Category Archives: INSIDE THE BOOK

Inside the book, Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime. Analysis of all the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. The book reveals for the first time that the women featured in the paintings of Johannes Vermeer were members of his own family, his daughters, his wife and mother-in-law, Maria Thins.

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THE PUNISHMENT OF GOD

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GENGHIS KHAN–“I AM THE PUNISHMENT OF GOD!”

(Ancient Mongolian Proverb: Resistance and Immortality are futile!)

   “I can cause accidents, too! — The Wicked Witch of the West in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

In 1216 AD, Mohammed II was the Sultan (king) of the opulent city of Samarkand which ruled the trade routes to the Far East from Russia and Europe. Samarkand was about 375 miles southeast of the Aral Sea. This wealthy, culturally sophisticated metropolis, surrounded by canals and decorated throughout with fountains and shade trees, housed more than 500,000 citizens. Within the city walls every house had a garden. Factories wove silver lame, silk and cotton cloth. Outside the city, farmers cultivated sprawling fields. They exported melons encased in lead boxes packed with snow.

Mohammed lived amid the splendor of his treasures and palace harem. His Royal Highness rode with his courtiers on hunting excursions dressed in cloth made of gold. Tame cheetahs clung to the hand-crafted saddles behind him. Such opulence was paramount to that of any Earthly civilization.

A brief treaty was maintained between the Sultan and the distant Mongolian Empire which lasted several years. The truce had been originated by messengers from the Khan, ruler of the Mongol hordes, who offered so many gold ingots and nuggets as a gift to establish trade relations that even Mohammed II was impressed. Along with the gold, the Mongol messengers delivered a letter inscribed with a seal in which Ghengis Kahn proclaimed himself, “God in heaven, the Kah Khan, the power of God on Earth. The Seal of the Emperor of Mankind”.

Within a few years, the flame of the Khan’s lust for westerly conquest burned the fabric of the treaty. Forewarned, the citizens of Samarkand had been expected to withstand a siege against the invading horde for as long as an entire year. Yet, they became terrified by rumors from neighboring cities which had seen the Mongolian hordes overwhelm the larger army of Mohammed II. The destruction of the Sultan’s armies served as a warning to others. As a result, the citizens of Samarkand surrendered the glorious city to the Mongol troops after only five days.

Such victories in war were business as usual for the Khan. To Ghengis Khan, the life-long training his army of penniless, nomad horseback sheepherders, was designed to teach his warriors the essential concepts of battle. For the Kahn, a successful army had to be able to maintain all the principles of military science that the Mongol army exemplified:

1/ planned objectives

2/ offensive position

3/ unity of command

4/ capacity to concentrate force

5/ ability to maneuver

6/ economy of force

7/ element of surprise

8/ security within the ranks

9/ strategic retreat

10/ tactical simplicity.

One of the Khan’s favored training exercises for his army was called the “Great Hunt”. The exercise started at the beginning of winter and lasted three months. Flags were set to mark the assembly points for each tumen (a division of 10,000 soldiers) along a starting line 80 miles wide. Several hundred miles ahead of that line, another flag was placed to mark the finish line. At a signal from the Khan the entire line advanced forward on the sturdy backs of their small, but infamous ponies, herding all wild game before them. These same ponies, broken and trained from birth to serve the hunter, would carry the Mongol tribes across the known world and back again.

As weeks passed the advancing army, arrayed in full battle armament, pressed a growing throng of wild animals ahead of themselves. As the army advanced toward the finishing flag, the outer wings of the force rode ahead more quickly and formed a circle, surrounding thousands of animals and predatory beasts alike within the arena of horsemen. The commanding officer of the army rode behind, giving orders and directions to the hunters, using the same chain of command, communications signals and military strategy they would use later against human enemies in battle.

Throughout the hunt it was forbidden to kill any animal. Both a soldier and his superior officer were severely punished if even one deer, boar, rabbit, pheasant, lion and tiger and bear (oh my!) were allowed to escape from the ring of equestrian warriors.

The precision communication skills and unity of command required to carry out the cooperative action of tens of thousands of cavalry, spread across such great distances, using only flags by day and torches by night, depended on the skill and stamina of each individual soldier/hunter. In order to maintain the constant vigil required to prevent the escape of any single animal from the circle, half the army slept, fully clothed and ready for action, while the rest kept watch by campfire light.

The Great Hunt concluded with the Khan himself entering the manmade arena to make his choice and be the first to kill one of the animals. After this, the officers and soldiers showed off their skill with weapons in personal combat against the entrapped animals. Some men fought singled-handedly against a desperate pack of wolves with only a dagger.

During the march, as in battle, each soldier was armed with a composite bow made of bone and wood. These bows were more powerful than any other in the world, and were used to shoot an arsenal of arrows specially tipped for every purpose: long range, short range, three-foot armor piercing, whistling signal arrow, incendiary and grenade tipped arrows. Each soldier could shoot accurately and reload while standing in the saddle stirrups on his horse at full gallop.

On the march, during wartime, each soldier led his own herd of three remounts. He could ride at speed for days at a time, eating in the saddle and if need be, pause briefly to slit the leg of his weakest horse, drinking its blood for nourishment. According to the writings of Marco Polo, an Italian traveler who lived in the camp of the Khan in Mongolia for many years, messengers would often ride between 200 and 300 miles a day!

The soldier, raised in a land of eternal harshness (104 degrees F in summer and minus 40 F degrees in winter) had no vested interest other than to obey, without question, the orders of his superior officer.

This sort of harsh training, coordinated action and individual skill, combined with superior weapons, was the raw material from which the Khan crafted one of the most unprecedented and fiercest armies in history. His ruthless genius for military organization and strategy remains unparalleled.

These nomads never developed technology or produced any manufactured good or mined any minerals. They depended utterly upon murder and theft from settled societies for swords, armor, silk, gold and silver.

When the armies of Ghengis Khan were directed toward the conquest of Europe, they faced nearly insurmountable barriers to their ambition: scorching deserts, rivers, frozen mountains, thousands of miles of barren plains, heavily fortified city walls and greatly superior numbers of enemy soldiers.

Yet the local European mercenary armies, who gave themselves important sounding names, like Teutonic Knights, Knights Templar and Hospitallers–the flower of European military power–were overwhelmed in every single engagement by the smaller Mongol forces who out-fought, out-maneuvered and out-thought the disorganized and undisciplined Europeans.

The rampant superstition of the Christian European culture compounded the catastrophic conquest, as the hordes swept through Russia and Europe like a brilliantly planned and executed swarm of flying monkeys. Rumors spread of diabolical atrocities committed by inhuman monstrosities–creatures with the head of a horse, possessing supernatural power–that devoured their victims.

In fact, the carnage was horrific, but only the population of those cities who actively resisted, were killed. On average, those who did not resist were spared and for the most part mercy was given to selected groups, such as women, who were set aside to be raped before they were sent into slavery. Craftsmen, merchants, scribes, artisans, clerics, administrators and selected officers were sent back to the Mongol homeland and put to work. The Mongol had no use for farmers, whom they considered to be less valuable than horses. Yet, with uncharacteristic benevolence, the Mongols were tolerant of the religious practices of the vanquished.

For those who resisted him, Ghengis Khan had a simple, two-part philosophy. The first part concerned the joy of conquest. He said, “The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.”

He expressed the second part of his philosophy while preaching to the doomed citizens of Bukhara from the walls of the city shortly before they, and the city itself, were slashed and burned from the face of the Earth by his soldiers. The Khan informed them that they themselves were responsible for the mass extinction they were about to suffer, saying, “I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, He would not have sent a punishment like me.”

The relatively few citizens who were not slain were used as human shields against the arrows of the enemy marching ahead of his army.

In towns that resisted conquest, every man, women, child and domestic animal was slaughtered. The heads of their victims were sometimes stacked in three pyramids: a pile each for men, women and children. These mountains of skulls served as a gruesomely effective warning to would-be dissidents.

Some towns were disassembled stone by stone and the ground laced with salt so as to never bear crops again.

The overwhelming stench of decaying dead bodies within such vanquished towns often drove the Mongols away from their encampments outside the walls.

In spite of their grim terror tactics, the hordes of the Khan usually preferred not to slaughter the innocent and routinely granted mercy to those cities that surrendered. Apparently a very large percentage of the cities approached by the hordes chose to surrender without the slightest resistance. Clever thinking!

Chroniclers of the age variously estimated the total slaughter of Europeans by the Mongols at no less than 1,600,000 and possibly as many as 2,400,000. In the destruction of the region of Nishapur alone, the death toll is supposed to have reached 1,747,000. No one knows for sure, since the Mongols couldn’t write and few others lived to tell about it!

In the eyes of the vanquished, the Mongols may as well have come from Mars. The Mongols were a race that emerged from a land of which the ignorant, self-centered Europeans had never heard. For all the Europeans knew about Mongolians, the hordes could have just as easily fallen out of the sky in a farmhouse from Kansas.

In March of 1227 AD, the Khan suffered internal injuries after falling from his horse on a hunting excursion. The suffering and eventual death of the Khan five months later was kept secret from his army until after the siege of a capital city had been successfully completed. On word of his death, the army flooded into the city and slaughtered every living creature. Anyone who met the funeral procession along the road back to the Mongol capital was instantly killed so that they might serve their master in the next life.

The body of Ghengis Khan lay in state for three months before being buried together with a sacrificial entourage of forty jeweled slave girls and a fourth of his finest horses. A thousand horsemen rode over the burial site to disguise the ground. The burial place remains a secret to this day.

Superior speed, skill, conviction, training, tactics, weapons and organization of the alien Mongol army struck Europe with as much impact as an invading force of hostile aliens might be imagined to strike our own civilization.

The armies of the Khan traveled at more than twice the speed of an enemy army. They uniformly defeated armies more than twice their own size. This factor is an ingredient in the success of any forceful activity, whether it is in the field of war, sports or business. The modern, mechanized tank warfare used by Patton and Rommel against one another during World War II were simple applications of the military art form perfected by the master tactician whom they both diligently studied: Subedei, the leading field general of the Khan.

The illiterate, nomad horse soldier of the Golden Hordes had everything to gain and nothing to lose by going to war. War was his only means through which to escape from a miserable, dismal, impoverished life back home in the frozen steppes of Mongolia. To the common soldier, the logic of war practiced and perfected by Ghengis Khan could be distilled into two very simple and obvious truths that proved, for the Mongolians, to be workable solutions:

1/ WAR equals SURVIVAL.

2/ SPEED times FORCE equals POWER.

Power, as in the strength of an army, is proportionate to the number of soldiers, multiplied by their speed–a basic law of the physical universe. (Al Einstein later wrote a mathematical formula for it: E equals MC squared.)

The sons of Ghengis Khan’s first wife (he had more than 400 wives in all) who inherited the empire that covered one-third of the surface of Earth, never suffered the megalomania of their father. They were all strictly team players.

The dominion of the Khan clan did not crumble immediately upon his death with internal dispute as did the empire of Alexander.  It endured for 200 years. This was longer than many international unions which were forged through conquest, yet only a short-term victory in the over-all scheme of things.

In spite of the appalling devastation wrought by the hordes of Ghengis Khan, the real, lasting conquest of Europe did not begin until 1344 AD. Slaughter, inflicted by the merciless armies of the Khan, seems like a minor scratch compared to the holocaust that followed.

It all began rather innocently when a band of Mongol soldiers laid siege to a small, fortified trading post on the shores of the Black Sea. A group of Italian merchants had taken refuge there and held out for two years. The squalid conditions of the siege precipitated an outbreak of the plague in the Mongol encampment. Due to the extent of their own casualties, the horde had to abandon the siege, but not before catapulting a few dead bodies–a sort of human time bomb–over the walls into the fortress.

After the horde left, the surviving Italian merchants boarded a ship bound for Genoa, Italy. A few days after the ship docked, the Black Death began to sweep across Europe. Meanwhile, the horde, on their return trip home, carried the plague eastward to Russia, India and China. In all, it is estimated that at least one out of every four Europeans died–more than 24 million people.

In England and France so many soldiers died that a truce was declared in the beloved war between the two countries–too few soldiers left to make a decent war!

Petrach, the French writer, wrote in 1348 that future generations would be incredulous and unable to comprehend the number of empty houses, abandoned towns, the squalid silence of the countryside littered with corpses and innumerable ships adrift at sea with no living crews to man them.

The Khans molded a nation of nomads with the disciplinary artistry of a potter using his wheel to sculpt a vase of steel. However, even fine art, precise in every detail, is inevitably broken. As with all things in this tenuous universe, even a vase of polished steel eventually returns to dust. The Black Death spawned by the Golden Horde caused, by documented estimates of death tolls, a series of the greatest disasters in human history –the “Punishment of God” indeed!”

— Excerpt from THE OZ FACTORS, by Lawrence R. Spencer

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THE NATURE OF MAN

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dove-hawkCandide: or, The Optimist (1762)  It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply “optimism”) by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide’s slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, “we must cultivate our garden”, in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, “all is for the best” in the “best of all possible worlds”.

Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious Bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years’ War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire’s day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism.

François-Marie Arouet (French: 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, MV 8159historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

(reference: Wikipedia.org)

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VEDIC HYMNS

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“When the Domain Force brought the Vedic Hymns [i] (Footnote) to the Himalayas region 8,200 years ago, some human societies already existed.  The Aryan people invaded and conquered India  [ii] (Footnote) , bringing the Vedic Hymns [iii] (Footnote) to the area.

The Vedas were learned by them, memorized and carried forward verbally for 7,000 years before being committed to written form.  During that span of time one of the officers of The Domain Expeditionary Force was incarnated on Earth as “Vishnu” [iv] (Footnote). He is described many times in the Rig-Veda.  He is still considered to be a god by the Hindus.  Vishnu fought in the religious wars against the “Old Empire” forces.  He is a very able and aggressive IS-BE as well as a highly effective officer, who has since been reassigned to other duties in The Domain.

This entire episode was orchestrated as an attack and revolt against the Egyptian pantheon installed by “Old Empire” administrators.  The conflict was intended to help free humankind from implanted elements of the false civilization that focused attention on many “gods” and superstitious ritual worship demanded by the priests who “managed” them.  It is all part of the mental manipulation by the “Old Empire” to hide their criminal actions against the IS-BEs on Earth.

A priesthood, or prison guards, were used to help reinforce the idea that an individual is only a biological body and is not an Immortal Spiritual Being.  The individual has no identity.  The individuals have no past lives. [v] (Footnote)  The individual has no power.  Only the gods have power.  And, the gods are a contrivance of the priests who intercede between men and the gods they serve.  Men are slaves to the dictates of the priests who threaten eternal spiritual punishment if men do not obey them.”

— Excerpt from the Top Secret military interview transcripts recorded in Roswell, NM in 1947. Published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW, edited by Lawrence R. Spencer

FOOTNOTES:

[i]   “…Vedic Hymns…”

The Vedas are very exhaustive scriptures. Each veda contains several sections and thousands of hymns. Some of the Vedic hymns, especially the hymns of the Rig veda, are considered to be at least 6000-8000 years old. The Vedas are believed to be revealed scriptures, because they are considered to be divine in origin. Since they were not written by any human beings but were only heard in deep meditative states, they are commonly referred a “those that were heard”.

Here is one of the most famous hymns from the Rig Vega:  :The Hymn of Creation”

“A time is envisioned when the world was not, only a watery chaos (the dark, “indistinguishable sea”) and a warm cosmic breath, which could give an impetus of life. Notice how thought gives rise to desire (when something is thought of it can then be desired) and desire links non-being to being (we desire what is not but then try to bring it about that it is). Yet the whole process is shrouded in mystery.

Where do the gods fit in this creation scheme?

The non-existent was not; the existent was not at that time. The atmosphere was not nor the heavens which are beyond. What was concealed? Where? In whose protection? Was it water? An unfathomable abyss?

There was neither death nor immortality then. There was not distinction of day or night. That alone breathed windless by its own power. Other than that there was not anything else.

Darkness was hidden by darkness in the beginning. All this was an indistinguishable sea. That which becomes, that which was enveloped by the void, that alone was born through the power of heat.

Upon that desire arose in the beginning. This was the first discharge of thought. Sages discovered this link of the existent to the nonexistent, having searched in the heart with wisdom.

Their line [of vision] was extended across; what was below, what was above? There were impregnators, there were powers: inherent power below, impulses above.

Who knows truly? Who here will declare whence it arose, whence this creation? The gods are subsequent to the creation of this. Who, then, knows whence it has come into being?

Whence this creation has come into being; whether it was made or not; he in the highest heaven is its surveyor. Surely he knows, or perhaps he knows not.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[ii] “… the Aryan people…”

“The Vedic term arya– in its earliest attestations has a meaning of “stranger”, but “stranger” in the sense of “potential guest”.  The Sanskrit lexicon defines Arya as mahākula kulīnārya “being of a noble family”, sabhya “having gentle or refined behavior and demeanor”, sajjana “being well-born and respectable”, and sādhava “being virtuous, honourable, or righteous”.  Arya, is a title of honor and respect given to certain people for noble behavior.

The Aryan race was a term used in the early 20th century by European racial theorists who believed strongly in the division of humanity into biologically distinct races with differing characteristics. Such writers believed that the Proto-Indo-Europeans constituted a specific race that had expanded across parts of Europe, Iran and small parts of northern India. This usage tends to merge the Sanskrit meaning of “noble” or “elevated” with the idea of distinctive behavioral and ancestral ethnicity marked by language distribution. 

Nazism portrayed their interpretation of an “Aryan race” as the only race capable of, or with an interest in, creating and maintaining culture and civilizations, while other races are merely capable of conversion, or destruction of culture. These arguments derived from late nineteenth century racial hierarchies. Some Nazis were also influenced by Madame  Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine (1888) where she postulates “Aryans” as the fifth of her “Root Races”, dating them to about a million years ago, tracing them to Atlantis,

Because of historical racist use of Aryan, and especially use of Aryan race in connection with the propaganda of Nazism, the word is sometimes avoided in the West as being tainted, in the same manner as the swastika symbol. Currently, India and Iran are the only countries to use the word Aryan in a demographic denomination.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[iii] “… the Vedic Hymns…”

“The term veda means “knowledge, (sacred) lore” embraces a body of writings the origin of which is ascribed to divine revelation (shruti, literally “hearing”), and which forms the foundation of the Brahmanical system of religious belief. This sacred canon is divided into three or (according to a later scheme) four co-ordinate collections, likewise called Veda:

 (I) the Rig-veda, or lore of praise (or hymns); (2) the Samaveda, or lore of tunes (or chants); (3) the Yajurveda, or lore of prayer (or sacrificial formulas); and (4) the Atharvaveda, or lore of the Atharvans. Each of these four Vedas consists primarily of a collection (samihita) of sacred, mostly poetical, texts of a devotional nature, called mantra. This entire body of texts (and particularly the first three collections) is also frequently referred to as the trayi vidya, or threefold wisdom, of hymns (rik), tune or chant (saman), and prayer (yajus), the fourth Veda, if at all included, being in that case classed together with the Rik.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[iv]   “…Vishnu…”

“Vishnu is the All-Pervading essence of all beings, the master of and beyond the past, present and future, the creator and destroyer of all existences, one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe and originates and develops all elements within.  In the Rigveda, Vishnu is mentioned 93 times.

The traditional Sanskrit explanation of the name Viṣṇu involves the root viś, meaning “to settle, to enter”, or “to pervade”, and a suffix nu, translating to approximately “the All-Pervading One”.

He has nine avatars, or ‘incarnations’ (which) are described as having occurred in the past, with one still to happen at the end of Kali Yuga. The Bhagavad Gita mentions their purpose as being to vanquish negative forces.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[v] “…past lives.”

A “past lives” scenario automatically infers a “future life” in the context of an amnesia and prison planet operation.  This implies the phenomenon of reincarnation:

“Reincarnation literally “to be made flesh again”, is a doctrine or metaphysical belief that some essential part of a living being (in some variations only human beings) survives death to be reborn in a new body. This essential part is often referred to as the spirit or soul, the “higher” or “true” self, “divine spark”, or “I”. According to such beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the self remains constant throughout the successive lives.

Belief in reincarnation is an ancient phenomenon. This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism (including Yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism), Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea was also entertained by some Ancient Greek philosophers. Many modern Pagans also believe in reincarnation as do some New Age movements, along with followers of Spiritism, practitioners of certain African traditions, and students of esoteric philosophies such as Kabbalah, Sufism and Gnostic and Esoteric Christianity. The Buddhist concept of Rebirth although often referred to as reincarnation differs significantly from the Hindu-based traditions and New Age movements in that there is no “self” (or eternal soul) to reincarnate.

During recent decades, a significant minority of people in the West have developed a belief in reincarnation.  Notable exceptions include Henry Ford and General George Patton.

Henry Ford was convinced he had lived before, most recently as a soldier killed at the battle of Gettysburg. A quote from the San Francisco Examiner from August 26, 1928 described Ford’s beliefs:

“I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty-six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men’s minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.”

General George S. Patton was a staunch believer in reincarnation and, along with many other members of his family, often claimed to have seen vivid, lifelike visions of his ancestors. In particular, Patton believed he was a reincarnation of Carthaginian General Hannibal.

The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been published by Professor Ian Stevenson, from the University of Virginia, in books such as Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.

Stevenson spent over 40 years devoted to the study of children who have apparently spoken about a past life. In each case, Professor Stevenson methodically documented the child’s statements. Then he identified the deceased person the child allegedly identified with, and verified the facts of the deceased person’s life that matched the child’s memory. He also matched birthmarks and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased, verified by medical records such as autopsy photographs.

In a fairly typical case, a boy in Beirut spoke of being a 25-year-old mechanic, thrown to his death from a speeding car on a beach road. According to multiple witnesses, the boy provided the name of the driver, the exact location of the crash, the names of the mechanic’s sisters and parents and cousins, and the people he went hunting with — all of which turned out to match the life of a man who had died several years before the boy was born, and who had no apparent connection to the boy’s family.

Stevenson believed that his strict methods ruled out all possible “normal” explanations for the child’s memories. However, it should be noted that a significant majority of Professor Stevenson’s reported cases of reincarnation originate in Eastern societies, where dominant religions often permit the concept of reincarnation. Following this type of criticism, Stevenson published a book on European cases suggestive of reincarnation.”

— Reference:  Wikipedia.org

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THE BIG BLEEP, Chapter 5

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CHAPTER 5: A DIFFERENTIAL PUBLIC DICK IN A PRIVATE UNIVERSE

“I didn’t know peach fuzz could feel so good “, I murmured, as she rubbed her branches through my leaves.

After my “night” out on the “orchard” with Miss Peach, I was feeling pretty dreamy. She
really knew how to put some meaning into my existence!

“I didn’t know my buds could blossom this fast!”, she cooed, as I wrapped my limbs around her
trunk.  We sure didn’t need any bees to help us pollinate!  My blossoms were still blooming — and so were my nuts!

Actually, there had been no “night”, since the sunlight in the plant universe was always shining.  And there was no actual
“orchard” either.  “The Orchard” was the name of a restaurant in the Random Arms Hotel Convention Center.  We stopped by there for
dinner.  We shared a bag of manure and a few Nitro cocktails before going upstairs to her room for an exquisite “night” of pollen mingling.

I always liked fruits and nuts back on Earth too.  I like some vegetables too, if they were deep-fat fried and dipped in catsup.  But now that I was leaning toward the
sunlight on a regular basis myself, I was seriously reconsidering my menu choices.

When you’re a plant, you figure out pretty quick that one of the best ways to keep from ending up on somebody else’s menu is to make yourself taste bad.
From my new perspective, I was beginning to appreciate that Brussels sprouts and spinach are very clever plants.  It’s no longer a mystery to me why tree bark and acorns taste so bad
either.

The only humans who ever ate acorns were some California Indians, and they ate them only when they got tired of eating dried grasshoppers.  Squirrels, I suddenly realized, were definitely not as cute as I used to think they were
either. Anyway, right now, (whenever now was) I had bigger problems than worrying about somebody eating my fruit.

Back in my British Epistemology class at A.E.I.O.U., I once had to memorize a passage from a book that I’ll never forget. It was written by some world famous philosopher, but I can’t remember his name.  Anyway, he said: “There
is a theory which states that if anybody ever discovers exactly what a universe is for and why it is there, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory Which states that this has already happened.”

Of course I wasn’t sure about that because I have never discovered what a universe is for or why it is there.  However, I did know about the disappearance and replacement part — it had already happened to me!   So, maybe everything really was just an illusion and none of this plant convention thing really existed? Or maybe nothing really existed at all and everyone is just dreaming.  Or worse, if everything really is just part of somebody’s dream, then I was definitely paying too much rent for my office space.

I was beginning to wonder if the reason I had gotten lost in this strange universe had something to do with my own ignorance or carelessness?  Frankly, I could care less and I really didn’t want to know.  In spite of the delightful Miss Peach, I just wanted to get back into my own body, on my own planet, in my own time, in my own universe.

Casually, I asked Miss Peach a few discreet questions, carefully designed to get her to reveal the secret of how I became a tree and landed in a “Different Universe”, without alerting her to the fact that I wasn’t really a tree.  I just looked like a tree and wanted to have sex with a tree.  So, I gently prodded her with a few subtle inquiries, assuming that her boss hadn’t told her my secret.

“Just tell me one thing, baby.  How the (bleep) did I get into this whole plant convention thing anyway!?  And how did you and all these other plants get here?  And where the (bleep) is here?” I burst out, no longer able to maintain my usual stoic composure.

She looked at me blankly for a moment and said, “I don’t know.”

“Oh”, I said.  “Well, how do you explain all of this?”

“Well, I don’t.  I just try to enjoy myself while I’m
here.  Don’t you?”

“Yeah, sure, I guess.  But, don’t you want to known where you came from and how you got here and what’s the meaning of it all or what’s the purpose of existence?”.

“Not really”, she said.

Typical woman. They only want one thing from a male:  to take them shopping and listen to them talk about how fat they feel. They never want to discuss the esoteric, philosophical issues of life.  It was a good thing I waited until after we had mingled to ask questions.

“Well, don’t you care about anything?”, I demanded.

“I care a lot about peaches and pollinating.  I also care about all the males I’ve mingled with – especially the ones whose names I can still remember.  I think that most trees only care about each other because they think they’re going to survive better or longer or more pleasantly with other trees around them.  But, most of the time they end up sharing an unfulfilling emptiness with no real goals or purpose.  They just grow, pollinate, bear fruit for awhile and wither.  I mean, it’s not like we’re ever really going to go anyplace, is it?”.

“I suppose not…but I can’t help feeling there are other places to be”, not mentioning my recent arrival from the Physical Universe.  Still, I couldn’t argue with her logic, so I didn’t, in spite of my recent discovery that there is more than one universe.

So far, discovering the meaning of life was an unsolved case.  It was always just around the next corner.  It was the only case I hadn’t solved yet – except for the one I was working on, of course.  Miss Peach was right — I felt alone.  Yet, at the same time, I felt like I was being driven by outside forces — survival impulses, fate, the forces of the universes, some unseen entity – whatever.

“I’ve never really been interested in playing the usual ‘tree games’.  You know, like territorial conquest, water rights, root depth, trunk size, how smooth my bark is, shading power, seed production — that kind of thing”, said Miss Peach, arousing me from my momentary musing.  “Those games are based on what other trees think about you.  Mainly, I just want to be happy with what I think about myself”, she said.

“The best games I ever played were simply having somebody around to play with — to keep from being bored.  But, most of the time, playing games is just a temporary distraction from my perpetual preoccupation with the primordial purposelessness of existence”, I said.

“Who knows?  Maybe playing is the purpose of existence”, replied Miss Peach.

“I came, I saw, I played”, to paraphrase a dead Roman emperor, although I don’t think he did it in that order” I said, forgetting where I was momentarily.

“Sounds good to me!  Let’s play ‘mingle and tingle’…”, said Miss Peach, gently jiggling her fruit toward me.  Anyone who thinks trees are just unfeeling vegetables, has never been mingled and tingled by Miss Peach!

I don’t know how long I slept, but when I woke up the next “morning”, or the same day or whenever it was, Miss Peach was gone.  She hadn’t left me a note or anything.  I figured she must have gone to work. I went down stairs to continue my investigation. I still didn’t have any more clues about how to get back to Earth than the “rulebook” I got from “Mr. Personality” in Plant Land Security.

When I got downstairs the convention hall was empty.  Just a few trampled signs and banners and leaflets strewn on the floor.  Just a few trees sweeping up.  I went over to the Plant Land Security office to see if Miss Peach was here.  I started to knock on the door, but found it slightly ajar, so I pushed it open and went in.  The office was completely vacant except for Mr. Cactus who was just putting some papers into a box.

“Where’s Miss Peach?”, I inquired.

“Not here.  She left to go back to the home office.  The convention’s over buddy, or didn’t you notice?”

“Oh, well how do I get in touch with her?”

“I’m not her babysitter, pal. You can go see her whenever you want.” he said.

“Well, would you mind telling me the address of your home office so I can contact her?” I asked as politely as possible.

“Listen, Mr. Peaches, or whatever your name is, I gave you a copy of the “rules” when you were here last time.  Can’t you read? Just follow the rules.  Anyway, I’m out of here. Goodbye” said Mr. Cactus, who unceremoniously picked up his box and shuffled out of the office.

“But…but, I don’t know…”, I said, trying to follow him. By the time I got through the door and out into the convention hall, Mr. Cactus was gone.  The entire hall was empty and still.

“Well, (bleep)!”, I fumed.  My voice echoed in the hall.  Another voice answered me from the other side of the hall.  “What’s the matter, buddy?  Do you need help?”  It was Peter the Potted Plant.

“Peter!  Am I glad to see you!  Where did everybody go?  I was trying to find Miss Peach and she’s one and I don’t know where she went or how to get there.  Can you help me, please?” I grabbed him round his skinny little trunk and shook him gently, with growing desperation o get some answers.

“Hey, take it easy pal!  Look, it’s easy.  Just go out to the hotel lobby and ask them o give you a copy of the “rules”. Then just follow the “rules” and you’ll be fine.  Anyway, listen, I gotta run.  I just ran back in to pick up my tie.  I left it in the dressing room back stage.  Hey, see ya’ buddy!  Don’t let the aphids get you”.  Peter disappeared behind the stage curtain and was gone.

I hurriedly shuffled my roots out to the lobby of the Hotel Random Arms.  I rushed up to the registration desk and rang the bell on the counter.  A sleepy looking Tomato Plant came out fromthe back office to the desk.  “May I be of assistance, sir?”

“Yes! Yes!  Peter the Potted Plant told me to ask you for a copy of the “rules” so I could find out how to get in touch with Miss Peach”, I babbled, without trying to hide my anxiety.

“Very good, sir.  We are always pleased to be of assistance to our guests at the Random Arms”, he said, reaching beneath the desk and handing me a single sheet of instructions. I eagerly glanced down the list. It was the same exact sheet of Rules to a Different Universe that Mr. Cactus had given to Miss Peach to copy for me.  I still had my original copy stuck in my branches.

“Great! Now I’m right back in the same (bleeping) place I started from!!”, I shouted.

I guess the sheer volume of my own totally exasperated shouting must have snapped me out of it — whatever “it” was.  I was lying in my sofa at my office.  I don’t know how I got here. The last thing I remembered before the Plant Convention was lying in the acupuncture office, with needles stuck in my butt….  I felt my behind.  There were no needles, but I had a butt!

“I have a butt!!  I have a butt!  I have a butt!”, I shouted.  “Wow! This is great!

I have a butt!”, I shouted some more.  I was never so happy to have a butt in my whole (bleeping) life.  I will never take having a butt for granted ever again.

I was pretty sure I was back in my own universe again.  Or maybe I had never really left it.  Or maybe I just needed a couple stiff shots of “Old Nitro”. Wait a minute…minutes?  That was something that had been in short supply in A Different Universe.  Now that it was available to me once again, that’s all I really needed: some real, honest-to-goodness time to figure all this out.

I looked at the clock. I ran down the hall and got a newspaper out of the vending machine.   It was still the day of my appointment with Dr. Alice.  And the same time.  As far as I could tell, no time had passed since I was laying on the table at Dr. Alice’s place. I’ve heard it said that time is relative, but all this was making me feel relatively insane.

Dr. Mellingerer was my old professor of Eschatological Rhetoric back at A.E.I.O.U..  He once said something very profound to our class.  He said, “an ignorant man is one who doesn’t know what he has discovered“. I didn’t know what that meant, and I really didn’t feel like figuring it out either. I was tired. I needed a nap.  I felt like I had been awake for days. Nevertheless, in some vague way, Dr. Mellingerer’s observation seemed to apply to my situation.

The next morning I woke up in my sofa again, still in my office, with my own clock which stared at me rudely from my very own desk.  I was very happy to be back in a universe that actually had time in it. The clock said 7:37.  Actually it didn’t “say” 7:37, but it did have a big hand pointing in the general direction of the “7” on the clock face and the small hand pointed to the 7th little tick mark to the left of the bottom, center tick mark.

Since the sun was shining in my eyes through my office window, I assumed that would indicate the antemeridian rendition of 7:37, as in past mid-night and before mid-day, thereby confirmed by my perception that photon particles and/or waves from the star nearest our planet where striking and illuminating the atmosphere in the vicinity nearest my current location relative to the interminable rotation of said planet on its axis, during a phase in which that rotation, which recurred at 24 hour intervals, as measured by said clock, variably modified by the inclination of the Northern Hemisphere toward or away from said star, mitigated, of course, by the precession of the planetary axis, was situated in juxtaposition to said star with regard to it’s roughly elliptical orbit through the solar system, at a precise point in one of 365 such intervals, to which planet I was affixed by the resultant gravitational forces generated by the coincidental interaction and various cyclical rotations of the aforementioned stellar bodies, which are located approximately on the very outermost edge of the so-called Milky Way galaxy, which I assumed must belong, nominally, to some larger, intergalactic political confederation, of which Earth, or whatever designation might be given by such an organization to this infinitesimally minute and obscure planet, to which no one from any other planet seemed to want to make themselves known, inasmuch as “alien entities” seemed to consistently avoid obvious communication with the creatures of our planet, as witness their conspicuous absence from Earth which, by deductive reasoning, led me to conclude that “aliens” either 1) don’t exist, for which probability the mathematical odds are nearly infinitely impossible — besides  which, I’d already been abducted by them myself at least once that I can remember — or 2) such beings would rather be caught dead than associate with homo sapiens, which, judging by the usual headlines in the daily newspaper, would indicate a reasonably advanced intelligence on their part, or at least a reasonable distaste for stupidity, greed, murder, mayhem, war, general chaos and charred cow flesh consumed together with deep-fat fried vegetables dipped in tomato catsup.

Obviously, my adventures at the plant convention had left me somewhat confused about the nature of reality, which I was already confused about.  I recalled that the list of “rules” I had been given in “a Different Universe” mentioned something about reality being whatever you can create that can be perceived.  My instructor in “Conjunctive Perspectives of Perception” class back at AEIOU once made an astute observation about the essence of reality.

“Reality is really, probably, nothing more, perhaps, than a hunch that many people have, sometimes, which they fairly often agreed upon as being not-too-far-fetched, depending on how recently they have either eaten or been
eaten or have had sex, which in many cases may be very similar, depending on one’s individual tastes“, he observed.

Until now, I had never run across another definition that was any better.  Anyway, I didn’t have time to waste on wild speculations about reality.  Besides, as I had recently discovered, reality is relative to the universe you’re in at the moment, or not.

It was time to get back to work on the case I was getting paid to solve so I could afford to pay for some ground up, charbroiled flesh of a dead cow which had, during it’s brief life, consumed several tons of my former plant acquaintances, a small portion of the resulting flesh being placed between two slabs of ground up, denatured grain which had been incinerated at 350 degrees for approximately one hour and topped with more dead vegetables, each of whom had given their lives, without apparent resistance, so that I, being more “intelligent” than they, or at least mean enough to condone their premeditated murder, could sustain the carbon/oxygen burning flesh engine, currently operating at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which I myself inhabited, the chemical-based incendiary devise, or stomach, of which was making rather obnoxious gurgling sounds at the moment.

My cheeseburger and fries sat, uneaten, on the table in front of me at a local burger joint, while I perused the newspaper to check out what I might have missed while I was “away”.  I was still looking for clues about the  disappearance of Carmel Wormwood.

Carmel told the Admiral that her maiden name, or alias, had been “Carmel Cortez”.  So far, I found out that she lied about that too.  There was no such person in any public record I had checked.  I was beginning to suspect that the Admiral had been lured into a premeditated scam by this Carmel person, whoever she was.

Nevertheless, I casually thumbed through to the obituary listings and personal ads, just in case I might turn up anything.  I stopped on page 16, bottom left-hand column.  There was a small headline that took my breath away!

Mysterious
Mass-Suicide of Amazon Rain Forest Logging Crew

Death
Caused by Self Inflicted Suffocation!
Entire World In Shock!

I read through the short article with breathless excitement:

“…a logging crew of 74 men were found dead in their work camp located in an isolated region of the Amazon rain forest.  All had died of asphyxiation. The police investigating the scene concluded that the deaths were the result of a bizarre self-inflicted mass suicide cult ritual popular among the local Indians.  A leader of the local Indians told reporters that the deaths were caused by what a native translator loosely interpreted to mean ‘angry spirit of the trees”.  Local police dismissed the statement as the hallucinations of a ignorant barbarian caused by chewing leaves of the dung-dung tree.”

I stuffed the newspaper in the back pocket of my jeans, ran out of the joint without even eating my burger and jumped on my Harley.  Back at my office I waited impatiently for my dial-up Internet connection to pull up a search
engine.  I had to find out more about the rain forest incident!  I used every key word I could think of, but couldn’t find many more details about the Amazon deaths.  After clicking through several dozen links, I finally found an environmentalist news website with more information about the incident:

“…the Pope declared an international day of mourning in response to orders from the World Bank Foundation and the Mega Oil Corporation, who jointly funded the clear-cut deforestation project in the area of the Amazon rain forest where the apparent suffocation suicide deaths of 74 loggers occurred.  A massive strip mining operation was to be undertaken to clear the deforested land of unsightly semi-precious metals, after which plans had been made to create grazing land for cattle and oil drilling operations on the barren landscape in what a Vatican spokesman described as a “humanitarian effort to create REAL jobs as oil rig workers and meat packers for displaced native Indians”.

A spokesman for the local Indawood-Weepoo Indians issued a statement in a press conference held at their refugee camp:  “Our people survived very well in our rain forest for the last 7,000 years, along with 27,374 other indigenous species of plants, insects and animals, nearly all of whom are now extinct because of the logging, mining and oil drilling.  The cows brought here by the oil company men are eating the few blades of grass that are left of our homeland!”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out any more about the suffocation part of the incident.  The local police closed the area off to outsiders and closed the investigation because they had “solved the case”.  So far, I had two dead end investigations in one day: Carmel and the Amazon.

I slumped down in my chair in front of the computer and stuffed my hands in to the pockets of my jeans while I thought about my next logical move. There was one common thread between both mysteries — Dr. Alice Nettles.
As far as I knew, she had been one of the last people to see Carmel before she disappeared into thin air and I was the last person to see her before I disappeared into the A Different Universe.

I jumped up out of my chair, heading for the door on my way out to see Dr. Alice.   I pulled my motorcycle keys out of my pocket.  A neatly folded piece of paper fell out onto the floor.  I picked it up and unfolded it.  At the top of the page it read, “RULES TO A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE”.

Dr. Alice and I needed to talk! Now!

___________________________________

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s the link to Chapter 4: https://lawrencerspencer.com/2011/06/01/the-big-bleep-chapter-4

ALIEN INTERVIEW BOOK, ART, FREE ADVICE, INSIDE THE BOOK, READING MATTER

PRINCIPLE OF ALL-MOTHER

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

~ from the science fiction book Domain Expeditionary Force Rescue Mission, by Lawrence R. Spencer

“The following excerpt from the historical preface to the  “Doctrine of The Eternally Benevolent Domain“.  This is a poetic abridgement of the philosophical principle of “All-Mother”.  The verses were written by the pre-Dominion poet, Shalnam-Aran, and officially adopted as a part of The Doctrine of The Eternally Benevolent Domain billions of years ago.  It is included here as an aid to recovering your memory as a member of the lost battalion:

  1. “Without seeking, one may know All-Mother.
  2. Without finding, one may know The Way of All-Mother.
  3. The Omniscient and Omnipotent Matriarch knows without searching, understands without thinking, acts without motion.
  4. To know that one does not understand is wise;
  5. Failing to know that one does not understand is folly.
  6. A wise being treats errors as misestimations of force.
  7. One becomes more able when force is used correctly.
  8. The proper use of force is to prevent those who harm others from harming others. This is benevolent for All.
  9. To use force without benevolent intention is foolish.
  10. Order, with Benevolence, ensures freedom and integrity for All.
  11. A trustworthy Being is honest with those who are honest.
  12. A trustworthy Being is honest with those who are dishonest.
  13. When a being can be trusted, integrity and benevolence may be attained for All.
  14. All beings, unless forcefully abused, are essentially benevolent.
  15. All-Mother defines the myriad shades of Benevolence.
  16. Who distinguishes the subtleties of beauty and ugliness?
  17. Being and non-being are a decision to be, or not to be.
  18. Benevolence is caused by All Beings in The Eternal Now.
  19. The Way of All-Mother embraces each Being with trust and Benevolent intent.
  20. All-Mother begins, as does Trust, with the decision to Be Benevolence.
  21. We, Immortal Benevolent Beings, embody All-Mother.
  22. Collectively, we are The Source of Eternal Benevolence.
  23. A Being creates and is responsible for creation.
  24. One creates, creates, creates, creates, or does not.
  25. If One does not create, no universe is perceived.
  26. One causes a universe with Creative Thought.
  27. Thought creates the boundaries of a space.
  28. Boundaries form the illusion of space.
  29. The space therein is filled with forms of thought.
  30. Placing forms therein, location and space are perceived.
  31. A universe of forms in motion, monitored, is time.
  32. The change of forms are caused by Beings.
  33. Changing forms, agreed upon, are mutually perceived.
  34. Mutual perception, agreed upon, is reality.
  35. One who looks will not see All-Mother.
  36. One who listens will not hear All-Mother.
  37. One who gropes will not grasp All-Mother.
  38. All-Mother is formless nonentity.
  39. All-Mother is motionless source of motion.
  40. The infinite essence of Being is the source of life.
  41. All-Mother is Self as a Benevolent Spirit.
  42. The Self, the Spirit, creates illusion.
  43. The delusion of Beings is that All is not an illusion.
  44. One creates illusion, enjoying, renewing, destroying.
  45. Creation and Joy of Being are The Way of All-Mother.
  46. Beings pretend to be forms to play a game.
  47. Beings may endows forms with sensation and feels pleasure therein.
  48. Pain is a game of suffering forms.
  49. Without a form, can one suffer?
  50. One may forget Ones Self and become a form.
  51. One becomes form: One loses The Way of All-Mother.
  52. Benevolent Creation is Pleasure.
  53. All-Mother is The Way of Eternal Pleasure.

Excerpted from the poem, “All-Mother: The Way of Benevolent Being”, verses 1 – 53 by Shalnam-Aran from The Doctrine of The Eternally Benevolent Domain

WE CREATE THE ETERNALLY BENEVOLENT DOMAIN!”