Atlantis Rising Research Group

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ Atlantisrising.com A few weeks before the Kentucky Derby some 25 years ago, the trainer for one of the leading contenders was inter­viewed on television and said that his horse was ready for the big race, not only because he was fast and fit but be­cause he was smart and competitive. I mused over that comment, wondering if some horses are truly smarter than others and if they really care about winning. If they are competitive and not just running hard because of their natural speed or because they are re­sponding to the whip, does that mean that horses have egos? When they win, do they rejoice? When they lose, do they sulk and kick the stable door out of frustration? Is pride or self-esteem driving them, or is it simply that they under­stand that they might get an extra lump of sugar or a carrot by finishing ahead of the other horses? I further won­dered if there is a positive correlation between intelligence and winning. As I was writing for a daily newspaper at the time, I decided to explore the subject in my sports column. I hoped to get the answers to my questions “straight from the horse’s mouth,” so to speak. Therefore, I called Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, then one of the leading thoroughbred stables in the country. They had produced the likes of the mighty Citation and the stretch-running Whirlaway, two of the all-time greats in the “sport of kings.” I don’t re­member the name of the head trainer I interviewed, but I do recall his telling me that horses indeed vary considerably in intelligence and that the better horses are the smarter ones and those who have a will to win. It wasn’t clear to me whether being smart and having the will to win went hand in hand, and I couldn’t get a clear-cut answer as to how he knew those things; but I gathered it was simply intuitive on his part, something you come to understand by working with horses for many years. There was no indication that horses were subject to any kind of IQ or motivational test­ing before being groomed as top athletes. In spite of the fact that the Calumet trainer seemed to know what he was talking about, I remained very skeptical. I remembered the Biblical story of Balaam’s Ass in which Balaam, a prophet on a mission to put a curse on Israel, was deterred by his mule, which stubbornly refused to transport Balaam; and when beaten by Balaam, the animal spoke to him and reprimanded him, apparently as directed by God. However, I was not inclined to take the story of a talking donkey seriously any more than I could believe in a serpent talking to Eve. In researching the matter of horse intelligence, I came upon the Elberfeld horses of Germany. My boggle thresh­old was exceeded when I read that the Elberfeld horses could figure out square roots and cube roots, even fourth pow­er roots of numbers of six or seven figures. Moreover, using their hooves to tap out letters of the alphabet, they could communicate in their native tongue, German, and even in French. Professor Edoward Claparède of the University of Geneva, one of many scientists who studied the horses, called the phenomenon “the most sensational event that has happened in the psychological world.”

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ One of the earliest Bible stories is that of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11 we read, “And the Earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech.” The people of Babel decided to build a tower so high that they could reach heaven. God said in Genesis 11:7, “Let us go down and there confound their tongue.” After which, “the language of the whole Earth was confounded.” Stories from the Bible can’t, in many cases, be taken literally. They do, however, often reflect real historical events, although not to any exact standards. Some, like underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard, say evidence of the great flood can be found in the fact that the Black Sea was once a lake. The Mediterranean Sea was also, at one point in time, not connected to the Atlantic. Islands in that sea, like Malta and Sicily, only became islands after the sea level of the Earth rose. The Sumerians told similar tales, and they also included impossible features, as they were intended to convey a moral tale. The story of Babylon’s tower was originally described in a Sumerian text and is depicted on a stele dating to 2300 BC. The Bible may have intended to tell a cautionary moral tale, but the Sumerians may have described a real event. Massive floods, drought, and any number of catastrophes could have broken up a worldwide civilization whose peoples then fled by foot and ship. A Universal Language? Could the Earth have shared a language that only later became divided into numerous languages? Evidence for this may be found in the extended number of shared words that exist around the globe. Greetings today often involve a reference to God. Vaya con Dios is Spanish for “Go with God.” ‘Namaste’ loosely means “I recognize the God within you.” At the time of the biblical story of Babylon, Eloah was the name of God, a name from which Allah, the God of Islam, is derived. In Greece “Haloa” was the name of an annual festival to all the gods including Dionysius. “Heloha” was the thunderbird of the Choctaw tribe. The earliest greeting we know in the English language is “Halloa” which became “hello.” It was commonly used in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The name may have spread as far as Hawaii where “Aloha” is the greeting. The Bible tells us that the Jews wandered in the desert for forty years. In times of near starvation, Manna was a gift from God that sustained his people. In Hawaii and Tahiti the word Mana can refer to a form of spiritual energy and healing power. This spiritual quality has a supernatural origin. In New Zealand the Maori culture has a similar meaning to the Hawaiian concept. It is believed one can gain or lose Mana through one’s actions. North American tribes share a nearly identical concept. Mana (or Manna) was spiritual nourishment. The Great Spirit of these tribes is Manito who sent Manabozho to Earth to bring culture. Manabozho was a white man like Ireland’s hero Manannan mac Lir. In Ireland, England, and Wales he is regarded as a God of the Sea. Could it have been this culture hero who brought civilization to North America? He may have landed in Mannahatta, which became Manhattan. With a slight vowel change, Mona was the center of Druid power. This spiritual nourishment was also physical nourishment. It became a substitute name for the Christian Eucharist host. Mana/Manna may not be the only Hebrew/Hawaiian connection. The Hebrew word for priest is Kohen, and it is a family name as Kahane. In Hawaii a kahuna is a medicine man or priest. He may be a powerful man as well, as in Big Kahuna. There are some who believe Hawaiians were part of the lost tribes of Israel. The number of customs of the Hawaiians corresponding to Hebrew practices is large and includes circumcision, offering of first-fruits to the gods, and the custom of chiefs washing their hands at meals. The Hawaiians share a story of a man swallowed by a sea creature who survived, a deluge where man saved the animals, like Noah, and others. In the event of this early Diaspora, the Hebrews might have been responsible for carrying their name far and wide. They may have called themselves after the five times great-grandfather of Abraham, Eber. Going west the Semite peoples crossed Iberia (now Spain and Portugal). The Romans called the Iberian Peninsula Hispania, but its original name meant “the crossing.” The Ebro River remains on the map today. Their destination might have been the modern day Ireland recorded as Hibernia and the Hebrides of Scotland’s west coast. The city of York was then named until the Norman invasion. Literally hundreds of place names exist or existed in Europe, including the Kingdom of Iberia in Georgia.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ Ancient Egyptians in the Grand Canyon? by David Hatcher Childress Did an Egyptian navy cross the Pacific or Atlantic and come to Arizona? Could they have left an Egyptian tomb in the Grand Canyon, something similar to those found in the Valley of Kings near Luxor, Egypt? Strangely, an article pub­lished on the front page of the Phoenix Gazette on April 5, 1909, claimed that just such an Egyptian rock-cut cave was found. While many mummies have been discovered in Egypt, very few were in pyramids—and those that were have been dated from the later historical periods. The older pyramids dating from the early dynasties (or before!) show no signs of funerary use. Mummies in Egypt are most often found in rock-cut tombs in desert canyons, often featuring tunnels going deep underground with various rooms and passageways along the way. Multiple mummies are often found in one tomb, and the crypts of the wealthy and royalty were filled with precious items and everyday necessities to ease the dead person’s continued existence in the afterlife. According to the Phoenix Gazette story, a necropolis of mummies and artifacts similar to an Egyptian tomb was found in the Grand Canyon. An explorer named G. E. Kinkaid, it was reported, uncovered a series of catacombs com­plete with statues, swords, vessels, and mummies in 1908 (the exact date of the discovery is not given). As we shall see, Kinkaid may not have been the first explorer to have seen this “cave.” The account of Kinkaid’s adventure was re­produced as a chapter entitled “Citadel of the Grand Canyon” in Joseph Miller’s 1962 book Arizona Cavalcade. The Phoenix Gazette article starts with four headlines and then continues through a most amazing account. So what became of the artifacts described in the article? What became of Jordan? Did he return to the Smithsoni­an in Washington D.C. and disappear with all the records of his discovery? Has there been some archaeological cover-up reminiscent of the last scene in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the Ark of the Covenant is placed inside a crate in a giant warehouse never to be seen again? It has also been suggested that while the discovery perhaps was real, the archaeologists working for the Smithso­nian were not. These men may not have been working for the Smithsonian Institution out of Washington D.C. at all, but merely claiming to do so. Could this have been a cover-up for an illegal archaeological dig that was raiding the ancient site and claiming legitimacy from a very distant institution. It would have been very difficult indeed, in 1909, to check on the credentials of the archaeologists. The Secret Catacombs of Mummies on the Little Colorado In the small town museum of Springerville, Colorado, I came across several intriguing newspaper clippings, in­cluding one of particular interest from the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news service. It describes how the ar­chaeologist John Hohmann, now closely associated with the Casa Malpais site, had rappelled down a rope into a fis­sure of basalt in July of 1990 and had discovered an intricate series of passages and rooms that had been modified by the mysterious “Mogollon culture” into underground tombs for the internment of the dead. The remains of these people were apparently mummified, possibly naturally by the dry climate.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ From November 2006—Bimini Side-Scan Sonar Project A November 2006 expedition conducted a side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling project at Bimini utilizing an underwater exploration company. Archaeologist Bill Donato organized and conducted this project with support from the A.R.E. The side-scan sonar off west Bimini was done in a large rectangular area roughly two by five miles. The computer-assisted sonar yields bottom images that are similar to an aerial photograph showing contours and details of whatever may be on the bottom. While sunken ships, cargo, and unusual formations were found by this huge pro­ject, one finding, in particular, caught Donato’s attention. It was a series of uniform, consistently oriented, rectangu­lar structures at a depth of 100 feet. Over a dozen of these building-sized formations were found by the sonar. They ranged in size from 5-20 feet by 10-25 feet. An effort was immediately made to dive to these sites; however, strong bottom currents made reaching them impossible. It is now known that the sea levels at Bimini in 10,000 B.C. were about 110 feet lower than today, so the presence of these rectangular formations at 100 feet was intriguing, to say the least. (Note that these were re-found and inspected in June 2007, which is described later.) May 2007—Andros Exploration Drs. Greg & Lora Little made a weeklong expedition in May to North Andros with Bahamas’ boat/dive operators Krista and Eslie Brown. The purpose of this trip was to conduct a wide, systematic survey of the Great Bahama Bank and explore the small islands just north of Andros. An aerial survey of a portion of the Great Bahama Bank was taken on the way to Andros to locate several intriguing dark features that had been previously seen from the air, but never directly investigated. Several of these features were found and the GPS coordinates of them were taken by the plane. All of these were then visited by boat. Findings at Underwater Dark Features on the Great Bahama Bank One of the most interesting dark features found on the Bahama Bank, dubbed the “tee and ball” by Lora Little, consisted of a several-hundred-foot-long dark formation shaped like a massive golf tee with a round dark “ball” at its top. It is located about 25 miles offshore. Found in an area where the seabed is white sand, the black formation on the bottom is formed primarily from dense turtle grass. These grassy areas are heavily populated by a wide variety of fish, turtles, and sharks. The “ball” next to the “tee” had a boat trailer dumped in it along with several huge tires. This type of dumping is done by Bahamas’ fishermen to increase the cover for fish. However, the long “tee” consisted of a line of scattered stone blocks, which allowed the buildup of turtle grass. The blocks are far too large for ship ballast and were not dumped into piles. All of the dark features on the Great Bahama Bank are in depths of 20-30 feet of water. Two other dark formations on the Bank were also found to be formed from stone slabs. These also were far too large to be ballast stone for ships; however, all of them, including some that were elevated into large “piles,” were covered by a considerable amount of sand. More investigations of these dark features on the Great Bahama Bank are described later.

From the Atlantis Rising Reseach Group Humanity faces a crisis. At the rapid rate Artificial Intelligence (AI) is developing, we will quickly reach the point of Ray Kurzweil’s “Singularity”—the point where AI equals human intelligence. Then AI will proceed beyond—to “Superintelligence.” The superintelligent AI will be so smart they will have the capability to destroy their creators. Unless, as a new theme in the AI world argues, we learn to impart human values to these machines—a process (the “values loading problem”) now seen as extremely tricky—we are toast. Yup, like toast, we will be eaten for breakfast. Maybe we last until lunch. The AI Onslaught AI has made tremendous progress. AI programs are current champions in a multitude of games—chess, checkers, backgammon, Othello, even Jeopardy. Unfortunately, each of these programs has logic and algorithms very specific to the game; none are generalizable to a true, general intelligence (AGI)—what humans are considered to be. AI has seen three major approaches. The first is the standard “symbolic” programming with which most are familiar. It has led to theorem provers, language-understanding programs, and problem solvers. Another approach—evolutionary algorithms—has attempted to “evolve” programs. A third, neural networks, has numerous achievements, generally in applying statistical techniques to detecting patterns. It boasts nearly 150,000 academic papers. But all lead to a large black hole from which no clear exit is seen. On the other side stand two high, admittedly untaken, hills—common-sense knowledge and true-language comprehension. The two hills are connected. Here is a commonsense problem: Given a 12-inch cubical box, a razor blade, rubber bands, staples, a pencil, string, toothpicks, a piece of cheese—create a mousetrap. We might make a “crossbow” where the pencil is inserted into a hole in the box’s side, pulled back outside the box by the rubber bands, notched in place by the toothpick, and a string tied to the toothpick and the cheese. Or we might create a “beheader,” with razorblade notched into the pencil, one pencil end anchored in the box corner, the pencil-axe raised up by the toothpick, with string attached again to toothpick and cheese. Both solutions require concrete knowledge and experience of physical dynamics, forces, properties of materials. Both are “analogic” solutions. The linguistic statement, “The mouse trap is a crossbow,” is an analogy. Douglas Hofstadter of Gödel, Escher, Bach fame, in his recent tome (Surfaces and Essences), while showing indisputably that analogy is the foundational operation of human thought, ridicules all current AI language-understanding programs (SIRI included). The problem is that language is based on analogy, and Hofstadter clearly doubts that computers, as we know them, can handle analogy at all. But the black hole and untaken hills are not seen as stopping the superintelligence onslaught. Oxford professor, Nick Bostrom (Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies), having taken us to the edge of the black hole in his book, veers away, placing his bet on whole brain emulation (WBE). WBE relies on the neuroscientists to map, via neural recordings, the functioning of the brain. But this is a shaky bet; WBE is an Everest. We face an 85-billion-neuron brain with roughly 1,000 types of neurons, the functions of none of these types we understand. We do not know basic facts, such as how memory (our experience) is stored. We are quite certain that the brain is not using what we understand currently as “computation,” but we do not know what this other form is. We face data from neural recordings that will be so massive, it will be in zeta-bytes, yet any interpretation will be completely dependent on a guiding theory—note, a theory—when we have none such. It will be, as neuroscientists Marcus and Freeman note (The Future of the Brain), like trying to learn what a laptop is and does by taking electrical recordings of its components when we have no theory of, or knowledge of, the existence of something called “software.” This is to say, we really have no clue what type of “device” the brain actually is. Yet Bostrom, with the rest of AI, sails serenely on from this subject of brain emulation, confident without a qualm that we will have recreated the brain as a silicon and wires device. Since it is certain that we will have electronics, we can speed up the transmission velocities, say, by 10,000x, thus allowing the device to quickly develop, creating and moving to a superintelligence and thus to the terrible threat of that future breakfast. But, but… what if the brain is a “device” that cannot be replicated in silicon at all?

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ It is now clear that humans were in the Americas long before we have been taught. Evidence from many widely scattered locations is piling up, and a once-unquestioned academic theory is in tatters. Two explosive studies published in the journal Nature, in July, 2020, concede that there is now strong evidence that the peopling of the Americas began more than 20,000 years ago. For most of the last century archaeologists have been saying that the first humans in America crossed from Siberia to North America around 13,000 BC and moved further south as retreating ice sheets opened a corridor for migration. In the 1960s and ’70, however, researchers began reporting sites across the Americas that were much older, pushing back the arrival of the first Americans’ by thousands of years. And now startling new research by archaeologists at Mexico’s Chiquihuite cave shows that human history in the Americas may be at least twice as old as orthodoxy has maintained. Ciprian Ardelean, an archaeologist at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (Mexico), and his colleagues, authors of a new paper published by Nature, think people were living in central Mexico 26,500 years ago or sooner. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...) Chiquihuite Cave joins several other documented archaeological sites yielding evidence of human occupation in the America 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. In another study, also published in Nature in July, archaeologists Lorena Becerra-Valdivia, and Thomas Higham at the Universities of Oxford and New South Wales compiled radiocarbon and luminescence dating data from 42 sites across America, to show that human populations before and during the Last Glacial Maximum, some 19,000 to 26,500 years ago, managed, somehow, to navigate around the massive ice sheets of the era. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...) Some of most significant research has been at Monte Verde in southern Chile. Recently uncovered evidence there now suggests that controversial conclusions drawn in the 1970s may, if anything, have undershot the mark, and that human antiquity in the Americas could be far greater than even cutting-edge experts had supposed. Vanderbilt University archaeologist, Tim Dillehay made his first paradigm-shattering discoveries at Monte Verde in 1975, and then, claimed an age for human habitation of 14,500 years BP—enough to earn him much derision and criticism from skeptical peers. The experience left him discouraged and uninterested in pursuing the research. But after some serious persuasion from the Chilean government and others he reluctantly agreed in 2013 to return for a new survey. Many new artifacts were subsequently uncovered, and Dillehay’s dating of human habitation was adjusted to as much as 19,000 years ago—more than 4,000 years older than his prior estimate. (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...) When, in 1966, professional archaeologist Virginia Steen-McIntyre used well-accepted dating methods, including uranium series and fission track, to demonstrate that an ancient site near El Horno in Mexico indicated human activity nearly a quarter million years ago, she soon found herself unable to pursue her professional academic career. No matter how compelling, her evidence was completely dismissed. After all, it challenged accepted scientific dogma, considered all but proven at the time, that the first human migration, across the Siberian land bridge was but a mere 13,000 years ago. Dr. Steen-McIntyre’s findings may still be too radical for today’s scientific consensus, but conventional wisdom is certainly moving in her direction. (https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...) In the meantime, research in other areas is helping to make the case. Linguist Johanna Nichols has written a paper demonstrating that the 150 languages of native American people, which she has studied, could not possibly have evolved in less than 30,000 to 40,000 years. (https://www. pnas.org/content/96/6/3325) In the meantime microbiologists tracking DNA in Indian tribes have drawn similar conclusions. (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...) As new theories come into vogue, scenarios are being devised which envision multiple waves of ancient settlers in the new world, but one trend seems likely to continue, the accepted dawn of human activity is retreating to ever earlier dates and the time needed to evolve an advanced civilization is increasing.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ Could the long lost tomb of Nefertiti be found soon? Anomalous new radar evidence reported in February by the journal Nature has reignited a firestorm of debate, and revived a startling hypothesis that most Egyptologists had dismissed as dead. According to reporter Jo Marchant, writing for Nature.com, a new Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey indicates the existence, in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, of a “previously unknown space beyond Tutankhamun’s burial chamber,” (https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...). A then unpublished report, viewed by Nature, and presented to the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) by former Egyptian minister of antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty, has identified an unknown corridor-like space a few meters from the celebrated Tut burial chamber. In 2017, the possibility of an unknown chamber adjacent to King Tut’s tomb caused a great deal of excitement. British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves had argued that lines and cracks in the chamber’s painted walls were evidence of a hidden doorway just to the north of the main chamber, and, he speculated, that is where the mummy of Nefertiti, who some believe acted as co-regent during the reign of Tutankhamun, the son of her husband Akhenaten, might be found. Later that year, intriguing, though it was, the idea was apparently put to rest, when at least one radar survey claimed to rule it out, though some disagreed. Surprisingly, the new Eldamaty discovery points to another previously unconsidered location, but Nefertiti’s remains Reeves still thinks, will eventually be found in the vicinity. Moreover, her chamber, he has said, may be even richer than that of Tut, which has been, until now, the most opulent ever discovered. Thirty-three centuries ago, Nefertiti was doubtless the world’s most powerful women, and, possibly, its most beautiful, yet she also remains one of the most enigmatic who have ever lived. Though she ruled jointly with her husband Akhenaten, and left the world its lasting legacy of monotheism, she disappeared suddenly from history and no one has been able to determine exactly what happened to her, or her body. Discovered in 1922 by English explorer Howard Carter, the tomb of King Tut, yielded artifacts, which, says Reeves, had been hastily assembled, in a way inconsistent with a properly prepared royal tomb. The reason he says, is that chamber was only an antechamber to the previously existing tomb of his step-mother, and co-regent, Nefertiti who used the name Smenkhkare, and was the real power. With her husband Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) Nefertiti had helped establish a new Egyptian capitol city, Amarna, and replaced the traditional religion of many gods, led by Amun, with the worship of Aten, the sun-god. After the death of Akhenaten, his followers were scattered and his city destroyed, but, many believe, the traditions and teachings of Akhenaten and Nefertiti were secretly passed down to loyal devotees, who ultimately became known as ‘Israelites.’ The traditions which led to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is asserted, were the real legacy of Egypt’s ‘heretic’ rulers. Some, including Sigmund Freud, have claimed that Moses, who, as the Bible tells us, was raised as an Egyptian, was a follower of Akhenaten. Emanuel Velikovsky held similar views. Author Ralph Ellis (The King Jesus Trilogy), believes that ancient ‘Hebrew’ history is actually thinly veiled ‘Egyptian’ history. The ‘Garden of Eden,’ for example, says Ellis, should be rendered ‘the Garden of Aten’ (a disguised reference to Amarna), and Adam and Eve, were really symbolic representations of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Another researcher, metallurgist Robert Feather (Black Holes in the Dead Sea Scrolls) has pointed to the Dead Sea Scrolls as establishing a strong connection with Amarna. The Copper Scroll, which provides detailed directions to, an as yet unfound, ancient treasure, he says, was made from the purest copper and came from an Egyptian mine which he has identified. The scroll’s instructions, he says, do not apply to the temple of Jerusalem, as is generally believed, but rather, with great precision, to long-lost Amarna. The Egyptian connection, he argues, was well understood, and consciously preserved, esoterically by the Essenes of Qumran.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ Since its discovery in 1994, by German Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, the vast and mysterious ruins in southeastern Turkey, known as Göbekli Tepe, have posed enormous, and virtually unanswerable questions for mainstream archaeology. Dating to long before its final burial, 11 to 12 thousand years ago, the obviously sophisticated structures of Göbekli Tepe are older—by more than four thousand years—than the commonly accepted age of Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid. In other words, it completely overthrows conventional notions of prehistory—that humans of that period were primitive hunter-gatherers, and nothing more. And, the problems for the standard academic paradigm are not going away. Incredibly, a new study shows that the site was designed in advance, something considered impossible for any hunter-gatherer society. Israeli archaeologists Gil Haklay and Avi Gopher of Tel Aviv University have established that aligning the centers of the three oldest enclosures (‘B’, ‘C’, & ‘D’) at Göbekli Tepe is a large equilateral triangle (over 65 feet on a side). The clear implication is that all three circular structures were planned–and maybe built–at the same time, thousands of years before the conventionally accepted invention of writing or the wheel. Such an enormous structure, would have required hundreds—if not thousands—of well organized workers. Entitled “Geometry and Architectural Planning at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey,” the new study was published in January, 2020, in The Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Göbekli Tepe’s builders, the authors suggest, must have been guided by some understanding of geometric principles and were capable of applying them to their construction plans. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journa...) In an April edition of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, reporter Ariel David commented that “Based on the assumption that such a massive construction project would have been beyond the capacities of the small, non-sedentary groups that usually comprise hunter-gatherer societies, most scholars have assumed that all the circles at Göbekli Tepe had to have been built gradually over a long period of time.” The new evidence of advanced uniform planning clearly contradicts that assumption, but it is not the first such evidence to come to light. In his 2014 book, Göbekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods, British writer Andrew Collins offers one of the most thorough studies available on the topic (“Göbekli Tepe: The Cosmic Connection,” Atlantis Rising Magazine, see page 6). In addition to advanced planning, Collins claims the site also shows strong evidence of alignment with the stars. A large ‘sighting stone’ with a carved hole, he believes, directs attention from Enclosure D to the northern sky, pointing specifically to Deneb, the alpha star of the Cygnus constellation, traditionally depicted as a swan, or some kind of bird. Indeed, one of the pillars in enclosure D bears the detailed relief carving of a bird, generally thought to be a vulture, next to some kind of sphere. In 2015 Collins provided still further evidence of great, and entirely unexplained, sophistication at Göbekli Tepe. A tiny artifact—just six centimeters long, two-and-a-half wide, and three-quarters-of-a-millimeter thick—found during routine excavations at Göbekli Tepe, and on display in the Sanliurfa museum, was recognized for its significance by Matthew Smith, a British Telecommunications consultant. Smith pointed out to Collins, that it was a decorated with a representation of twin pillars like those at the center of each of the enclosures and, moreover, noticed, that the design employed a sophisticated three-dimensional perspective technique, not to be invented for another twelve thousand years, when artists of the renaissance, learned how to make their drawn lines converge toward a ‘horizon’ or ‘disappearing point’ in the center of an image, creating the illusion of depth for the observer.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ The ‘Plain of Jars’ in Laos, one of the world’s most interesting ancient mysteries, remains off limits to all but the brave and the foolish. Millions of unexploded bombs dropped during the Vietnam war, still kill hundreds every year. Scattered across the Xieng Khouang Plateau are thousand of immense stone jars of unknown origin. Of more than 90 sites, the most studied has more than 250 jars. Fifty of them, including the largest known are over three meters high, a meter across, and weigh several tons. According to Madeleine Colani, an early researcher, the jars “are disposed without regularity, some of them pressing one against another, others quite isolated. Each one is fashioned from a separate block of stone, and a small number of them are very well executed, as though turned on a lathe, bespeaking the hand of a true artist.” Generally it has been believed the jars were for funeral purposes, but now a new study using a technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence has dated some of them to as long as 4,000 years ago, predating any known funerary practices of the type theorized. Some think they may have been used for storage of food, alcohol or other things, but, as with most mysteries, the truth could be more complicated

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ With the opening of the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, millions have been learning for the first time about one of the most remarkable stories in the annals of archaeology, the mystery of the crystal skulls. The movie may be fiction, but the tale of the crystal skulls is not only filled with plenty of Hollywood-style adventure, a lot of it is true. One of the most fascinating substances in nature, crystal lends itself uniquely to various adaptations, including in­formation storage. Today crystal technologies are at the cutting edge of advancements in nanotechnology and com­puting. As for the skulls, themselves, does the fact that they are carved from crystal enable them to store information and interact with human thought waves? Strangely, there is evidence to suggest this could be so. Moreover, the history of Mesoamerica, where the skulls are said to originate, is rich with the mystical, magical sorcery of the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Maya and Aztecs. Indeed, the turbulent times of the Mexican Revolution form the backdrop for much of the most recent part of the tale, including the saga of F. A. Mitchell-Hedges, the notorious ad­venturer who emerged from the jungles, it was said, with the most famous of the crystal skulls—the so-called “Skull of Doom.” There are genuine enigmas associated with crystal skulls. Some seem outlandish, while others would appear to make sense but aren’t necessarily true either. Studies of crystal skulls run from exacting scientific examinations to bi­zarre psychic readings that could never be proven. Much of the material on crystal skulls may be fabricated or decep­tive, and the age and origins of the objects obscured—but one thing is certain: crystal skulls are real! The second most abundant mineral on the earth, after feldspar, quartz has even been found in meteors. It is a large component of sand and sandstone, and is part of almost every rock, be it igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary. It is the main mineral in most gemstones. Quartz is extremely hard rock, with a Mohs scale of 7. Since diamonds are one of the few minerals that exceed quartz in hardness, diamond-tipped tools or dust are thought to have been used to make most crystal skulls. Quartz has a lattice of “silica tetrahedra” and ideally forms into a six-sided prism terminating with six-sided pyra­mids at each end. Its crystals can grow together and become intertwined and therefore show only part of this shape, looking like a giant crystal mass. But the underlying crystalline structure, one in which internal patterns of mole­cules are regular, repeated and geometrically arranged, gives quartz many of its striking properties, and makes it pos­sible for one to believe that crystal skulls may actually be the depositories of ancient wisdom. Eric Smalley, in an article about quantum computers in Technology Research News (online at trnmag.com) re­ports that a research team from the U.S. and Korea succeeded in storing a light pulse in a crystal, and then reconsti­tuting it. This was significant because quantum information is notoriously fragile, and the ability to store it in a crys­tal would advance the feasibility of building a quantum computer (which would theoretically work at far faster speeds than are now possible). Although there is much work to be done to develop a quantum memory chip, experiments with crystal seem promising. More recent research takes the use of crystals in information processing a step further, experimenting with perhaps the ultimate material in information storage, DNA. According to Science Daily “Crystals promise a new way to process information.” An article in February, 2003 re­ported, “A team led by Richard Kiehi, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota, has used the selective ‘stickiness’ of DNA to construct a scaffolding for closely spaced nanoparticles that could exchange infor­mation on a scale of only 10 angstroms (an angstrom is one 10-billionth of a meter).” More incredible research involving DNA and its crystal structure has been carried out in an attempt to solve the mysteries of evolution and the origins of life. In the meantime, IBM, in conjunction with DARPA, the Defense Ad­vanced Projects Research Agency, has been involved in developing holographic data storage systems. Through a pro­cess of shooting laser beams into the crystal, they have successfully stored thousands of holograph images on a single lithium niobate crystal.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ The Cleopatra Connection By J. Douglas Kenyon The lost tomb of Cleopatra VII may not be lost much longer. That, at least, is the hope of archaeologists digging through ancient temple ruins at Taposiris Magna a few miles southwest of Alexandria, Egypt. Discovery there of two gilded mummies—a male and a female of high-rank—was trumpeted in a July television documentary as a “sensational” find, evidence the long-sought tomb of Cleopatra and her lover, Roman renegade Mark Antony, could be nearby. While no final resting place has yet been confirmed, the pair’s tragic demise in 30 BC has never lacked for public interest. Mark Antony, reportedly, fell on his sword, and Cleopatra allowed herself to be bitten by an Asp. Portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and by many writers, including Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, the couple’s romance, as well as the search for Cleopatra’s tomb has attracted many curious researchers. Now, according to Dr. Kathleen Martinez, archaeologist from the Dominican Republic, and a 14-year veteran of Taposiris Magna (‘tomb of Osiris’), Cleopatra considered herself an incarnation of Isis, and wanted to reenact the goddess’s heroic reassembly of the dismembered body of her husband Osiris. Not everyone, however, believes Taposiris Magna was her tomb’s location. In the 1970s and ’80s underwater ruins at Alexandria were investigated, using ‘remote viewing’ techniques like those developed by the U.S. military and the CIA. Parapsychologist Stephan Schwartz claimed to have identified palaces built there by Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Moreover, he thought some sites there might be associated with Ptolemaic landmarks like the Pharos Lighthouse and the Alexandria Library. The Schwartz ‘Alexandria Project’—though ignored by mainstream Egyptology—was cited by many as a great demonstration of intuitive archaeology. That view was somewhat vindicated in 1998, when French archaeologists led by Frank Goddio unveiled spectacular underwater photographs of the ‘ruins of Cleopatra,’ thought to have sunk off Alexandria in a fourth-century earthquake. But even though hopes ran high for a while, no missing royal tombs have yet surfaced, and many mysteries remained unsolved. Last of the Ptolemaic monarchs, Cleopatra traced her lineage to Alexander the Great, who, after conquering the known world, capped his brief but spectacular career by establishing the great port city at Alexandria and in 305 BC, placing his general and friend Soter on Egypt’s throne as Ptolemy I. The Ptolemaic dynasty would last for almost three centuries, abruptly ending with the death of Cleopatra VII. The connection with Alexander the Great adds another intriguing dimension to the story. Some researchers have noted surprising and ironic parallels between the lives of Alexander the Great and Jesus the Christ. Black studies researcher Arthur Lewin (Africa is Not a Country) points out (africaunlimited.com) that, like Jesus, Alexander the Great died in his 33rd year and declared that the man married to his mother, was not his father. Alexander, indeed, believed he was the Son of God, claiming that his actual father was Ammon, king of the gods of Egypt. After defeating Persian emperor Darius in 333 BC at the Battle of Issus (a name suggesting ‘Jesus’ to some and ‘Isis’ to others), and freeing Egypt from centuries-old Persian domination, he was declared ruler of Egypt, becoming simultaneously Emperor of Persia, Pharaoh of Egypt and monarch of the entire Greek peninsula. In other words: ‘King of Kings.’ Alexander the Great, Pompeii, circa 100 BC British author Ralf Ellis (Cleopatra to Christ), thinks there is an even deeper connection between the Ptolemaic line of Egypt and Jesus Christ. Cleopatra VII, he argues, was in fact—through her daughter Queen Thea Muse Ourania—the grandmother of Jesus. Citing ancient sources like Josephus Flavius and the Jewish Talmud, Ellis, places the events of Jesus life about 30 years later than does standard first-century chronology, and, while dismissing the familiar tale of a poor and illiterate carpenter from Nazareth, as church propaganda, Ellis identifies Jesus the Christ as Jesus of Gamala, a historically documented Jewish high priest and king, whose birth might well have been attended by Persian wise men from the East. ‘Christ,’ or ‘christos’ is Greek for ‘anointed one,’ and refers to the old testament method of choosing the kings of Israel. The city of Gamala, incidentally, is widely considered birthplace of the Zealot movement of rebel Jews seeking to overthrow Rome.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ The next time you train your dog to fetch a stick, and reward him with food, bear in mind that you may be participating in a very ancient bonding ritual. The fact that dogs seem to enjoy playing this way with humans could go a long way, some think, toward explaining why today we have so many different breeds. In a study published in September, 2020 by The Royal Society, researchers claim the whole ‘man’s best friend’ thing probably started in Europe or Siberia about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago with wolves that liked to hang with humans for the food leftovers, and who learned, from puppyhood, how to interact with them. The new study tried to determine whether playful wolves could keep that trait for successive generations and found some evidence that they could. Thus, reportedly, began many millennia of learning to work and play together, and the eventual creation of hundreds of human-friendly breeds capable of everything from herding sheep to performing on stage. But while that story may sound simple and straightforward, the big picture remains murkier. In 2012, the 33,000-year-old skull of a domesticated dog with a shortened snout and crowded teeth turned up in an Altai mountain cave in Siberia. Another, find, equally old, in Belgium, also showed telltale signs of domestication. The last glacial maximum, when ice was at its greatest extent, occurred between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago. While it is not believed that domestication could have survived such a prolonged cold period, scientists have concluded that modern dogs are probably descended from multiple ancestors, helping to explain the differences between Chihuahuas and Rottweilers. “Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological characteristics,” said Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and co-author of the 2011 discovery report. “Essentially,” Hodgins said, “wolves have long thin snouts, and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth.” As for how primitive people could have conducted some kind of massive breeding program requiring hundreds, or thousands, of generations to produce today’s many breeds, zoological science remains very much in the dark. In his article “From Ferocious to Fido? (Atlantis Rising #92, March/April, 2012), science writer Stephen E. Robbins, Ph.D., argued that it would be far beyond difficult, if not impossible, to produce, by selective cross-breeding alone, within an interval of a few thousand years, what we find today—from Bulldog to Jackal; from Collie to Chihuahua. At some point in our ancient past, he wondered, was it possible that a now-forgotten genetic science left the clues that baffle modern research? Is sophisticated engineering of some kind, or maybe more, responsible? In his 1976 best-selling book The Twelfth Planet, the late Zecharia Sitchin quoted Sumerian texts, claiming domesticated animals and plants were the work of the “gods” in the “house of fashioning” thousands of years ago. “One of ‘Fido’s’ key features,” Robbins points out, “is a remarkable sensitivity to human cues, gestures and body language.” Dogs do better at this than chimpanzees, even though chimps are more intelligent. Dogs understand that a human’s gaze at a box might indicate food. Chimps will notice the gaze, but not understand the meaning. This means, some think, there might be some special neural capacity in dogs to recognize and decode the facial expressions and cues of humans. There could be another, even more interesting explanation for the phenomenon. Monique Udell and colleagues at the University of Florida in a 2011 study for the journal Learning & Behavior, concluded that canines are probably born capable of reading their owners’ minds. The study compared the ability of domestic dogs and wolves to read the intentional state of humans regarding willingness to offer food. Both groups were successful, but domestic animals accustomed to human behavior did better. Udell, thought subtle ‘attentional cues’ might be involved, but she conceded that the animals might have acquired the ability to read human minds.

Homeopathy may currently be science’s least favorite anomaly. Although many scientists and doctors are hoping homeopathy will finally go away for good, the system of alternative medicine seems to be more popular than ever. Hardened skeptics and materialists like Richard Dawkins would like to see public support and taxpayer funding of homeopathy removed, claiming it to be a pseudoscience and a dangerous enemy to reason in our culture. At the same time, homeopathy is an integral part of the healthcare systems of Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, the United States, and Mexico. Over 6 million Americans a year use homeopathic remedies. In the late 1700s, Samuel Hahnemann, was the first to coin the term homeopathy. Hahnemann brought together three major elements that form the core of homeopathic medicine. The first is the Law of Similars. This is the idea that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. Hahnmann wasn’t the first to subscribe to this idea. Hippocrates prescribed a small dose of mandrake root—which in larger doses can produce mania—to treat mania itself. Later, in the sixteenth century, Paracelsus declared that small doses of “what makes a man ill also cures him.” To avoid the side effects of the substances being used, Hahnemann started diluting the substances. This is the second component of homeopathy. One dilution of a homeopathic remedy is one part to one hundred in distilled water or alcohol. This dilution is repeated between 4 and 30 times—written 4C or 30C—depending on the nature of the treatment. It is this dilution that irks most mainstream scientists, since past 12C it is mathematically unlikely that there will even be one molecule of the original compound in the remedy. The third component in homeopathic remedies is Succussion, whereby the remedy is “dynamised” or “potentized.” To affect this step, each dilution of the remedy is vigorously shaken and the vial containing the liquid is struck sharply, on something like a thick leather book, at least 10 times. Hahnemann believed that succussion activated the “vital energy” of the substance. To this day, these three basic principles are still followed in the creation of homeopathic remedies. Hahnemann also felt that each substance used in a remedy should go through a proving. In this practice, each compound is tested with healthy volunteers under very strict observation to discover the common symptoms for the substance, which were then used to determine what symptoms the substance would treat. Some claim that Hahnemann’s compilation of provings were the foundation of early clinical trials due to his use of control groups and his systematic, quantitative procedures. Using nitroglycerine as a treatment for angina was discovered by looking through homeopathic provings. Today homeopathic remedies are prescribed for everything from common colds and allergies to Parkinson’s, arthritis, MS, HIV, and even cancer. Homeopathic remedies have been regulated in the United States since 1938. What upsets many scientists and doctors about homeopathic remedies is the absence of any molecules of the active substance in the solutions. With any of the higher dilutions, the remedies shouldn’t be biologically active. The mass of pharmacological research has found that stronger effects of an active ingredient come from a higher, not lower dose. Since homeopathic remedies clearly contradict the known biological mechanisms, most critics assume that any healing effect must be from the placebo effect. Some doctors even propose that administering homeopathic remedies, and placebos in general, is unethical and a cruel deception of the patient. In 1988, the French immunologist Jacques Benveniste published a research paper that supported the principles of homeopathy in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. His research clearly showed there was a demonstrable effect for very high, homeopathic dilutions of an antibody on human basophils, a kind of white blood cell. This paper began a battle that continues to this day regarding the scientific validity of homeopathy. In his paper, Benveniste proposed a kind of “water memory” to explain his positive results, a physical interpretation of Hahnemann’s “vital energy.” At the request of Nature, Benveniste’s research was replicated successfully by four other laboratories worldwide before publication in the journal.

Visit Atlantis Rising Research Group at https://www.atlantisrising.com/ With all the talk about the “unprecedented” nature of the coronavirus pandemic, maybe it is worth remembering some prior encounters civilization has had with catastrophically infectious disease. Even though mainstream medicine today reserves the term “plague” for a specific disease (i.e., Bubonic) it includes, broadly speaking, any rapidly spreading contagion that kills many people. It is now clear that—advanced or not—our civilization is experiencing a time of ‘plague,’ but it is certainly not the first time. Just over a century ago, the Spanish flue epidemic of 1918 killed over 50 million, including this writer’s own grandparents, but our planet’s ghastly history of such catastrophes goes back for thousands of years. In 430 B.C. the “Great Plague of Athens” killed an estimated 100,000, including the great statesman Pericles, his wife, and sons. Today most historians think that event set the stage for the ultimate defeat of Athens in its war with Sparta. The epidemic was probably typhus or typhoid, but a much greater threat was not to emerge for thousand years. When finally it did rear its ugly head, the Bubonic Plague would ravage the civilized world for yet another millennium. In the first of three great and terrifying episodes, Yersinia pesis (Bubonic Plague) began in Constantinople in 541 CE as the “Plague of Justinian,” where, before running its course, it killed an estimated 30 to 50 million, or about half of Earth’s human inhabitants. In 1347 it returned as the “Black Death,” and, in just four years, killed 200 million, or about a quarter of the population of Europe. Three centuries later (1665), in the final bubonic episode, the “Great Plague of London” killed about 100,000, or twenty percent of the city’s population. Ironically, in the middle of the 16th century in the depths of the Black Death in France, an enlightened physician was fighting back, saving many lives with what biographer John Hogue called “a mixture of cleanliness and vitamin C (rose pills).” Posterity would recall with little interest the heroic healing contributions to the time by Dr. Michel de Nostradamus. He is remembered instead, mostly for his many obscure and complex prophecies of times yet to come. In The Centuries, begun in 1554, Nostradamus offered the first of what was to be a ten-volume series, each consisting of 100 4-line verses called quatrains, which purported to offer details of ages still unborn. Contrary to popular belief, Nostradamus was not a prophet of doom (at least for our time). Although many of his prophecies were dire, he saw no end to the world before the 86th century. The quatrains have attracted, ever since, the fascination of millions, especially as great events have sprung, seemingly, straight from his pages. It is argued that he predicted the French Revolution, the birth and rise to power of Hitler, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to say nothing of 9/11. And now, according to a ‘viral’ and anonymous internet meme, Nostradamus is also said to have predicted COVID 19. In 1551, said the post, he warned of the coming of the pandemic. “There will be a twin year (2020) from which will arise a queen (corona) who will come from the east (China) and who will spread a plague (virus) in the darkness of night, on a country with 7 hills (Italy) and will transform the twilight of men into dust (death), to destroy and ruin the world.” As impressive as it sounds, however, the problem is that no evidence can be found that Nostradamus ever said such a thing. According to the Snopes.com fact-checking site: “this particular prediction was not expressed in quatrain form, nor could we find anything like it published in Les Prophéties. We also found no mention of this supposed prophecy prior to the events of early 2020, which generally indicates it is a modern hoax.” As with most genuine Nostradamus quatrains, it is virtually impossible to pin down what the writer really meant, but maybe that was part of the point. The late Joseph Jochmans, an authority on Nostradamus wrote in 1995 in Atlantis Rising Magazine, “The more one studies what (Nostradamus) actually wrote in his original Old French verses, the more one realizes there are several potential meanings to his prophecies, which can lead to several possible directions that the prophecies can take. In essence, what Nostradamus did in his prophetic messages was to set a mirror before us, showing us the different pathways we can take that already exist within us. Which of his prophecies we choose to fulfill remains up to us.”