpassing previous musical achievements. The aim is to pour through a sufficient measure in terms of musical expression to give clear demonstrations of the personal idioms of each composer concerned. Therefore, each composer endeavours to filter through the essence of his own spirit rather than to attempt gigantic works of technical virtuosity.
They appear towards as wide a public as possible, and not to the experts alone. This is not to say that the opinions of open-minded, understanding experts are not valued, but the composers' message is for all who will listen with willing and appreciative ears.
Needless to say, there are vast difficulties to be overcome before perfect communication between the worlds of spirit and matter can be fully established. However, the composers will not be daunted since they perceive the crucial importance of opening people's eyes to the truth about themselves and the life to come.
As Carl Jung observes, people tend to behave in accordance with the image foisted upon them. We in spirit hope to help people to realise that they are evolving souls destined to pass into the realms of non-matter where they will continue to evolve. This realization should give them a whole new dimension of thinking, and raise their self-image above its earthbound limits.
As regards the music itself, this album offers twelve pieces very recently created by the soul who was known as Robert Schumann. The pieces illustrate some enchanting facets of the multi-sided genius of Robert Schumann. He lost his way on earth because the mirrors of his mind reflected false images to him. Now, of course, his mind is clear, and he shares in the delight of an unclouded vision of the beauty of Creation and its Creator.
The essence of the Creator is within each one of us, an essence which will unfold throughout time and eternity until we become perfect expressions of the Infinite Splendour.
FRANZ LISZT
November 1980
We even added a postscript for those who queried Liszt's use of English, and it came from no less an authority out of the past than Sir Donald Tovey: "It is to be noted that Liszt has acquired a good command of the English language since his transition to the World of Spirit. All souls may continue to augment their knowledge if they so wish, and expand their consciousness if they make the necessary effort."
From Amazon: A Musical Seance with Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Grieg and Debussy by Rosemary Brown
_________
UNFINISHED SYMPHONIES: VOICES FROM BEYOND by Rosemary Brown (Paperback - out of print)
An Introduction to Rosemary Brown
The spirits of Liszt, Chopin, Brahms and others dictate their music to her, says Rosemary Brown. Her Publisher here offers the details of her story.
For as long as Rosemary Brown's name has been known to the public, controversy has lingered over every manifestation of her unusually powerful gift or communication with "the beyond." Mediums are numerous enough worldwide to pursue their work without exceptional publicity. Rosemary Brown -- who makes no claim as a medium -- caught world attention when it became known that great composers of the past were dictating new music to her for public performance.
Such a situation forced confrontation with the professional musical world, and demanded opinion. Only the smallest percentage responded, leaving the rest to tiptoe away anxious to avoid involvement. And this situation remains today. The critical fraternity likewise ignores public performance and therefore avoids the necessity of expressing opinion one way or the other.
Rosemary Brown's three books have by welcome contrast, enjoyed wide sale and esteem. The first, Unfinished Symphonies gives an account of her early life and demonstrates the natural ease with which she communicates with relatives, friends, and celebrities from all walks of earthly life. They come to her willingly. Even that response need not excite special attention, for it is a condition familiar to more people on this plane than necessarily admit to it. (There is also an estimate that three out of four of us experience the supernatural, however superficially, at least once in our lives.)
Rosemary Brown's experience became singular from the day in her childhood when Liszt revealed that she would in due course receive music from him and other composers. By the time this began she had raised a family and suffered the early death of her husband.
The first piano pieces bear dates in the mid-sixties, most of them dictated by Liszt. Other composers -- Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, and Schubert amongst them -- began to appear and attempted the labor of "composing" backwards, in a sense, from a habit, to a lady immensely willing but initially lacking the expertise for a form of musical dictation that would intimidate a professional. Over the years Rosemary Brown has worked assiduously at improving her response as music is dictated note by note. She has now brought to the world some remarkable evidence of this rare kind of phenomena, of which the Twelve Mazurkas from Chopin form a small part. The failure rate has always been high because composers often abandon pieces before completion.
Piano music has consistently remained the most accommodating category. Despite that, composers attempt music for voice, organ, or for such ensembles as string quartet, and even full orchestra. No such experiment has yet proved successful, either because a composer gives up before completion or because the final result is blemished. All this bears evidence to the challenge implicit in transferring fine detail from one dimension to another.
When Schumann embarked upon his first set of piano pieces through Rosemary Brown late in 1979, it became a feat of endurance involving constant revision, that was exhausting to both composer and amanuensis. When finally the pieces were on manuscript paper to the reasonable satisfaction of Schumann, it seemed to me as the prospective publisher that an opportunity was now provided for Liszt -- the father figure of the whole amazing undertaking - to "present his cast" to a suspicious world. I conclude this introduction to the Rosemary Brown achievement with Liszt's response to that challenge.
For several years, a group of composers in the world of spirit has been making sustained efforts to transmit new musical works to the world of matter through an intermediary named Rosemary Brown.
Their efforts have not been entirely unfruitful, though their work is not always accepted by those whose minds are biased. Ignorance, prejudice, and apathy have ever constituted obstacles to the spread of Truth, and the final years of the twentieth century are proving no exception in this respect.
The music transmitted is not put forth with the object of surpassing previous musical achievements. The aim is to pour through a sufficient measure in terms of musical expression to give clear demonstrations of the personal idioms of each composer concerned. Therefore, each composer endeavours to filter through the essence of his own spirit rather than to attempt gigantic works of technical virtuosity.
They appear towards as wide a public as possible, and not to the experts alone. This is not to say that the opinions of open-minded, understanding experts are not valued, but the composers' message is for all who will listen with willing and appreciative ears.
Needless to say, there are vast difficulties to be overcome before perfect communication between the worlds of spirit and matter can be fully established. However, the composers will not be daunted since they perceive the crucial importance of opening people's eyes to the truth about themselves and the life to come.
As Carl Jung observes, people tend to behave in accordance with the image foisted upon them. We in spirit hope to help people to realise that they are evolving souls destined to pass into the realms of non-matter where they will continue to evolve. This realization should give them a whole new dimension of thinking, and raise their self-image above its earthbound limits.
As regards the music itself, this album offers twelve pieces very recently created by the soul who was known as Robert Schumann. The pieces illustrate some enchanting facets of the multi-sided genius of Robert Schumann. He lost his way on earth because the mirrors of his mind reflected false images to him. Now, of course, his mind is clear, and he shares in the delight of an unclouded vision of the beauty of Creation and its Creator.
The essence of the Creator is within each one of us, an essence which will unfold throughout time and eternity until we become perfect expressions of the Infinite Splendour.
FRANZ LISZT
November 1980
We even added a postscript for those who queried Liszt's use of English, and it came from no less an authority out of the past than Sir Donald Tovey: "It is to be noted that Liszt has acquired a good command of the English language since his transition to the World of Spirit. All souls may continue to augment their knowledge if they so wish, and expand their consciousness if they make the necessary effort."
From Amazon: A Musical Seance with Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Grieg and Debussy by Rosemary Brown
Product Description
1970 Stereo LP with gatefold jacket and insert booklet featuring extensive liner notes and photos. Back of jacket shows a channeled message from Sir Donald Tovey (1875-1940) about the recording of this record to Rosemary brown in 1970. This recording contains these hitherto unknown works of the masters revealed to Rosemary Brown: Beethoven -Bagatelle; Schubert - Moment Musicale; Chopin - Ballade, Impromptu in F Minor, Impromtu in E flat; Liszt - Jesus Walking On The Water, Grubelei, Valse Brillante, Consolation, Swan At Twilight, Reve en Bateau, Lament, Jesus At Prayer; Debussy - Danse Exotique; Brahms - Waltz; Greig-Shepherd Piping; Schumann - Longing._________
UNFINISHED SYMPHONIES: VOICES FROM BEYOND by Rosemary Brown (Paperback - out of print)
Product Description
When Rosemary Brown was seven, the great composer Franz Liszt appeared to her and told her he would visit her again after she had grown up. He did. And he began to pas on to her his musical compositions, totally new and unheard by the living world. Mrs. Brown, a London housewife, has been visited not only by Liszt but by Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin, Schubert, Bach and other musical geniuses who have given her over 400 new compositions. Leading authorities have said that no one could have composed that much music, written in a dozen different styles, without being a musical genius. Yet Rosemary Brown had limited musical training, knew very little musical notation and almost no musical theory. Unfinished Symphonies remains one of the most fascinating psychic stories ever written.Sunday, February 7, 2010
PARANORMAL HAPPENINGS IN SEDONA AREA
THE SAGA OF SECRET CANYON
By Tom Dongo
I have had indirect offers from two international magazines that specialize in paranormal and/or New Age subjects to do an article about Secret Canyon. I responded with a flat no.
I have avoided writing anything about Secret Canyon because I have felt that the subject was just too sensitive (and dangerous) in a number of ways. Whatever it is, or was in Secret Canyon has been very quiet. Perhaps it has been closed down or deactivated.
Sedona has undergone a population and construction explosion in recent years, so it is possible that is the reason for the lack of or cessation of activity. Too much pressure, maybe.
I don't know the definite origin for the name Secret Canyon and I'm not sure if anyone else does either.
Secret Mountain dominates the Secret Canyon area. Many of Sedona's major canyons basically terminate at or near Secret Mountain. They include Lincoln, Loy, Hartwell, Red, Fay, Boynton, Long, HS, Bear Sign and Secret Canyon. Secret Mountain is a sort of hub, like half a wagon wheel when viewed on a topographical map of these ten canyons.
Around 1920, several of the early ranchers of this area were riding horseback deep into Secret Canyon, probably looking for stray cattle. Some time during the day, the canyon became slowly filled by a dense bank of fog. Anyone who has lived around here for a long time and hikes the canyons will tell you that fog never occurs in the canyons. Once in a while, after a heavy rain or snow storm, thin fog will waft through a canyon, usually for only a few minutes. Evidently this particular fog was so thick the ranchers had to stop for the day and were a bit disoriented as to exactly where they were. Sudden dense fog materializing from nowhere is very typical of paranormal and UFO/alien activity.
During World War II, thousands of Chinese soldiers disappeared in China after a strange fog bank engulfed them. The same thing happened to a detachment of British soldiers in Europe storming a hill in 1944. Nothing of the British soldiers was ever found. In the China incident, all of the war equipment was strewn around but the soldiers were gone. This is not a rumor; it happened, and it has been written about in a number of books. It's well documented.
The two ranchers, while inside this fog, began to hear a great roaring sound which they thought was a freight train. They thought that somehow they had become lost and were near the Santa Fe Railroad tracks west of Flagstaff. Then an incredibly bright ball of light came off the rim of the canyon and descended down into the canyon. I don't know if anything happened right after that because that is all of the story I have. The next morning the fog cleared and the ranchers found that they were indeed still in Secret Canyon. That is the earliest unusual activity that I know of having occurred in Secret Canyon.
So it has been going on for some time. It did not begin with the advent of New Agers. Since 1920, many people have had very strange experiences in Secret Canyon. I've been asked innumerable times what I think it is that exists or existed in Secret Canyon or on Secret Mountain. My guess is that it is, or was, either a portal or some type or an entrance to an underground base or tunnel system of some sort. UFO activity here has always been clustered in the general vicinity of Secret Mountain/Secret Canyon. In fact, because I keep an unscientific account of this, I would say that 80% of all UFO activity in Arizona occurs near or in Secret Canyon or around Secret Mountain. The portal, or whatever, is/was centered about two-thirds of the way into Secret Canyon, a distance of about three miles from the mouth of the canyon.
Secret Canyon is about seven miles long in its entirety. The center of the activity may actually be on the side of Secret Mountain near Secret Canyon. Both areas are in quite remote locations. Some of the incidents that have occurred in Secret Canyon follow:
A number of hikers deep in Secret Canyon have been gripped suddenly by an overpowering fear and have literally run all the way out of the canyon. This includes a battle-hardened British Royal Marine who, before that, had not believed anything he had heard about Secret Canyon. This activity is entirely suggestive of some sort of device that is switched on. Sub-sonic sound waves perhaps, or some type of ELF (extra low frequency) device may account for this. People have had machine guns stuck in their noses in Secret Canyon (and in two other canyons) and have been told to turn back by men in black uniforms and, in two cases, by men wearing orange jumpsuits with a large insignia on either the right or left chest area. Very sloppy work by someone.
Sounds like hikers with great imaginations just getting a bit carried away? Not quite, and here's why. I have a friend who is retired from army Intelligence and he has told me that, in fact, elite army units or teams, have been (or were at one time) very active in the Secret Canyon/Secret Mountain area. I inquired of him if he thought aliens might be involved in this mysterious activity, in conjunction with the US Military. He answered in the affirmative. There is more to this but I am not going to go into it here.
As a point of interest, Navajo Army Depot, a munitions storage area now generally deactivated, lies only a few air miles north of Secret Mountain. The depot is about six miles long by five miles wide. A local wilderness guide was deep in Secret Canyon several years ago when he was knocked off his feet by something invisible (like a ray) and crawled on his hands and knees a quarter of a mile before he could get back on his feet. Unearthly buzzing sounds have been experienced by many hikers and campers who have said that these sounds have originated from deep in the ground. I've experienced this phenomenon myself and it is a very weird sound. Jet engine-like sounds going on and off have been heard in the area. At least a half dozen times UFOs have been seen slowly flying about Secret Canyon, shooting blazing beams of light into the canyon as they were probing for something. Some of the witnesses to this were camped in Secret Canyon and the UFOs flew right over them. I wrote at length about these incidents in both The Alien Tide and The Quest. Whenever I talk on this subject, I always point out that 99.9% of the hikers and campers who have ventured into Secret Canyon or onto Secret Mountain have had nothing adverse whatsoever happen to them. They enjoyed perfectly normal hiking or camping trips; so there is no real reason to avoid this area if you are inclined to go there. However, you will never find me camping in Secret Canyon -- not in the back half anyway. So that's about it for Secret Canyon. There is a lot more but it's too wild and unverifiable to repeat here. I just hope that paranoia buffs don't get carried away with this.
SOLDIER'S PASS INCIDENT
I experienced an incident recently, probably not connected to Secret Canyon (but it could be), that I will briefly mention here, in closing. I found a piece of aircraft fuselage about four feet long and two feet wide and painted a lime green color. This was in the area of Soldier's Pass. Several days after I found it, I took it up to the Sedona Airport terminal and just happened to meet an FAA official who is a pilot and aircraft mechanic, who was standing in the lobby. I was impressed. After examining it, he said that it probably was from a twin=engine Cessna that had crashed on Wilson Mountain in 1980. But, coincidentally, a friend of mine and a friend of his, a number of years ago near Loy Canyon, found small wreckage pieces of what an aircraft mechanic said was part of a Korean War-era jet fighter. It had evidently hit the ground at a high rate of speed. I asked him if the pieces had any paint on them. He replied that some pieces had lime green paint on them. There have never been any reports, news paper or otherwise, of a jet or jet fighter crashing in the area.
______________
By Tom Dongo
I have had indirect offers from two international magazines that specialize in paranormal and/or New Age subjects to do an article about Secret Canyon. I responded with a flat no.
I have avoided writing anything about Secret Canyon because I have felt that the subject was just too sensitive (and dangerous) in a number of ways. Whatever it is, or was in Secret Canyon has been very quiet. Perhaps it has been closed down or deactivated.
Sedona has undergone a population and construction explosion in recent years, so it is possible that is the reason for the lack of or cessation of activity. Too much pressure, maybe.
I don't know the definite origin for the name Secret Canyon and I'm not sure if anyone else does either.
Secret Mountain dominates the Secret Canyon area. Many of Sedona's major canyons basically terminate at or near Secret Mountain. They include Lincoln, Loy, Hartwell, Red, Fay, Boynton, Long, HS, Bear Sign and Secret Canyon. Secret Mountain is a sort of hub, like half a wagon wheel when viewed on a topographical map of these ten canyons.
Around 1920, several of the early ranchers of this area were riding horseback deep into Secret Canyon, probably looking for stray cattle. Some time during the day, the canyon became slowly filled by a dense bank of fog. Anyone who has lived around here for a long time and hikes the canyons will tell you that fog never occurs in the canyons. Once in a while, after a heavy rain or snow storm, thin fog will waft through a canyon, usually for only a few minutes. Evidently this particular fog was so thick the ranchers had to stop for the day and were a bit disoriented as to exactly where they were. Sudden dense fog materializing from nowhere is very typical of paranormal and UFO/alien activity.
During World War II, thousands of Chinese soldiers disappeared in China after a strange fog bank engulfed them. The same thing happened to a detachment of British soldiers in Europe storming a hill in 1944. Nothing of the British soldiers was ever found. In the China incident, all of the war equipment was strewn around but the soldiers were gone. This is not a rumor; it happened, and it has been written about in a number of books. It's well documented.
The two ranchers, while inside this fog, began to hear a great roaring sound which they thought was a freight train. They thought that somehow they had become lost and were near the Santa Fe Railroad tracks west of Flagstaff. Then an incredibly bright ball of light came off the rim of the canyon and descended down into the canyon. I don't know if anything happened right after that because that is all of the story I have. The next morning the fog cleared and the ranchers found that they were indeed still in Secret Canyon. That is the earliest unusual activity that I know of having occurred in Secret Canyon.
So it has been going on for some time. It did not begin with the advent of New Agers. Since 1920, many people have had very strange experiences in Secret Canyon. I've been asked innumerable times what I think it is that exists or existed in Secret Canyon or on Secret Mountain. My guess is that it is, or was, either a portal or some type or an entrance to an underground base or tunnel system of some sort. UFO activity here has always been clustered in the general vicinity of Secret Mountain/Secret Canyon. In fact, because I keep an unscientific account of this, I would say that 80% of all UFO activity in Arizona occurs near or in Secret Canyon or around Secret Mountain. The portal, or whatever, is/was centered about two-thirds of the way into Secret Canyon, a distance of about three miles from the mouth of the canyon.
Secret Canyon is about seven miles long in its entirety. The center of the activity may actually be on the side of Secret Mountain near Secret Canyon. Both areas are in quite remote locations. Some of the incidents that have occurred in Secret Canyon follow:
A number of hikers deep in Secret Canyon have been gripped suddenly by an overpowering fear and have literally run all the way out of the canyon. This includes a battle-hardened British Royal Marine who, before that, had not believed anything he had heard about Secret Canyon. This activity is entirely suggestive of some sort of device that is switched on. Sub-sonic sound waves perhaps, or some type of ELF (extra low frequency) device may account for this. People have had machine guns stuck in their noses in Secret Canyon (and in two other canyons) and have been told to turn back by men in black uniforms and, in two cases, by men wearing orange jumpsuits with a large insignia on either the right or left chest area. Very sloppy work by someone.
Sounds like hikers with great imaginations just getting a bit carried away? Not quite, and here's why. I have a friend who is retired from army Intelligence and he has told me that, in fact, elite army units or teams, have been (or were at one time) very active in the Secret Canyon/Secret Mountain area. I inquired of him if he thought aliens might be involved in this mysterious activity, in conjunction with the US Military. He answered in the affirmative. There is more to this but I am not going to go into it here.
As a point of interest, Navajo Army Depot, a munitions storage area now generally deactivated, lies only a few air miles north of Secret Mountain. The depot is about six miles long by five miles wide. A local wilderness guide was deep in Secret Canyon several years ago when he was knocked off his feet by something invisible (like a ray) and crawled on his hands and knees a quarter of a mile before he could get back on his feet. Unearthly buzzing sounds have been experienced by many hikers and campers who have said that these sounds have originated from deep in the ground. I've experienced this phenomenon myself and it is a very weird sound. Jet engine-like sounds going on and off have been heard in the area. At least a half dozen times UFOs have been seen slowly flying about Secret Canyon, shooting blazing beams of light into the canyon as they were probing for something. Some of the witnesses to this were camped in Secret Canyon and the UFOs flew right over them. I wrote at length about these incidents in both The Alien Tide and The Quest. Whenever I talk on this subject, I always point out that 99.9% of the hikers and campers who have ventured into Secret Canyon or onto Secret Mountain have had nothing adverse whatsoever happen to them. They enjoyed perfectly normal hiking or camping trips; so there is no real reason to avoid this area if you are inclined to go there. However, you will never find me camping in Secret Canyon -- not in the back half anyway. So that's about it for Secret Canyon. There is a lot more but it's too wild and unverifiable to repeat here. I just hope that paranoia buffs don't get carried away with this.
SOLDIER'S PASS INCIDENT
I experienced an incident recently, probably not connected to Secret Canyon (but it could be), that I will briefly mention here, in closing. I found a piece of aircraft fuselage about four feet long and two feet wide and painted a lime green color. This was in the area of Soldier's Pass. Several days after I found it, I took it up to the Sedona Airport terminal and just happened to meet an FAA official who is a pilot and aircraft mechanic, who was standing in the lobby. I was impressed. After examining it, he said that it probably was from a twin=engine Cessna that had crashed on Wilson Mountain in 1980. But, coincidentally, a friend of mine and a friend of his, a number of years ago near Loy Canyon, found small wreckage pieces of what an aircraft mechanic said was part of a Korean War-era jet fighter. It had evidently hit the ground at a high rate of speed. I asked him if the pieces had any paint on them. He replied that some pieces had lime green paint on them. There have never been any reports, news paper or otherwise, of a jet or jet fighter crashing in the area.
______________
- SHE WAS AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL
I have wondered for many years, why do I have so many encounters like this one. I have six books full of these sorts of things. Most were witnessed by other people as the incident occurred.
Recently, to make a long story shorter, I was hiking with a friend near Sedona in an obscure area that is rarely visited by hikers. Flagstaff, at 7,000 ft, had just had 80 inches of snow and the melting runoff at lower elevations was way above average. Most of the normally dry creeks were now raging rivers from the snow melt.
We were looking for a 1000 year old Sinagua Indian petroglyph site. Hot, sweaty and confused I was standing on the rim of the gorge looking 100 feet down at he torrent of water trying to remember how to find the site. I looked up and walking towards us about a hundred yards away was a tall, thin, attractive blond haired woman. She was wearing bright red pants and a bulky white wool sweater. She was not wearing a hat. I looked for her dog. Almost always woman hiking in out-of-the-way areas will have a big dog with them. No dog.
"What in the hell is she doing out here?!" I remarked to my friend.
Where the ground had not dried yet there was three or four inches of grease like mud.
The blond woman had on low street type shoes.
The pretty blond woman walked up to us. She said a few words I could not hear because she spoke so softly. She stopped speaking and I said, somewhat impatiently."Do you know where the petroglyphs are?" Again she spoke so softly I could not hear her. Before I could think of anything to say she began to walk over to the rim of the cliff above the creek. The woman's face was completely expressionless as she spoke. Very odd. I remember thinking.
She pointed to a slot in the cliff. I could see that it was the old, now almost abandoned trail down to the petroglyphs. We had earlier walked right by it. We both thanked her and started down the nearly vertical trail.
We made our way to the bottom. Upon arriving, there was the 1000 year old rock art we had been seeking. The water was roaring so loud it was hard to talk to and hear my companion ten feet away.
I shot several dozen photos of the rock art. I turned and was startled because the tall blond woman was standing right behind me. I had not seen her come down the steep trail. Not strange, I thought, because the water was so loud and I was totally preoccupied with photographing the petroglyphs.
I glanced up at the precipitous, rocky trail wondering how she got down here so fast. She showed no signs of exertion.
She began speaking softly again and as close as I was I could not hear what she was saying. I caught a couple words and knew that it had something to do with the Sinagua rock art. She was quite pretty and I was somewhat mesmerized and confused by her totally expressionless face. I stood there trying to think of something to say. My hiking friend called to me and I shouted back and forth with her for not more than two or three minutes.- I turned back to the strange blond woman and she was gone. I walked over and looked up the trail and she was nowhere in sight. I was again puzzled and perplexed. Not once did it occur to me, of all people, that she might have been an extraterrestrial. If you read my books this sort of thing has happened to me, and other people I know, before.
All I can say is......next time I WILL be ready, no matter what diversions are going on around me.- Thank you Tom for both of these articles. Check out Tom Dongo's UFO & PARANORMAL BLOG
Thursday, February 4, 2010
THE LEGEND OF GIANT ROCK
By Pat Rimmington
Historical Feature.
Home to the Space People (and the Indians, and a brilliant German inventor and a Howard Hughes protegee named George Van Tassel who brought thousands to his UFO conventions)
This piece of granite called Giant Rock has been called the world's largest single boulder. Technically, it is quartz monzonite formed during the cretaceous period -- part of the Mesozoic era - which puts its age between 65 to 136 million years old.
Giant Rock stands seven stories high, and its estimate weight is around 100,000 tons. The Rock was considered sacred to the Indians of this region who called it the Great Stone, and it was of great importance for gatherings of headmen of the various bands. On a hill a little way from the rock itself were two outcroppings of quartz shaped like thrones, unusual and unique.
In 1887 Charles Reche, who had married a daughter of homesteader Chuck Warren, filed on a homestead of his own northeast of Morongo Valley, shown on some maps as Rich's well. In 1909 he worked as foreman of the Desert Queen Mine, located within what now is the Joshua Tree National Monument. There, he learned from freighters about the manhunt for Willie Boy, the Paiute Indian who had murdered the Chemehuevi chief Mike Boniface and abducted his daughter.
Being a Deputy Sheriff, Reche made his way to his father-in-law's ranch in Morongo Valley to join the posse. In the course of the manhunt, he was shot in the hip by Willie Boy. His life was saved by the handcuffs that he carried which deflected the bullet. For the rest of his life, he walked with a limp.
At the start of the Great Depression, Reche's nearest neighbor was Frank Critzer who had filed on a mining claim and lived at Giant Rock. Critzer was born in Germany and, at age 14 during World war I, served on a submarine. After the war he emigrated to the United States. In the 1920s he was working on the fishing fleet out of Santa Monica. But the damp air affected his lungs and a doctor recommended that he move to a drier climate.
Frank Critzer decided to try his hand at prospecting. Before embarking on his new desert adventure, he took his Essex car to be readied at a Southern California garage owned by Glenn Paine, the uncle of George Van tassel, who later would live at Giant Rock. By the time the men had parted company, Critzer had been grubstaked for his new venture with his car repaired, and loaded down with groceries by his new found friends.
They received no communication from Critzer until a year later when he wrote saying that he had filed a claim in the desert north of what is now Landers. (It would be another 20 years before the community of Landers would exist.)
When Van Tassel and his uncle drove out to visit Critzer, they found him living in a cave he had dug under the Rock. According to Van Tassel, Critzer had several bottles filled with gold and had shown them paperwork which detailed the manufacture of a glass crankshaft stronger than steel, and the nearly completed formula for the then unknown Teflon and plastics.
Critzer helped Charlie Reche pipe water to his house, installed a kitchen and bathroom, and refused payment. He also dragged five straight roads leading to Giant Rock. The roads he made are still used in the Landers area. Then he built a runway on the nearby dry lake, complete with windsock. On seeing it, pilots began to land, and Critzer soon was servicing and repairing aircraft.
On January 9, 1940, The Desert Trail reported: "Last Sunday was a busy day for Frank Critzer at his Giant Rock airport. Eight planes swooped in to visit the unique desert retreat." Locals also used the area as a picnic spot.
With Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States entered World War II. Young men registered for the draft, and particularly in California, the local citizens were watching the skies for signs of enemy aircraft.
On July 1, 1942, three Riverside County deputy sheriff's visited Critzer to investigate allegations that he might be involved in a series of thefts from Garnet, Banning and Palm springs of gasoline, dynamite and tools. Rumors also abounded that the airport was used to transport illegal aliens, that Critzer had failed to register for the draft, and he was a German spy.
There are two stories of what transpired. One was that when the deputies told Critzer they were taking him to Banning for questioning, Critzer went to his 400-square-foot dwelling and blew himself to bits with the dynamite that he had stored there.
The second was the Critzer was angered by the manner of the deputies, told them to leave his property, and returned to his cave. One of the lawmen then threw a tear gas container into the dwelling which ignited the dynamite. Deputy McCracken who was closest to the blast received multiple cuts and bruises and a punctured eardrum. Deputies Simpson and Pratt were unhurt, barring temporary deafness from the explosion.
Critzer had 200 pounds of dynamite stored in his underground home, and later it was found that only 70 pounds had ignited. Frank Critzer was dead, and none of the allegations and rumors could be substantiated. The papers outlining Critzer's new inventions mentioned by Van Tassel supposedly were lost in the explosion.
The deceased had owned a radio, binoculars, a rifle and explosives, but the same could have been said for most desert dwellers when it came to the first three items. As for the dynamite -- most miners owned some, and Bagley's store in Twentynine Palms sold it.
George Van Tassel was born in 1910 in Jefferson, Ohio. At 17 he entered the aviation field, working with the airlines for three years, before moving to California to join Douglas Aircraft.
In 1941, Van Tassel left Douglas to become Howard Hughes' personal flight inspector for testing experimental aircraft. Subsequently, he was a flight safety inspector with Lockheed. In 1947 Van Tassel, his wife and three daughters, moved to the desert to live at Giant Rock.
Van Tassel began weekly meditation sessions with interested persons in 1953 at Giant Rock which he claimed, led to UFO contacts. This resulted in the formation of a science/philosophy organization which in 1958 was incorporated as the Ministry of Universal wisdom, Inc., for "the purpose of research into the unseen truths of life." Van Tassel also published a magazine, Proceedings. The magazine carried articles and photographs of UFO sightings, some of which were claimed to be taken at Giant Rock.
The Ministry claimed that another result of contacts with extra terrestrials led to the building of the Integratron, a four-story high, 55 feet in diameter, non-metallic structure. They called the Integratron "a time machine for basic research on rejuvenation, anti-gravity and time travel." Van Tassel wrote about his researches in the books that he had published: When Stars Look Down, the Council of Seven Lights, Religion and Science Merged, and I Rode the Flying Saucer.
Golden States Productions, under the direction of Emile Canning offered several seminars at the Integraton on planetary healings, readings from George Van Tassel's books and journals, an Easter retreat, a UFO watch, and a psychic development session.
Canning calls the Integratron "a very powerful vortex for physical and spiritual healing," and says it "combines sacred geometry, electromagnetics, sonics, future science and ancient wisdom."
The year 1953 also saw the beginnings of annual space conventions where thousands of visitors came by car, camper and airplane for the two-day events. Speakers included scientists as well as enthusiastic observers. Booths displayed hundreds of books on space people and UFOs. An article appeared in the May 27, 1957, issue of Life Magazine entitled "Believers hold meeting in desert to swap interplanetary tall tales."
In 1959 11,000 people attended. By 1970 the numbers were fewer and some rowdy elements in the crowd disrupted the proceeds with fights. So George Van Tassel decided to discontinue the conventions.
Van Tassel died on February 9, 1979, in Santa Ana. The buildings on the Giant Rock property were vacated and gradually vandalized. For the sake of public safety, the Bureau of Land Management bulldozed the remains of the buildings.
In recent years, the aforementioned quartz thrones have been destroyed by those types of off roaders we all hate who consider the desert is for mutilating - because "nothing is there." They roar at high speeds, destroying the delicate desert crust, plants, and tortoises, and litter it with cans and bottles.
The Rock has been pitted by bullet holes by intrepid hunters, and spray painted by members of the intelligentsia who have difficulty spelling four letter words correctly. Rock climbers have even glued handholds to the surface.
Giant Rock is located on Bureau of Land Management property. Management personnel, too, would like to keep this area pristine but, as always, funds are lacking for cleanup and patrol If a place is not well enough known, it is not considered high priority.
(Since this article was written Giant Rock has split right down the middle. When I went out there after speaking at 29 Palms, people were shooting at everything in sight, rabbits, cans, rocks, you name it. It was dangerous to be in the vicinity, especially at night!- P. Urial)
Historical Feature.
Home to the Space People (and the Indians, and a brilliant German inventor and a Howard Hughes protegee named George Van Tassel who brought thousands to his UFO conventions)
This piece of granite called Giant Rock has been called the world's largest single boulder. Technically, it is quartz monzonite formed during the cretaceous period -- part of the Mesozoic era - which puts its age between 65 to 136 million years old.
Giant Rock stands seven stories high, and its estimate weight is around 100,000 tons. The Rock was considered sacred to the Indians of this region who called it the Great Stone, and it was of great importance for gatherings of headmen of the various bands. On a hill a little way from the rock itself were two outcroppings of quartz shaped like thrones, unusual and unique.
In 1887 Charles Reche, who had married a daughter of homesteader Chuck Warren, filed on a homestead of his own northeast of Morongo Valley, shown on some maps as Rich's well. In 1909 he worked as foreman of the Desert Queen Mine, located within what now is the Joshua Tree National Monument. There, he learned from freighters about the manhunt for Willie Boy, the Paiute Indian who had murdered the Chemehuevi chief Mike Boniface and abducted his daughter.
Being a Deputy Sheriff, Reche made his way to his father-in-law's ranch in Morongo Valley to join the posse. In the course of the manhunt, he was shot in the hip by Willie Boy. His life was saved by the handcuffs that he carried which deflected the bullet. For the rest of his life, he walked with a limp.
At the start of the Great Depression, Reche's nearest neighbor was Frank Critzer who had filed on a mining claim and lived at Giant Rock. Critzer was born in Germany and, at age 14 during World war I, served on a submarine. After the war he emigrated to the United States. In the 1920s he was working on the fishing fleet out of Santa Monica. But the damp air affected his lungs and a doctor recommended that he move to a drier climate.
Frank Critzer decided to try his hand at prospecting. Before embarking on his new desert adventure, he took his Essex car to be readied at a Southern California garage owned by Glenn Paine, the uncle of George Van tassel, who later would live at Giant Rock. By the time the men had parted company, Critzer had been grubstaked for his new venture with his car repaired, and loaded down with groceries by his new found friends.
They received no communication from Critzer until a year later when he wrote saying that he had filed a claim in the desert north of what is now Landers. (It would be another 20 years before the community of Landers would exist.)
When Van Tassel and his uncle drove out to visit Critzer, they found him living in a cave he had dug under the Rock. According to Van Tassel, Critzer had several bottles filled with gold and had shown them paperwork which detailed the manufacture of a glass crankshaft stronger than steel, and the nearly completed formula for the then unknown Teflon and plastics.
Critzer helped Charlie Reche pipe water to his house, installed a kitchen and bathroom, and refused payment. He also dragged five straight roads leading to Giant Rock. The roads he made are still used in the Landers area. Then he built a runway on the nearby dry lake, complete with windsock. On seeing it, pilots began to land, and Critzer soon was servicing and repairing aircraft.
On January 9, 1940, The Desert Trail reported: "Last Sunday was a busy day for Frank Critzer at his Giant Rock airport. Eight planes swooped in to visit the unique desert retreat." Locals also used the area as a picnic spot.
With Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States entered World War II. Young men registered for the draft, and particularly in California, the local citizens were watching the skies for signs of enemy aircraft.
On July 1, 1942, three Riverside County deputy sheriff's visited Critzer to investigate allegations that he might be involved in a series of thefts from Garnet, Banning and Palm springs of gasoline, dynamite and tools. Rumors also abounded that the airport was used to transport illegal aliens, that Critzer had failed to register for the draft, and he was a German spy.
There are two stories of what transpired. One was that when the deputies told Critzer they were taking him to Banning for questioning, Critzer went to his 400-square-foot dwelling and blew himself to bits with the dynamite that he had stored there.
The second was the Critzer was angered by the manner of the deputies, told them to leave his property, and returned to his cave. One of the lawmen then threw a tear gas container into the dwelling which ignited the dynamite. Deputy McCracken who was closest to the blast received multiple cuts and bruises and a punctured eardrum. Deputies Simpson and Pratt were unhurt, barring temporary deafness from the explosion.
Critzer had 200 pounds of dynamite stored in his underground home, and later it was found that only 70 pounds had ignited. Frank Critzer was dead, and none of the allegations and rumors could be substantiated. The papers outlining Critzer's new inventions mentioned by Van Tassel supposedly were lost in the explosion.
The deceased had owned a radio, binoculars, a rifle and explosives, but the same could have been said for most desert dwellers when it came to the first three items. As for the dynamite -- most miners owned some, and Bagley's store in Twentynine Palms sold it.
George Van Tassel was born in 1910 in Jefferson, Ohio. At 17 he entered the aviation field, working with the airlines for three years, before moving to California to join Douglas Aircraft.
In 1941, Van Tassel left Douglas to become Howard Hughes' personal flight inspector for testing experimental aircraft. Subsequently, he was a flight safety inspector with Lockheed. In 1947 Van Tassel, his wife and three daughters, moved to the desert to live at Giant Rock.
Van Tassel began weekly meditation sessions with interested persons in 1953 at Giant Rock which he claimed, led to UFO contacts. This resulted in the formation of a science/philosophy organization which in 1958 was incorporated as the Ministry of Universal wisdom, Inc., for "the purpose of research into the unseen truths of life." Van Tassel also published a magazine, Proceedings. The magazine carried articles and photographs of UFO sightings, some of which were claimed to be taken at Giant Rock.
The Ministry claimed that another result of contacts with extra terrestrials led to the building of the Integratron, a four-story high, 55 feet in diameter, non-metallic structure. They called the Integratron "a time machine for basic research on rejuvenation, anti-gravity and time travel." Van Tassel wrote about his researches in the books that he had published: When Stars Look Down, the Council of Seven Lights, Religion and Science Merged, and I Rode the Flying Saucer.
Golden States Productions, under the direction of Emile Canning offered several seminars at the Integraton on planetary healings, readings from George Van Tassel's books and journals, an Easter retreat, a UFO watch, and a psychic development session.
Canning calls the Integratron "a very powerful vortex for physical and spiritual healing," and says it "combines sacred geometry, electromagnetics, sonics, future science and ancient wisdom."
The year 1953 also saw the beginnings of annual space conventions where thousands of visitors came by car, camper and airplane for the two-day events. Speakers included scientists as well as enthusiastic observers. Booths displayed hundreds of books on space people and UFOs. An article appeared in the May 27, 1957, issue of Life Magazine entitled "Believers hold meeting in desert to swap interplanetary tall tales."
In 1959 11,000 people attended. By 1970 the numbers were fewer and some rowdy elements in the crowd disrupted the proceeds with fights. So George Van Tassel decided to discontinue the conventions.
Van Tassel died on February 9, 1979, in Santa Ana. The buildings on the Giant Rock property were vacated and gradually vandalized. For the sake of public safety, the Bureau of Land Management bulldozed the remains of the buildings.
In recent years, the aforementioned quartz thrones have been destroyed by those types of off roaders we all hate who consider the desert is for mutilating - because "nothing is there." They roar at high speeds, destroying the delicate desert crust, plants, and tortoises, and litter it with cans and bottles.
The Rock has been pitted by bullet holes by intrepid hunters, and spray painted by members of the intelligentsia who have difficulty spelling four letter words correctly. Rock climbers have even glued handholds to the surface.
Giant Rock is located on Bureau of Land Management property. Management personnel, too, would like to keep this area pristine but, as always, funds are lacking for cleanup and patrol If a place is not well enough known, it is not considered high priority.
(Since this article was written Giant Rock has split right down the middle. When I went out there after speaking at 29 Palms, people were shooting at everything in sight, rabbits, cans, rocks, you name it. It was dangerous to be in the vicinity, especially at night!- P. Urial)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A DESPERATE NEED - HOPI EMERGENCY
Hopi Emergency
For the 6th time in history, the Hopi have requested outside help to deal with a federally declared disaster
Donate to Hopi – this is the same disaster shown in the Pic of the Day
January 31, 2010
Email sent to Stan Deyo
Friends,
This is a chance for all of us to truly help some brothers and sisters in need. They don't need our money, they need firewood. We are organizing trucks with horse trailers or whatever to go down asap with wood. If you want to really help some ancient people that really have a need, NOW, please pray to see if you can help.
If you have wood and want us to pick up some, call me. If you have a truck, four wheel drive is needed and a trailer, call me. If you have cash to help with so we can purchase fire wood, call me. If you have cash to help with gas to drive it there, call me. I will be up north today putting this together.
What an incredible opportunity to help other people.
Please call,
Doug Mendenhall
435-469-2294
PS I just talked to the contact person at the Hopi service center and he confirmed that they are completely out of firewood. I asked if he could use ten cords delivered by tomorrow night and he was quite excited. Please help if you can. We have four cords committed right now and two trucks. We could use gas money and more trucks and more wood.
=======================================================
Hoa, Shalom, O'siyo,
This is being sent to all who have contacted me over the past two weeks, friends, family, associates and others with hearts of Joseph.
I just returned from Hopi land, (Thursday) and it may be a few days before I can return your emails and phone calls, but there is an urgent emergency about which I thought I would seek your prayers and possibly additional help for Hopi.
For the sixth time in their modern history, the Hopi have requested outside help to deal with a federally declared disaster in the wake of a highly unusual snow storm that dumped up to four feet on parts of Hopi land.
When I drove into Hopi land from Window Rock on Hwy 243, just to the west of Ganado, when the highway finally opened on Saturday night and Sunday morning, the first thing I saw at first light, was a horse lying frozen and dead beside a fence. There is no telling how many times this scene would have been repeated had I had light to see. Dozens of other horses had come up to the fences lining the highway, seeking some kind of mercy from passing cars and trucks and dozens of Hopi walking on foot between villages.
The horses were being fed just about everything to keep them alive. Apples, peanut butter sandwiches, unpeeled oranges. While truckloads of green hay was being delivered to horses on the Navajo reservation, which surrounds Hopi, I saw no such hay coming to Hopi.
Arriving early in connection with a film documentary on the Hopi message and the connection of some Hopi clans with Jerusalem, and the film producers caught in the aftermath of the storm in Flagstaff until the roads were opened, I had time to volunteer to help with the relief effort, mostly delivering sandbags in my truck to villages that were otherwise inaccessible. That gave me a first-hand look of the situation, which I would now like to relate.
On Monday afternoon, which was two days after the snow had ended, and the sun had returned, the snow pack was still more than a foot to 18 inches across Hopi land with drifts approaching four feet. Only Hwy 243 from Ganado and a road connecting Second Mesa to Winslow, AZ., were opened and none of the villages were passable without 4WD. More than 900 calls for firewood, coal or fuel had been received by the emergency center set up at the Veteran's Memorial Center between 2nd and 3rd Mesas. Where the snow had been cleared by the few scrapers available, mud was about six to nine inches thick again making travel in the villages impossible without 4WD and stranding hundreds of elderly and infirm.
FEMA had provided two helicopters to fly in medical supplies and prescriptions and check on the infirm who live in remote areas.
Another 150 or so calls had been received requesting sandbags for leaking roofs, and porous foundations. On Third Mesa, many of the mud-brick houses are built directly atop the ground (in these villages the ground is considered sacred so it is not disturbed as much as possible, therefore houses and kivas are built directly atop the ground. Initially, these houses had dirt floors but many have since been tiled over. Still, the water from the massive snow melt was streaming into walls and ceilings. Two FEMA trucks had arrived filled with drinking water, sandbags and other emergency supplies but no firewood.
Surrounded by Navajo, the Hopi must rely on firewood from the Hopi Mesas and contiguous areas, the Navajo dealing with their own emergencies, although much better equipped to do so than the Hopi. Two truckloads of firewood were expected to arrive from California to the west on the day I had to leave in order to avoid being snowbound from another storm that hit Wednesday night and Thursday.
President Obama the day after the first storm hit, declared the region a major disaster area making it eligible for FEMA assistance. However, the one need of the Hopi - firewood - was not met by the FEMA assistance.
The national emergency is to last for 60 days, but the Hopi are out of firewood throughout their mesas NOW. On Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, they were surviving in many homes huddled under quilts with NO HEAT.
Meanwhile, the four-leggeds, including predators were on the prowl. I personally spotted a mountain lion track about 150 yards west of the Cultural Resources Center on 2nd Mesa , which has the reservation's only motel and restaurant. It was a big cat whose paws pressed a good inch into the icepack … and there were spots of fresh blood where the tracks of something smaller abruptly ended.
The kwahus and other wingeds were nowhere to be seen, except for literally hundreds of crow that also seemed desperate for food which could not be found atop the frozen ground.
The first storm hit as the adolescent Hopi boys whose mothers felt they were ready for initiation rites, were being instructed in the rites of the different kiva societies. The second storm stuck on the day they were to come out of the kivas and prepare for the Bean Dance, which begins this weekend.
Hopi elders said they were caught unawares because this storm they believe was caused by changes in weather patterns due to global earth changes taking place. Elders had anticipated a bad winter and had encouraged Hopi to stockpile wood, but repeated cold snaps have now exhausted these supplies. The pressing need is for firewood at least for the next 60 days until the coldest of the weather passes.
I am especially asking anyone with LDS and RLDS connections to notify their leadership of this emergency and encourage the stakes especially in southern Utah to bring truckloads of firewood to Hopi. They don't need your money. They are truly self sufficient except for this pressing need which has suddenly been thrust upon them.
If the Mormon community truly believes the Hopi are connected with the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon, it is time to reach out to these "relatives." But all Joes on this list who have the true heart of Joseph are encouraged to pray and if they have the means, to help somehow.
Please give me a few days to complete the contacts I promised I would make in connection with this emergency. Then I will read your emails and answer the phone calls I missed while away.
Hoa, Shalom, Gah gey you e, Asaweh,
ben Yoseif
Monday, February 1, 2010
THE TRAGEDY - FINAL
- Thirteen years ago, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion. First responders are still haunted by the gruesome discovery. "We didn't know what to expect going in there," said sheriff's Deputy Robert Brunk, who returned to the site of the now-razed Rancho Santa Fe house last week. He was the first to arrive in 1997. Thirteen years ago one of the strangest events in the county history exploded into the public's consciousness. For several days, it was the biggest news story in the world.
Rio DiAngelo, whose real name was Richard Ford, drove with his boss from Los Angeles to the mansion. After looking inside, he placed an anonymous phone call to 911 that dispatchers initially found inconceivable. "I don't think anybody really believed what the person was saying," said Robert Brunk, a sheriff's deputy who had just started his shift at the Encinitas station. "It was an anonymous call to the communications center stating that 40 people had committed suicide and they were cult members. It came out as a 'welfare check,' and they had held the call for a while because it was busy."
Brunk went to the address, 18241 Colina Norte, which turned out to be a 9,000-square-foot, two-story home up a 200-foot driveway. "As I'm driving, I'm thinking to myself, 'How am I going to explain to the people that live there the purpose for my visit?'" But when he arrived, things seemed odd. All the windows were closed and the curtains drawn. Two vans parked in the driveway were rented, a dispatcher confirmed. Brunk found an unlocked door on the side of the house. When he opened it, the stench nearly knocked him over. He shouted that he was with the Sheriff's Department, then backed out and waited for Deputy Laura Gacek, who arrived in a separate patrol car. "We didn't know what to expect going in there," Brunk said. "You start thinking of cults and all sorts of things start playing in your mind animal and human sacrifice, that kind of thing."
"As we entered the house, we started seeing bodies that were covered up. ... Every room that you went into, we found more. Some were in bunk beds. They were all in their running suits with their 'Heaven's Gate Away Team' patch on the sleeve. There was a computer flashing 'Red Alert,' sort of like 'Star Trek.' There was still a load of laundry in the machine. It was surreal."
Purple shrouds covered all but two bodies. Brunk remembers lifting the shroud off only one person, among the youngest. He also remembers shaking a foot of every body to check for rigor mortis. All were wearing black Nike running shoes with the white swoosh on the side. "The Nike symbol triggers my memory more than any one thing," said Brunk, a 17-year veteran. "I remember their shoes, all 39 pairs."
Later, Brunk and Gacek gave their supervisors a complete account of what they had found. "It was kind of like a Kodak moment as we watched their jaws drop," Brunk said. The two deputies were taken to a hospital to be examined in case they had been exposed to anything toxic. On the trip there, the driver asked what was happening. "After I told him, he looked at me as if thinking, 'Maybe we're taking you to the wrong type of hospital,' " Brunk said.
Hanging on the walls of Capt. Don Crist's office at the San Marcos sheriff's station are two large, framed photographs. One is a panoramic shot of the largest news conference ever conducted by the Sheriff's Department. It took place in an auditorium on the Del Mar Fairgrounds the day after the bodies were discovered. The other picture is of Hale-Bopp in a desert sky.
Janja Lalich, a sociology professor at California State University Chico and an expert on cults, said the appeal of cults is still strong. "I think there are plenty of groups still around," Lalich said. "This is just a part of life. Many people are looking for answers in a fast-paced world, Lalich said. Some get what they need in mainstream religions, while others find the framework they are seeking in an alternative religious movement. At some level, it helps people to latch on to something. People are looking for a quick fix. A lot of groups will offer that panacea. The growth of the Internet has expanded people's capacity to find groups they otherwise might not have been aware of. The Internet also has enabled detractors to better provide warnings about cults. It is good to have more information available to those thinking of joining. If only people put as much thought into joining a cult as they did in buying a car," she added.
Crist and the late Ron Reina headed the sheriff's media office. The media storm began to hit about 5 p.m. the day the bodies were found, after word of the suicides leaked. It was unlike anything that had come before for the department and would be rivaled only by the Santana High School shootings four years later. The local media arrived, followed in the next two hours by hundreds of reporters and photographers who raced to The Ranch from Los Angeles. The Academy Awards had been held two nights earlier, and many national and international news crews were still in town.
Crist remembers driving to the mansion. It was dark out, but there was a glow visible from miles away, as if a stadium had been floodlit for a sporting event. It was the lights from the TV satellite trucks. "I came over the hill and every person in the world was there. People were running up to me, asking what I knew. Local media, Korean, Japanese, German. ... I had never experienced anything like that."
The next day, the Sheriff's Department made a bold, and within the department, controversial decision to release a 90-second videotape shot the night before inside the mansion. The news conference was attended by hundreds, but as the tape began playing, you could hear a pin drop, Crist said. Showing the video clip had the unintended effect of denying DiAngelo a big payday. The former cult member also had videotaped the scene in the mansion, in hopes of selling the tapes to news outlets. The news conference made his footage worthless. The story was front-page news in virtually every newspaper in the world. Television networks ran specials. The cover of Time magazine featured a close-up photo of a wild-eyed Applewhite and the words, Inside the Web of Death. The cult was parodied on 'Saturday Night Live.'
Detective Rick Scully -- In the homicide unit, where they usually play things close to the vest, the decision to release so much information at the news conference made investigators uncomfortable. But within a few hours of examining the scene in the mansion, Rick Scully said, investigators were confident about what they were dealing with.
Mark Malamatos, a medical examiner's investigator, caught his breath while helping unload bodies at the Medical Examiner's Office in Kearny Mesa in 1997. Scully, a veteran homicide detective considered among the best, was the lead investigator for Heaven's Gate. So many bodies was a challenge, but as a whodunit, it was easy. After obtaining a search warrant, and after a hazardous-materials team had determined the air in the house was safe, Scully and others went inside. "It was like being in the Twilight Zone. We were wandering from room to room to room, and every room we went into we were finding bodies. You're thinking: 'When is this going to end? How many bodies are going to be in here? How many rooms are there to this place?' Because every room we went in had bodies stacked up like cordwood." He remembers thinking, 'How could people do this to each other. What kind of person led them to do this?' "Then we got to the final room. Marshall Applewhite, aka Do. It was the upstairs master bedroom, a huge room, and he had the bedroom to himself. Great big bed. He's all propped up with pillows around him. As soon as you walked in, you knew this guy was the head chief. He was the leader."
The cult and its leader -- From a follow-up report written by Scully: "The members of Heaven's Gate adhered to a strict doctrine. Members led a regimented lifestyle. Particular attention was paid to: punctuality, cleanliness, orderliness, personal possessions, how to dress, what to eat, how to phrase a question, and most importantly desires. Each member was assigned a partner to watch over him or her in order that they could constantly fight their 'human desires.'
Autopsies showed the 39 suicide victims at the Rancho Santa Fe house - 21 women and 18 men - died by eating pudding and applesauce laced with drugs. "Their beliefs were a hybrid of science fantasy (UFOs and aliens) and Christian beliefs. Essentially they believed that God and the Kingdom of God were extraterrestrial. They believed that they descended from this extraterrestrial kingdom and took occupancy in human bodies some 20 years or so ago. They believed that they had learned all there was to learn of the human condition and that it was time to return to the kingdom from where they came."
The cult was renting the mansion, which was razed a few years later. The name of the street also was changed. Some of the Heaven's Gate members earned income for the group by providing computer services and Web site design through their company, Higher Source. Before coming to San Diego County, Applewhite and his followers had lived a nomadic existence, trying to stay ahead of cultists' families. Most who died had joined during the 1970s, but eight had come to the group in the 1990s. Members ranged in age from 26 to 72. More than half were in their 40s. Many of those who joined had been searching for answers and goals, family members said. Applewhite offered a simpler, more focused way of life that also isolated group members from the outside world and fostered a shared belief system. Some left behind children and spouses to join the group.
"The investigation revealed that (the decedents) were ardent followers of Do, Marshall Applewhite. ... Members wrote that their only purpose was to make Do happy," a Sheriff's Department report concluded. Together they ate their final meal March 21 at Marie Callender's in Carlsbad. Their orders were identical: salad and chicken pot pies, with cheesecake for dessert. The next day, working in shifts, they made their exit.
Six weeks later, two male cult members who had not been at the mansion attempted suicide at an Encinitas motel, using phenobarbital and wearing Nikes. One died; the other was found barely alive but survived. Nine months later, his body was found in a tent in the Arizona desert, a suicide. Russell Pryor and Michael Ellano, both forensic autopsy assistants, had the job of processing and unloading the bodies from refrigerated trucks, as dozens of photographers recorded the scene. A photo of the two of them, on a break and looking exhausted, was printed in newspapers across the country.
Christina Stanley, now the chief deputy medical examiner, was in her last year as a fellow in training. Stanley conducted 11 Heaven's Gate autopsies over several days. All were easy because all died from poisoning, she said. But the first male body Stanley examined caused her to worry about her skills. She couldn't find the man's testicles. "As a fellow, I thought, 'Boy, am I just bad at finding these?' I remember (another doctor) was there, and he said he couldn't find any testes on these people either. So I thought, 'OK, this is real.' Applewhite and six members of the cult had been castrated in Mexico a few months earlier another way to deal with unwanted desires.
- Heaven's Gate was the name of a UFO religion co-led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. The cult's end coincided with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Applewhite convinced 39 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet carrying Jesus; such beliefs have led some observers to characterize the group as a type of "UFO religion."
They were a secretive New Age religion. The group held meetings in a hotel on the Oregon coast prior to its move to California. Knowledge of their practices is limited. Upon joining the group, members often sold their possessions in order to break their attachments with earthly existence. For many years the group lived in isolation in the western United States. Members often traveled in pairs and met with other members for meetings or presentations they gave to recruit new members. For a time, group members lived in a darkened house in which they would simulate the experience they expected to have during their long journey in outer space. One of the group's publications, How To Build A U.F.O., purported to describe an interplanetary spacecraft built out of materials such as old tires. Much of what is known about the group comes from the research of Robert Balch and David Taylor, who infiltrated the group in the 1970s.
The members of the cult added "-ody" to the first names they adopted in lieu of their original given names, which defines "children of the Next Level". This is mentioned in Applewhite's final video, "Do's Final Exit", that was filmed on March 19, 1997, just days prior to the suicides.
For a few months prior to their deaths, three members, Thurston-ody, Sylvie-ody, and Elaine-ody, worked for Advanced Development Group (ADG), Inc. (now ManTech Advanced Development Group), a small San Diego-based company that developed computer-based instruction for the U. S. Army. Although they were polite and friendly in a reserved way, they tended to keep to themselves. When they quit working for ADG, they told their supervisor that they had completed their mission. A few weeks later, they were dead.
One member, Thomas Nichols, was the brother of Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols. Prior to the group's suicide, he and other members solicited her assistance in publicizing the cult's message.
The structure of Heaven's Gate resembled that of a medieval monastic order. Group members gave up their material possessions and lived a highly ascetic lifestyle devoid of many indulgences. The group was tightly knit and everything was shared communally. Six of the male members of the cult voluntarily underwent castration as an extreme means of maintaining the ascetic lifestyle. The cult funded itself by offering professional website development for paying clients.
Thirty-eight cult members, plus Applewhite, the cult's leader, were found dead in a rented mansion in the upscale San Diego community of Rancho Santa Fe, California, on March 26, 1997. The mass death of the Heaven's Gate group is one of the most widely-known examples of cult suicide. In preparing to kill themselves, members of the cult drank citrus juices to ritually cleanse their bodies of impurities. Their suicide, conducted in shifts, was accomplished by ingestion of phenobarbital mixed with vodka, along with plastic bags secured around their heads to induce asphyxiation. Each member carried five dollars in quarters, reportedly for use on the spaceship (which was to have vending machines and an arcade) to which they would be transported upon their death. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, along with brand new black-and-white Nike tennis shoes and armband patches reading "Heaven's gate away team".
Although not widely known to the mainstream media, Heaven's Gate were not unknown in UFOlogical circles; as well as a series of academic studies by Robert Balch, they also received coverage in Jacques Vallee's Messengers of Deception, in which Vallee described an unusual public meeting organized by the group. Vallee frequently expressed concerns within the book about contactee groups' authoritarian political and religious outlooks, and Heaven's Gate did not escape criticism.
BBC 2 documentary maker Louis Theroux contacted the Heaven's Gate cult while making a program for his Weird Weekends series in early March of 1997. In response to his e-mail, Theroux was told that Heaven's Gate could not take part in the documentary as "at the present time a project like this would be an interference with what we must focus on."
After the Church of Scientology shut down the Cult Awareness Network, Heaven's Gate member lah, later identified as Sister Francis Michael, made a post in "Thanks for Actions Against CAN" to the usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, in December 1996.
The vast media coverage of the Heaven's Gate incident brought about a huge public awareness of the cult, and of cults in general. In a sense, it was also an early Internet phenomenon, since the web was in its early years and the notion of being able to view web pages featuring and created by persons who had recently died was very much a novelty. This wide coverage would eventually spill over into the entertainment industry, especially among television shows that were inspired by a cult (not always necessarily Heaven's Gate) to create stories that parodied, or otherwise explored, this particular subject.
Heaven's Gate Google Video (1 hour 57 minutes)
Heaven's Gate YouTube with Music (4 minutes)
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The above information was taken from two different sources if it seems to repeat itself. Each has a bit more information than the other.
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