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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Click on the following link to read the story by Governor Jesse Ventura about the 9-11 cover-up and inside job.
His new book “American Conspiracies” reveals new evidence.
For some, the search for what happened on 9/11 isnt over — RT.
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“Official Transcript of the U.S. Army Air Force
Roswell Army Air Field, 509th Bomb Group
SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 27. 7. 1947, 1st Session
“The actual history of Earth is very bizarre. It is so nonsensical that is it is incredible to anyone on Earth who attempts to investigate it. A myriad of vital information is missing from it. A huge conglomeration of non sequitur relics and mythology has been arbitrarily introduced into it. The volatile nature of the Earth itself cyclically covers, drowns, mixes and shreds physical evidence.
These factors, combined with amnesia and post-hypnotic suggestions, false facades and covert manipulation make a reconstruction of the factual origins and history of Earth civilizations virtually indecipherable. Any investigator, no matter how brilliant, is doomed to wallow in a quagmire of inconclusive assumptions, unworkable hypotheses, and perpetual mystery.
Since The Domain does not suffer these afflictions, having the advantage of memory, longevity and an exterior point of view, I will add some clarification to your fragmentary knowledge of the history of Earth.
These are some of the dates and events that are not mentioned in Earth history textbooks. These dates are significant because they provide some information concerning the influences of the “Old Empire” and of The Domain on Earth.
Although I have attended several briefings by our mission control personnel on the general background of Earth within the past few hundred years, I will rely principally on data gathered from records captured after our invasion of the “Old Empire” planetary headquarters. Since that time The Domain Expeditionary Force has tracked the general progress of events on Earth.
As I mentioned, in some cases The Domain has chosen to intervene in certain affairs on Earth in order to ensure the success of our long term expansion plans. Although The Domain has no interest in Earth, per se, or in the population of IS-BEs on this planet, it does serve our interests to ensure that the resources of Earth are not destroyed or spoiled. To that end, certain officers of The Domain have been sent to Earth on reconnaissance missions from time to time to gather information.
However, the following dates and events have been extrapolated from the accumulated information in the data files of The Domain — at least those that are accessible to me through the space station communications center.
208,000 BCE —
The establishment of the “Old Empire”, whose headquarters were located near one of the “tail stars” in the Ursa Major (Big Dipper) Constellation (Footnote) of this galaxy. The “Old Empire” invasion force conquered the area with nuclear weapons sometime earlier. After the radioactivity (Footnote) subsided and the clean-up and restoration were completed, it received the immigration of beings from another galaxy into this galaxy. Those beings set up a society that kept going until about 10,000 years ago when it was superseded by The Domain.
Very recently Earth civilization has come to resemble aspects of that civilization, now that it has fallen out of its immediate control. In particular, the appearance and technology of transportation such as planes, trains, ships, fire engines, and automobiles, as well as what you consider to be “modern” or “futuristic” architecture, which emulate the design of buildings in the major cities of the “Old Empire”.
Before 75,000 BCE —
The Domain records contain very little information about the civilizations on the continental land masses of Atlanta (Footnote) and Lemur (Footnote), except to note that they did coexist on Earth at more or less the same time. Apparently, both civilizations were founded by remnants of electronic, space opera cultures who fled from their native planetary systems to escape political or religious persecution.
The Domain knows that a long-standing edict of the “Old Empire” prohibits unauthorized colonization of planets. Therefore, it is possible that their destruction was caused by police or military forces who pursued the colonists as criminals and destroyed them. Although this seems a likely supposition, no conclusive evidence exists that explains the complete destruction and disappearance of two entire electronic civilizations.
Another possibility is that a massive submarine volcanic eruption in the region of Lake Toba, in Sumatra (Footnote) and Mt. Krakatoa (Footnote) in Java caused the destruction of Lemur. The flood waters caused by the eruption overwhelmed all the land masses, including the highest mountains. Survivors of the destruction of the civilization, the Lemurians, are the earliest ancestors of the Chinese. Australia and the ocean areas to the north were the center of the Lemurian civilization and are the source of Oriental races. Both civilizations possessed electronics, flight and similar technologies of space opera cultures.
Apparently, the volcanic eruption expelled such a significant mass of molten rock that the resulting vacuum beneath the crust of Earth caused great areas of the land masses to sink below the oceans. The continental areas occupied by both civilizations were covered with volcanic matter, and then submerged, leaving very little evidence that they ever existed except for legends of a global flood which prevail in every culture of the Earth, and for survivors who are the genus of oriental races and cultures.
That kind of colossal volcanic explosion (Footnote) fills the stratosphere with toxic gases which are carried around the whole planet. The usual refuse of these volcanic eruptions can easily cause a rain that lasts for “40 days and 40 nights” due to atmospheric pollution as well as an extensive period during which radiation from the sun is deflected back into space, and cause global cooling. (Footnote) Certainly such an event would cause an ice age, extinctions of life forms and many other relatively long-term changes lasting thousands of years.
Due to the myriad types of naturally occurring global cataclysmic events which are indigenous to Earth, it is not a suitable planet for habitation by IS-BEs. In addition there have been occasional global cataclysms caused by IS-BEs such as the one that destroyed the dinosaurs (Footnote) more than 70 million years ago. That destruction was caused by intergalactic warfare during which time Earth, and many other neighboring moons and planets, were bombarded by atomic weapons. Atomic explosions cause atmospheric fallout much like that of volcanic eruptions. (Footnote) Most of the planets in this sector of the galaxy have been uninhabitable deserts since then.
Earth is undesirable for many other reasons: heavy gravity and dense atmosphere, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, polar shifts, continental drift, meteor impacts, atmospheric and climatic changes, to name a few. What kind of lasting civilization could any sophisticated culture propose to develop in such an environment?
In addition, Earth is a small planet of a “rim star” of a galaxy. This makes Earth very isolated geographically from the more concentrated planetary civilizations which exist toward the center of the galaxy. These obvious facts have made Earth suitable for use only as a zoological or botanical garden, or for its current use as a prison — but not much else.
Before 30,000 BCE —
Earth started being used as a dumping ground and prison for IS-BEs who were judged “untouchable”, meaning criminal or non-conformists. IS-BEs were captured, encapsulated in electronic traps and transported to Earth from various parts of the “Old Empire”. Underground “amnesia stations” were set up on Mars and on Earth in the Rwenzori Mountains (Footnote) in Africa, in the Pyrenees Mountains (Footnote) of Portugal, and in steppes of Mongolia.
These electronic monitoring points create force screens designed to detect and capture IS-BEs, when the IS-BE departs the body at death. IS-BEs are brainwashed using extreme electronic force in order to maintain Earth’s population in state of perpetual amnesia. Further population controls are installed through the use of long range electronic thought control mechanisms.
These stations are still in operation and they are extremely difficult to attack or destroy, even for The Domain, which will not maintain a significant military force in this area until a later date.
The pyramid civilizations were intentionally created as part of the IS-BE prison system on Earth. The pyramid is alleged to be the symbol for “wisdom”. However, the “wisdom” of the “Old Empire” on planet Earth is intended to operate as part of the elaborate amnesia “trap” consisting of MASS, MEANING and MYSTERY. These are opposite to the qualities of an Immortal Spiritual Being which have no mass, or meaning. An IS-BE “is” solely because it thinks that it “is”.
MASS represents the physical universe, including objects such as stars, planets, gases, liquids, energy particles and tea cups. The Pyramids were very, very solid objects, as were all of the structures created by the “Old Empire”. Heavy, massive, dense, solid objects create the illusion of eternity. Dead bodies wrapped in linen, soaked in resin, placed inside engraved golden coffins and entombed with Earthly possessions amid cryptic symbols create an illusion of eternal life. However, dense, heavy physical universe symbols are the exact opposite of an IS-BE. An IS-BE has no mass or time. Objects do not endure forever. An IS-BE “is” forever.
MEANING: False meanings prevent knowledge of the truth. The pyramid cultures of Earth are a fabricated illusion. They are nothing more than “false civilizations” contrived by the “Old Empire” mystery cult called the Brothers of the Serpent. False meanings were invented to create the illusion of a false society to further reinforce the amnesia mechanism among the intimates in the Earth prison system.
MYSTERY is built of lies and half-truths. Lies cause persistence because they alter facts which are comprised of exact dates, places and events. When truth is known, a lie no longer persists. If the exact truth is revealed, it is no longer a mystery.
All of the pyramid civilizations of Earth were carefully contrived of layer upon layer of lies, skillfully combined with a few truths. The priest cult of the “Old Empire” combined sophisticated mathematics and space opera technology, with theatrical metaphors and symbolism. All of these are complete fabrications of truth, baited with the allure of aesthetics and mystery.
The intricate rituals, astronomical alignments, secret rites, massive monuments, marvelous architecture, artistically rendered hieroglyphs and man-animal “gods” were designed to create a unsolvable mystery for the IS-BE prison population on Earth. The mystery diverts attention away from the truth that IS-BEs have been captured, given amnesia and imprisoned on a planet far, far away from their home.
The truth is that every single IS-BE on Earth came to Earth from some other planetary system. Not one person on Earth is a “native” inhabitant. Human beings did not “evolve” on Earth.
In the past, Egyptian society was run by the prison administrators or priests, who, in turn, manipulated a Pharaoh, controlled the treasury and kept the inmate population enslaved physically and spiritually. In modern times, the priests have changed, but the function is the same. However, now the priests are prisoners too.
Mystery reinforces the walls of the prison. The “Old Empire” feared that the IS-BEs on Earth might regain their memory. Therefore, one of the primary functions of The “Old Empire” priesthood is to prevent IS-BEs on Earth from remembering who they really are, how they came to Earth, where they came from.
The “Old Empire” operators of the prison system, and their superiors, do not want IS-BEs to remember who murdered them, captured them, stole all of their possessions, sent them to Earth, gave them amnesia and condemned them to eternal imprisonment!
Imagine what might happen if all of the inmates in the prison suddenly remembered that they have the right to be free! What if they suddenly realized that they have been falsely imprisoned and rise up as one against the guards?
They are afraid to reveal anything that looks like the civilization of the inmates home planets. A body, a piece of clothing, a symbol, a space ship, an advanced electronics device, or any other remnant of civilization from a home planet could “remind” a being and rekindle his memory.Sophisticated technologies of entrapment and enslavement, which were developed over millions of years in the “Old Empire”, have been applied to the IS-BEs on Earth with the intention to create a false facade for the prison. These facades were installed on Earth in totality, all at once. Every piece is a fully integrated part of the prison system.
This includes a religion of mumbo-jumbo double-speak. Every pyramid civilization uses this as part of a control mechanism to keep the population enslaved by force, by fear and by ignorance. The indecipherable muddle of irrelevant information, geometric designs, mathematical calculation, astronomical alignments, are part of a false spirituality based on solid objects, rather than immortal spirits, in order to confuse and disorient the IS-BEs on Earth. When the body of a person died they were buried with their Earthly possessions, including their former body wrapped in linen, to sustain their “soul” or “Ka” after death. An IS-BE does not “have” as soul. An IS-BE is a soul.
On the home planet of an IS-BE their material possessions were not lost, stolen or forgotten when the being died or left the body. An IS-BE could return and claim the possessions. However, if the IS-BE has amnesia, they will not remember that they had any possession. So, governments, insurance companies, bankers, family members and other vultures can pick their possessions clean without fear of retribution from the deceased.
The only reason for these false meanings is to instill the idea that an IS-BE is NOT a spirit, but a physical object! This is a lie. It is a trap for an IS-BE.
Countless people have spent endless hours attempting to solve the jig-saw puzzle of Egypt and other “Old Empire” civilizations. They are puzzles made of pieces that do not fit. A question states its own answer. What is the mystery of Egypt and other pyramid cultures? Mystery!”
FOR COMPLETE DETAILS OF THE HISTORY OF EVENTS ON EARTH, THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGINS OF MANKIND and THE CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY, READ THE BOOK ALIEN INTERVIEW
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“MELTING WICKED WITCHES
“Ahhhhhh, you cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting … melting … ohhhhh! What a world! What a world!”
— The Wicked Witch from the 1939 film ‘The Wizard of Oz‘
To Dorothy, like most of us on planet Earth, the Wicked Witches seem formidable and invincible with their magical powers, superior weapons, and vast armies of flying monkeys.
Dorothy accidentally melted the Wicked Witch with a bucket of water in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Who would think that a simple bucket of water could destroy the witch? Dorothy didn’t even know that the witch COULD be melted!
Fortunately for her, and for us, there IS a way to melt every wicked witch. And, sometimes, the simplest solutions, like water, are the most powerful.
A–THE PSYCHO-BABBLE OF FLYING MONKEYS
It is said that the mythical Tower of Babble was a mechanism created by the gods as a way to create different languages among men. The variety of languages was intended to make it more difficult for men to communicate with each other. The barriers to communication, therefore, would make it more difficult for men to get together and figure out what the gods were really up to. In this way, the secret activities of the gods would be secure.
Like the ancient myth, there are modern, would-be gods and witches who have secrets and hidden agendas to hide. A common hiding technique is to “redefine” language and invent new words that are “politically correct”, yet nonsensical in reality. As with the gods of old, the intention of such redefinition of language is to disguise a hidden agenda or misdirect attention.
For example, psychiatry fabricate words to describe newly invented mental “diseases”–the so-called disease of school children called “attention deficit disorder” for instance. This nonsense language is called “psycho-babble”.
The Communist Party in Russia was notorious for their masterful redefinition of the language to re-educate the people of Russia into a new, socialized thinking about themselves and the world. For example, the Communists used the word “comrade” instead of “peasant worker” and “commissar” instead of “czar”. (The only real difference between a commissar and a capitalist and an aristocrat, who the commissar despises, is spelling! They are each supported by the work of other people, as none of them produces anything of value themselves.)
Politicians put a spin on existing words and ideas in order to covertly influence our thinking. Television, movies and news media feed us the newly defined, politically correct words and ideas as they are revised and released. For example, the federal government spends billions more than it collects in taxes every year. In the business world this is called “overspending” which results in “bankruptcy”. In the political world, the politico-babble word for it has been changed to “deficit spending” and results in a “budget deficit”.
The world of advertising is another culprit using these methods. The newest and therefore hip, cool, groovy trend or fad is usually designed to sell something–music, clothing, drugs, movie tickets, etc. For example, the marketing campaign designed to sell “oversized, overpriced, luxury, four-wheel drive, passenger trucks”, is made more acceptable with the phrase, “sports utility vehicle”.
The subject of the spirit, in the Western world, is another example of a subject which remains heavily shrouded in mystery and skepticism. There is a “politically correct” nomenclature used by the “doctors” of psychiatry to describe the spirit, which has been made intentionally obtuse and foreboding. Psychiatry uses condescending phrases like “paranormal”, to describe spiritual phenomenon, which literally means, outside of the normal. Of course, the unspoken implication is that being “normal” is supposed to be some nebulous state of perfect bliss and fulfillment that can be achieved only by a strict, life-long adherence to the rituals of the normal or chosen class. A “normal” person eats cheeseburgers, pays taxes, takes drugs, buys mass quantities of merchandise he or she doesn’t need, and believes that what he or she sees on television is “the truth”.
Another favorite phrase used to describe spiritual matters is “alternative reality”. Okay, so let’s see … there’s only ONE reality and it’s the reality you’ve been told to believe by the government and the television set and your shrink. If you don’t agree with the ONE reality they’ll lock you up in a loony-bin, drug you, electroshock you, give you a pre-frontal lobotomy.
Finally, when your insurance company won’t pay them any more money to keep you locked up, they’ll let you out for the rest of your so-called “life” as a brain-dead vegetable. You have now been “cured” of your “delusions” and are “being reasonable” and “realistic”. Gee, that’s some “alternative” reality.
“Parapsychology” is yet another distorted concept which literally means, “the study of things around the spirit”. The only problem is that the “study” is being conducted by psychiatrists, with government funding, who, through a meticulous process of torturing laboratory animals, have “expertly” concluded that man is a stimulus-response animal, and not a spiritual being.
As we will see, the goal of such “research” is to learn how to CONTROL the behavior of men in order to make them more obedient taxpayers.”
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“O goat-foot God of *Arcady!
This modern world is gray and old,
And what remains to us of thee ? …
Then blow some trumpet loud and free,
And give thine oaten pipe away,
Ah, leave the hills of Arcady* !
This modern world hath need of thee!”
— Oscar Wilde, (c. 1854-1900)
(*Arcady = Arcadia, the southern region of Greece, for which Pan is the national god.)
Derek was on the trail at 6:00 AM as planned. By 8:00 he reached the first landmark shown on the map he’d picked up at the ranger station. It was a small lake around which the trail led as it crawled over a rise on the opposite shore and disappeared into a dense forest. He was invigorated by the clean, oxygen-rich morning air. The crunching scuff of gravel and earth under foot gave substance to his stride. Pine trees scattered the path with brown needles. Their perfume pervaded the air. Occasionally the more acrid odor of sage brush, Manzanita bushes, and milk weed filled his nose. A pair of chattering chipmunks scampered across his path and skittered up a nearby tree, turning to see him pass in arrogant safety high up among the branches, their cheek pouches puffed with pine nuts. Blue jays squawked and scolded him from their tree top sanctuaries. Derek was in the native lands of nature now. An intruder.
About 10:00 A.M. Derek stopped to rest and eat and drink something. He had kept a leisurely but steady pace along the trail. He estimated by the map that he’d come about 9 or 10 miles, having paused only to drink from his canteen briefly and remove his sweatshirt which had become too hot to wear. He propped his pack against a fallen log and sitting there, spread his food beside him. His appetite was keen, invigorated by the exercise and fresh air at this altitude. His body seemed eager and at home here, alive with sensation sharpened by the surroundings and the ever-present sloping grandeur of Mt. Shasta on his left hand vista.
As Derek ate he realized how foreign he seemed to this place. The cellophane wrappers, printed paper labels, plastic forks, and the processed foods he had brought. Dried figs, sharp cheddar cheese, soda crackers, and salami. Even the fabrics of his clothes and shoes seemed peculiar here. They were a phony fabrication by man of unnatural nature.
Derek sighed, stuffed the leftovers back into his pack, stood and stretched. He was about half way to his destination for the day called Crescent Lake, about 8 miles northeast. That is where the trail would end and he would start out on his own into untrammeled regions. One day out and one day back from the lake. His real wilderness adventure.
He hadn’t seen any other hikers since about 9:00 when he’d passed a young couple coming down from the lake. It was very late in the season for hiking and camping now. By 4:00 Derek had arrived at Crescent Lake, rested, set up his overnight campsite and gathered some firewood. He was alone here, much to his relief and delight. The afternoon sun was still above the hills, casting chilly shadows onto the lake shore through the trees.
Crescent Lake was small, perhaps 100 yards across, set against the side of a hill sloping 500 feet above the far shore. It was fed by several trickling rivulets, nearly dry since the snows had long since receded from the mountain peak except for a few patches of dirt inlaid ice.
Derek did not think about his life, his work, Jenny or Paula. His worries about his frustrating, mid-life confusions dissolved into the trees, the azure sky, the crisp, fresh air. He felt cleansed and refreshed by an impish, childish wonder and delight, absorbed in fascination for this invigorating environment.
Derek took off his dusty hiking boots and sweaty white gym socks. He crept to the edge of the lake, gingerly dodging the rocks and pebbles along the shore. He found a fallen tree trunk overhanging the water. He sat and dangled his feet in the coolness of the clear water. He breathed deeply at the chilling sensation on his feet and ankles. The lake was mostly in the shadow of the mountain now. A gentle, rhythmic splash lapped the shore on either side of him. Water skippers cruised the surface between his legs like a tiny catamaran, oblivious to his unmoving presence. Tiny minnows nipped curiously at his toes.
Derek caught his breath in excited wonder as a granddaddy-sized brown trout snaked leisurely from beneath the log he sat on. The fish was about 14 inches long, a veteran survivor at dodging fishing lures which had done their best to trick him into becoming somebody’s supper. The fish wagged his competent tail and flashed into the shadows toward the center of the lake in search of an evening meal of flies too slow and stupid to avoid becoming food for fish: a silent, submerged hunter who was himself hunted. He was part of the weirdly inverted food chain of planet earth, where in order for one life form to live, another must die — an absurd pyramid of eating and being eaten at the top of which stands Man: the ultimate eater, the consumer of all consumers.
Derek stared at the distorted slant of his bare feet beneath the rippling water. He shuddered a bit as a sudden chilling breeze wrinkled the lake. The glow of setting sun above the hills around the lake dimmed to gray. A nearly full moon appeared suspended like a china dish on a blue-gray wall.
That night Derek lay on his back in his sleeping bag listening to the gentle hiss and snap of his nearly spent camp fire. The mighty, silent canopy of night sky splendor consumed him, as it always did when sleeping outdoors in the mountains. Derek thought the same existentially overwhelming thoughts that had pervaded him as a child. Confronted by the unfathomable, infinite vastness of macrocosmic space brought into focus the microscopically inconsequential nonentity of Earth by comparison. He felt the awesome eschatological apathy that always occasioned the experience.
Derek wondered how astronomers ever managed to get over the feeling of their own utter insignificance; a majestic humiliation brought on by this clashing contrast of magnitudes. The microcosm within the macrocosm; a flea on a flea on a flea on a flea, ad infinitum. The was, the is, and the will be of infinite space and time and matter and the inestimable magnitude and power of twinkling stellar energy: the face of God.
There was nothing to save him from these thoughts except to sleep; to not be — until the chariot of dawn was driven by the sun to slay the dark illusion of the night and restore myopic sight to those who need eyes to see.
Towering trees seemed to touch the stars above him. Through the boughs a breeze whispered a hushed and haunting hymn.
In sleep he dreamed he heard the simple piping of a flute. There were words he would not remember in the morning — words without a voice to sing them, as though a child were humming a rhyme to himself:
“I hide in the fuzz on a butterfly wing.
I ride the on waves of electron rings.
I hear the songs that a ladybug sings.
I can be small, like the tiniest things.
I like to play leapfrog over the sun,
Run around Venus and Mars just for fun.
Jogging to Pluto is just a short run.
Heavenly hopscotch is easily done.
By changing my viewpoint I’m smaller than small
I fly with my thoughts! I’ll never fall!
I decide to be none! I decide to be all!
I am immortal — immeasurably tall.
You’re just a man! You’re weak and small!
I dare you to find me! I dare each and all!
You’ll never see me. You’ll never get near.
I am a god! I don’t have your fears!
I’m here, then I’m there. I’m free to be free.
I don’t need to eat or breathe or pee!
I am who I am. It’s fun being me!
The same Pan I’ve been, and always will be!”
* * * * * * * * *
The morning was cloudy and cool but it cleared by 10:00 when he stopped to rest. Derek removed his lightweight jacket, wearing only jeans and a dark green tee-shirt with his company logo on the back; a cloud of arithmetic symbols and a lighting bolt. It was a remnant of the Nimbus Software summer softball team. He wanted to be the pitcher but could never master the proper slow, high-arch, back-spin needed to make batters pop-up or ground out, so he played second base instead.
Climbing a steadily sloping ridge was hot work as he tramped through the thinning pine trees across the volcanic lava rocks strewn on the hillside. Finally mounting the summit of a ridge Derek paused to regain his breath. From this vantage he could clearly survey a broad panorama of forest rolling across the Trinity mountain range to the eastern horizon.
Before him a steep decent of about 1,000 feet would bring him to a narrow meadow of tall grass which lay about 2 miles from a river. He plodded stiff-legged, sliding and zigzagging sideways down the slope to ease the speed of his descent. In places he slid in finely powdered dirt and loose gravel, dodging sagebrush, Manzanita branches, boulders and an occasional tree. He sneezed at the dusty, musk scent of the tinder-dry brush. He grabbed at red-barked branches for support. There had been no rain here for three months. He had been warned about the dry conditions and the threat of forest fires, usually caused by careless campers and hunters.
About 11:30 Derek finally slid and staggered to the bottom of the ridge, half crawling beneath a dense stand of tall brush at the edge of the meadow. Dusty, sweating, thirsty and scratched he eased the pack from his back and sat on a rock to dump the dirt out of his boots. The harder than expected climb down to the meadow, gave Derek a sense of boyish exhilaration.
After some canteen water, cheddar cheese and crackers, Derek shouldered his pack to begin the final leg of his hike to the river which lay across the meadow. He’d walked no more than one hundred yards along the edge of the meadow when he stopped and stood breathlessly still.
There, near the middle of the meadow stood two mule deer, not more than fifty yards from him. They had both their heads bent to the ground, intent on grazing. What a delightful sight, he thought. Though he knew he might see wild animals in the woods he was still surprised to see what was, for a city dweller, a rare sight.
The deer were moving slowly away from him as they fed, flicking at flies with long ears and short tails. Derek squatted to remain unseen by the pair. The buck was the larger of the two and had a fine set of antlers. Derek marveled at the sleek grace of their form and large, soft, nearly oriental eyes. Their smooth tan fur and silent steps blended with the tall dry grass of the meadow.
As the deer advanced further from him Derek decided to circle around them through the trees surrounding the meadow to take a position in front of them at the edge of the meadow. From there he could take some pictures. This was the first time on his trip he’s seen anything he wanted to photograph.
When he arrived at the spot Derek stood slowly from his crouch, being careful to stay out of view and to move noiselessly. He raised his camera, stepped forward “Indian style”, one foot in front of the other, then snapped the shutter. The auto-wind motor whirred forward to advance the film. On hearing the sound, the buck raised his head, ears perked up, followed by the doe, they stood still but intensely alert.
Derek was not quite aware of a hint of oddly misplaced of cedar scent in the meadow.
From among a shadowy stand of trees on the opposite side of the meadow, perhaps 75 yards away, Derek saw a tiny puff of white smoke. Both deer started forward. In this same timeless moment Derek felt the sensation of being at the center of an explosion. There was a shattering crash, though he didn’t hear it with his ears; an incandescent flash, not seen by his eyes; no pain, only a terrifically violent shock. He thought dimly, “This was the feeling of being struck by lightning”.
A sense of utter shriveling weakness overcame him as the meadow, trees, sky and mountains receded into a great, vague distance. Derek saw his body slump to the ground as though he was high above it, looking down like some hovering bird. He sensed that he was very badly hurt but could not imagine how or why. In alarm he swooped back down to his body with the simultaneous realization that he had been shot. He felt numb and dazed, but no pain. All in less than a second.
For what seemed an eternity Derek lay stunned, yet intensely aware, as shouting voices and footsteps approached. There were faces above him. Someone lifted his helpless form to tear away his pack and shirt.
“God damn Billy, he’s hit! Shit! Oh, shit! Oh, Lord Jesus, man…get his shirt open!”
Billy Joe Jaras and his brother Virgil had been deer hunting together every year since they were in school together in Valdosta, Georgia, more than 15 years ago. They played varsity football at Valdosta High. In Valdosta everybody played football and everybody hunted. Just something everybody did growin’ up. After high school they joined the Army and went to ‘Nam like most everybody else, ‘cept for Yankee, pinko draft-dodgers.
Virgil Jaras met his wife while he was stationed at Fort Ord. After the Army, he stayed in northern California so he and his wife could be near her kin people. He got a job in the hydroelectric plant at Whiskeytown Dam. Billy Joe followed him 6 months later and settled too. It wasn’t like down home in Georgia, but the work paid real good and there was plenty of forests for huntin’ and fishin’.
They bought double-wide mobile homes on lots right next to each other, just like they lived in when they was growin’ up. Just the night before they was sittin’ by their campfire, tellin’ stories about the old days back home. About stuff they used to do in school and about girls they had screwed and about drinkin’ and fightin’ and about their old huntin’ dog, Sparky. They each drank a six-pack of Coors and threw the empties into the ashes.
But right now Virgil and Billy Joe were just trying to stop the blood from bubbling out of Derek’s body. The bullet had gone all the way through his chest and passed out the shoulder blade.
Derek tried to speak. He wanted to find out what was happening. He still couldn’t feel any pain. He found that he had no voice. He tried to move but the body did not respond. Then he realized that he was not “in” his body. He was looking down at it from above. He could perceive Virgil and Billy Joe, but not with the same vision which he saw things through his body’s eyeballs. He “knew” they were struggling with makeshift bandages made from torn strips their own t-shirts. He saw them lifting his body but he couldn’t feel the motion. His body’s head lolled to one side, the arms drooped limply, dragging on the ground as they carried him, almost running, across the meadow.
Derek panicked.
“Oh my God! I must be dead!”
He thought of Jenny, his beautiful wife. He had always loved her. And of his business. How could they manage without him? The major accounts he dealt with personally, the meetings, decisions.
“This isn’t fair! I can’t die now! This is totally stupid!”
Derek felt a violent resentment at having to leave this body and life behind. Life suited him. He had been very good at living it. He wasn’t ready to leave it yet!
“Oh My God!” he thought in desperate horror.
“Yes? You called?”, Derek felt a voice say to him.
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“I read the most excellent treatise and critique of that superstitious body of mythology written by the American revolutionary, Thomas Paine. Although Mr. Paine is not a popular fellow in Britain, having fathered the uprising against King George which resulted in the loss of the greatest possession ever claimed by the throne of England, he is nonetheless a man of preeminent intellect and prodigious reasoning ability.
His book, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and *Fabulous Theology, to my own system of logical assessment and evaluation represents the most thorough, factual and incontrovertible dissection of the Bible, which unfortunately serves our civilization as a guideline for survival. After having read his preeminent work of logical vivisection upon the content of the Bible, and by abstraction, a commentary upon the paradigm of Western Civilization, it is no longer a mystery to me that humanity has endured so great an extent of war, misery, chaos, greed, destruction and mayhem inflicted by Western imperialism upon the Earth at the behest of, and with regal and religious blessings.
As for my personal observation and conviction concerning the matter of religion, I concur with the statement most ably stated by Thomas Paine himself:
“I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”
(Definition of the word “fabulous” — adjective: based on or told of in traditional stories; lacking factual basis or historical validity)
— An excerpt from SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE, by Lawrence R. Spencer
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