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Questing Conference 2002
This year's Questing Conference was a great success with over 450 people attending the event from all over the world. Blinding lectures were given by all the speakers, who adhered exactly to the very rigid time constrictions imposed by the hall, due to another function occurring in the evening. Reviews of some of the lectures appear below.
Plans are well underway for Questing Conference 2003, announcement to be made soon.
review by Hannah Hardiman
IAN LAWTON
Ian Lawton presented the first lecture of the day, and having satisfied himself that last year's heckler was not there (!), he went on to talk about his most recent project "Genesis Unveiled", which has been 5 years in development.
His research into ancient mythology has revealed that in most cultures, there are stories of ancient civilisations destroyed in catastrophes. These stories usually suggest that the ancient races were advanced, but there is apparently no archaeological trace of this advancement. Ian pointed out that it is entirely possible for a large settlement to develop, made of degradable materials and for it to leave little or no trace today. But, Ian supposed, if there is no trace of advancement in a material sense, could these stories be alluding to races in a state of spiritual advancement?
Many
of the stories talked of a "Golden Age", followed by a period
of increasing obsession with the material world (and therefore a gradual
loss of spiritual understanding), culminating in an event which brought
about their destruction - which Ian referred to as "karmic catastrophic
destruction". Karmic in the sense that positive and progressive
actions
led to advancement and negative actions led to regression and destruction.
After
this catastrophe, there would have been some survivors who would have
tried to rebuild civilisation. This rebuilding needed to happen, not
just in a material or cultural sense, but in a spiritual sense. Ian's
strong
belief in reincarnation suggested to him that some of the more advanced
souls may have reincarnated at this point to assist in the rebuilding.
He also
believes that once civilisation had been re-established, the rot started
to set in again as people started to focus on material goods. Ian asserts
that this was even the case from around 4,000 BC. The original philosophies
were already becoming distorted. For example, whilst people believed
in an afterlife, they were leaving grave goods, i.e. trying to take
the material world into the purely spiritual world.
Ian then took us on a journey through various religious and historical texts, including the Bible, The Book of Enoch and Plato's Critias.
The Slavonic version of the Book of Enoch described the ancient people as living in continual light, and as Ian points out, this does not necessarily mean that they literally lived in continual physical light, but in a state of perpetual enlightenment.
When looking at the Atlantean people as described by Plato, it seems that they were more concerned with the quality of their character than their possessions. Prosperity was kept moderate, i.e. in balance with spirituality, but things started to go wrong when they allowed their prosperity to grow unchecked.
Ian
called upon a number of other sources to show that the ancient people
were said to have worked together in harmony until they started to exploit
nature, for example digging into the mountains for gemstones, and goods
were
distributed unevenly amongst the people.
Looking at the Book of Hopi, a native American oral tradition, not written down until the 1960s, Ian found that the first people didn't get sick and didn't need to speak to understand one another.
So at
what point did the human soul evolve? Some traditions spoke of a mixing
of God and man to make human beings. Could it be, Ian asks, that once
our bodies had developed sufficiently to house more advanced souls,
that they incarnated into Homo Sapiens?
Almost all of the traditions spoke of unsuccessful attempts for souls to come down. It was said that they couldn't speak or sing praises to God; they were unable to properly appreciate their spirituality.
To put this into a timeframe, Ian states that once humans had an understanding that there was an afterlife, ritual burial began - it showed an appreciation that people had souls. There is evidence for this beginning around 100,000 years ago, which is when Ian believes that advanced souls incarnated on earth and began teaching the rest of humanity.
ROBERT BAUVAL
Robert began by giving an overview of the role of the king in ancient Egypt. The king was a symbol of Maat or Balance, and as such, his duty was to preserve cosmic order, something that was unmoveable and unchangeable
Egyptian culture was filled with symbolism and Robert illustrated the power of symbols by describing how an empty battery externally looks identical to a charged battery, but one has power and the other does not.
As the
keeper of cosmic order, the king and his court would have been avid
viewers of the cosmos, and it is no surprise that the appearance of
certain stars heralded important events. Sirius was one of these stars.
Nine times
brighter than the next brightest star.
In Egypt at dawn on the summer solstice, the star is visible and then disappears. The annual flooding of the Nile began around the summer solstice, and so Sirius was seen as the trigger for the floods.
The
king as the divine ruler, was a point of contact with the gods and goddesses.
Robert showed us an illustration of the goddess, Seshet who was characterised
by a seven-pointed star on her head. And wearing a leopard
skin style dress covered in five-pointed stars. She is shown holding
a staff, which is connected by a cord to another staff - the was sceptre
- held by the king. The ceremony of the "stretching of the cord"
was to precisely align building foundations. As part of the process,
the king stood facing north with Seshet in front of him with her back
to north. The
king moved to align with the constellation Ursa Major.
Also
shown was a palm branch, which was a symbol of recording. The central
rib of the palm leaf has notches that can be used for measuring. Seshet
seemed to be using the stars to prophesise the length of the king's
reign.
In early times, the king may have sacrificed himself in a ritual death
at
the prescribed time.
Ursa
Major was an interesting constellation to the ancient Egyptians because
from their perspective, it never set. It is in the circumpolar region
of the sky and everything circles it. Robert pointed out that movements
of the
stars were used to measure and align and that when Ursa Major and Minor
are in alignment, Sirius is rising.
Robert
then took us to a small building a short distance away from Djoser/Zoser's
stepped pyramid. The building is inclined and its north face has two
peep holes at human eye level. A statue of the king is placed inside
the building and stands viewing the pyramid at an angle of 16 degrees.
From the position of the building relative to the pyramid and the
viewing angle, the statue appears to be looking at the star that determines
his rebirth/destiny and where he's heading when he dies.
DAVID ELKINGTON
The
historian Josephus stated that the name of Jesus was engraved over the
door of Solomon's Temple. This was built hundreds of years before Jesus
was born. David examined this and other puzzles in his study of the
name Jesus
and vibrations within sacred places.
He stated that the cult of Esa, son of Miriam, had existed for a long time and showed that the name Esa appeared in a number of well-known Biblical names, e.g. Ezekiel and Isaac.
The
names of God were held to be names of power. Utterance of the name Jehovah
was a crime punishable by death - only the high priest could say the
word out loud, which was once a year, to be uttered under his breath.
How
could sounds be so powerful? David looked at sound and vibrations.
The earth has been found to resonate at 8.7hz. Human brains resonate at the same frequency when waking in the morning and as going to sleep in the evening. People enter an altered state at this frequency.
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David explained
that when astronauts went to the dark side of the moon, away David believes
that the pyramids were designed to help people to attune with
the Mother Earth. The word Giza is Egyptian, not a more recent
Arabic name. Broken down into two syllables, Gi-Sa, it can be
linked with two words - |
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The word pyramid is Greek, but the Egyptian word is Mer. David links this to Ta-Mari land of the Beloved.
Taking
up from where he left off at last year's lecture, David described experiments
that he and John Reed conducted inside the Great Pyramid in 1997. When
studying the design of the pyramid, David feels that an important phrase
has been overlooked from the Pyramid Texts - "this pyramid IS Osiris".
Comparing the combined Ankh and Djed and the relieving chambers from
the Great Pyramid, he drew parallels. The Djed pillar is a symbol of
the backbone of Osiris. Could the Relieving Chamber also represent the
backbone of Osiris?
David
also felt that the names of the two principal figures in Egyptian
mythology, Isis and Osiris could have hidden meaning. He found that
Isis
had a nickname Ast, meaning "the beloved", which when translated
into Hebrew
is Mary. He also found that Osiris was sometimes called Esa.
Inside
the Great Pyramid, David and John Reed stretched a membrane across the
surface of the sarcophagus and scattered sand over it. When exposed
to different vibrations, some startling images appeared - the circular
Eye of
Ra, the familiar Eye of Horus, an Ankh, the symbol for infinity, the
Djed pillar and the Nemes head cloth. He also found that the naturally
occurring frequencies in the pyramid were in whole numbers of hertz
- this is very
unusual.
To finish,
David said that he had found many instances of gods being called Esa
or Esu. Similar sounds are used in a variety of European languages for
the words "I am", for example je suis - "I am" in
French - is remarkably
similar to Jesus.
DAVID ROHL
David was the first of a number of speakers to address the topic of Moses and the Exodus, and pointed out early on that his theories would not fit exactly with those of Andrew Collins and Graham Phillips.
The
Biblical dating of the Exodus places it at c.1527BC. Eusebius put it
within the Armana period, but David points out that he was the only
historian to do so. Manetho did not talk about the Exodus, only mentioning
the Hyksos invasion, which may or may not be related.
David's
most recent research led to his involvement with the making of the BBC
documentary about Moses, aired on 1st December 2002. He states that
there is evidence for a large population of Asiatics living in the Nile
delta. This evidence is gleaned from studying the style of burial, artefacts
such as weapons, etc. At the Egyptian city of Avaris, there are some
small graves of infants, 100 of them, buried underneath houses. The
Bible tells of Pharaoh culling all male infants to keep the immigrant
population under control. When looking at the adult graves, it can be
seen
that for every five females, there are only three males, suggesting
that fewer males survived to adulthood.
David
examined a couple of candidates for the ruling king at the time of Moses.
According to tradition, Moses was taken into the king's household and
raised as an Egyptian prince. He was taught to write, a skill that
enabled him to write down the first Jewish laws - the Ten Commandments.
The
Bible says that when the king refused Moses' repeated requests to let
his people go, God struck the Egyptians down with a series of plagues
and calamities. David looked at archaeological evidence at Avaris and
found
that there had been a large number of apparently hurried burials. Bodies
had been thrown into pits, without any grave goods, and it appeared
that soon afterwards the city was abandoned. This suggested that a plague
had
struck the city.
David
then studied the route of the Exodus as described in the Bible. He tracked
this on the overhead projector.
The familiar story has Moses leading his people on a path through
the Red Sea after it had been parted by
God. It is now accepted that this is a mistranslation, and that the
original text described the Reed Sea. To escape Egypt, Moses' people
had to get past crocodile infested canals that had been constructed
as an Egyptian border (as represented on Seti I reliefs), they would
have had to cross through swampland. This could be described as a sea
of reeds.
After
their escape, the story tells of the people reverting to worshipping
other gods and constructing a golden calf, whilst Moses was busy writing
the new laws. This calf may have been a representation of the mother
goddess
Hathor. The laws were apparently given to Moses at the top of the Mountain
of God.
David
also examined evidence for other Biblical events, starting with the
story of the Fall of Jericho. It was a middle bronze age city, which
was destroyed, burned to the ground and abandoned for 300 years. At
the site,
David told us that there was a scarab, inscribed with the name of one
of the Hyskos kings - Seshi. This enables an approximate date to be
placed against the fall of Jericho.
Moving
onto the reign of Amenemhat III, David explained how just before he
took the throne, Asiatics, dressed in multicoloured robes, entered the
country. The levels of the Nile were recorded on rock inscriptions at
fortresses at Semna and Kumma in Nubia, and these were found to show
that in his reign, there was a period of about 7-8 years when the flood
levels were higher than normal. Increased water meant increased planting
and a large
amount of crops would have been grown. After this period followed even
higher flood levels - four times the normal quantity of water. This
would have caused havoc as fields were flooded for much longer than
usual. Crops
could not have been planted and the growing seasons missed, leading
to widespread famine. It appears that the Biblical hero, Joseph had
been high official and advisor to Amenemhat III. He built a canal to
drain floodwater
to the Fayum lake in the north. Amenemhat III built a pyramid on the
edge of the lake and the canal was known as the waterway of Joseph.
David
believes that Joseph was given a retirement home of sorts in the Avaris
region, where the foundations of a palace were found. There were twelve
tombs in the garden including one pyramid tomb, with the top missing.
A robbers tunnel had been cut into the tomb, which did not contain a
body or grave goods. The tomb did, however, contain fragments of a statue,
which had been hacked at. It had red hair, yellow skin, its eyes gouged
out and
its face smashed. The figure would have stood at least 2.5m high and
it carried a throw-stick, the symbol of an Asiatic. On its and back
and shoulders were the remnants of stripes of red, white and blue -
a coat of
many colours? Could this be the final resting place of the historical
Joseph?
GRAHAM PHILLIPS
Graham's talk centred on the research and findings of his latest book "Mountain of God".
No specific
location for the Mountain of God, where Moses received the Ten Commandments,
was given in the Bible. This has led to a number of candidates being
put forward, most popularly in the Sinai peninsular. But
remarkably, when researching independently, both Graham and Andrew Collins
came up with the same location - Jebel Madhbah, at Petra.
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On the mountain, there is a pair of obelisks cut from the rock. These stand in situ, with the rock surrounding them having been cut away. The Bible states that when Moses climbed the mountain, some of his followers saw the feet of God standing on sapphire stone. Large pieces of green slate had been used on the plateau surrounding the obelisks. When polished, these could shine like sapphires. At the top of mountain stands a shrine cut from sandstone. At the foot of the mountain there is a particular type of thorny bush growing. Its apples produce a hallucinogenic effect and makes a person feel as if they are burning. This bush only grows in this area. Could the Biblical burning bush be a mistranslation, when in fact what was meant was a 'bush that burns you'? |
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Also at the mountain's foot stands a mosque with a well. Tradition has it that the well is covering a spring created by Moses' staff. Early archaeologists working at the site 150 years ago found a tomb. There was a sepulchre, body and staff inscribed with the name of Thutmoses, steward of Thutmoses III. This man appears to have been an Atenist - a believer in just one god.
Graham was intrigued and tried to find out what had happened to what appeared to be Moses' staff. He traced it and found that it had been sent to the USA on a passenger ship called the Titanic! However, all was not lost because at the last moment, the owner of the staff decided to disembark at Ireland, with all his cargo, to go on a cycling trip! The staff is now on display at the Birmingham Museum.
Graham,
ever the detective, then decided to track down the legendary
breastplate of judgement worn by Aaron, which was traditionally what
gave
items such as Moses' staff and the Ark of the Covenant their power.
The breastplate had twelve gemstones set into it, which were taken from
Jerusalem by the Templars.
Graham
started investigating the story of a man called Bernard Lamplugh. He
claimed to have found three of these stones hidden the ruins of a Templar
chapel not far from where he lived at Temple Herdewyke in Warwickshire.
Lamplugh claimed to have hidden the stones shortly before he died and
left a trail of clues in stained glass windows in the local church.
Graham, together with some colleagues, located the stones and their
story is on his
website.
The remaining nine stones have yet to be found and to close his lecture, Graham challenged the audience to find them.
Questing Conference 2002 Main Page
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