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JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 1

NEXUSNEW TIMES MAGAZINE

Volume 9, Number 4 JUNE – JULY 2002PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560, Australia Website: www.nexusmagazine.com

CONTENTSCONTENTSLETTERS TO THE EDITOR.............................................4

GLOBAL NEWS.............................................................6News you may have missed, including a warningabout an imminent Earth magnetic pole flip, risks towater integrity and fertility, and legislation designedto control the sale of herbal medicines in Europe.

INSIDER'S VIEW OF THE "WAR ON TERRORISM".....13By Michael C. Ruppert. The United States andseveral other governments had foreknowledge ofthe September 11 terrorist attacks, says MikeVreeland, a former spy for US Naval Intelligence.

HISTORY OF THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT.............19By Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar. Today's Palestinian-Israeli crisis has its roots in the struggle over land,the deceit of colonial powers and the UN's failureto implement its 1947 partition plan for two states.

HEALING WITH URINE THERAPY.............................29By Natalia Perera. "Shivambu Shastra", the ancientAyurvedic medicinal practice of using urine forpersonal health therapy, is gaining acceptance asits myriad benefits are explored by modern science.

THE MYTHS OF VEGETARIANISM—Part 2................35By Stephen Byrnes. Anthropological studies showthat tribal peoples around the globe have neverbeen strict vegetarians but eat animal productsfrom a range of sources to maintain good health.

THE SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT IN SCIENCE............43By Will Hart. Even in these "enlightened" moderntimes, scientists are denigrated if they proposetheories and ideas that are at odds with theestablishment-approved view of the world.

SCIENCE NEWS..........................................................49By Don Maisch. The evidence is stacking up thatmobile phone radiation emissions are dangerous tohealth, particularly that of children, and concernedvoices are calling for a precautionary approach.

CREATION BY OUTSIDE INTERVENTION.................53By Lloyd Pye. Darwinists, Creationists andIntelligent Design proponents cannot explain theemergence of humans or domesticated plants andanimals. Did outside agents, extraterrestrials, playa part in modifying the genetics of life?

THE BOCK SAGA: AN ANCIENT TIME CAPSULE......61By Les Whale. An ancient Finnish saga, passeddown orally through the Bock family, speaksvolumes about a common source of language andculture that goes back untold thousands of years.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE................................................67Paradigm-expanding items, including speculationson an ancient 3D map found in the Urals, evidencefor settlements in ice-age Tibet, and validation ofBilly Meier's claim via the Pleiadians that Ecuador'sMt Chimborazo is the world's highest mountain.

REVIEWS—Books........................................................71"Darwin's Mistake" by Dr Hans J. Zillmer"The Afterlife Experiments" by Gary E. Schwartz, PhD"Emissary of Love" by James Twyman"The Truth Behind the Christ Myth" by Mark Amaru Pinkham"Blast It!: How to Eliminate Diseases, Disorders..." (a Rife manual)"Triumph over Cancer" by Agi Lidle"Cellular Telephone Russian Roulette" by Robert C. Kane"Netherworld" by Robert Temple"Plague, Pestilence and the Pursuit of Power" by Steven Ransom"Health Wars" by Phillip Day"Atlantis & Power System of the Gods" by Childress and Clendenon"Watt's the Buzz?" by Lyn McLean"Disclosure" by Steven M. Greer, MD"How the Sun God Reached America" by R. de Jonge & J. Wakefield

REVIEWS—Videos.......................................................78"Crop Circles: The Research" by B. Janssen & J. Ossebaard"Contact" produced by Bert Janssen and Janet Ossebaard"John of God" by Mark Thomas"Dowsers Down Under" with Alanna Moore

REVIEWS—Music........................................................79"Cello Blue" by David Darling"Big Drum: Small World" by Dhol Foundation"Latin Groove" by various artists"The Afro-Indian Project" by Ravi, Hossam Ramzy and others"Quiet Days" by various artists

NEXUS BOOKS, VIDEOS, ADS, SUBS...................87–96

NEXUS MAGAZINEVolume 9, Number 4

JUNE – JULY 2002PUBLISHED BY

NEXUS Magazine Pty Ltd, ABN 80 003 611 434

EDITORDuncan M. Roads

CO-EDITORCatherine Simons

ASSISTANT EDITOR/SUB-EDITORRuth Parnell

EDITORS' ASSISTANTRichard Giles

OFFICE ADMINISTRATORJenny Hawke

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUEMichael C. Ruppert; Joel Beinin, PhD, and

Lisa Hajjar, PhD; Natalia Perera;Stephen Byrnes, PhD; Will Hart;

Don Maisch; Lloyd Pye; Les WhaleCARTOONSPhil Somerville

COVER GRAPHICJohn Cook, [email protected]

PRINTINGAPN, Queensland, Australia

AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTIONNewsagents Direct Distribution

HEAD OFFICE – All CorrespondencePO Box 30, Mapleton, Qld 4560, Australia

Tel: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.nexusmagazine.com

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Tel: +64 (0)9 405 1963; Fax: +64 (0)9 405 1964Email: [email protected]

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Fax: +31 (0)321 318892STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

NEXUS recognises that humanity is undergoing amassive transformation. With this in mind, NEXUSseeks to provide 'hard-to-get' information so as toassist people through these changes. NEXUS is notlinked to any religious, philosophical or politicalideology or organisation.

PERMISSION-TO-REPRODUCE POLICYWhile reproduction and dissemination of the infor-mation in NEXUS is actively encouraged, anyonecaught making a buck out of it, without our expresspermission, will be in trouble when we catch them!

WARRANTY AND INDEMNITYAdvertisers upon and by lodging material with the Publisher for publication or authorising or approving of the publication of any material INDEMNIFY thePublisher and its servants and agents against all liability claims or proceedings whatsoever arising from the publication and without limiting the generality of theforegoing to indemnify each of them in relation to defamation, slander of title, breach of copyright, infringement of trademarks or names of publication titles, unfaircompetition or trade practices, royalties or violation of rights or privacy AND WARRANT that the material complies with all relevant laws and regulations and thatits publication will not give rise to any rights against or liabilities in the Publisher, its servants or agents and in particular that nothing therein is capable of beingmisleading or deceptive or otherwise in breach of the Part V of the Trade Practices Act 1974. All expressions of opinion are published on the basis that they arenot to be regarded as expressing the opinion of the Publisher or its servants or agents. Editorial advice is not specific and readers are advised to seek professionalhelp for individual problems. © NEXUS New Times 2002

Editorial

Hello again, and welcome to the wide world of NEXUS. One of the topics I've been mean-ing to mention for some time is the subject of sceptics. I have a stack of unsolicited arti-

cles and letters tearing apart or exposing sceptics and their various agendas and activities. Sowhy don't I publish them? Well, apart from dignifying a bunch of opinionated and self-appointed experts, the truth is that you and I are already the real sceptics of society!

Think about it. Weare the people who are sceptical about the official line that UFOs don'texist; we are sceptical that vaccinations are safe and effective; we are sceptical that there is nocover-up on water-fuelled cars or cold fusion; we are sceptical that corporations do not con-spire with governments to milk taxpayers for all they can; we are sceptical that the medicalprofession has no cures for cancer; we are sceptical of both Creationists' and Darwinists' theo-ries of human origins; we are sceptical of the claims that there is no CIA drug-trafficking; weare sceptical that there is no agenda for global governance via currency control, etc., etc. Infact, we are sceptical about nearly everything the "experts" would have us believe as truth!

Those who call themselves sceptics are really not sceptical at all. They believe there are noUFO cover-ups; they believe governments are honest; they believe there is no cold fusion orfree energy cover-up; they believe that humans evolved from some primeval soup; theybelieve that mainstream medicine is the best and only option, while they ridicule acupuncture,homoeopathy and so on They are nothing more than society's self-appointed (and self-aggran-dising) thought-police, attempting to silence any legitimate questioning of mainstream propa-ganda. Sceptics are the ones who would have warned Columbus to stay at home, lest he falloff the edge of the world!

But onto other matters at hand. The first part of the article on the "Myths of Vegetarianism"attracted much criticism. Ironically, the article actually helps those who want to stay vegetari-an and improve their health, but it seems that many missed this point entirely. Judging by thetone of language of some of the letters we received, we can dispel another myth. Vegetarianscan be just as aggressive as meat-eaters—possibly even more so! Blame it on a vitamin B12deficiency! Be sure to read the second part this issue.

I hope that by the time you read this editorial, peace will have broken out in the MiddleEast—although, as I write this, it looks nearly impossible. One of my primary concernsregarding the Middle East situation is the appalling ignorance amongst Westerners about whyPalestinian Arabs and Israelis are fighting each other. It appears that many people under theage of 30 think it is all a result of religious conflict going back a millennium and more. Mostpublications are very wary of printing anything on the Middle East for fear of upsetting theimmensely powerful Israeli Zionist lobby in their particular country. Since we seem to beupsetting everybody lately, we decided to publish what we think is the most balanced andaccurate account of the history of the conflict that we've come across yet.

One article that excites me is "Creation by Outside Intervention". Basically, this addressesthe most obvious, logical (but unproved) explanation for how humans came into being. Itwasn't evolution from mud to monkey to man. It wasn't God doing it over six days. It wasdue to outside intervention, i.e., extraterrestrial geneticists! No doubt Creationists andDarwinists will soon be uniting to counter this "threat" to their respective dogmas.

The Bock Saga of Finland is another intriguing subject. I first heard of it many years agoand have come across related bits and pieces ever since. As far as I'm aware, the article thisissue is the first time an attempt has been made to describe this vast saga in print, at least inEnglish. The last surviving descendant is passing on a history purportedly going back to thelast Ice Age and possibly well beyond, so time is of the essence.

Urine therapy gets another splash this issue (sorry, I couldn't resist that one!). Six years agowe ran the incredible story of an American woman who had been suffering from endometriosisfor years. After trying everything mainstream and everything alternative, she tried urinetherapy. It cured her within days! Her story inspired many readers to try urine therapy to treattheir own ailments. We've since heard of skin cancers that disappeared, AIDS patients whorecovered, and a host of other disorders that were alleviated. Urine is not a waste product ofthe body; it is a by-product of blood filtration. It is your own perfect, bio-individualisedmedicine—on tap, when you need it! Read the article and judge for yourself.

Most readers already know that mobile phones are probably bad for their health, but we hearmore and more of the risks that radiation emissions pose for children. If you have a child whouses a mobile phone, you mustread the (non-technical) article in Science News.

Duncan

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Space-Based Weapons AgendaDear Duncan: I heard a report

last year on "Starstuff", on ABCRadio National (Australia), con-cerning laser weapons in space.Apparently, planned for 20 yearshence, NASA is to put 48 plat-forms into orbit, containing sever-al different types of lasers. It willcompletely cover the globe.

Pretty silly that one country,America, gets to have control overthe whole globe. How does onedefend against space-basedweapons systems, lasers, EMpulses, etc.?

Personally, I don't think tyrannyis on the "spiritual agenda" forEarth, but let's wait and see. (It'salready got a nice foothold.)

Yours sincerely,Linda A., Chelsea, Victoria,

Australia[Dear Linda: Personally, I think

we all help decide what our "spiri-tual agenda" is. I, for one, doNOT like the idea of space-basedweapons systems, as whoever con-trols those systems controls thewhole planet. I implore all read-ers to treat this subject with moreconcern. To that end, I printanother letter below, which canhelp focus efforts. Ed.]

Keep Space for Peace! Dear Editor: The Global

Network Against Weapons andNuclear Power in Space enters its10th year of organising in 2002.

For the past two years, theGlobal Network has organised inOctober an international day ofprotest to stop the militarisation ofspace. In 2001, there were 115local actions held in 19 countries.

In 2002, the day of protest willbe expanded to an entire week ofevents to be called "Keep Spacefor Peace Week" and will be heldduring October 4–11.

The US Space Command pre-dicts that because of "corporateglobalisation", the gap between"haves" and "have nots" willwiden worldwide in coming years.

With space "control and domina-tion" in place, the SpaceCommand will become the mili-tary arm for the multinational cor-porations, enabling the US to sup-press those who protest US globaldominance. Control the people ofthe world by controlling space…With space domination in place,the military will be able to hear

everything, see everything and tar-get everyone on Earth.

Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator,Global Network Against Weaponsand Nuclear Power in Space, POBox 90083, Gainesville, Florida32607, USA, tel (352) 337 9274,[email protected], web-site http://www.space4peace.org

Raw Foods for Healthy PetsHello, Duncan: A growing num-

ber of veterinarians state thatprocessed pet food is the maincause of illness and prematuredeath in the modern dog and cat.

In December 1995, the BritishJournal of Small Animal Practicepublished a paper contending thatprocessed pet food suppresses theimmune system and leads to liver,kidney, heart and other disease.

Dr Kollath, of the KarolinskaHospital in Stockholm, headed astudy done on animals. Whenyoung animals were fed cookedand processed foods, they initiallyappeared to be healthy. However,as the animals reached adulthood,they began to age more quicklythan normal and also developedchronic degenerative diseasesymptoms. A control group ofanimals raised on raw foods agedless quickly and were free ofdegenerative disease.

A growing number of veterinari-ans and animal nutritionists saythat many diseases and much suf-fering of our pets can be preventedor cured with nutrition. Holisticveterinarians teach that processedpet food (meaning cookedfood) isthe main cause of illness and pre-mature death in the modern dogand cat.

For a return to health, petsrequire a diet which strengthensthe immune system and mostclosely resembles that which theywould get in the wild (meaningraw food). Grains are not part ofthe natural diet of wild dogs andcats.

Carnivores cannot maintainlong-term production of the quan-tity of amylase enzyme necessaryto properly digest and utilise thecarbohydrates.

You can find more informationabout the optimum diet for ani-mals at http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/animals.htm.

Shirley Lipschutz-Robinson,Sh i r ley@shi r leys-we l lness-cafe.com

UFO Disclosure Down UnderDear Editor: Overseas govern-

ments have not always been openabout what they know about theUFO phenomenon. Civilian UFOresearch organisations in a numberof countries have lobbied theirgovernments to release all theyknow about the subject.

Here in Australia, some peoplewonder if the AustralianGovernment has "hidden" materialand, if so, why it cannot bereleased to the public.

Are you one of these people?Do you have personal informationabout the UFO phenomenon thatis currently not public knowledge?Then why not get involved withthe Australian DisclosureProgram?

We invite all Australian UFOgroups and organisations, plus anyother interested person(s), to worktowards the establishment of anAustralian Disclosure Program topresent a united front on this issueto the Australian Government.

For further information, contactDiane Harrison by telephone on(07) 5544 6888 or by email [email protected].

Diane Harrison, Queensland,Australia

Close to Truth of Finnish Saga Dear Editor: From the rich folk-

lore of Finland, with its manyancient oral traditions, there is onespecific Saga that, until 1984, hasbeen secretly kept by an old noblefamily that formerly resided atStrömsö Manor, some 70 kilome-tres west of Helsinki.

Based on the old tradition ofmemorising and storytelling, thethe Bock family Saga gives anincredibly extensive chronologicaloverview of the history of both theArctic and tropical cultures.

According to the family saga aswell as other sources, the castle inKajaani in northern Finland wasthe last resort of the old kingdomthat ruled Finland during pagantimes. In 1248, the last Finnishking laid down his sceptre, to besubsumed under the religious(Catholic) Kingdom of Sweden.However, before the abdication,the king's regalia were sealed in alead box and sunk into the well inKajaani courtyard, which was thenfilled and completely covered.

In October 2000, a renownedgeophysicist from the University

of Oulu used two geo-radars toexamine the entire area aroundKajaani Castle. He found no sig-nificant metal objects, exceptforone placed in the deepest plateauof the underlying bedrock. Theobject was of "massive metal","about 160 cm long and 50 cmwide, approx. 4 metres under thesurface".

Following this discovery, agroup of Scandinavians, includinga Norwegian professor of archae-ology, sought permission to per-form a small and simple excava-tion. The National Board ofAntiquities (NBA) refused.

Will the NBA finally allow—oreven perform—a small excavationat the courtyard of Kajaani Castle,to let the truth of this matter bediscovered?

More information about the fam-ily saga of Strömsö Manor may beobtained from the Archives ofFolk Culture at the SwedishSociety of Literature in Helsinki,or from our website athttp://www.BockSaga.com.

Information about the ongoingconservation and eventual excava-tion at Kajaani Castle may beobtained from the archaeologicaldepartment within Finland'sNational Board of Antiquities atwebsite http://www.nba.fi.

Stuart A. Rice[Dear Stuart: Thanks for your

letter. Hopefully readers will beencouraged to lobby theGovernment of Finland and theNBA for the excavation to proceedwith independent monitoring andfor the results to be made public.We'd also like to alert readers toLes Whale's article on the BockSaga in this issue. Ed.]

Unhinged over TeethgrindingDear NEXUS: I have been an

enthusiastic NEXUS reader for thepast few years, and mostly myinterest has been unusual phenom-ena like UFOs, crop circles andthe like.

Over time, a couple of your arti-cles on health issues have caughtmy eye, and now I'd like to bringup my own health problem. Itallegedly affects millions aroundthe world, but hardly any researchis done on the condition: bruxism,that is, teethgrinding.

There are only very few peopleworking and publishing on thisproblem, which has become a very

Letters to the Editor ...

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 5

destructive influence in my lifeover the years, as it has for manypeople I know. Most dentistsseem clueless and don't even diag-nose it in time, while their patientsare unconsciously wearing outtheir teeth and jaw hinges until it'stoo late.

If anybody reading NEXUS hasheard of a cure or could provideinformation on the subject, couldthey please email me [email protected].

Thanks for the cool magazine!Philip Schlegel, Germany

US Black Budget TechnologiesDear Editor: The first private

experimentation with teleportationwas attempted in Germany with anextremely sophisticated device ofapproximately one metre inlength. In the mid-1990s, the"teleporter" successfully transport-ed two photons an extremely shortdistance. Prior to this, ground-breaking research had determinedthat light has mass—which gavethis first experimental "teleporter"a realistic possibility of success. Italso meant that with a big enoughmemory, buffer bio-mass wouldeventually be possible.

For many years now there havebeen credible people coming for-ward with stories of R&D dealingwith advanced field propulsion,cloaking and much more being areality right now.

But still, every time this sort ofinformation is considered it is inthe context of being in our distantfuture. Are we all being condi-tioned by sci-fi, pop culture,media, movies, books and the liketo believe that such advanced sci-ence is still a long way away,simply post-dated by a hundredyears or so into our future, whenin actual fact it is not that amazingand far-fetched?

The public is largely ignorant ofdeclassified advanced researchprojects from as far back as the1960s: like America's ProjectHorizon, which was all aboutestablishing a permanent lunaroutpost with only Saturn rockettechnology; or, more recently, pro-jects like the USAF's advancedweapon system named BrilliantPebblesas well as handheld,ground- and satellite-based laserand EMF weapons systems.

Try to find out what all of thisexpensive research has bought the

human race, and you will findplenty of brick walls, D-noticesand dead ends.

Beyond this, in 1994 DickD'Amato, then senior counsel tothe US Senate AppropriationsCommittee, could not penetratesuch rogue projects even with sub-poena power and a Top Secretclearance. He did discover, how-ever, that somewhere between 40and 80 US billion dollars per yearwas going into such unsupervisedoperations—and that was in 1994dollars!

There also is hard evidence ofupwards of US$11 billion going toblack budget programs in 1997alone, and upwards of $100 billionper year being siphoned off intosuch R&D in more recent times.

The perpetrators are able toavoid detection, work in compart-mentalised cells funded by clan-destine sources, and evade inter-ception by even skilled investiga-tors in the American Congress,Department of Defense and CIA.

Consider carefully the words ofSenator Inouye: "There exists ashadowy Government with its ownAir Force, its own Navy, its ownfundraising mechanism, and theability to pursue its own ideas ofthe national interest, free from allchecks and balances and free fromthe law itself."

Every now and again, we areshown a fleeting glimpse of justhow far along all these monieshave advanced said research.

Love, knowledge and peace.Jason K., soulfree73@hotmail.

com

Proof of Coconut's BenefitsDear Sir: The article in NEXUS

9/02–03 on coconut oil broughtme back to my early childhoodwhen I was growing up with myfamily in Jamaica, West Indies.

Ever since I can remember, myparents have been eating coconutoil and kernel, which they fed usand is part of our diet to this day.My mother, 70, is fit as a fiddle.My dad, 71, has never had atoothache in all his life. His teethare all intact. My brothers and sis-ters have not been sick with anyailment, apart from an occasionalcold.

I have always known thatcoconut is very good for humanhealth, based on my own

experience, but I could neverexplain the medical reasons for it.

There is a popular saying of doc-tors from my part of the island:"Portland people are never sickbecause of the high consumptionof coconut, and if doctors were todepend on Portland people therewould be no patients to attend to."Cancer and heart disease isunheard of in my part of theisland. The inhabitants generallylive to a good old age.

Keep up the good works. Iextend my sincere gratitude to youand Dr Mary Enig for this paperyou have reproduced over the lasttwo issues of NEXUS Magazine.

Sincerely,Devon Hall, Surrey, UK

Out-of-Body TravellingDear Sir: I am very interested in

out-of-body travelling, and I liketo compare my experiences withthose of others.

What I think people on Earthneed to know the most is that theylive a "double" life.

When the body sleeps, we are all"out of the body" and travellingvarious dimensions of the universeincluding the "spirit" world, visit-ing "dead" friends and relativesand also communing with our liv-ing friends and relatives whilethey, too, are out of body.

When we wake up, we simply"forget" what we did while thebody slept.

Keep up the good work!Francis L., Ballarat, Victoria,

Australia[Dear Francis: You may be

interested to know that a growingnumber of people are starting toprogram themselves to "remem-ber" what they experienced while"out of body". Check out TheMonroe Institute as one suchexample. Ed.]

Feedback on Vegetarian DietsDear Editor: I was very disap-

pointed in the article by StephenByrnes concerning "The Myths ofVegetarianism" [9/03–04]. I don'tthink he represented or researchedthe raw food vegetarian diet—forwhich there are many sources offacts and practical experience thatindicate it is truly the most naturaland healing, life-enhancing diet byfar.

Following is part of an email* I

sent Stephen that I am also for-warding on to you for your owninformation. Thank you for con-sidering my point of view.

Bruce Tompkins* Part of my email to Stephen:"Dr Gabriel Cousins, who is a

doctor in the US, has been a vege-tarian for 20+ years. He has writ-ten several books on vegetariandiet and has helped people moveto a more healthy veg diet that hasbrought them back to greaterhealth and spiritual connection.

"Paul Bragg (http://www.bragg.com) pioneered raw foodveg diets in the US and worldwideand experienced longevity himself(he lived to 96 years old and diedin a swimming accident, but obvi-ously was healthy to the end).

"Dr Herbert Shelton, AnnWigmore and Dr Norman Walkerare a few others I know about thatyou might research."

[Dear Bruce: Thanks for one ofthe few non-aggressive letters ofobjection we've received on thesubject. Below is the author'sreply to some of your points. Ed.]

Dear Bruce: Thanks for yourfeedback. I disagree with youabout raw food vegan/vegetariandiets being healthier. I encourageyou to look at the siteshttp://www.chetday.com andhttp://www.beyondveg.com to seemore realistic perspectives onthese diets.

Paul Bragg was not a raw-fooder, nor was he a vegetarian. Iknow older men at my gym whoused to exercise with him yearsago at Fort DeRussy in Waikiki,Hawaii. While he did mostlyfollow a raw diet, he had a distinctliking for the deluxe hamburgersserved at the Sheraton MoanaSurfrider Hotel in Waikiki.

Herbert Shelton, of naturalhygiene and fasting fame, spentthe last 10 years of his life sicklyand in constant pain; he was farfrom healthy.

Norman Walker frequently rec-ommended goat's milk and rawcheeses.

You may want to read ChetDay's article, "Natural HealthGurus Eat Animals Too", postedat www.chetday.com.

All the best,Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP,

http://www.powerhealth.net

... more Letters to the Editor NB: Please keep letters toapprox. 150 to 250 words

in length. Ed.

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WHO DIRECTOR WARNSON MOBILE PHONES

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, theDirector-General of the World

Health Organization (WHO),favours a precautionary approachto the use of mobile phones andalso discourages children fromusing them, according to an inter-view published in the Norwegiannewspaper Dagbladet NorgeonMarch 9.

Dr Brundtland, a former PrimeMinister of Norway, is also aphysician with a degree in publichealth. She said that, although shedoesn't own a mobile phone, when-ever she uses one she gets aheadache that takes about half anhour to an hour to abate after theradiation exposure stops.

"It's not the sound, but the waves I reactto. My hypersensitivity has gone so farthat I even react to mobiles closer to methan about four metres," she said.

She also gets an "instant reaction" if sheso much as touches a wireless phone. Asfor computers: "If I hold a laptop to readwhat's on the screen, it feels like I get anelectric shock through my arms," she said.

[See also Don Maisch's article on mobilephones in Science News this issue. Ed.](Sources: Dagbladet Norge, March 9, 2002,http://www.dagbladet.no; Microwave News,vol. XXII, no. 2, March/April 2002,http://www.microwavenews.com)

TOXIC CHEMICALS EXPOSURECAUSES BIRTH DEFECTS

Approximately half of all pregnanciesin the United States result in prenatal

or postnatal death or an otherwise less thanhealthy baby. And major developmentaldefects, such as neural tube and heartdeformities, occur in approximately120,000 of the four million babies born inthe US each year.

So says a report released by the USNational Research Council of the NationalAcademy of Sciences Institute of Medicinein June 2000, but which has had littleexposure in the public domain.

According to the report, expo-sure to toxic chemicals, both man-ufactured and natural, causes aboutthree per cent of all developmentaldefects, and at least 25 per cent ofdefects might be the result of acombination of genetic and envi-ronmental factors.

The report advises that new dis-coveries in developmental biologyand genetics should be used whenscientists analyse chemicals fortheir potential to cause birthdefects.

Furthermore it states that, givenrecent advances in understandinghow the process of normal devel-opment occurs, methods can nowbe devised to determine howchemicals disrupt it in humans.

"Many manufactured chemicals,as well as chemicals that occur in nature,have not been adequately evaluated fordevelopmental toxicity," said ElaineFaustman, chair of the committee thatwrote the report and also Professor ofEnvironmental Health and Director of theInstitute for Risk Analysis and RiskCommunication at the University ofWashington, Seattle.

The committee emphasised that allstages of human development—from con-ception to puberty—should be examined intoxicity studies, since all developmentalperiods are potentially susceptible to toxicagents. (Source: Report, "Scientific Frontiers inDevelopmental Toxicology and RiskAssessment", from the Committee on LifeSciences, Board on Environmental Studiesand Toxicology, National Research Council,USA, available for US$47.20 via websiteht tp : / /www4.nat ionalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309070864?OpenDocument,or by phoning +1 [202] 334 3313)

US OMITTED FROM HUMANRIGHTS REPORT COVERAGE

On its January 16 broadcast, ABC'sWorld News Tonight aired this brief

item about the annual report released thatday by Human Rights Watch:

"The international human rights groupHuman Rights Watch has released itsannual report, and it says that severalcountries are using the US-led war againstterrorism as a justification to ignore humanrights.

"Human Rights Watch says that Russia,

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 7

... GL[[[[BAL NEWS ...Egypt, Israel, China, Zimbabwe, Malaysiaand Uzbekistan have all cracked down ondomestic opponents in the name ofterrorism."

That summary is close to what the groupwarned in the January 16 press release forits annual global survey:

"The anti-terror campaign led by theUnited States is inspiring opportunisticattacks on civil liberties around the world."

But one country singled out for criticismby Human Rights Watch was conspicuous-ly absent from ABC's report: the UnitedStates, whose anti-terrorism measureswere described in the group's press releaseas "threatening long-held human rightsprinciples".

Among Bush administration actions thatwere identified as demonstrating a"troubling disregard for well-establishedhuman rights safeguards" were "new lawspermitting the indefinite detention of non-citizens, special military commissions totry suspected terrorists, the detention ofover 1,000 people, and the abrogation ofthe confidentiality of attorney-clientcommunications for certain detainees".

While ABC ignored this criticism of theUS in favour of pointing fingers at othercountries, the HRW report actually drew aconnection between the erosion of humanrights standards in the US and overseas.

On January 17, the UK GuardianquotedHRW thus: "...dictators need do nothingmore than photocopy measures introducedby the Bush administration, whose abilityto criticise abuses in other countries wasthus deeply compromised, said the NewYork–based Human Rights Watch in adevastating 660-page report."(Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting,January 18, 2002, http://www.fair.org)

DRUG COMPANIES CONTINUETO INCREASE PROFITS

Pharmaceuticals again ranked as themost profitable sector in the United

States in 2001, topping the annual Fortune500 ranking of American corporations.

The pharmaceutical industry topped allthree of Fortune magazine's measures ofprofitability for 2001, making this decadethe third in which the industry has been ator near the top in all the magazine's mea-sures of profitability.

Overall profits of Fortune 500 compa-nies declined by 53 per cent in 2001, whilethe top 10 US drug makers increased prof-its by 32 per cent from US$28 billion to

$37 billion, according to Public Citizen'sanalysis of the data. Together, the 10 drugcompanies on the list had the greatestreturn on revenues, reporting a profit of18.5 cents for every dollar of sales—eighttimes higher than the median for allFortune 500 industries, which was 2.2cents.

The drugs industry says it needs extraor-dinary profits to fund risky research anddevelopment of new drugs and to absorbthe high cost of drug failures in clinical tri-als. The industry's output of new drugshas risen only modestly in the past twodecades, despite a more than sixfoldincrease, after adjustment for inflation, inspending on research and development tomore than $30 billion a year. In the pastfew years, output has actually declined.Many industry supporters blame tougherscrutiny by the Food and DrugAdministration.

The time spent to develop a drug, notcounting the months consumed by govern-ment review, has lengthened from aboutnine years in the 1980s to more than 11years, according to the Tufts Center for theStudy of Drug Development, and the costhas more than doubled, after adjustmentfor inflation, to $800 million.

Public Citizen notes that the TuftsCenter gets money from drug companiesand maintains that the centre's figures areinflated to justify high drug costs. (Sources: British Medical Journal, no. 324,May 4, 2002; Public Citizen report availableat http://www.citizen.org)

EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELDPRIMED FOR A FLIP?

Earth's magnetic field could be gearingup for a flip, sending magnetic north to

new digs in Antarctica, a study suggests. Although such a reversal has never been

recorded by humans, switches haveoccurred many times in Earth's past. Littleis known about why this happens, butresearchers have suspected for years thatcurrents of molten iron circulating inEarth's outer core (creeping at about onemetre per hour) set up the opposite mag-netic poles at the antipodes. And computermodels hint that vortices in the moltenflow that swirl in a direction which weak-ens the magnetic field might begin thepole-flipping process.

Now, satellite observations have turnedup evidence that these subterranean vor-tices do exist. By comparing the strengthand orientation of the magnetic field mea-sured by two satellites in 1980 and 2000,researchers at the Physics of the GlobeInstitute of Paris (IPGP) and the DanishSpace Research Institute in Copenhagenwere able to plot the currents of molteniron that create the magnetic dipole.

In an April 11 letter to Nature, the teamdescribes large whorls off the southern tipof Africa and near the poles—areas wherethe magnetic field has already flipped.(Source: American Association for theAdvancement of Science, April 10, 2002,www.academicpress.com/inscight; also seeLinda Moulton Howe's website,http://www.earthfiles.com)

8 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

... GL[[[[BAL NEWS ...WATER QUALITY AND FERTILITY

THREATENED BY CHEMICALS

Prompted by studies in Europe, the USGeological Survey (USGS) conducted

its own study in 1999–2000 on theprevalence of pharmaceutical drugs,hormones and other organic wastewatercontaminants (OWCs) in water resources,and has recently published its results.

Using new analytical methods able todetect a total of 95 OWCs, the USGS tooksamples from a network of 139 streamsacross 30 states. It focused its attention onwatercourses susceptible to contamination,e.g., downstream of intensive livestockproduction, industry and urbanisation.

In 80 per cent of streams sampled, theUSGS found OWCs from agricultural,industrial and residential origins and uses,with 82 of the 95 testable OWCs beingdetected. There was a median of seven andas many as 38 OWCs in a given watersample.

The most frequently detected compoundswere coprostanol (faecal steroid), choles-terol (plant and animal steroid), N,N-diethyltoluamid (insect repellant), caffeine(stimulant), triclosan (antimicrobial disin-fectant), tri-(2-chlorethyl)-phosphate (fireretardant) and 4-nonylphenol (nonionicdetergent metabolite). In 48 per cent of thestreams there were antiobiotic residues—14 out of the 22 detectable human and vet-erinary antibiotics. Other compoundsfound included analgesics, antiasthmatics,antidepressants, codeine, cotinine (a nico-tine by-product), dichlorobenzene, insecti-cides such as carbaryl, chlorpyrifos anddieldren, several phthalate plasticisers anda host of hormonal drugs and hormone-mimicking compounds.

Measured concentrations of OWCsrarely exceeded drinking-water health advi-sories or aquatic-life criteria—but manycompounds do not have established guide-lines, and wastewater treatment plants arenot designed to remove OWCs fromsewage.

These findings are also disturbing inview of new studies showing that averagesperm counts in men from industrialisedcountries have dropped over the past 50years from about 160 million per millilitreof semen to 66 million.

In the UK, the Medical Research Councilreports that the fertility of Scottish menborn since 1970 is 25 per cent less thanthose born in the 1950s, with sperm countscontinuing to drop by two per cent a year.

Hormone-disrupting chemicals—including contraceptive residues,pesticides, PCBs and phthalates—areincreasingly being seen as the culprits inimpairing fertility and even in causing malefish in UK rivers to become feminised.One-third of Britain's drinking water comesfrom rivers, and most of it is taken frombelow sewerage works. (Sources: USGS, http://toxics.usgs.gov/;Environmental Science & Technology, March13, 2002, http://pubs.acs.org; Independent,London, March 17, 2002)

UK CRIME RATE RISES DESPITECCTV SURVEILLANCE

With 1.5 million closed-circuit televi-sion systems watching its streets,

office buildings, schools, shopping centresand roads, Britain is one of the most close-ly monitored nations on the planet, and thegovernment is again spending the equiva-lent of US$115 million on more.

But instead of crime being reduced bythese cameras, it is soaring across the coun-try. In London, a city of eight million peo-ple, murder is going on at a record pace.Incidence of street robbery—the very crimethat CCTV is supposed to be best at deter-ring—will reach the 50,000 mark this year.

A three-year study commissioned by theBritish government and conducted by theScottish Centre for Criminology suggestedthat "spy" cameras had little or no effect oncrime. It concluded that "reductions werenoted in certain categories, but there wasno evidence to suggest that the cameras hadreduced crime overall".

"The cameras appeared to have littleeffect on clear-up rates for crimes andoffences," the report said.

Jason Dittion, a criminologist and thestudy's main author, said the findings "havetaken the stardust out of our eyes about thisnew technology".

However, experts are convinced thatmore advanced technology will makeCCTV an even more valuable tool.

The British government is convinced thatTV surveillance will remain a major anti-crime weapon, and recently announced thatit is financing the installation of more than200 additional closed-circuit monitoringsystems in London as well as provincialcities and towns.(Source: United Press International, March8, 2002, http://www.upi.com)

CAN THE COMMON COLDVIRUS CURE CANCER?

Five years ago, Gary White had a 14-pound tumour in his gut and was given

eight months to live. Now he's 49 and sail-ing and spending time with his kids—

thanks, doctors say, toregular injections of amild flu virus.

Dozens of dying menand women are nowbeing deliberatelyinfected with viruses asdoctors determine ifthese microscopic bugscan kill the cancerswithout kil l ing thepatients. People desper-ate to beat their diseasehave volunteered tocatch the flu, a cold oreven a modified versionof herpes.

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 9

... GL[[[[BAL NEWS ...Results from animal studies have been

astounding. Injected with viruses, humantumours in mice have shrunk and vanishedcompletely without harming the animals.And viruses have worked against not justone cancer but nearly every malignancymedicine knows, whether breast, lung,liver, colon, ovarian or even brain.

Researchers at the University of Calgary,Canada, have completed the first trialdesigned to test the safety of a reovirus—abug common to the human gut and nasalpassages. Last Christmas, nine cancerpatients in Ottawa received infusions withthe same virus. Eighteen patients with sar-comas (cancers of the bone and soft tissue)or breast, skin, head or neck cancer suf-fered no serious side effects over a 14-week trial. Some of their tumours evenshowed signs of shrinking, and one tumourdisappeared completely.

The Alberta group is now conducting aPhase 2 trial, testing 45 prostate cancerpatients and, in another experiment, testingpatients with brain cancer.

"The results are encouraging, but this is awhole new area that we're exploring," saidDr John Bell, a senior scientist with CancerCare Ontario, which is involved in theOttawa trials. Still, he says, in the lab"there hasn't been a cancer that isn't vulner-able to a virus".

California's Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.and Stanford University are testing a genet-ically altered adenovirus—better known asa common cold bug—in patients with head,neck or liver cancer.

Harvard is running trials with a modifiedherpes virus, and lab research is underwayon a weakened polio virus at DukeUniversity and on measles at the MayoClinic.

"Tumour cells have already undergonegenetic changes to become cancerous,"said Dr Bell, who is also a professor ofmedicine at the University of Ottawa."They have thrown out genes that inhibittheir growth, but at the same time they'vethrown out their antiviral programming."

Unlike bacteria that can multiply on adoorknob, a subway seat or a bowl of soup,viruses are parasites that depend on a hostcell for their survival. But once a singlevirus particle busts through a cell wall, itcan replicate from 1,000 to 10,000 timeswithin two days.(Source: The Globe and Mail, Canada, April27, 2002, http://www.theglobeandmail.com)

EU'S NEW FOOD DIRECTIVE HAS GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

The European Union food supplements directive was approved in its second readingin the EU Parliament on March 13, 2002, with only one proposed amendment: the

extension of a time limit for submitting dossiers for the approval of vitamin and mineralsources not yet included in the directive's appendix (see http://www.laleva.cc/supple-ments/c5-0640-01_en.pdf). Vitamin and mineral sources found on the market, but notincluded in the directive's appendix, number about 300, mainly the more advanced min-eral formulations (see http://www.laleva.cc/supplements/forgotten_substances.html).

Two aspects most likely to influence the supplements industry at this point are:• Dosages: The directive mandates that maximum dosages shall be set after consulta-

tion by the European Scientific Committee for Foods (SCF). The actual decision, how-ever, is left to administrative action by the European Commission, which is a kind ofrudimentary government for the European Union. There is a large margin of discretionin this setting of dosage limits; article 5 of the directive states that dosages should be setwith regard to safety, but after considering intake of vitamins from sources other thansupplements (i.e., from food) and after taking due account of recommended dailyintakes (RDI). So there is really no telling yet where the mood will swing on this; therules can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

• Ingredients: The directive establishes lists of vitamin and mineral sources thatmay be utilised in the formulation of supplements. The first draft list, which is anannexe to the text of the directive, itemises the most ineffective forms (especially forminerals) from a viewpoint of bioavailability—forms which have for years been used inpharmaceutical drugs and in dietetic products. To add a vitamin or mineral source tothe list, a scientific dossier needs to be submitted to the Scientific Committee for Foods.The SCF has laid down strict requirements, including toxicological assays, for thesedossiers (see http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/scf/ out100_en.pdf).

But there is more to be considered. There are at least two legislative proposalsalready in the works at the EU which are likely to influence supplements negatively:

• The first one is a proposal for the medicinal registration of herbal products. Thishas been proposed by the EC and it appears to be an attempt to extend to the rest ofEurope the restrictive German system, where all herbal products are registered medi-cines (but not restricted only to sale in pharmacies). European industry seems set tooppose this proposal. The time frame for approval is about two years, if it does advanceas planned.

• The second legislative proposal is even more insidious. It is a general revision ofthe European medicines code, and one of the proposed changes is in the definition ofwhat constitutes a medicinal product—which would seem to incorporate any substancethat can be used for the purposes of staying or getting healthy, even if not presented inthis way. It would also affirm a new principle: that a product can be considered medic-inal if it fits the (very extensive) definition, even if it is already subject to other legisla-tion. In other words, any health product that turns out to become serious competition toa pharmaceutical product could be picked out and reclassified as a medicine, practicallywithout any possibility of legal recourse.

The recent and ongoing EU legislative changes in the field of supplements, herbs,foods and medicines will hit the supplements industry in its most vulnerable area,reducing the critically important capacity to innovate. If the legislative trend continueson its present course, innovation of natural and nutritional products will be extremelydifficult, if not impossible, for smaller companies. The costs involved will slow inno-vation down to the pace of the biggest players, which have been notoriously reluctant toallow any changes in the status quo.

Another ominous development on the horizon is a UN-related Codex Alimentariusguideline very similar to the EU's directive on food supplements. This may, in time,become even more important than the EU directive, which affects commerce onlyinside the European Union. Use of World Trade Organization mechanisms to force achange in a country's vitamin laws cannot be ruled out.(Source: from Josef Hasslberger, March 14, 2002, http://www.hasslberger.com; see alsohttp://www.lavela.cc, Health Sciences Institute, http://www.hsibaltimore.com, and HealthConfidential, May 2002, http://www.healthchoice.org.uk)

10 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

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JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 11

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JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 13

[Note: Just prior to the publication of this article, the From The Wildernesswebsite washacked for the second time in a month. This hacking—accomplished via sophisticatedmethods—has been apparently intended to prevent us from publishing the following inter-view. As a temporary measure only, please direct emergency email correspondence [email protected]. FTW will be back up and running in an even more securemanner in the near future. — Michael C. Ruppert, April 5, 2002]

I f all of its dark alleys could be explored, the case of Delmart Edward Joseph "Mike"Vreeland is one which is worthy of a book that would rival War and Peace. It is acase that has sparked zealous attacks on FTWand me personally, and one which hasseriously disturbed many officials in Washington. These attacks are an indication of

the threat Vreeland poses to the credibility of the US government. There is only one question of any relevance. How was this man able to write details

that described the events of September 11, 2001, while locked in a jail cell, more than amonth before the attacks occurred?

It matters little to a housewife in Kansas if Mike Vreeland has a very confusing crimi-nal arrest record—some of it very contradictory and apparently fabricated—for a varietyof petty criminal offences including fraud. But it might be a matter of the gravest impor-tance for the same housewife if this man knew accurate information about the attacks,tried to warn both the US and Canadian governments about them and was ignored. If acrazy man runs up to you on the street and says that a house is on fire with childrentrapped inside and you smell smoke, who is the crazy one if you decide not to investigate?

The US Navy says that Vreeland—arrested in Canada on December 6, 2000 and cur-rently fighting a US extradition warrant—was discharged for unsatisfactory performanceafter only four months of service in 1986. But a growing pile of evidence, much of it filedin court records and undisputed by Canadian or US authorities, establishes clearly thatVreeland was exactly what he says he was: a spy.

In three previous stories, FTWhas described how Vreeland's military records, acknowl-edged to be in excess of 1,200 pages, have been tampered with. We have described howhis lawyers, in open court on a speakerphone, obtained direct confirmation from thePentagon that he was a US Navy officer. We have also reported that, on March 14, 2002,all Canadian charges against Vreeland were dismissed and he was released on bail. Hehas been granted temporary refugee status by the Canadian government until his battle tobeat the US extradition request is settled.

Something that Canadian authorities have never disputed is that Vreeland wrote hisominous and hastily scribbled warning a full month before the attacks, and that the warn-ing was sealed away by his keepers, beyond his reach, until September 14, 2001—threedays after the attacks.

Both Vreeland and his attorneys believe that if he loses his extradition fight, his assassi-nation will occur within days of his return to US soil.

Mike Vreeland is not a saint. Covert operatives are not made from such material, andgovernments do not recruit or screen candidates for saintly qualities. By his own admis-sion in Canadian court documents and in several conversations with FTW, Vreeland sayshe has done bad things. He has been on probation for petty offences, and he has behavedthe way covert operatives behave in the real world, not in Hollywood.

I have been studying, interacting with and talking to covert operatives for more than 25years. It is for this reason that I avoid some of the questions being raised by dilettantes

AANN IINSIDERNSIDER '' SS VVIEWIEW OFOF THETHE

'W'WARAR ONON TTERRORISMERRORISM''

Mike Vreeland, a'discharged' USNavy Lieutenantwho spied for theOffice of Naval

Intelligence, saysthe United Statesand several other

governments knewwell in advance

what was plannedfor September 11.

by Michael C. Ruppert © April 2002

Publisher/EditorFrom The Wilderness

Email: [email protected]: http://www.copvcia.com

and neophyte journalists who take all of the threads of Vreeland'sstories and run with them into a wilderness from which no profes-sional journalist could credibly emerge.

Yes, I have listened to him talk about so-called "red mercury",baseball-sized atom bombs and Star Warsweapons systems. Yes,I have heard him talk about a great many things, and I believe thatwhat he told me was truthful according to his knowledge ofevents and the documents he brought back from Moscow in earlyDecember 2000.

Even by his own statements, Vreeland, now 35, was a relativelylow-ranking officer and intelligence field operative. Never in thehistory of covert operations has any government entrusted fieldoperatives with total strategic knowledge, because the knowledgeheld by those who make the plans is com-partmentalised and locked away. Perhaps 80per cent of all intelligence work is disinfor-mation, and governments know that theirfield operatives risk capture, interrogationand torture. Quite often, field operatives arethemselves fed disinformation so that if theytalk, they will still spread lies that serve alarger strategic purpose. Quite often, theycarry documents that are deliberately inaccu-rate and their capture is engineered to givethose documents credibility.

To the US government, Vreeland is totallyexpendable. And those who run with everypiece of information he has disclosedwill themselves be proved fools in afool's game. But one questionremains—and it is a question that nowstands vindicated by time and events.He knew something chillingly accurateabout the 9-11 attacks before theyhappened.

And if he knew something, basedupon documents given to him byRussian officials indicating US knowl-edge, and if the US government went togreat lengths to discredit him ratherthan bring him in from the cold, thenthere is real meat on the plate for jour-nalists, the American government and all of mankind.

I asked him 35 questions, and now you can read MikeVreeland's answers as he speaks for himself. The first 32 ques-tions were submitted via email to both Vreeland and his attorney,Paul Slansky, for review and were replied to by telephone. Theremaining three questions were asked after the most recent hack-ing of FTW's website, which we believe was perpetrated by theCIA. This made publication of this story an emergency, and alsomade a statement about the survival of a free press in America.[The final three questions are deleted here, but can be seen onFTW's website. Ed.]

From The Wilderness (FTW): What part of the US govern-ment did you work for? Was it the CIA?

Mike Vreeland (MV): I worked for US Naval Intelligence.What the CIA directs us to do is their business, so we have noway of knowing whether we're working for them or not.

FTW: Was your assignment primarily connected toterrorism/oil?

MV: Yes, on both issues, in part.

FTW: Why were you in Moscow and Russia in the latter partof 2000?

MV: I was sent there by the US government and the ONI[Office of Naval Intelligence]. I got my orders betweenSeptember 4 and September 7, 2000. Marc Bastien [an intelli-gence asset working under the cover of being a systems analyst]departed for Russia on September 7, 2000. I had orders to meethim. Bastien was going to work at the Canadian embassy regard-ing diagrams and blueprints of a weapons defence system. TheUS government had a direct influence on his mission. The nameof the defence system is SSST [Stealth Satellite SystemTerminator]. There are five different individual and uniquedefensive and strike capabilities of the system.

The only portion that I have publiclyspoken on is one frame regarding actualcurrent orbiting satellites which are not atthis time owned by the US government. Onadvice of counsel, I cannot discuss the othercomponents.

This one component is a satellite system.Within the confines of the system there aremultiple, deployable, space/orbital EMP[electromagnetic pulse] missiles that are notaimed at the ground. They are targeted ateveryone else's satellites. These would killworldwide communications. The satellitesof some countries that are shielded with tita-

nium are protected from theseweapons. The protected countries areRussia and China, but US satellites arevulnerable and Putin has told Bush thatthe US Missile Defense System doesn'twork, and that Bush knows it.

The reason why I went to Russia wasbecause I needed to meet with Bastienand another individual from theRussian Ministry of Defence, namedOleg. The purpose was to get theCanadian diplomat who had made con-tact with Oleg to get the book ofdesigns out of the Ministry's R&D.That was done. We copied the entire

book. Then we took certain documents and we changed seriousportions of the defence design so the program wouldn't work.They know this now. Additionally, I was to pick up docs fromother agents and bring them back.

FTW: You told Canadian authorities that Bastien was mur-dered when?

MV: I never told them he was murdered. I wrote a letter toBastien around June of 2001 from jail. I sent it to CSIS[Canadian Security and Intelligence Service] in Ottawa, to thedirector, for his eyes only. I had restructured the diagram to put itback in its original state. But I never told anyone exactly how toturn it on and how to build it. CSIS already knew that Bastienwas dead. He died six days after I was arrested on December 6[2000]... He was killed on December 12.

CSIS sent RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] (Sgt Mabe,Corporal Kispol) to visit me in jail on August 8, 2001, and theyadvised me that he was dead. They didn't say he was murdered.They told me he was dead. I told them that if Bastien was dead, itwas murder and that they should get a toxicology report. And Iwould tell you how it was done and who did it.

14 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

"Within the confines of the system there aremultiple, deployable,

space/orbital EMP[electromagnetic pulse]

missiles that are notaimed at the ground.They are targeted at

everyone else's satellites."

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 15

FTW: When did they finally admit that Bastien wasmurdered?

MV: They admitted that I was correct in mid-January [2002].FTW: When did you first learn details of the attacks that were

to happen on September 11 [2001]?MV: In the first week of December 2000.FTW: How did you learn of the details?MV: One document was written in English by a US agent who

had picked up a copy of a document that had been sent to V. Putinby K. Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son. This is what the transla-tion of the doc indicates. The Iraqis knew in June 2000 that I wascoming. I didn't get my orders until August. The letter said thatBastien and Vreeland would be dealt with "in a manner suitable tous". The letter specifically stated onpage two: "Our American officialguarantees this."

FTW: Who put the informationon the attacks into the pouch, andwhat would have been their motivefor doing so?

MV: I am not allowed to answerthat. It would jeopardise the lives ofactive agents, and it would violatethe National Security Act of 1947.

FTW: After having learned ofthe details of the impending attackson the WTC and the Pentagon, howlong did you wait before trying tonotify Canadian and US authoritiesof the information?

MV: On December 6, 2000, I toldCanadian authorities to their face that I needed to contact theCanadian military immediately. I wrote it down. She [theCanadian official] was playing games, so I wrote down that I wasa Russian spy and a weapons systems expert, and that I wanted totalk to them today. I said I was a Russian because I figured itwould get their attention. The name they had on me was MikhailCristianov (Michael Christian), because I had ID that used thisname.

FTW: What was their reaction?MV: The Canadians turned blue, walked away, and I never

saw them again.FTW: How did it make you

feel?MV: I was pissed off. It's on

video [referring to a standard jailsurveillance/ security video].

FTW: Did the US and Canadianresponse lead you to reach any con-clusions? If so, what were they?

MV: I thought I was dealingwith idiots who had no clue aboutwhat was about to happen. It'sbeen put to me that there were cer-tain officials who wanted theattacks to happen.

No one ever had any intention ofbuilding the system I was afterbecause it would have made thedefence budget obsolete. Onething that happened after 9-11 wasthat the Pentagon budgets soared.

FTW: Your written warning contains the statement: "Let onehappen, stop the rest." Who was going to "let one happen"? Whowas going to "stop the rest"?

MV: I can't comment, on the advice of counsel.FTW: Does that statement imply that the US or some other

intelligence agency had achieved complete penetration of theterrorist cells?

MV: That goes without question. Sometimes certain govern-ments design, create networks like al-Qa'ida, which was really thegovernment in Afghanistan. Those entities create specific prob-lems at the creating government's direction.

FTW: Do you know who had achieved this penetration?MV: I cannot comment on that.

FTW: Is it possible that the terror-ist cells were being "run" withoutknowing by whom?

MV: Absolutely.FTW: The most common excuse

people use to discredit you is thatyou have prior arrests on fraudcharges, and there are several pressstories linking you to alleged crimi-nal activity. How do you explainthis?

MV: The American Expresscharges are b.s., and AmEx has stat-ed on tape that the specific chargesin question were approved. Theyadmit that there was no fraud on thiscard. That card had been issued toLt Delmart Michael Vreeland. The

AmEx people admitted that the card was a US Navy card.People have accused me of identity theft. If anybody checked

with the police departments in the US, they would find that thereis not one police report from any individual in the US who hasalleged that I have stolen any identities. There is not a singleidentified victim anywhere. Three judges in Canada have deniedmy requests to have discovery and disclosure on these allegedcharges.

The press stories that have circulated about my past are lies.Portions of the stories alleging fraud and ID theft are lies. I havethreatened to sue these papers, and the stories have been pulled.

"After having learned of thedetails of the impending attackson the WTC and the Pentagon,how long did you wait before

trying to notify Canadian and USauthorities of the information?"

16 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

I was working with ONI. Certain government officials—politicians, brass and high-ranking military—have 11thAmendment privileges and can't be sued. Another governmentagency has to go investigate activities connected to weaponssmuggling, organised crime and drug trafficking. They use theirpower to break laws, and we're not allowed to investigate them.

Thus certain parts of the US government designed an entitycalled UIID (Unofficial Intelligence Investigation Division). Itwas designed by Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, who allegedlycommitted suicide. Boorda put this together prior to becomingCNO [Chief of Naval Operations]. He was not a bad guy.

Intelligence officers are sometimes put into positions wherethey are given assignments to infiltrate specific organisations thatare powerful enough to check out a newcomer's background.Page 335 of the Charter Application in Canadian Court shows acopy of orders from Southern Command. These orders are datedApril 18, 2000, concerning an anti-drugoperation we were mounting. At approxi-mately the same time, the media releasedwidespread stories that I was a wanted crim-inal. This was a means of providing coverand credibility for me with the people I wasinfiltrating.

FTW: How many times have you beenarrested on criminal charges?

MV: Maybe three. Some of this I did,like a DUI charge in New York. I had beenat the UN, and I had definitely beendrinking.

FTW: How many times have you beenconvicted?

MV: I have never been legally con-victed of any criminal felony activityanywhere. The drunk driving charge isstill pending, and I have admitted inopen court that I did it.

FTW: The Michigan warrant forcredit card fraud is based upon the useof your own credit card. How do youexplain this?

MV: It is a set-up.FTW: Were your credit cards

authorised or facilitated by the USNavy or any part of the USgovernment?

MV: Yes.FTW: Could the US government or any of its intelligence

agencies have "inserted" the charges through state and localagencies?

MV: Yes.FTW: You were in custody in New York on the date the

alleged Michigan offence took place. What was the charge, andwhat was the disposition of that case?

MV: That was the DUI charge.FTW: Was working with organised crime families a part of

your duties with the navy?MV: Yes.FTW: Were any of the organised crime families in Michigan?MV: Yes.FTW: For what reason were you working with organised

crime?MV: I was under orders to do so, 90 per cent of the time.

Organised crime supplies the weapons and drugs that go to the

people we investigate.FTW: Are you afraid you will be killed if you are extradited to

the US? Why?MV: Yes. Because I have spoken out.FTW: Can you explain why the Canadian courts will not allow

your attorneys to introduce evidence that verifies your positionwith the US Navy?

MV: Yes. The Canadians are totally subservient to US intelli-gence interests. They're afraid of Uncle Sam. It would also provethat CSIS covered up Marc Bastien's death, and that there was acover-up involving a member of a major drug organisation thathad planned assassinations of prominent Canadians. In fact, oneindividual was found dead in a vat of acid. He was a hit man.

FTW: What do you want?MV: I want my uniform back, my back pay at $4,210.90 a

month and my honour. [Vreeland received discharge papers injail, just days after 9-11. The discharge,faxed via an unnamed source, did not specify"Honorable" or "Dishonorable" conditions,but he was stripped of all benefits. FTW]

I want President Bush to give me a fulland complete pardon and the amnesty of theUS government. I am owed that. I wantBush personally to know everything that Iknow, and what kind of threats there areagainst the US. It's never going to happen,so I am now seeking permanent refugee sta-tus in Canada and the protection of theUnited Nations.

FTW: What do you think will happennext in your case?

MV: I don't know. My attorney isin court seeking a postponement of theextradition case because the Canadiangovernment will not allow me to sub-poena very important US witnessesfrom the Pentagon and other places.

FTW: Is the "War on Terrorism"about something other than what thepeople of the world are being told?

MV: What "War on Terrorism"?FTW: What do you think will

happen next in the war on terror?MV: Eventually, someone's going to

have to tell the truth. Once those peo-ple are dealt with according to law,

there will be no more false terror spread across the globe. ∞

Editor's Note: Michael C. Ruppert, a speaker at the 2002 NEXUSConference in Sydney, is Publisher/Editor of From TheWilderness newsletter. He can be contacted at: FTW, POBox 6061-350, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413, USA, telephone(818) 788 8791, fax (818) 981 2847, email [email protected], website http://www.copvcia.com. FTW is published11 times annually; subscriptions are US$50 in USA for 12issues, or US$60 foreign.

Mike Ruppert advises that as a result of the most recenthackings of their website, FTW's sales and cash flow havebeen interrupted while they are spending the thousands ofdollars necessary to upgrade security and web services. FTWsupporters who wish to make donations in this emergencymay do so by calling (818) 788 8791.

"The Canadians are totally subservient to

US intelligence interests.They're afraid of

Uncle Sam. It would also prove that

CSIS covered up Marc Bastien's death, and that there was a cover-up involving a

member of a major drugorganisation that hadplanned assassinations

of prominent Canadians."

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 19

The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews is a modern phenomenon whichbegan around the turn of the 20th century. Although these two groups havedifferent religions (Palestinians include Muslims, Christians and Druze), religiousdifferences are not the cause of the conflict. It is essentially a struggle over land.

Until 1948, the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine.But following the war of 1948–49, this land was divided into three parts: the state of Israel,the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. This is a small area:approximately 10,000 square miles. The competing claims are not reconcilable if one groupexercises exclusive political control over the total territory.

Jewish claims to this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham and his descen-dants, on the fact that this was the historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel (which wasdestroyed by the Roman Empire), and on the Jews' need for a haven from European anti-Semitism.

Palestinian Arabs' claims to the land are based on continuous residence in the country formany hundreds of years and the fact that they represented the demographic majority. Theyreject the notion that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid modern claim.If Arabs engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that since Abraham's son Ishmaelis the forefather of the Arabs, then God's promise of the land to the children of Abrahamincludes Arabs as well. They do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensateJews for Europe's crimes against them.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE In the 19th century, following a trend that began earlier in Europe, people around the

world began to identify themselves as nations and to demand national rights, foremost theright to self-rule in a state of their own (self-determination and sovereignty). Jews andPalestinians both began to develop a national consciousness, and mobilised to achievenational goals. Because Jews were spread across the world (in diaspora), their nationalmovement, Zionism, entailed the identification of a place where Jews could come togetherthrough the process of immigration and settlement. Palestine seemed the logical and opti-mal place, since this was the site of Jewish origin. The Zionist movement began in 1882with the first wave of European Jewish immigration to Palestine.

At that time, the land of Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. However, this areadid not constitute a single political unit. The northern districts of Acre and Nablus were partof the province of Beirut. The district of Jerusalem was under the direct authority of theOttoman capital of Istanbul because of the international significance of the cities ofJerusalem and Bethlehem as religious centres for Muslims, Christians and Jews. Accordingto Ottoman records, in 1878 there were 462,465 subject inhabitants of the Jerusalem,Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795 Muslims (including Druze), 43,659 Christians and15,011 Jews. In addition, there were perhaps 10,000 Jews with foreign citizenship (recentimmigrants to the country), and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (Bedouin) who werenot counted as Ottoman subjects. The great majority of the Arabs (Muslims and Christians)lived in several hundred rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus were the largest and economicallymost important Arab towns.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, most Jews living in Palestine were concentratedin four cities with religious significance: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safad and Tiberias. Most ofthem observed traditional, orthodox religious practices. Many spent their time studyingreligious texts and depended on the charity of world Jewry for survival. Their attachment to

A BA BRIEFRIEF HHISTORISTORYY OFOF THETHE

AARABRAB-I-I SRAELISRAELI CCONFLICTONFLICT

The current crisis inPalestinian-Israelirelations has its

roots in the early20th century

struggle for landand the UN's failure

to implement its1947 partition plan

for two states.

by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar© 2001, 2002

From the website of theMiddle East Research and

Information Project (MERIP)Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.merip.org

the land was religious rather than national, and they were notinvolved in—or supportive of—the Zionist movement which beganin Europe and was brought to Palestine by immigrants. Most of theJews who immigrated from Europe lived a more secular lifestyleand were committed to the goals of creating a Jewish nation andbuilding a modern, independent Jewish state.

By the outbreak of World War I (1914), the population of Jewsin Palestine had risen to about 60,000, about 33,000 of whom wererecent settlers. The Arab population in 1914 was 683,000.

ZIONISMZionism, or Jewish nationalism, is a modern political movement.

Its core beliefs are that all Jews constitute one nation (not simply areligious or ethnic community) and that the only solution to anti-Semitism was the concentration of as many Jews as possible inPalestine/Israel and the establishment of aJewish state there. The World ZionistOrganization, established by Theodor Herzl in1897, declared that the aim of Zionism was toestablish "a national home for the Jewish peo-ple, secured by public law".

Zionism drew on Jewish religious attachmentto Jerusalem and the Land of Israel (EretzIsrael). But the politics of Zionism was influ-enced by nationalist ideology and by colonialideas about Europeans' rights to claim and settleother parts of the world.

Zionism gained adherents among Jews andsupport from the West as a consequence of themurderous anti-Jewish riots (known as"pogroms") in the Russian Empire in thelate 19th and early 20th centuries. TheNazi genocide (mass murder) of EuropeanJews during World War II killed over sixmillion, and this disaster enhanced interna-tional support for the creation of a Jewishstate.

There are several different forms ofZionism. From the 1920s until the 1970s,the dominant form was Labor Zionism,which sought to link socialism and nation-alism. By the 1920s, Labor Zionists inPalestine had established the kibbutzmovement (a kibbutz is a collective commune, usually with an agri-cultural economy), the Jewish trade union and cooperative move-ment, the main Zionist militias (the Haganah and Palmah) and thepolitical parties that ultimately coalesced in the Israeli Labor Partyin 1968. The top leader of Labor Zionism was David Ben-Gurion,who became the first Prime Minister of Israel.

A second form of Zionism was the Revisionist movement, led byVladimir Jabotinsky. They earned the name "Revisionist" becausethey wanted to revise the boundaries of Jewish territorial aspira-tions and claims beyond Palestine to include areas east of theJordan River. In the 1920s and 1930s, they differed from LaborZionists by declaring openly the objective to establish a Jewishstate (rather than the vaguer formula of a "national home") inPalestine. And they believed that armed force would be required toestablish such a state. Their pre-state organisations that includedthe Betar youth movement and the ETZEL (National MilitaryOrganization) formed the core of what became the Herut (Freedom)Party after Israeli independence. This party subsequently becamethe central component of the Likud Party, the largest right-wingIsraeli party since the 1970s.

Although many Jews became Zionists by the early 20th century,until the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and the institution of a"Final Solution" to exterminate world Jewry most Jews were notZionists. Most orthodox Jews were anti-Zionist. They believedthat only God should reunite Jews in the Promised Land, andregarded Zionism as a violation of God's will.

Some Jews in other parts of the world, including the UnitedStates, opposed Zionism out of concern that their own position andrights as citizens in their countries would be at risk if Jews wererecognised as a distinct national (rather than religious) group. Butthe horrors of the Holocaust significantly diminished Jewishopposition or antipathy to Zionism, and following World War IImost Jews throughout the world came to support the Zionistmovement and demand the creation of an independent Jewish state.

Although orthodox Jews continued to oppose the creation of aJewish state for several more decades, they sup-ported mass settlement of Jews in Palestine as ameans of strengthening and protecting the com-munity. And following the 1967 Arab-Israeliwar, most orthodox Jews who previously hadresisted Zionism adopted the belief that Israel'soverwhelming victory in the war was a sign ofGod's support and a fulfilment of God's promiseto bring about the Messianic era.

The areas captured and occupied in 1967,especially the West Bank, were important toreligious Jews because they are the core of thebiblical Land of Israel (Judea and Samaria).Consequently, Israel's victory in 1967 gave rise

to a more religious variation of Zionism.Some existing political parties representingorthodox Jews came to embrace religiousnationalism, and new parties and move-ments formed to advocate Israel's perma-nent control and extensive Jewish settle-ment in the West Bank and Gaza.

The religious-nationalist parties andgroups that constitute the far right of theIsraeli political spectrum maintain a hardline on matters relating to territory and theArab-Israeli conflict. They have alliedwith the Likud Party. Although the LaborParty also has supported Jewish settlement

in the West Bank and Gaza, a key difference is a willingness toconsider a territorial compromise with Palestinians as a means ofending the conflict. The Likud and its allies oppose any territorialwithdrawal. In 1977, the Likud won the national election, for thefirst time unseating the Labor Party that had governed Israel sinceindependence. Since then, Likud and Labor have alternated as thegoverning party, sometimes forming coalition governments whenneither could achieve a clear electoral victory.

A minority of Jewish Israelis belongs to left-wing Zionist parties,which formed a political coalition known as Meretz in the 1980s.Meretz often joins Labor-led governments. Leftist Zionists arefully committed to maintaining Israel as a Jewish state, but tend tobe more willing than the Labor Party to compromise on territorialissues and have relatively greater sympathy for Palestinians' nation-al aspirations for a state of their own.

A tiny minority of ultra-leftist Jewish Israelis identify themselvesas non- or anti-Zionists. Some of them aspire to see all ofIsrael/Palestine transformed into a single state with citizenship andequal rights for all inhabitants, and others advocate the creation of aPalestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

20 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

The World ZionistOrganization,established by

Theodor Herzl in1897, declared thatthe aim of Zionism

was to establish "a national home forthe Jewish people,secured by public

law".

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 21

THE BRITISH MANDATE IN PALESTINE By the early years of the 20th century, Palestine was becoming a

trouble spot of competing territorial claims and political interests.The Ottoman Empire was weakening, and European powers wereentrenching their grip on areas in the eastern Mediterranean,including Palestine.

During 1915–16, as World War I was underway, the British HighCommissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly correspond-ed with Husayn ibn 'Ali, the patriarch of the Hashemite family andOttoman Governor of Mecca and Medina. McMahon convincedHusayn to lead an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, whichwas aligned with Germany against Britain and France in the war.McMahon promised that if the Arabs supported Britain in the war,the British government would support the establishment of an inde-pendent Arab state under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces ofthe Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. The Arab revolt, led byT. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and Husayn's son Faysal,was successful in defeating the Ottomans, and Britain took controlover much of this area during WorldWar I.

But Britain made other promises dur-ing the war, which conflicted with theHusayn-McMahon understandings. In1917, the British Foreign Minister, LordArthur Balfour, issued a declaration (theBalfour Declaration) announcing hisgovernment's support for the establish-ment of "a Jewish national home inPalestine".

A third promise, in the form of asecret agreement, was a deal that Britainand France struck between themselvesto carve up the Arab provinces of theOttoman Empire and divide control of the region.

After the war, Britain and France convinced the new League ofNations (precursor to the United Nations), in which they were thedominant powers, to grant them quasi-colonial authority over for-mer Ottoman territories. The British and French regimes wereknown as "mandates".

France obtained a mandate over Syria, carving out Lebanon as aseparate state with a (slight) Christian majority.

Britain obtained a mandate over the areas which now compriseIsrael, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. In 1921, theBritish divided this region in two: east of the Jordan River becamethe Emirate of Transjordan, to be ruled by Faysal's brotherAbdullah, and west of the Jordan River became the PalestineMandate. This was the first time in modern history that Palestinebecame a unified political entity. Throughout the region, Arabswere angered by Britain's failure to fulfill its promise to create anindependent Arab state, and many opposed British and Frenchcontrol as a violation of their right to self-determination.

In Palestine, the situation was more complicated because of theBritish promise to support the creation of a Jewish national home.The rising tide of European Jewish immigration, land purchasesand settlement in Palestine generated increasing resistance byPalestinian Arab peasants, journalists and political figures. Theyfeared that this would lead eventually to the establishment of aJewish state in Palestine. Palestinian Arabs opposed the BritishMandate because it thwarted their aspirations for self-rule, and theyopposed massive Jewish immigration because it threatened theirposition in the country. In 1920 and 1921, clashes broke outbetween Arabs and Jews, in which roughly equal numbers of bothgroups were killed.

In the 1920s, when the Jewish National Fund purchased largetracts of land from absentee Arab landowners, the Arabs living inthese areas were evicted. These displacements led to increasingtensions and violent confrontations between Jewish settlers andArab peasant tenants.

In 1928, Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem began to clash overtheir respective communal religious rights at the Wailing Wall (al-Buraq in the Muslim tradition). The Wailing Wall, the sole rem-nant of the second Jewish Temple, is one of the holiest sites for theJewish people. But this site is also holy to Muslims, since theWailing Wall is adjacent to the Temple Mount (the NobleSanctuary in the Muslim tradition). On the mount is the site of theal-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, believed to mark thespot from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven on awinged horse.

On August 15, 1929, members of the Betar youth movement (apre-state organisation of the Revisionist Zionists) demonstrated andraised a Zionist flag over the Wailing Wall. Fearing that the Noble

Sanctuary was in danger, Arabs respond-ed by attacking Jews throughout thecountry. During the clashes, 64 Jewswere killed in Hebron. Their Muslimneighbours saved others. The Jewishcommunity of Hebron ceased to existwhen its surviving members left forJerusalem. During a week of commu-nal violence, 133 Jews and 115 Arabswere killed and many wounded.

European Jewish immigration toPalestine increased dramatically afterHitler's rise to power in 1933, leadingto new land purchases and Jewish set-tlements. Palestinian resistance to

British control and Zionist settlement climaxed with the Arab revoltof 1936–39, which Britain suppressed with the help of Zionist mili-tias and the complicity of neighbouring Arab regimes.

After crushing the Arab revolt, the British reconsidered theirgoverning policies in an effort to maintain order in an increasinglytense environment. They issued a White Paper, a statement ofpolitical policy, limiting future Jewish immigration and landpurchases.

The Zionists regarded this as a betrayal of the BalfourDeclaration and a particularly egregious act in light of the desperatesituation of the Jews in Europe, who were facing extermination.The 1939 White Paper marked the end of the British-Zionistalliance.

At the same time, the defeat of the Arab revolt and the exile ofthe Palestinian political leadership meant that the Palestinian Arabswere politically disorganised during the crucial decade in which thefuture of Palestine was decided.

THE UNITED NATIONS PARTITION PLAN Following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs

and Jews over the fate of Palestine and between the Zionist militiasand the British Army compelled Britain to relinquish its mandateover Palestine. The British government requested that the recentlyestablished United Nations determine the future of Palestine, but itshope was that the UN would be unable to arrive at a workable solu-tion and would turn Palestine back to them as a UN trusteeship.

A UN-appointed committee of representatives from variouscountries went to Palestine to investigate the situation. Althoughmembers of this committee disagreed on the form that a politicalresolution should take, there was general agreement that the

In the 1920s, when the JewishNational Fund purchased large

tracts of land from absenteeArab landowners, the Arabs

living in these areas were evicted.

22 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

country would have to be divided in order to satisfy the needs anddemands of both Jews and Palestinian Arabs.

At the end of 1946, 1,269,000 Arabs and 608,000 Jews residedwithin the borders of Mandate Palestine. Jews had acquired bypurchase six to eight per cent of the total land area of Palestine,amounting to about 20 per cent of the arable land.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to par-tition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. TheUN partition plan divided the country in such a way that each statewould have a majority of its own population, although some Jewishsettlements would fall within the proposed Palestinian state andmany Palestinians would become part of the proposed Jewish state.The territory designated to the Jewish state would be slightly largerthan the Palestinian state (56 per cent and 43 per cent of Palestine,respectively) on the assumption that increasing numbers of Jewswould immigrate there. According to the UN partition plan, thearea of Jerusalem and Bethlehem was to become an internationalzone.

Publicly, the Zionist leadership accepted the UN partition plan,although they hoped somehow to expand the borders allotted to theJewish state.

The Palestinian Arabs and the sur-rounding Arab states rejected the UNplan and regarded the GeneralAssembly vote as an internationalbetrayal. Some argued that the UNplan allotted too much territory to theJews.

Most Arabs regarded the proposedJewish state as a settler colony andargued that it was only because theBritish had permitted extensiveZionist settlement in Palestine againstthe wishes of the Arab majority thatthe question of Jewish statehood wason the international agenda at all.

Fighting began between the Arab and Jewish residents ofPalestine days after the adoption of the UN partition plan. TheArab military forces were poorly organised, trained and armed. Incontrast, Zionist military forces, although numerically smaller,were well organised, trained and armed. By the spring of 1948, theZionist forces had secured control over most of the territory allottedto the Jewish state in the UN plan.

On May 15, 1948, the British evacuated Palestine, and Zionistleaders proclaimed the State of Israel. Neighbouring Arab states(Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq) then invaded Israel, claiming thatthey sought to "save" Palestine from the Zionists. In fact, the Arabrulers had territorial designs on Palestine and were no more anxiousto see a Palestinian Arab state emerge than were the Zionists.

During May and June 1948, when the fighting was most intense,the outcome of this first Arab-Israeli war was in doubt. But afterarms shipments from Czechoslovakia reached Israel, Israel's armedforces established superiority and conquered territories beyond theUN partition plan borders of the Jewish state.

In 1949, the war between Israel and the Arab states ended withthe signing of armistice agreements. The country once known asPalestine was now divided into three parts, each under separatepolitical control. The State of Israel encompassed over 77 per centof the territory. Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and the hill coun-try of central Palestine (the West Bank). Egypt took control of thecoastal plain around the city of Gaza (the Gaza Strip). ThePalestinian Arab state envisioned by the UN partition plan wasnever established.

THE PALESTINIAN ARAB REFUGEES As a consequence of the fighting in Palestine/Israel between

1947 and 1949, over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees.The precise number of refugees and questions of responsibility fortheir exodus are sharply disputed. Many Palestinians have claimedthat most were expelled in accordance with a Zionist plan to rid thecountry of its non-Jewish inhabitants.

The official Israeli position holds that the refugees fled on ordersfrom Arab political and military leaders. One Israeli militaryintelligence document indicates that at least 75 per cent of therefugees left due to Zionist or Israeli military actions, psychologicalcampaigns aimed at frightening Arabs into leaving, and directexpulsions. Only about five per cent left on orders from Arabauthorities.

There are several well-documented cases of mass expulsions dur-ing and after the military operations of 1948–49 and the massacresand atrocities that led to large-scale Arab flight. The best-knowninstance of mass expulsion is that of the 50,000 Arabs of the townsof Lydda and Ramle. The most infamous atrocity occurred at DeirYasin, a village near Jerusalem, where estimates of the number of

Arab residents killed in cold blood by Israelifighters range from about 125 to over 250.

THE PALESTINIANS Today, the term "Palestinians" refers to

the Arabs—Christian, Muslim andDruze—whose historical roots can betraced to the territory of Palestine asdefined by the British mandate borders.

About three million Palestinians nowlive within this area, which is dividedbetween the state of Israel and the WestBank and Gaza (these latter areas werecaptured and occupied by Israel in 1967).Today, over 700,000 Palestinians are citi-zens of Israel, living inside the country's

1949 armistice borders. About 1.2 million live in the West Bank(including 200,000 in East Jerusalem) and about one million in theGaza Strip. The remainder of the Palestinian people, perhapsanother three million, lives in diaspora, outside the country theyclaim as their national homeland.

The largest Palestinian diaspora community, approximately 1.3million, is in Jordan. Many of them still live in the refugee campsthat were established in 1949, although others live in cities andtowns. Lebanon and Syria also have large Palestinian populations,many of whom still live in refugee camps. Many Palestinians havemoved to Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries to work, andsome have moved to other parts of the Middle East or other parts ofthe world. Jordan is the only Arab state to grant citizenship to thePalestinians who live there. Palestinians in Arab states generallydo not enjoy the same rights as the citizens of those states.

The situation of the refugees in Lebanon is especially dire; manyLebanese blame Palestinians for the civil war that wracked thatcountry from 1975–91, and demand that they be resettled elsewherein order for the Lebanese to maintain peace in their country. TheChristian population of Lebanon is particularly anxious to rid thecountry of the mainly Muslim Palestinians because of a fear thatthey threaten the delicate balance among the country's religiousgroups. Although many Palestinians still live in refugee camps andslums, others have become economically successful. Palestiniansnow have the highest per capita rate of university graduates in theArab world. Their diaspora experience has contributed to a highlevel of politicisation of all sectors of the Palestinian people.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assemblyvoted to partition Palestineinto two states, one Jewish

and the other Arab.

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 23

THE PALESTINIAN ARAB CITIZENS OF ISRAELIn 1948, only about 150,000 Palestinian Arabs remained in the

area that became the State of Israel. They were granted Israeli citi-zenship and the right to vote. But in many respects they were, andremain, second-class citizens, since Israel defines itself as the stateof the Jewish people and Palestinians are non-Jews.

Until 1966, most of the Palestinian Arabs were subject to a mili-tary government that restricted their movement and other rights (tospeech, association and so on). Arabs were not permitted tobecome full members of the Israeli trade union federation, theHistadrut, until 1965. About 40 per cent of their lands were confis-cated by the state and used for development projects that benefitedJews primarily or exclusively.

All of Israel's governments have discriminated against the Arabpopulation by allocating far fewer resourcesfor education, health care, public works,municipal government and economic develop-ment to the Arab sector.

Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel have hada difficult struggle to maintain their culturaland political identity in a state that officiallyregards expression of Palestinian or Arabnational sentiment as subversive. Until 1967,they were entirely isolated from the Arabworld and were often regarded by other Arabsas traitors for living in Israel. Since 1967,many have become more aware of theiridentity as Palestinians.

One important expression of this iden-tity was the organisation of a generalstrike on March 30, 1976, designated asLand Day, to protest the continuing con-fiscation of Arab lands. The Israelisecurity forces killed six Arab citizenson that day. All Palestinians now com-memorate it as a national day.

Many Palestinian Arabs have alsocome to understand that their politicalstatus as Israeli citizens and their pro-tracted contact with Israeli society hasdifferentiated them from otherPalestinians. Although most of themsupport the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bankand the Gaza Strip, few would pursue the possibility of relocatingthere if such a state were to come into existence.

THE JUNE 1967 WAR After 1949, although there was an armistice between Israel and

the Arab states, the conflict continued and the region remainedimperilled by the prospect of another war. This was fuelled by anescalating arms race, as countries built up their military caches andprepared their forces (and their populations) for a future show-down.

In 1956, Israel joined with Britain and France to attack Egypt,ostensibly to reverse the Egyptian government's nationalisation ofthe Suez Canal (then under French and British control). Israeliforces captured Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, but were forced toevacuate back to the armistice lines as a result of UN pressure—thelead being taken by the United States and the Soviet Union, in anuncharacteristic show of cooperation to avert further conflict in theMiddle East. By the early 1960s, however, the region was becom-ing a hot spot of Cold War rivalry as the US and the Soviet Unionwere competing with one another for global power and influence.

In the spring of 1967, the Soviet Union misinformed the Syriangovernment that Israeli forces were massing in northern Israel toattack Syria. There was no such Israeli mobilisation. But clashesbetween Israel and Syria had been escalating for about a year, andIsraeli leaders had publicly declared that it might be necessary tobring down the Syrian regime if it failed to end Palestinian com-mando attacks against Israel from Syrian territory.

Responding to a Syrian request for assistance, in May 1967Egyptian troops entered the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel. Afew days later, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser asked theUN observer forces stationed between Israel and Egypt to evacuatetheir positions. The Egyptians then occupied Sharm al-Shaykh atthe southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and proclaimed a blockadeof the Israeli port of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba, arguing that access

to Eilat was through Egyptian territorialwaters. These measures shocked and fright-ened the Israeli public, which believed it wasin danger of annihilation.

As the military and diplomatic crisis con-tinued, on June 5, 1967 Israel pre-emptivelyattacked Egypt and Syria, destroying their airforces on the ground within a few hours.Jordan joined in the fighting belatedly, andconsequently was attacked by Israel as well.The Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armieswere decisively defeated, and Israel capturedthe West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Stripand the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the

Golan Heights from Syria.The 1967 war, which lasted only six

days, established Israel as the dominantregional military power. The speed andthoroughness of Israel's victory discred-ited the Arab regimes. In contrast, thePalestinian national movement emergedas a major actor after 1967 in the formof the political and military groups thatmade up the Palestine LiberationOrganization (PLO).

THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES The West Bank and the Gaza Strip

became distinct geographical units as a result of the 1949 armisticethat divided the new Jewish state of Israel from other parts ofMandate Palestine.

From 1948 to 1967, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,was ruled by Jordan, which annexed the area in 1950 and extendedcitizenship to Palestinians living there. During this period, theGaza Strip was under Egyptian military administration. In the 1967war, Israel captured and occupied these areas along with the SinaiPeninsula (which it took from Egypt) and the Golan Heights (whichit captured from Syria).

Israel established a military administration to govern thePalestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Underthis arrangement, Palestinians were denied many basic politicalrights and civil liberties, including freedom of expression, freedomof the press and freedom of political association. Palestiniannationalism was criminalised as a threat to Israeli security, whichmeant that even displaying the Palestinian national colours was apunishable act. All aspects of Palestinian life were regulated andoften severely restricted by the Israeli military administration. Forexample, Israel forbade the gathering of wild thyme (za'tar), abasic element of Palestinian cuisine.

In 1956, Israel joinedwith Britain and France

to attack Egypt,ostensibly to reverse theEgyptian government'snationalisation of the

Suez Canal (then underFrench and British

control).

24 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

Israeli policies and practices in the West Bank and Gaza haveincluded extensive use of collective punishments such as curfews,house demolitions and closure of roads, schools and communityinstitutions.

Hundreds of Palestinian political activists have been deported toJordan or Lebanon, tens of thousands of acres of Palestinian landhave been confiscated, and thousands of trees have been uprooted.Since 1967, over 300,000 Palestinians have been imprisonedwithout trial, and over half a million have been tried in the Israelimilitary court system. Torture of Palestinian prisoners has been acommon practice since at least 1971, and dozens of people havedied in detention from abuse or neglect. Israeli officials haveclaimed that harsh measures and high rates of imprisonment arenecessary to thwart terrorism. According to Israel, Palestinianterrorism includes all forms of opposition to the occupation(including non-violence).

Israel has built hundreds of settlements and permitted hundredsof thousands of its own Jewish citizens to move to the West Bankand Gaza, despite the fact that this constitutes a breach of interna-tional law.

Israel has justified the violation of theFourth Geneva Convention and otherinternational laws governing militaryoccupation of foreign territory on thegrounds that the West Bank and theGaza Strip are not technically "occu-pied" because they were never part ofthe sovereign territory of any state.Therefore, according to this interpreta-tion, Israel is not a foreign "occupier"but a legal "administrator" of territorywhose status remains to be determined.

The international community hasrejected the Israeli official position thatthe West Bank and Gaza are not occu-pied and has maintained that interna-tional law should apply there. But littleeffort has been mounted to enforceinternational law or hold Israel account-able for the numerous violations it has engaged in since 1967.

JERUSALEM The UN partition plan advocated that Jerusalem become an inter-

national zone, independent of both the proposed Jewish andPalestinian Arab states.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Israel took control of the westernpart of Jerusalem, while Jordan took the eastern part including theold walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christianreligious sites. The 1949 armistice line cut the city in two. In June1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan and almostimmediately annexed it. It reaffirmed its annexation in 1981.

Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal capital". Arabs considerEast Jerusalem part of the occupied West Bank and want it to bethe capital of a Palestinian state.

THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO) The Arab League established the Palestinian Liberation

Organization in 1964 as an effort to control Palestinian nationalismwhile appearing to champion the cause. The Arab defeat in the1967 War enabled younger, more militant Palestinians to take overthe PLO and gain some independence from the Arab regimes.

The PLO includes different political and armed groups withvarying ideological orientations. Yasir Arafat is the leader of

Fatah, the largest group, and has been PLO Chairman since 1968.The other major groups are the Popular Front for the Liberation ofPalestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation ofPalestine (DFLP) and, in the occupied territories, the PalestinePeople's Party (PPP, formerly the Communist Party).

Despite factional differences, the majority of Palestinians regardthe PLO as their representative.

In the 1960s, the PLO's primary base of operations was Jordan.In 1970–71, fighting with the Jordanian Army drove the PLO lead-ership out of the country, forcing it to relocate to Lebanon. Whenthe Lebanese civil war started in 1975, the PLO became a party inthe conflict. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, thePLO leadership was expelled from the country, this time relocatingto Tunisia.

Until 1993, Israel did not acknowledge Palestinian national rightsor recognise the Palestinians as an independent party to the conflict.Israel refused to negotiate with the PLO, arguing that it was noth-ing but a terrorist organisation, and insisted on dealing only withJordan or other Arab states. It rejected the establishment of a

Palestinian state, insisting thatPalestinians should be incorporated into

the existing Arab states. This intransigence ended when

Israeli representatives entered intosecret negotiations with the PLO,which led to the Oslo Declaration ofPrinciples.

UN SECURITY COUNCILRESOLUTION 242

After the 1967 War, the UnitedNations Security Council adoptedResolution 242, which notes the"inadmissability of the acquisition ofterritory by force" and calls for Israeliwithdrawal from lands seized in thewar and the right of all states in thearea to peaceful existence within secureand recognised boundaries.

The grammatical construction of the French version ofResolution 242 says Israel should withdraw from "the territories",whereas the English version of the text calls for withdrawal from"territories". (Both English and French are official languages of theUnited Nations.) Israel and the United States use the English ver-sion to argue that Israeli withdrawal from some, but not all, the ter-ritory occupied in the 1967 war satisfies the requirements of thisresolution.

For many years, the Palestinians rejected Resolution 242 becauseit does not acknowledge their right to national self-determination orto return to their homeland. It calls only for a just settlement of therefugee problem.

By calling for recognition of every state in the area, Resolution242 entailed unilateral Palestinian recognition of Israel withoutrecognition of Palestinian national rights.

THE OCTOBER 1973 WAR After coming to power in Egypt in late 1970, President Anwar

Sadat indicated to UN envoy Gunnar Jarring that he was willing tosign a peace agreement with Israel in exchange for the return ofEgyptian territory (the Sinai Peninsula) lost in 1967. When thisoverture was ignored by Israel and the United States, Egypt andSyria decided to act to break the political stalemate. They attackedIsraeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in

Since 1967, over 300,000Palestinians have been

imprisoned without trial, andover half a million have been

tried in the Israeli militarycourt system. Torture of

Palestinian prisoners has beena common practice since

at least 1971...

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 25

October 1973, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The sur-prise attack caught Israel off guard, and the Arabs achieved someearly military victories. This prompted American political inter-vention, along with sharply increased military aid to Israel.

After the war, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pursued adiplomatic strategy of limited bilateral agreements to secure partialIsraeli withdrawals from the Sinai Peninsula and the GolanHeights, while avoiding negotiations on more difficult issuesincluding the fate of the West Bank and Gaza. By late 1975, theseefforts had exhausted their potential and there was no prospect ofachieving a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement.

In late 1977, Sadat decided to initiate a separate overture toIsrael. His visit to Jerusalem on November 19, 1977, led to theCamp David accords and the signing of an Egyptian-Israeli peacetreaty in 1979.

CAMP DAVID I In September 1978, US President Jimmy Carter invited Sadat

and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, apresidential retreat in Maryland. They worked out two agreements:a framework for peace between Egypt and Israel, and a generalframework for resolution of the MiddleEast crisis, i.e., the Palestinian question.

The first agreement formed the basisof the Egyptian-Israeli peace treatysigned in 1979. The second agreementproposed to grant autonomy to thePalestinians in the West Bank and theGaza Strip and to install a local admin-istration for a five-year interim period,after which the final status of the terri-tories would be negotiated.

Only the Egyptian-Israeli part of theCamp David accords was implemented.The Palestinians and other Arab statesrejected the autonomy concept becauseit did not guarantee full Israeli withdrawal from areas captured in1967 or the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

In any case, Israel sabotaged negotiations by continuing to con-fiscate Palestinian lands and build new settlements in violation ofthe commitments Menachem Begin made to Jimmy Carter at CampDavid.

THE INTIFADA In December 1987, the Palestinian population in the West Bank

and Gaza started a mass uprising against the Israeli occupation.This uprising, or intifada (which means "shaking off" in Arabic),was not started or orchestrated by the PLO leadership in Tunis.Rather, it was a popular mobilisation that drew on the organisationsand institutions that had developed under occupation.

The intifada involved hundreds of thousands of people, manywith no previous resistance experience, including children,teenagers and women. For the first few years it involved manyforms of civil disobedience, including massive demonstrations,general strikes, refusal to pay taxes, boycotts of Israeli products,political graffiti and the establishment of underground schools(since regular schools were closed by the military as reprisals forthe uprising). It also included the throwing of stones and Molotovcocktails and the erection of barricades to impede the movement ofIsraeli military forces.

Intifada activism was organised through popular committeesunder the umbrella of the United National Leadership of theUprising. The UNLU was a coalition of the four PLO parties

active in the occupied territories: Fatah, the PFLP, the DFLP andthe PPP. This broad-based resistance drew unprecedented interna-tional attention to the situation facing Palestinians in the West Bankand Gaza, and challenged the occupation as never before.

Under the leadership of Minister of Defence Yitzhak Rabin,Israel tried to smash the intifada with "force, power and blows".Army commanders instructed troops to break the bones of demon-strators. From 1987 to 1991, Israeli forces killed over 1,000Palestinians, including over 200 under the age of sixteen.

By 1990, most of the UNLU leaders had been arrested and theintifada had lost its cohesive force, although it continued for severalmore years. Political divisions and violence within the Palestiniancommunity escalated, especially the growing rivalry between thevarious PLO factions and Islamist organisations such as Hamas(Islamic Resistance Movement) and Islamic Jihad. Palestinian mil-itants killed over 250 Palestinians suspected of collaborating withthe occupation authorities and about 100 Israelis during this period.

Although the intifada did not bring an end to the occupation, itmade it clear that the status quo was untenable. The intifada shiftedthe centre of gravity of Palestinian political initiative from the PLOleadership in Tunis to the occupied territories.

Palestinian activists in the occupiedterritories demanded that the PLO adopta clear political program to guide thestruggle for independence. In response,the Palestine National Council (aPalestinian government-in-exile), con-vened in Algeria in November 1988,recognised the state of Israel, pro-claimed an independent Palestinianstate in the West Bank and the GazaStrip, and renounced terrorism.

The Israeli government did notrespond to these gestures, claiming thatnothing had changed and that the PLOwas a terrorist organisation with which

it would never negotiate. The United States did acknowledge that the PLO's policies had

changed, but it did little to encourage Israel to abandon itsintransigent stand.

THE MADRID CONFERENCE American and Israeli failure to respond meaningfully to PLO

moderation resulted in the PLO's opposition to the US-led attack onIraq during the 1991 Gulf War. The PLO did not endorse Iraq'sannexation of Kuwait, but it saw Saddam Hussein's challenge to theUS and the Gulf oil-exporting states as a way to alter the regionalstatus quo and focus attention on the question of Palestine.

After the Gulf War, the PLO was diplomatically isolated.Kuwait and Saudi Arabia cut off the financial support they hadbeen providing, bringing the PLO to the brink of crisis. The UnitedStates sought to stabilise its position in the Middle East by promot-ing a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Despite their turnagainst the PLO, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were anxious to resolvethe Arab-Israeli conflict and remove the potential for regional insta-bility that it created.

The administration of President Bush felt obliged to its Araballies, and pressed a reluctant Israeli Prime Minister YitzhakShamir to open negotiations with the Palestinians and the Arabstates at a multilateral conference convened in Madrid, Spain, inOctober 1991. Shamir's conditions, which the US accepted, werethat the PLO be excluded from the talks and that the Palestiniandesires for independence and statehood not be directly addressed.

In December 1987, thePalestinian population in the

West Bank and Gaza started amass uprising against the Israelioccupation. This uprising, orintifada, was not started ororchestrated by the PLO

leadership in Tunis.

26 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

In subsequent negotiating sessions held in Washington, DC,Palestinians were represented by a delegation from the occupiedterritories. Participants in this delegation were subject to Israeliapproval, and residents of East Jerusalem were barred on thegrounds that the city is part of Israel. Although the PLO was for-mally excluded from these talks, its leaders regularly consultedwith and advised the Palestinian delegation.

Although Israeli and Palestinian delegations met many times, lit-tle progress was achieved. Prime Minister Shamir announced afterhe left office that his strategy was to drag out the Washington nego-tiations for 10 years, by which time the annexation of the WestBank would be an accomplished fact.

A new Israeli Labor Party government, led by Yitzhak Rabin,assumed office in June 1992 and promised rapid conclusion of anIsraeli-Palestinian agreement. Instead, the Washingtonnegotiations became stalemated after December 1992, when Israelexpelled over 400 Palestinian residents of the occupied territorieswho were accused (but not tried or convicted) of being radicalIslamist activists. Human rightsconditions in the West Bank and theGaza Strip deteriorated dramatically afterRabin assumed office. This underminedthe legitimacy of the Palestiniandelegation to the Washington talks andprompted the resignation of severaldelegates.

Lack of progress in the Washingtontalks and deterioration of the economicand human rights conditions in the WestBank and the Gaza Strip accelerated thegrowth of a radical Islamist challenge tothe PLO. Violent attacks against Israelitargets by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fur-ther exacerbated tensions.

Ironically, before the intifada, Israeliauthorities had enabled the development of Islamist organisationsas a way to divide Palestinians in the occupied territories. But asthe popularity of Islamists grew and challenged the moderation ofthe PLO, they came to regret their policy of encouraging politicalIslam as an alternative to the PLO's secular nationalism.Eventually, Yitzhak Rabin came to believe that Hamas, Jihad andthe broader Islamist movements, of which they were a part, posedmore of a threat to Israel than did the PLO.

THE OSLO ACCORDS The weakness of the PLO after the Gulf War, the stalemate in the

Washington talks and fear of radical Islam brought the Rabin gov-ernment to reverse the longstanding Israeli refusal to negotiate withthe PLO. Consequently, Israel initiated secret negotiations in Oslo,Norway, directly with PLO representatives who had been excludedfrom the Madrid and Washington talks. These negotiations pro-duced the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles, which was signedin Washington in September 1993.

The Declaration of Principles was based on mutual recognitionof Israel and the PLO. It established that Israel would withdrawfrom the Gaza Strip and Jericho, and make additional withdrawalsfrom further unspecified areas of the West Bank during a five-yearinterim period.

During this period, the PLO formed the Palestinian Authority(PA), with "self-governing" (i.e., municipal) powers in the areasfrom which Israeli forces were redeployed. In January 1996, elec-tions were held for a Palestinian Legislative Council and for thepresidency of the PA, which was won handily by Yasir Arafat. The

key issues such as the extent of the territories to be ceded by Israel,the nature of the Palestinian entity to be established, the future ofthe Israeli settlements and settlers, water rights, the resolution ofthe refugee problem and the status of Jerusalem were set aside to bediscussed in final status talks.

The PLO accepted this deeply flawed agreement with Israelbecause it was weak and had little diplomatic support in the Arabworld. Both Islamist radicals and local leaders in the West Bankand the Gaza Strip challenged Arafat's leadership. Yet only Arafathad the prestige and national legitimacy to conclude a negotiatedagreement with Israel.

The Oslo accords set up a negotiating process without specifyingan outcome. The process was supposed to have been completed byMay 1999. There were many delays due to Israel's reluctance torelinquish control over the occupied territories, unwillingness tomake the kinds of concessions necessary to reach a final statusagreement, and periodic outbursts of violence by Palestinian oppo-nents of the Oslo process, especially Hamas and Jihad. During the

Likud's return to power in 1996–99, PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu avoidedengaging seriously in the Oslo process,which he distrusted and fundamentallyopposed.

A Labor-led coalition government ledby Prime Minister Ehud Barak came topower in 1999. Barak at first concentrat-ed on reaching a peace agreement withSyria. When he failed to convince theSyrians to sign an agreement that wouldrestore to them less than all the area ofthe Golan Heights occupied by Israel in1967, Barak turned his attention to thePalestinian track.

During the protracted interim period ofthe Oslo process, Israel's Labor and

Likud governments built new settlements in the occupiedterritories, expanded existing settlements and constructed a networkof bypass roads to enable Israeli settlers to travel from theirsettlements to Israel proper without passing through Palestinian-inhabited areas. These projects were understood by mostPalestinians as marking out territory that Israel sought to annex inthe final settlement. The Oslo accords contained no mechanism toblock these unilateral actions or Israel's violations of Palestinianhuman and civil rights in areas under its control.

Final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians wereto have begun in mid-1996, but only got underway in earnest inmid-2000. By then, a series of painfully negotiated Israeli interimwithdrawals left the Palestinian Authority with direct or partialcontrol of some 40 per cent of the West Bank and 65 per cent of theGaza Strip. The Palestinian areas were surrounded by Israeli-controlled territory with entry and exit controlled by Israel.

The Palestinians' expectations were not accommodated by theOslo accords. The Oslo process required the Palestinians to maketheir principal compromises at the beginning, whereas Israel's prin-cipal compromises beyond recognition of the PLO were to be madein the final status talks.

CAMP DAVID II In July 2000, US President Clinton invited Prime Minister Barak

and President Arafat to Camp David to conclude negotiations onthe long-overdue final status agreement.

Ironically, before theintifada, Israeli authorities

had enabled thedevelopment of Islamist

organisations (such as Hamasand Jihad) as a way to

divide Palestinians in theoccupied territories.

Continued on page 82

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 29

AWAKENING THE HEALER WITHIN

We are in a very magical era: all around us, on all levels, we are witnessingthe connection between the East and the West, the ancient and the modern,spiritual heritage and science. We are so truly fortunate to be living in suchan exciting time, and to be able to watch in awe the way life unfolds before

our very eyes. Modern scientific research is discovering today that ancient spiritual ideascome very close to today's most recent discoveries in the field of quantum physics andvibrational healing methods.

One such powerful practice for healing that is continuing to flourish today is ShivambuShastra, respected for thousands of years as the "Mother of Ayurvedic Medicine" andcommonly known as "Self-Urine Therapy". Shivambu means literally "Water of Shiva",referring to the auspiciousness of the practice. Its "method of drinking urine for rejuvena-tion" is outlined in the Shivambu Kalpa Vidhi, part of a 5,000-year-old document calledthe Damar Tantra, linking this practice back to the Vedas, the sacred Hindu texts. Self-urine therapy has been seen as one of the divine manifestations of cosmic intelligence, andhas been used as such by Indian yogis to unleash kundalini up to their third eye.

There is something esoteric about urine. It is considered to be a supernatural, livingfood because it is a by-product of the blood and contains "life force" or prana. Usingurine as a therapeutic tool mirrors to us the "healer within" who works on a mechanisticlevel as well as on an energetic level. This implies that urine, as a holographic substance,has the ability to affect all levels of being—from the physical, through the electromagnet-ic fields of the emotions and the mind, up to the subtler vibrations of the soul.

Urine is considered to be an invaluable source of nourishment and healing that perhapshas been too controversial or not financially rewarding enough for it to be talked aboutand encouraged as a potent medicine. One's own urine, a living food, contains elementsthat are specific to one's body alone. The body is constantly producing a huge variety ofantibodies, hormones, enzymes and other natural chemicals to regulate and control itsfunctions and combat imbalances that one may not be aware of.

Clinical studies have proved that the thousands of critical body chemicals and nutrientsthat end up in urine reflect the individual body's functions. When re-utilised, these chemi-cals and nutrients act as natural vaccines, antibacterial, antiviral and anticarcinogenicagents as well as hormone balancers and allergy relievers. The information that urinecontains therefore cannot be duplicated or derived from any other source. Just as natureproduces no two people who are exactly the same, there are no two urine samples in theworld that contain exactly the same components.

A STERILE BY-PRODUCT OF BLOOD FILTRATIONUrine is not a dirty and toxic substance rejected by the body. Urine is a by-product of

blood filtration, not waste filtration. Medically it is referred to as "plasma ultrafiltrate". Itis a purified derivative of the blood itself, made by the kidneys—whose principal functionis not excretion but regulation of all the elements and their concentrations in the blood.Urine can be compared to leftovers from a meal, and this metaphor may help us under-stand why our bodies excrete elements that are valuable to our health and well-being.

Nutrient-filled blood passes through the liver where toxins are removed to be excretedas solid waste. Eventually, this purified "clean" blood undergoes a filtering process in thekidneys, where excess water, salts, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antibodies, urea, uricacid and other elements not usable at that time by the body are collected in the form of a

Shivambu ShastraShivambu ShastraHHEALINGEALING WITHWITH UURINERINE TTHERAPYHERAPY

The ancientAyurvedic practiceof urine therapy is

undergoing aresurgence, as its

myriad healthbenefits are being

explored byscientists, healthpractitioners and

the general public.

by Natalia Perera © 2002Saffronrose

49 Ocean StreetWoollahra, NSW 2025

AustraliaTelephone: +61 (0)2 9362 8838

Email: [email protected]

30 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

purified, sterile, watery solution that is urine. The function of thekidneys is to keep the various elements in the blood balanced.The important elements in the blood are not filtered out becausethey are toxic and harmful to the body, but simply because thebody does not need a particular concentration of an element atthat specific point in time. It is this very regulating process of thekidneys that allows us to eat and drink more than our bodies needat any one time.

BIOCHEMICAL COMPONENTSUrine is estimated to have thousands of biochemical com-

pounds, but only 200 or so have been studied. It contains anincredible array of critically important nutrients, enzymes, hor-mones, natural antibodies and immune defence agents.

Some of these components are well worth furtherconsideration—such as allantoin (also found in comfrey, knownas "bone-knit", and in aloe vera, which guards against sunburn);the amino acid creatinine (popular with body-builders); DHEAhormone (proven by research to have anti-ageing, anticancer andanti-obesity properties); melatonin (known for its calming effectwhile strengthening the physical body and immunity); and sexhormones such as testosterone, androgen and oestrogen.

In view of such an array of ingredients, it is easier to understandurine's antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antineoplastic,anticonvulsive and antispasmodic effects.

ACTIONS, BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS Anything that was in the blood cannot be harmful to the person

that it came from. Besides, when taken internally, the urine doesnot go straight into the bloodstream but travels through thedigestive system, where its constituents are sorted out. The usefulones are used up again, while others are rejected as solid waste.When the level of toxins in the blood increases, this stimulates theintestines and the lymphatic system into flushing themselves outto eliminate any stagnated excrements accumulated in the colon.The amount of toxins found in the urine of each person is relatedto the amount of stagnated excrement in the colon. So the toxins,in such minute amounts in urine, stimulate a cleansing reaction ineach individual and vaccinate and protect the body fromillnesses.

Studies on urea, considered the poisonous organic solid inurine, have shown it is converted into an essential amino acidonce it is recycled by ingestion, helping our bodies use proteinmore efficiently. Urea has also been proven to be an extraordinar-ily effective antibacterial and antiviral agent, one of the best nat-ural diuretics and one of the most effective skin moisturisers everdiscovered. Urea actually increases the water-binding capacity ofthe skin by opening skin layers for hydrogen bonding and thusattracting moisture to dry skin cells. As a natural diuretic, it isunparalleled and is also widely prescribed in cases of oedema orswelling, glaucoma, epilepsy and meningitis and to reduce excesscerebral and spinal pressure. Urea is an FDA-approved medicinalagent, and its remarkable and comprehensive antineoplastic prop-erties are well utilised in anticancer drugs and treatments.

Even uric acid, normally thought of as a waste product that cancause gout, has tremendous medicinal implications, such as actingas a defence against cancer and ageing by actively destroying freeradicals.

Urokinase, an enzyme also found in urine, is used in drug formto dissolve blood clots and is widely used for unblocking coronaryarteries in victims of heart attacks.

One of the world's largest fertility drug–producing companiesmakes use of the ovulation-enhancing hormone in human urine tomake Pergonal, reported to have had US$855 million in sales in1992 (a figure that has continued to increase since then).

More examples of commercial medical applications of urineand urea in use today include: Murine Ear Drops and Murine EarWax Removal System; Ureaphil, a diuretic made from urea;Urofollotropin, a urine-extract fertility drug; Ureacin, a ureacream for skin problems; Amino-Cerv, a urea cream used for cer-vical treatments; Premarin, a urine-extract oestrogen for skinulcers, burns, infected wounds, and other purposes.

A SUBTLE SCIENCEMost urine therapists have never sought a scientific explanation

for why or how it works; their own experiences have proven to bemore than sufficient. However, as modern medicine's interest in

Dr A. H. Free published in his book, Urinalysisin Clinical Laboratory Practice, a list ofconstituents which in 1975 was by no meansexhaustive:

• Alanine 38 mg/day • Arginine 32 mg/day • Ascorbic acid 30 mg/day • Allantoin 12 mg/day • Amino acids 2.1 g/day • Bicarbonate 140 mg/day • Biotin 35 mg/day • Calcium 23 mg/day • Creatinine 1.4 mg/day • Cystine 120 mg/day • Dopamine 0.40 mg/day • Epinephrine 0.01 mg/day • Folic acid 4 mg/day • Glucose 100 mg/day • Glutamic acid 308 mg/day • Glycine 455 mg/day • Inositol 14 mg/day • Iodine 0.25 mg/day • Iron 0.5 mg/day • Lysine 56 mg/day • Magnesium 100 mg/day • Manganese 0.5 mg/day • Methionine 10 mg/day • Nitrogen 15 g/day • Ornithine 10 mg/day • Pantothenic acid 3 mg/day • Phenylalanine 21mg/day • Phosphorus, organic 9 mg/day • Potassium 2.5 mg/day • Proteins, total 5 mg/day • Riboflavin 0.9 mg/day • Tryptophan 28 mg/day • Tyrosine 50 mg/day • Urea 24.5 mg/day • Vitamin B6 100 mg/day • Vitamin B12 0.03 mg/day • Zinc 1.4 mg/day

the powerful healing aspects of Shivambu Shastra grows, moreresearch is being undertaken and a lot is being revealed to sub-stantiate scientifically the therapy's very rich history in healing.

Ayurveda considers disease to be caused by a shift in the inter-nal metabolic balance, manifested as the five elements of aether,air, fire, water and earth in that individual. To create healthinvolves rebalancing that unique metabolism to attain elementalequilibrium.

In scientific terms, one can consider self-urine therapy as anextension of the methods of Jenner and Pasteur, as auto-inoculation or self-vaccination. Certain bodily substances whichhave been removed from the body, some of which may have beenproduced as a result of an imbalance, are re-introduced into thebody in small amounts and re-absorbed into the blood througheither the intestines or the skin. This gives the immune system allthe information that it needs and the chance to react appropriatelyto achieve homeostasis.

Coen van der Kroon, in his book The Golden Fountain,proposes what he calls the "transmutation theory" for theunderlying mechanics of Shivambu Shastra. His proposal iscoherent in terms of the visible shift in recent times fromreductionism to holism in scientific research. The theory impliesthat the body is capable, throughenergy exchange, to "short-circuit" thesystem by ingesting its own secretedbody fluids to stimulate thetransmutational forces within andchallenge the body to transformunusable substances into usable ones.Van der Kroon proposes that self-urinetherapy could possibly restructuredisturbed DNA, especially if one isfasting on urine.

The medical doctor and urinetherapist Dr Johann Abele puts it assuch:

...the question rises as to whetherurine could possibly be consideredto be a sort of liquid hologram. Once the body is madeconscious of urine in an unconventional way (such as it beingreintroduced into the body by intramuscular injection or byingesting it), the whole organism evaluates it andsubsequently updates its own regulating mechanisms...An important aspect of this theory is the concept of "structured

water". Both the body and urine are mainly made up of water, invarying degrees of molecular organisation. The more water mole-cules are organised, the more efficiently enzymes responsible fordigestion, absorption and transmutation can do their job.

It has been proven that water molecules in biological systemsbecome more organised through exposure to sunlight and throughclose contact with crystals. The body is a receptor of sunlight andcontains a high amount of solid and liquid crystalline-like sub-stances; indeed, body fluids themselves form fluid crystals.

Urine itself is a crystalline-like substance containing a highamount of structured water, and when retaken it promotes a betterenzymatic functioning and higher solubility for minerals, thusimproving health and increasing energy reserves. Seeing urine asa liquid crystal implies that it contains vibrations completely intune with the vibrational condition of the body it comes from.Re-ingestion might give the body valuable vibrational informationneeded for two things: first, for maintaining the existing healthybody resonance, and second, for counteracting disease or stressvibrations and any unhealthy resonance in the body. By way of

example, disharmonious sounds can been counteracted byemploying the same sounds.

The vibratory patterns of the body, both in the bones (solidcrystals) and in the tissues and fluids (liquid crystals), play animportant role in the process of transmutation. The resonancefield of a crystal can make a protein, for example, change its forminto one that is more useful for the body or more easily adaptableby it. This can be described as "modern alchemy", and it res-onates with the principles of homoeopathy.

Homoeopathy refers to a therapeutic method which clinicallyapplies the "law of similars" and uses medically active substancesat infinitesimal doses and never at full strength, where the originalsubstance has undergone a dilution process. When the body isgiven a homoeopathic remedy, it is stimulated into action notbecause of the physical or chemical nature of the substance butbecause of the energetic nature that is received through newvibratory information.

Isopathy is another valid hypothesis worth considering. Oncemicrobes have evolved in the blood to a pathogenic level, then de-evolving them back to a stage where they are less harmful wouldfacilitate recovery. The primary way to do this is through diet torebalance the pH in the blood. But in severe cases, the process

can be accelerated biologically, asdemonstrated by Professor Enderlein'sresults from his research on thedevelopment life cycle of the internalparasite. A rather evolved pathogenicmicrobe causing disease in the bodycan be mated with the same type ofmicrobe at an earlier developmentalstage to breed a form that is less strongand non-pathogenic. This process isprobable since the colloids or somatidsare in fact so small that they areunfilterable by the kidneys; therefore,once urine is consumed, one canreceive a dose of these pure somatidswhich biologically proceed to support

the immune function and possibly lead to taking the pathogenicmicrobes in the blood back down to apathogenic states. This isthe basis of isopathic remedies; they promote gentle yet effectiveself-healing through biological means.

Allergy treatment illustrates this method quite well. By usingthe same substance that is causing the allergy and reintroducing itto the body, the immune system is allowed to develop antibodiesto the antigen receptors found in the urine to stop the allergicresponse.

HEALTH POINTERS FOR SELF-THERAPY To begin with, Dr Beatrice Bartnett (author of Urine Therapy –

It May Save Your Life) suggests making a prayer, thanking ourbodies for providing us with this divine elixir, and drinking theurine slowly, willingly and with cheerfulness! This is all verywell, considering that most people who start drinking urine findthe taste much too sour, bitter or pungent and the odour way toostrong. Even if the urine is diluted, they may experience nausea,headaches and other strong reactions before they get used to it andstart seeing results.

Martha Christy (author of Your Own Perfect Medicine) sug-gests not taking copious amounts of water to flush out the kid-neys, as this dilutes the healing properties of the urine.

It is good to remember that urine is a mere sample of what isflowing through the body's veins, and any repulsion should be

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 31

In scientific terms, one canconsider self-urine therapy asan extension of the methods

of Jenner and Pasteur, as auto-inoculation or

self-vaccination.

used as a motivation to improve the internal conditions rather thanas an excuse for not using this miraculous therapy for creatinghealth.

Urine is actually less toxic and more alive than much of thefood and drink that we take into our bodies, which somehow man-age to digest the junk foods and devitalised liquids and still pro-duce a valuable, medicinal drink. However, how much morevaluable for medicinal and cleansing purposes if the urine is theproduct of a body fed healthy, natural, organic and raw foods?

Drinking urine makes us think seriously about what we eat.Since it is a by-product of the blood, it makes sense that the clean-er the blood is, the healthier the urine will be. But even urinefrom relatively unhealthy blood contains valuable immunologicalfactors that can improve health if recycled. Urine drinking'scleansing effect on the blood can be observed by the change intaste and the colour of the urine: as it is more and more recycled,it becomes purer and clearer. If one has difficulty urinating—andit has been said that a weak flow is a sign of a weak life-force—then this practice actually strengthens the flow of urine, conse-quently increasing the vital life-force.

Ingesting more toxic substances in the body, however, mayneutralise the good effects of self-urine therapy. So it is recom-mended that anyone embarking on the therapy give up tobacco inall forms and restrict consumptionof cold drinks, spices, fried foods,junk foods, refined foods and sugarsas much as possible. Above all, it isbest to avoid alcohol, meat and cof-fee as well as recreational drugs. Itis also advisable to follow a low-salt, low-protein diet.

Like all other natural therapies,this is not a treatment that needs tobe stopped after the relief of certainsymptoms, but can be incorporatedinto one's health regime. Moresubtle, yet very real effects of thistherapy as a lifestyle choice includefeeling stronger, more relaxed, moreself-confident, invigorated and generally happier and lighteremotionally and physically.

SELF-THERAPY METHODS The middle stream of fresh, warm, morning urine is the most

potent, and drinking it mixed with freshly squeezed orange juiceis probably the fastest way to accomplish this task, although it isbest not to mix urine with other foods or drinks or to take it withinan hour before or after eating.

Oral drops of fresh urine can be placed directly under thetongue. Urine therapists suggest their patients start with 1–5drops of fresh morning urine on the first day, increase to 5–10drops on the second day, and take 5–10 drops on the morning ofthe third day and the same amount that evening before going tobed. Once patients feel comfortable with this therapy, they cangradually increase the amount as they see fit to obtain the resultsrequired for their body's condition. Over time, they can learn toadjust the amount that is needed by observing their reactions tothe therapy; their dosage may become as much as one full cup at atime!

Self-urine may be used as eye drops and ear drops, in foot bathsand even as effective enemas. Nose drops can help loosen mucusand clear up blocked nasal passages. Gargling with it is helpfulfor a sore throat, and inhaling it relieves sinus and respiratory

congestion. Taken internally, it has a laxative and diuretic effect,as it cleanses the digestive tract.

Dr John Armstrong (author of The Water of Life) emphasisesthe need to massage with urine. He insists that cures work fasterand more effectively in those who are bathed, massaged, rubbedand soaked in their own urine. He highly recommends it for moreserious illnesses, since urine is absorbed through the skin and thehormonal and protein-based contents are slowly reabsorbed intothe system, bypassing digestive juices that otherwise may haveneutralised their potency. In this way, it also works as an excel-lent cosmetic for moisturising and healing skin blemishes, burnsand scar tissue. However, for this usage, it is preferable to useurine that is 4–8 days old. The smell of ammonia in the old urineis not toxic but actually beneficial if used topically only, and nottaken internally.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSCan a woman drink her urine during her menses?

Yes, and although the urethra and the vagina are two separateorgans, there is nothing in the menstrual fluid that can harm a per-son if it is accidentally mixed with urine.

Can a person drink their urine while on medications?The short answer is no, because of theremote possibility of overdosing on anyparticular medication by recycling theportion of what is discharged in urine.However, hormone, vitamin and mineralsupplements can be taken while drinkingurine, as long as the intake is frequentlymonitored and the amounts reducedaccordingly as the imbalance improves.

In what cases can ShivambuShastra be used?

Regarded truly as a "panacea",Shivambu Shastra is said to be effectivein over 175 health conditions. Diagnosisplays no practical part in the therapy,

since the urine sample reflects so perfectly the individual's mostintimate details about the state of their health. In fact, it worksbrilliantly on the more subtle health imbalances that are very real,yet often too evasive to label medically.

Urine can be massaged topically for the most chronic andstubborn skin problems, such as acne, eczema, psoriasis,ringworm, sores, fungal infections, insect bites, wounds, burnsand even gangrene.

Internally, the therapy is said to be effective in treating AIDS(since the AIDS antibodies are found in urine) as well as cancer,chronic fatigue syndrome, anaemia, all sorts of urinary diseases,weight loss, colds and flus, candida, diabetes, digestive problems,jaundice and more. It has been medically proven to work againstpolio and tuberculosis, and doctors have injected itintramuscularly to treat immunological illnesses such as psoriasis,basal cell carcinoma and asthma, to name a few.

Why does urine therapy seem ineffective in some cases?There are times when there is a chronic deficiency of one or

several minerals, and in such cases there is none of that mineral inthe urine; therefore, although the general health and othermetabolic imbalances in that person improve, that particular

32 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

It is recommended thatanyone embarking on urinetherapy give up tobacco in

all forms and restrictconsumption of cold drinks,

spices, fried foods, junk foods,refined foods and sugars

as much as possible.

Continued on page 84

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 35

MYTH #7: Vegetarians live longer and have more energy and endurancethan meat-eaters.

A vegetarian guidebook published in Great Britain made the following claim:You and your children don't need to eat meat to stay healthy. In fact, vegetariansclaim they are among the healthiest people around, and they can expect to live nineyears longer than meat-eaters (this is often because heart and circulatory diseasesare rarer). These days almost half the population in Britain is trying to avoid meat,according to a survey by the Food Research Association in January 1990.77

In commenting on this claim of extended lifespan, author Craig Fitzroy astutely pointsout that:

The "nine-year advantage" is an oft-repeated but invariably unsourced piece ofanecdotal evidence for vegetarianism. But anyone who believes that by snubbingmum's Sunday roast they will be adding a decade to their years on the planet isalmost certainly indulging in a bit of wishful thinking.78

And that is what most of the claims for increased longevity in vegetarians are:anecdotal. There is no proof that a healthy vegetarian diet, when compared to a healthyomnivorous diet, will result in a longer life. Additionally, people who choose avegetarian lifestyle typically also choose not to smoke; they choose to exercise; in short,they choose to live a healthier lifestyle. These things also are factors in one's longevity.

In the scientific literature, there are surprisingly few studies done on vegetarianlongevity. Russell Smith, PhD, in his massive review study on heart disease, showed thatas animal product consumption increased among some study groups, death rates actuallydecreased!79 Such results were not obtained among vegetarian subjects. For example, in astudy published by Burr and Sweetnam in 1982, analysis of mortality data revealed that,although vegetarians had a slightly (0.11%) lower rate of heart disease than non-vegetarians, the all-cause death rate was much higher for vegetarians.80

Despite claims that studies have shown that meat consumption increased the risk forheart disease and shortened lives, the authors of those studies actually found the opposite.For example, in a 1984 analysis of a 1978 study of vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists, H.A. Kahn concluded:

Although our results add some substantial facts to the diet-disease question, we rec-ognize how remote they are from establishing, for example, that men who frequentlyeat meat or women who rarely eat salad are thereby shortening their lives.81

A similar conclusion was reached by D. A. Snowden.82 Despite these startling admis-sions, the studies nevertheless concluded the exact opposite and urged people to reduceanimal food intake in their diets. Further, both of these studies threw out certain dietarydata that clearly showed no connection between eggs, cheese, whole milk and fat attachedto meat (all high-fat, high-cholesterol foods) and heart disease. Dr Smith commented:

In effect, the Kahn[and Snowden]study is yet another example of negative resultswhich are massaged and misinterpreted to support the politically correct assertionsthat vegetarians live longer lives.83

It is usually claimed that meat-eating peoples have a short lifespan, but the Aboriginesof Australia, who traditionally eat a diet rich in animal products, are known for their

TTHEHE MMYTHSYTHS OFOF

VVEGETEGETARIANISMARIANISM

Anthropologicalstudies showing

that no tribalpeoples are strictlyvegetarian suggestwe need to includeanimal foods in our

diets to maintaingood health.

Part 2 of 2

by Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP © 2000, 2002

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.PowerHealth.net

longevity (at least before colonisation by Europeans). WithinAboriginal society there is a special caste of the elderly.84

Obviously, if no old people existed, no such group would haveexisted.

In his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr Price hasnumerous photographs of elderly native peoples from around theworld. Explorers such as Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported greatlongevity among the Innuit (again, before colonisation).85

Similarly, the people of the Caucasus Mountains live to great ageson a diet of fatty pork and whole raw milk products. The Hunzas,also known for their robust health and longevity, drink substantialportions of goat's milk, which has a higher saturated fat contentthan cow's milk.86 In contrast, the largely vegetarian Hindus ofsouthern India have the shortest lifespans in the world, partlybecause of a lack of food but also because of a distinct lack ofanimal protein in their diets.87

H. Leon Abrams's comments are instructive here: Vegetarians often maintain that adiet of meat and animal fat leadsto a premature death.Anthropological data fromprimitive societies do not supportsuch contentions.88

Dr Price travelled around the worldin the 1920s and 1930s, investigatingnative diets with regard to enduranceand energy levels. Without excep-tion, he found a strong correlationbetween diets rich in animal fats androbust health and athletic ability.Special foods for Swiss athletes, forexample, included bowls of fresh, rawcream. In Africa, Dr Price discoveredthat groups whose diets were rich infatty meats and fish, and organ meats like liver, consistently car-ried off the prizes in athletic contests, and that meat-eating tribesalways dominated tribes whose diets were largely vegetarian.89

It is popular in sports nutrition to recommend "carb-loading"for athletes to increase their endurance levels. But recent studiesdone in New York and South Africa show that the opposite istrue: athletes who "carb-loaded" had significantly less endurancethan those who "fat-loaded" before athletic events.90

MYTH #8: The "cave man" diet was low-fat and/orvegetarian. Humans evolved as vegetarians.

Our Palaeolithic ancestors were hunter-gatherers, and threeschools of thought have developed as to what their diet was like.One group argues for a high-fat and animal-based diet supple-mented with seasonal fruits, berries, nuts, root vegetables andwild grasses. The second argues that primitive peoples consumedassorted lean meats and large amounts of plant foods. The thirdargues that our human ancestors evolved as vegetarians.

The "lean" Palaeolithic diet approach has been argued for quitevoraciously by Drs Loren Cordain and Boyd Eaton in a number ofpopular and professional publications.91 Cordain and Eaton arebelievers in the "lipid hypothesis" of heart disease—the belief(debunked in Myth #6; see part one) that saturated fat and dietarycholesterol contribute to heart disease. Because of this, and thefact that Palaeolithic peoples or their modern equivalents did/donot suffer from heart disease, Cordain and Eaton espouse thetheory that Palaeolithic peoples consumed most of their fatcalories from mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated sources and

not saturated fats. Believing that saturated fats are dangerous toour arteries, Cordain and Eaton stay in step with currentestablishment nutritional thought and encourage modern peoplesto eat a diet like our ancestors. This diet, they believe, was rich inlean meats and a variety of vegetables but was low in saturatedfat.

However, the evidence they produce to support this theory isvery selective and misleading.92 Saturated fats do not cause heartdisease, as was shown above, and our Palaeolithic ancestors atequite a bit of saturated fat from a variety of plant and animalsources.

We learn from authoritative sources that prehistoric humans ofthe North American continent ate such animals as mammoth,camel, sloth, bison, mountain sheep, pronghorn antelope, beaver,elk, mule deer and llama.93

Mammoth, sloth, mountain sheep, bison and beaver are fattyanimals in the modern sense, in that they have a thick layer

of subcutaneous fat, as do themany species of bear and wildpig whose remains have beenfound at Paleolithic sitesthroughout the world.94

Analysis of many types of fat ingame animals like antelope, bison,caribou, dog, elk, moose, seal andmountain sheep shows that they arerich in saturates and mono-unsaturates but relatively low inpolyunsaturates.95 Further, whilebuffalo and game animals may havelean, non-marbled muscle meats, it isa mistake to assume that only theseparts were eaten by hunter-gatherergroups like the Native Americans,

who often hunted animals selectively for their fat and fattyorgans, as the following section will show.

Anthropologists/explorers such as Vilhjalmur Stefanssonreported that the Innuit and North American Indian tribes wouldworry when their catches of caribou were too lean: they knewsickness would follow if they did not consume enough fat.96 Inother words, these primitive peoples did not like having to eatlean meat.

Northern Canadian Indians would also deliberately hunt oldermale caribou and elk, for these animals carried a 50-pound slab ofback fat on them which the Indians would eat with relish. This"back fat" is highly saturated. Native Americans would alsorefrain from hunting bison in the springtime (when the animals'fat stores were low, due to scarce food supply during the winter),preferring to hunt, kill and consume them in the fall when theywere fattened up.97

Explorer Samuel Hearne, writing in 1768, described how theNative American tribes he came into contact with wouldselectively hunt caribou just for the fatty parts:

On the twenty-second of July, we met several strangers,whom we joined in pursuit of the caribou, which were at thistime so plentiful that we got everyday a sufficient number forour support, and indeed too frequently killed several merelyfor the tongues, marrow and fat.98

While Cordain and Eaton are certainly correct in saying that ourancestors ate meat, their contentions about fat intake, as well asthe type of fat consumed, are simply incorrect.

36 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

Explorers such as VilhjalmurStefansson reported great

longevity among the Innuit (before colonisation).

Similarly, the people of theCaucasus Mountains live to

great ages on a diet of fatty porkand whole raw milk products.

While various vegetarian and vegan authorities like to think thatwe evolved as a species on a vegan or vegetarian diet, there existslittle from the realm of nutritional anthropology to support theseideas.

To begin with, in his journeys Dr Price never once found atotally vegetarian culture. It should be remembered that Dr Pricevisited and investigated several population groups who were, forall intents and purposes, the 20th-century equivalents of ourhunter-gatherer ancestors. Dr Price was on the lookout for avegetarian culture, but he came up empty. Price stated:

As yet I have not found a single group of primitive racialstock which was building and maintaining excellent bodies byliving entirely on plant foods.99

Anthropological data support this. Throughout the globe, allsocieties show a preference for animal foods and fats, and itseems that our ancestors only turned to large-scale farming whenthey had to, due to increased population pres-sures.100 Abrams and other authorities haveshown that prehistoric man's quest for moreanimal foods was what spurred his expansionover the Earth, and that he apparently huntedcertain species to extinction.101

Price also found that those peoples who outof necessity consumed more grains andlegumes, had higher rates of dental decaythan those who consumed more animal prod-ucts. In his papers on vegetarianism, Abramspresents archaeological evidence that sup-ports this finding: skulls of ancient peopleswho were largely vegetarian have teeth con-taining caries and abscesses and showevidence of tuberculosis and other infec-tious diseases.102 The appearance offarming and the increased dependenceon plant foods for our subsistence wasclearly harmful to our health.

Finally, it is simply not possible forour prehistoric ancestors to have beenvegetarian because they would not havebeen able to get enough calories or nutri-ents to survive on the plant foods thatwere available. The reason for this isthat humans did not know how to cookor control fire at that time, and the greatmajority of plant foods, especially grains and legumes, must becooked in order to render them edible to humans.103 Most peopledo not know that many of the plant foods we consume today arepoisonous in their raw states.104

Based on all of this evidence, it is certain that our ancestors, theprogenitors of humanity, ate a very non-vegetarian diet that wasrich in saturated fatty acids.

MYTH #9: Meat and saturated fat consumption haveincreased in the 20th century, with a correspondingincrease in heart disease and cancer.

Statistics do not bear out such fancies. Butter consumption hasplummeted from 18 lb (8.165 kg) per person a year in 1900 to lessthan 5 lb (2.27 kg) per person a year today.105 Additionally,Westerners, urged on by government health agencies, havereduced their intake of eggs, cream, lard and pork. Chicken con-sumption has risen in the past few decades, but chicken is lowerin saturated fat than either beef or pork.

Furthermore, a survey of cookbooks published in America inthe 19th and early 20th centuries shows that people of earliertimes ate plenty of animal foods and saturated fats. For example,in the Baptist Ladies Cook Book(Monmouth, Illinois, 1895), vir-tually every recipe calls for butter, cream or lard. Recipes forcreamed vegetables are numerous as well. A scan of theSearchlight Recipe Book(Capper Publications, 1931) also hassimilar recipes: creamed liver, creamed cucumbers, hearts braisedin buttermilk, etc. British Jews, as shown by the JewishHousewives Cookbook(London, 1846), also had diets rich incream, butter, eggs, and lamb and beef tallows. One recipe forGerman waffles, for example, calls for a dozen egg yolks and anentire pound of butter. A recipe for oyster pie from the Baptistcookbook calls for a quart of cream and a dozen eggs, and so forthand so on.

It does not appear, then, that people ate leaner diets in the lastcentury. It is true that beef consumption has risen in the last few

decades, but what has also risen precipitously,however, is consumption of margarine andother food products containing trans-fattyacids,106 lifeless, packaged "foods", processedvegetable oils,107 carbohydrates108 and refinedsugar.109

Since one does not see chronic diseases likecancer and heart disease in beef-eating nativepeoples like the Masai and Samburu, it is notpossible for beef to be the culprit behind thesemodern epidemics. This, of course, points thefinger squarely at the other dietary factors asthe most likely causes.

MYTH #10: Soy products areadequate substitutes for meat anddairy products.

It is typical for vegans and vegetariansin the Western world to rely on varioussoy products for their protein needs.There is little doubt the billion-dollar soyindustry has profited immensely fromthe anti-cholesterol, anti-meat gospel ofcurrent nutritional thought. Whereas,not so long ago, soy was an Asian foodprimarily used as a condiment, now avariety of processed soy products prolif-erate in the marketplace.

While the traditionally fermented soy foods of miso, tamari,tempeh and natto are definitely healthful in measured amounts,the hyper-processed soy "foods" that most vegetarians consumeare not.

Non-fermented soybeans and foods made with them are high inphytic acid,110 an anti-nutrient that binds to minerals in thedigestive tract and carries them out of the body. Vegetarians areknown for their tendencies towards mineral deficiencies,especially of zinc,111 and it is the high phytate content of grain-and legume-based diets that is to blame.112 Though severaltraditional food-preparation techniques such as soaking, sproutingand fermenting can significantly reduce the phytate content ofgrains and legumes,113 such methods are not commonly knownabout or used by modern peoples, including vegetarians. Thisplaces them (and others who eat a diet rich in whole grains) at agreater risk for mineral deficiencies.

Processed soy foods are also rich in trypsin inhibitors, whichhinder protein digestion. Textured vegetable protein (TVP), soy

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 37

While the traditionallyfermented soy foods ofmiso, tamari, tempeh

and natto are definitelyhealthful in measuredamounts, the hyper-

processed soy "foods"that most vegetarians

consume are not.

"milk" and soy protein powders, and popular vegetarian meat andmilk substitutes are entirely fragmented foods, made by treatingsoybeans with high heat and various alkaline washes to extract thebeans' fat content or to neutralise their potent enzyme inhibitors.114

These practices completely denature the beans' protein content,rendering it very hard to digest. MSG, a neurotoxin, is routinelyadded to TVP to make it taste like the various foods it imitates.115

On a purely nutritional level, soybeans, like all legumes, aredeficient in cysteine and methionine, vital sulphur-containingamino acids, as well as tryptophan, another essential amino acid.Furthermore, soybeans contain no vitamins A or D, required bythe body to assimilate and utilise the beans' proteins.116 It isprobably for this reason that Asian cultures that do consumesoybeans usually combine them with fish or fish broths (abundantin fat-soluble vitamins) or other fatty foods.

Parents who feed their children soy-based formula should beaware of its extremely high phytoestrogen content. Some scien-tists have estimated a child being fed soy formula is ingesting thehormonal equivalent of five birth con-trol pills a day.117 Such a high intakecould have disastrous results. Also,soy formula contains no cholesterol,which is vital for brain and nervoussystem development.

Though research is still ongoing,some recent studies have indicatedthat soy's phytoestrogens could becausative factors in some forms ofbreast cancer,118 penile birth defects119

and infantile leukaemia.120 Soy's phy-toestrogens, or isoflavones, have beendefinitely shown to depress thyroidfunction121 and to cause infertility inevery animal species studied so far.122

Clearly, modern soy products andisolated isoflavone supplements arenot healthy foods for vegetarians,vegans or anyone else, yet these are the very ones that are mostconsumed.

MYTH #11: The human body is not designed for meatconsumption.

Some vegetarian groups claim that since humans possessgrinding teeth, like herbivorous animals, and longer intestinesthan carnivorous animals, this proves the human body is bettersuited for vegetarianism.123 This argument fails to note severalhuman physiological features which clearly indicate a design foranimal product consumption.

First and foremost is our stomach's production of hydrochloricacid, something not found in herbivores. Hydrochloric acid acti-vates protein-splitting enzymes. Further, the human pancreasmanufactures a full range of digestive enzymes to handle a widevariety of foods, both animal and vegetable.

Dr Walter Voegtlin's in-depth comparison of the human diges-tive system with that of the dog (a carnivore) and the sheep (a her-bivore) clearly shows that we are closer in anatomy to the carniv-orous dog than the herbivorous sheep.124 While humans may havelonger intestines than animal carnivores, they are not as long asherbivores; nor do we possess multiple stomachs like many herbi-vores; nor do we chew cud. Our physiology definitely indicates amixed feeder or an omnivore—much the same as our relatives themountain gorilla and chimpanzee, who have all been observedeating small animals and in some cases other primates.125

MYTH #12: Eating animal flesh causes violent,aggressive behaviour in humans.

Some authorities on vegetarian diets, such as Dr RalphBallantine,126 claim that the fear and terror (if any; see Myth #15)an animal experiences at death is somehow "transferred" into itsflesh and organs and "becomes" a part of the person who eats it.

These thinkers would do well to note that no scientific studiesexist to support such a theory, and also remember the fact that atendency towards irrational anger is a symptom of low vitaminB12 levels—which, as we have seen, are common in vegans andvegetarians.

In his travels, Dr Price always noted the extreme happiness andingratiating natures of the peoples he encountered, all of whomwere meat-eaters.

MYTH #13: Animal products contain numerousharmful toxins.

A recent vegetarian newsletter claimed the following: Most people don't realize that

meat products are loaded withpoisons and toxins! Meat, fishand eggs all decompose andputrefy extremely rapidly. Assoon as an animal is killed, self-destruct enzymes are released,causing the formation ofdenatured substances calledptyloamines, which causecancer.127

If meat, fish and eggs do indeedgenerate cancerous "ptyloamines", itis very strange that people have notbeen dying in droves from cancer forthe past mill ion years. Suchsensationalistic and nonsensicalclaims cannot be supported by

historical facts. This article then went on to mention "mad cow disease" (BSE),

parasites, salmonella, hormones, nitrates and pesticides as toxinsin animal products. Hormones, nitrates and pesticides are presentin commercially raised animal products (as well as commerciallyraised fruits, grains and vegetables) and are definitely things to beconcerned about. However, one can avoid these chemicals bytaking care to consume range-fed, organic meats, eggs and dairyproducts which do not contain harmful man-made toxins.

Parasites are easily avoided by taking normal precautions infood preparations. Pickling or fermenting meats, as is custom intraditional societies, protects against parasites. In his travels, DrPrice always found healthy, disease-free, parasite-free peopleseating raw meat and dairy products as part of their diets.

Similarly, Dr Francis Pottenger, in his experiments with cats,demonstrated that the healthiest, happiest cats were the ones onthe all-raw-food diet. The cats eating cooked meats andpasteurised milk sickened and died and had numerous parasites.128

Salmonella can be transmitted by plant products as well asanimal.

It is often claimed by vegetarians that meat is harmful to ourbodies because ammonia is released from the breakdown of itsproteins. Although it is true that ammonia production does resultfrom meat digestion, our bodies quickly convert this substance intoharmless urea. The alleged toxicity of meat is greatly exaggeratedby vegetarians.

38 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

Clearly, modern soy productsand isolated isoflavone

supplements are not healthyfoods for vegetarians, vegans or anyone else, yet these are

the very ones that are most consumed.

"Mad cow disease", or bovine spongiform encephalopathy(BSE), is most likely not caused by cows eating animal parts withtheir food—a feeding practice that goes back over 100 years.British organic farmer Mark Purdey has argued convincingly thatcows that get mad cow disease are the very ones that have had aparticular organophosphate insecticide applied to their backs, orhave grazed on soils which lack magnesium but contain highlevels of aluminium.129

Small outbreaks of "mad cow disease" have also occurredamong people who reside near cement works and chemicalfactories and in some areas with a particular type of volcanicsoil.130

Purdey theorises that the organophosphate pesticides got intothe cows' fat through a spraying program, and then were ingestedby the cows again with the animal parts feed-ing. Seen this way, it is the insecticides, viathe parts feeding (and not the parts them-selves or their associated "prions"), that hascaused this outbreak. As noted before, cowshave been eating ground-up animal parts intheir feeds for over 100 years. It was never aproblem before the introduction of these par-ticular insecticides.

Recently, Purdey has gained support fromDr Donald Brown, a British biochemist whohas also argued for a non-infectious cause ofBSE. Brown attributes BSE to environmen-tal toxins, specifically manganese overload.131

MYTH #14: Eating meat oranimal products is less "spiritual"than eating only plant foods.

It is often claimed that those who eatmeat or animal products are somehowless "spiritually evolved" than thosewho do not. Though this is not anutritional or academic issue, thosewho do include animal products in theirdiet are often made to feel inferior insome way. This issue, therefore, isworth addressing.

Several world religions place norestrictions on animal consumption, andnor did their founders. The Jews eatlamb at their most holy festival, the Passover. Muslims also cele-brate Ramadan with lamb before entering into their fast. JesusChrist, like other Jews, partook of meat at the Last Supper(according to the canonical Gospels). It is true that some forms ofBuddhism do place strictures on meat consumption, but dairyproducts are always allowed. Similar tenets are found inHinduism. As part of the Samhain celebration, Celtic paganswould slaughter the weaker animals of the herds and cure theirmeat for the oncoming winter. It is not true, therefore, that eatinganimal foods is always connected with "spiritual inferiority".

Nevertheless, it is often claimed that since eating meat involvesthe taking of a life, it is somehow tantamount to murder. Leavingaside the religious philosophies that often permeate this issue,what appears to be at hand is a misunderstanding of the life forceand how it works.

Modern peoples (vegetarian and non-vegetarian) have lost touchwith what it takes to survive in our world—something nativepeoples never lose sight of. We do not necessarily hunt or cleanour meats: we purchase steaks and chops at the supermarket. We

do not necessarily toil in rice paddies: we buy bags of brown rice.And so forth, and so on.

When Native Americans killed a game animal for food, theywould routinely offer a prayer of thanks to the animal's spirit forgiving its life so they could live. In our world, life feeds off life.Destruction is always balanced with generation. This is a goodthing. Unchecked, the life force becomes cancerous. If animalfood consumption is viewed in this manner, it is hardly murderbut sacrifice. Modern peoples would do well to remember this.

MYTH #15: Eating animal foods is inhumane. Without question, some commercially raised livestock live in

deplorable conditions where sickness and suffering are common.In countries like Korea, food animals such as dogs are sometimes

killed in horrific ways, e.g., beaten to deathwith a club. Our recommendations for ani-mal foods consumption most definitely donot endorse such practices.

As noted in our discussion of Myth #1,commercial farming of livestock results inan unhealthy food product, whether thatproduct be meat, milk, butter, cream or eggs.Our ancestors did not consume such sub-standard foodstuffs, and neither should we.

It is possible to raise animals humanely.This is why organic, preferably biodynamic,farming is to be encouraged: it is cleanerand more efficient, and produces healthieranimals and foodstuffs from those animals.

Each person should make every effort,then, to purchase organically raisedlivestock (and plant foods). Not onlydoes this better support our bodies—asorganic foods are more nutrient-dense132 and are free from hormone andpesticide residues—but this also sup-ports smaller farms and is thereforebetter for the economy.133

Nevertheless, many people havephilosophical problems with eatinganimal flesh, and these sentimentsmust be respected. Dairy products andeggs, though, are not the result of ananimal's death and are fine alternatives

for these people. It should also not be forgotten that agriculture, which involves

both the clearance of land to plant crops and the protection andmaintenance of those crops, results in many animal deaths.134

Therefore, the belief that "becoming vegetarian" will somehowspare animals from dying is one with no foundation in fact.

BIOCHEMICAL AND GENETIC INDIVIDUALITY As a cleansing diet, vegetarianism is sometimes a good choice.

Several health conditions (e.g., gout) can often be ameliorated bya temporary reduction in intake of animal products and anincrease of plant foods. But such measures must not be continu-ous throughout life: there are vital nutrients found only in animalfoods that we must ingest for optimal health.

Furthermore, there is no one diet that will work for every per-son. Some vegetarians and vegans, in their zeal to get converts,are blind to this biochemical fact.

"Biochemical individuality" is a subject worth clarifying.Coined by nutritional biochemist Roger Williams, PhD, the term

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 39

Many people havephilosophical problemswith eating animal flesh,

and these sentiments must be respected.

Dairy products and eggs,though, are not the resultof an animal's death and

are fine alternatives for these people.

40 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

refers to the fact that different people require different nutrientsbased on their unique genetic make-up. Ethnic and racial back-grounds figure in this concept as well. A diet that works for onemay not work as well for someone else.

As a practitioner, I've seen several clients following a vegetari-an diet and having severe health problems: obesity, candidiasis,hypothyroidism, cancer, diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, anaemiaand chronic fatigue. Because of the widespread rhetoric that avegetarian diet is "always healthier" than a diet that includes meator animal products, these people saw no reason to change theirdiet, even though that was the cause of their problems. Whatthese people actually needed for optimal health was more animalfoods and fats and fewer carbohydrates.

Further, due to peculiarities in genetics and individual biochem-istry, some people simply cannot have a vegetarian diet becauseof such things as lectin intolerance anddesaturase enzyme deficiencies.Lectins present in legumes, a promi-nent feature of vegetarian diets, are nottolerated by many people. Othershave grain sensitivities, especially togluten, or to grain proteins in general.Again, since grains are a major featureof vegetarian diets, such people cannotthrive on them.135

Desaturase enzyme deficiencies areusually present in those people ofInnuit, Scandinavian, NorthernEuropean and sea coast ancestry.They lack the ability to convert alpha-linolenic acid into EPA and DHA, twoomega-3 fatty acids intimately involvedin the function of the immune and nervous systems. The reasonfor this is because these people's ancestors got an abundance ofEPA and DHA from the large amounts of cold-water fish they ate.Over time, because of non-use, they lost the ability to manufac-ture the necessary enzymes to create EPA and DHA in their bod-ies. For these people, vegetarianism is simply not possible. Theymustget their EPA and DHA from food, and EPA is only found inanimal foods. DHA is present in some algae, but the amounts aremuch lower than in fish oils.136

It is also apparent that vegan diets are not suitable for all peopledue to inadequate cholesterol production in the liver, andcholesterol is only found in animal foods. It is often said that thebody makes enough cholesterol to get by and that there is noreason to consume foods that contain it (i.e., animal foods).However, recent research has shown otherwise. Singer's work atthe University of California, Berkeley, has shown that thecholesterol in eggs improves memory in older people.137 In otherwords, these elderly people's own cholesterol was insufficient toimprove their memory, but added dietary cholesterol from eggswas.

Though it appears that some people do well on little or no meatand remain healthy as lacto-vegetarians or lacto-ovo-vegetarians,the reason for this is because these diets are healthier for thosepeople, not because they're healthier in general. However, a totalabsence of animal products, whether meat, fish, insects, eggs, but-ter or dairy, is to be avoided. Though it may take years, problemswill eventually ensue under such dietary regimes and they willcertainly show in future generations. Dr Price's seminal researchunequivocally demonstrated this.

The reason for this is simple evolution: humanity evolved eat-ing animal foods and fats as part of its diet, and our bodies are

suited and accustomed to them. One cannot change evolution in afew years.

Dr Abrams said it well when he wrote this:Humans have always been meat-eaters. The fact that nohuman society is entirely vegetarian, and those that arealmost entirely vegetarian suffer from debilitated conditionsof health, seems unequivocally to prove that a plant diet mustbe supplemented with at least a minimum amount of animalprotein to sustain health. Humans are meat-eaters andalways have been. Humans are also vegetable-eaters andalways have been, but plant foods must be supplemented byan ample amount of animal protein to maintain optimalhealth.138

Author's Notes: • Thanks to Sally Fallon, MA, LeeClifford, MS, CCN, and Dr H. LeonAbrams, Jr, for their gracious assistancein preparing and reviewing this paper. • This paper was not sponsored or paidfor by the meat or dairy industries.

Editor's Notes:• Due to space limitations, we are notable to publish the endnotes accompa-nying Dr Stephen Byrnes's article.Instead, we have posted these on ourwebsite, http://www.nexusmagazine.com, but we can also email and snail-mail them upon request. • The full text of the article, includingendnotes, is also available on theauthor's website at http://www.power-

health.net/selected_articles.htm.• Dr Stephen Byrnes's article was originally published in theTownsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, July 2000, and wasrevised in January 2002.

Recommended Reading/Research • The Weston A. Price Foundation: http://www.westonaprice.org• Why I am Not a Vegetarian:http://www.acsh.org/publications/priorities/0902/vegetarian.html• Beyond Vegetarianism:http://www.beyondveg.com• The Cholesterol Myths: http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol. htm• The Paleolithic Diet Page:http://www.panix.com/~paleodiet/• The Great Fallacies of Vegetarianism:http://www.vanguardonline.f9.co.uk/00509.htm• National Animal Interest Alliance:http://www.naiaonline.org/• PETA Sucks: http://www.petasucks.cc• Animal Rights.net: http://www.animalrights.net

About the Author: Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP, enjoys robust health on a dietthat includes butter, cream, eggs, meat, whole milk, cheeseand liver. He is the author of Diet & Heart Disease: It's NOTWhat You Think and Digestion Made Simple (Whitman Books,2001), and The Lazy Person's Whole Foods Cookbook(Ecclesia Life Mana, 2001). He is based in the USA. Visit hiswebsite at http://www.PowerHealth.net.

Further, due to peculiarities in genetics and individualbiochemistry, some people

simply cannot have avegetarian diet because of

such things as lectinintolerance and desaturase

enzyme deficiencies.

In the "Archaeological Cover-ups" article last issue, we examined some of the ways inwhich science is suppressing anomalies, "heretical" researchers and dissent. Here wecontinue the investigations while opening up some new areas. Brian Martin of theUniversity of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, has done extensive research into the way

science as an institution actually operates, separating the facts of how it works from themyths of how it is supposed to work.

If there are strong interests behind a particular position or theory, then the task ofchallengers is difficult. This difficulty is aggravated if challengers are outsiders whodon't "play the game". If you are a talented scientist with a good track record, work-ing at an elite institution, and write a conventional-looking paper—but with challeng-ing ideas—there may be difficulties enough. For anyone else, it is much tougher.

(Habitat Australia, no. 7, 1992)

We can picture the way science works as a complicated filtering process. The walls andhalls of academia and science go hand in hand. No matter how brilliant you are, if youlack a degree in science you are not going to get to the next filter. It helps to have theright degree from the right (meaning prestigious) institution. If you have these qualifica-tions, you will find that writing papers is part of the territory of being a successful scholaror researcher. You will know how to "play the game" at this point.

The next filter is the peer review process. Your papers will be examined by a jury ofpeers and probably be published if they conform to the accepted theories, and probablywind up rejected if not. However, just because you have all the right stuff is no guaranteethat any novel, challenging, boat-rocking theory hurled at the ivory towers of the estab-lishment, regardless of how brilliant, is going to be accepted—as we shall soon see.

HERETICS AND TABOO RESEARCHIn 1994, the BBC ran a series called Heretics, which documented how the scientific

community has responded to ideas considered unacceptable. The "unacceptable" ideasranged from the efficacy of high doses of vitamin C to the existence of antigravity andpsychokinesis (PK). Some of the scientists who proffered these "wild" ideas had solidcredentials—scientists like Linus Pauling and Robert Jahn. In each case, a familiarpattern unfolded. The claims were dismissed out of hand and branded as "nonsense" or"impossible", without any serious attempt being made to look at the evidence or to listento their proponents' arguments. The series went much deeper by exposing the high degreeof insularity and the strong sense of self-superiority that exists within the scientificcommunity.

The case of Robert Jahn, an expert in rocket engineering, was presented. At the time,Jahn was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Princeton University. In addition tocarrying out his normal responsibilities and areas of research, he became interested in PKafter a student asked if he could study the possible effects of the mind on electroniccircuits. Jahn thought the experiment harmless and did not anticipate any positive results.However, the test did produce positive findings. Jahn set up another experiment to see ifthose results could be duplicated—and, to his surprise, they were. The university forbadehim to talk about these experiments. However, Jahn went on with this line ofinvestigation—as we'd expect of a real scientist driven by curiosity. He eventuallypublished some of his findings, which upset a number of colleagues.

Jahn was criticised in an article written by Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson that

TTHEHE SSUPPRESSIONUPPRESSION OFOF

DDISSENTISSENT ININ SSCIENCECIENCE

The scienceestablishment tends

to react toconflicting andinconvenienttheories bydenigrating,

harassing, rejecting,or ignoring thescientists whopropose them.

by Will Hart © 2002

Email: [email protected]

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 43

appeared in Physics Today(no. 12, 1990). This brought on afirestorm of controversy that had more to do with the "taboo"nature of Jahn's work than with any discussion of the validity ofhis methods. Another Nobel Prize winner, Steve Weinberg,weighed in during an interview on the Heretics program.Weinberg seemed more concerned with the impact Jahn's experi-ments would have on the accepted theories of physics than withany facts that the PK research had turned up, and the subject alonewas enough to condemn the work in Weinberg's estimation.

This fiasco earned Jahn, a respected scientist holding down aprestigious post at a leading American university, the badge of"heretic". We saw a similar knee-jerk reaction when dissidentsbrought the hallowed "theory of evo-lution" under close scrutiny.

The public has to start becomingmore aware that scientists are humanbeings with egos and self-interest atstake—two realities that can and dointerfere with the prosecution of"pure" science. This can produce anarrogant attitude in scientists whosuddenly think they know what is bestand what is true by virtue of the factthat they are scientists, and because ofthat status they would never deviatefrom practising good science. Thelogic is obviously circular and is alsofound among church ministers when itcomes to morality. Our scientists often act like ministers ofobjective reality.

WHISTLEBLOWERS AND RENEGADESIn 1999, Arpad Pusztai was fired from the Rowett Institute in

Aberdeen, Scotland, for calling public attention to the conclusionsof a research report critical of genetically modified food, whichthe government had quietly quashed. Pusztai had previously beensuspended over his research findings that showed rats fed GMpotatoes had suffered immune system damage. That was not theconclusion that the British government was then looking for. His"incorrect" science and honesty cost him his job on the project.

As we saw with the case of science journalist Richard Milton,the science establishment plays hardball. Not only was Pusztaifired, but his reputation was tarnished when the press reportedthat "his conclusions and the research were later said to beunfounded". The beleaguered scientist closed his side of a casethat was prosecuted entirely in the court of public mediadisclosure, arguing:

I am not against genetic engineering; I only ask for propertests to be carried out before and not after GM food isreleased.

(Guardian Weekly, February 12, 1999)

Whistleblowing is often the onlyway the public is ever informed ofwrongdoing in the field of science.It is clearly the right thing to do;however, it can lead to many person-al trials, the loss of friends and rejec-tion by colleagues.

History is full of examples of sci-entists and independent researcherswho have been harassed, badgered,ridiculed, threatened and calledevery name in the book for delvinginto or proposing radical new ideas.

Immanuel Velikovsky was a well-educated, licensed medical doctorwho became fascinated with the

information he found in ancient myths that seemed to agree therehad once been a great catastrophe that had a devastating impacton early civilisations. He had a hard time finding a publisher forhis first book, Worlds in Collision. When Macmillan finallydecided to publish it, outraged scholars and scientists contactedthe publisher, demanding that the book be dropped immediately.Macmillan caved in and transferred it to Doubleday because theaggrieved parties were the very people who bought their text-books. This happened in 1950 and it was a sign of things tocome, for it would not be the last time that scientists sought to bana book.

Velikovsky's theory was a source of bitter contention in acade-mic circles for decades, until—lo andbehold!—Alvarez announced in the 1980sthat an asteroid had killed off most life onthe planet 65 million years ago. (And thatannouncement, too, was steeped in contro-versy, as we will learn.) Today the asteroidtheory is widely accepted, although stilldebated.

But not all independent scientists are thefocal point of scorn and derision; some aresimply labelled "mavericks" and their workis either ignored or regarded with the samesuspicious furrowed brows as a notedcrank's would be. However, a few of theseindividuals simply cannot be shoved intoobscurity because their unconventional the-ories have been proven correct.

The late Scotty MacNeish was a renegadearchaeologist who always marched to thebeat of his own drum. His career spannedsix decades and most of it was steeped incontroversy and heated debate. MacNeishis known for tracking down the origin of

Whistleblowing is often the only way the public is everinformed of wrongdoing in

the field of science.

44 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

corn to central Mexico and he wrote and/or co-authored 50 booksand over 200 papers. He was the first archaeologist to bring aninterdisciplinary approach to this field. But he is also famous forproposing theories that make other archaeologists and anthropolo-gists shudder.

MacNeish claimed to have solid evidence that the earliesthuman presence in North America can be dated back 60,000years, instead of the generally accepted 12,000–20,000 years. Hewas also critical of what he called "the new archaeology" beingpractised by investigators who seem to believe they are operating"on a higher plane, dealing with social problems", MacNeish oncesaid in an interview, pointing out that you cannot tell what ancientpeople thought or believed by looking at potsherds and bones(Archaeology Today, no. 5, 1999). It is troubling to read theresearch papers and reports from manyof today's archaeologists who willjump at the chance to explain the"spiritual consciousness" and beliefsystems of the ancients and ridiculeany unorthodox theories that attemptto explain enigmatic artifacts.

Thomas Gold (who died in 2001)was another "maverick" often held justbeyond arm's length because of hisunconventional research into exoticideas that no one else has thought of,yet his assertions have usually beenproven to be true. He did pioneeringwork on radar during World War II;came out of the war and published a newtheory on mammalian hearing that was ignored for 30 years; wasthe first to propose that the Moon's surface was not frozen lavabut dust; and discovered the pulsar. One of Gold's controversialtheories is based on the idea that most of Earth's biological life isactually beneath the surface and not above it. He also believedthat petroleum is not a by-product of biological decay but is aresult of geochemical processes within the planet's core. Somebiologists and geologists have been deeply offended by these con-cepts; some actually hate the man.

Gold wrote an article, "New Ideas in Science", that appeared inthe Journal of Scientific Explorationin 1989 (vol. 3, no. 2). Afterframing the correct scientific attitude and expressing his concernthat science was heading down the wrong path towards a systemthat stifled discovery, he stated:

I want to discuss this danger and the various tendencies thatseem to me to create it, or augment it. I can draw on my ownpersonal experience of 40 years of work on various branchesof science and also on many of the great controversies thathave occurred over that same period.

Gold went on to cite the virtues of scientific ideals and ideal-ism, and then balanced those against the real world that real scien-tists (who, in the end, are just people with degrees) live in—aworld often characterised by less than idealistic motivations andbehaviours. He recited some of his own unfortunate experienceswhich reveal that merit has little to do with the way modern sci-ence is run. This article is well worth reading, and it corroboratesMartin's findings about the dangers of the peer review process.

Returning to the issue and points brought up by Brian Martin,sociologist Michael J. Mahoney of Pennsylvania State University,USA, was one of the first to examine how well (or poorly) thepeer review process works in evaluating scientific papers.Mahoney sent out copies of one paper to 75 reviewers, but

doctored the results so that in a number of cases the researchappeared to support mainstream theories while in other cases itwent against them. The results will surprise mainstream scientificapologists, but not those who have proposed "unconventional"ideas. Mahoney found that "when the results ran contrary to thereviewer's theoretical beliefs, the procedures were berated and themanuscript rejected". The opposite scenario occurred when thepapers conformed to the reviewer's belief system.

Several extremely important theories have nearly slippedthrough the cracks because of this bias in the peer review process.

Edwin Krebs, the scientist who discovered what eventually wasdubbed the "Krebs cycle", had his papers rejected initially.

Biologist Lyn Margulis, co-author (with James Lovelock) ofThe Gaia Hypothesis, also had her seminal work in endosymbio-

sis coldly brushed aside. Her theory,which is now completely accepted and

part of biology textbooks, initiallycould not get a hearing by the NationalScience Foundation. "I was flatlyturned down," Margulis says, "and thegrants officers added that I shouldnever apply again." (Boston Globe,June 22, 1987)

This brings up the issue of fundingand how the established system furthermaintains the status quo. BothMcNeish and Gold made reference tothe fact that they had extremedifficulties getting their new theories orprojects funded because they were so

controversial. This is not some cloak-and-dagger conspiracy. Itis a much subtler and more insidious kind—a silent, invisible,complex system that tries to maintain itself by guaranteeingcertain outcomes and filtering out everything else. It is a systemthat can choke off research into novel ideas and fields, simply byshutting off the funding valve.

SCIENTISTS PLAY HARDBALLThat is the passive side of how new ideas are often suppressed,

but, as we have seen, there is a very active, aggressive side thatseeks to throttle open intellectual discourse.

Brian Martin wrote an article titled "Intellectual Suppression:why environmental scientists are afraid to speak out", which waspublished in Habitat Australia(no. 7, 1992). He began the pieceby posing several scenarios that involved public risk that put thescientist in a dilemma. Should he speak up and inform people andrisk his career, or keep quiet? Martin presented the ways in whichthe voice of truth could be stifled:

But what if the "responsible authorities" have different prior-ities—or even are responsible for the problem? In thesecases, outsiders, such as politicians, the media or environ-mental organisations, must be alerted… Unfortunately, thisscenario is the exception rather than the rule. Most environ-mental scientists are afraid to take a public stand if it meansappearing to challenge powerful corporations, governmentsor professions…aware of legislation which prohibits themfrom speaking to the media without permission…and afraidthat they might be blocked from promotion.

We may well wonder if this is any way to run the enterprise ofscience. Martin notes that the suppression of intellectual dissentis most effective when the potential dissenter is left to ponder thepossible consequences alone and therefore is likely to keep quiet.

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 45

Several extremely importanttheories have nearly

slipped through the cracksbecause of this bias in

the peer review process.

Obviously, under these circumstances, we cannot know howmany cases of suppression actually occur or how many potentialwhistleblowers never step forward. Martin calls it a "conspiracyof silence".

In the case of Dewey McLean, we see how scientists with com-peting ideas are ridiculed, threatened and shunned by the propo-nents of the "winning" theory. McLean's work involved the KTextinctions that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.Two theories competed for acceptance in the 1980s. McLeanoriginated one of them, which posited that a series of volcaniceruptions caused a massive greenhouse effect that radicallychanged the Earth's climate. Nobel physicist Luis Alvarez, whoclaimed that an asteroid had slammed into the Earth, causing themajor climatic change, put forth the other theory. This turned intoa fiercely competitive battle when the opposing theories were firstpresented at a conference in Canada in 1981.It is clear from reading McLean's accountsof the bitter debates that he was taken abackbecause Alvarez was a Nobel Prize–winningphysicist and not a geologist. He wrote:

Unfortunately, brutal politics at thatmeeting cast the theoreticians into awhite-hot crucible of scientific debate inwhich compromise seemed impossible,in which one theory must die…

McLean has publicly stated that Alvareztook him aside during a coffee break andthreatened to destroy his career. This claimseems borne out by this extract from anintimidating letter that Alvarez sent tothe National Academy of Sciences in1984:

So Dewey is now a forgotten per-son in the field, or when he isremembered it is only for a fewgood laughs at the cocktail partyat the end of the Deweyless meet-ing... I'm sorry to see you goingdown the Dewey McLean lane.

Do these tactics sound like scienceor the machinations of Tony, the mobboss in The Sopranos? Luis Alvarezhas also been quoted as saying:

There is no democracy in physics. We can't say that somesecond-rate guy has as much right to an opinion as Fermi.

(Daniel S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science,University of Chicago Press, 1967; Dewey McLean's web-

page link, "Dinosaur Volcano Greenhouse Extinction")

Really! And these are supposed to be the good guys in thewhite hats who are going to save us!

We saw how quickly and without conscience evolutionistRichard Dawkins moved to stop the publication of Milton's anti-Darwin article. Being a journalist is how Milton puts bread on thetable—but too bad, because science is going to muscle its wayforward under the banner of a bizarre kind of self-appointedautocracy, and the "kings" and "queens" sitting on the thrones ofnational institutes and foundations and their "nobility" (Nobel win-ners), supported by their professorial minions in the universities,shall hear neither of dissent nor of contrary theory.

Is this too strong a metaphor? Perhaps it is not strong enough.

It is at least deserved, and, in fact, the evidence is much more con-demnatory than that. Society does not condone blackballing,threats, intimidation tactics, slander or attempts to abridge freespeech. We have seen them all. It is distasteful to admit thatAlvarez was correct: science is not a truly democratic institution.There is no open, free access or public forum, and it only partiallyfunctions on the principle of merit. That is the unvarnished truth.You have to "play the game", and that is a long, involved processof jumping through the right hoops in the right way and keepingyour doubts to yourself.

British biologist Warwick Collins went flying headlong into themeat grinder of scientific politics, naïvely proposing that sexualselection was an anomaly of Darwinian theory. He studied underthe prestigious Darwinist professor, John Maynard Smith. Collinswas invited by eminent geneticist John Thoday to give an expand-

ed version of his paper to an internationalconference on population genetics. Heunwittingly accepted and let Professor Smithreview the paper prior to his addressing theconference. In a moment that drips withShakespearean drama, Professor Smithpulled the rug out from under his protégébytaking the floor as Collins was about todeliver his paper. Smith thoroughlydenounced the contents of the presentationCollins was about to deliver.

This happened in 1976. Thereafter, thehumiliated Collins found it impossible to geta paper published. His last attempt was in

1994; that paper was rejected withoutany justification. Collins has sincedropped out of biology. (See RichardMilton's website, http://www.alterna-tivescience.com.)

THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF BIG SCIENCE

Halton Arp, a scientist with the MaxPlanck Institute in Germany, capturedthe confusion and angst of the emerg-ing situation in the title of an essaypublished in the Journal of ScientificExploration (vol. 14, no. 3, p. 447):"What Has Science Come To?" He

does not mince words: …what most people accept today as fundamental scientificknowledge is barely distinguishable from what organisedreligion became some centuries ago. The most damagingaspect of science today is widely promulgated theories thatare contradicted by observation and experiment. In bothcases, a story is mandated by authority and then defended byeducational, economic and sociopolitical agencies.

The obvious point is that science is no longer the impartial,apolitical institution it once was. Big Science is now a bloated,intensely political institution that employs the same strategies andpublic relations gimmicks as Big Business and Big Government.

Halton Arp sees a more insidious side to it: ...although religion may have borrowed some of the jargon ofscience, science, more importantly, has adopted the methodsof religion.

46 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

Continued on page 52

Big Science is now abloated, intenselypolitical institution

that employs the samestrategies and publicrelations gimmicks as

Big Business and Big Government.

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 49

CHILDREN AND MOBILE PHONE USE: Is there a Health Risk?by Don Maisch © 2002

The paper, "Mobile Phone Use: it'stime to take precautions", publishedin the April 2001 issue of the

Journal of the Australasian College ofNutritional & Environmental Medicine,examines what is currently known aboutthe possible hazards of mobile phone use.

At first, this subject may not seem rele-vant to children's lives until it is realisedthat, today, the fastest growing group ofmobile phone users are children and youngpeople. This growth is activelyencouraged by professional advertis-ing campaigns from the mobile phoneindustry, extolling how indispensablethe phones are to their lifestyles.

Concerns about this were evenvoiced by the managing director of theAustralian Telecommunications UsersGroup (ATUG), Allan Horsley, whoexpressed concerns about mobilephone companies deliberately target-ing youth. "They have really gone outafter the young people with prepaycards and coloured handsets," he said.

With this advertising blitz, producedby the same transnational public relationscorporations that previously gave us suchdelightful cartoon characters as "JoeCamel" for the tobacco industry, no wordsof warning are heard. However, within thescientific community, there is a growingchorus of expert voices that are urging cau-tion because, if there are adverse healtheffects from mobile phone use, it will bethe children who will be in the front lineand who may pay the highest price. Forthe sake of the future of our children'shealth, we need to heed these voices seri-ously and limit children's unnecessary useof mobile phones.

The voices of reason1) In 1999, as a result of public concerns

about possible health hazards from mobilephone technology, the UK Governmentformed the Independent Expert Group on

Mobile Phones (IEGMP) to examine possi-ble effects of mobile phones and transmit-ter base stations. This group was headedby Sir William Stewart, the famous Britishbiochemist and President of the BritishAssociation for the Advancement ofScience.

What made the Stewart Inquiry uniquewas that it was made up almost entirely ofbiomedical specialists who were were ableto focus many man-years of acquired spe-cialist knowledge on the problem. Theirreport, "Mobile Phones and Health", wasreleased in April 2000. In regard to the useof mobile phones by children, the IEGMPstated:

"If there are currently unrecognisedadverse health effects from the use ofmobile phones, children may be morevulnerable because of their developingnervous system, the greater absorption ofenergy in the tissues of the head and alonger lifetime of exposure. In line withour precautionary approach, we believethat the widespread use of mobile phonesby children for non-essential calls shouldbe discouraged. We also recommend thatthe mobile phone industry should refrainfrom promoting the use of mobile phonesby children."

Sir William said at a science conferenceat Glasgow University in September 2001that mobile phone makers often presenttheir products in adverts as essential "backto school" items for children. Such advertsare irresponsible, said Sir William. Headded:

"They are irresponsible because chil-dren's skulls are not fully developed. Theywill be using mobile phones for longer, andtheir effects won't be known for some timeto come. Mobile phone technology hasbeen led by the physical sciences. My ownview is we ought to be doing more work onthe potential biological effects."

Sir William also said he would not allowhis grandchildren to use mobile phones.

2) On December 8, 2000, the GermanAcademy of Pediatrics issued a statementadvising parents to restrict their children'suse of mobile phones. They advised thatall mobile phone users should keep conver-

sations as brief as possible, but that addi-tional precautions are appropriate forchildren in view of "special healthrisks" associated with their growingbodies.

3) On July 31, 2001, WolframKoenig, the new head of theBundesamt für Strahlenschutz, whichis the federal authority for radiationprotection in Germany, stated in aninterview in the Berliner Morgenpostthat "Parents should take their childrenaway from that technology [mobilephones]". Mr Koenig, also a member

of Germany's Greens party, said that"Some people are very sensitive to radia-tion" and urged companies not to targetchildren in their advertising campaigns.

4) In a statement delivered at anAustralian Senate Inquiry meeting in 2001,CSIRO Telecommunications and IndustrialPhysics chief Gerry Haddad warned thatthe new telecommunications exposurestandards do not require a high enoughlevel of protection, particularly in relationto children. Mr Haddad advised: "Restrictuse of mobile phones to children foressential purposes."

5) Olle Johansson, Associate Professorat the Experimental Dermatology Unit inthe Department of Neuroscience atKarolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden,made this statement in an email to this

SCIENCEN

EWS N

EWS

For the sake of the future of our children's health, we need to heed these

voices seriously and limitchildren's unnecessary use

of mobile phones.

50 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

author in September 2001: "Already in 1996, I started to warn in

public of the effects of microwave irradia-tion on children through their use of mobiletelephones. The debate has also very muchfocussed on the responsibility regardingads and products directly aimed for chil-dren, and here in Sweden great alarm hasbeen raised around the propositions todevelop and sell cellphones even for theages up to five years."

6) Professor Sianette Kwee of theDepartment of Medical Biochemistry at theUniversity of Aarhus, Denmark, emailedthe following statement to the author inSeptember 2001. Prof. Kwee is on the edi-torial board of Bioelectrochemistryand aDanish expert representative in theEuropean Union's COST 281 project,"Potential Health Effects from EmergingWireless Communication Systems", basicresearch group, whose fields of researchare bioelectrochemistry (electroporation/electrochemistry of biological systems) andbioelectromagnetics (biological effects ofenvironmental electromagnetic fields—extremely low frequency [ELF] andmicrowave [MW]—on cell growth inhuman amnion cells). She stated:

"Our studies showed that there was a sig-nificant change in cell growth in these cellsafter being exposed to EMF fields fromboth power lines (ELF) and from mobilephones (MW). These biological effectswere greatest in young and vigorouslygrowing cells, but much less in old cells.

These results tell us that, e.g., microwavefields from mobile phones can be expectedto affect children to a much higher degreethan adults."

7) This statement from Dr GerardHyland at the Department of Physics,University of Warwick, Coventry, England,is excerpted from his Report for the STOACommittee of the EU, specifically dealingwith children and mobile phone use:

"The Increased Vulnerability of Pre-adolescent Children:

"Pre-adolescent children can be expectedto be (potentially) more at risk than areadults—as recognised in the recently pub-lished Report of the UK IndependentExpert Group on Mobile Phones—for thefollowing reasons:

• Absorption of microwaves of the fre-quency used in mobile telephony is greatestin an object about the size of a child's head,the so-called head resonance, whilst, inconsequence of the thinner skull of a child,the penetration of the radiation into thebrain is greater than in an adult.

• The still-developing nervous systemand associated brain-wave activity in achild (and particularly one that is epileptic)are more vulnerable to aggression by thepulses of microwaves used in GSM than isthe case with a mature adult. This isbecause the multi-frame repetitionfrequency of 8.34 Hz and the 2 Hz pulsingthat characterises the signal from a phoneequipped with discontinuous transmission(DTX) lie in the range of the alpha and

delta brain-wave activities, respectively.The fact that these two particular electricalactivities are constantly changing in a childuntil the age of about 12 years, when thedelta waves disappear and the alpha rhythmis finally stabilised, means that they mustboth be anticipated to be particularlyvulnerable to interference from the GSMpulsing.

• The increased mitotic activity in thecells of developing children makes themmore susceptible to genetic damage.

• A child's immune system, whose effi-ciency is, in any case, degraded by radia-tion of the kind used in mobile telephony,is generally less robust than that of anadult, so that the child is less able to copewith any adverse health effect provoked by(chronic) exposure to such radiation."

8) An article in the UK Sunday Mirrorof December 27, 2001, headed "The ChildScrambler: What a mobile can do to ayoungster's brain in 2 mins", said:

"These are the first images that show theshocking effect that using a mobile phonehas on a child's brain.

"Scientists have discovered that a calllasting just two minutes can alter thenatural electrical activity of a child's brainfor up to an hour afterwards. And they alsofound for the first time how radio wavesfrom mobile phones penetrate deep into thebrain and not just around the ear.

"The study by Spanish scientists hasprompted leading medical experts to ques-tion whether it is safe for children to usemobile phones at all.

"Doctors fear that disturbed brain activityin children could lead to psychiatric andbehavioural problems or impair learningability.

"It was the first time that human guineapigs were used to measure the effects ofmobile phone radiation on children. Thetests were carried out on an 11-year-oldboy and a 13-year-old girl called Jennifer.

"Using a CATEEN scanner, linked to amachine measuring brain wave activity,researchers were able to create the imagesabove.

"The yellow-coloured part of the scan onthe right shows how radiation spreadsthrough the centre of the brain and out tothe ear on the other side of the skull. Thescans found that disturbed brain-waveactivity lasted for up to an hour after thephone call ended.

"Dr Gerald Hyland—a Governmentadviser on mobiles—says he finds the

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results 'extremely disturbing'. "'It makes one wonder whether children,

whose brains are still developing, should beusing mobile phones,' he adds.

"'The results show that children's brainsare affected for long periods even aftervery short term use. Their brain wave pat-terns are abnormal and stay like that for along period. This could affect their moodand ability to learn in the classroom if theyhave been using a phone during break time,for instance.

"'We don't know all the answers yet, butthe alteration in brain waves could lead tothings like a lack of concentration, memoryloss, inability to learn and aggressivebehaviour.'

"Previously it had been thoughtthat interference with brain wavesand brain chemistry stopped when acall ended.

"The results of the study by theSpanish Neuro Diagnostic ResearchInstitute in Marbella coincide with anew survey that shows 87 per cent of11- to 16-year-olds own mobilephones and 40 per cent of themspend 15 minutes or more talkingeach day on them. And disturbingly,70 per cent said they would notchange the use of their phone even ifadvised to by the Government.

"Dr Hyland plans to publish thelatest findings in medical journal TheLancet next year. He said: 'This informa-tion shows there really isn't a safe amountof mobile phone use. We don't know whatlasting damage is being done by this expo-sure. If I were a parent, I would now beextremely wary about allowing my childrento use a mobile even for a very short peri-od. My advice would be to avoid mobiles.'

"Dr Michael Klieeisen, who conductedthe study, said: 'We were able to see inminute detail what was going on in thebrain. We never expected to see this con-tinuing activity in the brain. We are wor-ried that delicate balances that exist—suchas the immunity to infection and disease—could be altered by interference with chem-ical balances in the brain.'

"A Department of Health spokesmansaid: 'In children, mobile phone use shouldbe restricted to very short periods of time.'"

9) Channel News Asia's Southeast AsiaNews ran this item, titled "Thai ministermulls cellphone ban for youngsters", onApril 5, 2002 (see http://www.channel-newsasia.com):

"Thailand's interior minister is consider-ing banning the use of cellphones byteenagers.

"Purachai Piemsomboon, whosecampaign against vice has barred teenagersfrom pubs and night spots, cited a Japanesestudy which he said concluded that mobilephones emitted radiation harmful to braincells and nerves, especially of youngpeople. He said that if teenagers continuedto ignore the warning, a law might becomenecessary to prevent them from usingcellphones. He didn't elaborate."

10) This item, reporting the views of theWHO Director-General on children andmobile phone use, is sourced from

Microwave News(vol. XXII, no. 2,March/April 2002, http://www.microwave-news.com):

"Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, theDirector-General of the World HealthOrganization (WHO), favours a precaution-ary approach to the use of mobile phones,according to press reports fromScandinavia.

"In an interview with Dagbladet Norge(March 9, 2002), a major Norwegian news-paper, Brundtland discouraged childrenfrom using mobile phones. A physicianwith a degree in public health, Brundtlandis a former Prime Minister of Norway.

"Jon Liden, a communications advisor inBrundtland's office in Geneva, confirmedthe accuracy of the Norwegian article toMicrowave News.

"Brundtland's outlook appears to put herat odds with the WHO International EMFProject.

"'Precautionary policies should not beapplied to EMFs,' Dr Michael Repacholi,who oversees the project, stated recently(see MN, Sept/Oct 2001). He could not bereached for comment.

"Brundtland advises everyone to limitthe amount of time on the phone, but shedoes not think there is enough scientificevidence to issue a formal warning.

"For herself, Brundtland says that shegets a headache whenever she uses amobile phone.

"'In the beginning I felt warmth aroundmy ear. But the discomfort got worse andturned into a headache every time I used amobile phone,' Brundtland said in the inter-view. 'Making shorter calls does not help,'she added."

"The interview was featured on the frontpage of Dagbladet Norgeand was laterpicked up by the Swedish press."

11) The French Government, onMarch 1, 2002, reiterated an advisoryto users of mobile phones, remindingthem, on a precautionary basis, that:parents should tell their children tolimit the use of wireless phones; thatwhen using an earpiece, pregnantwomen should keep the phone awayfrom their bellies; and that teenagersshould keep their mobile phone awayfrom their developing sex organs.(Microwave News, vol. XXII, no. 2,March/April 2002)

The Australian authority's view The Australian Communications

Authority (ACA) has recently sent out toevery school in the nation a pamphlet titled"Mobile phones: your health and regula-tion of radiofrequency electromagneticradiation". In relation to possible healtheffects, the ACA pamphlet states only that"The weight of national and internationalscientific opinion is that there is no sub-stantiated evidence that using a mobilephone causes harmful health effects".

This pamphlet was not written by scien-tists or medical experts but public relations(PR) professionals employed to promotethe technology. They have identified chil-dren and young people as a major growtharea for taking up mobile phone use andview evidence of health hazards as a risk toprofits that needs to be "managed". Theycall it "environmental crisis management".

Unfortunately, the AustralianCommunications Authority, as a promoterof telecommunications technology, isclosely allied with the mobile phone indus-try and, in fact, uses the same PR firms.Interestingly, most of the PR firms nowworking for telecommunications previouslyworked (or still do) for the tobacco industry

NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE

Unfortunately, the AustralianCommunications Authority,

as a promoter oftelecommunications technology,

is closely allied with the mobile phone industry and,

in fact, uses the same PR firms.

and created what is now known as "tobaccoscience".

When the ACA pamphlet refers to "Theweight of national and international scien-tific opinion", it is basically referring to theopinion of and radiofrequency exposureguidelines set by the InternationalCommission on Non-Ionizing RadiationProtection (ICNIRP).

What is not said, however, is that theICNIRP guidelines are only based on high-level, short-term animal exposure studies,conducted to determine exposure limits setto avoid immediate hazards to health (suchas heating of body tissue, called a "thermaleffect") from high-level exposures.

Most importantly, ICNIRP does notexamine the possibility of other non-thermal health effects arising from long-term, low-level radiofrequency/microwaveexposure, such as from using a mobilephone for years.

As such, it is scientifically irrelevant tothe issue. From a PR viewpoint, however,statements like "The weight of national andinternational scientific opinion" do soundimpressive.

In 1995, Dr Ross Adey, one of theworld's most respected and senior researchscientists, in an email reply to this authorcommented on "The weight of national andinternational scientific opinion" by stating:

"The laboratory evidence for non-thermal effects of both ELF [powerfrequency] and RF/microwave fields nowconstitutes a major body of scientificliterature in peer-reviewed journals. It ismy personal view that to continue to ignorethis work in the course of standard-settingis irresponsible to the point of being apublic scandal." (D. Maisch, "MobilePhones and their Transmitter Base Stations:the evidence for health hazards" [Senatesubmission], EMFacts Consultancy, April1996, page 5)

A precautionary approach So what we have is an ideological battle

between a few voices of reason calling fora precautionary approach to safeguard ourchildren's health, based on sound science,versus the might of the mobile phoneindustry and their supporters, based onmaximising corporate profits.

The outcome of this conflict may not beknown for many years, until today's youngmobile phone users are well into theiradulthood. By then, if the warnings ofhealth hazards prove to be true, irreversibledamage to the health and wellbeing ofmany of these people will have been done.

For every parent who is tempted to allowunrestricted mobile phone use by their chil-dren, they need to ask themselves: is itworth the risk? ∞

About the Author:Don Maisch is director of EMFactsConsultancy and has produced 24 pub-lications and papers on a variety ofhealth issues related to EM radiationexposure. See NEXUS 7/03 and 2/26 forhis articles on RF/MW and EMR expo-sure standards.

Don can be contacted at: EMFactsConsultancy, PO Box 96, North Hobart,Tasmania, 7002, Australia; telephone+61 (0)3 6243 0195, fax +61 (0)3 62430340, email [email protected],website http://www.tassie.net.au/emfacts/.

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52 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

Richard Dawkins could just have easily been a cardinal in thepre-Enlightenment Church, and Milton a heretic. There is thatlingering smell of dogma and belief in the air that permeatesmuch of the cant of the 21st century scientific priesthood: themoves to censor "unacceptable" doctrines or teachings smack oftraditional Church-style politics.

Unfortunately, the so-called watchdog, the mass media, is alapdog in the case of science. Most reporters seem too overawedby the institution and its more famous players ever to ask anyhard questions or conduct any serious investigative reporting.

No documentary exposing the weaknesses of the theory of evo-lution has ever been aired on British television. Doesn't that seema bit odd?

For anyone truly serious about what is going on with science,Arp's essay is must-reading. His underlying contention is that sci-ence today is "impossibly authoritarian".

In an interview with Thomas Gold, published in theWashington Postin November 1999, the reporter noted:

Eight years ago, when Gold was developing his theory, somegeologists were so incensed that they petitioned to have thegovernment remove all mention of it from the nation'slibraries.

And in our virginal naïvety, we thought scientists were againstbook-burning and were champions of free, independent thoughtand expression…

The article continued by pointing out that Gold took it in hisstride:

...the scientific world allegedly searching for truth is littlemore hospitable to it than when Galileo ran afoul of theInquisition, he says.

Gold was also critical of the peer review process that rose toascendancy in the latter half of the 20th century.

Journalist Richard Milton, in his rebuttal letter to AuriolStevens (the London TimesHigher Education Supplement editorwho had spiked his anti-Darwin article), wrote:

I believe that the great strength of science and the scientificmethod is its openness to debate… Science does not need vigi-lante scientists to guard the gates against heretics… If thisarticle were about any other subject—finance, politics, theeconomy—I know that it would be welcome as well-writtenand thought-provoking, even if its claims were controversial.

But it was not about other subjects; it concerned the "sacredcow" of Darwinism. Milton may have been naïve at that point,but his "education" was just starting. There are many other"taboo" subjects that would not have been published.

The point of this series has not been to tar all scientists with thesame brush. There are unquestionably many good, honest, hard-working scientists who are appalled by some of the unsavourythings going on in the name of science. But so many scientistsseem to delight in attacking alternative science theory and itspractitioners by branding the proceedings "pseudoscience", as ifthey were White Knights on a Divine Mission to preserve theintegrity of science. What integrity? It is time they dropped alltheir debunking and cleaned up the institution before we get thescientific version of the Inquisition. ∞

About the Author:Will Hart is a freelance journalist, book author, nature photogra-

pher and documentary filmmaker. He lives and does much of hisresearch in the Lake Tahoe area in the USA, and writes a columntitled "The Tahoe Naturalist" for a regional publication. He has pro-duced and directed films about wolves and wild horses.

Continued from page 46

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THE ABSURDITIES OF DOGMA

In 1905, a 25-year-old patent clerk named Albert Einstein demolished the 200-year-old certainty that Isaac Newton knew all there was to know about basic physics. In atechnical paper only a few pages long, Einstein sent a huge part of his current"reality" to history's dustbin, where it found good company with thousands of other

discards large and small. In 1905, though, Newton's discard was about as large as the binwould hold.

Now another grand old "certainty" hovers over history's dustbin, and it seems only amatter of time before some new Einstein writes the few (or many) pages that will bring itdown and relegate it to history. And, as was the case in 1905, every "expert" in the worldlaughs heartily at any suggestion that their certainty could be struck down. Yet if facts areany yardstick—which should always be the case, but frequently isn't—Charles Darwin'stheory of evolution by natural selection is moving towards extinction.

Please note this: not everyone who challenges evolution is automatically a Creationist.Darwinists love to tar all opponents with that brush because so much of Creationist dogmais absurd. Creationists mulishly exclude themselves from serious consideration by refus-ing to give up fatally flawed parts of their argument, such as the literal interpretation of"six days of creation". Of course, some have tried to take a more reasonable stance, butthose few can't be heard over the ranting of the many who refuse.

Recently a new group has entered the fray, much better educated than typicalCreationists. This group has devised a theory called "Intelligent Design", which has awealth of scientifically established facts on its side. The ID-ers, though, give away theirCreationist roots by insisting that because life at its most basic level is so incredibly andirreducibly complex, it could never have simply "come into being" as Darwinists insist.

Actually, the "life somehow assembled itself out of organic molecules" dogma is everybit as absurd as the "everything was created in six days" dogma, which the ID-ersunderstand and exploit. But they also suggest that everything came into existence at thehands of God (by whatever name) or "by means of outside intervention", which makesclear how they're betting. "Outside intervention" is a transparent euphemism for "YouKnow What" (with apologies to J. K. Rowling). [In Rowling's "Harry Potter" books, thearch villain is so despicable and dreadful, his name should not even be uttered; thus he isreferred to as "You Know Who". Similarly, the very idea that humans might have beencreated by extraterrestrials is so despicable and dreadful to mainstream science andreligion that no mention of it should be uttered; thus the author refers to it as "You KnowWhat". Ed.] To Darwinists, Creationists and ID-ers alike, creation at the hands of YouKnow What is the most absurd suggestion of all. Yet it can be shown that You KnowWhat has the widest array of facts on its side and has the best chance of being provedcorrect in the end.

Virtually every scientist worth their doctorate will insist that somehow, some way, aform of evolution is at the heart of all life forms and processes on Earth. By "evolution",they mean the entire panoply of possible interpretations that might explain how, over vaststretches of time, simple organisms can and do transform themselves into more complexorganisms. That broad definition gives science as a whole a great deal of room to bob andweave its way towards the truth about evolution, which ostensibly is its goal. However,among individual scientists that same broadness of coverage means nobody has a "lock"on the truth, which opens them up to a withering array of internecine squabbles.

In Darwin's case, those squabbles were initially muted. Rightly or wrongly, his theory

EEVIDENCEVIDENCE FORFOR CCREAREATIONTION BYBY

OOUTSIDEUTSIDE IINTERNTERVENTIONVENTION

Darwinists,Creationists and

Intelligent Designproponents are

unable to explainanomalies in the

emergence ofdomesticated

plants, animals andhumans.

by Lloyd Pye © 2002

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.lloydpye.com

54 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

served a much higher purpose than merely challenging the wayscience thought about life's processes. It provided somethingevery scientist desperately needed: a strong counter to the intel-lectual nonsense pouring from pulpits in every church, synagogueand mosque in the world.

Since well before Charles Darwin was born, men of scienceknew full well that God did not create the Earth or anything elsein the universe in six literal days. But to assert that publiclyinvited the same kind of censure that erupts today onto anyonewho dares to challenge evolution openly. Dogma is dogma in anygeneration.

Darwin's honeymoon with his scientific peers was relativelybrief. It lasted only as long as they needed to understand that allhe had really provided was the outline of a forest of an idea, onethat only in broad terms seemed to account for life's stunninglywide array. His forest lacked enough verifiable trees. Even so,once the overarching concept was crystallised as "naturalselection", the term "survival of the fittest" was coined to explainit to laymen. When the majority of the public became convincedthat evolution was a legitimate alternative to Creationism, thescientific gloves came off. In-fighting became widespreadregarding the trees that made up Darwin's forest.

Over time, scientists parsed Darwin'soriginal forest into more different treesthan he could ever have imagined.That parsing has been wide and deep,and it has taken down countless trees atthe hands of scientists themselves. Butdespite such thinning, the forestremains upright and intact. Somehow,some way, there is a completely naturalforce at work governing all aspects ofthe flow and change of life on Earth.That is the scientific mantra, which ischanted religiously to counter everyCreationist—and now IntelligentDesign—challenge to one or more of therotten trees that frequently become obvious.

Even Darwin realised the data of his era did not provide clear-cut evidence that his theory was correct. Especially troubling wasthe absence of "transitional species" in the fossil record. Thosewere needed to prove that, over vast amounts of time, species didin fact gradually transform into other, "higher" species.

So right out of the chute, the theory of evolution was on thedefensive regarding one of its cornerstones, and more than 140years later there are still no clear-cut transitional species apparentin the fossil record.

Because this is the most vulnerable part of Darwin's theory,Creationists attack it relentlessly, which has forced scientists peri-odically to put forth a series of candidates to try to take the heatoff. Unfortunately for them, in every case those "missing links"have been shown to be outright fakes and frauds. An excellentaccount is found in Icons of Evolutionby Jonathan Wells(Regnery, 2000). But scientists are not deterred by such exposureof their shenanigans. They feel justified because, they insist, notenough time has passed for them to find what they need in agrossly incomplete fossil record.

The truth is that some lengthy fossil timelines are missing, butmany more are well accounted for. Those have been thoroughlyexamined in the past 140-plus years, to no avail. In any otheroccupation, a 140-year-long trek up a blind alley would indicate awrong approach has been taken. But not to scientists. Theyblithely continue forward, convinced of the absolute rightness of

their mission and confident their fabled missing link will be foundbeneath the next overturned rock. Sooner or later, they believe,one of their members will uncover it, so they all work in harmo-nious concert towards that common goal. Individually, though,it's every man and woman for themselves.

TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEEPlants and animals evolve, eh? Alright, how do they evolve?By gradual but constant changes, influenced by adaptive pres-

sures in their environment that cause physical modifications topersist if they are advantageous.

Can you specify the kind of gradual change you're referring to?In any population of plants or animals, over time, random

genetic mutations will occur. Most will be detrimental, some willhave a neutral effect and some will confer a selective advantage,however small or seemingly inconsequential it might appear.

Really? But wouldn't the overall population have a gene pooldeep enough to absorb and dilute even a large change? Wouldn'ta small change rapidly disappear?

Well, yes, it probably would. But not in an isolated segment ofthe overall population. An isolated group would have a muchshallower gene pool, so positive mutations would stand a much

better chance of establishing a perma-nent place in it.

Really? What if that positive muta-tion gets established in the isolatedgroup, then somehow the isolatedgroup gets back together with themain population? Poof! The mutationwill be absorbed and disappear.

Well, maybe. So let's make sure theisolated population can't get back withthe main group until crossbreeding isno longer possible.

How would you do that?Put a mountain range between them,

something impossible to cross.If it's impossible to cross, how did the isolated group get there

in the first place?If you're asking me just how isolated is isolated, let me ask you

one. What kind of mutations were you talking about beingabsorbed?

Small, absolutely random changes in base pairs at the genelevel.

Really? Why not at the chromosome level? Wouldn't changeat the base pair level be entirely too small to create any significantchange? Wouldn't a mutation almost have to be at the chromo-some level to be noticeable?

Who says? Change at that level would probably be too much,something the organism couldn't tolerate.

Maybe we're putting too much emphasis on mutations.Right! What about environmental pressures? What if a species

suddenly found itself having to survive in a significantly changedenvironment?

One where its members must adapt to the new circumstances ordie out?

Exactly! How would they adapt? Could they just will them-selves to grow thicker fur or stronger muscles or larger size?

That sounds like mutations have to play a part.Mutations, eh? All right, how do they play a part?

This game of intellectual thrust and parry goes on constantly atlevels of minutiae that boggle an average mind. Traditional

Especially troubling was [and is] the absence of"transitional species" in

the fossil record.

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Darwinists are one-upped by neo-Darwinists at every turn.Quantum evolutionists refashion the work of those who supportthe theory of peripheral isolates. Mathematicians model mutationrates and selective forces, which biologists do not trust.Geneticists have little use for palaeontologists, who return thefavour in spades (pun intended). Cytogenetics labours to find aniche alongside genetics proper. Population geneticists utilisemathematical models that challenge palaeontologists andsystematists. Sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologistsstruggle to make room for their ideas. All perform a cerebraldance of elegant form and exquisite symmetry.

Their dance is, ironically, evolution writ large throughout sci-ence as a process. New bits of data are put forth to a peer group.The new data are discussed, written about, criticised, writtenabout again, criticised some more. This is gradualism at work,shaping, reshaping and reshaping again if necessary until the newdata can comfortably fit into the current para-digm in any field, whatever it is. This is nec-essary to make it conform as closely as pos-sible to every concerned scientist's currentway of thinking. To do it any other way is toinvite prompt rejection under a fusillade ofwithering criticism.

This system of excruciating "peer review"is how independent thinkers among scientistshave always been kept in line. Darwin wasan outsider until he barged into the club bysheer, overpowering brilliance. Patent clerkEinstein did the same. On the other hand,Alfred Wegener was the German meteorolo-gist who figured out plate tectonics in 1915.Because he dared to bruise the egos of"authorities" outside his own field, hesaw his brilliant discovery buried underspiteful criticism that held it down for50 years. Every scientist in the gameknows how it is played…and very fewdare to challenge its rules.

The restrictions on scientists aresevere, but for a very good reason.They work at the leading edges ofknowledge, from where the view can beanything from confusing to downrightterrifying. Among those who study theprocesses of life on Earth, they mustcope with the knowledge that a surpris-ing number of species have no business being here. In somecases, they can't even be here. Yet they are, for better or worse,and those worst-case examples must be hidden or at leastobscured from the general public. But no matter how often factsare twisted, data are concealed or reality is denied, the truth is outthere.

THE EMERGENCE OF DOMESTICATED PLANTSThere are two basic forms of plants and animals: wild and

domesticated. The wild ones far outnumber the domesticatedones, which may explain why vastly more research is done on thewild forms. But it could just as easily be that scientists shy awayfrom the domesticated ones because the things they find whenexamining them are so far outside the accepted evolutionaryparadigm.

Nearly all domesticated plants are believed to have appearedbetween 10,000 and 5,000 years ago, with different groups coming

to different parts of the world at different times. Initially, in the so-called Fertile Crescent of modern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, camewheat, barley and legumes, among other varieties. Later on, in theFar East, came wheat, millet, rice and yams. Later still, in the NewWorld, came maize (corn), peppers, beans, squash, tomatoes andpotatoes.

Many have "wild" predecessors that were apparently a startingpoint for the domesticated variety, but others—like many com-mon vegetables—have no obvious precursors. But for those thatdo, such as wild grasses, grains and cereals, how they turned intowheat, barley, millet, rice, etc. is a profound mystery.

No botanist can conclusively explain how wild plants gave riseto domesticated ones. The emphasis here is on "conclusively".Botanists have no trouble hypothesising elaborate scenarios inwhich Neolithic (New Stone Age) farmers somehow figured outhow to hybridise wild grasses, grains and cereals, not unlike

Gregor Mendel when he cross-bred peaplants to figure out the mechanics of geneticinheritance. It all sounds so simple and sological, almost no one outside scientificcircles ever examines it closely.

Gregor Mendel never bred his pea plantsto be anything other than pea plants. He cre-ated short ones, tall ones and different-coloured ones, but they were always peaplants that produced peas. (Pea plants are adomesticated species, too, but that is irrele-vant to the point to be made here.) On theother hand, those New Stone Age farmerswho were fresh out of their caves and onlyjust beginning to turn soil for the first time

(as the "official" scenario goes), some-how managed to transform the wildgrasses, grains and cereals growingaround them into their domesticated"cousins". Is that possible? Onlythrough a course in miracles!

Actually, it requires countlessmiracles within two large categories ofmiracles. The first was that the wildgrasses and grains and cereals wereuseless to humans. The seeds andgrains were maddeningly small, likepepper flakes or salt crystals, which putthem beyond the grasping and handlingcapacity of human fingers. They were

also hard, like tiny nutshells, making it impossible to convertthem to anything edible. Lastly, their chemistry was suited tonourishing animals, not humans.

So wild varieties were entirely too small, entirely too tough andnutritionally inappropriate for humans. They needed to be greatlyexpanded in size, greatly softened in texture and overhauled at themolecular level—which would be an imposing challenge for mod-ern botanists, much less Neolithic farmers.

Despite the seeming impossibility of meeting those dauntingobjectives, modern botanists are confident the first sodbusters hadall they needed to do it: time and patience. Over hundreds ofgenerations of selective crossbreeding, they consciously directedthe genetic transformation of the few dozen that would turn out tobe most useful to humans. And how did they do it? By theastounding feat of doubling, tripling and quadrupling the numberof chromosomes in the wild varieties! In a few cases, they didbetter than that. Domestic wheat and oats were elevated from an

There are two basicforms of plants andanimals: wild and

domesticated.

No botanist canconclusively explain

how wild plants gave rise to

domesticated ones.

56 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

ancestor with seven chromosomes to their current 42—anexpansion by a factor of six. Sugar cane was expanded from a 10-chromosome ancestor to the 80-chromosome monster it istoday—a factor of eight. The chromosomes of others, likebananas and apples, were only multiplied by factors of two orthree, while peanuts, potatoes, tobacco and cotton, among others,were expanded by factors of four. This is not as astounding as itsounds, because many wild flowering plants and trees havemultiple chromosome sets.

But that brings up what Charles Darwin himself called the"abominable mystery" of flowering plants. The first ones appearin the fossil record between 150 and 130 million years ago,primed to multiply into over 200,000 known species. But no onecan explain their presence because there is no connective link toany form of plants that preceded them. It is as if…dare I sayit?…they were brought to Earth by something akin to You KnowWhat. If so, then it could well be that they were delivered with abuilt-in capacity to develop multiple chromosome sets, and some-how our Neolithic forebears cracked the codes for the ones mostadvantageous to humans.

However the codes were cracked, the great expansion ofgenetic material in each cell of the domestic varieties caused themto grow much larger than their wildancestors. As they grew, their seedsand grains became large enough to beeasily seen and picked up andmanipulated by human fingers.Simultaneously, the seeds and grainssoftened to a degree where they couldbe milled, cooked and consumed. Andat the same time, their cellularchemistry was altered enough to beginproviding nourishment to humans whoate them. The only word that remotelyequates with that achievement is:miracle.

Of course, "miracle" implies that therewas actually a chance that such complex manipulations of naturecould be carried out by primitive yeomen in eight geographicalareas over 5,000 years. This strains credulity because, in eachcase, in each area, someone actually had to look at a wild progeni-tor and imagine what it could become, or should become, orwould become. Then they somehow had to ensure that theirvision would be carried forward through countless generationsthat had to remain committed to planting, harvesting, culling andcrossbreeding wild plants that put no food on their tables duringtheir lifetimes, but which might feed their descendants in someremotely distant future.

It is difficult to try to concoct a more unlikely, more absurd,scenario, yet to modern-day botanists it is a gospel they believewith a fervour that puts many "six day" Creationists to shame.Why? Because to confront its towering absurdity would forcethem to turn to You Know What for a more logical and plausibleexplanation.

To domesticate a wild plant without using artificial (i.e.,genetic) manipulation, it must be modified by directedcrossbreeding, which is only possible through the efforts ofhumans. So the equation is simple. Firstly, wild ancestors formany (but not all) domestic plants do seem apparent. Secondly,most domesticated versions did appear from 10,000 to 5,000 yearsago. Thirdly, the humans alive at that time were primitivebarbarians. Fourthly, in the past 5,000 years, no plants have beendomesticated that are nearly as valuable as the dozens that were

"created" by the earliest farmers all around the world. Put anequal sign after those four factors and it definitely does not add upto any kind of Darwinian model.

Botanists know they have a serious problem here, but all theycan suggest is that it simply had to have occurred by naturalmeans because no other intervention—by God or You KnowWhat—can be considered under any circumstances. Thatunwavering stance is maintained by all scientists, not justbotanists, to exclude overwhelming evidence such as the fact thatin 1837 the Botanical Garden in St Petersburg, Russia, beganconcerted attempts to cultivate wild rye into a new form ofdomestication. They are still trying, because their rye has lostnone of its wild traits, especially the fragility of its stalk and itssmall grain. Therein lies the most embarrassing conundrumbotanists face.

To domesticate a wild grass like rye or any wild grain or cereal(which was done time and again by our Neolithic forebears), twoimposing hurdles must be cleared. These are the problems of"rachises" and "glumes", which I discuss in my book, EverythingYou Know Is Wrong – Book One: Human Origins(pp. 283–285)(Adamu Press, 1998). Glumes are botany's name for husks, thethin covers of seeds and grains that must be removed before

humans can digest them. Rachises arethe tiny stems that attach seeds andgrains to their stalks.

While growing, glumes and rachisesare strong and durable, so rain won'tknock the seeds and grains off theirstalks. At maturity, they become sobrittle that a breeze will shatter themand release their cargo to propagate.Such a high degree of brittlenessmakes it impossible to harvest wildplants because every grain or seedwould be knocked loose during theharvesting process.

So, in addition to enlarging,softening and nutritionally altering the seeds and grains of dozensof wild plants, the earliest farmers also had to figure out how tofinely adjust the brittleness of every plant's glumes and rachises.

That adjustment was of extremely daunting complexity, per-haps more complex than the transformational process itself. Therachises had to be toughened enough to hold seeds and grains totheir stalks during harvesting, yet remain brittle enough to be col-lected easily by human effort during what has come to be knownas "threshing". Likewise, the glumes had to be made toughenough to withstand harvesting after full ripeness was achieved,yet still be brittle enough to shatter during the threshing process.And—here's the kicker—each wild plant's glumes and rachisesrequired completely different degrees of adjustment, and the finalamount of each adjustment had to be perfectly precise! In short,there is not a snowball's chance that this happened as botanistsclaim it did.

THE EMERGENCE OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALSAs with plants, animal domestication followed a pattern of

development that extended 10,000 to 5,000 years ago. It alsostarted in the Fertile Crescent, with the "big four" of cattle, sheep,goats and pigs, among other animals. Later, in the Far East, cameducks, chickens and water buffalo, among others. Later still, inthe New World, came llamas and vicuna. This process was notsimplified by expanding the number of chromosomes. Allanimals—wild and domesticated—are diploid, which means they

But that brings up whatCharles Darwin himself called

the "abominable mystery" of flowering plants.

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have two sets of chromosomes, one from each parent. Thenumber of chromosomes varies as widely as in plants (humanshave 46), but there are always only two sets (humans have 23 ineach).

The only "tools" available to Neolithic herdsmen were thoseavailable to farming kinsmen: time and patience. By the samecrossbreeding techniques apparently utilised by farmers, wild ani-mals were selectively bred for generation after generation untilenough gradual modifications accumulated to create domesticatedversions of wild ancestors. As with plants, this process requiredanywhere from hundreds to thousands of years in each case, andwas also accomplished dozens of times in widely separated areasaround the globe.

Once again, we face the problem of trying to imagine those firstherdsmen with enough vision to imagine a "final model", to startthe breeding process during their own lifetimes and to have it car-ried out over centuries until the final model was achieved. Thiswas much trickier than simply figuring out which animals had astrong pack or herding instinct that wouldeventually allow humans to take over as"leaders" of the herd or pack. For example,it took unbridled courage to decide to bringa wolf cub into a campsite with the intentionof teaching it to kill and eat selectively andto earn its keep by barking at intruders (adultwolves rarely bark). And who could look atthe massive, fearsome, ill-tempered aurochsand visualise a much smaller, much moreamiable cow? Even if somebody could havevisualised it, how could they have hoped toaccomplish it? An aurochs calf (or a wolfcub, for that matter), carefully and lovinglyraised by human "parents", would stillgrow up to be a full-bodied adult withhardwired adult instincts.

However it was done, it wasn't bycrossbreeding. Entire suites of genesmust be modified to change the physi-cal characteristics of animals. (In aninteresting counterpoint to wild anddomesticated plants, domesticated ani-mals are usually smaller than their wildprogenitors.) But with animals, some-thing more…something ineffable…must be changed to alter their basicnatures from wild to docile. Toaccomplish it remains beyond modernabilities, so attributing such capacity to Neolithic humans is aninsult to our intelligence.

All examples of plant and animal "domestication" are incrediblein their own right, but perhaps the most incredible is the cheetah.There is no question it was one of the first tamed animals, with ahistory stretching back to early Egypt, India and China. As withall such examples, it could only have been created through selec-tive breeding by Neolithic hunters, gatherers or early farmers.One of those three must get the credit.

The cheetah is the most easily tamed and trained of all the bigcats. No reports are on record of a cheetah killing a human. Itseems specifically created for high speeds, with anaerodynamically designed head and body. Its skeleton is lighterthan other big cats; its legs are long and slim, like the legs of agreyhound. Its heart, lungs, kidneys and nasal passages areenlarged, allowing its breathing rate to jump from 60 per minute

at rest to 150 bpm during a chase. Its top speed is 70 miles perhour, while a thoroughbred tops out at around 38 mph. Nothingon a savanna can outrun it. It can be outlasted, but not outrun.

Cheetahs are unique because they combine physical traits oftwo distinctly different animal families: dogs and cats. Theybelong to the family of cats, but they look like long-legged dogs.They sit and hunt like dogs. They can only partially retract theirclaws, like dogs instead of cats. Their paw pads are thick andhard like a dog's, but to climb trees they use the first claw on theirfront paws in the same way a cat does. The light-coloured fur ontheir body is like the fur of a short-haired dog, but the black spotson their bodies are inexplicably the texture of cat's fur. They con-tract diseases that only dogs suffer from, but they also get "catonly" diseases.

There is something even more inexplicable about cheetahs.Genetic tests have been done on them, and the surprising resultwas that in the 50 specimens tested they were all, every one,genetically identical with each other! This means the skin or

internal organs of any of the thousands ofcheetahs in the world could be switched withthe organs of any other cheetah and not berejected. The only other place such physicalhomogeneity is seen is in rats and other ani-mals that have been genetically altered inlaboratories.

(Cue the music from The Twilight Zone…)Cheetahs stand apart, of course, but all

domesticated animals have traits that are notexplainable in terms that stand up to rigorousscientific scrutiny. Rather than deal with theembarrassment of confronting such issues,scientists studiously ignore them and, as with

the mysteries of domesticated plants,explain them away as best they can.For the cheetah, they insist it simplycannot be some kind of weird genetichybrid between cats and dogs, eventhough the evidence points squarely inthat direction. And why? Because that,too, would move cheetahs into the for-bidden zone occupied by You KnowWhat.

The problem of the cheetahs' geneticuniformity is explained by somethingnow known as the "bottleneck effect".What it presumes is that the wild chee-tah population—which must have been

as genetically diverse as its long history indicates—at some recentpoint in time went into a very steep population decline that leftonly a few breeding pairs alive. From that decimation until now,they have all shared the same restricted gene pool.

Unfortunately, there is no record of any extinction events thatwould selectively remove cheetahs and leave every other big catto develop its expected genetic variation. So, as unlikely as itseems, the "bottleneck" theory is accepted as another scientificgospel.

Here it is appropriate to remind scientists of Carl Sagan'sfamous riposte when dealing with their reviled pseudoscience:"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." It seemsapparent that Sagan learned that process in-house.

It also leads us, finally, to a discussion of humans, who are sogenetically recent that we, too, have been forced into one of those"bottleneck effects" that attempt to explain away the cheetah.

All examples of plant andanimal "domestication" are incredible in their own right, but perhaps the most incredible is

the cheetah.

Genetic tests have beendone on them, and the

surprising result was thatin the 50 specimens testedthey were all, every one,

genetically identical with each other!

THE ARRIVAL OF HUMANSLike all plants and animals whether wild or domesticated,

humans are supposed to be the products of slight, gradualimprovements to countless generations spawned by vastly moreprimitive forebears. This was firmly believed by most scientistsin the 1980s, when a group of geneticists decided to try to estab-lish a more accurate date for when humans and chimpanzees splitfrom their presumed common ancestor.

Palaeontologists used fossilised bones to establish a timelinethat indicated the split came between five and eight million yearsago. That wide bracket could be narrowed, geneticists believed,by charting mutations in human mitochondrial DNA—small bitsof DNA floating outside the nuclei of our cells. So they went towork collecting samples from all over the world.

When the results were in, none of the geneticists could believeit. They had to run their samples through again and again to becertain. Even then, there was hesitancy about announcing it.Everyone knew there would be a firestorm of controversy, startingwith the palaeontologists—who would begiven the intellectual equivalent of a blackeye and a bloody nose and their heads dunkedinto a toilet for good measure! This wouldpublicly embarrass them in a way that had nothappened since the Piltdown hoax wasexposed.

Despite the usual scientific practice ofkeeping a lid on data that radically differsfrom a current paradigm, the importance ofthis new evidence finally outweighed concernfor the image and feelings of palaeontolo-gists. The geneticists gathered their courageand stepped into the line of fire, announcingthat humans were not anywhere near theofficial age range of eight to five millionyears old. Humans were only about200,000 years old. As expected, thehowls of protest were deafening.

Time and much more testing ofmitochondrial DNA and male Y-chromosomes now make it beyonddoubt that the geneticists were correct.And the palaeontologists have come toaccept it because geneticists were ableto squeeze humans through the samekind of "bottleneck effect" they used totry to ameliorate the mystery ofcheetahs.

By doing so, they left palaeontologists still able to insist thathumans evolved from primitive forebears walking upright on thesavannas of Africa as long ago as five million years, but thatbetween 100,000 and 200,000 years ago "something" happened todestroy nearly all humans alive at the time, forcing them toreproduce from a small population of survivors.

That this "something" remains wholly unknown is a given,although Creationists wildly wave their hands like know-it-alls atthe back of a classroom, desperate to suggest it was the GreatFlood. But because they refuse to move away from the biblicaltimeline of the event (in the range of 6,000 years ago), nobodycan take them seriously. Still, it seems the two sides might worktogether productively on this crucial issue. If only…

Apart from disputes about the date and circumstances of ourorigin as a species, there are plenty of other problems withhumans. Like domesticated plants and animals, humans stand

well outside the classic Darwinian paradigm. Darwin himselfmade the observation that humans were surprisingly like domesti-cated animals. In fact, we are so unusual relative to other pri-mates that it can be solidly argued that we do not belong on Earthat all…that we are not even from Earth, because we do not seemto have developed here.

We are taught that, by every scientific measure, humans are pri-mates very closely related to all other primates, especially chim-panzees and gorillas. This is so ingrained in our psyches that itseems futile even to examine it, much less to challenge it. But wewill.

Bones. Human bones are much lighter than comparable pri-mate bones. For that matter, our bones are much lighter than thebones of every "pre-human" ancestor through to Neanderthal.The ancestor bones look like primate bones; modern human bonesdo not.

Muscle. Human muscles are significantly weaker thancomparable muscles in primates. Pound for pound, we are five to

ten times weaker than any other primate.Any pet monkey is evidence of that.Somehow, getting "better" made us much,much weaker.

Skin. Human skin is not well adapted tothe amount of sunlight striking Earth. It canbe modified to survive extended exposureby greatly increasing melanin (its dark pig-ment) at its surface, which only the blackrace has achieved. All others must coverthemselves with clothing or frequent shadeor both, or sicken from radiation poisoning.

Body Hair. Primates need not worryabout direct exposure to sunlight because

they are covered from head to toe in adistinctive pattern of long body-hair.Because they are quadrupeds (moveon all fours), the thickest hair is ontheir back, the thinnest on the chestand abdomen. Humans have lost theall-over pelt, and we have completelyswitched our area of thickness to thechest and abdomen while wearing thethin part on our back.

Fat. Humans have ten times asmany fat cells attached to the under-side of their skin as primates. If a pri-mate is wounded by a gash or tear inthe skin, when the bleeding stops the

wound's edges lie flat near each other and can quickly close thewound by a process called "contracture". In humans, the fat layeris so thick that it pushes up through wounds and makes contrac-ture difficult if not impossible. Also, contrary to the propagandato try to explain this oddity, the fat under human skin does notcompensate for the body hair we have lost. Only in water is itsinsulating capacity useful; in air, it is minimal at best.

Head Hair. All primates have head hair that grows to a certainlength and then stops. Human head hair grows to such lengthsthat it could be dangerous in a primitive situation. Thus, we havebeen forced to cut our head hair since we became a species, whichmay account for some of the sharp flakes of stones that are con-sidered primitive hominid "tools".

Fingernails and Toenails. All primates have fingernails andtoenails that grow to a certain length and then stop, never needingparing. Human fingernails and toenails have always needed

58 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

We are taught that, by every scientific

measure, humans areprimates very closelyrelated to all otherprimates, especiallychimpanzees and

gorillas.

This is so ingrained in our psyches that itseems futile even to

examine it, much less to challenge it.

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paring. Again, maybe those stone "tools" were not only forbutchering animals.

Skulls. The human skull is nothing like the primate skull.There is hardly any fair morphological comparison to be made,apart from the general parts being the same. Their design andassembly are so radically different as to make attempts at compar-ison useless.

Brains. The comparison here is even more radical becausehuman brains are so vastly different. (To say "improved" or"superior" is unfair and not germane, because primate brains workperfectly well for what primates have to do to live and reproduce.)

Locomotion. The comparison here is easily as wide as thecomparison of brains and skulls. Humans are bipedal; primatesare quadrupeds. That says more than enough.

Speech. Human throats are completely redesigned relative toprimate throats. The larynx has dropped to a much lower posi-tion, so humans can break typical primate sounds into the tinypieces of sound (by modulation) that have come to be humanspeech.

Sex. Primate females have oestrous cycles and are sexuallyreceptive only at special times. Human females have no oestrouscycle in the primate sense. They are continually receptive to sex.(Unless, of course, they have theproverbial headache!)

Chromosomes. This is the mostinexplicable difference of all. Primateshave 48 chromosomes. Humans areconsidered vastly superior to them in awide array of areas, yet somehow wehave only 46 chromosomes! This begsthe question of how we could lose twofull chromosomes—which represents alot of DNA—in the first place, and inthe process become so much better.Nothing about it makes logical sense.

Genetic Disorders. As with all wildanimals (plants, too), primates haverelatively few genetic disorders spreadthroughout their gene pools. Albinism isone that is common to many animal groups as well as humans.But albinism does not stop an animal with it from growing up andpassing the gene for it into the gene pool. Mostly, though, seriousdefects are quickly weeded out in the wild. Often, parents or oth-ers in a group will do the job swiftly and surely, so wild genepools stay relatively clear. In contrast, humans have over 4,000genetic disorders, and several of those will absolutely kill everyvictim before reproduction is possible. This begs the question ofhow such defects could possibly get into the human gene pool inthe first place, much less how they remain so widespread.

Genetic Relatedness.A favourite Darwinist statistic is that thetotal genome (all the DNA) of humans differs from chimpanzeesby only 1% and from gorillas by 2%. This makes it seem as ifevolution is indeed correct and that humans and primates are vir-tually kissing cousins. However, what they don't stress is that 1%of the human genome's three billion base pairs is 30 million basepairs—and to any You Know What that can adroitly manipulategenes, 30 million base pairs can easily add up to a tremendousamount of difference.

Everything Else. The above are the larger categories at issuein the discrepancies between primates and humans. There aredozens more listed as sub-categories below one or more of these.

To delve deeper into these fascinating mysteries, check TheScars of Evolutionby Elaine Morgan (Oxford University Press,

1990). Her work is remarkable. And for a more in-depth discus-sion of the mysteries within our genes and those of domesticatedplants and animals, see Everything You Know Is Wrong.

BREAKING RANKS When all of the above is taken together—the inexplicable

puzzles presented by domesticated plants, domesticated animalsand humans—it is clear that Darwin cannot explain it, modernscientists cannot explain it, not Creationists nor Intelligent Designproponents. None of them can explain it, because it is notexplainable in only Earthbound terms.

We will not answer these questions with any degree of satisfac-tion until our scientists open their minds and squelch their egosenough to acknowledge that they do not, in fact, know muchabout their own backyard. Until that happens, the truth willremain obscured.

My personal opinion, which is based on a great deal of indepen-dent research in a wide range of disciplines relating to human ori-gins, is that ultimately Charles Darwin will be best known for hisobservation that humans are essentially like domesticated animals.

I believe that what Darwin observed with his own eyes andresearch is the truth, and that modern scientists would see it as

clearly as he did if only they had themotivation or the courage to seek itout. But for now, they don't…so,until then, we can only poke and prodat them in the hope of some daygetting them to notice our complaintsand address them. In order to pokeand prod successfully, more peoplehave to be alerted to the fact thatanother scientific fraud is beingperpetrated.

Future editions of Icons ofEvolutionwill discuss the current erawhen scientists ridiculed, ignored orsimply refused to deal with a smallmountain of direct, compelling evi-dence that outside intervention has

clearly been at work in the genes of domesticated plants, animalsand humans. You Know What has left traces of their handiworkall over our bodies, all through our gene pools. All that will berequired for the truth to come out is for a few "insiders" to breakranks with their brainwashed peers.

Look to the younger generation. Without mortgages to pay,families to raise and retirements to prepare for, they can find thecourage to act on strong convictions. Don't expect it of anyoneover forty, possibly even thirty. But somewhere in the world, themen and women have been born who will take Darwinism downand replace it with the truth.

The fat lady is nowhere in sight, but that doesn't mean she's notsuiting up. ∞

About the Author:Lloyd Pye, born in 1946 in Louisiana, USA, is a researcher,author, novelist and scriptwriter. His independent studies overmore than three decades into all aspects of evolution have con-vinced him that humans did not evolve on Earth, or at least arethe product of extraterrestrial intervention. His book,Everything You Know Is Wrong – Book One: Human Origins,is available by ordering through http://www.iUniverse.com orBarnes & Noble at http://www.bn.com. Visit Lloyd Pye's web-site at http://www.lloydpye.com.

Primates have 48chromosomes.

Humans are considered vastly superior to them in

a wide array of areas, yet somehow we have only 46 chromosomes!

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One of humanity's greatest challenges lies in the effort it takes to adopt newperspectives while utilising old belief systems in order to steer a course towardsthe best possible future. This challenge is constantly in conflict withestablished belief systems relating to our past, present and future, for these

belief systems are the central wheels of the academic hierarchy, involving all aspects ofhumanity including religion.

Many of us are only just coming around to the realisation that civilisation was indeedthriving and highly evolved in our ancient past. With each day that passes and each newdiscovery that comes to light, the truth of this is more and more difficult to ignore ordeny.

Consider for a moment that our ancestors knew that their civilisation was facing naturaldisasters and cataclysmic changes. Would they have had the foresight into our future tocreate a mandate and provide future descendants with time capsules containing theirknowledge and experiences? Absolutely! We can say that with certainty, for we are reallyno different today in that respect.

There is now a strong and growing body of evidence indicating that the Bock Saga issuch a time capsule, containing knowledge allegedly dating back more than 50 millionyears. According to the Saga, it was decreed over 10,000 years ago that the survivingBock family would release the information in 1984, and not before. It was perceived thatby this date, human genetics would once more have the capacity for wholeness, enablingpeople to understand how to live in harmony with nature and each other and thereforeproperly utilise the information.

Is the information contained in the Bock Saga true and, more to the point, is it accurate?Time will tell. This article is merely an introduction to the astounding wealth of rareknowledge that is being presented by Ior Bock, who, as the last surviving descendant ofthe Bock family, is entrusted with the keys to its resurrection.

In the 1980s, a group called The Positive Foundation came together to begin excavationin an area near Helsinki in Finland, which is believed to be the location of LemminkäinenTemple. According to the Bock Saga, within the Temple's hidden halls there is to befound a repository of human knowledge and existence on our planet dating back millionsof years.

THE ROLE OF IOR BOCK IN THE SAGAIor (pronounced ee-or) Bock was born on 17 January 1942. His father, Knut Victor

Bockström, died on 11 May 1942. At that time, only three members of the Bock familyremained: Ior, his mother Rhea and his sister Rachel.

After his father died, Ior was adopted by a man named Bror Gustaf Bertil Svedlin andhis name was changed to Bror Holger Bertil Svedlin. Svedlin died in 1950 when Ior waseight years old. In March 1968, Ior reclaimed his original family name.

From the age of seven, Ior sat with Rhea and Rachel every day to listen to and learn thefamily tradition of the Bock Saga. He was not allowed to ask questions through these ses-sions, as it is considered that one learns more by listening than by talking.

According to Ior, the Saga is based largely on the teaching of sounds, which must beheard and experienced, and therefore it has been passed down orally from generation togeneration in this way. Each descendent was taught from the age of seven to the age of27, for it took 20 years to comprehend and master this knowledge. Thus the Saga wastransmitted to Ior through the years 1949 to 1969.

TTHEHE BBOCKOCK SSAGAAGAAANN AANCIENTNCIENT TTIMEIME CCAPSULEAPSULE

The oral tradition ofthe Bock Saga, saidto have been passed

down overcountless thousands

of years, suggeststhat the originalinhabitants of

Finland were thefirst people.

by Les Whale © 2002

PO Box 5055 Sunshine Coast Mail Centre

Nambour Qld 4560Australia

Email: [email protected]:

http://www.sshoesmith.fsnet.co.uk/

62 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

As a young man, Ior gained employment as the head guide ofthe Museum Fortress of Viapori (Sveaborg) in Finland. Each yearhe spent time in Goa, India, putting together the historic theme forthe following season at the museum. In the summer of 1968, Iormade his first academic presentation at the museum. In the yearsthat followed, he became a very well known and respected histori-an and was involved in the development and production of a num-ber of television documentaries.

In 1984, Ior began to relate his family history and the details ofthe Bock Saga. When the information was first released by Ior, itcaused a controversy. It was met with a great deal of disbeliefand there were accusations that the Saga was just a set of stories.Many of the detractors are now reconsidering their position due toastounding and significant discoveries made over the past fewyears—discoveries which seem to confirm that the Saga is indeedbased on fact, not fiction.

In June 1999, Ior was attacked by a man at his sister's apartmentin Helsinki. He was stabbed in the back a number of times andhis heart stopped for 10 minutes. Paramedics managed to revivehim, but the attack left him a quadriplegic.

Nearly three years later, Ior cannow drink tea with very little assis-tance, yet he manages to continue hisdaily talks and release of the BockSaga material. His mind is still veryclear and he smiles, even thoughnearly all that he had has been takenfrom him.

SOUND CODES OF THE SAGAScience has now come to the

understanding that we originate fromlight and sound. According to theBock Saga, our civilisation has onlyjust re-evolved to the level of thisbasic understanding. It is thereforeunderstandable that the Saga shouldcome to light at this time.

The Saga deals with a sound systemthat was utilised and understood in complete detail manymillennia ago—a technology based on light and sound that alsoincorporated a spiritual understanding of how to work with"nature orally", i.e., "naturally". But somewhere in the darkenedmists of our past, that knowledge was lost and therefore so wasour ability to utilise it.

The Saga, given as an oral transmission, conveyed and main-tained in correct form, via the Ring, the alphernas betenor alpha-bet, the kela of sound. The alphabet is in the original Rot (pro-nounced root) language and the Van (Finnish) language. Theteachings reveal a natural sound code within the language, whichcontains and retains keys of information. The sound system cre-ates an internal logic within the Saga. It is understood that thissystem creates an encoding within the brain that triggers geneticmemory. In this way, the narrator of the Saga transmits the infor-mation, thus enabling the listener, after 20 years of learning, totake the Saga forward. (In fact, contained within the word sagaitself—sa meaning "receiving" and ga meaning "giving" in bothRot and Van languages—is an understanding that one must firstreceive before being able to give.)

So the Bock Saga is chiefly an oral tradition based on the teach-ing of sounds. It is not a written tradition, as it must be heard andexperienced. Therefore, most of this information to date has beenobtained from a series of audiotapes, particularly as there is very

little reference material available. This article is based upon myunderstanding of these tapes.

The use of English-language spellings to convey the originalsounds is a challenge. For instance, the name Oden is pronouncedas oo-den. Other words may have similar sounds but quite differ-ent meanings in English. For example, the English word "hea-then" comes from hi-den(pronounced hee-den), meaning "whole"and "worthy", and is not meant to have a derogatory connotation.

The Holy Grail of languages is but one small fragment of theknowledge contained within the kela of sound. Human history,philosophy, health, well-being and, most importantly, the under-standing that we are all one are critical parts of these teachings.In antiquity, at a time when this knowledge was common, thereexisted a communal philosophy: one breeding, information sys-tem, one giving system, one Ring which created health and well-being.

Our ancestors understood that this generation would be ready toreceive its birthright: the knowledge of our origins, containedwithin the Saga. The question remains: are we indeed ready?

THE ORIGINS OF HUMANITY The Saga is a history and mystery sohuge that it defies description. Todate, Ior Bock has released informa-tion about four major periods inEarth's history: Paradise time,Atlantis, the time following Atlantis,and the New Times. All of thisknowledge is known as theVäinämöinen mythology.

According to the Saga's history ofevolution, which dates back to thefirst seeds of life on this Earth, theseeds grew and evolved to a pointwhere eels formed. Eels then gaverise to frogs, which eventuallyevolved into monkeys. At somepoint, the genetics of the monkey andthe goat (the bock, also the symbol of

the Bock family) were combined to create the first two humans,Frej and Freja. The Saga does not say who was responsible forthese genetic manipulations.

This creation occurred around the North Pole, where the Suncircled and never set. Surrounding the Pole was a land thatbecame the Motherland. It was known as Odenma or Uudenmaa.At its centre was Hel, meaning "clear", "home" and "complete".The humans were known as pi-pol (pronounced pee-pol, meaning"people"). All knowledge could be understood within the Poleand the Ring. (It is significant to note that binary mathematics isbased on 0 and 1, a ring and a pole.)

Uudenmaa, the garden of Oden—which later became known asEden—was located in what is now southern Finland. It was atropical paradise and the home of the first people, known as theAser. Ringlands were created outside of Uudenmaa, and withineach Ringland the breeding system was put in place. The peoplewho lived outside of Uudenmaa were known as the Vaner people,and their language was Van, meaning "One".

Within the kelaof sounds which make up the Rot language wasthe knowledge of how to be one with nature and our plan-et, planmeaning "plan" and et meaning "family"—a family plan to createwholeness. Men and women were equal. The man had his-story("history") and the female had miss-story("mystery"). Bothunderstood the knowledge of how the light of the Sun, known as

The Saga is a history andmystery so huge that it defiesdescription. To date, Ior Bockhas released information aboutfour major periods in Earth's

history: Paradise time, Atlantis,the time following Atlantis,

and the New Times.

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Oden, enables all things to grow and is everything. Oden also represented the knowledge of the Court of Aser.

One Ring, whole and complete, one giving, breeding system,Yehova ("give to the Court of Aser") was in Uudenmaa, with Helat its centre. With this knowledge and its proper utilisation, theAser was considered healthy, whole and complete. (The nameYehova was eventually changed to Jehovah, and "God [good]within" became "God in Heaven".)

From the beginning of Christian times, the heathen system (andall it represented) was hunted down and removed or destroyed.Women were excluded from this new system because much of themiss-story, the female mystery, had become taboo ("taboo"), tameaning "to give" (to germinate the seed, which is feminine), bstanding for borg (meaning cast-elor "castle"), the breeding sys-tem, and oo representing Oden the Sun and knowledge to makethings grow healthy.

Under the heathen system, Shiva repre-sented the energy of the Sun reflected by theFull Moon once a month; the knowledge ofthe Moon and monthly cycles. The male andfemale essences—spermaand sav—wereregarded as whol-i ("holy"), and whenrespected and shared correctly they created ahealthy and wholei-moo-en("immune",meaning "in the mouth") system.

It was the woman's right to choose when tobe a mother, by way of the dream of Lucia.This happened on 13 December, Lucia Day.24 December was Fest-i-val (Festival) Day,when the Disas (the "Stem Mothers") wereimpregnated by the Lemminkäinen (theBock) inside Odenma. Also on thisday, the prospective Vaner fathersstood on ped-i-stals ("pedestals")naked, with erect penises, so that theself-chosen mothers could look their"heart's desire" in the eye and choosethe one they liked. 25 December wasJule Tide, the birthday of the Sun (notthe Son of God). On 26 December, themen chosen on Festival Day had to passphysical tests to prove their fitness to bea father. This day was known as Bock-singDay—now Boxing Day.

But with the arrival of Christiantimes, the original importance and meanings of the language werechanged, lost or corrupted. Under the Christian system, respectfor and sharing of spermaand savbecame taboo—in other words,restricted and forbidden. Consequently, the woman was deniedher natural worth and equality. Instead of spermaand savbeinghonoured, they became ill-used and wasted. Men and womencould no longer understand the history and mystery to assimilatethe seed of knowledge, and did not follow the breeding systemand create wholeness with Oden.

THE CONTINUUM OF LIFE Paradise Time

In the heathen system, certain trees were regarded as sacred.Among these were the ash tree and the oak tree. Ancient recordswould seem to show that people had a lifespan of nearly a thousandyears.

In Paradise time, one's lifespan could have been very longindeed. When a person died, they were cremated and their ashes

were scattered around the base of the ash tree. The soul was thenable to be absorbed by the roots and ascend through the tree trunk,branches and leaves, to leavethis plan-etwhole. This may explainwhy so few remains of the people of that time have been found. InChristian times, these family trees were systematically destroyed.

According to the heathen system of knowledge, Frej was thefirst Bock ("goat") and Freja was the first "nanny goat", called theSvan ("swan"). They understood the alphabet, the kela of sound.This then enabled them to understand the system of procreationthey were to initiate to ensure that all humans born would be god(pronounced "good").

Frej and Freja had at least 12 sons and seven daughters. Thisfirst family became the Piruet family. At its head were Per("Allfather") and Ella ("Earthmother"). The 12th son became thenew Bock who mated with Svan to create a further 12 sons and

seven daughters. The first son of Frej and Freja was named

Ra, and the first daughter was Maya. Ra andMaya became the teachers—the King andQueen—at the age of 27 years old, and theirtask was to maintain the hidden heathenknowledge. But as teachers, Ra and Mayawere not permitted to have children. (It isinteresting to note that in some Scandinaviancountries, even into the 20th century, teach-ers were not allowed to have children; ifthey did, they were no longer allowed toteach.)

Through the descent of the family line,three more breeding-group tiers were

formed: the Jarlet, Karlet and Treletlines. These became the Vaner peoplewho lived outside of Uudenmaa. Fromthis point, the original Bock then matedwith a Svan from the Vaner people. Inthis way, a second-tier breeding groupwas created within Uudenmaa.

There were then two groups withinUudenmaa: the Piruet and the RosetAser people. From the Roset family,the 12th son was the Rabis, whobecame the breeder for each Ringlandand was also known as the Allfather.

The Time of Atlantis According to the Saga, over 50 million years ago the ancient

ones saw that there was a change taking place on our planet.Some scientific studies indicate that the first Ice Age began 65million years ago, but this time-line is based on techniques thatmay be flawed.

The Saga says that the first major changes occurred just over 50million years ago, resulting in a shifting of the pole, causing allthe lands to become ice. This was known as the time of "All thelands ice"—Altlandis, otherwise known as Atlantis. Atlantis wasnot so much a location as it was a time in history.

Anticipating this major change, the Aser set up 10 locationsaround the world so that the Vaner people could survive the icetime. Afterwards, there were 10 breeding systems that became 10different races of people with 10 different languages, all based onthe original Rot/Van languages. When the ice came, the Aserwere cut off from the Vaner people. Largely due to a warm gulf-stream current flowing into the Gulf of Finland, the region ofUudenmaa remained ice-free.

According to the Saga,over 50 million years ago

the ancient ones saw that there was a change

taking place on ourplanet.

Anticipating this majorchange, the Aser set up

10 locations around the world so that theVaner people couldsurvive the ice time.

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The Time after the Ice According to the Saga, the Second Ragnarök, or the Second

Destruction, occurred just over 10,000 years ago when the icebegan to melt rapidly. Foreseeing what was to come, the Aserbuilt boats to accommodate their people, animals, food and othersupplies and sailed to islands that were high above sea level. Thissmall group of near-Arctic human beings called their hideout inGotland Noa-tun ("new yard"). This was the origin of the Noah'sArk story.

At this time, the Temple was closed and Hel was covered in ice.The surviving Aser people were able to return to Hel just over9,000 years ago when the waters receded. Hel became known asHel-sing-ki (now Helsinki) and the original sound/breedingsystem was re-established.

The Third Destruction In AD 1050, a papal army surrounded

Uudenmaa and slaughtered most of theremaining Aser. All things associated withheathen times were either removed ordestroyed. This period is known as the ThirdRagnarök, or the Third Destruction. Twofamilies escaped this slaughter: theBockström (Bock) and Raström (Ra) families.

The extermination of the bloodlines was infact the very purpose behind the Crusades andthe search for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grailwas the bloodline of the King and Queen andof all the heathen people. The Crusades con-ducted by the ruling Church continued forhundreds of years. Part of this extermi-nation—the removal of the Roset familylines—took place with the War of theRoses.

In 1248, an agreement was madebetween the Bockström family and theChristian King of Sweden, Birger Jarl.It allowed the family to return toUudenmaa, but in exchange for theirsilence and absolute non-involvement inpolitics—until the time came for theBock Saga to be released to the public in1984.

THE ASER TEACHERSThrough history, the intent of the great teachers has been to ele-

vate the human spirit and goodness (God-ness) within the humancondition. However, in many cases, their teachings have beensignificantly altered over the course of time by certain vestedinterests set on wielding power and dominion over others.

The names of various Aser teachers are recorded in the BockSaga. These teachers were sent out to reconnect the Vaner peopleto their heritage and to Oden, and many of them were sent all overthe world. In a number of ancient locations, records, carvings andother monuments attest to the arrival of a Caucasian people whowere very tall and had blond or red hair, the men among themhaving beards. These people came in boats without oars or pad-dles, and were regarded as gods among men. It was also recordedthat these people came from the north, from the seat of power, andthat their knowledge of all things was complete.

Some of these Aser teachers are well recorded in history. Theywere male and female, as the people needed both to create the his-story (history) and miss-story(mystery). Within the Saga, some

well-known names of the family of Aser include Buddha, Jesus,Krishna, Mohamed and Moses (Muses, a feminine reference).

Over 10,000 years ago, according to the Saga, it became appar-ent that human genetics was changing. Even though efforts weremade to reconnect the Vaner people, it was foreseen that not untilthe latter part of the 20th century would the human condition beevolved enough to assimilate once more the information con-tained in the Saga. Thus it was determined that the Saga shouldnot be brought to light until 1984, for at this time there wouldfinally exist the possibility that man and woman could conceive achild that was both inwardly and outwardly whole.

It is relevant to note that in the last 15 or so years, children havebeen born who reportedly have three strands of DNA. These chil-dren are highly gifted and have abilities far beyond what is con-sidered normal for most people. Their psychic powers enablethem even to be aware of and communicate telepathically with

other children around the world who are like-wise gifted.

THE SEARCH FOR LEMMINKÄINENTEMPLE AND FAMILY FORTUNES

In Paradise time, in every generation thepeople came together to reconnect to the Ringof sounds and knowledge to further their loveand understanding. With them they broughttheir finest arts and crafts, much of whichwas in the form of gold. Gold was honouredbecause the fire of the Sun is within and itlasts forever. This was a giving to Yehova.

Lemminkäinen was the name given toBock, the breeder. LemminkäinenTemple was created in honour of theBock in an area known as Tuna, locatedinside Uudenmaa. The arts and craftswere for-tuna ("fortune") and were puton display for all to see; they wereknown as the art-i-facts("artefacts").

Proof of the Bock Saga is to be foundin Lemminkäinen Temple and the Bockfamily treasure chambers. According tothe Saga, the entrance to the Temple liesdeep beneath the earth, 30 kilometreseast of Helsinki (Hel). The Temple wascreated within a hill, and the domed areaat the top was used for ceremonies.

Below this is an area 250 kilometres in diameter. Within this areathere is a golden spiralled stairway leading to halls housing theartefacts. Each hall represents the lifetime of a Lemminkäinen(Bock). In front of each hall stands a life-sized golden statue rep-resenting the Bock at the age of twenty-seven. The Templebecame the mu-see-them("museum"), said to contain artefactsdating back to the beginning of human knowledge.

Lemminkäinen Temple was closed in AD 987 because the hea-then people could foresee that Christian armies would invade inthe future. It was at that time that permission was given to theremaining Bock to re-open the Temple one thousand years later in1987.

Prior to 1987, a group of people came together in a partnershipknown as The Positive Foundation and began excavations toreach the Temple. In the Foundation's booklet, they report:

...we had information that the entrance was sealed with bigstone blocks. Indeed, we found three perfectly cut stoneplates piled one on the other. The plates were about 5 metres

In AD 1050, a papalarmy surroundedUudenmaa and

slaughtered most of theremaining Aser. All

things associated withheathen times wereeither removed or

destroyed.

Two families escapedthis slaughter: theBockström (Bock) and Raström (Ra)

families.

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long, 4 metres wide and 1.5 metres thick. After removal, atthe bottom of the monolith we found two more stones of about4 metres x 2.5 metres x 1 metre. These stones fit the formerentrance exactly. Behind these stones, we expected to find abig room, the so-called water lock. However, this room wasfilled with a cement-like mass.The team had excavated a tunnel over 40 metres deep, 6 metres

wide and 3 metres high, which descended with an approximate15-degree gradient. According to information provided by IorBock, the hall should end in a room from which three corridorsare accessed, with the middle corridor leading to the upper domeof the Temple. Unfortunately, the cost of further excavationexceeded the Foundation's budget, and the Finnish Governmentand the National Board of Antiquities (Museovirasto) wereunwilling to provide funding, help or support.

In 1991, the Foundation's lastsponsor stopped supporting theproject. Later that same year, ageophysical analysis of the loca-tion was conducted using a sub-surface imaging radar (SIR) sys-tem. At 25 metres below theground, at a coordinate designat-ed by Ior Bock, it picked up adome-shaped hollow space with aroof, potentially made of metal.A picture of the ground conditionat the excavation site indicatesthat only a few more metres ofexcavation had to be carried outfor a breakthrough to beachieved. As at May 2002, thisbreakthrough has not yet beenachieved.

GOLDEN BOCKS, CRYSTALBALLS AND REGALIA

According to Ior Bock, thereare other artefacts of the heathenculture buried in various loca-tions across Finland.Specifically, there are three gold-en bock statues (as stated previ-ously, the Bock family's symbolis the goat) as well as three crystal balls and the regalia of the lastKing of the Aser.

Ior says that two golden bocks and two crystal balls are buriedin Snappertuna, about 70 kilometres west of Helsinki. This landis now the property of the Church and is also a nature reserve.The third golden bock, the third crystal ball and the regalia areburied in the courtyard of Kajaani Castle, about 600 kilometresnorth of Helsinki. This is the oldest and most northerly royal cas-tle known in the world. Ior explains that the Kajaani Castle siteserved as an old breeding centre thousands of years ago.

On 12 October 2000, the SIR was used in the courtyard atKajaani Castle. The radar system detected at five metres belowthe ground, at the exact spot where Ior Bock had indicated, a largemetal box fitting the description and dimensions which Ior hadprovided.

Kajaani Castle is now the property of the Finnish state. So far,the Government of Finland, the National Board of Antiquities(Museovirasto) and the Church have refused permission for thecastle's courtyard or any other of these sites to be excavated.

THE KELA OF SOUNDWe are now moving towards the latter end of the 20-year period

since this information was first released in 1984. Much has beenrevealed, yet much is still to be revealed.

According to Ior Bock, the Rot/Van languages are the basis ofall languages on our planet. The Finnish language today is verycomplex. Each word can be used in one of at least 165,252 forms,cases or tenses. The English language is close to the original Rotsound system. However, the unique capacity of the Rot/Van lan-guages to contain so much variety is in stark contrast to theEnglish language, which uses only relatively few tenses such aspast, present and future. Further, each sound (letter) within theRot/Van language has unique meaning and each word can beassimilated from front to back, from back to front and from themiddle out.

The kela of sound, the alpha-bet, the Ring, is made up of 29sounds and combinations there-of. There are 23 sounds in oneRing and seven outside of theRing. There are 10 clear vocalsounds (vowels), with theremainder being combinationsounds. The sound i (pro-nounced ee) is repeated, so alto-gether there are 29 differentsounds. Within the alphabet, thefirst i represents the Bock; the istem represents the penis of theBock and the dot represents thesperm. The second i representsthe Allfather and is also pro-nounced ee (as in I Ching, pro-nounced ee-ching).

Ta is "to give" ("to germinatethe seed knowledge") and rotmeans "the sounds". Therefore,to ta-rot ("tarot") is to "createthe knowledge of sounds". Theancient learning system of theTarot appears to have changedand now only contains the 23main sounds, which are repre-sented in the Major Arcana of

Tarot cards. The Major Arcana has 22 cards; however, the firstcard, The Fool, designated "0", is also represented at the end,making 23 paths.

NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIESIn the last couple of years there have been a number of findings

that support the Bock Saga and Väinämöinen mythology. Archaeologists involved with the PECHORA Project have

recently found 40,000-year-old settlements northeast of Finland inthe White Sea region. The finds were reported in the 6 September2001 issue (vol. 413) of the British scientific journal Nature.

There was also the discovery of the susihuola("wolf cave")outside the city of Kristinestad on the west coast of Finland. Bythe summer of 2001, Museovirasto had proved that communitieslived there for at least 300,000 years. The head of Museovirastohas stated publicly that no one lived in Finland prior to 10,050years ago, yet is now privately revealing evidence that people

Continued on page 85

Ior Bock

ANCIENT RELIEF MAP FOUNDON STONE SLAB IN THE URALS

According to the Russian newsagency Pravda, scientists at BashkirState University in the southern

Ural Mountains are discussing their find-ings concerning a mysterious stone slabwhich has a detailed relief map etchedinto it. They have been studying the slabsince they carted it away from the villageof Chandar, near Ufa, in July 1999.

Prof. Alexandr Chuvyrov, who headsthe specialist team of cartographers, geol-ogists, physicists and chemists, believesthey have found proof of the existence ofan ancient, highly developed civilisa-tion—evidence that defies conventionalnotions of human history.

For a start, the relief map was not mademanually by an ancient stonecutting tool;as X-ray analysis revealed, it was machinedwith precision tools. It also shows a viewthat could only have been plotted by aerialsurvey.

The dimensions of the slab were deter-mined once it was dug out of the backyardof a village house: 148 cm x 106 cm x 16cm. Once they cleaned it back at the lab,the scientists realised they had uncovered a3D relief map (or plan) of the Ufa regionon a scale of 1:1.1 kilometres.

Apart from showing identifiable featuressuch as rivers and canyons, it also depicts

civil engineering and irrigation worksincluding two 500-metre-wide channel sys-tems, with a total length of about 12,000kilometres, and 12 dams, each 300–500metres wide, approx. 10 km long and 3 kmdeep, which would have required the shift-

ing of over a quadrillion cubic metres ofearth to construct. The slab consists ofthree layers: a 14-cm-thick base made ofhard dolomite, a second layer of diopsideglass of a composition unknown to modernscience, and a 2-mm-thick top layer of cal-cium porcelain to protect the map fromimpact.

To try to determine the age of the map,the scientists carried out radiocarbon analy-sis and scanned the layers with a uraniumchronometer, but the results were inconclu-sive. At first the scientists thought the find

might be about 3,000 years old, but thenthey discovered two shells embedded in theslab, from shellfish species that existed 500and 120 million years ago—though this isno confirmation that the map is actuallythat ancient.

The slab also contains inscriptions writ-ten in an unknown hieroglyphic-syllabiclanguage. The scientists originallythought the script might be some form ofOld Chinese, because in 1995 Prof.Chuvyrov was investigating the writingsleft by ancient Chinese people duringpossible migrations to Siberia and theUrals, but their archival searches dis-proved this notion and the script remainsundeciphered.

The scientists are speculating that theslab is only a fragment of a much largermap that they estimate to have been 340 x

340 metres in size and that might possiblyhave depicted the entire planet's surface.They hypothesise that it was most likelysituated in the Sokolinaya Mountain gorgebut was broken up in the last glacial epoch,the slabs eventually being deposited inChandar and elsewhere in the Ufa region.The scientists are continuing their searchfor more slabs and fragments, which couldwell number in their hundreds. (Source: Pravda website, April 30, 2002,http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/30/28149.html)

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The slab also containsinscriptions written in anunknown hieroglyphic-

syllabic language.

A CYCLOPEAN SKULL OR A CASEOF CHEMICAL WEATHERING?

Ancient skulls allegedly bearing a singleeyeball socket have been found in

limestone caves in the hinterlands ofBohol, Bukidnon, at Mt Palaupau inSumilao and in some parts of Agusan in thesouthern Philippines.

The existence of the skulls, which resem-ble those of the cyclops—a race of giantsin Greek mythology with a single eye inthe middle of the forehead—has triggeredspeculations that one-eyed ancient settlersonce lived in the country's southern islands.

Tribal folklore has it that giants onceroamed the plains of central and north-ern Mindanao, the most popular ofwhom, according to Bukidnon legend,was "Agyo", who fought against thefirst Spanish conquistadors.Bukidnon's tribal people are reportedlykeeping skeletal remains, which theybelieve to be Agyo's, in a sacred caveas an object of worship.

Reports about the strange skulls hadprompted archaeologists of theNational Museum to launch an excava-tion in Bohol, and they managed tofind one such skull.

Archaeologist Rey Santiago said thatintensive study of the skull showed itbelonged to an "ancient settler". However,he theorises that limestone in caves wherethe "cyclops skulls" were discovered couldhave triggered a chemical reaction, creatinga new eyeball socket in the skull.

"Human bones and limestone havesimilar [composition]," he said.

Despite Santiago's explanation, though,tribal folklore maintains there were tworaces of giants in ancient times: the kapre,who were associated with evil, and the one-eyed giants, whom early settlers regardedas their heroes.(Source: by Perseus Echeminada, ThePhilippine Star, February 24, 2002)

EVIDENCE FOR HUMAN SETTLEMENT IN ICE-AGE TIBET

Handprints and footprints 20,000 yearsold reveal that people lived on the

Tibetan Plateau at the height of the IceAge, 16,000 years earlier than scientistshad thought. The newly found signs of lifecast doubt on the idea that a kilometre-thick glacier covered the plateau at thattime.

David Zhang and S. H. Li of theUniversity of Hong Kong found the marks

of at least six individuals, including twochildren, in marble-like rocks that wereonce soft mud, on a mountain slope 85kilometres from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.1

They also found a fireplace nearby withthe remains of a primitive stove, suggestingthat the site was a camp, perhaps even asettlement.

Until now, the oldest known settlementson the Tibetan Plateau dated from lateNeolithic times, around 4,000 years ago.This had led some researchers to concludethat humans first migrated into Tibetaround this time.

The encampment is also a nail in the cof-fin for the "ice-covered plateau" hypothe-sis. It indicates that at least part of theplateau, which today is 4,000 metres highon average, was free of ice even during thisfrigid period of Earth's history.

The very hot spring that probably attract-ed the Ice Age settlers also preserved theirmarks for posterity. The spring water isrich in dissolved minerals and gases. Ascarbon dioxide gas bubbles out of thewater, minerals such as calcite precipitateout, forming a soft mineral mud. As themud dries, it turns into a hard, durablelimestone called travertine.

So, thanks to the hot spring, the moun-tainside made plaster casts of the Ice Agepeople who lived on it. Nineteen hand-prints and footprints are clearly visible inthe stone surface.

Zhang and Li date the travertine depositby the tiny grains of quartz that becametrapped within it while the mud solidified.

Quartz acts as a mineral clock. Whenheated, it emits light in proportion to thetime that has elapsed since it was lastwarmed or exposed to sunlight. This tech-nique is called thermoluminescence dating.

Energy builds up in trapped quartz becauseit is exposed to radiation from naturalradioactive elements such as uranium andthorium in surrounding minerals. It emitsthis energy as light: the longer the expo-sure time, the higher the energy and so thebrighter the light. Because heat or sunlightreleases the trapped energy, the quartzgrain clock would have been set to zerowhen the grains became embedded in thewarm mud from the spring.

Endnote1. Zhang, D. D. and Li, S. H., "Optical dat-

ing of Tibetan human hand- and foot-prints: an implication for thepalaeoenvironment of the last glacia-tion of the Tibetan Plateau",Geophysical Research Letters29,2002.(Source: Reported in Nature, March27, 2002, http://www.nature.com)

CURIOUS ARTEFACTS FOUNDIN NEW HAMPSHIRE CAVE

The following article is reprintedfrom the Ohio, USA, Zanesville

Gazette of May 18, 1852:"A correspondent of the Boston

Herald, who signs himself Charles G.Proctor, states that he is engaged with

a party of surveyors in locating a railroadthrough New Hampshire, and that the partydiscovered a curious cave at a place calledNester Gap, on 27th ult [ultimo, of the pastmonth]. The writer says:

"'After descending seven steps, theaperture winding all the way, we foundourselves in a spacious cave, with the roofascending until it reached a height of nearly40 feet. The size of the cave was, by actualmeasurement, 94 feet long and 64 feet in itswidest part; beyond this, another flight ofsteps seemingly deeper than the firstextended to another chamber, but we havenot explored it. What lay beyond the firstroom, to what extent the cave reaches orwhat it contains, remains to be seen; butjudging from what we have alreadydiscovered, the investigations that are to bemade will possess the most overpoweringinterest.

"'When we had been in the cave longenough to accommodate our eyes to thedim light furnished by the opening we hadmade, we began to make observations. Wewere filled with astonishment at what laybefore us. The cave or grotto had evidentlybeen used as a hiding place for treasure and

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Until now, the oldest knownsettlements on the Tibetan

Plateau dated from lateNeolithic times, around

4,000 years ago.

68 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

a place of concealment for those who hadused it. Implements of defence lay ingroups on one side. They were of anexceedingly antique form. Hoar antiquityrested on every article before us. The dustof ages had settled down upon all things inthe cave.

"'In one corner we found three earthenvessels of singular construction and shape.These were filled with coins of silver, brassand iron but mostly of brass of variousshapes. The coins bore no image, werecoarsely but most curiously wrought, andCaptain Edwards, the leader of the party,who boasts some knowledge of coins,declares them to be unlike anything he hadever seen or read of and of a very ancientdate.

"'The most singular and interesting dis-covery of all consists in our having found,in a niche, several rolls and packages com-posed of a material entirely unknown to us,upon which were inscribed figures andcharacters, the meaning of which, as yet,we have not been able to determine upon orto make out the nation or date to whichthey may have belonged.

"'The party has returned to the cave, pre-pared to explore it to its utmost extent.

"'The coins and the scrolls are supposedto have a date prior to the Christian era,and have been sent to Boston to be submit-ted to the investigation of learned men.'" (Source: The Zanesville Gazette, Ohio,USA, May 18, 1852, posted at http://great-serpentmound.org)

"NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC" VALIDATES BILLY MEIER CLAIM

Finally, proof has emerged that vali-dates Eduard (Billy) Meier's claimthat he was contacted by extraterres-

trials from the Pleiades in the 1970s! The January 2002 issue of National

Geographicmagazine printed an interest-ing confirmation of the validity of Meier'sclaims. In that issue, I found a newsbriefwhich acknowledges that, just as Meierclaimed back in the 1970s, Mt Everest isnot the highest mountain on Earth.

Meier, in his writings, stated thePleiadians told him that Mt Chimborazo inEcuador was higher than Mt Everest by2,150 metres because the Earth is not per-fectly round but, rather, bulges in the mid-dle—thus, measuring mountains from sealevel is not an accurate way of assessingthe true height of a mountain.

National Geographic states that

scientists have now determined that theEarth bulges around the middle because ofthe spinning action of the Earth's rotation,and thus, when measured from the centreof the planet, Mt Chimborazo is actuallyhigher than Mt Everest by 2,200 metres.Measured from sea level, Mt Everest is2,540 metres higher than Mt Chimborazo.The newsbrief states that when measuredfrom the centre of the Earth, MtChimborazo is 6,384,450 metres high andMt Everest is 6,382,250 metres high.

For a poor Swiss farmer who never grad-uated from high school to pick that particu-lar mountain and declare it to be the high-est mountain on Earth, higher than MtEverest—and to come within 50 metres ofits height, measured from the centre of theplanet, years before scientists recognisedthis fact—is quite an extraordinary feat, Ithink anyone would have to agree.

In 1997 I wrote Star Wisdom, a bookabout the essential spiritual message of thePleiadians (based on Billy Meier's Semjasecontact notes), which mentioned the MtChimborazo claim.

In the February 2002 issue of the UK-based UFO Magazine(vol. 21, no. 3), mybook was reviewed by Kate Miller, whostated:

...the question that became uppermost inmy mind on reading Star Wisdomwaswhether a supposedly poor Swiss farmer(who never graduated from high school)could conjure up the kind of beautifuland inspiring words that are manifest inthe book. Could he have possiblyinvented the seven basic principles of

the Pleiadians that cover Oneness,Eternal Spiritual Evolution, Self-Responsibility, Love, Balance, Truthand Equality?

I can't explain it [the accurate namingof Mt Chimborazo as the highest moun-tain on this planet]and I seriously doubtwhether sceptics would even venture totry, but please, be my guest! The sameis true for anyone who feels it would bea worthwhile exercise to revisit BillyMeier and the teachings of thePleiadians. You just may find it a trulyrewarding experience.Today there is a great public interest in

the UFO phenomenon as well as in spiritu-ality. Star Wisdomoffers a rational, logicaland eminently effective way of practisingspirituality in one's daily life.

The Pleiadians presented to Meier a clearand liberating message which, to me, is notonly welcome but necessary in the chaoticrealm of modern spirituality where thehardened dogmas of fundamentalism arecompeting with the allure of New Age"pop" philosophies. In light of the currentevents on our planet, I believe it is time forus to take seriously their wise directives inthis regard.

If you want to read Star Wisdom, pleasewrite to me, Gene Andrade, at PO Box223743, Carmel, CA 93922, USA, forinformation on how to order a copy of thebook directly from me; alternatively, youcan order it from Amazon.com.(Source: Gene Andrade press release,April 28, 2002, via email [email protected])

THE TWILIGHT ZONE

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DARWIN'S MISTAKEby Dr Hans J. Zillmer Frontier Publishing, Netherlands, AUP,USA, 2002 (first published in German asDarwin's Irrtum, Müller/Herbig, 1998)ISBN 1-93188-207-X (292pp tpb)Price: A$38.00; NZ$47.00; £16.50; Euro 25.90; US$19.95 + s&hAvailability: Aust/NZ/UK/Europe—NEXUS offices; USA—AUP, websitehttp://www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

In Darwin's Mistake, Dr Hans Zillmer, aGerman engineer who has been investigat-

ing contentious scientific knowledge forover 30 years and participated in many exca-vations, presents anomalous evidence thatwould seem to overturn Lyell's uniformitari-anism principles and Darwin's theory of evo-lution. But he goes further and suggestswhat could only be heresy to anyone otherthan a Creationist: that the Earth's crust ismuch, much younger than we think: in theregion of tens of thousands of years, if that,rather than hundreds of millions of years! Inother words, apart from evolution being amyth and catastrophism being the rule, ourgeological dating system is completely outof whack. Yet he accepts that the Earth'sinterior is truly ancient!

One of Dr Zillmer's claims is that becausefootprints of three-toed dinosaurs, higher-order mammals and very tall humans havebeen found in the same rock strata in andaround the Paluxy River near Glen Rose inTexas, USA, this is compelling evidence forthe coexistence of these species. But ratherthan conclude that man is as old as the

dinosaurs, Zillmer proposes that dinosaursdid not die out 64 million years ago butlived until quite recently—at least the three-toed ones did, otherwise those footprintswould have long ago eroded away.

Dr Zillmer presents other anomalous finds,discusses catastrophic events such as mete-orite impacts and a Great Flood, and consid-ers the possibility of creation by outsideinfluences. But it's easier to accept thatDarwin was wrong than Zillmer's contentionthat the crust is so young. Readers will haveto work out the logic for themselves!

THE AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENTSby Gary E. Schwartz, PhD withWilliam L. SimonPocket Books, USA, 2002 ISBN 0-7434-3658-X (374pp hc)Price: A$49.95; NZ$65.00; Euro 31.90;US$25.00; C$38.00Availability: Aust/USA/Canada— Simon &Schuster, http://www.simonsays.com;NZ—Macmillan; Europe—NEXUS Office

The answer to the timeless question, "Isthere life after death?", may be a little

closer with the release of this book. It'sactually the follow-up to a video documen-tary, also called The Afterlife Experiments,which was first screened on US cable TV in1999. The book is as much a record of thepersonal journey of an initially sceptical sci-entist who changed his views—Dr GarySchwartz, a professor of psychology, medi-cine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery—asit is a revelation of the reality of the afterlife.

At his Arizona lab Dr Schwartz, with theassistance of his research partner Dr LindaRussek, set up what was to be a three-yearresearch project with a series of controlledexperiments involving some of America's

most "tried and tested" mediums, includingGeorge Anderson, John Edward and SuzaneNorthrup. Some very moving exchangesbetween "sitters" and their close relatives viathese mediums are reproduced here. Theresearch team was very careful to ensurethat hoaxing was impossible. The sitterswere masked from view, and the mediumswere given no details or clues about the sit-ters but came up with details which werelater confirmed to be accurate and predic-tions which eventually were fulfilled.

While Dr Schwartz applied strict scientificprotocols and analysed the statistical proba-bilities, he arrived at the unexpected conclu-sions that soul science and the love-healthconnection cannot be divorced from theequation. Most of the contact experimentswere attempts by ordinary people, the sitters,to contact their departed loved ones. Thisled him to deduce that the soul/love connec-tion is an energetic bond that does indeedsurvive beyond death. Quite a change ofheart and mind for a sceptical scientist.

Reviewed by Ruth Parnell

REVIEWS

EMISSARY OF LOVEby James Twyman Hampton Roads, USA, 2002 ISBN 1-57174-323-5 (145pp tpb)Price: A$41.95; NZ$53.95; Euro 20.90;US$15.95Availability: Aust—Gemcraft, tel (03)9761 5535; NZ—Peaceful Living, tel (07)571 8105; Europe—NEXUS Office; USA—Hampton Roads, http://www.hrpub.com

Neale Donald Walsch (Conversationswith God), in the introduction to this

book, questions whether author JamesTwyman has made it all up, whether it is justa figment of the imagination of a "masterstoryteller". And I, too, have to wonder, butask if this really matters when the messageserves as a powerful reminder for us toreturn to the core of ourselves.

Twyman is a New Age "peace troubador"of sorts, who in the last eight years has"ministered" and performed in many trou-bled places of the world. He's the author ofEmissary of Light, about his travels throughthe Bosnian mountains where he claims helearned the secrets of an ancient society ofspiritual masters. The event that sparkedhim on this pilgrimage came in late January2001 when he was contacted psychically bya 10-year-old Bulgarian boy who transmit-ted "the Gift" to him and compelledTwyman to travel to Bulgaria in search of agroup of psychically talented children, "theChildren of Oz". He found them in an iso-lated monastery, or so he writes. (If he'dused "the Gift", he'd have avoided the atten-tions of Bulgarian government agents alongthe way—but much intrigue as well!)

The question in common that these chil-dren all ask us is: what if you acted as ifyou were an Emissary of Love? Well, it

means asking whether we're ready to act asif we're loved by God, and what would hap-pen if we really did believe this to be true.These are simple but profound insights, andthey also show how love and imaginationcan change the world. Twyman's is also acautionary tale about the dangers of ego andpride, but it also speaks truth through all thedichotomies presented, such as the case ofthe mysterious young Tibetan Tulku.

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE CHRISTMYTHby Mark Amaru PinkhamAdventures Unlimited Press, USA, 2002ISBN 0-931882-02-9 (157pp tpb)Price: A$33.00; NZ$45.00; £14.00; Euro18.90; US$14.95 + s&hAvailability: Aust/NZ/UK/Europe—NEXUS offices; USA—AdventureUnlimited, tel (815) 253 6390, websitehttp://www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

The peacock is not only a spectacularlybeautiful bird; it also has ancient sym-

bolic connotations. According to MarkAmaru Pinkham (author of The Return ofthe Serpents of Wisdom; see 4/05), the JesusChrist story has all the elements of a muchearlier Son of God myth from India: thelegend of Murrugan, the Peacock Angel,who was worshipped in many faiths in Asiaand Asia Minor as "the King of the World".The ancient British goddess Murraga isbelieved to be a female counterpart.

Interestingly, the Catholic Church includesthe peacock among its official symbols, andPinkham contends that St Paul's influencewas responsible for this. Before his famousvision and "conversion", St Paul was a fol-lower of the Persian Mithras tradition which

emerged around 600 BC; indeed, he wasborn into it as a native of Tarsus—the homeof Mithra worship in Asia Minor. St Paulwas an exponent of dualism—an ideaPinkham says was borrowed from thePersian religion—and may have been atleast an honorary Magi priest.

The Mithras idea, says Pinkham, was anevolution of the Murrugan concept of Indiantradition. But not only that, certain Mithraicideas were taken up by the Jews during thetheir exile in Babylonia, thus Judaismbecame a relative of Mithraism. Even theEssenes were influenced by this philosophy:while they were awaiting the anticipatedincarnation of the Archangel Michael, so thesaviour of Mithraism, Ahura Mazda, wasexpected to incarnate physically as Mithras.The legendary Magi who searched for thenewborn Christ apparently believed thatJesus was a reincarnation of Mithras.

All this and more is covered in this surpris-ing alternative view of ancient religions.

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BLAST IT! How to Eliminate Diseases,Disorders and Other Pesky TroublesKeelyNet, 2001 (Third Edition)ISBN n/a (746pp spiral bound)Price: US$99.95 + US$15.05 s&h in USA,US$25.05 to Canada, US$40.05 int. s&hAvailability: USA—KeelyNet, PO Box111786, Carrollton, TX 75011-1786, web-site http://www.keelynet.com

This is a must-have handbook for Rifetherapy practitioners and energy healers

(though, weighing in at 5 lb [2.3 kg], it's notexactly something you can even lift in onehand!). Blast It! is the third, more user-friendly edition of material originally com-piled by John Crane for the 1,000-pagePolarity Research Manual, which coveredDr Royal R. Rife's life's work spanning 60years. Crane was Dr Rife's associate for 21of those years. For readers unfamiliar withthe name, Rife was the celebrated and perse-cuted doctor who developed his Universalsuper-microscope in the 1930s and success-fully used his resonant frequency ray beamto blast the micro-organisms he saw asresponsible for cancer (see article, 9/02).

In this compiilation there's a wealth of up-to-date technical research data on energyapplications for eliminating a variety ofhealth disorders and diseases and helping thebody recover. The first part looks at the"electronic antibiotic system" and how touse it; it includes notes on polarity and themeridian systems and on using the frequen-cy chart as well as pads and electrodes. Parttwo explores the research into several Rifetechnologies, with reference to an under-standing of magnetism, colour frequency,cosmic energy, nutrition and other basics; italso sets down the protocols for preparingthe patient for therapy. Specific disorders

and diseases, and how to treat them, arehighlighted in part three, while the electron-ics of the Rife equipment are discussed inpart four. The edition wouldn't be completewithout some background on the inventor;part five covers Rife's history from 1920 to1950 and, from there, his partnership withJohn Crane. There's an extensive bibliogra-phy and index to top off this ultimate manu-al for energy-frequency workers.

TRIUMPH OVER CANCERby Agi LidleA Better Life Publications, AZ, USA, 2001 ISBN 0-9671693-1-3 (192pp tpb)Price: US$12.95 + US$4.95 s&h in USAor US$5.95 foreign s&h; C$19.95Availability: USA—A Better LifePublications, tel +1 (480) 948 3386, 1-866990 5433, email [email protected], web-site http://www.abetterlife.info

In 1997, at the age of 38, Agi Lidle wasdiagnosed with breast cancer and was

about to go through the usually prescribedroute of mastectomy and chemotherapy, butinstead decided to embark on a rigoroushealing journey that would see her free ofthat cancer and other undiagnosed tumourswithin six months. Nearly five years latershe is still free of the disease, is a picture ofvibrant good health, and is dedicated tospreading her life-enhancing message.

Agi's powerful natural healing regimeincluded changing her bad eating habits andeating live foods—mostly fresh, raw, organ-ic fruits and vegetables, juices and broths—as well as healthy oils, nuts and seeds inorder to detoxify her system. A stint at theCedarBrook natural health clinic in northernCalifornia provided a suitable setting forjump-starting her healing regime, which also

included the Incurables Program developedby Dr Richard Schulze and the MucuslessDiet created by herbalist Dr JohnChristopher. Crucially, back at home Agihad the love and support of her husband andfriends, who helped her through the rigorousprocesses including the "cold sheet treat-ment" to stimulate her immune system.

Agi has since gone on to become a certi-fied herbalist through the School of NaturalHealing, and now teaches natural healthprinciples through her "Fresh StartProgram". In her book, she provides practi-cal information on cleansing routines, nour-ishing diets, herbal concoctions includingthe Native American black salve (an anti-cancer compound), as well as on what toavoid. The final section is her own "LidleCafé Cookbook" of nutritious recipes.

It takes time, courage and willpower to fol-low Agi's approach. But because every can-cer case is different, her advice should beweighed up alongside medical opinion.

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REVIEWSCELLULAR TELEPHONE RUSSIANROULETTEby Robert C. Kane Vantage Press, USA, 2001 ISBN 0-533-13673-3 (235pp tpb)Price: A$36.00 inc. p&h in Aust; A$39.00to NZ, A$42.00 to UK, A$47.00 to Europe;US$10.00 inc. s&h in US/CanadaAvailability: Aust/NZ/UK/Europe—EMFacts Consultancy, PO Box 96, NorthHobart, Tas 7002, Australia, tel (03) 62430195, http://www.tassie.net.au/emfacts/;USA—Council on Wireless TechnologyImpacts, tel (415) 892 1863, websitehttp://www.energyfields.org/resources.html

There is a large body of scientific evi-dence that has built up since the 1950s

on the health effects of exposure to EMfields and radiofrequency radiation. But youwouldn't know it from the way new researchis reported and discussed, says industryexpert Robert Kane in his eye-opening book.

In the case of cellular telephones in partic-ular, the usual practice is for a new study tobe reported as something that should be fur-ther investigated, and for industry to "treateach such study as if it were isolated in thescientific universe" and then have its PRminions to dismiss the findings or arrangefor them to be buried. But there are hun-dreds of studies with alarming findings ofEMR/ RF exposure effects—such as DNAand chromosome damage, tissue damage,cataract and tumour formation, memory lossand motor skills degradation—and Kanerefers to a substantial number of them here.There is so much evidence that it beggarsbelief that the telecommunications industrycan be so gung-ho about promoting productsso hostile to the human biological system.

Kane divides his book into chapters deal-ing with the foundations of radiationresearch, "hot spot" radiation absorption inthe body, biological effects of RF energy,the smokescreen over emissions safety stan-dards, and the "good, bad and ugly" ofresearch labs. He also looks at how the pub-lic has been deceived by standards-setting,radiation-protection and health authorities aswell as the industry/PR/media machine.

Think again before you make that nextmobile phone call! (And read Don Maisch'sarticle in Science News this issue.)

NETHERWORLDby Robert TempleCentury, UK, 2002 ISBN 0-7126-8404-2 (476pp hc)Price: A$49.95; NZ$64.95; £17.99; Euro 31.90Availability: Aust/NZ/UK— RandomHouse; Europe—NEXUS Office

Divination and prophecy have alwaysbeen part of humanity's relationship

with the universe, but in these "rational"times they have been relegated to fringe orlunatic status, their important role in the his-tory of cultures underplayed or ignored, asRobert Temple so eloquently explains withreference to the classical Greek and Romantraditions and contrasting Chinese systems.

Temple (The Sirius Mystery and TheCrystal Sun; 5/04, 7/06), sets the scene inNetherworld with his own descent into theOracle of the Dead, a little-explored pre-Roman complex at Baia in southern Italy, itstunnels and chambers all still intact. It wasused for demonstrating aspects of ancientmysteries concerning fate and the afterlifeand for contacting the spirits of the dead.Temple's foray, in the company of Michael

Baigent (The Holy Blood and The HolyGrail co-author), was brave indeed (as thecolour photos attest). This replica of Hadeshad smaller counterparts in other parts of theclassical world, where various mysteriesassociated with the Greek oracles, particu-larly at Delphi and Cuma, were "stage-man-aged" for seekers of divine truth. Prophecybecame institutionalised, and importantdecisions would be made according to theoracle's reading of signs and portents. Butthe leading form of divination for thousandsof years was extispicy: divination byentrails! Temple devotes a chapter to thiscuriosity, which is still practised today.

The focus in part two is on the Chinese tra-ditions of bone oracles and the I Ching(Book of Changes). Temple suggests mod-ern science is just starting to appreciate thehigher-order mathematical structure andgeometric framework which are implicit inthe I Ching and make it such an interestingsystem for our times. A fascinating insightinto the prophetic underside of history andnotions of fate, fortune and probability.

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REVIEWSPLAGUE, PESTILENCE AND THE PURSUIT OF POWERby Steven RansomCredence Publications, UK, 2001 ISBN 0-9535012-8-0 (209pp tpb)Price: A$32.95; A$36.95 to NZ; £15.00;US$22.00; C$37.50Availability: Aust/NZ/UK/USA—Credence Publications

Last issue we ran an extract from StevenRansom's book, but it didn't cover his

key argument: that many outbreaks of"highly infectious" or "deadly" human andanimal diseases are "politically manufac-tured" epidemics or "psycho plagues", delib-erately imposed by Big Business and/or BigGovernment with help from the Big Media.

One obvious case is the 2001 foot andmouth disease (FMD) "outbreak" in theUK—a disease which affected animals canrecover from if given enough time. Ransompoints out many of the inconsistencies anddeceptions concerning official diagnosis,science, testing, media statements and meth-ods of dealing with FMD and the farmers—so many that he concludes there were other,more subversive agendas afoot. Such as toforce Britain to conform to the EU's agricul-tural plan by breaking up small-holder live-stock farming. And to swell the coffers ofthe pharmaceutical drug companies who arenever short of a "disease" requiring a drug ora vaccine to treat something that very likelyhas an environmental cause.

Ransom has a small chapter on vaccina-tion, which is increasingly seen as the pre-ferred medical intervention to control thesesupposed "killer" epidemics. He exposesthe flaws in the science and its logic, andurges us to return to basics and commonsense. Some of the other "epidemics" and"antidotes" he covers are swine flu, BSE(and its link to organophosphate pesticides),

Hong Kong chicken flu, TB and measles.He also slams the government/corporatebiotech push to grow GE crops in the UKfor its denial of public concerns over safety.

It's chilling to know how far governments,corporations and the media will go to sup-press human and animal rights—as well asthe truth—for the sake of power and profit.

HEALTH WARSby Phillip DayCredence Publications, UK, 2001 ISBN 0-9535012-7-2 (331pp tpb)Price: A$32.95; A$36.95 to NZ; £15.00;US$22.00; C$37.50Availability: Aust/NZ— CredencePublications Australia, tel (03) 5767 2247,website http://www.credence.com.au;UK—Credence Publications, tel 01622832386, http://www.credence.org; USA—Credence USA, tel (208) 524 1571,http://www.credence.org/USA

Around 90–95% of all the diseases andhealth problems killing people in the

industrialised world tend to be metabolic-,toxin- or healthcare-related, says UK-basedhealth researcher/journalist Phillip Day, sosolve those problems and you solve most ofwhat could kill us prematurely. The top twokillers are cancer and heart disease, whilethe third is the system itself, which isresponsible for hundreds of thousands dyingevery year due to incorrectly prescribedpharmaceuticals or their side-effects, hospi-tal infections, botched medical procedures,lack of care and so on. But the system alsoplays a part in today's epidemic of metabolicand toxic diseases, for it has a vested interestin promoting poor dietary choices and deny-ing the problems caused by all-pervasivetoxins in the environment and our food.

"The system", as Day defines it, includesvested interests at corporate and governmentlevel that sanction harmful modes of treat-ment and questionable health choices for thesake of profit and power, as well as in themedia, where editors and publishers regular-ly block publication of life-saving healthinformation if it's perceived to conflict withestablishment views or advertisers.

In Health Wars, Day exposes many shock-ers that our readers would be familiar with,including the dangers of vaccines, aspartameproducts, fluoride, animal antibiotics, genet-ic engineering and environmental toxins aswell as pharmaceutical drugs that can causethe very diseases they are supposed to pre-vent. He reminds us that we are part of thesolution to these problems with the choiceswe make. Reducing our exposure to toxins,eating organic foods and applying correctfood-combining principles are some of thechanges we can make if we want to takecontrol of our own health and power.

ATLANTIS AND THE POWER SYSTEMOF THE GODSby David Hatcher Childress and Bill ClendenonAdventures Unlimited Press, USA, 2002ISBN 0-932813-96-8 (286pp tpb)Price: A$37.00; NZ$47.00; £14.50; Euro 20.90; US$15.95 + s&hAvailability: Aust/NZ/UK/Europe—NEXUS offices; USA—AUP, websitehttp://www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

This is a two-books-in-one release. Thefirst part is a reprint of most of the veter-

an UFO researcher Bill Clendenon's decade-old book, Mercury: UFO Messenger of theGods. Clendenon spent 40-odd years inves-tigating the UFO phenomenon and even hadhis own sighting. He was an ardent lobbyistfor full disclosure by the government.

Clendenon contacted David Childressshortly after his own book on ancient Indianvimana aircraft came out in 1991, to com-pare notes on possible UFO propulsion sys-tems. He had decoded specifications formercury vortex engines described in theIndian Vimanika Shastra texts, and appliedthese to explain how craft like the one pho-tographed by George Adamski in 1952might propel themselves through space.Clendenon died in the mid-1990s, and so forthis edition Childress has added his owncommentary on their overlapping researchinto principles of counter-rotating plasmavortices and mercury drives.

In the second part of the book, Childressexamines Dr Nikola Tesla's power broadcasttowers in light of evidence for the use of"crystal power towers" in long-lost civilisa-tions on the African and American conti-nents and elsewhere. But how reliable, real-ly, are the readings of famous psychic EdgarCayce, who insisted not only that the lostcity of Atlantis existed but it had giant tow-ers for broadcasting power—perhaps ener-gised by what he called the "Terrible

Crystal"? Childress argues that the erectionof obelisks and the housing of alleged har-monic resonators above the King's Chamberin the Great Pyramid suggest the ancientEgyptians had a special understanding ofenergy dynamics and power generation—and a natural successor in Tesla.

An energetic mix of lost, secret and futuresci/tech, packed with diagrams and pics.

WATT'S THE BUZZ? by Lyn McLean Scribe Publications, Australia, 2002 ISBN 0-908011-66-0 (262pp tpb)Price: A$30.00; NZ$34.95; US$19.95Availability: Aust—Scribe Publications,tel (03) 9349 5955, http://www.scribepub.com.au; NZ—Addenda, tel (09) 836 7471;USA—Independent Publishers Group, tel(312) 337 0747; Amazon.com

If you're at all confused about electromag-netic radiation (EMR) and its effects on

health, then Lyn McLean's Watt's the Buzz?is a practical primer for guiding the layper-son through this highly technical field.

McLean has been researching the subjectsince 1996 when, as director of SutherlandShire Environment Centre in Sydney, sheinherited the EMR role by default. Her mis-sion took on added impetus when shebecame ill due to massive EMR exposure,forcing her to make major changes in herlife. Since then, she's been publishing anewsletter and maintaining a lobby groupand website (http://ssec.org.au/emraa).

In her book, she sets the tone with somedisturbing EMR exposure stories involvingreal people. Next she explains energy basicsfor beginners and describes the workings ofthe power and telecommunications net-works, including how mobile phones andphone tower antennas work.

Then it's on to the "Great Health Debate".Within the text she refers to scientific andmedical studies from around the world thatoffer sufficient evidence for us to adopt aprecautionary approach to emissions. SoMcLean includes pointers on how we canreduce EMR exposure at home, at work andin the built environment. She also looks atdesigning, building and wiring houses andoffices for minimal adverse impact.

McLean has included an extensive appen-dix that lists relevant published papers(cross-referenced to chapters) under head-ings such as brain tumours, leukaemia,breast cancer, heart problems, birth defects,nervous and endocrine system changes,sleep disorders and genetic effects. Theresources list is far too slim, considering thenumber of researchers, doctors and groupsactive in Australia and overseas. Still, thisis a down-to-earth book that gets the wordout about EMR hazard prevention.

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DISCLOSUREby Steven M. Greer, MDCrossing Point, Inc., USA, 2001 ISBN 0-9673238-1-9 (573pp tpb)Price: US$25.00 + $8 airmail in US, $9 toCanada, $16 overseas; Euro 31.90Availability: USA—Crossing Point, Inc.,PO Box 265, Crozet, VA 22932, tel +1(540) 456 8302, fax +1 (540) 456 8303,website http://www.DisclosureProject.org;Europe—NEXUS, tel +31 (0)321 380558

It's hard to ignore so many credible wit-nesses attesting to the reality of UFOs and

extraterrestrials at great personal risk. DrSteven Greer, who heads The DisclosureProject, dedicated to lobbying governmentsand their agencies to come clean on whatthey know, has edited down his vast selec-tion of documentation and testimony to justunder 600 pages for the Disclosure book.It's designed to complement the video andBriefing Document CD-ROM (see 9/01).

Section I gives an overview of "The BigPicture" and its implications, and considershow and why secrecy over UFOs and highlyclassified technology is maintained by ourgovernments—particularly in the UnitedStates, where billions of dollars are divertedto and hidden in "black budget" projects.

The second section focuses on testimonyfrom military and civilian air traffic con-trollers and pilots who have tracked craftmoving at thousands of miles per hour.Next, there are statements from Strategic AirCommand and nuclear energy/weapons offi-cials on UFO events around nuclear sitesthat seem to suggest ETs are interested in, ifnot concerned about, nuclear weapons arse-nals and the weaponisation of space.

Section IV features government and"deep" agency and military insiders, some ofwhom claim they were involved in retrievalsof crashed UFOs and their occupants, havewitnessed the downing of an alien craft orhave had close contact with a living EBE.There's testimony revealing a secret agenda

behind the Strategic Defense Initiative, andin section five a number of scientists discussantigravity and non-polluting new energytechnologies that are already operational yetdeliberately kept from the public.

A landmark book and a courageous projectthat one day may force the disclosure issue.

HOW THE SUN GOD REACHEDAMERICA c. 2500 BCby Dr Reinoud M. de Jonge and Jay Stuart WakefieldMCS Inc., USA, 2002 ISBN 0-917054-19-9 (384pp l/f tpb)Price: US$24.95 + US$5.00 US prioritymail, US$9.00 global priority mailAvailability: USA—MCS Inc., Box 3392,Kirkland, WA 98083-3392, tel 1-877 5130219, email [email protected]

Authors Reinoud de Jonge, a Dutch phys-ical chemist, and Jay Wakefield, an

American biologist, share a passion formegalithic culture and ancient seafaring his-tory. For this collaboration, four years in themaking, they visited and/or analysed over adozen archaeological sites in Europe andNorth America containing megalithic stonesbearing inscriptions, purposefully positionedmenhirs and astronomically aligned shafts,mounds and circles.

The authors are convinced that many of theinscriptions, or petroglyphs, are geographicmaps showing discoveries of islands andcontinents across the oceans, as well asbeing navigational charts with informationabout latitude and longitude, sailing direc-tions, currents and winds. The earliest ofthese, found near the Mediterranean betweensouthern Italy and Gibraltar, are dated to thebeginning of Neolithic times, c. 6000 BC.

Applying the "de Jonge rules of decipher-ment", they deduce that it took about 4,000years for the world to be explored and chart-ed. The discovery of the Cape Verde islandsthey see recorded in the tumulus of Kercadoin Brittany, circa 4500 BC; of Madeira, on atablet in Galicia, c. 4100 BC; and of Icelandand Greenland, in petroglyphs at a cairn inLoughcrew, Ireland, c. 3200 BC.

They believe the discovery of America andAustralia is shown in a map at Dissignac,Brittany, c. 2600 BC; and that America ispart of the Stonehenge code, c. 2000 BC(and even had its own Stonehenge nauticalcentre in North Salem, c. 2200 BC). Themost recent petroglyph, inscribed in a tableton Long Island and dated to 850 BC, showsan Egyptian expedition to America.

These astounding decodings may well helpsolve many unexplained aspects of late pre-history—from the prevalence of a Sun Godreligion and the origin of the Olmecs, to theidentity of the New England stone chamberbuilders and the first mappers of Antarctica.

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CROP CIRCLES: THE RESEARCHwith Bert Janssen & Janet Ossebaard Bert Janssen Productions (websitehttp://www.bertjanssen.nl), Netherlands,2001 (58mins, PAL/VHS, NTSC/VHS)Price: A$40.00; NZ$49; £17.00; Euro 20.90; US$19.95 + s&hAvailability: Australia/NZ/UK/Europe—NEXUS offices; USA—AUP, websitehttp://www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

One of the most baffling mysteries oftoday is crop circles—or should we say

"formations"—yet there are relatively fewvideos that have been made on this intrigu-ing subject. This video, however, is anexcellent documentary about the crop for-mations and is produced by two experiencedresearchers in the field (pardon the pun).

As well as stunning aerial shots of the for-mations (accompanied by rather nice music,I might add), there is a wealth of fascinatingscientific detail. There is also good report-ing on the anomalies associated with manyof these formations, e.g., snow melting thenext season in the same pattern as the for-mation that had been there in summer; thou-sands of dead insects stuck to plants insidesome formations; equipment that fails towork only inside formations; changes in theplants; and some very interesting geometriclinks amongst the formations considered nothoaxed. My only lament is that the produc-ers were unable to include the grand finalecrop formations found at Chilbolton in latesummer 2001. Still, a must-have video!

CONTACTwith Bert Janssen & Janet Ossebaard Bert Janssen Productions (websitehttp://www.bertjanssen.nl), Netherlands,2001 (45mins, PAL/VHS, NTSC/VHS)Price: A$40.00; NZ$47.00; £17.00; Euro 20.90; US$19.95Availability: Australia/NZ/UK/Europe—NEXUS offices; USA—AUP website,http://www.adventuresunlimitedpress.com

This is another excellent video documen-tary, which recaps a tiny bit of Crop

Circles: the Research and launches into themost mysterious part of the phenomenon oflate: those floating balls of light seen andvideotaped by more and more people. EvenI had no idea that so many people over thelast couple of years have witnessed andfilmed these strange balls of light.

This documentary also has stunning visu-als of the formations, plus good music andnarration and lots of interesting interviewswith witnesses and fellow researchers. Thisis another must-have video!

REVIEWSJOHN OF GODa film by Mark Thomas Vision Thang Pty Ltd, Australia, 2002 (59mins, PAL/VHS, NTSC/VHS)Price: A$40.00; overseas, add A$10 p&hAvailability: Aust/NZ/UK/Europe/USA—Vision Thang Pty Ltd, PO Box 2007,Clovelly NSW 2031, Australia, websitehttp://www.visionthang.tv

Every now and then I get an email askingfor an update on the "Miracle Man of

Brazil". His real name is João Teixeira daFaria, but the people of Brazil call him Joãode Deus (John of God).

For those who missed our feature article inNEXUS 5/02, thousands of people fromacross the globe have received healingthrough John of God and many claim tohave had miraculous surgery performed onthem. From Wednesday to Friday, in twosessions a day, the Casa de Dom Inácio(House of Saint Ignatius Loyola) atAbadiânia in Goiás state, Brazil, is open toanyone who comes seeking healing—forfree. The video is filmed on location andyou basically get to see what goes on, whatyou can expect if you turn up, and get a real"feel" for the place. There are some prettygood close-ups of João's surgical work, too!

Overall, I really enjoyed the video.

DOWSERS DOWN UNDERwith Alanna MooreGeomantica Productions, 2002 (100mins, PAL/VHS)Price: A$45.00; overseas, add A$10 p&hAvailability: Aust/NZ/UK/Europe—Geomantica Productions, PO Box 929,Castlemaine, Vic. 3450, Australia, websitehttp://www.geomantica.com

Thank goodness someone is continuingresearch and promoting interest in the

fascinating practice of dowsing. Two and ahalf decades ago, while I was growing up onone of Tasmania's first "organic" farms, wehad one of Australia's most respecteddowsers, Rafe Thomas, visit for a few days.This certainly opened my eyes to a fewmore mysteries of the world, and I've kept ahealthy respect for dowsing ever since.

This video, made by Alanna Moore, isreally great. You get to see seven ofAustralia's respected dowsers, includingKeith Levy, Sandy Griffin, Ross Henderson,Bill Raines and Dave Kennett. As you willsee, dowsing is not just confined to findingwater. It is being used to determine soilmineral/pH balances; to find precious oresand stones; to detect and remedy "Earthradiation" and geopathic stress; to selectlocations for planting; and even to locategraves! If you are interested in dowsing,then may I strongly suggest you get hold ofthis video; it is very informative.

Reviewed by Duncan Roads

mail, phone or fax your order to:NEXUS Magazine, PO Box 30,Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia.

Ph: 07 5442 9280; Fax: 07 5442 9381or use the coupon on page 95

The true story of a mantaken for ten days to an

extraterrestrialcivilisation

by Alec Newald

$22.00(includes GST + postage)

One Monday in mid-February 1989, AlecNewald set off on what should have been athree-hour drive from Rotorua to Auckland inNew Zealand. He arrived in Auckland to learnthat Monday was now Thursday ten days later,and that he had no idea of what had happenedin the meantime! When Alec did retrieve hismemories of those missing ten days, herealised his life had changed forever, for earlyon in that fateful trip, while driving through afoggy mountain pass, Alec was whisked fromthe road by beings from an extraterrestrialcivilisation. A true story!

CELLO BLUE by David DarlingHearts of Space, USA, 2001 (60mins)Distributors: USA—ValleyEntertainment, tel (212) 974 9400; web-site http://www.hos.com; Australia—MRA Entertainment, tel (07) 3849 6020

David Darling is a renowned classicallytrained cello player. On Cello Blue he's

used five-string electric cello to producecontemplative, atmospheric sounds of ele-gant musical harmony. There are beautifullylayered tracks of tonal feasting interwovenwith bird sounds from dawn sunscapes.The album carries the listener along on foldsof sound, providing an enriching, healingquality that doesn't come our way often.

BIG DRUM: SMALL WORLD by Dhol FoundationShakti Records, USA, 2001 (64mins)Distributors: USA—Real World, tel(414) 961 8350; Shakti Records, websitewww.shaktirecords.com; UK—Virgin,tel 02089 646000; Aust—MRAEntertainment, tel (07) 3849 6020

The dhol is a wooden two-headed drumthat's held horizontally and played with

beating sticks. It's one of the loudest drumsimaginable, except for the huge Japanesetaiko drums. Johnny Kalsi is the father ofthe Dhol Foundation in Britain, establishingthe School for Dhol in 1991. He is alsoknown for his ongoing work with TransGlobal Underground and Afro-Celt SoundSystem. The music from Big Drum: SmallWorld is a second-generation Asian drum-ming mix. It's exciting, mutable and organicmusic that's loud and enticing.

LATIN GROOVEby various artistsPutumayo, USA, 2002 (43mins)Distributors: USA—Putumayo WorldMusic, tel 1888 788 8629, websitehttp://www.putumayo.com; UK—Pinnacle Imports, tel 01689 870622;Aust—MRA, tel (07) 3849 6020

Another release from Putumayo, this iscutting-edge Latin with electronica,

funk and hip hop mixed with salsa, Cubanson music and cumbia. Bands include LosAterciopelados from Colombia, BarrioCubano from Martinique, Los Mocososfrom San Francisco, El Conjuncto Massalaifrom France, Ozomatli from Los Angeles,and Si*Se from New York. DJs includeSidestepper and Funkanzazenji. There's alsomusic from Cuban collective Sin Palabras,

blending electronica with Cuban and Afro-Cuban dance styles. Crazy and excitingsalsa-till-you-drop sounds.

THE AFRO-INDIAN PROJECT by Ravi, Hossam Ramzy and DannyThompsonARC Music, UK, 2001 (63mins)Distributors: UK—ARC Music, tel +44(0)1342 328567, website http://www.arcmusic.co.uk; USA—ARC Music

Ravi has been a force in fusion worldmusic for almost 20 years. He's trav-

elled the world, giving concerts with thegreats in many traditions. The Afro-IndianProject is the result of bringing togetherrespected African and Indian musical talent.Among the excellent players here are:Bikram Ghosh, Ravi Shankar's tabla player;Danny Thompson, double bass genius;Tarun Bhattacharya, on santoor (hundred-stringed zither); Hossam Ramzy, noted per-cussionist; and Chandru Sheker, SouthIndian–style violinist. A musical treat.

QUIET DAYS by various artistsReal Music, USA, 2001 (57mins)Distributors: USA—Real Music, tel(415) 331 8273, website http://www.realmusic.com; Aust—New WorldMusic, tel (02) 9565 4522

Many people today realise that goodhealth and relaxation go hand in hand.

The growth of the relaxation music industryin the last 10 years has been remarkable.Healing of the body and mind can be facili-tated by a calm environment, ritual, move-ment and music. Real Music has assembleda selection of healing tracks from their "bestof" healing sounds. Musicians includepianist Kevin Kern, keyboardist MichaelHoppé, flautist Tim Wheater and the duo2002. There are several tracks from harpistHilary Stagg, including the all-favouritePachelbel's Canon. Excellent collection.

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 79

Reviewed by Richard Giles

REVIEWS

82 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

Barak proclaimed his "red lines": Israelwould not return to its pre-1967 borders;East Jerusalem with its 175,000 Jewish set-tlers would remain under Israeli sovereign-ty; Israel would annex settlement blocs inthe West Bank containing some 80 per centof the 180,000 Jewish settlers; and Israelwould accept no legal or moral responsibili-ty for the creation of the Palestinian refugeeproblem.

The Palestinians, in accord with UNSecurity Council Resolution 242 and theirunderstanding of the spirit of the OsloDeclaration of Principles, sought Israeliwithdrawal from the vast majority of theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip, includingEast Jerusalem, and recognition of an inde-pendent state in those territories.

The distance between the two parties,especially on the issues of Jerusalem andrefugees, made it impossible to reach anagreement at the Camp David summit meet-ing in July 2000. Although Barak offered afar more extensive Israeli withdrawal fromthe West Bank than any other Israeli leaderhad publicly considered, he insisted onmaintaining Israeli sovereignty over EastJerusalem. This was unacceptable to thePalestinians and to most of the Muslimworld.

Arafat left Camp David with enhancedstature among his constituents because hedid not yield to American and Israeli pres-sure. Barak returned home to face politicalcrisis within his own government, includingthe abandonment of coalition partners whofelt he had offered the Palestinians toomuch. However, the Israeli taboo on dis-cussing the future of Jerusalem was broken.Many Israelis began to realise for the firsttime that they might never achieve peace ifthey insisted on imposing their terms on thePalestinians.

THE SECOND INTIFADA The deeply flawed "peace process" initiat-

ed at Oslo, combined with the daily frustra-tions and humiliations inflicted uponPalestinians in the occupied territories, con-verged to ignite a second intifada beginningin late September 2000.

On September 28, Likud leader ArielSharon visited the Noble Sanctuary (TempleMount) in the company of 1,000 armedguards. In the context of July's tense negoti-ations over Jerusalem's holy places andSharon's well-known call for Israeli annexa-tion of East Jerusalem, this move provokedlarge Palestinian protests in Jerusalem.Israeli soldiers killed six unarmed protest-ers. These killings inaugurated over amonth of demonstrations and clashes across

the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For abrief period, these demonstrations spreadinto Palestinian towns inside Israel.

In relative terms, the second intifada isalready bloodier than the first. As in theprevious intifada, Palestinians threw stonesand Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers,who responded with rubber-coated steel bul-lets and live ammunition. But both sideshave employed greater force than in1987–1991.

The militant wing of Fatah, which hascoordinated many street actions, now has asubstantial cache of small arms and has firedoften on Israeli troops. The Israeli militaryresponse escalated dramatically after twosoldiers, allegedly "lost" in the PA-controlled West Bank town of Ramallah,were killed on October 12 by a Palestinianmob returning from the funeral of anunarmed young man whom soldiers hadshot dead the day before. The IDF attackedPA installations in Ramallah, Gaza andelsewhere with helicopter gunships andmissiles. Subsequently, the IDF has notalways waited for Israelis to die beforeanswering Palestinian small arms fire withtank shells and artillery, including theshelling of civilian neighbourhoods in theWest Bank and Gaza.

For these actions and the use of liveammunition to control demonstrations of

A Brief History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Continued from page 26

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unarmed Palestinians, several internationalhuman rights organisations have condemnedIsrael for use of excessive force. The UNSecurity Council passed a similar condem-nation, from which the US abstained, and onOctober 20 the UN General Assemblyapproved a resolution condemning Israel.Israel, the United States and four Polynesianisland nations voted no, and a third of theassembly abstained.

Despite a truce agreement at Sharm al-Sheikh, a later agreement to quell violencebetween Arafat and Shimon Peres, and BillClinton's attempts to restart negotiations forJanuary 2001, the second intifada did notlook like it would end soon. In December2000, Barak called early elections for PrimeMinister, to forestall a likely vote of no con-fidence in the Knesset.

On February 6, 2001, Likud leader ArielSharon defeated Ehud Barak and becameIsrael's Prime Minister. He proceeded toassemble the most right-wing government inIsrael's history. The Labor Party joined thecoalition as junior partner, providing a figleaf for intensified military efforts to repressthe Palestinian uprising. These effortsfailed. A rash of suicide bombings under-mined the personal security of Israelis.Sharon aligned himself with the "War on

Terrorism" proclaimed by President Bushfollowing the September 11, 2001 attacks onthe United States by al-Qa'ida, and pro-claimed that Yasir Arafat was equivalent toUsama bin Laden.

On March 29, 2002, Israeli forces reoccu-pied several West Bank cities and villagesunder the control of the PalestinianAuthority, effectively bringing an end to theOslo process and the institutions it created.This military operation wreaked massivedevastation on the governmental structureand civil society institutions. The totalnumber of casualties is unknown as of thiswriting.

At least 1,600 Palestinians and 450Israelis have been killed since the outbreakof the second intifada, with no end of theconflict in sight. ∞

Editor's Note:This article is reprinted with permission fromMERIP, the Middle East Research andInformation Project, and includes an updatefrom co-author Joel Beinin as of late April2002. MERIP is an independent, non-profitorganisation based in Washington, DC, USA.Visit MERIP's website, http://www.merip.org,for related stories including the "Primer on thePalestinian Uprising", which provides addition-al background on the conflict and poses ques-tions about mainstream media coverage of theuprising.

About the Authors: • Joel Beinin, PhD, has taught Middle Easthistory at Stanford University, USA, since1983. His research deals primarily withthe social history of the modern MiddleEast, with a focus on workers, peasants andminorities. He has also written and lec-tured extensively on Israel, Palestine andthe Arab-Israeli conflict. His recent booksinclude Political Islam: Essays from'Middle East Report' (University ofCalifornia Press, 1998, co-edited with JoeStork) and Workers and Peasants in theModern Middle East (Cambridge UniversityPress, 2001). He is currently serving as thePresident of the Middle East StudiesAssociation of North America. He alsoserves as a contributing editor of MERIP'squarterly journal, Middle East Report.• Lisa Hajjar, PhD, a sociologist, teachesin the Law and Society Program atUniversity of California, Santa Barbara.She is completing a book, Authority,Resistance and the Law: A Study of theIsraeli Military Court System in the WestBank and Gaza, to be published byUniversity of California Press. Her workfocuses on Israel/Palestine, human rights,international law and socio-legal issues.She is an editorial board member ofMiddle East Report.

A Brief History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Continued from page 82

JUNE – JULY 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com NEXUS • 83

Dr Joel Wallach author of

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problem may remain the same. Forinstance, a diabetic person may need totake chromium for the cells to use bloodsugar and vanadium to produce insulin.These supplements may be necessary toeradicate diabetes or any other blood sugarproblem that is not correctable with self-urine therapy.

A GOLDEN FUTURE Although much attention has been

focused on many elements in urine andtheir potential for medical use, comprehen-sive research has not yet been conducted onurine as a total entity that is therapeuticallyapplied.

Still to be proven are the theories regard-ing how and why urine therapy works—solet us welcome and support the scientificcommunity that is interested in undertakingstudies using urine as a total entity.

More than 600 scientists—many ofwhom believe that human urine can treateverything from baldness to cancer andAIDS—gathered in Goa, India, for the FirstWorld Conference on Auto-Urine Therapyin February 1996. The Second World

Conference on Auto-Urine Therapy washeld in Germany in 1998.

These are certainly signs that ShivambuShastra is flourishing all over the world,and that people are ready to take responsi-bility for their own health and well-beingand are ready to overcome their prejudicesand open their minds to embrace such anancient spiritual and magical practice.

It is certainly crucial in these times,when we ache for deeper healing, thatShivambu Shastra be acknowledged andadopted as a valid and profoundly effectivemethod of creating health in body, mindand spirit. ∞

Author's Note:The material in this paper is not intended to replacemedical treatments. It is an attempt to broaden theawareness of Shivambu Shastra. Readers interestedin Self-Urine Therapy are encouraged to discuss itwith their health practitioner.

References• Armstrong, John (Dr), The Water of Life, HealthScience Press, Rupa and Co., 1990.• Bartnett, Beatrice (Dr), Urine Therapy – It MaySave Your Life, Lifestyle Institute, 1994.• Christy, Martha M., Your Own Perfect Medicine,Futuremed, 1996.• Desai, Morarji, Miracles of Urine Therapy, PankajBooks, 1998.• Free, A. H. (Dr), Urinalysis in Clinical Laboratory

Practice, CRC Press, Cleveland, 1975.• Van der Kroon, Coen, The Golden Fountain: TheComplete Guide to Urine Therapy, Amethyst Books,1996.

About the Author:Natalia Perera has a BA in Psychology and an MAin International Relations from the University ofNew South Wales in Sydney. She studied mind-body medicine and natural therapies at Nature CareCollege, Sydney, focusing on Ayurvedic medicineand bodywork and also undertook three years ofpractical training in gestalt therapy. She is passion-ate about integrating the sciences of Ayurveda andyoga with the arts of holistic counselling and body-work to facilitate deep healing and create health onthe foundations of a higher consciousness.

Upon completion of her studies, Natalia workedin India as a duty doctor at a prominent Ayurvedichospital in Kerala for some months. She returned toAustralia in 2001 and set up her clinic, Saffronrose,in Woollahra, Sydney. Natalia takes clients throughan in-depth consultation to determine their naturalconstitution and identify the imbalances underlyingtheir health symptoms. She designs individualisedlifestyle regimes and therapeutic programs that caninvolve nutritional advice, food and herbal homeremedies, appropriate exercise routines, yoga pos-tures, meditation and breathing techniques, person-al counselling sessions, Ayurvedic cooking recipesand Ayurvedic massage treatments.

Natalia Perera can be contacted at: Saffronrose,49 Ocean Street, Woollahra, NSW 2025, Australia;telephone +61 (0)2 9362 8838, email [email protected].

Shivambu Shastra: Healing with Urine Therapy

Continued from page 32

84 • NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com JUNE – JULY 2002

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lived in Finland long before any other civil-isation was known to exist on the planet.

Renowned archaeologist and researcherThor Heyerdahl, who passed away just asthis article was going to press, wasinvolved with excavations around the Seaof Asov near the Black Sea, focusing on acity known as As-Hov—A s as in "Aser"and H o v as in "Court", the Court of Aser.In this new book, The Search for Ooden ,co-written with Per Lillieström (and soonto be released in English), Heyerdahlmakes a number of references to the Aserand Vaner people.

In the past, many so-called scientificexperts in Finland and other places deniedthat the Aser and Vaner people ever exist-ed. Nowadays, this knowledge is becom-ing more and more indisputable.

These findings also place a considerabledegree of doubt on the theory that Africawas the cradle of humanity.

CREATING A NEW RINGIn Paradise time, the people had a system

based on giving—one Ring of knowledge,well-being and wholeness that brought alltogether, even in the darkness, and boundthem. It was a system of stable health and

communal wealth where sickness was rela-tively unknown because a balance wasmaintained between the people and theirenvironment.

In the New Times, a new Ring wascreated—a system based on taking—and atits hub was the money wheel. It is apparentfrom our civilisation's growing socio-economic problems that this latter systemhas created a lack of balance, with an ever-decreasing spiral bound by greed. Thissystem has created a serious imbalance onour Earth, as more and more is taken fromnature and very little replenished. This inturn has created and continues to createmore greed, and so the vicious cyclecontinues. This system has resulted in amere two per cent of the populationcontrolling 90 per cent of the wealth. Ifallowed to continue, this system willeventually destroy all life on our planet.

Our greatest challenge at the beginningof this new century is to disassemble theillogical Ring of power that represents thetaking system and create a New Ring basedon love, goodness and wholeness, a givingsystem in harmony with nature and basedon true logic, to honour all peoples and ourplanet. This then will become our new par-adigm (Paradise time). To enable us tounderstand and achieve this goal, we need

only embrace what is good—God within—for this is truly our birthright.

Through the grace and foresight of theBock family and its sole surviving descen-dent, Ior Bock, we have been given achance to redeem what has been lost: toassimilate the language, the Key of theElves, the understanding of how life cancontinue naturally, in harmony with Oden,with everything. We must not allow theconflicts within established belief systemsto inhibit this new paradigm, which is a giftto our children and for the future of ourplanet and all who live upon it. ∞

About the Author: Les Whale is a teacher and psychic who runsclasses and workshops on auric diagnosisand spiritual/psychic development. He isbased on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland,where he does readings for people all overAustralia and internationally. Les uses hisability to see and diagnose the auric fields inhis readings and often works with just a pic-ture of a person present. He can be contact-ed by email at [email protected] andby post at PO Box 5055, Sunshine CoastMail Centre, Nambour, Qld 4560, Australia.

For more background information on theBock Saga, visit Les Whale's website athttp://www.sshoesmith.fsnet.co.uk/. Also seehttp://www.BockSaga.com.

The Bock Saga: An Ancient Time Capsule

Continued from page 65