Origins

 

EARTHQUEST NEWS

The Andrew Collins Newsletter

Vol. 11 No.2 (June 2008)



Andrew recently on the slopes of Barbary Castle inspecting the
crop formation that appeared in a barley field on 1st June 2008


Psychic Questing Weekender

Preparations for the Psychic Questing Weekender at Avebury on Saturday/Sunday, 20/21st September, are coming along fine. Tickets are selling well, with the interest being very keen indeed. There are certanly a lot of budding psychic questers and trainee urban shamans out there needing to know more. I haven't finished the programme as yet, although the weekend is going to include the following: a) we shall learn about exactly what makes a quest successful, how to create cues and follow them up, how to discern genuine psychic information from mundane thoughts using the power of imagination, how to interact with perceived earthly intelligences, and how to tune into artefacts; b) we shall plant a charged artefact and see if people can accurately attune to its whereabouts; c) we'll go somewhere quiet and elemental and attempt to use shamanic accoutrements to enter the flow of the local energy matrix; d) weather permitting, get out to West Kennet, Silbury Hill and Swallowhead Spring; e) learn the philosophy of questers - what they actually believe in, and where they think it is going, and where it all began. Although old chestnuts like the Green Stone, Seven Swords, Black Alchemist story will feature to a small degree, the weekend is about carving out a new future for psychic questing away from the limitations of its past, which in many ways have actually held it back from achieving its full potential.

Obviously, I am mourning the passing of the Questing Conference, but it is there in spirit within this current plan, which is closer to its original goals than anything that has gone before. As I have said, there will be faces there from the questing community to help the weekend along, and I might call on them to explain a few points here and there. Tickets are £20 for the weekend. To order click here. For those who already purchased tickets, we shall be in touch. Electronic tickets are being issued for those who book online and typed conformations are sent out to those who apply by post.


Seeing Cosmic Rays

Did you know that you can actually see cosmic rays? Astronauts on the Apollo 11 space mission reported seeing flashes and streaks of light as they tried to go to sleep in the command module. They were generally blue or white in colour, and were seen either with their eyes open or closed. They reported what they saw to Mission Control, and NASA soon suspected that what the astronauts had seen were cosmic rays from deep space that were passing through the aqueous part of the eye. Normally such radiation particles are stopped from reaching earth by colliding with air particles in the upper atmosphere and breaking up to form secondary particles (such as muons), which either disintegrate before they reach the ground, or shower down harmlessly.

Experiments conducted during subsequent Apollo missions seemed to prove the case that primary cosmic rays were indeed responsible for the strange flashes experienced by Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. As these sub-atomic particles travelling close to the speed of light hit the liquid part of the eye, the shift in environment causes them to discharge something called Cerenkov radiation, which take the form of a bright flash or trail.


Being wired to monitor cosmic rays passing through your head at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Rome.

Yet it was also speculated that some of the cosmic rays might actually be hitting the brain directly, and that this is causing the sensation of light flashes and other strange effects such as odd smells, something that is now being taken seriously by a team headed by Livio Narici of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Rome, according to a recent article in NEW SCIENTIST by science writer Stuart Clark (196:2568, 31 May 2008, 39-41). Narici believes that these flashes, or phosphenes as they are termed, can be created when the particles hit the visual cortex, the olfactory bulb (causing smells), and possibly even the central nervous system.


If so, then he speculates that this could pose a potential health hazard to astronauts on future space missions, especially if they occur at crucial moments like if they are manoeuvring vehicles to land. To study this little known phenomenon further Narici has been granted permission to conduct experiments with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) later this year under a project name of ALTEA. A helmet-shaped multi-sensor device will be worn by volunteers for an hour at a time to monitor the passage of incoming cosmic rays. At the same time the astronauts will log when they see light flashes or trails. Hopefully, the two will coincide, telling Narici and his team where exactly the particles are hitting. See, for example, Narici et al, 'The ALTEA facility on the International Space Station', available by clicking here.

We wish Narici well with his research. Yet the reason why I am so interested in this work is that I believe phosphenes caused by cosmic rays can affect human consciousness, and have done so for tens of thousands of years. I outlined my thoughts to Narici in an email dated 3 June 2008, following an earlier communication introducing myself. In response to this he had written:

"I do not understand how phosphenes may have effects on human consciousness, however I am surely ready to answer questions if they relate to fields I am competent in… Regards Livio Narici"

So I wrote back:

To: Livio Narici,
From: Andrew Collins
Subject: Re: ALTEA and phosphenes
Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 20:37

"I use the term phosphenes simply to follow the terminology of the NS [New Scientist] feature. However, I speak of flashes caused either directly to the visual cortex by muons from cosmic rays or by cerenkov radiation created in the aqueous humor.
"Are you aware that people working long periods inside darkened caves or mines also experience periodic flashes in the eyes?

"This is something I have been following up for some time. Obviously, these flashes could be caused by mundane influences, such as sensory deprivation and other forms of eye stimulation. However, I spoke to the daughter of a miner who worked at the Soudan mine in Minnesota before it was used as a particle detector in the early 1980s. She told me how her father periodically experienced unaccountable flashes deep underground. Since it was this same facility that began tracking muons created both in the rock and in the atmosphere from primary neutral particles - cosmic rays coming from a source named Cygnus X-3 (as did other underground detectors worldwide), I wondered whether it was possible that at least some of the flashes seen underground could have been caused by muons from cosmic rays.

"On earth such experiences would only occur under constant darkened conditions, such as a deep cave environment. Since we know that the phosphenes thought to be caused by cosmic rays experienced by astronauts in space generally only occur in darkened environments (when they are going off to sleep, for instance), then I suggest that very similar conditions exist deep below ground.

"As we know, almost all cosmic rays break up on hitting the earth's upper atmosphere, causing muon showers. Very few primaries reach the surface, and break up in the underlying bedrock. Thus in cave environments the sources of cerenkov radiation or other forms of brain stimuli caused by muons are limited. Geological radiation caused by radon gas could be a source of phosphenes deep underground. However, muons created by cosmic rays might be an additional source underground.

"If cosmic rays might be stimulating parts of the brain pertaining to the visual pathways and the olfactory bulb (causing flashes and smells), then it is possible that other areas of the brain might be stimulated as well, causing what might be considered religious experiences. The monks of Mount Athos in Greece repair to caves and wait there for long periods until they witness flashes of light, which they interpret as the appearance of Jesus and the saints.

"Phosphenes and other forms of entopic phenomena have been cited as responsible for the development of Palaeolithic cave art (see, for example, Lewis-Williams, J D, and T A Dowson, 'The Signs of All Times', CA 29:2 (April 1988), pp. 201-45.). I would go further and suggest that such religious experiences, combined with other factors such as diet and the achievement of altered states of consciousness, stimulate the brain into new perceptions, leading to shifts in creative and intellectual ideas, including art and communication.

"Please feel free to dismiss such wild ideas. However, can I ask you if at any time you have conducted ALTEA style experiments in deep cave environments without the use of a particle accelerator. Although the phosphene/muon rate would be low, I do believe that such an experiment would provide positive, and very interesting, results.
"Secondly, when you do the ALTEA experiments with the ISS later this year, can I suggest that you try some of them when the percipient has deliberately achieved some form of altered state of consciousness, since I believe that the person will not only experience more flashes, but that the experiences will take on more subjective interpretations, just as I believe they did in cave environments tens of thousands of years ago."


I am not holding my breath waiting for a reply from Narici. Clearly all this would have been beyond anything the might dare to investigate (if he wished to keep his funding and concession with NASA), which is a shame really, as I am sure I am on to something here. Your own thoughts are appreciated.

By the way, you can see phosphenes caused by cosmic rays simply by spending a period of time, say an hour or two, in a 100 percent darkened room and attempting to enter an altered state of consciousness. Try it and see. It does work either with your eyes open or closed. Not all flashes will be from cosmic rays, since other causes of phosphenes exist. However, there is a chance that some at least will be the result of secondary particles, most likely muons, from cosmic particles passing through either your eyes or brain. I often see them, even in brighter environments. They are usually electric blue in colour, although occasionally they are orange or red (I'm sure an eye specialist would have other possible explanations in mind, but what do they know!).


The Aveley Abduction - Plasma Life and the Fifth Dimension

At the 'Now's That Weird' conference in Glastonbury on Saturday, 21st June I talked about alien abductions, plasma life and the fifth dimension, i.e. multi-dimensional environments beyond our own space-time. It featured a famous case I investigated back in 1977-78, which involved a whole family in West Essex losing three hours on a 20 minute journey during the evening of 27 October 1974. Known to the ufological world as the Aveley Abduction, it was the first ever British case of its kind to be fully studied by a team of experts.

It happened one autumn evening as the family, named Day, drove back to their home in Aveley, Essex, after visiting relatives in nearby Hornchurch. They were travelling through quiet country lanes when they spotted an oval-shaped glowing blue light in the sky. They watched as its trajectory caused it to pass right in front of them at a quite high angle. It passed out of view, but just minutes later the noise of the car tyres suddenly ceased, and it seemed like the vehicle was floating over the road. Then they saw before them on the road a glowing bank of green fog, exactly as the car headlights dimmed and failed, and the car radio smoked and crackled, forcing John to yank out its wires (car radios weren't always slotted neatly into the dashboard in those days).

The road near Aveley in Essex where in October 1974 the Day family encountered a glowing green fog blocking their path after seeing an oval blue light overhead. (Pic copyright: Andrew Collins)

The vehicle then coasted silently into the luminous mist as the family suddenly experienced intense nausea. After that they effectively passed out before coming to on the same road three quarters of a mile further on, the whole family present and correct and in the same places as when they had encountered the strange mist.


i) Strange Nightmares

John Day's impression of the mysterious green mist that enveloped the road, causing them to lose consciousness after suffering nausea. Pic copyright: Andrew Collins.

Afterwards the family began having strange nightmares about being examined in a bright room by ugly beings, who were overseen by tall figures. At the same time they underwent dramatic changes in their personal lives. The entire family of five - John, his wife Sue, and their three children - suddenly became vegetarian. John gave up drinking and smoking, he having enjoyed both up until this time. The family also became ecologically minded, found they could see auras around people and places, and began experiencing nocturnal visitations and paranormal occurrences. Yet for nearly three years John and Sue did nothing to find out what had occurred on that fateful autumn night in 1974. Then finally John contacted a local UFO studies group, who put him in touch with me.

At the time I was a national investigator with the UFO Investigations Network (UFOIN), and so jumped at the chance of interviewed Britain's first potential car-stop abductees.


ii) Hypnosis

I listened to the Day family's story and decided that maybe hypnosis would reveal what had happened to them. This was arranged by the magazine Flying Saucer Review, then edited by Charles Bowen, with the chosen hypnotist being the esteemed Dr Leonard Wilder of North London.

Under hypnosis John recalled a typical on-board experience, and afterwards both he and his wife Sue started consciously to recall more of what had occurred that night in October 1974. Their stories matched pretty well, even though there was some variations. Two types of entity had been present, dwarfish examiners with strange owl-like faces, pointed ears and fur covering their skin, and tall, human-like albinos whom John referred to as the Watchers (their direct comparison with the Watchers of the book of Enoch only being realised some 17 years later!). I continued to investigate the case for several months, often staying at the family's home on a Friday night as we waited in anticipation for any strange occurrences. I witnessed all manner of inexplicable events, including hearing the pots and pans banging of their own accord in the kitchen one night, as I lay alone on the

Artist's impression of John Day being examined onboard some kind of 'craft' during the missing time.

family's sofa in the adjacent lounge (very scary), and waking early one Saturday morning to see a tall silhouetted entity behind me who was accompanied by an overwhelming stench of sulphur/rotten eggs (John and another investigator were both asleep in sleeping bags in the same room at the time).


iii) Missing Time Doubts

John's impression of one of the albino Watchers the family encountered onboard the 'craft' during the missing time. Pic copyright: Andrew Collins 1977.

 

Even though I have never doubted the honesty and integrity of the family, and have kept in touch with John through to the present day, there were certain aspects of the missing time sequence that did not make sense. For instance, why when everyone regained consciousness following the encounter with the luminous green mist, was the whole family in exactly the same positions as they were when they went in - John was driving, Sue was by his side, their eldest son Kevin was standing up in front of the rear seat holding on to the front seats with both hands, and the two youngest children were still asleep (even though they did later have partial recalls of what supposedly happened to them during the missing time). Were the aliens so deliberate that they put everybody back exactly where they had been positioned prior to the abduction? It was just too odd to contemplate.

Then there was the fact that as part of John's recall of the missing time, he saw flashes of himself and Sue as separate people, down below him, slumped over inside the vehicle, even though the car seemed to be enveloped within some kind of luminous tractor beam. It must have been almost like experiencing a near-death experience of the sort that might accompany a bad accident. This led John to conclude that his family had somehow experienced the entire missing time sequence in a form of astral state, even though conflicting memories showed him and the family as separate individuals, being led away to another part of the 'craft' by the tall entities. It was as if there were two versions of themselves on board this supposed spacecraft, both now being shown different things in different places, the two never coming together.

Just as important was the fact that John and Sue have been happy to accept that there were deep and profound elements to their abduction, for which they have no answers. This is despite the fact that they firmly believe that some kind of non-terrestrial intelligence had definitely been present during the incident, and that 'they' were still around, communicating with them either through altered states of consciousness or more personally via a collective mind reached at night through dream states.


iv) Multi-dimensional Environments

I won't go into the whole story right now, but over the years I came to believe that the whole family, car and all, had quite literally exited normal space-time for the missing hours. They entered what I would describe as a fifth dimensional environment created in and around some kind of exotic light form, most likely a buoyant plasma, or plasmoid, surrounded by intense electromagnetic fields. This, almost certainly, was responsible for the car stop and the severe nausea experienced by the family as it entered the glowing green fog. I am not saying that some form of craft was not involved, only that if it was presentt, then it existed beyond the confines of normal space-time, and was a necessary construct, or creation, for the duration of the missing time.

Unidentified aerial light form caught on camera at Hessdalen, a UFO hotspot in Hessdalen, Norway, in 1984. These lights have been seen as possibly plasmas enclosed in powerful electromagnetic fields. Something similar was seen by the day family back in 1974. Pic credit: Project Hessdalen.

v) Plasma Life

As I reported in EARTHQUEST NEWS VOL. 10 NO 2 (AUTUMN 2007) - available by clicking here - new theories suggest that plasma, the fourth state of matter, might be able to generate the building blocks of life, similar to those of carbon-based life. This means there is every chance that life can exist in such a state - virtually intelligent energy that through mental interaction with human thought processes can create whatever form it desires, both visually and in dreams and visions through the processes of non-locality or quantum entanglement.

Such life forms might even be able to move across vast distances of space-time, literally from one end of the universe to the other, or from one parallel or co-existing universe to another, through both quantum entanglement and multi-dimensional environments created on a sub-atomic level within intense electromagnetic fields that surround buoyant plasma forms (see my article 'Looking for the Fifth Dimension in Cygnus X-3 to be found here.

Yet as the inhabitants of earth need a suitable atmosphere of breathable air to step foot on another planet, so plasma life needs a suitable plasma environment to manifest in new worlds. This is made possible by plasma light forms - some UFOs - which manifest into existence under certain atmospheric, geological, environmental and spatial conditions. Such light forms would include the oval blue light the Aveley family saw immediately prior to the abduction, as well as the luminous green fog they encountered on the road.


vi) What Really Happened?

The closer the vehicle got to the green mist, the more the family were affected by powerful electromagnetic fields (shown by the nausea and unreality of the situation, the so-called 'Oz factor'). Somewhere during this whole thing the family experienced a form of astral detachment from their physical bodies, like near-death experiences, evidenced by John momentarily glimpsing himself slumped over the wheel of the car.

The rest of the abduction, the onboard experience, was quite simply out of this world, the whole thing coming to an end when the link was broken between them, the intelligence behind the event, and the gradual breakdown of the plasma light form, severing the link with the fifth dimensional environment. Yet the entire shift from one world to the next was enough to project the car and its contents three-quarters of a mile further on, and make the family lose three hours of their lives.

Such experiences are going to leave the witnesses' heads with such a powerful view of alternative dimensions that the brain almost certainly blocks it out for the sanity of those involved. We also cannot rule out the possibility that the truly alien intelligence behind the experience initiated this loss of memory.

These are all just thoughts. However, all this is now possible through our knowledge of the sub-atomic world and quantum physics. There is nothing here which is entirely outside the realm of physics.

This is not to say I don't believe in physical aliens and UFOs, only that to try and understand the mechanics of such experiences we have to start looking more at what we do know, as opposed to what we don't.

For those wanting to know more about my work in this area can I recommend my book ALIEN ENERGY (2004), copies of which are available via our secure online server by clicking here:


Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Building Blocks of Life

Scientists have at last been able to isolate genetic material from a meteorite discovered in Australia, demonstrating once and for all that the building blocks of life exist in deep space.

The Murchison meteorite, which fell from the sky in 1969.

 

European and US scientists working with the now-famous space rock that fell on Murchison, Victoria, in 1969, have identified within it two pieces of genetic coding, known as nucleobases, identified as uracil and xanthine. Earlier examinations had led scientists to conclude that the presence of similar building blocks of life discovered when the rock was first examined were due simply to contamination. However, this theory has now been overturned by a team headed by Zita Martins of Imperial College London.
The two nucleobases - identified through modern scientific processes using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry unavailable when the meteorite was first examined - were found to contain a heavy carbon called Carbon-13, which can only have formed in deep space.

Uracil is an organic compound present in RNA (ribonucleic acid), which with another molecule called adenine, combines to forms a so-called genetic base pair. Xanthine, although not specifically a part of RNA or DNA, is important for chemical reactions that take place inside the RNA of cells. Although the molecules do not constitute life itself, their presence together is essential for the creation of life's building blocks.
'We know that meteorites very similar to the Murchison meteorite, which is the one we analysed, were delivering the building blocks of life to Earth 3.8 to 4.5 billion years ago,' Martins said.

In the past scientists have postulated that all the component parts of DNA and RNA might have existed in the primordial soup from which life emerged on earth. However, this latest evidence is hinting strongly at the possibility that it arrived inside meteorites.

'We believe early life may have adopted nucleobases from meteoric fragments for use in genetic coding, enabling them to pass on their successful features to subsequent generations,' Martins added.

If so, then all flora and fauna on earth, even humanity itself, might well derive from the presence of these extraterrestrial materials.

More controversial, but equally possible is the consideration that the molecules found within the meteorite existed together elsewhere in the cosmos, increasing the chances that we are not alone. It is even possible, as Martins postulates, that atmospheric conditions as the earth when cooling were unsuitable, if not impossible, for the production of life, meaning that it might well have evolved elsewhere before coming here.

'Because meteorites represent leftover materials from the formation of the solar system, the key components of life - including nucleobases - could be widespread in the cosmos,' said Mark Sephton, one of Martins' co-workers at Imperial College London.
'As more and more of life's raw materials are discovered in objects from space, the possibility of life springing forth wherever the right chemistry is present becomes more likely,' he added.

The findings of the team are to published in the journals Earth Planetary Science Letters and Meteoritics and Planetary Science.


Spreading Spores

The idea that life existed elsewhere in the cosmos before coming here is known as panspermia, meaning 'life everywhere'. It was subject that I covered in THE CYGNUS MYSTERY (2006), even mentioning the importance of the Murchison meteorite. This is what I wrote:

'Strangely, hard evidence for panspermia has been around for almost half a century. In 1961, a meteorite examined by Spanish American biochemist Juan Oro was found to contain micro-fossils of an algae-like organism known as adenine, as well as the component nucleic acids of RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA, enough to produce ATP (Adenosine triphosphate), a major energy-releasing molecule in living cells. Then again in 1969, a meteorite that landed in [Murchison] Victoria, Australia, was determined to possess a complex series of organic compounds, including some of the nitrogen bases and amino acids that are the building blocks of DNA. Subsequent tests by Dr Ron Brown of Monash University of Melbourne revealed there were 'formations in the meteorite reminiscent of a very primitive form of cell structure'.

'All this is, of course, aside from the now famous five-pound (2.5 kilogram) meteorite ALH 84001 discovered in the Antarctic in 1984, which was subsequently examined and found to contain a variety of organic chemicals, including carbon molecules formed in water and created by single-celled organisms, remaining as 'fossil-like impressions of micro-tubular and other organisms.' This example was, as we know, determined to have been ejected from Mars, re-igniting the age-old debate as to whether or not there is, or was, life on the red planet.'


Crop Circle Season 2008

The 2008 crop circle season is upon us and so far there have been several interesting formations appearing in the fields of Wiltshire. There were two in rapeseed at Avebury, and another beneath the white horse at Alton Barnes. Two more have appeared in barley at West Kennet, and another off the A361 road between Beckhampton and Devizes.


By far the most interesting formation was discovered in a barley field next to the approach road to the Barbary Castle hillfort on Sunday, 1 June (click here to view). It consists of a spiral pattern in the form of a 10-sectioned ratchet starting from a central circle and ending in three more circles. A similar ratchet effect appeared in the famous Barbary Castle formation of 1991. People have seen in the new design some kind of encoded musical scale, symbolising the music of the spheres, which is indeed possible. The formation is pleasant, and conveniently situated astride a bridle path, so access to the public is possible. It is well worth a visit for meditation and contemplation purposes, or simply a nice day out.

Many other formations are sure to appear in the coming weeks, and all eyes are on the important 8.8.8 date, which is being seen as a significant nexus point in the lead up to the expected global events of 2012. If 8.8.8 is an eventful as its counterpart in 1988, then I look forward to whatever might transpire.

Origins