QuestCon04 - Lecture Reviews

 

Andrew Collins - The Last Cuppa

 

Andrew started by giving us a fascinating insight into his experiences of psychic questing. He talked in depth of his visions which led him to the location of Atlantis. The trigger was a vision in which fellow author and friend, Graham Philips saw Andrew walking through an archway at Naxos gate. He told Andrew to try and visualise it, which, amazingly he managed to do whilst at a train station, of all places!

Andrew’s own vision consisted of him standing at a mountain top temple with a woman who, she said, had been waiting for him. She introduced herself as the Queen of Atlantis and when Andrew asked where he was, he was thrust into the air, where he looked back at the island, a shape which he later identified as Cuba.

Since his book Gateway to Atlantis was published, there has been significant archaeological evidence found beneath the waves surrounding Cuba indicating an ancient settlement.

Andrew’s latest research project was a quest for the Holy Grail. In his research, Andrew examined the myths and legends surrounding the Grail and found that despite popular stories that the cup was kept and protected by Joseph of Arimathea, his name was not connected with it until the 13th century. There appeared to be more evidence connecting the grail with John the Evangelist, who was seen as the first priest of Christianity, but that over time the stories of Joseph and John became confused. The grail was also strongly connected with Mary Magdalene, but Andrew’s research indicated that the idea that her womb and the grail was one and the same was a post-medieval idea. He suggested that the grail was more likely to have been associated with the cup used to anoint Jesus. The two figures, Mary and John seemed to merge into one androgyne figure and this could be what is represented in Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.

Was the Holy Grail actually, in Andrew’s words, the Last Cuppa?

What followed was a fascinating psychic adventure worthy of the secret love child of Buffy and Indiana Jones. Lucid dreams featuring Aleister Crowley…a statue hidden in a cave…sacred sites marking the points of geometrical patterns… visions of an oak on the edge of a churchyard…and a head rolling down a hill all led Andrew and his gang on another psychic quest, which is just astounding.

It’s such a great story that to tell it here wouldn’t do it justice – you’ll simply have to go and buy the new book!

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GRAIL is out now.

Alan Alford

Step by step, Alan took us on a virtual tour of the known chambers of the Great Pyramid. Mainstream thinking tells us that there are no more chambers to be discovered, but Alan begs to differ. Alan disagrees with the standard text books which tell us that the pyramid is a tomb and nothing more. He has uncovered thought provoking evidence that architecture is a representation of the creation myth.

Through an analysis of detailed photographs and sketches, Alan asked a number of thought provoking questions – for example, the grooves along the side walls of the Grand Gallery show chisel marks – does this show that at one time there was another ceiling/floor? Did the wall niches at one time contain statues to conceal the passageways behind them? And what of the so-called portcullis – how effectual would these have been when one could easily climb over them to gain access to the chamber beyond?

Alan presented evidence that the superstructure of the King’s Chamber had been designed to resonate and transmit a low level frequency in to the chamber below, which may have created an audible sound.

As for the sarcophagus, Alan speculates that it may once have contained iron meteorites, which were regarded as remnants of the Creation. The sarcophagus would have been air-tight until the corner was later broken open and since exposure to the air would have made the meteorites rust, Alan reached the conclusion that this would have been an ideal environment in which to preserve such previous materials.

Egyptian tradition is to bury the dead beneath the earth, so why, Alan asked, would the pyramid builders have broken with this long-standing tradition and placed burial chambers above ground level? A reasonable conclusion would be that the King’s Chamber was not a burial chamber and that Khufu was buried elsewhere within the pyramid.

So Alan went deeper into the pyramid to investigate… and found his way into the grotto at the top of the well shaft. The theory is that the body of the king was not laid to rest in the sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber, nor even in the Subterranean Chamber, but possibly in the grotto. Alan continued that he thought that even that was a decoy and that the mummy may yet be found in a sealed secret chamber nearby. Alan observed that the ceiling of the grotto was unusual in that there are small pebbles set together in sand, with a ‘frosty veneer’, indicative of water being present.

Alan finished with a statement that Herodotus said that Khufu was buried on an island surrounded by water. Could Alan have found the final resting place of Khufu? You’ll have to read his book “PYRAMID OF SECRETS -The Architecture of the Great Pyramid Reconsidered in the Light of Creational Mythology” to find out.

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince

Lynn Picknett is certainly a woman of passion. Especially when she sees her work with Clive Prince reflected in this year’s best-selling book, “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. Lynn started this lively discussion by clearing up some of the things that have been bothering her since the publication of this popular book – for example the repeated references to ‘Da Vinci’, which just states where he was from, rather than calling him ‘Leonardo’, his actual name.

Lynn then took us through some of the research that she and Clive had described in their book “The Templar Revelation”. She examined various famous depictions, pointing out the ‘John Gesture’ found in many religious paintings by Leonardo and a large M shape made by the figures of Jesus and a very feminine-looking ‘John’ in “The Last Supper”, whilst also noting the disembodied hand holding a dagger. In “The Adoration of the Magi” Lynn notes the absence of gold from the gifts and explains that as gold represents kingship, that this may have been intentional. The people surrounding Jesus are shown as ghouls, whilst the younger, lively people are worshipping the tree. The Carob tree was a symbol of John and the hidden meaning of this painting may have been that those who worshipped John were superior to those who worshipped Jesus.

According to Lynn, the church invented a story whereby Jesus gave John the authority to baptise him later in life. This is shown in “The Madonna of the Rocks”, but again Leonardo puts a twist on the story by having the wrong baby in charge! It would seem that Leonardo was a fervent supporter of the Johannite heresy, which continued into modern times. In fact, it is said that the Crusaders encountered the Johannites on their Crusades and formed two groups, the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion….

Over to Clive… Clive began by telling us about a tip-off from an apparent member of the Priory of Sion. Whilst there are claims that they date back to the Crusades, other evidence suggests a more recent heritage from the 1950s. So is the Priory of Sion an elaborate hoax? But if it is, why do it? The story goes that the Priory was set up to protect the bloodline of the Merovingian dynasty, of which there are surviving descendents, and to restore them to the throne of France. In addition, they may also be the descendents of Jesus.

The ‘Dossiers Secrets’ contain a list of Priory of Sion Grand Masters dating back centuries, including Leonardo and ending with Pierre Plantard. But in the 1970’s an associate of Plantard claimed that they had faked it. But why bother to fake something like this?

After looking at evidence from Rennes-le-Chateau, the Dossiers Secrets and their other research, Clive and Lynn draw the conclusion that the Priory of Sion was created in the 1950s as a cover for other secret societies with similar beliefs which continue to operate behind the scenes.

 

Paul Broadhurst

Dreams seemed to be the favourite source of inspiration for the talks at this year’s event and Paul’s talk was no exception. However, the dream was not his. It was borrowed from Jean Richer, a French scholar, who wondered why The Temple of Delphi was located in such a hard-to-reach place. He dreamed that in answer to his question, the statue of Apollo turned and pointed to where he lay in his bed in Athens. On waking, he traced a line on his map between Delphi and Athens and found to his amazement that the line also passed through other oracle sites. After his death, his brother Lucien continued his research and discovered that if the ‘Apollo’ line continued beyond the confines of Greece, it passed through sites in Europe associated with pre-Christian sun gods or gods of light. It also passed through sites now associated with St. Michael, the dragon-slayer, who is also the Christian angel of light. The line was named the St Michael-Apollo Axis by Lucien Richer. Paul Broadhurst made it his mission to follow the St Michael-Apollo line with colleague Hamish Miller and visit each of its sites.

But before explaining his fascinating pilgrimage across Europe, Paul took a moment to explain the relationship between St. Michael and the dragon or serpent. Dispute popular belief, the dragon is not, Paul says, a symbol of evil. It represents the earth’s life force and that’s why is can be found in so many churches and cathedrals. The life force runs through the earth and where male and female energy meet at nexus points, they are points of creation. And these are the points where religious megaliths have been built. The image of the Caduceus is a good visual representation and it’s also a symbol of healing.

The first stop on their adventure was Skellig Michael in southern Ireland. In order to visit the exact spot where the line passed through the land, they had to take a small boat ride. Unfortunately, the boatman got lost in the fog and wanted to head back to land. Hamish got out his dowsing rods, identified the point on the line that they were headed for and much to the boatman’s amazement, his dowsing directed them to a small island, concealed in the fog.

Paul and Hamish encountered other strange happenings on their journey including an ‘energetic rocking stone’ and a rock which viewed from one side appeared to be a dragon and from the other side, a monk. At Mont St Michel they discovered an old underground church with two altars where male energy ran through one and female through the other. They found serpents represented in many of the locations that they visited, in one case, a female figure held two serpents to her breast to suckle them.

Their journey took them all over Europe and you can read an account of Paul and Hamish’s pilgrimage in their book “The Dance of the Dragon”.

 

Robert Feather

After Robert’s work on the Copper Scroll, he was approached to take part in a documentary, aired on 13th June 2003, in which he investigated the so called ‘Spear of Christ’. His task was to a) find out if it was authentic and b) to find out how old it was and what it was made of. One big problem – he couldn’t do any destructive testing.

According to tradition, the ‘Spear of Christ’ or ‘Spear of Destiny’ is the spear used by the Roman soldier Longinus to pierce the side of Jesus whilst he was on the cross. As Robert pointed out, the crucifixion scene has two powerful symbols the spear (male) and the chalice or cup (female).

Legends of the spear seem to have started circulating around 570 CE when a traveller from Italy reported seeing a spear in Jerusalem. Then four separate spear relics emerged – in Paris, the Vatican, Armenia and Krakow.

The outer part of the spear is a gold sheath with an engraving in C14th Latin. Underneath is a silver sheath, in the C11th Heinrich IV of Germany records putting the sheath onto it and refers to St Mauritius. When Robert took the spear apart, he found that it was broken and had been put back together, using silver wire to bind it. He also found that a ‘Roman’ nail had been bound to it. The central part is wrought iron, with the silver wire dating from around 600CE. The wire had been made by hammering a long strip of silver and twisting it, then drawing it through a die. He also found some very small unusual carvings which could represent a spear or a fish.

But unfortunately swabs of the spear did not pick up any blood.

 


John Reid

Sonic Technology of the Pyramid Builders


John delivered a presentation which combined both lucid cutting edge science with the passion and onset of his own personal journey, the catalyst for which was a trip to Egypt in 1996 and today John promised to impart the wisdom from his earlier academic paper ‘Egyptian Sonics’ in what he promised would be a less dry and more accessible format. This was instantaneously kick-started in dramatic fashion by John when he introduced his colleague, Padma, an Egyptian adept expert in the art of Egyptian toning and chants. Within minutes the whole lecture theatre was reverberating in a unifying sense of ‘at-oneness’, the silent audience, bathed in arcane sound waves could only sit in silence in a heightened state of awareness.

From heart to head John proceeded to take the audience on a ‘sonic’ tour, describing how when he was first in ancient Egypt he was fortunate enough to be in the company of Robert Bauval and John Anthony West. It was then that he was introduced to the concept of toning. It wasn't long before John was experimenting and experiencing, in Khufu’s pyramid, in the kings chamber, lying down in total darkness - inside the sarcophagus no less ! John emitted a vocal glissando ( a gradual increase in emitted tone from a low aarrhh to a high pitched eeehh ! ) and was awe-struck by the reverberations within the human vocal range. Within this cacophony of sound John noticed one prominent stand alone tone from within his vocal scale and asked the audience to try this out next time its members were in the bathroom ( so that the audience could find out what frequency their bathrooms were attuned to ! ) as sound waves like flat parallel surfaces ( and you could not get flatter walls than in the kings chamber ).

These resonating tones which have both a physical and a physiological component. The so called ‘god spot’ deep within the human brain has been found to be particularly excitable by such resonant frequencies and it was this phenomena that was at the foundation of John’s research and prompted the question did the Egyptians use sound within their rituals ?’ This lay at the foundation for John’s next trip to Egypt.

The textual evidence John presented to this supposition came from Demietrius in 200 BC and Nikaure ( 5th dynasty ) who describe the singers of the seven vowels, having such euphony that men chose to listen to them instead of the flute or the lyre as well as the fact that sound appears to be woven and embedded at the heart of the Egyptian creation myths. John soon discovered and revealed his technical evidence which included the granite that the Egyptians had used and hauled some 500 miles, specifically for the kings chamber - for it just so happens to be the most resonant stone in the whole of Egypt and to achieve a similar level of resonance in more modern day temples ( citing the all saints church in Newcastle ) 6,000 square cubic metres is needed versus the kings chamber at 329 cubic metres.

John’s experiments carried out in the kings chamber appear to illustrate that the sarcophagus and the chamber itself were both designed to resonate as one, within the same frequency range of the human voice, the chamber at 121hz and the sarcophagus at 117 hz ( these two tones John explained would be almost indistinguishable to the human ear and the slight discrepancy may also be explained by the broken and damaged corner of the sarcophagus itself ).

In order to enhance John’s own experiments and perceptions he described how he temporarily repaired the sarcophagus - by using carefully sized and prepared aluminium sheeting, polystyrene and gaffer tape. Once complete he was able to stretch a thin film, a membrane, over the top of the entire sarcophagus which was sprinkled with fine sand so that the experiments in the field of cymatics could begin. Manifest sound could be now made visible as pure sound excited the sand particles producing harmonic resonance's which appeared to make glyphs ? Various oscillations were omitted which produced crude, but no less clear ‘hieroglyphic’ symbols in the sand. John was able to take the next logical step and verify that the vocal chants of various deities produce patterns in the sand which emulated their hieroglyphic counterpart. This reciprocal relationship must have acted subconsciously in the development of Egyptian symbolism and their written language John concurred.

John closed his mind expanding lecture with a mini personal revelation. He reminded the audience that the curved trails in the sand were linked to electrostatic energy and that one of the known effects of such energy transference is healing. This is currently being pursued within various R & D systems within the field of health care where ultrasound combined with electrostatic charges are being used to irradiate tumours ! A fortunate spin off, John explained as a result of his research, was his own healing. This occurred whilst he was in the kings chamber suffering from a chronic reoccurring back complaint which has not resurfaced since.

 

With thanks to Hannah McNamara for the reviews on Andrew Collins, Paul Broadhurst, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, Alan Alford and Robert Feather.

With thanks also to Jez Taylor for the review on John Reid.

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